When Joseph introduces his father, Jacob, to Pharaoh, Pharaoh asks Jacob how old he is. In Genesis 47:9, Jacob answers, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 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 sojourning.” I guess it’s not that unusual to compare your life with those who came before you. Jacob made two comparisons. First, he compared the length of his life with his ancestors, and it looks like he also compared the quality of those years.

When I reached 64, I remembered that my Dad died at age 64. In my imagination, I said to him, “I caught up to you, old man!” I wonder if he had similar thoughts when he turned 61, the age at which his father, my grandfather, died. Then I turned 72 and remembered that my mother died at 72. I imagined a similar conversation with her but a lot more respectful. I thought that I didn’t have great genes! Then I remembered that my great grandfather, Louis Larsen, who came from Denmark to America in his teens in 1854, lived into his 90s. Now, I have something else to shoot for! He was a great adventurer even in his old age. When World War I broke out, he was too old to join the Army, so he took a government post in the Philippines to help with the war effort. I haven’t been able to find out what that was yet, but he was most likely in his 60s.

Jacob lived to be about 147 years old. He was blessed with another 17 years with his son Joseph in Egypt. Spence observed, “As Jacob’s life fell short of that of his ancestors in respect of duration (witness the 175 years of Abraham, and the 180 of Isaac), so it greatly surpassed theirs in respect of the miseries that were crowded into it.”1 I don’t know what Jacob was thinking. Still, you can’t help but observe that in the book of Deuteronomy the one should honor their mother and father should “live long and that it may go well with you in the land.” According to The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, “Jacob, who deceived his father and thereby gained the blessing, must not only die outside the Promised Land, but also we learn here that his years were few and difficult. We can see a final recompense for Jacob’s actions earlier in the book from his own words. Abraham obeyed God and lived long in the land (Gen 26:5), so Jacob’s years were short and difficult. Despite such a final verdict on the life of Jacob, the narrative goes on to show that he lived out his remaining years “in the good [bemêṭaḇ; New International Version, ‘best part’] of the land” (v.11), though not the Promised Land; and Joseph, his son, provided for him and his household.”2 Despite all the trickery, the poor relationship with his in-laws, his dysfunctional home life. He was still blessed in so many ways. God has blessed him repeatedly, and even now, he has received Benjamin back, Simeon was released to him, and lo and behold, he is even reunited with his beloved Joseph.

1. H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Genesis, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 508–509.

2 John H. Sailhamer, “Genesis,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 264.