Latest / Reformed Thinking / Providence in the House of Pharaoh: Joseph, Famine, and the Preservation of Israel (Genesis 47:13-19)

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Providence in the House of Pharaoh: Joseph, Famine, and the Preservation of Israel (Genesis 47:13-19) · Reformed Thinking

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So you walk into a modern grocery store on a Tuesday
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evening, right? And you just expect absolute
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precision. You expect the shells to be
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stocked with, well, thousands of items from across the globe.
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Right, like avocados from Mexico and the dead of December.
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Yeah, you want fresh salmon from Alaska, coffee beans from
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Ethiopia, and I mean a dozen varieties of cereal neatly lined
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up in aisle 4. We live with this invisible
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assumption of absolute predictability.
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We really do. The trucks arrive, the cold
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chain logistics work, Florida State and the inventory
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management systems fire off these automated reorders.
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And the manager just points to display and says there it is.
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You swipe a piece of plastic, numbers change in a computer
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somewhere, and you drive home with enough calories to sustain
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your family for weeks. It's incredibly comforting, is
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it not? It is we like things to be
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visible, categorized and guaranteed.
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We trust our bank accounts, our property deeds and our global
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shipping networks. Right.
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We build our entire lives around the assumption that the supply
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chain will never break. Yeah, but what happens when that
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global machine completely stops? And not just for a week because
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of a snowstorm. No, and not for a month because
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of a labor strike, but for years.
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What happens when the sky turns to iron, the rivers dry up, and
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the entire agricultural baseline of the known world simply
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collapses? It is terrifying to think about.
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Welcome to reform thinking. Today we are taking a massive
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verse by verse look at an ancient text that shatters our
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modern illusions of control. This is a deep dive into Genesis
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47, specifically verses 13 through 19.
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We are looking at a landscape of survival that is frankly
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horrifying. The situation we are analyzing
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today is severe. The world is starving.
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The famine is no longer a rumor passing through the trade routes
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on the lips of merchants, right? It is a devouring reality,
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gripping both the superpower of Egypt and the rugged land of
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Canaan. It is the absolute definition of
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a comprehensive societal collapse.
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What stands out in this text is that Moses, the author, does not
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allow us to view this as an accident of nature.
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Or like a random climate anomaly.
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Precisely. This famine is a direct act of
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divine Providence. God is actively and deliberately
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withholding the rain to dismantle human pride.
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Yeah, and to meticulously preserve his covenant people at
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the same time. So to grasp the sheer scale of
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this crisis, we have to look at the historical stage on which
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this unfolds, right around the year 1875 BC.
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OK, set the scene for us. Well, at this point in ancient
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history, Egypt is the undisputed superpower of the known world.
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Their entire society, their military dominance, their
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monumental architecture, it all depends entirely on one single
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massive ecological engine. The annual flooding of the Nile
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River. Yes, the Egyptians built their
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civilization around a predictable cycle.
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Every year, monsoon rains in the Ethiopian Highlands would swell
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the Blue Nile. And that sends a massive surge
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of water north. Right when the Nile flooded, it
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overflowed its banks and deposited this incredibly
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fertile black exalt across the agricultural basins.
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The Egyptians even called their country Kemet.
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Which means the black land, right?
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Yeah, referring to this life giving mud.
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If the Nile rises, Egypt eats. They had a reliable, almost
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industrial scale of grain production.
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But right next door is Canaan, which is a completely different
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environment. A totally different world,
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Canaan is a rugged, mountainous region that relies entirely on
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seasonal rain. The ancient economy of Canaan
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required the early rains in the autumn to soften the hard baked
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earths for plowing. You know, and the latter rains
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in the spring to bring the crops to maturity.
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So you have two entirely different agricultural systems.
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Right, One dependent on a massive river, the other
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dependent on local rainfall, and both of these systems fail
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simultaneously. Which is staggering.
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Think about the statistical and likelihood of that.
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From a purely meteorological standpoint, the monsoon rains in
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the Southern hemisphere that feed the Nile stop falling.
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And the local Mediterranean weather systems that water
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Canaan also dry up. Humanly speaking, you might call
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it a catastrophic natural disaster.
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Or a generational drought. Yeah, but theologically
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speaking, the Creator who rules the clouds in the rivers has
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spoken. He withholds the water.
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The fertile land of Egypt and the promised land of Canaan are
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both subjected to His absolute command.
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And you know, this was not a sudden emergency God had to
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react to in a panic. He foretold this very ecological
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collapse in Pharaoh's dreams, which Joseph interpreted.
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Right God gave Pharaoh the vision of the seven gaunt,
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wretched cows eating the seven fat cows.
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And the seven thin heads of grain swallowing the seven
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healthy heads. The warning was given seven
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years in advance. God was not caught off guard.
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He was orchestrating the entire sequence of events.
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And if we connect this to the broader biblical narrative, it
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goes back even further than Pharaoh's dreams, doesn't it?
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It absolutely does. This global crisis triggers the
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fulfillment of a promise God made centuries earlier to the
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patriarch Abraham. Oh, in Genesis 15 verse 13,
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yeah. The Lord told Abraham that his
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descendants would be strangers in a foreign land.
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He said they would be afflicted and that they would eventually
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come out with great possession. So God had ordained that the
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nation of Israel will be formed in the Crucible of Egypt.
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Yes, the famine we are reading about in Genesis 47 is the
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specific historical mechanism God uses.
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He uses it to pry Jacob's family out of the land of Canaan and
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move them down into Egypt. The weather patterns of the
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entire Ancient Near East are manipulated to relocate 1
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extended family of 70 people. It is wild to think about.
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I want to pause and look at that because the implications are
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staggering. If God promised Abraham, Isaac
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and Jacob the land of pain and as their inheritance, well, why
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use a brutal continent wide famine to drive them out of the
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very land He promised them? It is a great question.
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On the surface, it feels contradictory to the promise.
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Think of it like a parent forcing a child out of a
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comfortable, familiar house into a freezing, violent storm.
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Yeah, you watch that parent and you think they have lost their
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mind. Right.
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Why would you subject your child to that harsh environment?
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Well, the only reason you would do it is if you knew as the
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parent that the house was burning down.
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Oh, that is a good way to look at it.
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And you had a rescue vehicle already waiting with the engine
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running out in the storm. The temporary discomfort of the
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storm is the only way to save them from the fire.
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That analogy captures the dynamic perfectly.
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Canaan was becoming a burning house, not just physically
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because the crops were failing, but spiritually and culturally.
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Right. If you look at the chapters
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leading up to this, Jacob's small family was in grave danger
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of assimilating into the Pagan Canaanite culture.
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We see the moral decay in Genesis 38.
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Oh yeah, where shooter intermarries with a Canaanite
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woman. Yes, and he engages in practices
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that mirror the surrounding idolatry.
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If Israel stayed in Canaan, they would have simply blended in,
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intermarried, and disappeared into the surrounding paganism.
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There would be no distinct nation of Israel, no distinct
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law, and humanly speaking, no lineage for the Messiah.
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So God uses the famine to force them into Egypt.
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Egypt acts as a protective cultural incubator.
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Because the text tells us that the Egyptians despise shepherds,
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right? Yeah, it was an abomination to
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them. Because of that cultural
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prejudice, Israel was segregated.
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They were allowed to settle in the fertile region of Goshen.
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Isolated from the main centers of Egyptian religion and
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politics. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. In Goshen, they could multiply
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from a family of 70 into a vast nation of 1,000,000 without
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mixing with the surrounding culture.
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The physical environment of the entire planet, the weather, the
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crops, the rivers, all of it is entirely subordinate to the
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preservation of God's people. God directs the global climate
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to protect and isolate a single family.
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The idea that the global economy collapses just to move one
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family into an incubator is something that should completely
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reshape how you view historical events.
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It really should. When you turn on the news and
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see geopolitical shifts or massive economic downturns, you
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have to realize that history is not a series of random
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accidents. There is a director
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orchestrating the play. Absolutely.
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So let's zoom in on the immediate human reaction to this
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global crisis. The text brings us into phase
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one of the famine. Verse 13 paints A grim picture.
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It says, and there was no bread in all the land, for the famine
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was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of
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Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
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People are trying to comprehend the sheer scale of the disaster.
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And their first instinct is to try and buy their way out of it.
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We have to look closely at the vocabulary Moses uses here to
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understand the psychological state of the people.
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The King James Version translates it as the land
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fainted. Right, while other translations
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say they languished. The Hebrew word used there is
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laha. This is an exceptionally rare
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word. It only shows up this one time
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in the entire Pentateuch. Oh wow, just once.
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Just this once. It does not just mean they had
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empty stomachs or were experiencing physical hunger
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pangs. It means to be paralyzed with
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psychological dread. So it is a mental collapse as
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well as a physical. One.
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Yeah, it carries the idea of gasping in a helpless stupor, a
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kind of manic exhaustion. You have to imagine the
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psychological toll of watching the sky day after day, waiting
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for clouds that never form. You have to imagine the Egyptian
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farmers going down to the banks of the Nile, staring at the
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stagnant shallow water, realizing the inundation is not
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coming. The ancient superpowers with all
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their Chariots, their massive temples and their scribal
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wisdom, are completely impotent. They are intellectually and
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emotionally paralyzed by this terror.
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It is the real realization that everything they built is
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collapsing and their first instinct is to throw money at
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the problem. Yeah, let's look at verse 14.
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It says. And Joseph gathered up all the
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money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of
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Canaan, for the corn which they bought, And Joseph brought the
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money into Pharaoh's house. The wealth of two entire nations
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is drained into a single royal treasury.
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It is hard to conceptualize the sheer volume of wealth moving
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through Joseph's hands. The Hebrew word for silver or
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money here is kisa. The text repeats the word
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multiple times in the original language to show the
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thoroughness of the extraction. Oh, I see, Joseph gathered all
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the keysif for the corn they bought with keysif and brought
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the keysif into Pharaoh's house. The syntax there is striking
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because it highlights the meticulous, systematic nature of
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Joseph's administration. He is executing a massive
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gleaning of national wealth. There is no black market
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currency left hidden under a mattress.
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No. Every piece of hacked silver,
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every ring of precious metal used for trade is surrendered to
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the state. In the ancient world, they did
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not have minted coins with faces on them yet.
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They use bullion, right? Yeah, they weighed silver on
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scales. You can imagine the constant
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clinking of scales and justice administrative centers as
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desperate citizens bring their life savings to buy rations.
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And that brings us to the climax of this first phase in verse 15,
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the text says, And when money failed in the land of Egypt and
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in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came into Joseph and
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said, Give us bread, for why should we die in thy presence
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for the money, faileth. The Hebrew phrase for the money
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failed uses the verb tamam. What does that mean?
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It means to be completely finished, consumed, or spent.
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The currency of both nations is entirely exhausted.
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There is nothing left to weigh on the scales.
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It is total insolvency. An entire civilization goes
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completely broke. Yes, and this exposes A
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terrifying reality about the nature of wealth.
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A reality that applies just as much to you today as it did to
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the ancient Egyptians. Silver has 0 caloric value.
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You cannot eat a gold coin. You cannot digest a stock
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portfolio or a digital bank balance.
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When the creator withdraws the harvest, all the money in the
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wild becomes useless metal. The abstract security of
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financial wealth, which human beings spend their entire lives
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trying to accumulate and protect, is proven completely
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worthless in the face of physical death.
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The Egyptians spent generations accumulating this wealth through
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trade, conquest and agriculture. And in a matter of months, it
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all flows into Pharaoh's house, leaving them with empty pockets
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and growling stomachs. Wait, I need to push back here
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for a second. Sure, go ahead, because when you
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read this it is very easy to look at Joseph and think he is
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acting like an absolute tyrant. I can see that.
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He has storehouses bursting with grain that he gathered during
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the seven years of plenty. He took a fifth of the produce
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during the good years. Now the people are starving to
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death. Why not just distribute the
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grain freely? Yeah, it is a tough pill to
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swallow for a modern reader. Why drain every last ounce of
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silver from these desperate people until they are entirely
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bankrupt? To a modern reader, Joseph looks
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like he is price gouging starving people to enrich an
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already wealthy monarch. Help me square the idea of
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Joseph as a righteous figure with a guy who takes everyone's
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last dime. This raises A vital question
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about the nature of divine administration and how we view
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government and justice. We have a strong tendency to
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read ancient texts through the lens of modern sensibilities.
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We expect a sentimental social welfare state.
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Right. One that simply hands out free
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resources in a crisis. But Joseph is acting as an
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authorized, righteous administrator, executing strict
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justice. He is Pharaoh's steward.
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Yes, the grain belongs to the crown.
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It was collected under Pharaoh's authority.
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Joseph cannot simply liquidate the royal treasury based on
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personal sentiment. So his administration reflects
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the cosmic order of God's government.
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Absolutely. Preservation of life occurs
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through orderly, righteous transaction, not chaotic
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handouts or the dissolution of law.
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If Joseph just throws the storehouse doors open, you would
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have. Instant anarchy.
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The strong would trample the weak to get the free grain.
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Hoarding would run rampant and the supply would be mismanaged.
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Joseph does not bypass the laws of righteousness or property.
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He executes them meticulously. The divine preservation of life
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is not a lawless event. It requires A systematic,
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orderly exchange. He is preserving the social
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structure of Egypt while simultaneously saving their
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lives. OK, so the silver is gone, the
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money has failed completely. The National Bank accounts are
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empty, but the people still need to eat.
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The famine is still raging. So they have to start bartering
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their physical assets to survive the next year.
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This is the transition from liquid cash to hard assets.
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We're watching them trade the very engines of ancient life.
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The narrative shifts abruptly from Kisa, which is money or
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silver, to McKay, which translates to livestock or
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physical possessions. When the people come to Joseph
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and say their money has failed, Joseph replies in verse 16, Give
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your cattle and I will give you for your cattle if money fail.
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He initiates a massive nationwide barter system.
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Look at the specific list of what they surrender in verse 17.
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They brought their cattle to Joseph, and he gave them bread
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in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle
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of the herds, and for the asses. It is a comprehensive.
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List. I think we gloss over this list
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today because most of us do not own livestock, but you have to
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translate this into modern terms to feel the weight of what is
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happening. Right.
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How would you put it? This is like a small business
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owner trading in his delivery vans, his factory machines, his
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forklift and his personal car just to buy groceries for the
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week. That is a great comparison.
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They are trading their future capacity to produce for present
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survival. Once you sell your horse or your
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plowing ox, how do you farm the next year?
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How do you transport goods? You do not.
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You are liquidating your productive property.
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They are completely cannibalizing their own society.
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These animals were the military, agricultural and transportation
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engines of the ancient world. Horses were massive status
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symbols, right? Yes, and vital for military
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defense. Oxen and cattle were the heavy
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machinery used to plow the hard earth.
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Donkeys were the logistics network, the ancient equivalent
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of freak trucks. And sheep and goats provided
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clothing, milk and meat. To give these up means you are
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permanently altering your socioeconomic status.
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You are moving from an independent producer to a
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dependent peasant, but they have no choice.
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The instinct for immediate survival overrides any long term
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planning. You cannot worry about next
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year's harvest when your children are starving today.
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But what is highly instructive here is a subtle linguistic
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detail. At the end of verse 17, the text
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says Joseph fed them with bread for all their cattle for that
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year. The English translation says fed
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them. Is there something deeper going
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on with that specific word? There is the Hebrew verb
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translated as fed is nahal. It carries A distinct pastoral
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nuance. Like a shepherd, Yes.
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It means gently guiding, leading to a watering place, or
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sustaining with care. It is the very same root word
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used in the famous Psalm 23 where David writes He leadeth me
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beside the still waters. Oh wow.
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So even in the midst of this rigorous, legal and arguably
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harsh economic exchange, where they are losing their
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livelihoods, the text uses a word that portrays Joseph acting
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as a preserving shepherd. He is not a malicious dictator,
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laughing as he takes their wealth, He is systematically and
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gently sustaining their lives. He is guiding them through the
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valley of the shadow of death. That flips the ruthless
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bureaucrat ID on its head. He is systematically stripping
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them of their assets, yes, but he is doing it to sustain their
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lives in a way they could never manage themselves.
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Right. Think about it, if they kept the
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livestock, the animals would just starve to death anyway
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because there is no pasture. By giving them to Joseph, the
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state can consolidate the remaining fodder to keep the
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breeding stock alive and the people get bred.
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And there is a massive theological implication
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underlying all of this. God uses deprivation to strip
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away secondary causes of confidence.
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Human beings are incredibly prone to idolatry.
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We put our trust in the things we can see and touch.
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As long as the people had money in their chests, they trusted
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their money. When the money failed, they
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leaned on their livestock. As long as they had strong oxen
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and fast horses, they felt a sense of independence and
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security. God is actively dismantling
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their security layer by layer. He brings them to a state of
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absolute insolvency so they realize they cannot sustain
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their own lives. They must look away from their
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own resources and look entirely to the appointed mediator,
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Joseph. Which brings us to the
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terrifying climax of human bankruptcy.
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In the next phase, a year has passed.
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The money is gone. The livestock is either eaten or
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safely locked away in pharaoh stalls.
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It is year three of the famine, or maybe year 4, we are not
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entirely sure, but they come back to Joseph.
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Listen to their confession, verse 18.
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When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year,
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and said unto him, We will not hide it from my Lord.
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How that our money is spent, my Lord.
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Also half our herds of cattle. There is not aught left in the
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sight of my Lord, but our bodies and our lands.
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Put yourself in their sandals. You walk into the administrative
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center. You have empty hands.
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You have nothing left to trade. You are staring at the man who
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controls the only food on the continent, the brutal.
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Honesty of the Egyptians here is staggering and deeply
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instructive. They use the word Goya for
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bodies. Is that a weird word to use
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there? It is not the standard word for
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a living, breathing person. This word often carries the
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morbid connotation of a lifeless carcass or a corpse.
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We see that used elsewhere in Scripture to describe dead
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bodies fallen in battle, right? Yes, by using this specific word
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they are acknowledging A grim reality.
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Without Joseph's immediate intervention, they are already
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as good as dead. They are walking corpses, they
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have no illusion of strength left, and their land, their
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Adama, which was their ancestral inheritance and their source of
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identity, is just barren, cracked dirt.
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So they make the ultimate proposition.
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In verse 19 they say to Joseph, Wherefore shall we die before
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thine eyes? Both we in our land buy us and
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our land for bread, and we in our land will be servants unto
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Pharaoh, and give us seed, that we may live and not die, that
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the land be not desolate. They are willingly exchanging
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their physical autonomy to become servants or slaves.
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The Hebrew word is abadim. They are selling themselves.
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They are offering a complete legal transfer of ownership.
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In the ancient Near East, land tenure was everything.
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Your land was your connection to the cosmos, to your ancestors,
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and to your future. To sell the Adama to the state
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meant you were reducing yourself to a surf on the land you used
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to own. They hand over their physical
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personhood and their ancestral inheritance just to secure
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another day of survival. They recognize that slavery to
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Pharaoh is better than starvation.
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Think about the negotiation tactics happening here, or
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rather the complete lack of them.
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They are not negotiating. They have 0 leverage.
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They do not walk into Joseph's office and say, well, Joseph, we
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will give you the deed to the land, but we demand to keep our
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freedom. Or we will work the fields for
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you, but we want 50% of the yield and we keep the title to
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the farms. No, they do not posture, they do
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not bluff. They bring absolutely nothing to
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the table except their own ruin, they say by us.
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If we look at this through a theological lens, this
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historical event perfectly mirrors the spiritual reality of
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the natural man standing before a holy God.
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Salvation and preservation cannot be bargained for.
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The natural instinct of the human heart is to try and
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negotiate with God. We want to bring our moral
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achievements, our intellectual currency, our religious
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livestock to the bargaining table.
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We want to negotiate a deal that leaves our pride intact.
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We want to say, God, I will give you my Sunday mornings.
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I will try to be a better person.
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I will give a little to charity. And in exchange, you give me a
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good life and a ticket to heaven.
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We want to be partners in our salvation.
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We want to retain our autonomy, we want to be the CEO of our
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lives, and we just want God to sit on the board of directors
21:56
and offer advice when the stock dips.
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But this text dismantles that completely.
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To be saved from the famine of death, the bankrupt creature
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must relinquish all claims to autonomy.
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You have no spiritual silver. Your righteousness is like
22:10
filthy rags. You have no moral assets to
22:13
trade. You must throw yourself entirely
22:15
upon the mercy of the Sovereign Administrator.
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You have to come to God and say I have nothing but my ruined
22:20
life. I am a walking corpse.
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Take me. The price of life is absolute
22:26
surrender. You cannot buy grace, you can
22:29
only receive it as a desperate beggar.
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It is a stunning picture of total inability and absolute
22:35
dependence. You have to reach the end of
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yourself before you can be saved.
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Yeah. Now I want to pull the camera
22:40
back for a second. We've been so intensely focused
22:43
on the Egyptians selling everything they own, standing in
22:45
line to become slaves to Pharaoh.
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Right. But what is Jacob's family doing
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during all of this while the greatest empire on earth goes
22:53
completely bankrupt? What is happening to the 70
22:55
Hebrews? This brings us to a crucial
22:57
literary hinge. In the chapter we have to look
23:00
at the structural contrast between Goshen and Egypt.
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Okay, lay that out for us. The structural placement of
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these narratives by Moses is highly deliberate and brilliant.
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If you look at the text immediately preceding our
23:11
passage in Genesis 47 verses one through 12, Israel arrives in
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Egypt and gets the absolute best land, the land of Goshen.
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Pharaoh himself authorizes it. Yes.
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And verse 12 says, And Joseph nourished his father and his
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brethren and all his father's household with bread.
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According to their families, they are given free provision.
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Then right after that, in the verses we are discussing, the
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Egyptians lose their money, their livestock and their
23:38
personal freedom. And if you read just passed our
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text, in verses 20 through 26, Joseph makes it a permanent
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codified law that Egypt is taxed 20% and subjugated to Pharaoh
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forever. The contrast is jarring.
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It almost gives you whiplash. It really does.
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On one side of the border, in the main body of Egypt, you have
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mass starvation, the liquidation of all assets, and the entire
23:59
population selling themselves into slavery.
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They are permanently taxed. On the other side of the border
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in Goshen, you have a small family of shepherds sitting on
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the best real estate in the world.
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Receiving free groceries delivered by the Prime Minister
24:13
and growing wealthier. You have to consider the
24:15
original audience reading this text.
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Moses wrote Genesis for the Wilderness generation.
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The Israelites who had just escaped Egyptian slavery
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centuries later. Exactly.
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They're wandering in the desert, complaining and frequently
24:28
wanting to go back to Egypt because they remember the leeks
24:31
and the garlic, right? Moses structures this narrative
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to show them how the Lord makes a distinct, unbridgeable
24:37
separation between his Church and the unbelieving world.
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In the midst of the exact same physical catastrophe, the world
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is reduced to bondage under a Pagan king, while the covenant
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seed is nurtured, preserved, and blessed in liberty.
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This is a vivid historical exposition of distinguishing
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grace. God treats his people
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differently than He treats the world.
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Not because Israel was inherently better.
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I mean, they were just as vulnerable to the famine.
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No, but because of God's covenant promise.
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It answers the complaint of those Israelites wandering in
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the desert. They kept romanticizing Egypt.
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Oh, we had it so good in Egypt. Let's go back.
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Moses is showing them their own history, saying look at what
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Egypt actually is. Look at its foundation.
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The native Egyptians sold themselves into perpetual
25:24
slavery just for a loaf of bread.
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You are free men sustained by God in the wilderness.
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Why would you want to go back to a system built on slavery and
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desperation? Furthermore, this narrative
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functions as a massive polemical strike against the entire
25:39
framework of Egyptian culture and religion.
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How so? Well, the Egyptians did not just
25:43
see the Nile as a river, they worshipped it as the God happy.
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They believed the annual flooding was a divine act of
25:50
this deity. Oh, I see.
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They also viewed Pharaoh not just as a political king, but as
25:55
a divine incarnation responsible for maintaining the cosmic
25:58
order. It's a theological concept they
25:59
called mutt. Yes, Pharaohs primary job was to
26:02
ensure the sun rose, the river flooded and the crops grew.
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He was supposed to be the sustainer of the universe.
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If you are an Egyptian, fairy is your ultimate safety net.
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And God brings these false deities to absolute nothingness.
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The Nile fails. Happy is impotent.
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Pharaoh, the supposed guarantor of cosmic order, cannot produce
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a single grain of wheat. He is completely dependent on a
26:25
Hebrew prisoners God-given wisdom to interpret a dream and
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manage the crisis. The entire Egyptian nation, with
26:32
all its gods and temples, is forced to sell itself just to
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survive. God is actively proving that the
26:38
gods of the nations are vanities.
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Security is found only in the covenant Lord.
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Who can turn a prison inmate into the savior of the world
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while the supposed divine king watches helplessly?
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Let's elevate this discussion even further.
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We've examined the historical reality of the famine, the
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economic collapse of the ancient world, the psychological dread,
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and the literary structure of Goshen versus Egypt.
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But to stop there would be to miss the primary focus of the
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text. All of this history is pointing
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forward. We are looking at a shadow of
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the Savior. Let's look at the typology of
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the two Josephs. Joseph is widely considered one
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of the most majestic and detailed typological figures of
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Jesus Christ and all of Scripture.
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The historical parallels are so direct they're almost
27:22
overwhelming. Consider Joseph's life
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trajectory. He's the dearly beloved son of
27:27
his father. He is hated by his brothers
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without 'cause he is rejected by them.
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Stripped of his robe, sold for the price of a slave.
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Humbled in a dark pit, falsely accused and condemned alongside
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2 criminals, one who lives and one who dies.
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You are basically reciting the gospel accounts.
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Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father, rejected by his own
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people, stripped, sold for 30 pieces of silver.
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He descends into the pit of the grave and is crucified between
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two thieves, one who is saved and one who perishes.
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The pattern is exact and the exaltation follows the same
28:00
trajectory. Joseph is supernaturally raised
28:02
from the dungeon, exalted to the right hand of the Supreme
28:05
Sovereign, given a new name, and he becomes the sole dispenser of
28:08
life saving bread for a starving world.
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When the people cry out to Pharaoh for help, Cheryl tells
28:13
them go to Joseph what he saith to you do.
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And Jesus is raised from the den, exalted to the right hand
28:19
of God the Father, given a name above every name, and becomes
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the sole dispenser of eternal life.
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The Father points a starving world to the Son and says, this
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is my beloved son, hear him. Jesus says No man comes to the
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Father, but by me. The parallel is undeniable.
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But as you frequently point out, when we study typology, the
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places where the shadow fails to match the substance, the
28:41
contrasts are where the theology really shines brightest.
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Let's examine the glorious contrast between Joseph and
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Jesus. It is the contrast between law
28:50
and grace. What is fascinating about
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Joseph's administration is that he did save the Egyptians
28:55
physically, but the cost was absolute and terrifying.
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He required all their money, all their livestock, all their land
29:02
and eventually their very freedom.
29:04
It was a transaction of rigorous, uncompromising legal
29:07
justice that resulted in perpetual bondage.
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Joseph acts in the specific capacity as a shadow of the law.
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The law demands everything you have.
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The law says do this and live, but it leaves you under a heavy
29:17
yoke of duty. It strips you of everything.
29:19
You survive the famine, but you wake up the next morning as a
29:23
slave on land you used to own. You owe 20% of everything you
29:27
produce to the state forever. You are alive, but you are in
29:30
chains. But look at Christ's infinite
29:33
superiority as the true Savior. Jesus finds his people in the
29:37
exact same state of absolute spiritual bankruptcy as the
29:40
Egyptians. We come to him as walking
29:42
corpses, debtors with absolute nothing to pay.
29:44
But instead of taking from us to enrich a royal treasury, he
29:48
pours out his own infinite wealth.
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He does not demand our silver, our livestock, or our labor to
29:53
earn our keep. He pays our insurmountable debt
29:56
with his own precious blood. Joseph took the land of the
29:59
Egyptians to secure their survival.
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Jesus secures our survival and then prepares A heavenly
30:04
inheritance for us. He gives us a Kingdom.
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Joseph reduced free men to the status of servants to a Pagan.
30:11
King Christ takes bankrupt enslaved sinners and elevates
30:14
them to the status of free sons and joint heirs with him.
30:17
Joseph's salvation postponed physical death for a few years,
30:21
but every single one of those Egyptians he fed still died
30:24
eventually. Their bodies still went into the
30:26
ground. Christ's salvation conquers
30:28
death permanently. He offers the bread of life and
30:31
whoever eats of it will never die.
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The contrast is just incredible to think about.
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The ancient world goes to Joseph with empty hands, begging for
30:40
their lives, and they leave as slaves.
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We go to Christ with empty hands, begging for our lives,
30:46
and we leave as adopted royalty. Which brings a severe warning
30:49
against false gospels prevalent today.
30:51
For instance, a prosperity gospel claims that faith
30:54
guarantees earthly abundance, health and wealth.
30:57
But this text shows God's redemptive purposes advancing
31:01
through severe famine, economic collapse, and the stripping away
31:04
of earthly wealth. God uses the loss of resources
31:07
to save souls. On the other hand, a liberal
31:10
social gospel reduces salvation to bodily administration,
31:13
equating the Kingdom of God with just handing out physical bread
31:16
or fixing political systems. So Joseph's grain could not
31:19
redeem anyone from the curse of sin.
31:21
Man needs physical bread, yes, but he desperately needs the
31:24
bread of life. If you only fix the physical
31:26
famine, you leave the soul to perish.
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We have to see Christ as the true, final and superior
31:32
provision. Let's bring this ancient reality
31:34
directly into the listeners daily life right now.
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How do modern people handle scarcity and security?
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That is a critical question. Because reading this, I realize
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we build massive idols out of our safety Nets.
31:48
We think we are so much more advanced than the Egyptians.
31:51
We do not worship the Nile River.
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We do not think the president controls the sunrise, but we
31:56
worship our own versions of stability.
31:58
We live in a highly sophisticated, technologically
32:01
advanced society. Because of that, we place our
32:04
trust in our 401 KS, our vast medical infrastructures, our
32:08
insurance policies and our political alliances.
32:11
We assume these complex structures are immune to divine
32:14
disruption. We think we have outsmarted
32:17
famine. We build an elaborate earthly
32:19
Goshen for ourselves, surrounded by gated communities and digital
32:23
wealth, and we think we are invisible.
32:25
We think the supply chain will always hold.
32:27
But if everything we build is so incredibly fragile, I mean if a
32:30
microscopic virus or a shift in weather patterns can disrupt the
32:33
entire globe, how do you live without constantly panicking?
32:37
If you look at how fast Egypt fell apart, going from the
32:40
pinnacle of human achievement to begging for slavery in a few
32:44
short years, it is easy to get anxious about the next economic
32:48
crash or the next health crisis. How do we process scarcity
32:52
without losing our minds? This is where we must guard
32:54
heavily against therapeutic theology, right?
32:57
We cannot treat God as a cosmic Butler whose only job is to keep
33:01
our refrigerators full, our bank accounts growing, and our lives
33:05
free from friction. That is not the God of the
33:08
Bible. We must learn true dependence.
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And that dependence is most clearly expressed through
33:13
prayer. When Jesus taught his disciples
33:15
to pray, he included the petition.
33:18
Give us this day Our Daily Bread.
33:20
He was establishing the proper humble posture of a created
33:23
being. We are entirely dependent.
33:25
Every meal on your table, every paycheck that clears the bank,
33:28
every heartbeat in your chest is a mercy from the hand of God.
33:30
It is a gift. It is not an entitlement.
33:33
We act like we are owed A functioning economy.
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We are owed nothing, and when scarcity hits, whether it is a
33:40
loss of a job, a sudden terminal illness, A catastrophic failure
33:44
of society, or just a season of intense personal lack, it is not
33:49
fatalistic chaos. It is not an accident.
33:52
It is the sovereign Lord stripping away our idols to
33:55
drive us closer to Himself. God uses the famine in the
33:58
parable of the prodigal son to bring the boy to his senses.
34:01
The pig through is what makes him remember his father's house.
34:04
God uses the historical famine to bring the Egyptians to
34:07
Joseph's feet. He uses the famine to bring
34:09
Jacob's sons to repentance in Egypt.
34:12
He starves the idols to feed the soul.
34:14
He breaks the things we trust in, so we will finally trust in
34:17
Him. And the practical application
34:19
for everyone listening is that you must come to God empty
34:21
handed. Sinners must approach Christ in
34:24
the exact same manner the Egyptians approached Joseph at
34:26
the end of the famine with absolutely nothing.
34:29
As the old hymn beautifully states, nothing in my hand I
34:32
bring simply to thy cross I cling.
34:34
We have to drop the weapons of our pride.
34:37
We have to renounce our claim to self ownership.
34:40
We have to stop negotiating. We throw ourselves entirely on
34:43
the grace of the King. That requires a total
34:45
perspective shift. We spend our whole lives trying
34:48
to accumulate leverage. You go to school, you build a
34:51
resume, you invest money, you network, all to build up assets
34:54
so you never have to depend on anyone, not even God.
34:57
You want to be autonomous. And God says I cannot save you
35:00
until you realize your leverage is worthless.
35:02
I cannot fill your hands until you open them and drop the
35:05
garbage you are holding. It is the painful death of human
35:08
pride. As long as you think you can buy
35:11
your way out of the famine of your soul, you will never seek
35:14
the true Bread of life. You will just keep offering God
35:17
your meager silver and your diseased livestock, thinking
35:20
your good deeds are enough to purchase His favor.
35:22
It is only when you hit rock bottom, when you look at your
35:25
life and say I am a walking corpse and my land is desolate,
35:29
that Christ steps in. And he says I will buy you, not
35:33
with silver or gold, but with my own precious blood.
35:37
That brings everything full circle beautifully.
35:40
We started by looking at the geopolitical failure of the
35:42
ancient. World we watched the greatest
35:44
empire on Earth completely liquidate its wealth.
35:47
Trade away its engines of industry and finally surrender
35:50
its own liberty just to survive a localized famine.
35:53
We saw the stark, jarring contrast between just of strict
35:57
legal preservation that led to bondage.
35:59
And Christ's free, abundant grace that leads to eternal
36:03
sonship. The historical reality points
36:06
directly to the spiritual reality.
36:08
God governs the scarcity of the world to execute judgment on
36:11
human pride. To dismantle our false
36:13
securities and to draw his people to the appointed
36:16
mediator. Precisely.
36:17
Want to leave you, the listener, with a final thought to chew on
36:20
as you go about your week? Consider the hardest famine in
36:24
your life right now. Maybe it is a a sudden loss of
36:26
resources, a terrifying decline your health, or the collapse of
36:30
a relationship, or a stability you thought was guaranteed.
36:33
What if that scarcity is not a sign of gut's absence?
36:36
What if it is not an accident? What if that specific pain is
36:39
the precise instrument he is using to starve your idols and
36:43
feed your soul? What if he's breaking your
36:45
personal supply chain so you will finally look to him?
36:48
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Genesis 47.
36:52
Keep seeking the truth in the text and we will see you next
36:55
time.