Latest / Reformed Thinking / Bread in the Years of Plenty (Genesis 41:46-49)

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Bread in the Years of Plenty (Genesis 41:46-49) · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when you open up an old administrative Ledger,
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you expect dry, dusty numbers. Yeah, just rows and columns.
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Right. I mean, think about looking at
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an old corporate spreadsheet or reading through municipal tax
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records from a century ago. It is just binary cold
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arithmetic, you know. Or absolutely, you have assets
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in one column, liabilities in another and a list of dates.
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Yeah. It is data meant for filing
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cabinets, not really the stuff of a thrilling conversation.
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As people record administrative data to keep track of inventory,
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not to tell a compelling story about survival.
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But then you open up the Book of Genesis, chapter 41, verses 46
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through 49, and, well, at first glance it looks like an ancient
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Egyptian spreadsheet. You see a man's age, an
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itinerary of his travels, some agricultural yield reports, and
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notes on storage logistics. Right.
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It was like the minutes from a City Council meeting on zoning
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and agriculture. Yeah, it really does.
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So welcome to a new deep dive on reformed thinking.
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Today we are taking you right into the middle of those four
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highly specific verses. We are going to show you how
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this apparent administrative log is actually a staggering
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demonstration of divine Providence, human stewardship,
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and eternal salvation. And I am so glad we are doing
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this because the stakes here, I mean, they could not be higher.
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What we are looking at is the approaching shadow of a global
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famine. A total cataclysm.
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Yeah, a cataclysm that threatens to wipe out the known world at
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that time. Yeah.
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But more specifically, and far more critically for the
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overarching story of the Bible, it threatens to extinguish the
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lineage of the promised Messiah. Wow, Because the family of Jacob
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is entirely vulnerable. Right.
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They're living over in Canaan, totally exposed to this coming
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drought. But before that catastrophic
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famine strikes the earth, God decrees a period of unparalleled
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supernatural abundance. I want you to put yourself in
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Joseph's shoes for a second. Just try to imagine his specific
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minute by minute reality. We're talking about a man who
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just spent 13 years completely crushed by circumstance. 13 very
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long, very painful years. Yeah, I mean, he was betrayed by
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his own brothers, thrown into a dry cistern to die, pulled out
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only to be sold as a slave to foreigners, marched across a
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desert and bought by an Egyptian official.
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Just relentless suffering. And then he gets hit with
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devastating, life ruining false accusations from his master's
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wife and he is confined to a suffocating dark underground
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dungeon for years. Left to rot, essentially.
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Exactly. Or, well, that is what everyone
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assumed. Then, quite literally, in the
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blink of an eye, he is pulled from that pit, shaved, given
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clean clothes, and elevated to the right hand of the most
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dominant ruler on the face of the earth.
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It is such a rapid elevation, and it forces us to ask how the
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ancient Egyptian context shapes our understanding of this
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biblical text. Right, because we need to grasp
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the sheer magnitude of what Joseph is actually managing.
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Spot on. To do that, we have to set the
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historical stage in Middle Kingdom Egypt.
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This was the absolute unrivaled superpower of the ancient Near
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East. I mean, their civilization was
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the marvel of architectural triumph, bureaucratic
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organization, and military might.
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They were the peak of human achievement at the time.
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Oh, for sure. But their entire existence,
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their wealth and their stability depended entirely on one single
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geographical feature. The Nile River.
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Yes, the Nile. Unlike the land of Canaan where
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Jacob and his family lived, which relied on seasonal
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rainfall to water the crops, Egypt relied on the annual
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inundation of the Nile. I think we we really take for
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granted how unique that is. They did not look up at the sky
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for rain. No, they did not.
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They looked down at the river. That is such a crucial
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distinction. They organized their entire
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calendar year around 3 distinct seasons based on the behavior of
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that river. OK, what were those seasons?
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Well, first you had the season of Akhet, which was the time of
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inundation. This was when the floodwaters
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from the Ethiopian Highlands swelled the river, covering the
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Egyptian agricultural lands and depositing highly fertile black
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silt. So just massive flooding
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bringing fresh soil. Right.
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And after the waters receded came this season of Peret, the
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time of growth and planting in that fresh mud.
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Finally, you had the season of Shimu, the harvest season.
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The entire economy, the religious calendar and the
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survival of the populace rested on that cycle happening with
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mathematical precision. So let's play out the
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catastrophic scenario here. If the rains fail up in the
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mountains far to the South, the Nile fails to flood.
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The silt is not deposited right. The ground just cracks in the
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blistering sun. A7 year famine in that
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environment is not, you know, a mild economic recession where
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people just tighten their belts and eat less meat.
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No, not at all. It is an existential threat.
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If the river stays low for seven consecutive cycles, civilization
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itself faces total extinction. There is no backup plan.
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And this historical reality brings us to the literary
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placement in the book of Genesis.
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We are reading the section known as the Totally dot or the
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Generations of Jacob. So this is focusing on the
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family line. Yes, while the surrounding Pagan
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nations are facing starvation and political collapse, the true
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overriding tension in the biblical narrative is the
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preservation of the messianic seed.
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Right, going back to the Garden of Eden.
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Yes, God made a promise in Eden that a descendant of the woman
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would crush the serpent's head. If this famine wipes out Jacob's
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family in the land of Canaan, then Judah dies.
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And if Judah dies, the promised lion of the tribe of Judah the
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Messiah never comes. The bloodline is severed.
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The promise fails. That is what is at stake here.
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Wow. I like to picture the narrative
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tensions spanning Genesis chapters 37 through Forder, like
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a person pulling back the string of a tightly wounded mechanical
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spring. Oh, I like that analogy.
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Yeah, for 13 agonizing years, you watch Joseph's life get pull
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further and further backward, away from the target of his
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childhood dreams. He starts as the favored son,
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wearing the coat given by his father, and the spring gets
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pulled back as he is thrown into a.
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Pit. The tension just keeps
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increasing. Right.
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He becomes a slave in Potiphar's house from a trusted slave.
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The spring is pulled to its absolute breaking point as he
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descends into a forgotten prisoner in a royal dungeon.
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You feel the potential energy of all that suffering building up.
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The reader is just waiting for the release.
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So when Pharaoh has his dreams in chapter 41, is this the
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moment the spring finally releases?
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It is the precise moment the tension breaks and the energy
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flies forward. And the way that release happens
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is fascinating. You know, because it totally
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humbles the intellectual elite of the day.
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Oh, the magicians and the wise men.
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Right Pharaoh has these terrifying, vivid dreams of the
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gaunt cows eating the fat cows, and the thin blighted ears of
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grain swallowing the healthy ears.
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He wakes up very troubled and immediately summons all the
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secular wise men, the court advisors and the magicians of
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Egypt. The smartest guys in the room.
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The absolute apex of human wisdom in the ancient world.
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But they are completely baffled. Their worldly philosophy and
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their esoteric mysticism fail utterly in the face of a genuine
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crisis. I mean, they had all the
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funding, all the education and all the prestige, but they could
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not see the future. That is the point Moses is
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making to the reader. Human wisdom has no answer when
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God decrees a global judgement. Only God knows.
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God alone declares the end from the beginning.
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He grants the infallible interpretation of the dreams
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exclusively to Joseph, completely bypassing the
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Egyptian elite. God reveals that seven years of
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unprecedented plenty are coming, followed immediately by 7 years
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of famine so severe it will consume the land and erase the
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memory of the good years. And the incredible thing is that
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Joseph does not just interpret the Dream Collector reward and
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go back to Canaan. No, he does not.
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He gives Pharaoh an unsolicited administrative plan on how to
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survive the crisis. And Pharaoh immediately places
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him in charge of the whole operation.
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He is commissioned to save the world.
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Which is just staggering. It is, and this brings us right
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into verse 46 where we get a very specific, easily overlooked
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detail about his age. The text tells us Joseph is 30
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years old when he stands before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
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Why include his age? It feels like random trivia at
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first glance. Well, that age marker is heavily
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loaded with cultural and redemptive historical
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significance. In the ancient Near East,
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turning 30 was the recognized age of full physical and mental
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maturity. So he is finally considered a
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full adult in their eyes. Yes, and later under divine law
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for the Israelites in the Book of Numbers, 30 was established
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as the required starting age for priests to enter into the
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Tabernacle duties and bear the heavy burdens of the sanctuary.
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It marks the transition into full, undeniable public
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authority. So God was not just passing time
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while Joseph was in the dungeon. There was a second he was
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waiting for the precise moment of maturity.
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God used those 13 agonizing years to refine Joseph's faith
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in the furnace of affliction. Think about it.
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When Joseph was 17, he was boasting about his dreams to his
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brothers. He was naive.
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Very naive. If God had placed an arrogant,
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untested 17 year old in charge of the global food supply, the
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pride would have destroyed him. The Lord was meticulously
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crushing any remaining pride, burning away his self-reliance
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so that Joseph could bear the immense weight of global
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governance without falling into idolatry.
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The timing was flawless down to the day.
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The posture he takes is also striking.
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Moses writes that Joseph stood before Pharaoh.
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I know you've looked into the original language here.
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What does that phrase actually convey?
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Looking at the Hebrew text, Moses used the word Ahmad which
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translates to stood. Before we need to ask why Moses
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chose this specific verb instead of halach, which means to walk,
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or yashav which means to sit. What is the difference?
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The word Ahmad denotes a formal state of readiness and official
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commissioning and heavy judicial weight.
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In the wider biblical theology of the Pentateuch, this is the
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exact posture of priests standing before the Lord to
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minister on behalf of the people.
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So he's not just loitering in the throne room, he's taking an
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official stance. He is functioning in a
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mediatorial role. He is standing in the gap,
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interceding through his administration for the survival
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of the nations. He takes his posture before the
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king, receives his absolute authority, and then immediately
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goes out for the presence of Pharaoh to execute the plan.
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I want you to think about the times you feel completely
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sidelined. Maybe you are stuck in a job
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that feels like a dead end, or you are in a season of waiting
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that seems to drag on for years. The modern mindset demands
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instant platforms, doesn't it? Oh.
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Absolutely everyone wants to skip the hard part.
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Right. People want leadership roles,
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influence, and authority immediately, without going
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through any kind of suffering or obscurity.
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But this passage confronts that demand for instant recognition,
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doesn't it? It shows us that true
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preparation for massive responsibility usually happens
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in places where nobody is watching.
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The assumption that you can bypass the furnace of affliction
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and step right into a position of authority is a tragic
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misunderstanding of how God prepares his people.
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The absolute isolation of the dungeon was the necessary,
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unavoidable classroom for Joseph.
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The dungeon was the classroom. I love that.
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The character required to manage the wealth of an empire cannot
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be learned in a weekend seminar. You know it is forged through
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suffering. And notice what happens once his
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character is proven and he is officially commissioned.
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His authority translates immediately into exhaustive,
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highly organized action across the whole nation.
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He does not just sit on a throne.
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No, he moves from the microscopic center of authority,
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standing right before Pharaoh, out into the macroscopic sphere
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of all Egypt. We see the geographical
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progression clearly in the text. Verse 46 concludes by saying
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Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went
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through all the land of Egypt. He starts touring the provinces,
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inspecting the fields, assessing the infrastructure.
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He's getting to work. Right then we read verse 47.
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The text states that during the seven plenteous years, the earth
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brought forth by handfuls. That is a curious translation.
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The Hebrew word there is lickbat SIM.
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What does that practically look like in an Agricultural Society?
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Well, the word liquid SIM suggests that a single stalk of
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grain was producing massive handful sized yields.
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Like literally the size of your hand.
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Yes. Imagine walking into a wheat
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field and instead of seeing normal sized heads of grain,
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every single stalk is bending over under the weight of a
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cluster of grains so large it fills your entire hand.
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That is just wild to picture. It is an unnatural explosive
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hyper fertility. It goes far beyond a good
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harvest due to favorable weather conditions.
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This is an overabundance decree directly by the creator of the
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soil. It is almost like creation is
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stretching its limits to obey the voice of God.
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It is a direct refutation of secular world views that
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attribute prosperity solely to blind economic forces or random
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climatic cycles. The earth obeyed the decree of
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God. The soil yielded an impossible
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volume of food because the Lord commanded it to do so.
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But then it shifts. Right, exactly.
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The narrative quickly moves from divine decree to intense human
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stewardship. God provided the supernatural
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abundance, but the grain did not harvest itself, and it did not
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walk into the storage silos on its own.
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Joseph had to manage it. The logistics of that management
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are staggering to consider. Try to visualize moving millions
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of tons of grain without combustion engines, without
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trains, without automated conveyor belts.
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In verse 48, we see two dominant verbs used to describe Joseph's
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actions. Kibats and Sabar.
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Right, kibats meaning gathered and sabar meaning stored up.
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How did this massive operation actually function on the ground?
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Well, those verbs are incredibly revealing about his
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administrative genius. Kibatz implies a systematic
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assembling of resources from many dispersed locations.
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It is not haphazard, chaotic collecting.
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It is calculated. Very calculated is highly
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organized, requiring an army of overseer scribes and laborers.
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Then Sabar indicates heaping up those resources into massive
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mounds or stockpiles, and the text gives us a brilliant
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logistical detail. It specifically notes that
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Joseph stored the food of the field in the cities immediately
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surrounding those fields. Oh, so he utilized localized
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decentralized storage, right? That is highly optimized supply
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chain logistics thousands of years before modern industrial
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engineering. Think about it.
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The natural instinct for a centralized government is to
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hoard all the wealth in the capital.
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Oh for sure, the Pharaohs would normally want all the grain
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brought to Memphis or feeds to consolidate their control and
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keep an eye on the resources. But if you centralized
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everything in a country as long and narrow as Egypt, you create
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massive transportation bottlenecks when the crisis
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hits. You would have thousands of
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boats trying to navigate the Nile simultaneously to get food
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out to the starving provinces. Right.
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People in the outer villages would starve to death while
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waiting for grain shipments to be processed and sent back down
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the river. By storing the grain locally in
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the cities adjacent to the fields where it was grown, the
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distribution network is already in place the moment the famine
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strikes. The food is already where the
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hungry people live. It is brilliant.
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But looking at all this intense, sweaty, gritty administration
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raises a huge theological question, which is, does this
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practical human effort conflict with divine sovereignty?
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I mean, if God explicitly decreed the abundance and
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promised the survival of the nation, why does Joseph have to
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work so systematically? Couldn't he just relax?
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That perceived tension brings us to a core theological rule.
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OK, the God who ordains the end also ordains the means.
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That's huge. It is.
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Joseph's diligent, exhausting daily labor does not contradict.
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Divine Providence is the ordained instrument of it.
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Belief in a sovereign God mobilizes action rather than
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causing passivity. That is a very countercultural
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point. A lot of people assume that
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trust in God means doing nothing.
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If Joseph had taken the fatalistic approach and said God
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promised to save us, so I'm going to sit back in my palace
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and watch him work, millions of people would have died of
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starvation. Because he ignored the means.
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Right. True faith in God's revelation
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always produces discipline, obedience.
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Joseph acted prudently, tirelessly, and brilliantly
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precisely because he believed the word of the Lord.
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His theology of the Sovereign God drove him to become the most
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competent administrator in human history.
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And his meticulous supply chain eventually runs into a massive
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problem, which we see in the climax of the passage in verse
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49. A good problem to have though.
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Yeah, a great problem. The sheer volume of the harvest
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completely breaks the Egyptian accounting systems, the text
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says. Joseph gathered grain as the
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sand of the sea so much that he stopped numbering it because it
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was without number. The Hebrew phrase is in misbar.
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Why is the failure of their accounting system such a
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significant detail here? To appreciate the humor and the
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theology of this detail, we have to look at extra biblical
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Egyptian historical records. The entire Egyptian bureaucracy
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was built on a fanatical obsession with record keeping.
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The Scribes were a privileged class.
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They wrote everything down. Everything.
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If you read the propaganda of the Pharaohs carved into their
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monument, they constantly boasted about their ability to
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measure, tax and stockpile wealth.
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They would record laying up grain and millions of measures.
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Just massive exaggeration. Right there Hieroglyphic
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numbering system was designed to quantify everything to project
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an image of total God like control over the natural world.
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They wanted to prove they had a handle on the universe like they
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could count every single stock of wheat.
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By writing that Joseph had to stop numbering the grain, Moses
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is completely subverting and mocking that Egyptian
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propaganda. The highly sophisticated
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mathematics of Egypt's top accountants totally failed when
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confronted with the overflowing provision of Yahweh.
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The blessing of God literally broke their spreadsheets.
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Exactly. I mean, their abacuses ran out
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of beads. They simply had to put their
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Reed pins down, admit defeat, and stop counting.
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God's provision exceeded human calculation.
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That leads to a massive theological connection that ties
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the whole book of Genesis together.
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The text uses the phrase sand of the sea or tall hayam in Hebrew
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to describe the volume of the grain.
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That phrase is not a casual piece of poetic exaggeration
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thrown in for dramatic effect, you know.
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It is a direct, redemptive, historical echo of Genesis
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chapter 22, verse 17. What?
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Happens in that chapter. In that passage, after Abraham
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demonstrates his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, God makes a
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sweeping covenant promise to him, swearing by his own name
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that his seed would multiply like the stars of heaven and the
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sand on the seashore. Moses is utilizing that exact
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covenant language here in Genesis 41 regarding the grain.
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I want to make sure the weight of that connection lands for you
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listening. Think about the beauty of how
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God writes history. The text is subtly showing us
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that the physical grain used to save Abraham's descendants from
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starving to death is described using the very same language as
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the covenant promise made to Abraham decades earlier.
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The provision matches the promise perfectly.
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It really does. God promised descendants as
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numerous as the sand, and He provides grain as plentiful as
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the sand to keep them alive. It brilliantly connects the
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historical reality of the Egyptian agricultural harvest to
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the eternal unchanging decree of God regarding His chosen people.
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The physical grain preserves the physical lives of the family of
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Jacob, through whom the spiritual salvation of the world
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will eventually arrive. Thinking about Moses writing
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these words brings up a question about the original audience.
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Who is Moses actually writing this down for?
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That is a great question. He was not writing this for
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theologians sitting in modern libraries.
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He was writing this to the Israelites who are currently
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wandering in the Sinai wilderness.
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We have to consider their psychological and physical state
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when they first heard these words read aloud.
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These are the Israelites who had recently escaped hundreds of
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years of brutal Egyptian slavery.
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And now they are in the desert. Right now that you're wandering
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in a barren, hostile, scorching desert environment, they're
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constantly terrified of starvation and dehydration.
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Complaining constantly. Oh.
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Murmuring against Moses, complaining bitterly and wishing
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they could return to the flesh spots of Egypt where they at
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least had a steady supply of food, they are gripped by a
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terrifying historical amnesia, forgetting the God who split the
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Red Sea. So Moses is writing this
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historical record of Joseph to cure that amnesia and confront
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their present unbelief. The theological argument he is
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making to the wilderness generation is brilliant.
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How do you mean? He is essentially telling them
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look back at your own history. The God who fed the entire known
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world during A7 year global famine through the hands of one
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man in Egypt can easily feed 2 million of you with manna out
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here in this wilderness. He is not constrained by
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geography, right? Furthermore, Moses is writing a
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devastating polemic against the idolatry they had absorbed in
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Egypt. The Israelites had just come
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from a culture that literally worshipped the Nile River,
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personified as the God Happy. They worshipped the river
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itself. Yes, and they worshipped the
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earth itself, personified as the God Gab, as the ultimate sources
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of fertility in life. Genesis 41 declares absolute
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holy war on those false deities. It proves that it was not the
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Nile's innate capability. No, or the earth's natural
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biological rhythms that produce the life saving harvest.
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It was Yahweh's spoken word. Yahweh commands the resources of
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the Pagan nations to accomplish His will.
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Reflect on your own tendencies for a moment.
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How often do you trust natural forces or your employer or your
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retirement count over the Creator who sustains your life?
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It is easy to do. It is when the economy is strong
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and your bank account is full. The natural human tendency is to
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attribute our security to our own cleverness, our hard work,
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or overall market stability. How does knowing God's absolute
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granular control over natural resources change how a person
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handles their daily anxieties? Grasping this doctrine utterly
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shatters the fear of deprivation.
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When you recognize that God commands the yield of the earth,
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the rain clouds and the economic systems of the nations to
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preserve His people, it reduces a deep abiding keys.
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So you do not panic. Right.
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You begin to trust God for your daily provision rather than
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hoarding resources in a state of frantic panic.
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Think about the Israelites in the wilderness.
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They tried to hoard the manna overnight out of fear that God
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would not provide the next day. And it bred worms and rotted.
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Yes, true reliance on Providence frees you from the tyranny of
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anxiety because you know the supplier cannot run out of
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supplies. And Joseph's salvation of the
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physical world in Egypt points directly to an even greater
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eternal salvation. We cannot read this passage
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about a rejected sun rising to save the world without looking
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at Joseph as one of the most comprehensive biblical types of
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Christ. Oh, the historical parallel
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between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus Christ are
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striking, and they are undeniably designed by divine
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Providence. Let's run through some of those
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parallels. Consider the trajectory of both
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figures. Both Joseph and Jesus were
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greatly loved by their fathers. Both were hated, rejected and
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betrayed by their brothers. Both were sold for the price of
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a slave, specifically pieces of silver.
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Both were stripped of their garments by their tormentors.
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Both descended into the pit of suffering and both were falsely
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condemned by the surrounding culture.
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Yet both were gloriously exalted from the depths to the highest
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place of honor. Joseph at the age of 30 begins
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his published life saving administration in Egypt.
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Jesus, at the age of 30, begins his public ministry in Judea to
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save the world from sin. Depending on what theological
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lens you are looking through, people see this set up in a
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couple of radically different ways when it comes to future
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events. Right, there are two distinct
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theological fulfillments commonly discussed regarding
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this typology in our source material.
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First you have the covenantal view.
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What does that highlight? This perspective highlights the
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spiritual reality that Joseph stores physical bread to save
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physical bodies from starvation, but Jesus actually is the bread
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of life. He provides the grace.
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Yes, providing an inexhaustible supply of grace to save eternal
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souls from the wrath of God. Just as the starving world had
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to come to Joseph and bow the knee to receive grain, the
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spiritually starving world must come to Christ and bow the knee
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to receive salvation. OK, what is the second view?
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Second, you have the dispensational view.
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The sources point out a pattern where Joseph is exalted to
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authority before the seven years of severe famine begin, and
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during that time of plenty he takes a Gentile bride named
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Asinath. So some theologians view this as
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a type of the pre tribulation rapture.
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Right, suggesting the Church Age, the gathering of a Gentile
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bride to the Jewish Messiah, occurs before a literal 7 year
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tribulation strikes the earth, mirroring the seven years of
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famine. I think the central truth
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remains rock solid no matter how you map out the future timeline.
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We are looking at a rejected slave who is exalted to the
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right hand of the supreme ruler to distribute life saving grace
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to a dying world. That is the core reality that
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anchors our faith. If we pull this historical
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narrative into our current reality, the text moves us from
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observation to practical daily response.
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We have to apply the principles of this text to modern mindsets
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directly, confronting several popular theological errors
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prevalent today. OK, let's hit them first one.
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First, this passage stands as a massive roadblock against the
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prosperity gospel. Because Joseph had so much
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wealth. Yes, but Joseph's season of
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unprecedented plenty was not designed for lavish personal
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consumption. Buying bigger Chariots.
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We're living a life of absolute luxury.
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The abundance demanded agonizing daily labor to prepare for an
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approaching crisis. Abundance was a mandate for
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intense work and preparation, not an excuse for indulgence.
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That flies in the face of the idea that financial blessing is
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just a reward for your personal enjoyment.
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And there is also a clear stance against continuationism woven
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through this narrative, isn't there?
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Yes, the source material we're analyzing takes a firm
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cessationist stance on this issue.
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Because of the dreams. Right.
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The prophetic dreams given to Pharaoh and infallibly
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interpreted by Joseph were for a specific, unrepeatable
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historical epoch. This occurred centuries before
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the Canon of Scripture was written and complete.
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So God used dreams then? He used dreams to reveal His
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will and Warren of coming judgement then, but today we
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look exclusively to the written close Canon of the Word for
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truth. We do not need new revelations
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from modern dreamers. We need to obey the sufficient
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authoritative revelation we have already been given in the Bible.
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And finally, this text pushes back heavily against the idea of
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Armenian self-sufficiency, the belief that humans are the
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ultimate captains of their own fate.
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The illusion that humans control their own destiny shatters the
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moment the famine strikes. The Egyptians thought they were
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invincible right up until the river stopped flowing.
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Everything was fine until it wasn't.
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Right. Whether that famine in our lives
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is a severe illness, a sudden, devastating job loss, or the
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tragic bereavement of a loved one, our supposed free will and
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self-sufficiency evaporate instantly.
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Where does true peace come from then?
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True peace only comes from submitting to God's absolute
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sovereignty, recognizing that He governs all creatures, actions
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and things, from the greatest empires to the smallest drops of
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rain. I want you to evaluate your own
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years of plenty right now. That plenty might be financial
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stability in your household, it might be the religious freedom
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you currently enjoy to attend church and own a Bible, or it
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might be your access to sound rigorous biblical teaching
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through books and audio teaching.
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We live in a time of incredible access to truth.
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We do think of this season like a summer harvest.
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Are you actively storing up solid systematic theology,
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committing Scripture to memory, and building biblical literacy
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right now while the sun is shining?
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Or are you squandering the summer on trivial entertainment
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and endless scrolling? This raises an urgent point
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regarding stewardship. Abundance is a strict
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stewardship from God. Christians are obligated to
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organize their lives, their homes, and their finances to
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honor the Lord who gave them those resources.
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Just like Joseph organized the grain.
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Yes, we must act with the same diligence, the same meticulous,
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exhausting care that Joseph used to organize the storage cities
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of Egypt. You do not own the abundance,
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you manage it for the king, and he will ask for an accounting of
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what you did with the years of plenty.
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Let's pull all these threads together.
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Genesis 41, verses 46 through 49 demonstrates that history is not
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a series of random collisions or blind chance.
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It is the precise, intentional unfolding of divine Providence
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through faithful, grueling human stewardship.
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Every single element from the terrifying dreams, the sudden
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promotion from the dungeon, the geography of the Nile, to the
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agricultural logistics points us directly to the Savior who
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preserves his people against all odds.
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I want to leave you with a final, unsettling consideration
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that we haven't discussed yet regarding the psychology of a
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crisis. What is that?
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Imagine what happens to the collective psyche of a society
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when the famine finally hits. They realize they spent their
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seven years of plenty consuming everything, throwing parties and
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assuming the abundance would never end, while a small
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minority diligently prepared. That is a terrifying
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realization. It forces us to ask what unseen
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provisions God is currently storing up for our future
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through our present trials. More urgently, it forces you to
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ask whether your own spiritual sore houses of faith will be
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full or completely empty when your personal inevitable famine
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arrives. We started by talking about a
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dusty binary spreadsheet, Assets and liabilities.
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Genesis 41 looks like an accounting Ledger on the
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surface, but underneath the numbers and the city names, it
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is the blueprint of a sovereign God orchestrating the survival
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of the world. The columns of that spreadsheet
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are filled with the grace of a Savior who provides beyond human
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measure. Thank you for joining us on this
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deep dive. Keep your storehouses full and
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we'll see you next time.