Latest / Reformed Thinking / Providence in Famine: Joseph’s Administration and God’s Preserving Grace (Genesis 47:20–26)

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Providence in Famine: Joseph’s Administration and God’s Preserving Grace (Genesis 47:20–26) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Imagine looking out over the Nile River For your entire life,
• 0:05
  and for the centuries of generations before you, this
• 0:08
  river has been the absolute lifeblood of your civilization.
• 0:11
  Yeah, your whole world revolves around it, right?
• 0:13
  You anticipate the annual flood with total certainty.
• 0:16
  The water swell, they spill over the banks, and they leave behind
• 0:19
  this thick, dark, incredibly fertile silt.
• 0:23
  And you know that silt is your economy, it's your food, it's
• 0:26
  your future. It's everything.
• 0:28
  But now imagine a year where the water simply do not rise.
• 0:31
  The flood never comes. The ground hardens into baked
• 0:34
  clay under the relentless sun. You brush it off as a bad year,
• 0:38
  a fluke of nature. But then it happens the next
• 0:41
  year and a year after that. And that's when the real panic
• 0:44
  starts to set in. Exactly.
• 0:45
  By year three the panic is very real, by Year 5 every scrap of
• 0:49
  food in the countryside is gone and by year seven you were
• 0:52
  looking at total catastrophic agrarian devastation.
• 0:56
  You were just terrified. It really is.
• 0:57
  You are living through an environmental collapse so severe
• 1:00
  that your money is completely worthless.
• 1:02
  Your livestock has been traded away and you were standing at
• 1:05
  the gates of the government storehouses offering to trade
• 1:08
  your very body and your ancestral land just for a single
• 1:11
  bowl of grain to keep your children breathing.
• 1:13
  It is a terrifying historical reality to visualize.
• 1:16
  I mean, that level of desperation completely rewrites
• 1:20
  the social contract. It reshapes the whole economic
• 1:23
  structure of a nation. Welcome to reformed thinking.
• 1:26
  Today we are taking a microscopic look at a massive
• 1:29
  historical crisis. I'm really looking forward to
• 1:31
  this deep dive. Same here.
• 1:33
  Our mission for this conversation is unpacking a very
• 1:35
  specific text. We're looking at Genesis chapter
• 1:38
  47, verses 20 through 26. This is the historical account
• 1:42
  of Joseph acting as the Prime Minister of Egypt, legally
• 1:46
  acquiring the entire land of Egypt for Pharaoh during a
• 1:49
  catastrophic world altering famine.
• 1:51
  Yeah, and we are going to look at the raw historical and
• 1:54
  economic reality of how a nation collapses from the ground up.
• 1:58
  Right. But we are also bringing a very
• 2:00
  specific lens to this. As Protestant Christians, we are
• 2:03
  analyzing the massive theological weight behind these
• 2:06
  events. Well, to set the proper
• 2:08
  framework for our analysis today, we must view this
• 2:11
  historical event through the doctrine of God's absolute
• 2:13
  sovereignty and Providence. Which is so crucial to keep in
• 2:16
  mind. Right.
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  It teaches that God most wholly, wisely, and powerfully preserves
• 2:21
  and governs all his creatures and all their actions.
• 2:24
  So he's not just watching things unfold.
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  Far from it. That means when the rains fail
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  in the Ethiopian Highlands and the Nile turns into a trickle,
• 2:32
  the Lord is not acting as a passive spectator up in the
• 2:35
  heavens wringing His hands. He is actively orchestrating the
• 2:39
  trial. Wow, actively orchestrating it.
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  Yeah, this text shows God using severe physical distress, a
• 2:45
  literal breaking of the ancient agricultural supply chain, to
• 2:49
  humble a remarkably proud nation.
• 2:51
  He's doing multiple things at once, right?
• 2:53
  He is simultaneously he is using that exact same geopolitical
• 2:58
  crisis to protect and isolate his chosen people.
• 3:01
  The hand that empties the storehouses of Egypt is the very
• 3:05
  hand that fills them again under the administration of his chosen
• 3:08
  servant, Joseph. OK, before we get into the heavy
• 3:11
  spiritual implications of that Providence, we really need to
• 3:15
  examine the raw historical anatomy of this national
• 3:18
  collapse. Yeah, the physical reality is
• 3:20
  staggering. We see this laid out in verses
• 3:22
  20 and 21. What did this famine actually
• 3:25
  look like on the ground for the average Egyptian family?
• 3:28
  Well, to understand the severity of this specific famine, you
• 3:31
  have to understand the unique geography of the region.
• 3:34
  The ancient historian Herodotus famously called Egypt the gift
• 3:38
  of the Nile. I've.
• 3:39
  Heard that phrase before? Yeah, because the entire socio
• 3:42
  economic structure of the Nile Valley was intrinsically tied to
• 3:45
  the river's annual inundation. Every single year, the Nile
• 3:48
  would flood, depositing that incredibly fertile black silt
• 3:51
  over the fields. So their whole calendar was
• 3:53
  built around it. Literally their whole lives, the
• 3:56
  Egyptian agricultural calendar was entirely built around this
• 3:59
  cycle. They had a season of flooding, a
• 4:01
  season of planting, and a season of harvesting.
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  If that inundation failed, agricultural productivity ceased
• 4:08
  instantly. There's no backup plan.
• 4:10
  No, none at all. In this narrative we are not
• 4:13
  looking at a mild drought, we are looking at a continuous 7
• 4:17
  year failure of the Nile. Seven years.
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  That's hard to even wrap your mind around.
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  It's a catastrophic event of world altering proportions that
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  would utterly destroy any decentralized economy in the
• 4:29
  ancient world. So how did it progress?
• 4:31
  It wasn't just an overnight collapse.
• 4:32
  Yeah. The famine progressed through
• 4:34
  brutal, systematic stages of deprivation.
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  First, the Egyptians spent all their money buying grain from
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  the royal storehouses that Joseph had stockpiled during the
• 4:43
  Seven Years of Plenty. OK.
• 4:45
  So the cash goes first. Right then, when the money
• 4:47
  failed, they were forced to bring their livestock.
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  They brought their horses, their flocks, and their herbs.
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  Let us pause on that for a second, because trading away
• 4:55
  your livestock in an agrarian society is a monumental
• 4:59
  escalation of the crisis. It's devastating.
• 5:01
  Right. It's not like selling a lottery
• 5:03
  car to pay the rent. Yeah, if you are a farmer, your
• 5:06
  ox is your tractor, Your flocks are your means of production.
• 5:09
  Yeah, you need those to make a living.
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  When you sell the animals, you are effectively dismantling your
• 5:15
  ability to ever farm independently again.
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  You are liquidating your capital just to survive the week.
• 5:21
  That is an accurate assessment of the economic reality.
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  They were eating their seed corn, so to speak.
• 5:27
  Yeah, by trading their livestock, they were
• 5:29
  acknowledging that independent survival was no longer possible.
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  And that brings us to the final stage of the collapse.
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  What happens when the animals are gone?
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  Well, when the livestock was gone, they had absolutely
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  nothing left to barter with except their physical land and
• 5:45
  their own bodies. Man.
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  And that brings us directly into verse 20.
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  The text says so. Joseph bought all the land of
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  Egypt for Pharaoh. I want to highlight a specific
• 5:55
  detail in the text here because the language used is crucial for
• 5:58
  understanding Joseph's character.
• 6:00
  Yes, the Hebrew verb used for bot is very specific and very
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  important. Tell us about that.
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  The Holy Spirit utilizes the verb way you can, which is
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  derived from the root word kwana.
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  This root carries the primary meaning of to buy, acquire, or
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  possess. OK.
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  So it's a formal transaction, yes.
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  This verb appears 64 times in the Old Testament, and it is
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  frequently associated with legitimate legal commercial
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  transactions. The use of this specific verb
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  clarifies the nature of Joseph's administration.
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  So he's not just taking it by force.
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  Not at all. Joseph did not engage in
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  unlawful confiscation. He did not execute an arbitrary
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  military seizure of the land. This was a legal transfer of
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  property rights conducted in the open.
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  They willingly gave it up. They did.
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  The people willingly traded the deeds to their land for the
• 6:50
  physical sustenance of grain. The text notes that the famine
• 6:53
  prevailed over them. The Hebrew phrase is chazak
• 6:57
  alemhem haraba. What does that mean practically?
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  The verb chazak highlights the overwhelming, crushing force of
• 7:03
  the providential trial that broke their pride and
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  self-sufficiency. They were pinned down by
• 7:07
  reality. Let us translate this into a
• 7:09
  modern economic scenario so we can really grasp the mechanics
• 7:13
  of what is happening. That's a good idea.
• 7:15
  It sounds like a massive citizen initiated corporate buyout.
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  Imagine you are a shareholder in your own small agrarian
• 7:23
  business. The famine has driven your small
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  business into total undeniable bankruptcy.
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  You have no cash, you sold all your delivery trucks, which are
• 7:32
  your livestock, and your warehouses are empty.
• 7:35
  You're completely out of options, right?
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  So you go to the central massive corporation, which in this case
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  is Pharaoh's government administered by Joseph.
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  You walk into the corporate office and say take our shares,
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  take the company, take us on as your workers.
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  Just keep the corporate cafeteria open so we do not
• 7:53
  starve to death. Yeah, that's spot on.
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  It is not a dictator rolling into your town with tanks to
• 7:57
  steal your farm. It is a legal, contractual
• 8:00
  transaction driven by the crushing, undeniable force of
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  starvation. That analogy captures the
• 8:06
  essence of the transaction perfectly.
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  The citizens recognize their total insolvency and voluntarily
• 8:12
  submitted to corporate ownership to preserve their lives.
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  It's bleak, but it's legal. Right.
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  And once that legal acquisition is complete, Joseph initiates a
• 8:21
  massive relocation strategy. Verse 21 states that he moved
• 8:25
  the people to the cities from one end of Egypt's borders to
• 8:28
  the other. Which on the surface, sounds
• 8:30
  incredibly disruptive. It does sound drastic.
• 8:33
  I mean, why would Joseph uproot an entire agrarian society, pull
• 8:37
  them off their ancestral family plots, and move them into
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  concentrated urban centers? That seems like it would create
• 8:43
  massive panic. Well, it was an absolute
• 8:45
  administrative necessity for survival.
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  The Hebrew word for cities used here is a rim.
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  Joseph systematically relocated the citizens into urban centers
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  adjacent to the royal storehouses where the grain was
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  safely housed. So he brought them to the food.
• 9:00
  Precisely. Think about the logistics of
• 9:03
  ancient food distribution. Rather than leaving a starving
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  agrarian population scattered across a barren, dry countryside
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  where transporting food would be an impossible logistical
• 9:13
  nightmare, he moved the population to where the food
• 9:15
  actually resided. Yeah.
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  Makes a lot of sense. If the people had stayed on
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  their isolated farms, the weak would have died trying to travel
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  to the cities for rations, or bandits would have slaughtered
• 9:26
  the vulnerable to steal the grain in transit.
• 9:28
  Oh wow. Yeah, you'd have total
• 9:30
  lawlessness. Exactly.
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  Moving them to the cities was a brilliant logistical maneuver to
• 9:35
  prevent mass casualties and ensure relief could be
• 9:38
  distributed systematically and fairly.
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  Here is where we get into the weeds of translating ancient
• 9:45
  texts, though, because I know there was a significant debate
• 9:48
  among scholars about verse 21. There is, yes.
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  Some historians and critical scholars look at this relocation
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  and claim Joseph did not just relocate the people, but that he
• 9:58
  actively enslaved them in chains.
• 10:00
  This is a critical point of textual defense, and we need to
• 10:04
  unpack how translations handle this verse.
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  The Masoretic Text, which is the authoritative Hebrew text of the
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  Old Testament, reads the EP Hamam hebir oto le orim.
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  OK, what does that mean literally?
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  This translates directly as and As for the people, he
• 10:19
  transferred them to the cities. So just moving them.
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  Yes, the grammar here relies on the high fill form of the verb
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  abar. Now for those unfamiliar with
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  Hebrew grammar, the haifil stem usually expresses A causative
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  action. So abar means to Passover and
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  the Haifil form means to cause to Passover or to transport.
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  It's purely logistical. Right, it implies A logistical
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  movement of people from point A to point B.
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  However, if you look at the Samaritan Pentateuch, the
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  Septuagint which is the ancient Greek translation, and the
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  Vulgate, they read something closer to he enslaved them as
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  servants. That's a.
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  Huge difference it is. Many liberal critical scholars
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  routinely reject the Hebrew Masoretic Text in favor of these
• 11:02
  other versions, claiming the original text spoke of literal
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  enslavement. They use this to portray Joseph
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  as a cruel, opportunistic tyrant who capitalize on a disaster to
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  enslave a free populace. But the context.
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  Of the relocation, The actual logistics of keeping people
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  alive makes the Hebrew Masoretic reading the only logical choice.
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  Absolutely. If you enslave.
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  People you put them to work, but there is no agricultural work to
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  be done. The ground is like concrete,
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  the. Context demands the Masoretic
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  reading. We must defend the purity and
• 11:32
  integrity of the original Hebrew text here, because the physical
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  reality of the situation makes enslavement A nonsensical
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  reading. They'd just be sitting there in
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  chains, starving. Exactly.
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  The logistics of national survival demanded urbanization.
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  You cannot efficiently feed millions of people who are
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  dispersed across hundreds of miles of dead farmland without
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  modern transportation. Transporting them to the Orem,
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  the cities with the grain silos was an act of supreme
• 12:00
  administrative mercy and efficiency.
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  It was a. Rescue effort.
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  It was a. Massive rescue operation, not an
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  act of malicious enslavement. Joseph was organizing A refugee
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  crisis within their own borders, so we.
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  See this total centralization of the Egyptian economy happening.
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  The people have voluntarily given up their land, they have
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  been relocated to the cities for survival, and Pharaoh now
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  legally owns essentially all the real estate in Egypt.
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  It is a. Complete monopoly, but as.
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  You read through the text, you hit verse 22, and there is a
• 12:29
  glaring exception to this nationalization.
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  The Egyptian priests, yes. They stand out, they did.
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  Not have to sell their land the. Text explicitly states that the
• 12:38
  land of the priests, the Shanim, was not bought by Joseph.
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  This is a very specific carve out in the new legal code of
• 12:46
  Egypt. What is?
• 12:47
  The historical and political reason for this massive
• 12:50
  exception in. The ancient Egyptian social
• 12:53
  hierarchy, the priesthood, enjoyed unique institutional
• 12:57
  privileges that were depthly embedded in the fabric of their
• 12:59
  civilization. They were not just religious
• 13:02
  figures. They were more.
• 13:03
  Like state officials? Yes, they.
• 13:04
  Were the guardians of the state religion, the administrators of
• 13:08
  the temples, and the keepers of the scientific and astronomical
• 13:11
  knowledge of the era. They maintained a vast
• 13:14
  independent landed estate and. Pharaoh's role in this well.
• 13:18
  Pharaoh was considered a divine king, living God whose primary
• 13:21
  duty was to maintain cosmic order, a concept the Egyptians
• 13:24
  called Mott. Because Pharaoh was the chief
• 13:27
  priest of the realm, he was obligated by ancient
• 13:30
  constitutional custom to support this religious class.
• 13:33
  So you can. Just cut them off, right?
• 13:35
  Verse 22 explains the mechanics of the support during the
• 13:38
  famine. It says the priests received a
• 13:40
  direct regular food allotment from the crown.
• 13:43
  What's the? Word used there the.
• 13:45
  Hebrew word used is chook, meaning a sovereignly decreed
• 13:48
  statute, a legal portion, or an established alliance.
• 13:53
  Because the priests received this guaranteed daily ration
• 13:56
  directly from Pharaoh's stores, they did not experience the same
• 14:00
  desperate insolvency as the common agrarian laborers they
• 14:04
  were. Insulated from the worst of it.
• 14:05
  Exactly. Consequently, they did not need
• 14:08
  to liquidate their landed estates to survive, you know.
• 14:11
  I have to push back on this a little bit because looking at
• 14:13
  this from a theological perspective, it feels
• 14:17
  uncomfortable. How?
• 14:18
  So well, Joseph. Is a man chosen by God?
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  He is an instrument of divine Providence raised up to save the
• 14:23
  world from starvation. Why would Joseph uphold the
• 14:27
  financial security of a Pagan idol worshipping priesthood?
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  That's a very. Fair question if you have.
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  Absolute authority during crisis.
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  Why not use the famine to bankrupt the temples of RA and
• 14:37
  Osiris, consolidate all authority and dismantle the
• 14:40
  false gods of Egypt? That.
• 14:42
  Is an excellent observation, and it raises A vital question about
• 14:46
  how God operates in the civil and how believers should view
• 14:50
  political institutions. What's the theological answer
• 14:53
  then? The.
• 14:53
  Theological answer is that God sustains established civil and
• 14:57
  institutional distinctions to maintain order during a crisis.
• 15:01
  Joseph is acting as a civil magistrate, not a religious
• 15:05
  reformer. Oh, that.
• 15:06
  Makes sense he is. Respecting the existing legal
• 15:08
  and constitutional structures of the realm he governs, even in a
• 15:12
  Pagan nation, God does not authorize the chaotic
• 15:16
  revolutionary dismantling of all societal structures during a
• 15:20
  national emergency. So.
• 15:22
  Joseph is prioritizing civil stability to prevent total
• 15:25
  anarchy. If you are already dealing with
• 15:27
  a starving population, you do not want to add a religious
• 15:30
  civil war to the mix. Exactly.
• 15:32
  This dynamic refutes radical revolutionary urges to overthrow
• 15:35
  historical institutions during times of stress.
• 15:39
  If Joseph had utilized the famine to bankrupt the
• 15:41
  priesthood and aggressively destroy the religious
• 15:43
  institutions of Egypt, the resulting societal upheaval
• 15:46
  would have been catastrophic. People would.
• 15:47
  Have revolted, right? The priests held immense
• 15:50
  cultural and political sway. Stripping them of their
• 15:53
  ancestral rights would have sparked civil unrest, riots and
• 15:57
  a complete collapse of public order Which.
• 15:59
  Would stop the food distribution, yes.
• 16:02
  That collapse would have hindered the distribution of
• 16:04
  grain, leading to millions of unnecessary deaths.
• 16:07
  Godly leadership maintains stability to prevent total
• 16:11
  societal breakdown. So he kept the peace by.
• 16:14
  Exempting the lands of the Egyptian priests, Joseph honored
• 16:17
  the existing legal arrangements. He demonstrated that benevolent
• 16:21
  governance respects established laws, keeping the societal
• 16:24
  framework intact even when the economic foundations are shaking
• 16:28
  that. Brings us to the concept of
• 16:29
  common grace. God preserves a society through
• 16:33
  its own established laws and structures, even if that society
• 16:36
  is flawed, blind, or Pagan. He keeps the world spinning so
• 16:40
  his redemptive purposes can unfold perfectly.
• 16:42
  Sad. Moving on to verses 23 and 24,
• 16:45
  we see Joseph's long term plan for the population.
• 16:48
  They have surrendered their land.
• 16:50
  They are getting grain from the cities.
• 16:51
  But the famine will not last forever, right?
• 16:53
  There has to be a way forward. What is the exit strategy for
• 16:56
  this dependency? They cannot just sit in the
• 16:59
  urban centers forever relying on state handouts.
• 17:02
  Joseph. 'S administration was not
• 17:04
  designed to leave the Egyptians in a state of hopeless,
• 17:07
  unproductive dependency that would destroy the human spirit
• 17:11
  and ruin the nation permanently. So what does?
• 17:13
  He do in. Verse 23 Joseph announces the
• 17:16
  new reality to people. He says, behold, I have this day
• 17:21
  bought you and your land for Pharaoh.
• 17:24
  He establishes the new legal baseline setting the.
• 17:26
  Terms, right? But immediately following that
• 17:28
  declaration, he provides them with the means for future
• 17:31
  production. He says, now here is seed for
• 17:34
  you, and you shall sow the land he is.
• 17:37
  Looking forward to the future productivity of the citizens.
• 17:39
  The crisis is ending, the Nile will flood again and it is time
• 17:43
  to get back to work. The.
• 17:44
  Transfer of land is not the end of the story.
• 17:46
  The giving of seed follows the acquisition.
• 17:48
  Joseph is re establishing the agricultural cycle, giving them
• 17:51
  a. Livelihood.
• 17:52
  Again, yes. He establishes a system for
• 17:54
  future life and economic recovery, transitioning the
• 17:57
  people from passive recipients of aid back into active,
• 18:00
  productive workers. Part of.
• 18:01
  That economic recovery involves a brand new tax structure.
• 18:05
  Verse 24 introduces A statutory tax that will govern Egypt going
• 18:09
  forward. Can you break down the math for
• 18:13
  us? What are the new terms of their
• 18:15
  tendency? The Hebrew.
• 18:16
  Text formulates the new law clearly.
• 18:19
  It says una Tatum chamient le piyash, which means and you
• 18:24
  shall give a fifth part to Pharaoh.
• 18:26
  OK 1/5. The noun chamiyech translates
• 18:28
  directly to 1/5 or 20%. Under this new agrarian law, the
• 18:34
  farmers will return to their fields as tenant farmers,
• 18:37
  working Pharaoh's land and the. Split. 20% of all future
• 18:40
  harvests will go to the crown as a flat tax, while 80% which is 4
• 18:44
  parts remains with the farmers who work the soil I'm sure.
• 18:47
  A lot of people listening to this might think wait a minute,
• 18:49
  they lost absolute ownership of their family farm and now they
• 18:52
  have to they hand over 20% of everything they grow to the
• 18:55
  government forever. That sounds incredibly harsh.
• 18:57
  It does. To modern ears, yes, but we
• 18:59
  really. Have to look at this through the
• 19:01
  lens of the ancient world. How does a 20% tax compared to
• 19:04
  the standard rates in the ancient Near East well?
• 19:08
  By modern sensibilities it might seem steep, but in the context
• 19:12
  of the ancient Near East, this was remarkably generous.
• 19:15
  Really. Generous, yes.
• 19:17
  Tenant farmers under Pagan rulers and surrounding nations
• 19:20
  were routinely subjected to extortionate rates of taxation.
• 19:24
  If you look at historical records from Mesopotamia or
• 19:27
  other neighboring cultures, was common for monarchs to demand
• 19:30
  anywhere from 30 to 50 and sometimes even 60% of a total
• 19:35
  crop yield from their peasant class 60.
• 19:38
  Percent. That's unbelievable when you.
• 19:40
  Consider that historical baseline.
• 19:42
  Joseph's economic decree of a 20% tax rate was extraordinarily
• 19:46
  merciful. It left an overwhelming majority
• 19:49
  of the harvest, a full 80%, in the hands of the people who did
• 19:53
  the labor. The.
• 19:54
  Text actually goes out of its way to list exactly what that
• 19:57
  80% is supposed to be used for. It does not just say keep the
• 20:00
  rest, it breaks down the household budget.
• 20:03
  The. Text is incredibly specific, and
• 20:05
  this detail highlights the profound, excuse me, the
• 20:07
  tremendous wisdom of Joseph's policy.
• 20:10
  The Hebrew text outlines 4 distinct purposes.
• 20:13
  For the remaining 80%, let's go through them.
• 20:15
  First, Lacera Hasheda, which means for seed of the field.
• 20:20
  This is the capital required for the next planting season,
• 20:23
  ensuring the agricultural cycle continues so.
• 20:26
  Future business expenses, right? Second, le aflekhyam, which is
• 20:31
  for your food, providing basic sustenance for the laborers.
• 20:35
  Third Leasha Pratekhyam for those in your houses.
• 20:39
  Who does that include this? Phrase covers the extended
• 20:43
  household, including elderly parents or servants living under
• 20:46
  the same roof. And finally, the text says
• 20:49
  Leasha Happyam, meaning to feed your little ones the.
• 20:53
  Kids. Yes.
• 20:55
  The specific term AFHAP refers exclusively to dependent
• 20:58
  children who cannot contribute to the labor force.
• 21:01
  Joseph's policy explicitly protected the nuclear family and
• 21:05
  the extended household. He made sure the family unit
• 21:08
  survived the economic restructuring intact it.
• 21:11
  Ensured that the domestic household remained the primary
• 21:13
  economic unit of the nation. It struck a careful balance
• 21:16
  between the authority of the state to collect revenue and the
• 21:19
  necessity of household preservation, which is.
• 21:22
  Huge for societal stability. Absolutely.
• 21:24
  Joseph left the fathers equipped with the resources they needed
• 21:27
  to provide for their wives and children, and he secured the
• 21:30
  physical survival of the next generation.
• 21:33
  So it was. Not a tyrannical system, Not at
• 21:34
  all. This arrangement stands as a
• 21:36
  historic Oracle refutation of excessive confiscatory state
• 21:39
  taxation that grinds the faces of the poor and strips families
• 21:44
  of their ability to thrive independently.
• 21:46
  Wise biblical stewardship always seeks the preservation and
• 21:50
  future productivity of the citizenry, prioritizing the
• 21:54
  family unit over the endless expansion of state coffers.
• 21:57
  Let us pull back and look at the broader literary structure of
• 22:00
  Chapter 47. Because while all this economic
• 22:04
  devastation, starvation, and national reorganization is
• 22:07
  happening to the Egyptians, there's a totally different
• 22:09
  story playing out simultaneously for Jacob's family.
• 22:12
  Yes. The contrast is very
• 22:14
  intentional. We are.
• 22:15
  Looking at a striking literary contrast that the author of
• 22:17
  Genesis sets up on purpose, the. Literary architecture of Genesis
• 22:21
  47 is masterfully constructed to highlight a theological point.
• 22:25
  It acts as a literary sandwich, a technique often used in Hebrew
• 22:28
  narrative. How is the.
• 22:29
  Sandwich structured here. Verses one through 12, the first
• 22:32
  slice of bread, show Israel arriving in Egypt and securing
• 22:35
  the best of the land, the incredibly fertile region of
• 22:38
  Goshen. Then in the middle section,
• 22:40
  verses 20 through 26, we see the meat of the chapter detailing
• 22:45
  the Egyptians going totally bankrupt, liquidating their
• 22:47
  herds and selling their bodies into state serfdom.
• 22:50
  And the bottom slice finally. The concluding verse of the
• 22:53
  chapter verse 27 provides the bottom slice of bread.
• 22:56
  It states thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land
• 23:00
  of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it, and were
• 23:03
  fruitful and multiplied greatly the.
• 23:05
  Contrast is undeniable and almost shocking.
• 23:09
  The native Egyptians are losing absolutely everything just to
• 23:12
  keep a pulse, while the immigrant Israelites are
• 23:14
  acquiring possessions and multiplying in the exact same
• 23:17
  country during the exact same crisis.
• 23:19
  It. Really is an amazing picture.
• 23:21
  Think about. It like a massive centralized
• 23:23
  greenhouse. Picture the harsh dead desert
• 23:25
  outside. The entire empire of Egypt was
• 23:28
  reorganized, its wealth was consolidated, its people were
• 23:30
  relocated, and his laws were rewritten.
• 23:33
  All of it. Shifting the whole.
• 23:34
  Structure of the greatest superpower on Earth was
• 23:37
  reinforced and modified for one specific purpose to create a
• 23:41
  safe, climate controlled, highly guarded nursery for the infant
• 23:46
  nation of Israel. A perfect.
• 23:47
  Environment for them they needed.
• 23:49
  A secure place to grow from a family of 70 people into a
• 23:52
  nation of 1,000,000 before the Exodus and God used a global
• 23:56
  famine to build that greenhouse, the.
• 23:58
  Greenhouse Analogy captures the geopolitical reality perfectly.
• 24:02
  The structural juxtaposition in the text reinforces the grand
• 24:05
  theological distinction between God's common Providence over the
• 24:08
  Pagan nations and his special, saving, covenantal faithfulness
• 24:12
  toward his chosen people. He's working.
• 24:15
  On a massive scale, yes. God's sovereignly orchestrated a
• 24:18
  global economic collapse and the total reorganization of the
• 24:21
  world's greatest superpower to fulfill His specific covenant
• 24:25
  promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jada moving.
• 24:28
  Them right where they needed to be the text.
• 24:30
  Demonstrates that the famine was not a random meteorological
• 24:33
  disaster. It was the specific targeted
• 24:36
  means by which God moved Jacob's family out of Canaan, where they
• 24:40
  were in danger of assimilating with the Canaanites, and brought
• 24:43
  them to Egypt to shelter them in isolation.
• 24:46
  What? Does all of this ancient history
• 24:47
  mean for a modern believer? Listening to this right now, we
• 24:51
  have covered the logistics of ancient taxes and the geography
• 24:54
  of the Nile, but let us move the discussion from ancient history
• 24:58
  to our daily reality. That's where.
• 24:59
  It hits home. How does?
• 25:00
  This massive doctrine of Providence apply to our modern
• 25:03
  economic anxieties, our job losses and our fears about the
• 25:06
  future. The most immediate practical
• 25:09
  application is a total refutation of the prosperity
• 25:12
  gospel. The prosperity preachers loudly
• 25:14
  claim that true faith guarantees material wealth, physical
• 25:17
  health, and an absolute exemption from earthly
• 25:19
  suffering, which we hear a. Lot today we do.
• 25:22
  But Genesis 47 completely dismantles that false teaching.
• 25:25
  Consider the context under Joseph's godly inspired,
• 25:28
  righteous administration. A devastating famine still
• 25:31
  occurred and people still lost their lifelong possessions.
• 25:35
  Even under a godly leader, right?
• 25:37
  God does not promise His people an easy, wealthy path in this
• 25:40
  fallen world. He promises to sustain believers
• 25:44
  with His grace through the darkest trials, but he does not
• 25:47
  promise to insulate them from earthly hardship, economic
• 25:50
  downturns, or physical loss. It also.
• 25:52
  Strips away the illusion of absolute ownership, which is
• 25:55
  something we all struggle with. Economic hardship has a unique
• 25:58
  way of shattering the myth of human autonomy.
• 26:00
  Oh, definitely. We like to look at our bank
• 26:02
  accounts, the deeds to our homes, our retirement portfolios
• 26:04
  and our careers. And we think, I built this, I
• 26:08
  own this, I am secure. But a crisis reveals the truth.
• 26:11
  We hold our resources as a stewardship, as tenants, not as
• 26:15
  absolute owners. The.
• 26:17
  Famine pressed the Egyptians relentlessly until their money,
• 26:20
  their livestock, and their land were no longer sufficient
• 26:23
  refuges. In times of abundance, men
• 26:26
  easily imagine that their wealth and their institutions provide
• 26:29
  permanent security because it. Feels stable.
• 26:31
  It does. But in times of famine, God
• 26:33
  shows humanity that life is received, not possessed.
• 26:36
  As the apostle Paul asks the Corinthians, what do you have
• 26:39
  that you did not receive? We forget.
• 26:41
  That so quickly we. Must routinely repent of the
• 26:43
  functional atheism that creeps into our hearts, where we treat
• 26:47
  created things, our money, or our jobs as though they were the
• 26:50
  creator God uses economic hardships to break our idols of
• 26:55
  self-reliance and to drive us back to a posture of total
• 26:58
  dependence upon him. There's.
• 27:00
  Another major application here regarding how we view the civil
• 27:03
  government we saw how the Egyptians responded to Joseph's
• 27:07
  administration they did not riot in verse 25 they responded with
• 27:11
  immense gratitude saying you have saved our lives may it
• 27:15
  please my Lord, we will be servants to pharaoh they.
• 27:17
  Saw the benefit they. Recognize the government's role
• 27:20
  in their physical salvation this.
• 27:21
  Brings us directly to the biblical view of submitting to
• 27:24
  civil magistrates the text calls believers to honor and submit to
• 27:28
  lawful civil authorities, recognizing their God ordained
• 27:32
  role in maintaining public order, punishing evil, and
• 27:35
  preserving human life so they. Shouldn't just rebel for the
• 27:37
  sake of it? No.
• 27:39
  The grateful submission of the Egyptians refutes a lawless,
• 27:42
  anti authoritarian spirit that rebels against civil laws under
• 27:46
  the guise of absolute individual liberty.
• 27:49
  When the government fulfills its lawful duty to preserve order
• 27:52
  and protect life, believers are called to respond with grateful
• 27:55
  submission, not cynical rebellion.
• 27:58
  We have. To balance that right, we have
• 28:00
  to submit to authority, but we also have to avoid state
• 28:03
  worship. We cannot look at the government
• 28:05
  as our ultimate savior, even when it provides for our
• 28:08
  physical needs during a crisis, The.
• 28:10
  Text demands sober gratitude towards civil order without
• 28:13
  idolizing the state pharaoh's growing authority and massive
• 28:16
  centralization of land warns us that human authority, even 1
• 28:20
  initially benevolent, carries the potential to become
• 28:22
  oppressive because. Power corrupts, yes.
• 28:25
  As history shows, a later Pharaoh would use this very same
• 28:28
  centralized power to ruthlessly enslave the Israelites.
• 28:31
  We must honor lawful authority under God while firmly refusing
• 28:35
  to treat human rulers as ultimate saviors they are.
• 28:37
  Just men, right? The state can distribute grain,
• 28:40
  but the state cannot redeem the soul.
• 28:43
  Believers must always remember that Pharaoh is just a
• 28:46
  magistrate, not a Messiah. Human authority must always be
• 28:49
  judged by and subordinated to the higher law of God.
• 28:53
  Which brings us perfectly to the climax of this entire narrative.
• 28:57
  All of this physical salvation, the stockpiling of grain, the
• 29:00
  merciful tax laws, the relocation to the cities, the
• 29:03
  preservation of the physical body, it is all a historical
• 29:07
  shadow pointing to a much greater eternal rescue.
• 29:11
  Let us look at the Christological implications of
• 29:13
  Joseph's life and administration.
• 29:15
  Joseph. 'S stands as one of the most
• 29:17
  comprehensive historical types of Christ in the entire Old
• 29:20
  Testament. How so?
• 29:21
  Walk us through it if. You trace the structural
• 29:23
  parallels of his life. The connections are staggering.
• 29:26
  Joseph was the beloved son of his father.
• 29:28
  He was rejected, despised and hated by his own brothers.
• 29:32
  He was sold for the price of a slave right.
• 29:34
  He's falsely accused and condemned.
• 29:35
  He was humbled into the dark pit of a prison.
• 29:38
  And then he was sovereignly raised by God to the right hand
• 29:41
  of supreme authority to dispense life saving bread to a starving
• 29:44
  world. It's an.
• 29:45
  Amazing barrel oh in. Jesus Christ.
• 29:47
  This historical pattern reaches its ultimate perfect
• 29:51
  fulfillment. Jesus is the true beloved Son,
• 29:54
  rejected by his own people, sold for 30 pieces of silver, humbled
• 29:58
  to the point of death on a cross, and exalted at the right
• 30:02
  hand of God the Father. The Christ becomes the Savior,
• 30:05
  not just the physical bodies in an earthly famine, but the
• 30:08
  Savior of immortal souls under divine judgement.
• 30:11
  The nature of the transaction between Joseph and the Egyptians
• 30:14
  is so perfectly parallel to our salvation.
• 30:18
  Think about how the Egyptians approached Joseph.
• 30:21
  They came completely bankrupt, empty.
• 30:22
  Handed, they had no. Money.
• 30:24
  They had no livestock. They had no leverage.
• 30:26
  They brought absolutely nothing to the table.
• 30:27
  But they're starving bodies and their desperate need.
• 30:30
  They offered themselves entirely for physical bread.
• 30:33
  If we apply that to our spiritual condition, we bring
• 30:35
  nothing to the table of salvation but our spiritual
• 30:37
  bankruptcy. We bring our total depravity and
• 30:40
  the broken covenant of works that.
• 30:42
  Is the precise theological parallel.
• 30:44
  When we speak of total depravity, we do not mean that
• 30:46
  every person is as thoroughly evil as they could possibly be
• 30:49
  in their actions. Then what?
• 30:50
  Does it mean total? Depravity refers to our
• 30:52
  spiritual insolvency. It means every faculty of our
• 30:56
  being is corrupted by sin and we possess 0 spiritual currency to
• 31:00
  purchase our justification. We broke the Covenant of Works,
• 31:04
  the original agreement in the garden that demanded perfect
• 31:06
  obedience for life. So we are just like the
• 31:09
  Egyptians. The Egyptians desperate
• 31:12
  insolvency is a vivid earthly picture of our creaturely
• 31:15
  helplessness before a holy, perfectly just God.
• 31:19
  We are entirely insolvent before the bar of God's justice.
• 31:23
  We cannot purchase righteousness with good deeds.
• 31:25
  We cannot bargain away our guilt with promises to do better, or
• 31:29
  cultivate a field of moral merit that will feed our souls.
• 31:32
  And you have. Nothing to offer.
• 31:33
  Silver and gold cannot buy our pardon in this state of total
• 31:36
  spiritual ruin. We must fly to the true Joseph,
• 31:39
  the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true bread of life, because.
• 31:42
  We are bankrupt. Christ has to supply everything.
• 31:45
  He supplies the substitutionary atonement and the active and
• 31:48
  passive obedience that we completely, completely lack.
• 31:50
  He does all the work and we receive all the benefit.
• 31:53
  Christ. Does not just negotiate better
• 31:55
  terms for condemned sinners, leaving us to pay a portion of
• 31:58
  our debt. He pays it all.
• 31:59
  He bears the full weight of the curse upon the cross, which is
• 32:03
  His passive obedience, and He perfectly fulfills the righteous
• 32:07
  demands of God's law throughout his life, which is His active
• 32:10
  obedience. He gives His perfect
• 32:12
  righteousness freely to those who believe.
• 32:14
  It's incredible. Gift and.
• 32:16
  Just as the Egyptians gladly yielded their lives and their
• 32:19
  lands, crying out Thou has saved our lives, the redeemed Sinner
• 32:23
  gladly yields his mind, his heart, and his will to the
• 32:27
  absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ.
• 32:30
  It is a total joyful submission. You do not negotiate with the
• 32:34
  one who just pulled you out of the grave.
• 32:36
  You surrender. And this total surrender
• 32:38
  actually connects beautifully to a physical practice we observe
• 32:41
  in the Church today. The inward reality is
• 32:43
  demonstrated through an outward sign.
• 32:45
  It connects. Directly to the practice of
• 32:46
  believers baptism. How does that tie?
• 32:48
  In when a. Sinner is saved by sovereign
• 32:50
  grace, drawn out of spiritual starvation, and fed with the
• 32:54
  bread of life. They make a public, solemn
• 32:56
  declaration of their total submission to the Lordship of
• 32:59
  Christ believers. Baptism is the outward physical
• 33:03
  declaration of surrendering our autonomous self to the sovereign
• 33:07
  Savior who bought us with His precious blood going.
• 33:10
  Under the water, yes. Going down into the water and
• 33:12
  being raised up testifies to the world that we have died to our
• 33:15
  old self reliant identity. It declares that we now belong,
• 33:19
  body and soul entirely to our Redeemer.
• 33:22
  Let us. Pull all of this together.
• 33:24
  We have looked at the massive, incomprehensible scale of God's
• 33:27
  Providence today. We have seen how a devastating 7
• 33:30
  year and environmental collapse, the implementation of a 20%
• 33:34
  agrarian tax code, the logistical relocation of an
• 33:37
  entire society to urban centers, and even the legal exemption of
• 33:40
  Pagan priests all work together in perfect divine harmony.
• 33:44
  It's. Truly awe inspiring they work.
• 33:46
  Together, to sustain the lineage of Jacob, preserving the exact
• 33:49
  family tree that would eventually bring forth Jesus
• 33:52
  Christ. God's grand design operates on a
• 33:55
  scale that our minds can barely comprehend, using global
• 33:58
  economics, geopolitical shifts, and agricultural crises to
• 34:02
  secure eternal redemption for His people.
• 34:05
  It is. A staggering reality to
• 34:07
  contemplate, it demands that we interpret human history and the
• 34:10
  daily events of our own lives through the lens of divine
• 34:13
  Providence. We can't.
• 34:14
  Look at things the same way we must.
• 34:16
  Recognize that God alone gives life, and He uses ordinary and
• 34:20
  sometimes terribly severe means to teach us our dependence upon
• 34:23
  Him and to accomplish His perfect will.
• 34:26
  I won't. Leave you with a final question
• 34:27
  to ponder as you go about your week.
• 34:29
  We talked earlier about the region of Goshen that protected
• 34:32
  greenhouse where Israel multiplied and thrived while the
• 34:35
  rest of the world starved. A powerful image if the.
• 34:38
  Sovereign Lord can orchestrate A7 year global agricultural
• 34:42
  collapse, bankrupt an entire empire, and reorganize the legal
• 34:46
  and economic structure of the greatest ancient superpower
• 34:49
  strictly to protect 70 people hiding out in the region of
• 34:52
  Goshen. What unseen Providence is is
• 34:54
  this he actively orchestrating in the background of your life
• 34:58
  right now a vital. Question to consider as we rest
• 35:01
  in His sovereign care. Thank you.
• 35:03
  For joining Reform Thinking, we will catch you on the next deep
• 35:06
  dive into the text.