I’ll admit, before I started blogging the Bible, I didn’t know much about Jacob. I knew he was a patriarch, of course, but outside of that time he stole the birthright from Esau, I wasn’t as familiar with his life as I was with other major characters in Scripture.
Now, he might just be my favorite (so far).
Jacob’s life is so full, and yet, at the same time, so full of sadness. He fled from his home, labored for 20 years for the right to leave his in-laws with his family, dealt with Dinah’s rape, Simeon and Levi’s murder of an entire town, and eventually, the “loss” of his favorite son, Joseph.
At the same time, he was unbelievably blessed. His sheep tending skills allowed to prosper greater even than Laban (with God’s help), he grew powerful enough to threaten an entire city (Shechem), had thirteen kids (twelve boys and Dinah), and eventually moved to Egypt, where his son was second-in-command.
It’s absolutely a topsy-turvy life, filled with the highest of blessings and the lowest of heartaches.
Perhaps that’s why he was able to tell Pharaoh when he met him that his days have been “few and unpleasant” (Genesis 47:9). In his view, it seems as if the misfortunes of his life overpowered the blessings.
Even his statement that his years were “few” is slightly askew. To us, living to (and past) the age of 130 is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s slightly depressing when your father lived to 180 (Genesis 35:28) and your grandfather to 175 (Genesis 25:7). And even more so when your ancestors lived hundreds of years.
Like his grandfather Abraham, though, Jacob lived the life of a pilgrim – something he relates to Pharaoh. Geographically, this checks out. According to Genesis, Jacob moved from his father’s house to Laban’s house to Canaan and now in Egypt.
But it’s more likely that Jacob had a spiritual type of pilgrimage in mind – much like the one that Hebrews 11:13-16 talked about. Like great men and women of the Bible, Jacob understood that his time on earth was temporary. Whatever earthly home he had would eventually be uprooted.
It’s easy to look at Jacob’s comment to Pharaoh about his years being “few and unpleasant” as a depressing statement of resignation to his lot in life. I think a far better idea would be to read it as a testament to what he was really looking after, which is his eternal home with God.
