63 JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION

Joseph has taken care of his family which has moved safely to Goshen. Now we take a look at Joseph’s responsibilities in Egypt. Joseph was not only the savior of his family, but the savior of all of Egypt which he rescues from ruin. God is King of nations as well as King of saints, and provides food for all flesh. Joseph now returns to the management of that great responsibility which Pharaoh had placed in his hand. It would have been pleasing enough to him to have gone to Goshen and lived with his father and brothers, but his responsibilities would not permit it. After he had cared for domestic responsibilities, visited his father and seen him well settled, he next applied himself as carefully as ever to the fulfillment of his public duties. At times even natural affection must give way to necessary business. Parents and children must sometimes be content to be absent one from each other when it is necessary. Sometimes children endure the absence of the parent who is busy serving the Lord. Other times parents, like my parents did, endured the absence of their children and grandchildren when their grown children went off to the mission field.

The famine brought the entire area of Egypt and the surrounding countries to a great extremity. There was no bread, and they fainted as verse thirteen says. “There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine.” According to verses 15 and 19 they were even ready to die: “There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine” and “Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”  See here what a dependence they had and we have on weather patterns in God’s ecological system. If its usual favors are suspended but for just a while, we die, we perish, we all perish. All our wealth would not keep us from starving if the rain of heaven were withheld even for just two or three years. See how much we are at God’s mercy, and let us keep ourselves always in His love.

We can also see here a lesson about the foolishness of not thinking ahead. If the common population of Egyptians had done for themselves in the seven years of plenty as Joseph did for Pharaoh, they would not now be suffering from hunger. Evidently they did not regard the warning they had surely heard of the regarding years of famine. Certainly the word was out that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Even without newspapers or newscasts, the populace would have heard, yet they did not prepare. Perhaps they did not believe it. 

Everyone could see that Pharaoh had given to Joseph the authority to collect one fifth of the grain. They all saw this happening, but not one acted on it for themselves. They thought that tomorrow will be as this day and next year as this. Because man knows not his time of gathering when he has it, so, therefore, his misery is increased when there is nothing to gather. Also, we may see how God evidently put a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites, as afterwards at the time of the plagues. 1.  Exodus 8:22 “‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land.” 2. “But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’” Exodus 10:23 “No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.” It appears that these troubles did not affect the Israelites. Verse 27 says, “Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.” It looks like Jacob and his family, though strangers, were plentifully fed while the Egyptians were dying for want. Psalm 34:10 says,  “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” God can make a difference.

What a price the Egyptians paid! The Egyptians in buying corn parted with all their money which they had previously hoarded up, “Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace.” Silver and gold would not feed them, they must have corn. All the money of the kingdom was, through Joseph’s business acumen and management skills, brought into the treasuries of Pharaoh. When the money failed, they parted with all their animals, including those animals that worked such as the horses and donkeys, and other animals that provided food such as the flocks and the herds. Verse 17 says, “So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.” By this it should seem that we may better live on bread without flesh than on flesh without bread. We may suppose they parted the more easily with their cattle because they had little or no grass for them; and now Pharaoh saw in reality what he had seen before only in a dream, nothing but lean, gaunt and skinny cattle. Next, when they had sold their stocks off their land, it was easy to persuade themselves to sell their land too, rather than starve. What good would land do them, when they had neither corn to sow in it nor cattle to eat from it? They therefore sold land next, for another year’s supply of corn. When their land was sold, so that they had nothing to live on, they must next, of course, sell themselves, that they might live purely by their labour, and hold their lands only as serfs at the courtesy of the king. There are few, perhaps some, who would dare to die rather than live in slavery, and dependence on a power over which they had no control. Nevertheless, it was a great mercy to the Egyptians that, in this distress, they could have corn at all. If they had all died of hunger, their lands perhaps would have been given to the king. If their children were dead from starvation they would have no heirs so they chose to live on the king’s land and belong to the king rather than to die.

Joseph devised a method that accommodated both Pharaoh and the people. Following Joseph’s plan the king would have the advantage due him for having placed Joseph in charge of gathering the grain for seven years, and yet the people would not be ruined. As long as there was famine, the land produced nothing, so owning land had no practical benefit.

But the famine would end. God will not contend with man forever and neither will He be angry forever. So Joseph and the people came to an agreement, with which it seems both sides were pleased. It was that the people should occupy and enjoy the lands, as he assigned to them. Then they will receive seed to sow out of the king’s stores, for their own proper food and seed for the next year’s crop. They would pay a fifth part of the yearly profits as a kind of rent to the king. This became a standing law as recorded in verse 26, “So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.”

It was a good bargain to have food for their lands, when otherwise they and their families must have starved, and then to have the use of their lands again on such easy terms. Governmental officers are worthy of honor if they have the wisdom and honesty to keep a fair balance between the government and the people. This way the population enjoys both liberty and property and the government receives a fair income and the obedience that lends itself to an orderly and peaceful society. In the multitude of such counsellors there is safety. If afterwards the Egyptians thought it difficult to pay so great a duty to the king out of their lands, they must remember how just and kind it was at the beginning since the king had made this provision so the people could buy back their land. They might be glad to pay a fifth of the harvest when they consider that it could have been that all of it went to the king.

It is wise for us to notice how faithful Joseph was to the king who had appointed him. He did not put the money in his own pocket, nor distribute the lands to his own family or friends. In a later generation the Israelites marched out of Egypt with silver and gold from the Egyptians, but that was not a result of any dishonest management on Joseph’s part. Joseph converted it all entirely to Pharaoh’s use. Those in public trusts, if they raise great estates, must be careful that it not happen because they took unfair advantage of their governmental positions. A good and free conscience is much more valuable than silver and gold.

Verse twenty-one says, “Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other.” Yes, they became servants, but they were well-fed servants. Would it not be better to be a well-fed living servant than to be a starving land-owner? However difficult becoming Pharaoh’s servants may have been to them, they themselves were at this time aware of it as a very great kindness, and were thankful they were not used even worse. They were aware that Joseph had saved them all. Verse 25 says, “‘You have saved our lives,’ they said. ‘May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.’” There is good reason that the Savior of our lives should be the Master of our lives. What they said equalled saying, “You saved us so we are willing to be your servants.” We can readily say this to Jesus.

Joseph made provisions in favor of the priests. The priests were maintained by the state. They did not need to sell their lands. Verse 22 says, “However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.” The wife Pharaoh had given to Joseph, when Joseph came out of prison, was the daughter of a priest. Just what the priest or any of the priests believed about God we do not know. Undoubtedly, Joseph shared his faith with his wife and it would be difficult to believe that he who had led his steward and probably others in his employment to understand who the true God was would not have shared that same faith with his own wife. Whatever was the belief system of the priests, we know that later, when Moses confronted the magicians a power encounter between the forces of righteousness and the powers of the devil developed. If we try to find here a lesson applicable to ourselves as Christian leaders who want to be good leaders today in our multi-faith societies, we may observe that even though Joseph’s faith was different than the faith of the priests of Egypt, he was still respectful towards them. This kind action surely will speak louder than words today just as well as it did in Joseph’s day. Who knows but what our respect and courtesy toward leaders in other religions in our communities may keep the door open for conversations about our Jesus if those leaders in other religions some day sincerely search for the truth. If they see a vision or dream a dream about God, they are certainly more likely to come to you with their honest questions if you have been respectful towards them than if you have not.

Notice the comfort Jacob lived in while the Egyptians were impoverished in their own land, Jacob was replenished in a strange land. He lived seventeen years after he came into Egypt, far beyond his own expectation. Seventeen years he had nourished Joseph (that is how old Joseph was when he was sold), and now, as though to repay the debt, for seventeen years Joseph nourished Jacob. Observe how kindly God ordered Jacob’s affairs, so that when he was old, and least able to bear care or fatigue, he had least need for it, being well provided for by his own well-positioned son. God considers the situation of our times and also the specific condition of each of His people.

Lets look at the care in which Jacob died. At last the time drew near that Israel must die as verse 29 says, “When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,’” Israel, a prince with God, had power over the angel and prevailed, yet he must yield to death. There is no remedy, he must die: it is appointed for all men, therefore for him; and there are no exceptions. Joseph supplied Jacob with bread, that he might not die by famine; but this did not keep him from dying by age or sickness. He died by degrees; his candle was not blown out, but gradually burning down to the candle stick. At some distance, he saw the time drawing closer. It is an advantage to see the approach of death before it happens so that we may make preparations for those we leave behind. Jacob’s care, as he saw the day approaching, was about his burial, not the pomp of it, but the place of it.

He wanted to be buried in Canaan. He resolved on this because it was the land of promise and because it was a type of heaven, that better country as Hebrews 11:14 says, “People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.” Jacob did this by his faith as Hebrews 11:21 says, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.” Later in this series we will look at the specific blessings Jacob pronounced on his sons, but here we consider Jacob’s own future. Nothing will better help to make a death-bed easy than the certain prospect of a rest in Canaan after death.

Jacob’s life pointed forward. He showed this by requesting to be buried in Canaan; not Egypt.