This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions and week 10, day 2,
chapter 47 of the book of Genesis. In fact, let me begin today by reading for
you chapter 47, verses 1-6, "Joseph went and he told Pharaoh, 'My father and
brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from
the land of Canaan, and they are now in Goshen. ' He chose five of his brothers
and presented them before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh asked his brothers, 'What is your occupation? ' 'Your servants are
shepherds,' they replied to Pharaoh, 'just as our fathers were. ' They also said
to him, 'We have come to live here a while, because the famine is severe in
Canaan, and your servants' flocks have no pasture.

So now, please, let your servants settle in Goshen. ' Pharaoh said to Joseph,
'Your father and your brothers have come to you, and the land of Egypt is before
you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land.

Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them that have special
ability, put them in charge of my own livestock. '" So here we have Joseph once
again managing the dream and finishing the job, making sure that his family is
in a good place.

In fact, all of this chapter is really about how Joseph finishes the job well.
In verses 10 to 27, I'm not going to read all those verses, but in the way that
he manages the dream, finishes the job in those verses, first Joseph has the
people of Egypt give all their money to buy food. When the famine came, they had
some money left, so he says, "Well, give me your money," and they bought food.

The next year, they didn't have any money, so he said, "Well, give me your
livestock. I don't want you to starve. " So the people of Egypt gave to the
Pharaoh all of the livestock.

And then the next year, he had them give all of their land. Now, they weren't
put off of their land. He actually said, "You go ahead and keep tending your
land when this famine is over.

" And he had them keep four-fifths of what was grown on that land, but one-fifth
went to the Pharaoh. In fact, the Bible tells us in these verses that became the
law in Egypt. Dream managers finish the job.

He went all the way through to the point that it benefited Pharaoh so that he
owned all the land in Egypt. He owned all the commerce in Egypt. He greatly
strengthened the one that he was serving because he didn't stop halfway through.

Dream managers finish the job. That's not only true with Joseph, as we see in
this chapter. It's also true with his father, Jacob.

In fact, for the next couple of chapters, we're going to begin to focus on
Jacob. Chapter 47 to 49 of the book of Genesis, we get back to a focus on Jacob.
Remember, he's the schemer who had learned to trust.

And he would have thought that his life of faith was over. He's near the end of
his life. He's relying on the faith of others.

He has to have his son bring him down to Egypt and find him a home he can live
in. But God still had some things for Jacob to do. In fact, in these chapters,
we see that he has four things for him to do, four specific things to do at the
finish line of his life.

These aren't bad things for you and I to look at as we come to finish lines. And
there's all kinds of finish lines. It doesn't have to be the end of your life to
be a finish line.

It could also be you're leaving a job or you're leaving a home, a neighborhood,
or you're having your kids leave home or you're moving to a different community.
There's a lot of finish lines in life. What do you do at the finish lines of
life?

Well, one of the things that Jacob did is he met with and he blessed Pharaoh.
That's the first thing that he does. He met with and he blessed Pharaoh.

In verses seven and ten, let me read for you. "Then Joseph brought his father
Jacob in and he presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh,
Pharaoh asked him, 'How old are you?

' And Jacob said to Pharaoh, 'The years of my pilgrimage are 130. My years have
been few and difficult and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my
fathers. ' Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.

" You see, twice in these verses we hear that phrase, "Jacob blessed Pharaoh. "
It's one of the things that God had for him to do. This is an amazing meeting.

You have this patriarch of Israel meeting the Pharaoh of Egypt. Two world
figures, two historical figures, two people who are going to be talked about not
only for hundreds of years, but thousands upon thousands of years from this
date. And here they are in a room together, meeting together, two centers of
power.

One very obviously a center of power and Pharaoh, he had all the trappings
around him. One not so obvious, but a power that was going to last even longer,
the people of God chosen by God. And they meet in a room.

And what does Jacob do? He blesses Pharaoh. Pharaoh doesn't bless Jacob.

Jacob, as a spiritual leader, as a representative of the people of God, he is
the one that blesses Pharaoh. And in this moment, one of the jobs that God has
for Jacob to do here at the end of his life is the job of recognizing where true
power really is. People get confused about that all the time.

They think power is in money. They think power is in position. They think power
is in whatever.

One of the great joys that you have when you come to a finish line is to remind
people, you know, the real power is in God. The real power is in relationships.
The real power is in the way that he loves us and the opportunity that you and I
have to love other people.

So whether it's in a speech that you give at a high school graduation, that's a
finish line, or it's in leaving one job to go to another, or it's in talking
with your kids near the end of your life, one of the things you have to bring
out at that finish line is here's where the real power is. Jacob recognized that
when he blessed Pharaoh. Second thing happens in these verses.

The great job that God had for Jacob to do, Jacob made sure that he was buried
in the promised land. The Bible tells us in verse 28, "Jacob lived in Egypt 17
years, and the years of his life were 147. When the time drew near for Israel to
die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, 'If I have found a favor in your
eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness
and faithfulness.

Do not bury me in Egypt. But when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt
and bury me where they are buried. I will do as you say,' Joseph said.

'Swear to me,' he said. And then Joseph swore to him. " I'm going to save the
last part of that last verse, verse 31 for just a moment.

Jacob made sure that he was buried in the promised land. That's another thing
that God had for him to do at this finish line. And what was Jacob doing here?

He was looking to the future. He was looking to God's plan and not man's plan.
If Jacob had been buried in Egypt, then part of the history of the people of
Israel would have been buried in Egypt.

He wanted to make sure that he was buried back up in the cave of Machpelah with
his family so that the history was there in the promised land and not down in
Egypt. One of the jobs that you and I have to do besides recognizing the power
of God, one of the jobs you and I have to do at a finish line is also
recognizing the plan of God. And that's what Jacob is doing here.

He's recognizing that God's plan is not Egypt. It's a part of his plan for
Israel. It's a part of his plan for this nation, but it's not the end of his
plan.

So by saying, "I want you to take me back and put my bones back there. I want to
be buried back there," he's reminding the people of Israel that God's plan is
bigger than where they are right now. And then something happens at the last of
verse 31.

It's important enough that it's picked up in the New Testament. Verse 31, "Swear
to me," he said, "then Joseph swore to his father," and then the Bible says this
phrase, "And Israel, Jacob, worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. "
What a phrase.

It's picked up in Hebrews 11, 21, that chapter about the hall of fame of faith.
Hebrews 11, 21 says, "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of
Joseph's sons and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. " The picture
here is he's an old man, and he's got a walking stick, a staff, and he can't
hold himself up.

He has to lean on the staff in order to stand up straight. But even in that
position, when he is so physically weak that he can't seem to do anything like
he used to be able to do when he was a schemer, to do anything for himself, the
Bible says he worshiped there. He worshiped at that place, at that point in his
life.

One of the most important jobs that I have to do, that you have to do at every
finish line of life, is right here, you worship. Whatever the circumstance,
whether you're leaning on the top of a staff, or you're leaving out the door of
an office, or you're saying goodbye to some dear, dear friends, whatever the
circumstance, whatever the situation, you worship. Because at the finish lines
of life, those are the crucial moments of transition to where God has you to go
next, to heaven, if that's where you're going, if the finish line is death or to
the next community you're going to live in.

And at that point, when you choose worship, instead of choosing worry, have you
ever noticed how easy it is to worry when you come to the finish lines? What's
going to be next? What am I going to do after the finish line?

How am I going to get there next? When you choose worship, instead of worry,
you're choosing, in the attitude of your heart, you are choosing to allow
worship to lead you into whatever God has next in your life. So you choose
worship at this finish line of life.

That's exactly what Jacob did here. And as we pray together today, that may be
what you need to do right now. Just in an attitude of prayer right now, just
say, "Jesus, I want to choose worship.

Not worry, but worship. As I come up to this finish line, as there's some
unknowns on the other side of that finish line about my job or about my family
or about my life, about my health. Those unknowns, it's so easy, Lord, for me to
worry about those.

But instead, in this situation where I am right now, as I lean on the top of my
staff, as I live in the situation that I'm in right now, I recognize I'm weak,
but you are strong and I can trust in you. And Lord, you see the anxieties in my
mind. You see how easy it is for me to worry.

Help me to replace those thoughts with thoughts of worship, with thoughts of
trust, with thoughts of the fact that I can rely on you, Jesus Christ, in this
and through this. I worship you right now. I see you for who you really are, the
God who cares about me, who will carry me through this, who will strengthen me
on the other side of this, who will never fail me or forsake me.

I worship you right now. In Jesus' name, amen. " Well, join us tomorrow, we're
going to continue to learn from Jacob as he blesses his sons.