Gen 47:10, And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from his presence. 
This is an interesting element of our reading that could be very easily overlooked. There is so much taking place within the entire chapter that it would easily slip by us except for the fact that it was mentioned twice that Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The first is recorded in the seventh verse of this chapter when Jacob was introduced to Pharaoh by Joseph. Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Then, when Jacob’s interview with Pharaoh was ended, he again blessed Pharaoh on his departure. 
We are presented with the account of a prophet of God who pronounced a blessing upon a pagan ruler. As the reading indicated, this Pharaoh protected and promoted the priests of the Egyptian gods. He was not seemingly interested in the Hebrew God, other than the fact that his top advisor was an instrument of Yahweh. However, Jacob, as a man of God, twice pronounced upon him a blessing. 
The importance of this can best be seen in line with the heart that is expressed by the Apostle Peter to all Christians in his first letter. God’s people, whether in the early days of their development, as recounted in our reading, or in the latter days after the advent of Christ are to be a blessing unto others. We are the representatives of the One True and Living Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. We are His witness and His testimony as so encouraged by the entirety of scripture. The Apostle Peter summarized this in 1 Peter 2:11-17. Please turn to it and follow along with me, 1 Peter 2:11-17. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. 
Jacob, in coming before Pharaoh and blessing him, was practicing this very stipulation, centuries before it would be written down for our edification. He was the central type of how we are to act before all those who do not know God, whom we serve aright. Pharaoh was in the very presence of the prophet of the Only Wise and True God. 
Jacob, for his part, was appreciative of the beneficence of this foreign ruler who had given his family of the choicest of the land to use for their flocks and herds. This ruler had opened his land and his treasury of seed and food for the family of Joseph, which was no small thing. Accordingly, Jacob felt, in his utter and sincere thankfulness, that to bestow the Lord’s blessing upon him was a correct and proper thing. 
As we have already seen, this opening of the land unto the Children of Israel resulted in the blessing of God to such an extent that they would become a nation who would be perceived as a threat to the security of the whole nation of Egypt. So blessed were they, by God, that they multiplied and became a dominate force within the land of Egypt to the point of overshadowing the governmental concerns of the new Pharaoh who rose to power. They became enslaved as the rulers of Egypt feared the increasing strength and influence that they wielded in their growth.
This is what would ultimately lead to the fulfillment of the Lord’s deliverance of His People as a nation from the bondage of Egypt. It would take the awful consequences of the plagues to break the hardened heart of that Pharaoh who was so set against freeing the Jews from his workforce. Again, it was the fear of losing those slaves who had built cities of splendor and prominence that caused the Egyptian rulers to bemoan the loss of such a vital labor force. 
At the end of the plagues, with the deaths of every first born among the Egyptian families, that Pharaoh was concerned for the prophet of God to take the people and leave. Yet, he made a very telling request of Moses and Aaron, even as he released them from slavery. Ex 12:31+32, Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also." … and bless me also. 
What started with the family of Jacob being willingly given the choicest of the land of Egypt and the subsequent blessing of the Pharaoh by Jacob, comes to an end with the release of the nation of Israel from their enslavement and the request of that new Pharaoh for the blessing of God’s prophets upon himself. In that blessing, he wanted to be remembered before the God of Israel for the fact that he was releasing those slaves, and releasing them with all the fortune and gold and wealth of Egypt as they departed from his land. 
It was exactly as God had told Abraham all those centuries earlier. Gen 15:13+14, And God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 
As God’s people left their captivity, they were showered with all the wealth that they could carry since the Egyptians were so anxious to get rid of them. They proceeded forth in their deliverance as a people blessed by all the riches of the land from whence they came. As much as they had been forced to labor and to build the cities of the Egyptians, so did God manifest Himself in giving them the fruits of that enforced labor in the method of His deliverance. 
The blessing of God preceded both the Children of Isreal’s coming into Egypt and the nation’s exit from Egypt. It was pronounced upon both the Pharaoh of their salvation from the starvation of the drought and the Pharaoh of their release from slavery.
We are so blessed to be the witnesses of the Living and True God. As this blessing is the current topic of our consideration, it is very appropriate to look at it from a variety of vantage points. The first is the blessing of the Lord upon His Creation. 
First of all, God blessed as He created as we read throughout the first chapter of Genesis. It is in Gen 1:27+28 that we have the blessing of God pronounced upon mankind. Gen 1:27+28, And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 
This is the blessing that every human shares in this creation of God’s handiwork. It is a general blessing upon mankind putting each human being above the rest of God’s creatures on this earth. In this consecration of mankind as the instrument of human sovereignty over the realm of the natural creatures, God shows forth His divine plan and purpose of the elevation of man into a living relationship with Himself. 
We were created in the image of God, to share together in a vital connection with Our Creator. We were never intended to be as little gods unto ourselves, but rather to enjoy a fellowship with God that transcends that of any other living creature. Body, soul, and spirit, we are His handiwork, created for the expression of His glory on this earth. That is the great blessing of God bestowed upon us.
Adam Clarke deals with this term blessing in the following manner. Quote, ‎It is frequently used in Scripture in the sense of speaking good of or to a person… Blessing is applied both to God and man: when God is said to bless, we generally understand by the expression that he communicates some good; but when man is said to bless God, we surely cannot imagine that he bestows any gifts or confers any benefit on his Maker. When God is said to bless, either in the Old or New Testament, it signifies his speaking good TO man; and this comprises the whole of his exceeding great and precious promises. And when man is said to bless God, it ever implies that he speaks good OF him, for the giving and fulfilment of his promises. This observation will be of general use in considering the various places where the word occurs in the sacred writings. Reader, God blesses thee when by his promises he speaks good TO thee; and thou dost bless him when, from a consciousness of his kindness to thy body and soul, thou art thankful to him, and speakest good OF his name. End quote. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
We are blessed by God when He speaks to us. He does so by His Holy Spirit in opening His Word as life into our hearts and minds. He does so when He declares the Good News of Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ as the course of our living relationship with Himself. He does so when He gives us direction and guidance through those whom He brings into our lives to counsel and to encourage and to share together in love and in fellowship. He does so when He awakens us in the midnight watches to lift up those in need in prayer unto Him. He does so when He makes Himself known through the beneficent actions of His hand upon our lives day in and day out. In these and in so many other ways God blesses us with the knowledge that He loves us and has chosen us unto Himself through the lifeblood and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son. 
This is one of the key blessings of God in our lives. It is the fact that He has chosen us unto Himself in Jesus Christ. It is not based on anything that we have done, or can do, or will do. It is all completely based on the fact that God has made the determination, from before the eternal ages even began, that He wanted to have a living relationship with us, Creator and creation. This has been done by the grace and the mercy and the Omnipotence and the Omniscience of God alone. There is no merit that we can earn. There is no manner of making Him choose us through commendable activity on our part. It is simply that God chose us, for reasons known only to Himself, to be so blessed with the salvation life of Jesus Christ. 
The Psalmist, in considering the fact that God is the One Who so chooses to make Himself the focal reality of the lives of His people declares this blessing in Ps 65:4, How blessed is the one whom Thou dost choose, and bring near to Thee, To dwell in Thy courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Thy holy temple. 
There is the recognition that God is the One Who chooses to bless mankind with the knowledge of Himself in all His glory. In God’s choice is the very blessing of the eternal ages manifested upon such as you and me. All that we are is because God so chose to bless us with Himself in the person of our salvation, His Only Begotten Son. 
It hearkens us back to the proclamation of this blessing of mankind by God as established through the promise given to Abraham. As we read in Gen 12:2+3, And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Just as God so chose to bless Abraham as the father of the people from whom Our Lord and Savior would come, so do we relish the truth that in Him all the nations of the earth are blessed. 
Because of God’s tremendous work of grace and mercy, the Children of Israel experienced all the fullness of being the nation of God’s choosing. In the lineage and heritage of that people, God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, to live a life free from all the stain and guilt of sin. By virtue of His perfect sacrifice upon the cross, all the elements of our old sinful nature, wrought in the disobedience of Adam, have been buried for all of eternity. In Jesus, through the resurrection power of God, we have been lifted out of our bondage of sin and death and made alive to fully and comprehensively enjoy the newness of life everlasting. 
This is what it means to be blessed of God in all the measure of God speaking to us through His Son, as recounted so majestically by the Writer to the Hebrews in Heb 1:1-4. God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 
Next time, Lord willing, we will continue with our consideration of the blessing of God. It is to be seen in our daily obedience unto the fervent expression of God’s blessing to all the peoples of the earth. So be it!
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from his presence. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 113:1-3. Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the Lord is to be praised. Amen.