“Pharaoh said to Jacob, ‘How old are you?’ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.'” (vv.8-9)
Jacob was probably the oldest man in Egypt (130 yrs) and much older than anyone the king had met before. His answer to the Pharaoh's question concerning his age is a fascinating one. He started by directly answering Pharaoh’s question, but then quickly followed up with a witness. He said that his age was great and that his life, like his forefathers, was a “pilgrimage.” He used the word for “a stranger” twice in the sentence, to emphasize the idea.
Jacob is telling this young pharaoh here that he was a pilgrim and a sojourner, and that both he and his fathers had lived lives on earth that were touched with the sense of eternity. Sound familiar? As God’s children, we are told to regard ourselves the same way and to recognize that this world is only a temporary home, as Hebrews 11:16 tells us: “they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.”
When you stop and think about it, life really is a pilgrimage and a journey. As Peter said, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles” (1 Peter 2:11–12). When this life is mistakenly seen as permanent, then all that seems to matter is the here and now. But when we get a clear picture of ourselves standing before God one day, then in the light of eternity, the here and now becomes relatively unimportant.
The Truth: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matt 6:19)
