We are currently looking at Genesis 47, where Jacob has been brought before Pharaoh by Joseph. We read about this in Genesis 47:7-10, which says:
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
We have seen that Joseph is the one bringing Jacob before Pharaoh. Joseph is a type of Christ, Pharaoh is a picture of God, and Jacob is typifying the elect. This is how it works out spiritually: the Lord Jesus Christ brings His people into the presence of God the Father. It is because of Christ’s sacrifice that we can enter into God’s presence, because He is the One who has saved us and cleansed us from our sins. Therefore, Joseph (Christ) is bringing the whole company of the elect (Jacob) into Pharaoh’s (God’s) presence.
Jacob then blesses Pharaoh. If we read Psalm 103, we see several times, “Bless the Lord.” The Psalm continues, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,” and, therefore, we know that it is believers who are blessing the Lord, just as Jacob is blessing Pharaoh. He blesses Pharaoh as he enters into his presence, and he blesses Pharaoh as he leaves his presence.
There is a great teaching in this for us, and that is that when we go before the Lord, we bless Him for our salvation. When we enter into God’s presence in prayer, we thank Him and we praise Him and we are very respectful. We are going before a king, are we not? It is just as Jacob is brought before the king of Egypt, Pharaoh. It is a royal court, and Joseph, in a very royal and orderly way, is bringing Jacob before the king of Egypt. Therefore, Jacob does not say just anything, he blesses Pharaoh.
When he leaves, he blesses Pharaoh again. Likewise, when we go before God and enter into His presence in prayer, we ought to be very respectful of who we are speaking to. This is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord’s, the Almighty God (1 Timothy 6:15). Yes, it is true that when we become one of His children whom He has saved, we have an intimate relationship with Him, but that does not change the fact that He is still Almighty God, the infinite God who inhabits eternity. We do not talk to Him very casually (we can, of course; God is our Father and we can say anything to Him), but we want to be respectful of who He is—He is the Everlasting Father. That is why Jacob blesses Pharaoh.
Pharaoh then has only one question for Jacob. We read in verses 8-10:
And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
That was it. Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was. Jacob tells him, “one hundred and thirty; and that may seem old to you, but I have not attained unto the days of my fathers.” We know that Abraham died at the age of 175 (Genesis 25:7), and that Isaac passed away at the ripe old age of 180 (Genesis 35:28). Both of Jacob’s fathers had lived to be many years older then he was at this point, and it is true that he had not attained unto the days of his fathers.
If we go back even further and see the ages of those who lived before the flood, we have to ask what 130 years is in comparison to their ages? At 130 years of age, one would be considered a young man among them. That would be like someone in their twenties today. When you live to ages such as 930, like Adam, or 969, like Methuselah, then you are just beginning to understand what is going on when you are 130.
Jacob is downplaying the number of years he has lived, and says, “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been.” What is it to live 130 years? Is that a great amount of time? It depends on what you are comparing it against. Today, we do not find anyone who is 130; a few people make 100, but few if any make it to this age of 130.
We look at Jacob as an extremely old man, yet in comparison to those who have gone before him, he is really not that old. And in comparison to eternity, it is absolutely nothing. It is nothing to live 130 years, or as we can expect to live, 70 or 80 years—that timeline is nothing. That is why God constantly encourages us not to set our hearts on the things of this world, not to desire to please ourselves or to follow after the lusts of the things of this world for a few paltry years (1 John 2:15-17). Following these few years—and this will happen in every case—there will come death and then the judgment. This is when life truly begins for the elect, and this is when death truly begins for those who are under the wrath of God and will be cast into Hell forever and ever. Therefore, it is true that no matter what age we are, we would have to say, “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been.”
But we wonder, “Why was it that Pharaoh only asked Jacob one question? Jacob responded and then left the presence of Pharaoh, and that was it. This was a strange exchange—you would think that there would have been more conversation.” There could have been more that we just are not aware of. We do not know what else they were speaking about, but God recorded what He did because He wanted us to know that Jacob was 130 years old when he entered Egypt and went before Pharaoh. Two years into that famine, with five more years to go, Jacob was 130.
We have seen that the spiritual meaning of this has to do with the number thirteen. 130 is ten times thirteen, and thirteen points to the end of the world. It is after 13,000 years of history that God begins the Great Tribulation. What we are reading in Genesis is an historical parable that is pointing to the Great Tribulation—Acts 7:11 tells us that. Therefore, we are not surprised to find that Jacob was 130 years old, just as the world was 13,000 years old when the Great Tribulation began in 1988. This 130 years is a signpost for us, to help us to realize that once we have entered 13,000 years into the history of the world, we are close to the end.
At this very same time that Jacob is 130, how old is Joseph? We know that Joseph was 30 when he was lifted up out of prison (Genesis 41:46). Immediately after that began the seven years of plenty. Following those seven years, he would have been 37. Right on the heels of the seven years of plenty came the historical famine, which is in its second year as Jacob came into Egypt. Joseph, therefore, is 39. The number 39 is made up of three times thirteen. Again, the number thirteen is in view. The number three indicates it is God’s purpose that when the world reaches 13,000 years of history, the Great Tribulation will begin, and then will come the end. Joseph is 39, and Jacob is 130.
Who else was thirty-nine at a very significant time in history? King Josiah was, and we read of him in 2 Chronicles 34:1:
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.
Josiah was eight years old, and he reigned thirty-one years. Therefore, upon his death in 609 B.C. when he was slain in battle, he was thirty-nine years old. That death of Josiah signaled the beginning of the seventy years during which God judged Jerusalem and Judah. It is another historical parable pointing to the Great Tribulation, and Josiah’s age is thirty-nine, just as Joseph is thirty-nine when Jacob and his family were going into Egypt.
Sometimes we shrink back from these kinds of ideas—breaking down a number and saying, “This is three times thirteen.” But that is how God uses numbers in the Bible. There was another king named Asa, who, when he was thirty-nine, became diseased in his feet. The Bible tells us that Asa was a faithful king and had a perfect heart before God (1 Kings 15:14), but that when he was thirty-nine, he began persecuting the prophets and throwing them into prison, and that he was diseased in his feet (2 Chronicles 16:7-12).
After 13,000 years of history, the church (which is typified by Asa) will begin to persecute the true believers (typified by those prophets Asa had thrown into prison). The church will become diseased in its feet during the Great Tribulation. We read in Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.” Yet when the church is bringing other kinds of gospels, their feet are not beautiful any longer. Those feet are not traveling upon the mountains, carrying the message of the Gospel, but they are diseased—just like Asa was diseased in his feet when he was thirty-nine years old.
God is emphasizing that something is going to happen after “thirteen.” Is it after 130 years of history? No, nothing happened then. Is it after 1300 years of history? No. What about after 13,000 years?
It just so happens that God has opened up the Biblical calendar of history in recent years, so we can know very accurately that 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history. As we look around, do we see a very faithful church, a church that is honoring and pleasing to God? Do we see a church that is desiring to do His will and is very humbled and repentant before Him? After 13,000 years of history, do we see a church that is endeavoring to be as faithful as they can be to the Bible? No; what we find is a church that is probably as wicked, unfaithful, and error-prone as any organized corporate people of God that has ever been in all of earth’s history.
We know that this ties in with Matthew 24:21, which says that there will be a Great Tribulation such as the world has never seen before. Has the world ever seen a church that is ordaining women to the degree that they are today? Has the world ever seen a church ordaining homosexuals or going after tongues or falling over backwards or exercising holy laughter like it is today? You can go on and on with this list. I usually stop after naming those five or six terrible sins that the churches are involved with today, but you could continue naming doctrine after doctrine, if you wanted to take the time. You would realize that yes, in days past there have been Jezebel’s in the church—one here and one there. There has been wickedness, yet never to the degree that there is today. Never has it spread to every denomination, and not only denominations, but independent churches, and house churches. You just cannot find the truth.
Why is this, and why is it coinciding so nicely with 13,000 years of earth’s history? Is it a coincidence that this is going on today? The answer is, “No.” God declared this would happen, even back in Genesis. He speaks of this famine that is coming upon the earth. He speaks of Jacob entering Egypt with his family when he was 130 years old. It is just as believers, after about 13,000 years, leave the church and enter into the world. It is not after exactly 13,000 years—it is a few years after that—but 13,000 is the signpost. You could not spiritually speak to seventeen or eighteen or twenty years after 13,000 years of a man’s age—how would you do that? Therefore, God gives the signpost that he is 130, and it is at that time that believers will leave the corporate church and go out into the world.
“Few and evil” have Jacob’s years been, because few and evil have been the days of man upon earth. This is the generation of evil. Since man fell in the Garden of Eden, his days upon earth have been few and evil. The world has continued for 13,000 years, year after year, century after century, millennium after millennium. We have come up to this present point, and man is no better. He is still in his sin and transgressing against God’s law, rebelling against his Creator. This will be the whole situation of man upon earth.
We have tied this in to Jesus’ pronouncements of woes upon the Pharisees. We read in Matthew 23:34-36:
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
We know that Christ is speaking of the generation of evil, the generation of those who are in rebellion against God. He is laying all the blood of God’s servants, those who are righteous (this is language indicating that they are saved, just as Abel and Zacharias were children of God) at the doorsteps of the church, of those who profess to be the people of God, when they are not.
This would be applicable to the Old Testament nation of Israel, and even before that; it goes all the way back to Cain and Abel at the very beginning of history. There was no organized body then, but there was a family, and that family had a relationship with God. There were Cain and Abel—one was saved and the other was not, yet they both made offerings to the Lord. Abel brought of the flock for an offering unto the Lord, and Cain brought of the fruit of the ground. We know that God had respect unto Abel’s offering, but He did not unto Cain’s. Cain, therefore, was jealous, and he rose up and slew his brother Abel.
Jesus is saying, “Upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias.” It is an all-encompassing statement. God is going back to the very first death, to Abel, and we would expect that He would go to the very last death, Zacharias. Let us also look at Luke 11:50-51, which is a parallel verse. We read:
That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
All the blood shed from the foundation of the world, from the time Abel was slain unto the end, will be “required of this generation.” The fact that it is A to Z (Abel to Zacharias) in our alphabet helps us to understand exactly what is in view—the first to the last. God is declaring that the blood of all the saints, all the children of God, will be required by those who have slain them—those who were corporately identified with God, going back to Cain and Esau, and going up to the nation of Israel and into the whole New Testament Church Era—all the blood will be required of “this generation.”
We know why Abel was chosen—we can understand that very clearly—but we wonder about Zacharias. In 2 Chronicles 24:19-22, it says:
Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD…
That is, between the temple and the altar. It continues
…Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.
That is what we read in Luke 11, that the Lord will require all the blood from this generation. Therefore, Zechariah says as he is dying, “The LORD look upon it, and require it.”
Look also at Psalm 9:12, which says:
When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
This word “inquisition” is the same word “require” that we saw in 2 Chronicles 24:22. God has not forgotten Abel’s death, even though it was around 13,000 years ago. God has not forgotten that Abel’s blood cries out unto Him. That is what we read in Genesis 4:10, where God says to Cain, “The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.” The voice of Abel “yet speaketh,” as it says in Hebrews 11:4.
The deaths of the saints of God, the children of God, are constantly going up as a cry of the humble to the Lord. What are they crying out for? Vengeance. They are crying out that their blood be avenged and that justice be done. God will answer their cry when we get to the days of the Great Tribulation; He will answer that plea when we reach 13,000 years of history. Why is this? When was it that Zechariah was slain? In 2 Chronicles 24:2, it says:
And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
Joash was that boy king who began to reign when he was seven. Skip down to verse 15, and we read:
But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.
Jehoiada was 130 years old, the exact same age as Jacob was when he entered the land of Egypt and went before Pharaoh.
All the blood from Abel, the very first, unto Zacharias, the very last, is in view. How can we understand that, except to know that Joash, the boy king, started out as a faithful king. He did everything Jehoiada had told him to do all the days of Jehoiada. But following Jehoiada’s death at the age of 130, Joash had no guidance. He had no one to steer him in the ways of the Lord, and he began to persecute the true prophets of God. He even slew Jehoiada’s son or grandson Zechariah, who died between the temple and the altar in the court.
The only way we can understand this is by the spiritual meaning, once again, of 13,000 years. For 13,000 years of history, the corporate body will be faithful. To some extent, there have always been congregations that were unfaithful, but overall, God will continue to use the churches and congregations. This will continue until Jehoiada dies, until 13,000 years of history. Then the church will go astray; it will begin to persecute the true prophets. In other words, the two witnesses will be slain and will lie dead in the street (Revelation 11:3-11).
That is when the last of God’s people will be slain by their unsaved brothers, because at this point, God has ended the Church Age. He has pulled His people out of the congregations so that this cannot continue any longer. Therefore, Zacharias is typifying all the believers who will be killed during this time of the Great Tribulation. “The LORD look upon it, and require it,” Zechariah said.
The name “Zechariah” means “Jah has remembered,” and “Jah” is a name for God. It is just like Luke 1, where we read of the Zacharias who was the father of John the Baptist. Finally, God had remembered His promise to send the Messiah, and John the Baptist was going to pave the way. As John’s father Zacharias was rejoicing in this, he thanked God for remembering His covenant (Luke 1:72). This was the fulfillment of His very name—Jah has remembered His people in sending the Messiah.
After the two witnesses were slain and God began to judge the churches and congregations (judgment begins at the house of God—1 Peter 4:17), then “Jah has remembered” the blood of all the saints who had been killed by the unregenerate in the corporate body. It is the fulfillment of what Zechariah is saying in 2 Chronicles 24:22—“The LORD look upon it, and require it.” All the blood will be required of this generation.
If we go to Revelation 6:9-11, we see something that fits right in. We read:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?…
This is all the blood from Abel to Zacharias. Continuing:
…And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
What is this “little season” a reference to? We read in Revelation 20:2-3 that Satan is loosed for a little season. Therefore, we know that the Great Tribulation is in view. It begins when the two witnesses are slain, who are representing the blood of all those saints who have lived and reigned with Christ during the Church Age. They are now resting in Heaven, waiting for this little season to be over and for their fellowservants to be killed as they were.
I think we have a good idea now about Jacob’s age of 130 years, when he went before Pharaoh. The idea is also repeated with Jericho, when they went around the city thirteen times before the walls fell down (Joshua 6)—again the number thirteen is in view. Whenever we see that number, therefore, it is indicating that we are looking at the end of the world.
Back in Genesis 47:11, it says:
And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
We understand that the land of Canaan was given to Abraham as a possession. God said that it would be an “everlasting possession” to him in Genesis 17:8, and we realize that the land of Canaan is typifying the Kingdom of God. However, here, Joseph (who is a picture of Christ) is giving Israel (the believers) a possession in the land of Egypt. Egypt normally typifies the world, and in this case, it does.
What kind of possession do we have in this world? The possession the Israelites had was in the land of Rameses, which is another way of saying Goshen (because that is where the land of Rameses was). It was the best of the land, which again is pointing to the Kingdom of God, to the fact that God is still building His Kingdom and saving people as the latter rain falls during the second part of the Great Tribulation. We could understand receiving a possession in the land of Egypt as looking ahead to the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1).
Egypt is typifying the world, and these Israelites receive the possession in Egypt. Likewise, each one who becomes saved and enters into the Kingdom of God receives a possession in the new earth, the new world to come. That is what is in view here as Joseph is giving them a possession in Egypt.
Then in verse 12, we read:
And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families.
There was no food in Canaan; there was no food anywhere. There was a famine in all of the lands, yet now they have come under the care and protection of Joseph. Joseph is feeding his family with bread. It is very clear what is in view whenever the Bible talks about bread. In John 6:48, Christ declares:
I am that bread of life.
Again in verse 51, we read:
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever…
Bread represents the Gospel, salvation. When there is bread in Egypt, and Joseph is feeding them with that bread, it is indicating that there is salvation going on in the world. There is salvation taking place during the time of Great Tribulation. It is not in the church, because there is no bread in Canaan, but it is taking place in Egypt. God is still saving people; He is still feeding people and giving them the spiritual bread of His Word. It is still the Day of Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), and it is still possible for sinners to have their sins forgiven and for God to bless His Word to a sinner’s heart so that they will become a child of God.
Joseph is nourishing his father, his brethren, and all his father’s household with bread. This is picturing the beautiful fact that God is still feeding and saving His people today. If it were just a few, just a remnant, a handful of people in the world that God was feeding, we would still have to say He was a merciful God. But God is indicating that it is not just a handful. He is going to save a great multitude that no man can number during this second half of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:9, 14). As we continue on in Genesis 47, we are going to see very clearly that God has a tremendous plan in view for the world during this time.
Then in Genesis 47:13, it says:
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
We understand that Canaan does not have bread, but the land of Egypt is mentioned right along with Canaan. They are also fainting for lack of bread—why is that? Is not Egypt the place where there is corn? Yes it is; but who had that corn? It was Pharaoh and Joseph. Their kingdom had corn, but that did not mean that all the people were fed. As we go on, we will see how it is that the people eventually do become fed. God had a reason for allowing these things to take place, historically, as they did.
There was no bread in Canaan or in Egypt; it is just as when the Great Tribulation began. God had removed His blessing from all of the churches; there was no bread there, no blessing upon God’s Word. There was also no bread for the world because the churches were the ones who were to bring that bread to the world. There was no carrying of the Gospel to them that once had the blessing of God upon them. Therefore, both Egypt and Canaan are fainting by reason of the famine.
Then we read in verse 14:
And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.
Everyone alike has to pay for the corn, whether they are an Egyptian or a Canaanite. Joseph is gathering all the money as they are coming with their life’s savings and everything they have hidden away. I do not know what kind of coinage they used, but they scraped together every “nickel and dime and penny,” so to speak, that they could find to purchase bread and corn. You can only look under your mattress and under your bed so many times before there is nothing more to find. It is as if you have swept the house clean and you cannot find any more money; all the money has been gathered.
Then in verse 15, it says:
And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan…
Notice that what is happening in Egypt is also happening in Canaan. God is constantly putting them together. We wonder, “Why is it that money fails in Egypt and Canaan?”
Canaan is a picture of the church, and Egypt of the world. What is happening to the church is also happening to the world. The Great Tribulation is a worldwide phenomenon. It is taking place across the four corners of the earth; money is failing everywhere. When money fails, it means that the money is no longer good. People did not have any money. It was similar, in a sense, to the Great Depression that America experienced back in the 1920’s and early 1930’s when people had to scrounge and scrape for every nickel, but this was much, much worse. There was nothing; money had completely failed, the system of money was no longer any good, and so everyone became poor—everyone. Egyptians became poor, the Canaanites became poor—the whole world was poor. The only ones who were rich were Pharaoh and Joseph and their kingdom. All the other people were in poverty because money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan.
The next part of verse 15 reads:
…all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread…
We have been reading that what happened in Canaan happened in Egypt. But who goes to Joseph? It is just the Egyptians. Where are the Canaanites?
“Bread” represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Bread is the Gospel; bread is salvation. Christ says, “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (John 6:51). When the Egyptians’ money fails and they become poor, when they are in poverty, when circumstances are forcing them, then they go to Joseph (who is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ). They beg bread—“Give us bread,” they cry.
The Canaanites, on the other hand, are typifying those in the corporate church. They, likewise, have become poor and are in poverty, yet, we do not find them mentioned. They are not in sight; they do not go to Joseph and beg bread. The implication, therefore, is that they starve.
We know what the Bible says about the poor. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,” we read in Matthew 5:3. The Bible also says in Isaiah 55:1:
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money…
You cannot buy the Gospel. “Thy money perish with thee” is what Peter said to Simon in Acts 8:18-20. You must be brought low; you must be humbled. You must realize, “I have nothing.” You must come to a place of spiritual poverty where you are broken before God and humbled beneath Him. The Egyptians are a picture of that. They have lost all of their money, but they still have their possessions. As we go on in Genesis 47, we will see that God has an ongoing process during the Great Tribulation to bring low and humble those in the world whom He intends to save.