53 JOSEPH IN CHARGE

Joseph is wonderfully vindicated and certainly illustrates what Psalm 37:6 says, “He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” Pharaoh said, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt” (1) Pharaoh put Joseph in an honorable office; not only employed him to gather grain, probably corn, but made him prime-minister of state, the one that oversees the accounting tasks and financial reporting procedures, and, from the description we may guess that he also had power to enforce his requirements as the chief justice of the kingdom, perhaps as the Military General of the forces. The general description of Joseph’s authority indicates that he was not only over the grain and finances, but also had authority to enforce his will perhaps like police or those with military controls. How else can you interpret this: "He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!”? In this way Pharaoh put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.’” (44). All the affairs of the kingdom must pass through his hand.

God had promised Abraham that nations would be blessed through his descendants. This story certainly fits that description. It is the wisdom of heads of state to prefer those, and the happiness of people to have those preferred, to places of power and trust, in whom the Spirit of God dwells. Good! But can you imagine that there was no one who was jealous of Joseph? No. Surly it is probable that there were those in the court who opposed Joseph’s amazingly rapid advancement. This is likely why Pharaoh was so clear and almost repetitive in stating Joseph’s high level of authority.

Can you imagine the thought processes of those who listened to the conversation between Pharaoh and Joseph. When Joseph’s proposal was made that there should be a corn-master-general nominated, we are told in verse 37, “The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.” Pharaoh’s servants were all pleased with the proposal, each probably hoping for the position themselves; but when Pharaoh said to them, “Joseph will be the man,” did they still like the plan? Not so likely. Notice what Joseph’s father said as he pronounced blessing on his sons before he died as recorded in Genesis 49:23. “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.” Similarly when Daniel received a high position with authority in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, Scripture records in Daniel 6:4, “At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.” We want to be upright, righteous and without blemish in our administrative duties, but there are those who do not share our values who will persecute us for exactly the reason that we are upright. They are jealous, hateful and/or spiteful. This may be the cost of being a righteous leader.

Pharaoh put on Joseph all the marks of honor imaginable, to recommend him to the esteem and respect of the people as the king’s favorite, and one whom he delighted to honor. He gave him his own ring, as a ratification of his commission and authority, delivering to him the great seal. He put fine clothes on him, instead of his prison garments. Anyone in kings’ palaces must wear appropriate clothing; he that, in the morning, was dragging his fetters of iron, before nightfall was wearing fine linen and was adorned with a chain of gold. Pharaoh made him ride in the second chariot to his own, and ordered all to honor to him: “people shouted before him, “Make way!” (43) He gave him a new name, which may have been given to show his authority over him, and yet the meaning of the name declared the value Pharaoh had for him, Zaphnath-paaneah—A revealer of secrets. Pharaoh also married him to a prince’s daughter. Where God had been liberal in giving wisdom and other merits, neither was Pharaoh sparing in conferring honors. This preferment of Joseph was, an abundant recompense for his innocent and patient suffering and is a lasting instance of the fairness and goodness of God. It is an encouragement to all good people to trust in a good God. This promotion was illustrative of the exaltation of Christ, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”(John 1:18) Jesus too is that great Revealer of secrets. The brightest glories of the upper world are put on Him, the highest trust is lodged in His hand, and all power is given to Him both in heaven and earth. He is gatherer, keeper, and disposer, of all the stores of divine grace, and chief ruler of the kingdom of God among men. You and I have a special part to play as His ministers, to cry before him, Bow the knee, kiss the Son, make way. And since this series is designed to inform, encourage and empower Christian leaders, I will surely add that you too, my friend, can fit your own success into this story if you will be patient through the training as Joseph was. 

God further promoted and honored Joseph by giving him two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. In the names he gave them, he acknowledged God giving this good development in his affairs as was Job, through words spoken by Zophar and recorded in Job 11:16, “You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.” Joseph could forget his misery. When you and I are under affliction it may be difficult to imagine a time or what we may feel when we will not be under it, but if, as Paul says in Romans 8, our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory we will experience in heaven, then we too will enjoy what Joseph experienced. Our present afflictions are temporary; the later glory will be permanent. We should bear our afflictions when they are present as those who know that God will so outweigh them by after-comforts that we will forget them when they are past.

When Manasseh was named, Joseph said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household” (51). This is generally a good statement, but wait a minute. Could he be so unnatural as to forget all his father’s house? He surely refers to the unkindness he received from his brothers, or perhaps the wealth and honor he expected from his father with the birthright, but which in a prison in Egypt he thought he would never receive. The fine linen robes he now wore made him forget the coat of many colors which he wore in his father’s house. When Ephraim was named, Joseph remembered he was made fruitful in the land of his affliction. It had been the land of his affliction, and from one perspective it still was because it was not Canaan, the land of promise. Also his distance from his father was still his affliction. Truth and righteousness is sometimes sown for the righteous even in barren and unlikely soils, but if God fertilizes and waters it, it will come up again. The afflictions of the saints promote their fruitfulness, Ephraim means fruitfulness, and Manasseh forgetfulness. If God can help Joseph forget his former afflictions and become fruitful where he is a stranger, God can do that for you too. Is God offering you forgetfulness of negative things and fruitfulness in positive things? That is like our God. The devil wants you to look back at your sorrows, but God want you to look forward to your fruitfulness.

Now notice with me the outcome of Joseph’s predictions. Pharaoh had great confidence in the truthfulness of Joseph’s interpretation of his dreams. The dream was his own and the interpretation came from Joseph. So Pharaoh himself had a part to play in this revelation. It was real to him. It was more important to him than to any other of them. Pharaoh found in his own mind something far beyond what any other person could or would feel; what happened was an exact correspondence with his dreams, as between the key and the lock. The real outcome showed him that he had not been deceived. The seven plenteous years came, “During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully” (47). Then at length they were ended and the seven lean years came as verse 54 says, “and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food.” Is there a lesson here for us as Christian leaders of God’s people? We should prayerfully try to foresee the approaching days of our prosperity and opportunity, and be neither too secure in the enjoyment of them nor slothful in the improvement of our opportunity in them. For years of plenty may end, therefore, whatever your hand finds to do, do it, and gather in gathering time. Work for the night is coming.  Or, as Isaiah 21:12 says, “The watchman replies, ‘Morning is coming, but also the night,’”  There are times of plenty and also of famine. Watch the trends or tendencies in the changes occurring in society around you. Then project the line of those trends and tendencies into the future and you can see what will be unless the tendency changes. That is how to extrapolate present current trends and predict future events. Let the Holy Spirit help you do this and you, as a leader will be able to prepare your people for the future. You and they will not be caught by the surprise others experience.

See what changes of condition we are liable to in this world, and what need we have to be serious and wise in the day of prosperity and in a day of adversity to be glad we have prepared. But you can’t be glad then unless you prepare now. This famine was not only in Egypt, but also in other lands, in all lands, that is, all the neighboring countries. God controls the daily weather and also annual climate changes “He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there” (Psalm 107:34). The narrative records that in the land of Egypt there was bread, probably meaning, that not only that the king, Joseph and the court, but also some of the forward thinking of the regular citizens of Egypt, because of the public announcements of this prediction, by Joseph’s warning and example followed the rule of common wisdom, had laid up what they could when they could.

The performance of Joseph’s trust is another aspect of leadership we should pull from this story and apply to ourselves as Christian leaders today. He was found faithful to his king’s command, as a steward ought to be. Yes, he was high in the land, almost the highest, but he was not the highest. He served one who was higher than he. He was diligent in laying up, while the plenty lasted. Genesis 41: 48 - 49 say, “Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.” He that gathers is a wise son. We ought to be at least as wise as the ants.

The reason he gathered the grain was so that when necessary he might distribute it. He was careful in both aspects. He was prudent and careful in giving it out when the famine came. Preservation of life, not profits, being his chief goal, we may assume that he kept the market rates low by furnishing them at reasonable rates out of his stores. The Egyptians in Joseph’s day were not distressed and needed not to be distressed. They cried out, but did not need to beg to Pharaoh, as that woman in Elisha’s day recorded in 2 Kings 6:26 who cried to the king of Israel. “And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman to him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.” The famine in the city was terrible and that king sent her to his treasurer. He had no Joseph to whom he could send her. This king, however, could say “Go to Joseph” because there was a Joseph. Does your community have a Joseph?

In much the same way, God, the Holy Spirit and you and I as ministers, servants and messengers of His may direct those that ask Him for mercy and grace to “go to the Lord Jesus,” in Whom all fulness dwells; and say, “Do what he tells you to do” as Mary told the servants at the wedding feast in Cana. The reason to gather grain was to eventually distribute it. Joseph, no doubt, with wisdom, justice and fairness fixed the price of the corn he sold, so that Pharaoh, whose money had bought it, might have reasonable profit, and yet the country might not be oppressed, nor would unfair advantage be taken of the citizens. Proverbs 11:26 says, “People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.” Some prefer to keep their grain hoping for an even higher price later, but Joseph does not seem to be that kind of a person and does not have that kind of goal. He was far more likely to let the price be determined by the golden rule of justice, to do to others as what he would like for others to do to him.

At the end of the story, people had food to eat, lives were preserved and Pharaoh owned the land and people. God had a man through whom He could save lives. Does God have in you someone through whom He can save lives today?