THE STORY OF JOSEPH. EPISODE 12. GENESIS 47: JOSEPH THE BREADWINNER

CHAPTER 47:  JOSEPH THE BREADWINNER

In this chapter:

ü  Joseph goes before Pharaoh with 5 of his brothers to inform pharaoh of the family’s arrival in Egypt.

ü  Pharaoh meets and chats with the brothers asking them about their occupation

ü  The brothers explain that they were shepherds and requested to be settled in the Goshen area

ü  Pharaoh grants their request and permits Joseph to settle his kin wherever he may please in the land of Egypt.

ü  Jacob also meets up and chats with Pharaoh.

ü  Jacob blesses pharaoh

ü  Joseph settles his family in Rameses (Goshen) and provides for all of them

ü  The famine continues to ravage the land of Egypt and Canaan

ü  Joseph continues to sell grain to the masses in exchange for their money

ü  After the peoples money was exhausted, they exchanged their livestock for the all important grain.

ü  After all the livestock had been given over to Joseph in exchange for the grain, the people gave up their lands to pharaoh in exchange for the grain.

ü  Joseph therefore bought up all the land for pharaoh except  the land reserved for priests who received their portions from pharaoh

ü  Joseph however gave seed to the people to plant in the land with the command that one-fifth of the produce must always be handed in to Pharaoh after every harvest.

ü  The people agreed to that and thanked Joseph for it and it became the law of the land

ü  Jacob lived in the land of Goshen for 17 years attaining the age of 147 years. His family multiplied greatly over there and gained possessions

ü  Jacob called for Joseph and asked him to vow to not let him be buried in Egypt but rather with his fore-fathers in their burying place. Joseph agrees and swears to it.

This is the last chapter that discusses the story of Joseph in depth with regard to his rulership in Egypt. After this chapter there is little or no reference to Egypt, and Joseph’s rulership down there. It however describes the grand achievements of Joseph with regard to the task that he was given by pharaoh; to manage probably the greatest food crisis in all of recorded history. In this chapter, the bible records for us how Joseph masterfully steered the welfare of Egyptian empire during the most critical era of its rule and existence.

While at it, this chapter also details how Joseph saved his father’s household from starvation and gave them refuge in the best lands of Egypt a foreign nation. Joseph effectively becomes their savior during their very hour of need. He whom the brothers hated and brutally drove out of their presence is now their only line of defense against the ravaging and deadly famine. This should remind us about our greater-than-Joseph of whom the Apostle Peter talks about when addressing the Sanhedrin as recorded in Acts 4:11-12. Peter refers to Psalm 118:22 and declares; For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. ¹² There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”(NLT)

You see, the one the nation of Israel rejected has now become their only source of salvation; Joseph in this story in Genesis and Jesus in the New Testament story. In both cases the children of Jacob have to put their hope in whom God had sent to make the way of salvation for them or else they perish. Every attempt at self-help will end in death and disaster as salvation is in one Name and one Name alone. Even today, people have rejected Jesus for all sorts of reasons. Some Africans say He is a foreign, white-man’s deity, some western people say He is just another Jew, some Jews say He is just an ordinary man, Muslims say He is just like any other prophet. People have mistaken the humility of The Christ for a weakness.

Whatever the reason is for rejecting Him as the Messiah and Savior of the world, one day soon everyone will come to bow before him and acknowledge him as Lord. The Bible says of Him: who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11, ESV)

We see here Joseph appear before pharaoh to make the case and becoming a mediator for their favor with pharaoh. In this, Joseph also pictures Jesus who is the One mediator between men and God. The bible again says of Him: For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.  (1 Timothy 2:5-6, NKJV).

Joseph also brings along five of his brothers before Pharaoh. Pharaoh questions them of their occupation just like Joseph had warned them. They replied as Joseph had advised them and also went ahead to request to be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen. Pharaoh answers their request through Joseph, the mediator, and grants him permission to settle his kin anywhere as he pleased. We see here that while the brothers make their case and pleading directly to Pharaoh, the answer to their pleadings comes through Joseph. 

The same for us, when we make our prayers and pleadings to God, we need to know that it is in and through Christ alone we find the answers. Jesus Himself declared that He is the true way to life in the Father. He said that no one can come to the father except through Him. (John 14:6). If anybody need any help from the great King, he must go through the greater-than-Joseph, the Man Jesus Christ, every blessing from God can only be transmitted through and in Christ.

We go back to the state of famine and how Joseph is dealing with it. At first, the people are purchasing food supplies by their money. Then the money runs out, they revert to barter trade by exchanging their livestock for grain. Then there is no more livestock and all they are left with is land. But for what use is the land if they will starve to death, so they trade in their land for food. Now here is something quite noteworthy. It is amazing to see the extent the people go in order to secure food, even giving up their land.

As a person who holds a degree in Land Economics, I fully understand what land means to a people. Land is a very emotive issue. Land, basically, is the most important factor of production; it is a precious commodity. Without land there is literally no ground upon which production will take place. Land has been the centre of basically most, if not all, the major armed conflicts; local or global, past, present and even future. In this study I have discussed of how one of the most enduring armed conflicts of our times is the fight over the land of Canaan in biblical language and Palestine in post-modern language. Notably, also, conquering new land, particularly, Mars the planet is possibly man’s next biggest ambition.

In fact, the world’s richest person, Elon Musk has made that his biggest endeavor moving forward: conquering Mars and making it habitable. His appetite and ambitions for Mars is captured in the SpaceX website as follows: At an average distance of 140 million miles, Mars is one of Earth's closest habitable neighbors. Mars is about half again as far from the Sun as Earth is, so it still has decent sunlight. It is a little cold, but we can warm it up. Its atmosphere is primarily CO2 with some nitrogen and argon and a few other trace elements, which means that we can grow plants on Mars just by compressing the atmosphere. Gravity on Mars is about 38% of that of Earth, so you would be able to lift heavy things and bound around. Furthermore, the day is remarkably close to that of Earth. (https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/mars/)

In our local context, the wealthiest families in Kenya, led by the family of the founding father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, hold much of their wealth in form of land and real estate (land and anything permanently fixed on land.) Basically, land holding is a measure of wealth. In biblical context, land ownership is also arguably the biggest measure of wealth and is also the major cause of armed conflicts. Most of the wars recorded in Scripture have something to do with land, either as the cause or the result of where the winner takes over the territory or land of the loser.

What is the point I am trying to drive in here, you might be asking? All I am saying is that for people to give up their land, it is has to be the last resort in their fight for survival. In fact, it says here in verse 19 that when they yielded up their land, it was not just the land they yielded but themselves to be slaves of Pharaoh! To give up their land was to give up their bodies into slavery, or so they meant. And they were ready to do it. But come to think of it, did they really have a choice? I don’t think they did have much of it. It had come to a point where they had to choose between death by starvation or losing their land. It was a matter of life and death; would they choose land or life? I think they made the right choice; it was better to live as tenants of the king rather than die as landlords and leave the land with no one to inherit, except may be the king, again.

You see, when it comes to us too, we should be willing to lose everything we hold so dear and that which consider too precious to let go, in order to obtain eternal life. We must hand it over to our greater-than-Joseph and in exchange get eternal life. Not to say, that salvation in Christ can be bought but rather to say that there is a cost to it which involves letting go of our self-centeredness and yielding to Christ.  

Jesus himself taught this concept in this way as recorded in the Gospel of Mark 8:34-37: When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ³⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? ³⁷ Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (NKJV)

NLT version puts verse 37 above this way:  Is anything worth more than your soul?  We can extrapolate the question here and ask, is it land or property, is it sexual pleasure, is it money and wealth, is it friendships-for the teenagers, is it entertainment and such other earthly pleasures, is it pride and ego, is it ungodly cultural traditions? Let each one of us take time and reflect on this question and see if there is anything that is holding us back from experiencing fullness and newness of life in Christ Jesus.

Another thing to glean from this text here is think more about the Bread of Life. The bible teaches us that Jesus is the Bread of Life especially in the Gospel of John chapter 6. You see, what was troubling the people to the point of trading off their most precious commodity was simply bread. It was grain which was mainly wheat, and which is the basic ingredient for making bread. Bread in the bible basically means food for physical sustenance and may extend to all those basic human needs for survival. And so, the masses turn to Joseph, the only man who could give this all-important commodity, the bread of life, so to speak.

So, when Jesus shows up in the New Testament and declares that He is the Bread of Life, it must make us think back about the story of Joseph and realize that while Joseph could provide the key ingredient to the bread, Jesus is Bread itself! The Bible says: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst… Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh…… This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:35,47-51,58, ESV)

And so comes the question again, have you partaken of this Bread of Life. What is keeping you from it? Are you ready to trade off everything in exchange for this Bread of Life? Is there anything you consider to be more valuable or precious than the Bread of Life Himself? 

We can also say that God’s Word is also the true Bread of Life. Jesus actually intimated to this while he repulsed the devil’s temptation in the wilderness and quoted the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 8:3. It is recorded in Matthew 4:4, But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (ESV)

In fact, in the above discourse in John chapter 6, the sayings of Jesus declaring Himself as the Bread of Life angered some Jews and some left Him including some of the many disciples. In verses 47-48 John records:  Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. (NLT)

Again, the question comes, are you willing to sacrifice anything just to get this bread that brings and sustains life: the very Word of God. How much of your time in the day are you spending in studying or listening to God’s Word which ought to be bread and sustenance unto you? Have you invested in a good physical Bible, a Bible commentary, dictionary  or such resources, Bible App, etc.? Think about how many times you snack or eat physical food in a day vis-à-vis  how many times you open your bible for this all-important bread. In real sense most believers in churches today have severe malnutrition and at the risk of spiritual starvation. They are not willing to give up social media or the pursuit of wealth or pleasure, just to spend or save a little time to hear/read God’s Word.

Now, Joseph therefore bought all the land of Egypt for pharaoh and also made all the people to be servants, or slaves, if you may, of pharaoh. And that is profound when you think about it. What gave Joseph this great advantage, if you remember from several chapters back? We learnt in chapter 41 how Joseph commanded that a fifth of all harvest during the 7 years of plenty be handed over to pharaoh’s reserves. We discussed in detail how this principle of saving at least 20% of one’s earning is pivotal to personal financial freedom. And the fact that Joseph was able to feed Egypt and much of the known world back then using the 20% reserves of 7 years is a testament to the magical power of such a savings strategy.

I have wondered how 20% reserves over 7 years was able to fully feed the population back then for the ensuing 7 years of famine. The math doesn’t seem to add up in my head. But maybe there is a good explanation to it. One such reason could be that during the time of plenty, people tend to live lavishly and wastefully, as opposed to the time of scarcity where they live on marginal resources under what is called austerity measures. And that is a huge problem in our world today. Those who have enough and more than enough are wasting food and other resources while there are people who can barely manage at least one meal in a day

It has been rightly said that poverty and hunger can be eradicated on earth if all the available resources are shared in humane and just manner. The gap between the rich and the poor can be narrowed if someone like Joseph, in character and wisdom, is running the world. The only time I could think of that happening is during the millennial reign of Christ on earth, which is actually in a way typified here in this chapter in our continuing study. It will be a glorious time when our greater-than-Joseph reigns here on this ungodly world, this Egypt, and bring perfect leadership that the world has always yearned for.

Another thing we can say about Joseph’s achievement with regard to crisis management is that he ensured that all the grain that was brought into the reserve was preserved in the best possible way and none was spoilt or lost in any way. Therefore, when the people needed it back, it was all available for them from the hand of Joseph. He was a trustworthy man and a faithful steward in whichever position he found himself in; whether at his father’s household back in Canaan, or at Potiphar’s house, at the prison confinement and more so now around pharaoh’s throne. One trustworthy leader and faithful steward like Joseph can save a nation from even the worst of crises. Such is the kind we need as a nation!

Finally, we see the final days of the great patriarch of the Jews, Jacob. He arrived in Egypt at the age of 130 years and lives 17 more years over there. Meanwhile his family thrived in this foreign land and increased in wealth and in numbers. Even in years of great famine and in foreign land, the children of Israel prospered. This is a fulfilment of the promise that God had made to their fore-father Abraham to bless his descendants and multiply them as the sand in the sea. And we too can rest assured that every promise of God in Scripture will be fulfilled through Christ even as Apostle Paul makes it clear while writing to the church in Corinth.

He writes: For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. ²⁰ For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 19-20, NLT)

Jacob makes a final plea to Joseph, of which he even makes him swear about; that he would not have him buried in Egypt but rather have him buried in the burying place of his forefathers. Jacob never lost the significance of the promised land despite the comfort and plenty of Egypt, even at a time when the promised land was devastated by a deadly famine. The true mark of a believer is realizing that however good or bad things turn out to be here on earth, this world is not our home, we’re just passing through. We are but pilgrims here, citizens of heaven, that glorious land where there will be no more sin or sorrow and where every tear shall be wiped away for good! Oh, what a wonderful and glorious place it will be!

The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that the saints of old exemplified great faith when they died with the heavenly hope of this new Jerusalem when he writes: These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. ¹⁴ For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. ¹⁵ And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-16, NKJV)

Amen.