Morning Meditation

Genesis 47:4

[4] They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to *sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”

One might think that Jacob had not been sojourning previous to arriving in Egypt. Yet, he had been living in the the land of Canaan that God had promised to give the descendants of Abraham.

Yet, when Pharaoh asked him how old he was, he replied: Genesis 47:9

[9] And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “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.”

He described his entire life as “the years of my sojourning.” Maybe this means nothing or maybe he was looking beyond this life and this land. Maybe he had his eye on Beth-el!