- Picture the scene.
- Joseph has been an incredible, dynamic presence in Egypt, saving the country and the region from this lengthy famine. His brothers came down and, after a long drama, there was a dramatic reunion and forgiveness. They were sent home to bring the whole family to Egypt to live during the famine. Most wonderfully, Joseph’s father Jacob – the great patriarch – is coming as well.
- After a tearful reunion with Joseph, some time later we have the meeting of the Pharaoh and Jacob (47:7). Pharaoh asks a nice question to Jacob: “How old are you?” (47:8).
- And then we get the answer that Jacob gives (47:9). Talk about peeing in your Cheerios!
- It’s honestly embarrassing and whiny.
- In this sermon we want to talk about the embarrassing whine of the ungrateful believer. Jacob is a terrific example of a bad example.
- The format we are going to take is that I want to look at the passage divided up into four sections. With each, we want to note how there is something good and something bad within those areas.
- Then we want to come back to this part of the passage that I just talked about: Jacob being whiny. I want to bring three things out of it that section in light of what happens in the rest of the passage.
FOUR SECTIONS:
- This is not something we need to take a long time with each point. I want to review the Scripture and simply point out how in each section here we have a blessing but there is also some negative that comes with each one.
1. GOD PROMISES BUT THEY HAVE TO MOVE.
- Genesis 46:1-4.
- The positive: in the midst of a great and persistent famine, God has opened a door.
- The negative: they have to leave behind everything familiar and go to a new land.
2. TAKING THE WHOLE FAMILY TO EGYPT BUT FAMILY CAN ANNOY.
- Genesis 46:5-27.
- The positive: the family will stay intact as everyone is going (see family list starting vv. 8). In fact, meeting Joseph in Egypt, the family will actually be completed.
- The negative: they are coming out a time of significant turmoil in the family with everything that happened with Joseph and his brothers in previous chapters.
3. A REUNION WITH JOSEPH BUT AFTER MANY YEARS OF GRIEF.
- Genesis 46:29-30.
- The positive: we have this beautiful reunion between Joseph and his father after all those years of thinking that his son had been killed.
- The negative: this touching scene doesn’t negate the many years of grief that Jacob had to endure before this, presuming his beloved son was gone.
4. GIVEN THE BEST LAND BUT LIVING FAR FROM HOME.
- Genesis 46:28, 31-34; Genesis 47:6, 11-12.
- The positive: Joseph’s family is given the best land in Egypt, setting up a time of prosperity for them.
- The negative: this is far from home, living in a foreign land.
- So, in sum, we have much here to be thankful for if you are Jacob. God has dramatically moved to make provision and bring unexpected blessings.
- That’s not to say there aren’t struggles here too (negatives, as we’ve put it above), but there is much to be thankful for.
- All this makes Jacob’s statements in vv. 9-10 all the more embarrassing. Given this obvious and abundant blessing, his attitude is pathetically whiny.
- Of course, we all get that way sometimes. We have an abundance of things to be thankful for, yet we get whiny. We expose a lack of gratitude in our actions and words.
- Given all that, what can we learn from Jacob here being a bad example?
LEARNING FROM JACOB'S LACK OF GRATITUDE:
1. SO MUCH OF LIFE IS WHAT YOU LOOK AT.
- Genesis 47:9a – “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult . . . .”
- Also, the above split points.
- When you look back over Jacob’s life, he has seen God move many times in amazing ways and, to be honest, has gotten away with some questionable activity and came out smelling like a rose.
a. Gets the blessing from his brother Esau.
b. Sees spiritual vision.
c. Blessed by God beyond what he deserved.
- Yet he doesn’t see it.
- He sees the problems and not the blessings.
- Even in the above points made in this sermon, Jacob is someone who would see the negative.
- It’s a striking thing that he says his years are few at 130 years old!
- That’s a decent analogy for the “difficult” comment too. Certainly he’s had problems, just as everyone does, but he’s had great blessings as well.
- In our lives, what do we look at? Do we dwell on our problems and our struggles? Or do we focus on the blessings God has given?
- I’m not arguing here that we should put on rose-colored glasses and pretend that our life is without problems. No, we’ve all got our problems. But it is easy to get so focused on the negative that we lose sight of the good things God has given us.
- Here in America, just the everyday things that we take for granted would be other people’s best day of their lives: I wake up in an air-conditioned house, I have indoor plumbing, I have plenty of food to eat, I have a choice of clothes to wear, I am safe in my town, I have a job that pays my bills, etc. Just those things all by themselves would make us the richest person in any town in the world 200 years ago. And we take them for granted.
2. COMPARISON IS THE ENEMY OF JOY.
- Genesis 47:9b.
- I noted a moment ago that Jacob called his 130 years of life “few.” That, of course, is inaccurate. That’s a good healthy lifespan for almost anyone, to say the least!
- So why did he say that? One reason might be that his father and grandfather lived longer lives that 130 years. So when he compared, he minimized what he had.
- I really like putting it the way I heard someone say it a while back: “Comparison is the enemy of joy.”
- This is so true. The good things we have are far more difficult to enjoy when we spend our time focusing on what others have.
- The most potent example I can think of today is social media. Everyone posts their wins and hides their struggles. Then we scroll and feel like everyone else has their life all together and we’re the only ones with doubts and darkness. Or we see things going pretty well in our lives but then we see a post that someone else is experiencing more blessings on that issue than we are and then we get depressed that we don’t have everything they do.
- All of this makes us lack gratitude for the blessings that we are receiving.
3. OUR INGRATITUDE DAMPENS OUR WITNESS.
- Genesis 47:10.
- Verse 10 just seems so ironic to me. After having just complained and whined, then Jacob gives a blessing to Pharaoh.
- I’m not sure Pharaoh wanted that blessing.
- The ingratitude that Jacob showed didn’t exactly make him a shining light.
- Today, when we gripe and complain and fuss and whine, then turn around and try to witness, why would anyone want to listen to us?
- I am not arguing that we need to be Pollyannaish and just pretend our lives are perfect. There is certainly power in acknowledging to those looking at our lives that we have struggles and difficulties. It’s helps them to know that we’re real people.
- But when we in one breath say, “My life stinks, and then “God is good,” that’s not a witness that resonates.
