# 435 For Those Who Have Had A Hard Life

The Book of Genesis

Day 435

Ge 47:8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How old are you?"  9 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."  10 So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh asks Jacob how old he is, and Jacob gives one of those answers that just jumps off the page and grabs you. He has lived to be 130 years old and describes his time on earth, his years) as few and evil! Few, in relation to the number of years that his father and grandfather had attained, and evil, in the sense that his time on earth has been unpleasant, producing pain, and causing unhappiness.

When you think about it, Jacob did indeed have a hard life. (Much of it, self-inflicted) The rivalry with his brother Esau must’ve been a constant source of pain and apprehension. The fear and guilt he carried with him after stealing his brother’s birthright for a bowl of porridge. Then there was the deception he pulled off involving his father and stealing the blessing from Esau. The hard years of slavery under Laban in order to win the hand of Rachel. The constant bickering between Rachel and Leah must’ve been a struggle as well. The hip thrown out of joint in the all-night wrestling match at Bethel. The early death of Rachel. The years that he lived with the thought that his son Joseph had been mauled to death by a wild animal. Even his hovering over Benjamin to protect him from being lost must’ve been a strain.

In the midst of that hard life though, were the times he met God as few men do. Indeed, his dream at Bethel known as Jacob’s ladder, showing the connection between heaven and earth, God and man, would come through his seed! His response to that dream is well worth repeating!

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Gen 28:17)

This was all the assurance Jacob needed to help him through his troubled life. This is how he could assert to Pharaoh that he was just a pilgrim here on earth, passing through. One day, this hard life on earth would be over and he would then spend eternity with God and the angels in heaven….an awesome place!

Lord, help us all to remember that we are indeed on a pilgrimage. Our life on earth just a beginning. It is eternity that we ought to be living for! There is a ladder to heaven, and that Ladder is Jesus Christ! Those who trust in Him alone as Lord and Savior will ascend that ladder, but those who deny him will be cast into the ladder less pit, with no way out for eternity.