LIFE AS A PILGRIMAGE (PART 2)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DAYS

They are few
Though he had now lived one hundred and thirty years, they seemed to him as a few days, in comparison of the days of eternity, in which a thousand years are but as one day, Psalm 89:47, 2Peter 3:8.

They were evil
This is true concerning man in general. Joh 16:33 (BBE) I have said all these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble: but take heart! I have overcome the world.
Job 14:1 (NKJV) "Man [who is] born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble.
Job 5:7 (BBE) But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.
Ec 2:23 (BBE) All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.

Jacob's life particularly had been made up of evil days. Along the journey of life, he encountered many life's difficulties but he overcome them. In the present age, we are not immuned to these challenges we face them daily.
But what is our attitude to them? How we handle them determines by and large whether we will be victor or victim. Life is indeed a warfare and not a funfare. In Jesus only we can have victory and peace.
Jas 1:2 (NKJV) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Jas 1:12 (RSV) Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
1Cor 10:13 (TCNT) No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all mankind. God will not fail you, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength; but, when he sends the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may have strength to endure.

They were short of the days of his fathers
Jacob at that time was one hundred and thirty years old, Isaac his father lived for one hundred and eighty years (Gen.35:28); and Abraham his grandfather, one hundred and seventy five years (Gen 25:7). Jacob's life, not so many, not so pleasant as their days. Old age came sooner upon him than some of his ancestors.

How old are you?

The days of the years of my pilgrimage... A pilgrimage is a journey to a place with special significance. Jacob had always lived a migratory or wandering life, in different parts of Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, scarcely ever at rest; and in the places where he lived longest, he was always exposed to the fatiques of the field and desert. He calls his life a pilgrimage, looking upon himself as a stranger, a sojourner in this world, and a traveller towards another. He reckoned himself not only a pilgrim now he was in Egypt, a strange country in which he never was before but a journey through this world to another. As character is the chief thing, our great concern should be that it may be such as shall reder us most useful and fit us for heaven.

1Ch 29:15 (WEB) For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.
1Ch 29:15 (YLT) for sojourners we [are] before Thee, and settlers, like all our fathers; as a shadow [are] our days on the land, and there is none abiding.
1Ch 29:15 (NKJV) For we [are] aliens and pilgrims before You, As [were] all our fathers; Our days on earth [are] as a shadow, And without hope.

Ps 39:12 (KJV) Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I [am] a stranger with thee, [and] a sojourner, as all my fathers [were].

Ps 119:19 (KJV) I [am] a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
Ps 119:54 (KJV) Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
Ex 6:4 (KJV) And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.