To be a Pilgrim

Genesis Chapter 47

Jacob and his family meet with Pharaoh. One of my favourite lines from the Bible is in this chapter when Jacob answers a question from Pharaoh “How old are you?” with 

“The years of my pilgrimage  are one hundred and thirty., but I am not as old as my ancestors”

Several years ago now I took part in a pilgrimage called student cross (www.studentcross.org.uk) where, with other people we did a pilgrimage to Walsingham in Norfolk. I define a pilgrimage as "a physical journey to a destination with a spiritual dimension." in the case of Student cross it is a holy week journey carrying a cross across country.  

Israel's description of life as a pilgrimage is interesting to me as Christians believe that the end of this life is not the final end, and there is a destination we are still trying to get to, and as we have seen with Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob and Joseph there is a great future waiting whatever our situation right now.

The next thing – Joseph, having invented income tax at the start of the famine now sells the stockpile of grain to the hungry populous, in the first year he takes all the money , in the second year buys their cattle, the third year he buys all their land and effectively makes them slaves to the state - he allows them to stay on the land but now as tenants and they have a perpetual tax on all they own.

I wonder if this is laying down the land for unease between the Israelites and Egyptians in the book of Exodus?

Also notice that Jacob having been melodramatic about his grey head going down into the grave, and "I must see Joseph before I die" lives for another 17 years in Egypt. He seems to be every bit as bad as his father Isaac!