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23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Indeed I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. 24 And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones.” 25 So they said, “You have saved our lives; let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” 26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s. ~ Genesis 47:23-26
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 47 where Jacob and his sons are now in Egypt and are at the end of the sixth year of the seven year famine. Everything had failed the people of Egypt, their money and the Nile River which was to them one of their many gods. So, even their theology had failed them. In the context of their misery, the Egyptians asked Joseph to make them Pharaoh's servants so that they might eat and live. As this was happening, God provided for and protected Jacob and his sons through Jacob's eleventh son. This provides for us a picture of how God looks over all who are in His family. He doesn't promise absence of problems, He promises purpose through the problems.
In v.23-24 of today's passage we read, "23 Then Joseph said to the people, 'Indeed I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. 24 And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones'"
At this point in the narrative, Jacob and his sons were in the seventh year of the worldwide famine. God had long ago told Joseph the famine would last seven years. This is why at this point Joseph gave the people seed to be sown. Once the sown seed produced crops, the people were told that 1/5 of the crop would be Pharaoh's and 4/5 would be their's. Earlier, the 1/5th percentage was the same percentage that was bought up by Pharaoh during the seven abundant years before the famine. At this point Joseph required of the people one-fifth as their payment for renting the land owned by Pharaoh. Pharaoh grew in wealth and power while the people happily made themselves his indebted servants.
In v.25 of today's passage we read, "So they said, 'You have saved our lives; let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.'"
Provided for us here is a perfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. First the Egyptians said to Joseph, "You have saved our lives." Then they said, "Let us find favor in the sight of my lord." The word "favor" is a Hebrew word which means "grace." In essence, they said, "By your grace we are saved." The Egyptians understood and affirmed the fact that had Joseph not come into the narrative when he did, they would have been doomed. There is no question in my mind that had the Lord Jesus not come into my life when He did, I would have been doomed. As a result of my mother dying when I was five years old and my father dying when I was seventeen, I was an orphan. And, for 43 years the Lord has not missed a beat in my life. He has been most faithful and due to His grace I trust Him unswervingly. After the Egyptians acknowledged Joseph's grace, they agreed to be the servants of the Pharaoh. This was how we became servants of God, through the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, pictured here by Joseph.
The key to our willingness to let God be the Supreme Being in our lives is grace. Our unwillingness to be subservient to God reveals our lack of knowledge of Him and our lack of subsequent trust in Him. We are saved specifically by God’s grace alone manifested ultimately through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's grace is a force that makes us want to serve. In Ephesians 2:8-9 we read, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."
God’s grace is a mind-blowing gift from the Supreme Being of all. We are made right with God by His grace. No amount of good works on our behalf can earn us a right relationship with God. The forgiveness of our sin comes to us by grace as a gift. Once we have received God's free gift of forgiveness by His grace we are propelled into a personal relationship with Him. If we could have been saved by any goodness that we could have produce then the law of Moses would have lifted us out of our condemned condition.
Once we see that we cannot bridge the massive gap that our sinfulness created between us and God, the only alternative is the grace of God which is hard for us to accept because it is so foreign to us. Our default mode is to pull up our moral boot straps and try to improve upon ourselves. But we are completely broken. Of course, this is why the Lord Jesus came to live a perfect life and to die a perfect death on the cross for you and me. Through His grace, God reached down and brought us up to be on the same level as Himself through His Son.
In v.26 of today's passage we read, "And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s."
In this verse yet again the grace of God is subtly brought to the fore for those who have come to the end of themselves. The entire account of today's passage reveals to us God's grace. Pharaoh’s house, as ruled by Joseph, hadn’t done anything overbearing or reprehensible towards the people of Egypt. Instead, the Lord God used Joseph to save many of them alive through the famine, picturing a much greater salvation provided for us through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is so much more than forgiveness because forgiveness describes what God kept us from, that is, His judgment. Through His grace God gave us His righteousness which is what grants us a right standing with God. God, through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, gave us a new and an acceptable status before Him.
In Colossians 1:21-22 we read, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation."
