Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Joseph brings his father Jacob, an old shepherd and a refugee from famine, before the most powerful ruler on earth. Commentators keep asking why the weaker man ends up in the higher place, blessing the king.
The old man before the throne
Joseph arranges the meeting. Jacob had spent his life herding sheep, far from any palace.
William KellyAnother deeply interesting meeting comes next. "Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh." The aged patriarch showed no embarrassment at all before the world's most exalted monarch. "Jacob blessed Pharaoh." Never had the king of Egypt stood so high.
Why the shepherd outranked the king
The poor man in the room turns out to be the greater one. One writer sees a rule here that holds for every believer.
J. N. DarbyIt is touching to notice what happens when Joseph presents Jacob to Pharaoh. Jacob admits that his life had been a sad one compared with his fathers'. Still he can bless the monarch of the whole country, he himself a despised shepherd. The least and most faltering of God's children has the superiority, and knows it, when standing in front of the most elevated men of the world.
What made him greater was not status but what he knew and held.
F. B. HoleTwice in this passage we are told that Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and we remember what Hebrews 7:7 says: it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. The patriarch stood there as a displaced person, a refugee before the great king. Yet he knew himself to be superior to him in his knowledge of the true God. He knew Him well enough to be sure of one thing. His promised presence and guidance was worth more than all the glory Egypt had to offer. He had the better, while Pharaoh, for all his outward majesty, had the less.
He asked for nothing
Jacob stood before a man who could have given him anything.
J. G. BellettAs he stood there in the royal presence, he owned himself a pilgrim on the earth, somewhat poor and weary too. But he blesses him as he comes in and as he goes out, as one who knew what he was by God's choice and grace... He made no requests of the king, though he might reasonably have expected whatever he asked. He said nothing about all that Pharaoh or Egypt would do for him. He speaks instead as the better one blessing the less, again and again.
Lowliness and dignity together
The same man who blesses a king also calls his own years few and hard. Commentators see no contradiction there — both attitudes come from the same source.
J. G. BellettJacob would speak of his pilgrimage, of his few and evil days, making himself nothing in the world's reckoning; but at the very same moment he would bless the man who was then the greatest on earth, conscious that under God, and before him, he was "the better," the greater man of the two.
Grace toward a failing man
Others in Jacob's family had acted very differently in front of powerful rulers.
William KellyHow wonderful the grace of God toward Jacob! It was his to bless Pharaoh. Abram deceived the Pharaoh of his day... He deceived Abimelech in the same way. Isaac did the same later, just as forgetful of his Almighty protector. Not so the "worm Jacob." God made him strong in his weakness, so that he carried himself with dignity before the greatest man on earth. He asked for no favour, when we may be sure he might have had anything... Yet there was in this neither vanity nor pride, but a soul that had come to know divine goodness. A better portion was his than the world could give. Besides, there was treasure enough in God for Pharaoh, so that his heart overflowed on the king's behalf.
Lowly and sure at the same time
Jacob's hard years left him humble, and that humility sits beside a settled sense of blessing.
after
The Christian's FriendIt is very lovely to see this lowliness, the result of his "few and evil" days. A believer may have to confess his failure in front of the world, to his own shame. Yet where the soul is in communion with God, there is bound to be the consciousness of blessing.
A preview of something larger
One writer looks past Jacob himself to his descendants.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinJoseph brought Jacob and some of his sons to Pharaoh, who received them kindly, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The great and powerful monarch of the great land of Egypt was blessed by poor old Jacob. He is more than blessed — he is a blesser, a picture of what Israel is yet to be for the nations of the earth.
Summary
- Blessed. Jacob had nothing the palace valued. He had God's promised presence and guidance, and that made him the richer man in the room.
- Better. Hebrews 7:7 gives the rule: the one who blesses stands higher. So the shepherd outranks the king.
- Blesser. Having received, he now gives. He had treasure enough in God to overflow toward Pharaoh, and he asked the king for nothing.
- Bold, not proud. He calls his own days few and evil, and still blesses a monarch. There is no vanity in it, only a soul that knows God's goodness.
- Beyond Jacob. The scene points ahead to a day when Israel blesses the nations. It also fits every believer, who stands higher than the greatest people of the world.