Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.
So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.”
Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.”
So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.
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.
“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.”
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.
And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.”
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. (Gen. 47:13-27)
When I say the word dictator, probably a number of negative ideas and evil men come to mind. You think of Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il in the modern era. Further back in history, we think of murderous men such as Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler, Shaka Zulu, Caligula, King Herod, but it is interesting to see that the majority of the worst and most murderous dictators have all lived in the last 100 years.
Not only these names come to mind, but the ideas of tyranny, genocide, absolute power corrupting absolutely, genocidal maniacs. The horrors of the last 100 years have shown us what happens when power becomes centralised in one man. We’ve developed checks and balances to keep it from happening, but somehow, there is always a slide back towards vesting power in one man. Maybe it’s laziness, maybe it’s the speed with which dictators get things done, maybe its the appeal of one man who seems to be visionary, but humans are seemingly wanting to give over their freedom to one man with a lot of promises.
But what if that one man was truly a good man? Or at the very least a man who selflessly did what was best for the people? Some people have argued that there were rulers like that – Marcus Aurelius in the second century, Frederick the Great, but they are exceptions, and very flawed exceptions.
In the biblical account of Joseph, we have an example of a man gaining absolute control, and yet being benevolent and kind with that absolute control. We will see how Joseph, through the revelation God gave him, through his shrewd administration, came to gain absolute control for the throne of Egypt. But we will see what kind of ruler he became through this control. And then, as we’ve seen through this study, Joseph will point to someone else who becomes absolute ruler of all, a benevolent monarch to those who bow the knee.
I. The Egyptians Surrender Their Money
Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.
In the first year of a famine, food is scarce, but there is still some, and some seed left to plant. If a famine goes into a second year, crops are ruined, and there is no seed to plant for the next year, unless you planned ahead. If a famine goes on, it is truly a disaster.
That’s what was happening in Egypt and in some of the surrounding nations. As we reach this chapter, Egypt is in the third year of the famine, and these verses describe what happened in that year and the years that followed.
The first thing that the people did was to simply buy their food from Joseph’s storehouses. But if you are buying food, and not producing food, you are simply consuming your wealth. You buy, and you eat for a month, but then when the month is up, you need to buy some more. And since the land is not producing, that’s going to happen again and again, until either the stored food runs out or the money runs out. That’s what happened here. The people of Egypt and of Canaan soon exhausted all the money they had.
It is quite amazing to think just how much food Joseph had stored up from the seven years of plenty. Consider that every last coin in Egypt basically ends up in the royal treasuries. And for all that, Joseph’s granaries still have a lot more food. All the money in the kingdom has not purchased all the food Joseph stored up. Joseph has all their money.
Did you know that the day you were born from above, the day you turned from self and sin to Christ and His cross, that Christ became Lord of your wealth? There is a little comic-strip cartoon of the pastor about to baptise a man, and he says to the man, “You understand, that everything that goes under the water belongs to Jesus?” In the next panel, you see the pastor has completely immersed the man, but sticking out of the water is the man’s one hand, holding his wallet above the water.
Now we did not pay money for our salvation. No money can impress God. He tells Israel that He already owns the cattle on thousand hills. A 21st century equivalent would be, I own the contents of every bank on Earth.
The correct understanding of money is what King David said at the dedication of the materials for the future building of the Temple.
“Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name.
But who am I, and who are my people, That we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, And of Your own we have given You.” (1 Chr. 29:13-14)
David understood that giving to God has an ironic twist to it. All that you give to Him, He first gave to you. It still belongs to Him. It is rather like having a pitcher filled with water from a fountain, and then pouring it back into the fountain. Why would you do that? You do that because it says to God, “You are the source. When we pour back into You, it emphasises that we are not enriching You. It shows that you are the one who fills our pitchers, and we gladly give to You.”
Before you give it, the Lord already owns it. But when you give it, you admit and show that you believe it. And the Lord doesn’t ask you to give Him all the money that is His. He simply says, “Remind yourself of whose money it is. Remind yourself of what kind of generosity I have lavished on you. Remind yourself of where your treasure truly is.”
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt. 6:21)
For the citizens of Egypt, the loss of all their money led to a second stage.
II. The Egyptians Surrender Their Possessions
So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.”
Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.”
So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.
The people had now exhausted their cash, but they still had possessions. In this case, in an agricultural society, the possessions they had were primarily animals. Animals for transport, animals for materials such as wool, leather, or animals for food.
Now is Joseph being cruel? Why doesn’t he just give a free daily handout of food to the starving Egyptians?
Because Joseph understands the dignity of work and the importance of food coming from work. In the case of the Egyptians, they had now spent all the money they had earned. They could not sell their animals to each other, for everyone had used up their cash. The only one they could sell them to would be Joseph, and it would be pointless for Joseph to give them money, and then have them return it immediately for food. Instead, Joseph simply gives them in food the value of their possessions. They worked for those possessions, and now that work is rewarding them, even in this time of catastrophe. Even in this time of disaster, Joseph is upholding the economy by emphasising the importance of work, of production, of value.
But the result is that the people of Egypt are still doing what they did before. They are living from hand to mouth, eating away their wealth, with no production. And as each month in this famine goes by, Joseph is controlling more and more of the people’s possessions.
Fairly soon, all of the people’s possessions have been traded with Joseph for food. Joseph controls their money and controls their possessions.
When you become a Christian, God does not ask you to give your possessions in exchange for salvation. But He does make it clear that your possessions are now His.
Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “`You shall not murder,’`You shall not commit adultery,’`You shall not steal,’`You shall not bear false witness,’`Honor your father and your mother,’ and,`You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”
The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Matt. 19:16-22)
Jesus gave this command to expose this man’s covetousness to himself. The man thought he could have this arrangement with God, in which he would keep God’s commandments, tick the religious box, but then hoard and enjoy his possessions for himself. He wanted both selfish wealth and to be right with God.
Jesus says to him, go and sell everything, not to earn his way into Heaven, but to expose the man’s covetousness, to show him that he had not truly submitted to God, that he was still his own lord and lived for himself. So Jesus commented:
And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Lk. 12:15)
Do you know how you know if you have surrendered your possessions? It is if you make them available for Christ. The donkey that Jesus rode on belonged to someone else, but he made it available. The homes Jesus stayed in belonged to someone else, but they made them available. The boat Jesus preached from belonged to someone else, but he made it available. The tomb Jesus body was laid in belonged to someone else, but he made it available. Are your possessions available to Christ, to be used to love His people, spread His Word, refresh His messengers, encourage the discouraged, transport those who have none?
After having given up their money and possessions, only one thing remained.
III. The Egyptians Surrender Their Persons and Property
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.
“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.”
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.
And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end.
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.
The Egyptians say, the only thing we have left is our property and our persons. But what good is a house if there is no food in it? What good is land if it is barren? What’s the point our own freedom, if we are merely waiting to die?
And so they offer up themselves and their land. Private property is the foundation of freedom in any society, once a government takes away private property, through expropriation, through land grabs, through collectivisation, you no longer have a free society, you have a tyranny.
But none of this is taking place here. The people recognise that this disaster has come upon them. They voluntarily approach Joseph and ask him to buy their land, and buy them as servants.
As a result, all the land of Egypt becomes owned by the throne of Egypt. Every square inch of the land is now owned by Pharaoh, with the exception, we find out, of the priests. Joseph did not buy their land, because they were receiving food rations from the state anyway. They did not need to sell their land, because they were supported by the state.
Every living person now belongs to Pharaoh. Pharaoh has become the absolute ruler, the complete dictator of the land.
How many people realise that salvation is not God honouring your independence and then blessing you with Heaven. Salvation is when God conquers the soul of its rebellion, and through Christ’s cross and resurrection, comes to again claim absolute lordship over that person.
For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. (Rom. 14:7-9)
Now it is true that as we grow as Christians, we realise that more and more of our lives belong to Christ. We voluntarily surrender control of them. But the truth is, He owns you and everything you have first time around as Creator. He owns it a second time around as your Redeemer. What happens as we grow is that we stop holding on so tightly to what God already owns. We come to realise that we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us, and the life which we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.
So what happened to the Egyptians who surrendered everything to Joseph and became his slaves?
IV. Joseph Displays Benevolent Lordship
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.
“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.”
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.
This is what happens when a good man has absolute control. Joseph moved the people closer to the granaries, so that he could take care of them. What Joseph did next is he essentially introduced a kind of feudalism. The land was now Pharaoh’s, but they became tenants, farming Pharaoh’s land.
However, under this just system, Joseph gave them seed to farm with from the granaries, and they were allowed to keep 80% of what they farmed. Essentially a 20% tax rate, for people who got to live and work on Pharaoh’s land for free.
Joseph’s wise administration did several things.
- First, it centralised power in Pharaoh. By the time Moses comes along, we are going to find a very powerful Pharaoh. By his time, the feudal system will have turned into vast slave armies.
- Second, it elevated Egypt to the status of world power. When God delivers Israel, He is not going to free them from a band of petty Arabian desert nomads. He is going to free 2 million people from an empire at the zenith of its power.
- Third, it kept stability and order in a time in which revolutions and revolts are common. Egypt survives the famine, and comes out on the other side different, but in most respects, stronger and more stable.
Joseph, under pharaoh, was a benevolent, wise and kind lord.
Do you know what it is to be in the hands of a benevolent dictator? If you are a Christian, you do.
All that you are becomes His, your money, your possessions, your land, your very person, with your gifts, talents, mind, abilities, body. But once your whole life is under the overlordship of Jesus Christ, it could not be in better hands. It is safe to say that Joseph managed the Egyptians lands better than when they had been in the Egyptians’ hands. And so, when we belong to Christ, He does a far better job of running our lives than we could do on our own.
Peter once asked Jesus if it was worth it for them to have surrendered completely to Him.
Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
So Jesus answered and said,
“Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,
who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time– houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions– and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mk. 10:28-30)
So, how do you respond to a benevolent, kind, lord, like Joseph?
V. The Egyptians Show Grateful Surrender
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.”
The Egyptians say to Joseph – your wisdom and kindness has saved us from perishing. Show grace to us, we voluntarily give ourselves in service to Pharaoh. You don’t hear any murmuring, any complaining. No one is accusing Joseph of extortion, of manipulating them. No one is demanding free food. No one is demanding food and independence. Joseph is supplying them with food through his foresight, and they are gratefully surrendering to him.
That sounds a lot like Messiah Jesus. His suffering and sacrifice enabled him to provide for us Himself as living bread. He offers Himself to us to save our lives.
Once we grasp this, and desire this, we turn away from demanding our independence, and we say, Christ, you have saved us, let us find favour in your sight, show us grace, cleanse us of our sins, we will be Your servants.
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:14-15)
It’s what Paul speaks of when he says I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1)
It’s what we read of in Exodus 21, where the Hebrew servant who was paying off his debts for six years was supposed to go free in the seventh. But he had the option to bind himself to his master for life, by a public oath of loving surrender: “I love my master, I will not go out free”. And the only reason a man would choose to do that, is if he had been in the household of a man like Joseph, a man who reflects the ultimate benevolent lord, Christ Himself. When you are around a Christlike master, you decide that he will do a better job of leading you than you would yourself.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to submit to tyrants, evil despots, and maniacal dictators. But there is One who rules so wisely, so kindly, so perfectly, that glorified beings voluntarily bow before Him and say,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12)
Andrew Murray said, “God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.” The question simply becomes the same as those Egyptians faced: cling to your independence, and die, and surrender to the benevolent Lord of all, and live.