Sermon Central
-
The Embarrassing Whine Of The Ungrateful Believer Series
Contributed by Jim Butcher on May 22, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: Jacob makes a striking (and embarrassing) statement in his audience with Pharaoh: "my years have been few and difficult." Amid all the good things God has given him, what can we learn from his lack of gratitude?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
