Title: Living for a Night (Genesis 47:8~10)
Contents
47:8 Pharaoh asked Jacob, How old are you?
47:9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The years of my sojourn are one hundred and thirty years. I am young, and I am not short of the age of the sojourners of our fathers, but I have lived a short and difficult time.
47:10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and came out of his presence.
The New Year's Eve is now over. You and I are definitely one year older.
There is an old saying, "You have to pay for the night." And they say, "It's the most expensive night in the world." This is probably because life and age are directly related and the value of life is included. Value is determined by a person's dignity, and age is an opportunity to reflect on how well one lives and is also a criterion for being a person. The price of a night is the value of a life in which one's personality is respected by knowing and practicing the principles.
There are many records of age in the Bible. Numerous important characters appear in the Old and New Testaments. And their age is mentioned.
In today's text, Jacob immigrated to Egypt at the invitation of his son Joseph, and when he first met Pharaoh, king of Egypt, Pharaoh asked Jacob, "How old are you?" A scene appears asking. Jacob answers this question: He said, "The years of my journey as a stranger are one hundred and thirty years. I am young, so I am not short of the age of my ancestors, but I have lived through difficult times." Jacob then lived in Egypt for another 17 years before dying at the age of 147.
Anyway, we're one year older now.
How old am I when I am one year older this time? I hope you have a chance to ask yourself. And I believe that if you are one year older, you must have the mindset to pay the price for the one year older you are. The price for a night is to think and act appropriately for your age. Age comes naturally as the years pass, and we experience as much as the years pass, and we act according to that experience.
In the Analects, Confucius suggests a standard that people should be like this by age, and he called “jihak” (志冠) at 15, and the terms and conditions (弱冠: becoming an adult) at 30 (而立: Self-reliance at 40 (不惑: do not fall into delusion) at 50, Jicheon-myeong (knowing the will of heaven) at 60, Yi Sun (耳順: when you hear it with your ears, you automatically know what it means) at 70, your heart (從心: heart) Even if you do what you want, you do it without breaking the law), so if a person goes beyond the age of 70 and acts according to his/her heart, that is the morality of a person. He saw life 70 as a stage of completion.
Even when I was a child, of course, I raised three folds to an adult in the village of around 70 when the New Year's Eve was over. I remember listening to every word and admiring the upright appearance of those adults, and I remember making a decision to emulate them. In the old days, there were a lot of people who bought it while paying for the night. However, these days, there are a lot of old people in the world, and people who are 70 years old are not even treated as old people. Just thinking about what kind of society would be like if all those old people paid their bills for their night makes me excited.
What is paying for the night? How do I pay for the night?
1. It is abstinence.
When you get one more year of age, all you have to do is "exercise moderation."
Temperance is the Greek word for "enkrateia", and all the Bibles in Korean translate it as "temperance". The English Bible (NIV) refers to self-control as "self-control". It means "adjust yourself well." It means self-control to control, rule, and dominate the lusts of the flesh that are contrary to the Holy Spirit. In other words, it means 'to control so as not to indulge in the right way'. It is not to overdo it.
As you get older, you should not crave to eat. Overeating should be avoided. Excessive cravings must be avoided. Excessive drinking, excessive color, overwork, and excessive drinking should be restrained. You must not overdo it. As we grow older we have to learn temperance and train temperance. Even in life, try your best to achieve what you want, but it is important to have the courage to let go when you need to let go without being overly greedy.
As we get older one year at a time, we must become capable of self-control.
2. As you get older, your body and mind mature.
The development process is different for each age, and the process from fetus and infant, child and adolescence to adulthood is called “development”. The direction of development is maturity. Getting older means becoming more mature. The word "not worth a night" is used when acting inappropriate for one's age or being immature. Age value means that you have to have behavior, behavior, and character appropriate for your age, and it is also a word that includes the binding force that you should be more exemplary because you have lived many years and experienced many things.
1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I gave up childish things."
In Psalm 92 (the King James Version), there is the word “blessing of growth”. The dictionary meaning of the word “development” is “to grow large with the development of the body or mind”.
Therefore, the development of all living things is really important. I like to grow. Good growth is a blessing. Animals also need to develop well. Plants also need to develop well. Needless to say, a person must be well developed. When a child does not develop, it becomes a premature infant. It is normal when you grow up to be appropriate for your developmental stage. Good growth is a blessing. Likewise, it is a blessing that the tree grows well. It is not a good phenomenon for all living things to develop slowly or fail to develop.
Growth in faith is what the Lord desires, and it is also the duty of the saints. But even more than that, faith has a taste for growth and joy. So, you have to grow for yourself.
When I was young, I was very interested in physical growth. Height, chest, shoulders, these things focus attention on growing. However, the growth of the body soon stops. What's important is your continuing spiritual growth.
3. As you get older, you need to be embracing and accepting.
As we get older, we should live in a new way that embraces and accepts us rather than confining ourselves to the frame of stubbornness and prejudice.
As we get older, many people are prone to childhood disease. What kind of person I was in my old days….., I can’t embrace others, make everyone uncomfortable, get upset easily, get upset easily, and show my discomfort about the world that doesn’t easily recognize me.
Life has clear roles and missions appropriate to its age.
A true 'night price' is to have the experience and wisdom to protect yourself, be with others, and help each other as much as having a job, car, house, and clothes that others envy and look great on the outside. We, who are one year older in the new year, reflect on whether we have the experience and wisdom of being one more year older, and I hope that we will be able to live our lives 'paying for the night' this year.