How Yahweh relates
with his creations (series 47)
Making Pharaoh Greater
Bible Texts (Concordant Version
of the Old Testament and Concordant Literal New Testament with keywords
Concordance (Main text: Genesis chapter 47)
One
might have concluded that Pharaoh made Joseph a great man in Egypt. What if I
told you that Joseph also made him great during time of 7 years of famine, would
you have believed it? Do you think Joseph was just a dreamer, dream interpreter or an
administrator? Not so. He was also a great Managerial Economist. He is the
blessing Egyptians should never forget.
Before I go into this, remember that in last blog, Joseph's family migrated from Canaan land to Egypt after 2 years out of 7 which was expected according to the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream. Joseph, his father and 5 of his brothers visited Pharaoh in his palace. Pharaoh asked Jacob a direct question on his age. Jacob's response was rather pathetic. He implicated a summary of his sorrow and troubled life. Why should Jacob go that far in his response to Pharaoh's question? I believe Jacob had the opportunity to exert his frustrations and sorrow his in his response. He had to speak to let it out. A kind of therapy. May be. However, this response probably made no sense to Pharaoh in my opinion. Sometimes, we should just let it be when Yahweh has changed our lifes' stories from sorrow to success. It is painful to remember past sorrowful life (verse 9).
According
to Pharaoh's command, Jacob and his people were located in the best land of
Ramses known as Goshen. Joseph provided his father and the people that came with his father with enough bread that would be enough for them (verse 11-12). Despite the fact there was famine and people were rationing food that was available, Joseph ensured that his people
were not starved.
As the
wind of famine continued to blow around in the land of Egypt, chaos continue to erupt from people of Egypt as they were agitating and were panicking on
their horrible situation. To calm this situation, Joseph did things Pharaoh never
expected him to do. First of all, he
ensured order was put in place by asking residence of Egypt and Canaan to pay money
for the food he had gathered during the 7 years of plenty. He brought the proceeds from
the sale of food to Pharaoh. What a great civil servant.
Soon, the residence of Egypt and Canaan ran out of food and there was no money to purchase
food from Joseph. So, another chaos emerged. I am very sure that Pharaoh
would have been perplexed as a result of this. He would probably have no lasting solution
to this problem. Was Joseph appointed to solve this kind of problem? Probably not but impliedly, yes.
According
to the scripture, Joseph stepped-in with another solution which probably
astounded Pharaoh. To calm down this chaos, he ordered that
people should bring their cattle, flocks and horses to him in exchange for food (verse
16).
Once more, people ran out of food
and they went to Joseph for solution. Surely, food is the answer to hunger as the picture above implies. This time, people had exhausted their
monies, cattle, horses, flocks and precious things they owned in exchange
for food. Then, Joseph asked these people to surrender their lands in exchange
for food. People gladly did so. They acknowledged that Joseph had
preserved their lives and they would be serfs to Pharaoh. That was a desperate
confession. They accepted to be Pharaoh's slaves because of food shortage. Did you see what hunger can make people do? Hunger can make people deseperate to do anything.
Joseph gave Pharaoh the ownership
of all lands in Egypt, except the lands of Priests. Therefore, Joseph
put Pharaoh in more control of the lands and properties in the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh was not expecting this. Joseph refused to feed on people's unpleasant
situations to amass wealth for himself. Joseph rather made a written law that
the 5th part of Egyptians proceeds from their businesses should be remitted to
Pharaoh, except from the houses of Priests in that country. Joseph's order out of chaos has been a statue
that is being observed in the land of Egypt up till today. He was not pumped up to become arrogant at his great success. He was indeed a God sent "succor" in the time of famine. This proves that
Yahweh is the only Master Planner (verse 17-26). He knows why he puts people in
a particular place at a particular time. There is always a reason for it. Through these 7 years of
famine, Joseph made Pharaoh greater than Pharaoh expected to be. He was a great
blessing to Pharaoh, the people of Egypt and cities closer to Egypt.
In conclusion, Jacob and his people
prospered in the land of Goshen. They multiplied in numbers. Jacob was 130 years old when
he went to the land of Egypt but spent 17 years in the land of Egypt. He
summoned on Joseph to swear to him to take his demise to the land of Canaan
when he dies. Joseph swore with his father (to do so). In other words, Jacob did not forget his
source. He wanted his corpse to be taken to the place where his fathers were
buried (verse 27-31).
I hope
this week bible blog has blessed you too.
Please,
leave your comments and be nice with them.
More to
come next week.
Shalom.
Picture
source: https://images.search.yahoo.com/
Joseph didn't allow his past to ruin his future... He maintained the position he was given and he brought out the best by making his boss more prominent powerful beyond his own goal. That's a point we must follow in our day to day activities. In most cases people doing greater things are not seen. God bless you so much sir. Eku ise oluwa.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. Joseph could have used that opportunity to divide the kingdom of Egypt with the miraculous ways he salvaged the people of Egypt but he didn't. Such a man is needed in this World.
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