We turn in God's Word tonight to Genesis 47. Genesis 47. We'll read the first 12 verses of the chapter, and our text is verse 9. Genesis 47, verses 1 through 12. Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren and their flocks and their herds and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan And behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, what is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. They said moreover unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn in the land are we come. For thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee. The land of Egypt is before thee. In the best of the land, make thy father and brethren to dwell. In the land of Goshen, let them dwell. And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. 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 130 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. 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 Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father's household with bread, according to their families. This is God's holy and inspired word. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Our text is verse nine. In response to Pharaoh's question, how old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 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. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, this interchange between Pharaoh and Jacob is intriguing. It's fascinating, interesting. And it's so interesting because there's such a sharp contrast between the two men who were involved in this conversation. On the one side, there is the Pharaoh. the great king of Egypt, who at that time was the most powerful ruler in the world, the wealthiest man in the world, and, if scholars are correct in identifying which particular pharaoh it was, one of the most famous pharaohs in all of Egypt's history. The Pharaoh who finally annexed for Egypt, the land of Ethiopia. This was a powerful, powerful man. He's on one side. On the other side, we have this Jacob, this old man who's probably standing crooked. since he halts on one of his thighs where the angel of the Lord touched him when he wrestled with him, who's perhaps stooped over with the burdens of his 130 years, and a man who's a mere shepherd, and not only a mere shepherd, but who's a shepherd despised by the Egyptians. The Egyptians considered shepherds an abomination, And even the secular world recognizes how much the ancient Egyptians abominated shepherds. The artwork of both North Egypt and South Egypt from that time tries to outdo itself in making caricatures of shepherds. They despise shepherds. We learn that from sacred scripture in chapter 46 verse 34. For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians. And they were abominations to the Egyptians because the Egyptians prized the planting and harvesting of crops. That was where the real money was to be found. That was where respect and honor was to be found in Egypt, in the planting of fields and the harvesting of fields, but taking care of sheep? What a ridiculous occupation. They were an abomination to them. There stands the Pharaoh, mighty man, most powerful man in the world. And there stands that old man, crooked shepherd, Jacob. But if we could see that scene in Pharaoh's palace, amidst all the grandeur and glory of Pharaoh's palace, if we could see that scene with spiritual eyes, those roles would be entirely reversed. Because Jacob was in the seat of the woman. Jacob had carried in his loins the Christ and had fathered Judah who would be one of the grandfathers of the Christ. There stands Jacob in the line of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords so that the real grandeur and the real glory in that room does not belong to Pharaoh but belongs to the Christ who would be born of Jacob's line. And in the final judgment, when all men stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, this Pharaoh, this Pharaoh will stand before him too. And this Pharaoh will give praise and honor. Unwillingly, it will be pressed out of him and crushed out of him by the Lord. But every tongue, including Pharaoh's tongue, will confess, Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father. That's the scene that opens this conversation between Pharaoh and Jacob. This scene then is a kind of climax of the immediately preceding events. Joseph had been sent into Egypt long before by the providence of God through the wicked stratagem of his brothers. But God meant that for good. God made Joseph, through many difficulties, finally second in command in the land of Egypt with that wisdom and understanding to plan for the seven years of hard famine that were coming. So that during the seven years of great plenty, much grain was stored up in the barns of Egypt and could be distributed during the years of famine. In Canaan, the famine hit hard too. so that finally there's no pasture left for Jacob and the brethren. And they go into Egypt to buy corn. And as the Lord unfolds His counsel there in Egypt between Joseph and his brethren, we find that finally Joseph's identity is revealed. He calls for the brothers and his father to move to Egypt. And they have now arrived in the land of Egypt and are beginning to settle in the chief part of the land, in the land of Goshen, where there are good fields and good pastures for their flocks. At the beginning of chapter 47, Joseph brings five of his brothers to represent all of them to stand before Pharaoh and greet Pharaoh and receive his greetings. And now just before our text, Joseph brings his father. his aged father, to stand before Pharaoh. And as Jacob stands before Pharaoh, Pharaoh asks a question, how old art thou? That question was prompted apparently by the appearance of great age in Jacob's features. We know that he halted on his thigh, he limped all his days after Peniel when he wrestled with the angel of the Lord. We know too that he had gray hairs because he would say to his children from time to time, you're going to bring my gray hairs down to the grave. Probably he wasn't very strong, lacked physical strength. The brothers were afraid that if Benjamin had been lost, after Joseph had already apparently been lost, that it would kill him. And this is the last event of significance in the life of Jacob. The next thing we read about Jacob is his death at the end of chapter 47 at the age of 147 years old. This is the last significant event recorded about Jacob. Apparently, as he stood before Pharaoh, he looked old. And Pharaoh asked, how old art thou? Jacob's response was, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 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. Now on first reading, that answer might sound like the disgruntled grumblings of an old man who snorts out this answer, 130 years, but my years have been few and evil. But that's not the meaning of Jacob's speech to Pharaoh here. Jacob is making a beautiful confession of his faith. Because Jacob is telling Pharaoh, I'm a pilgrim here. I'm a sojourner in this land. I'm a stranger here. And I look old. And I feel old. Because this isn't my home. I'm going on to my home. And that perspective, that evaluation that Jacob gives of his 130 years is the evaluation that we make by the grace of God and by His Spirit and by faith at the end of another calendar year. We're looking back, not on 130 years of our life, none of us are 130 years old, but we look back over our year, 2018, and look back beyond that even over our whole life, however many years it's been. And we confess about this past year and about all of our years. We're pilgrims here. We're strangers here. And that's a very hopeful confession. It's a very glad confession because it helps us to understand the evil of these years, the difficulties and the hardships. And because that perspective, that evaluation of being a sojourner quickens our hope for the home to which we are traveling and to which we are now one year closer. So that at the end of 2018, we make the confession of Jacob. The years of my pilgrimage are this many, and I understand why they're few. And I understand why they're evil, but I have hope as I journey to my home. So let's consider that confession of Jacob, which we make also at the end of this year under the theme of Pilgrim's Evaluation of His Life. In the first place, consider Jacob's confession, I am a stranger here, which we also sang tonight. I am a stranger here. In the second place, consider his evaluation, my days are few and evil. My days are few and evil. And in the third place, consider this part of his confession, I follow my father's pilgrimage. I follow my father's pilgrimage. A pilgrim's evaluation of his life. I am a sojourner or I am a stranger here. My days are few and evil and I follow my father's pilgrimage. So we begin with Jacob's confession that he was a stranger, or a sojourner, or a pilgrim in this life. And he insists on that. He insists on it. And he does so in response to Pharaoh's question in verse 8, How old art thou? Now, there's nothing wrong with that translation. I'm not picking any problems with the King James translation here. But it's helpful if we can see the literal question that Pharaoh asked. And the literal question is this, how many are the days of the years of thy life? Now that means how old are thou? But the formula that Pharaoh used is this, how many are the days of the years of thy life? The days of the years of thy life, that's the formula. And when Jacob answers that question, how many are the days of the years of thy life? He says, the days of the years of my pilgrimage. He breaks the formula. He starts with the formula, the days of the years, but he breaks the formula at the end, the days of the years of my pilgrimage. And by that, Jacob is insisting Pharaoh, you talk about my life here as a general thing. You talk about my life as something that everybody here on earth has, the days of the years of my life. But I tell you that my life here on earth has not been anything ordinary. It's been a pilgrimage. I've been a sojourner. My whole life I've been a sojourner. Jacob here is confessing that at the end of his life, You can see he's not yet at home when he comes here into Egypt. So that raises the question for us, well, what is a pilgrim? What does a pilgrimage mean? Or what is a sojourner? Or what is a stranger? There are three things we can say about a pilgrim. In the first place, a pilgrim is not a resident of the land that he's in. Not a citizen, that is, of the land that he's in. He's an alien resident. He's staying in that land for a time, but he doesn't belong there ultimately. That's not his home. He's no citizen of the land in which he sojourns. The second thing we can say about a pilgrim is that a pilgrim doesn't put down roots. Now, he has to live his life, so there will be some foundations he has to lay, some roots he puts down. But he doesn't put down any permanent roots there. His intention is not to stay there. His intention is not to live the rest of his life there. He's a sojourner. He's a pilgrim. He's moving. He's on the move. He's going somewhere. And the third thing we can say about a pilgrim or a sojourner is that the pilgrim always has his eye on his homeland. Always has his eye on his homeland. He thinks about that homeland day in and day out. As he labors, he remembers that homeland. He thinks in the dark, quiet hours of the night about that homeland that he will return to someday. A pilgrim keeps his eye on the goal of his home. And Jacob here is confessing all of those things regarding himself. I am a pilgrim here. I'm a sojourner here. Now that was true of Joseph's brothers too with regard to the land of Egypt. They confessed earlier that they were sojourners there. They Said that in in verses 3 & 4 Pharaoh said unto his brethren. What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh thy servants are shepherds both we and also our fathers They said moreover unto Pharaoh for to sojourn in the land are we come For thy servants have no pastures for their flocks for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan the brothers had told Pharaoh already were sojourning here and And that meant, with regard to their life in the land of Egypt, this is not our home. We don't intend to stay here. Maybe that was to alleviate some fear that Pharaoh might have had. Here's this powerful Joseph, this man who can interpret dreams by the hand of God upon him. This man who has wisdom and understanding of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, and came up with a plan to save the lives of the Egyptians. Now his brothers are here. What if they decide to take over Egypt? That fear would enter into the heart of a later Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph, nor remembered him, who would make the Israelites slaves. So perhaps the brothers here were saying, don't worry, Pharaoh, we don't intend to stay here. We're just sojourning till the famine is over. But that confession of being sojourners there is also a confession. We don't belong here ultimately in Egypt. We have a different home. We're not putting roots down here. We're going somewhere else. And what Jacob confessed, I'm a sojourner, I'm a pilgrim, is the way his fathers had lived as well. And Jacob acknowledges in this speech to Pharaoh his father's pilgrimage. I haven't attained to the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac. And as we read about Abraham and Isaac in the word of God, we find that they too consciously lived as pilgrims in the land of Canaan now. Now Jacob's in Egypt, but even in Canaan, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob lived as pilgrims. How so? They never built houses there. They lived in tents. They wandered from place to place within the land of Canaan. And by that, we're confessing not even this, Canaan is our home. What explains that pilgrimage? What explains that sojourning, not only here in Egypt, but also in Canaan? Well, what explains it is that they were looking with spiritual eyes at that land of Canaan. They recognized their home to be in heaven. As Hebrews 11 says, They looked for a city, a different city than the one they were in in Canaan. They looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. They looked forward to going to heaven and were confessing that they were pilgrims and sojourners on this earth. But that doesn't take us back deep enough yet to see what the reason was that Jacob insisted I'm a pilgrim. The days of the years of my pilgrimage are this many. What is it that drove him to confess that? And what is it that kept Abraham and Isaac from building a house in Canaan and considering that their home? Well, if we go back deeper, we find that what made them pilgrims in this land was nothing less than the promise of Jehovah God Himself. The promise. The promise made them pilgrims. God promised Abraham, I'm your God. I'm your God. And I'm the God of your seed. I make my covenant with you, Abraham. I'm your God. And I will make you a great nation. That was part of the promise. And I will give you a home where you can live with me and dwell with me. That was part of the promise. The land of Canaan as a type, but heaven as the reality. The promise of God to Abraham was, Abraham, I'm your God. And Abraham, I make you a nation. And Abraham, I give you a place to dwell. And that promise was repeated to Isaac. And that promise was repeated to Jacob. God had given a promise to these patriarchs. You're mine. You're mine. You belong to me. And that promise, ultimately, was the promise of Jesus Christ. The promise made them pilgrims which is to say Jesus Christ made them pilgrims. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of the promises of God. He is the promise. As we read in Corinthians, all the promises of God in Him, that is in Christ, are yea and amen. All the promises, all those promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Jesus Christ were yea and amen. Jesus Christ was the heart of God's covenant promise. I will establish my covenant with you and your seed after you as we've seen before in Psalm 89. Our series on that. Psalm at the occasion of baptism. The seed, the seed was Jesus Christ ultimately. The promise of God to be the God was fulfilled in Christ. The promise to make Him a nation is fulfilled in Christ. It's being fulfilled right now. By the Lord Jesus Christ as he gathers his church from all nations, tribes, and tongues, not only from those who are racially and nationally the descendants of Abraham, not only those who are racially Jews, but from all of those who believe, who believe from all nations. For Abraham is the father of believers. The promise to make Abraham a nation is being fulfilled now even by Jesus Christ. and the promise to give them a home in heaven is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ as well. How is it that these men, these men whose sins stand starkly on the pages of Scripture, how is it that these men could go to heaven, could see the face of God and live with Jehovah God? Well, it was through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ who cleansed them from all their iniquities, from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect obedience of Christ, imputed to them that they have the right to stand before God and live with Him to all eternity. What is it that made these men pilgrims? It was the promise, the promise essentially of Jesus Christ. It was the promise that made Abraham never build a house, but live in tents, because his eyes were fixed on the Savior. It was the promise that went before Joseph into the land of Egypt, and that prepared there a place for him to come, and for him to be a ruler. It was the promise that did those things. Just as it was the promise years before that opened the womb of Sarah and quickened and revived the body of Abraham which was by then dead with regard to the ability to bring forth children. It was the promise that brought forth the promised seed who was Isaac and ultimately Christ. It was the promise that did all these things. It was the promise that would go with them during these 400 years of captivity in Egypt. It was the promise that would lead them out of Egypt through the hand of Moses and the promise who would bring them into the promised land. The promise made them pilgrims and they knew it because they latched on to that promise. They took hold of that promise. They embraced that promise and never built a house. and lived as pilgrims and sojourners with their eyes fixed on the reality. And that's how it is for you and for me, pilgrims and sojourners and strangers here in this earth. We're not citizens here below. We're residents for a while, but we're alien residents. We don't put our roots down here below. Oh, we have to live our life here. There are certain things we have to have here that God gives as gifts to prolong and preserve our earthly life. But we don't put lasting roots down here. We don't make our hope here below. We're pilgrims here. We have our eyes fixed on the goal, on home. And we think about home. And we come into the house of the Lord. and have a foretaste of what it's going to be like to be home and see our Savior and see our God. We have our eyes fixed on home during all of our trials and struggles as we long more and more for that home. We're pilgrims and strangers here, and what makes us pilgrims and strangers? What sustains us through our pilgrimage but the promise the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise of salvation in Him, the promise of a home in heaven prepared for us by our Lord, so that with our eyes fixed there, we live as those who are going home to heaven. Jacob confesses in his answer to Pharaoh, I'm a stranger, a sojourner, and my hope is in that promise of my God. Jacob continues his evaluation, not only by saying, I am a stranger here, but he says, my days are few and evil. To move into the second point of the sermon and the second part of the text, 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 and the days of their pilgrimage. Two things he confesses about his pilgrimage. His days were few. And second, his days were evil. Let's take each of those. First of all, his days were few. He says, I'm 130 years old. That sounds old to us. That's a long life. None of us are going to live to 130 years old. But Jacob lived to be 130 years old and said, those are few days. Now those days were few when compared with his father and grandfather. His father Isaac lived to be 180 years old, much older than Jacob's 130. And his grandfather Abraham lived to be 175 years old, much longer than this current 130. Jacob says, my days are few in comparison with my father's. Jacob's years were few also in comparison with eternity. He had his eyes fixed elsewhere. He had his eyes on eternity. And compared to eternity, what's 130 years? It's nothing. It doesn't even register. You can't even compare 130 years to eternity. Few have been the days of my years of my pilgrimage. When Jacob confesses that his days were few, He confesses it as if he's right on the brink of death. He's looking back and he's saying about that whole pilgrimage, that whole life, all my years were few and evil, and I haven't attained to my Father's. But how do you know you're not going to, Jacob? He's answering this as if he's on the brink of death, when as a matter of fact, he had 17 more years to go. Later in the chapter, we find that he lived 17 years in Egypt, and was 147 when he died. So he didn't get to be Abraham's age or Isaac's age. But how could he know that here? Well, the answer is he couldn't know that here. He didn't know how long. Maybe he'd live to be 200. But he answers Pharaoh as if he's on the brink of death. Because that's how a sojourner lives in this world. Not filled with gloom and doom that, oh no, I'm going to die any moment. But the sojourner lives with such hope of heaven, such hope of going home, that as far as he's concerned, he's always on the threshold of heaven. He's always ready to see his Lord and his Savior with his own eyes. If the Lord would call tonight, come home, He would say gladly, I'm ready. That's the life of a sojourner. And that's the life of a sojourner because there's nothing on this earth, nothing that holds our heart, that takes hold of us like our Savior. And like our God, that's the promise at work again. That's the promise at work. The promise of God. And you may come to me. You may live with me. You may dwell with me to all eternity. So that at the end of our year, we look back and say, my years have been few. And I feel now, whether I feel strong or weak, I feel now. I'm right on the threshold of heaven. That's my hope. That's my desire. As long as the Lord gives me life here, I'll labor. I'll perform the tasks he gives me. I'll do it gladly by his grace. But I'm right on the threshold of heaven. I cannot wait to go home. That's Jacob's confession at ours when he says, the days of my life have been few. But then he says also the days of my life have been evil. And by that he doesn't mean wicked, although there was plenty of sin for Jacob to be forgiven of too. But by evil here, he means hard, hard. There were many sorrows in my life. And we can see that in the life of Jacob. Before he was born, his life was hard. he had to wrestle in the womb of his mother with the carnal seed, with the reprobate seed. There, in the womb, he and Esau fought the great battle of the ages, the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent, wrestling together so that So that Rebecca said, why is it thus with me? What's going on? And God answered her, there's two nations in your womb. Before his life was born, he was fighting. And when he was born, he came out in the midst of that struggle, holding on to Esau's heel, grabbing hold of it. His life was difficult when he came to years of maturity. and tricked his father into giving him the birthright. Isaac never should have been trying to give that birthright to Esau. He knew by the word of God to Rebekah to whom the birthright belonged. But Isaac was trying to give it to Esau. Jacob tricked him and because of the wrath of Esau had to flee. And to leave home with only a staff. Nothing to his name but his staff. And to sleep on the ground with no pillow for his head. Only a rock. Oh, his life was hard. And he arrived at the home of Laban, his uncle Laban, but deceitful uncle Laban. So that Laban changed his wages 10 times over the 20 years that Jacob labored for him, tricking him even into which daughter of his he would give to Jacob to marry. Oh, Jacob's life from an earthly point of view was hard. Jacob's life was hard when he was making his way back from Laban to his home. And there at Peniel, in the dark, quiet of the night, when all the rest of the family and the servants had gone on far ahead, and Jacob was alone, but there was a man in the shadows waiting for him, who fell on him. And that man was the angel of Jehovah himself, and wrestled with him till the morning. And as he was departing with Jacob, clinging to him with all his might by faith, said to him, Bless me, and I will not let you go till you bless me. Learning there at Peniel that blessing comes from God, and not Jacob's tricks and Jacob's schemes. And the angel of the Lord reached out and touched the inner part of the thigh of Jacob, and shrank the sinews there, cramped the muscles there, so that for the rest of his life Jacob halted upon his thigh. Jacob's life was hard. Jacob's life was hard back in Canaan, when wicked men, a wicked man, caught hold of his daughter, Dinah. and forced her. His life was hard when his sons disobeyed and made his name stink in the nostrils of the men of Canaan because of their wicked impetuousness. The life of Jacob was hard. And at the end of it all, he lost Joseph and almost lost Benjamin, the sons of his beloved Rachel. Though Jacob himself was foolish to set his heart on Rachel and not Leah. But Jacob's life from an earthly point of view was hard, and now here he is in Egypt. Not at home, not in Canaan, but in Egypt, an old man. The days of the years of my pilgrimage have been few and evil. They've been hard. We have our own sorrows to bear as we look back over our year and over our life. What are the hardships that the Lord has led you through and me through in this past year? What is the strife that you have had to endure, maybe in your own family? What is the diagnosis that you have had to hear for yourself or for a loved one? What are the difficulties of work and of employment and of all the other aspects of our lives. What are the difficulties that we have had to endure? What are the difficulties that we endure within the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Even so many difficulties in the life of a sojourner so that we stand looking back and saying the days of the year of my pilgrimage are evil. But that's not a complaint. That's not a complaint. It's not a complaint when Jacob makes it, and it's not a complaint when we make it. And it's not a complaint because we know we're sojourners. It's not a complaint because we know the goal and the destination. When we acknowledge I have hardships, that's not to say, and all I can see are the hardships. And sometimes it feels like that in the life of the child of God. That's all I can see. That's what I go to bed thinking about and what I wake up thinking about and what distracts me while I'm trying to work. That's all I can see. But the sojourner doesn't say, that's all I can see, those hardships. The power of the promise comes to work in the heart of the sojourner again and takes that sojourner's eyes off those hardships and turns them to the goal. and says, you're on your way home, and you expect these hardships. This is what life is like when you're a sojourner, because you're not home yet. The power of the promise makes those hardships bearable for the child of God, because after all, my Lord loves me. He loved me to the death. My Lord loves me yet now while he sits in heaven, and lays his hand on me with these evil days. And what is more, what is more, thank God, is that not only does the power of the promise say, look at your goal, look at the destination, but by the power of the promise we see, that even these evil days are serving us. They have to. Even these difficulties, these struggles are for our good and for our salvation. And we know that they are because the same God who made the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ is the God who has determined from all eternity that we should live with Him. so that every one of these trials is serving that decree and that purpose. The child of God, in the midst of his hardships, hears again the promise and knows again the love of Jehovah God for him. So that the child of God, in the midst of these hardships, turns his eyes to heaven and hopes anew for that eternal life that's come for us one year closer. Jacob concluded his speech to Pharaoh by saying, my years have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. By that, Jacob was saying, I'm following my father's pilgrimage on the way to glory. What Jacob is saying here is, I have hope. I have a firm hope that my life will not end in bitter disappointment. I know it won't. It can't. It's impossible that my life end in bitter disappointment. And it's impossible because I have that promise of God. that has promised to me a home, that has promised to me fellowship and a Savior. And that's our hope as we stand at the end of the year, too, that our journey cannot end in bitter disappointment. It cannot. It's impossible. If it does, then God is not God, which is impossible, absurd even to say. God is God. His promise stands secure. Jacob confesses the certainty of his hope by referring to his father's pilgrimage. What he's saying there is, my father's lived this same life here. They were pilgrims too. and their journey being complete, they are now in glory. Standing in that room before Pharaoh, Jacob had in his mind's eye Abraham and Isaac in the throne room of Jehovah, looking upon their God. The pilgrimage of my fathers, he says. And because my fathers have come home, then I know that I, a pilgrim like them, shall go home too. As is our confession, as we listen to Jacob's confession, in our minds I see a heaven full of all the pilgrims of God. who have gone before us. They finished their journey and are home. And their mouths are open in praise of the Savior Jesus Christ. And our mouths are going to open in just a minute to sing those praises of the Lord Jesus Christ with them. And we are certain that the God who promised and brought them home shall bring us pilgrims home too. The year has ended and the promise of God shall see us home. God be praised. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word to us this evening and for the glorious promise of Jesus Christ which guided our forefathers in their sojourn and guides us Receive us to our everlasting home for the sake of Jesus Christ in thy perfect time. And in the meantime, give us strength to sojourn during our few and evil days. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Psalm number 247, 247. We're going to sing this psalter number tomorrow morning too, Lord willing, so tonight let's sing the second tune and tomorrow morning we'll sing the first tune as we confess that God has been our help in ages past and is now our hope for years to come. The sixth stanza is all six of 247, second tune. you ♪ Before the hills in order stood ♪ ♪ Or earth received her frame ♪ ♪ From everlasting thou art come ♪ ♪ To endless years the same ♪ ♪ A thousand ages in thy name ♪ Yeah! Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.