18 When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord that our money is gone; my lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. 19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate." 20 Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end. 22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their lands. ~ Genesis 47:18-22
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 47 where the people of the world were enduring a severe seven-year famine. The famine was so severe the Egyptians traded their land and themselves for food. When Joseph was done, Pharaoh owned all the land, and all the people had sold themselves into slavery. In terms of an economic policy, Joseph had transformed Egypt from a place where individuals had wealth and property and freedom to a place owned by the government.
In the 1970's Bob Dylan sang a song titled "Gotta Serve Somebody." In the chorus of that song, Dylan sang, "You're still gonna have to serve somebody, yes, you're gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the Devil and it may be the Lord but you're gonna have to serve somebody." No truer words have ever been spoken. The truth is, we are all servants to someone or something and we always becoming like the someone or something we serve. The answer to this is to walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is simply being sensitive to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit primarily through His word and then do what He tells us. In addition to this we must pray which is an on-going conversation with God. Listening to Him as we read His word and talking to Him are the two primary ways that we discover what it means to walk in the Spirit.
In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, 'We will not hide from my lord that our money is gone; my lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. 19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate.'"
Today's narrative took place about 500 years after the flood. This famine was at the end of its sixth year and the beginning of its seventh year. Everything in Egypt had been reduced to poverty level, subsistence living. The money failed the people, even the Nile River failed them. They desperately sold their animals and themselves to garner the food to remain alive. They went from prosperity to grappling for food over night. The only option besides death was to give up everything they owned and become the servants of Pharaoh.
In all of his epistles the Apostle Paul identified himself as the bondservant of Jesus Christ. A bondservant is a slave. The Greek word "doulos" means "one who is subservient to, and entirely at the disposal of his master." Like us, the Apostle Paul learned that being a bondservant of the Lord Jesus is not a duty, it is a pleasure. Servanthood is an act of devotion because the Lord Jesus has delivered us from the eternal clutches of Hell itself through His sacrifice made on our behalf on the cross.
In v.19 the people begged for "seed." The word translated "seed" was used in Genesis 3:15 of the promised coming Messiah. That prophecy pointed us to the Seed of the woman. Of course, a woman doesn't have a seed. It wasn't the woman's seed, it was God's Seed. This was God's first hint that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and it was not the last. In Isaiah 7:14 we read, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." Our greatest need is not for temporal food which fuels our bodies for a short time. No, our greatest need is for a Savior and only the perfect God could overcome death on our behalf by giving Himself over to death. And when He did so, sin and death died.
The desperate request from the Egyptians reveals to us the reality of what they were enduring. They were so desperate for food that they themselves became the slaves of the Pharaoh. And tucked away in this true story was to be found the mystery of how God would solve mankind's desperate need for forgiveness which was our greatest need because it is our sin that has separated us from life itself.
In v.20 of today's passage we read, "Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s."
Until this point in the narrative, Pharaoh had no claim on the lands of the people. Only now had he consolidated his power and ownership entirely over the people and the lands. And all of this had been orchestrated by the hand of Joseph. Interestingly, this is also almost a mirror picture of what Joseph's name means. The name "Joseph" comes from two phrases: to subtract and to add. In one period of seven years, Joseph had taken away all of that which belonged to the Egyptians and had added it to Pharaoh’s wealth. But notice here, even though Canaan had been mentioned three times since v.13 in this chapter, it is excluded from this verse. Canaan was never assimilated by the Pharaoh, thus allowing for the continuing plan of God to unfold exactly as it would in the future.
In v.21-22 of today's passage we read, "21 And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end. 22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their lands."
Here, God set the stage for the events that would lead to the Exodus of the Jewish people approximately 400 years later. God used this seven-year famine to transfer the wealth of the Egyptians to Pharaoh. Much of that wealth was given to Israel when they left Egypt during the Exodus.
Israel’s family lived separate from the Egyptians in Goshen while shepherding their animals. The Egyptians considered shepherding to be a loathsome profession. Research reveals that people who have never turned to God before may suddenly turn to Him in a crisis or through suffering. In those cases, a "bad" thing can inspire someone to receive the free gift of forgiveness from the Lord Jesus, resulting in an eternity in heaven instead of hell.
Only those who trust in the Lord Jesus will be protected by God. We all go through life knowing where we want to go, but not knowing how to get there. We may think that we are making good time in our journey, only to find out in the end that we have been headed in the wrong direction. Twice in the Book of Proverbs we read, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." The only way that is real is the pathway the Lord Jesus beat for us into eternal life. It is only through Him that we discover "The way, and the truth, and the life" because "No one comes to the Father except through the Lord Jesus Christ."
