Joseph Part 16: Joseph Leads Egypt through a Famine
Notes
Transcript
Joseph Leads Egypt Through a Famine
Joseph Leads Egypt Through a Famine
12 And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents.
13 But there was no food in the entire region, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted by the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the silver to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were purchasing, and he brought the silver to Pharaoh’s palace. 15 When the silver from the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die here in front of you? The silver is gone!”
16 But Joseph said, “Give me your livestock. Since the silver is gone, I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and the donkeys. That year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18 When that year was over, they came the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our lord that the silver is gone and that all our livestock belongs to our lord. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we die here in front of you—both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”
20 In this way, Joseph acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, because every Egyptian sold his field since the famine was so severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph made the people servants from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 The only land he did not acquire belonged to the priests, for they had an allowance from Pharaoh. They ate from their allowance that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Understand today that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow it in the land. 24 At harvest, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, your households, and your dependents.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “We have found favor with our lord and will be Pharaoh’s slaves.” 26 So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.
27 Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.
"So Yoseph supported his father and his brothers and all the house of his father with bread for the mouths of the children.
There was no bread in all the land." well except the bread. Do you see the contrast? So the bread in the little Goshen refuge, but no bread in all the land, 'cause that flood, excuse me, famine is heavy in the land.
"All the land of Egypt became weary, including the land of Canaan where they came from. Everything ravaged by that famine.
So Yoseph, who was sold for 20 shekels of silver, ends up gathering in all the silver that was found in Egypt and in Canaan in exchange for the grain that everyone's buying. And Yoseph brought the silver into the house of Pharaoh." So he's got bread, everyone else has money. And Yoseph brings all the silver into the house for Phar’oh
"And the silver came to an end. People had no more money in Egypt and in Canaan, and all Egypt came to Yoseph saying, 'Give us bread so we can live and not die.'"
Do you remember that phrase? This has been an echo. This is what Yaaqov said to the sons the first time he sent them down, "Go to Egypt for bread so we can live and not die." Now Egypt comes to Yoseph saying, "Give us bread so we can live and not die." And there's no silver anyway. You have it all.
So Yoseph said, "How about all the animals? Let's bring all the animals in." So you've got all the food, you've got all the money, and now he's gonna bring in all the animals.
So he's like a Noah gathering up what Will, all the value in all of the food and the animals.
"'I will give bread to you in exchange for your herds if there's no silver.' And so they brought their herds to Yoseph. Yoseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses and the flock herds and the cattle herds and the donkeys." The fact that we're listing the animals, this is all echoing the listing of the animals in the flood story. "And he led them out for bread in exchange for the herds." This was the first year of the famine.
This is just year one.
"It came about that year came to an end and they came to him in the second year of the famine. And they said, 'We can't hide anything from my master. The silver's come to an end. All the herds of animals belong to you. We've got nothing left except our bodies and our land.
Why should we die before your eyes, both us and our land? So buy us, buy our land in exchange for bread. Both we and our land will become servants to Pharaoh.'"
now here is the image of Pharaoh rescuing the nation, and not just their money, not just their animals, but everything gets brought into the ark.
Also have echos of Genesis 25:30-32
30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) 31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
He gives over the right of firstborn authority in exchange for food because he thinks he's about to die. in that case, it speaks poorly on Esau. And it speaks to Yaaqov being like a snake, shrewd,
Here, it's the one who is in this position because of his snakey brothers. But God redeemed it. And the whole family's been transformed through this. And now the one in the place, but he's not the firstborn, but he's acting, he is in the role of the firstborn ruler.
Not the same but echos and we have to ponder and meditate on it.
So notice, the narrative is walking you through of the silver, the animals, what's left? The people and the land. So all the people and all the land become the property of the image and of Pharaoh.
"Give us seed so we can live and not die and so that the land won't be desolated." And then the narrative goes on to say exactly that. He purchased all the land, and he made the people into servants. Verse 22.
Joshua, the Son of Yoseph, and the Priestly Lands
Joshua, the Son of Yoseph, and the Priestly Lands
there was one group that he didn't purchase, 'cause he can't. Can’t purchase priest land its holy set apart, this is Egyptian priest
Notice how Yoseph purchases the land on behalf of Pharaoh and then incorporates it into the kingdom’s property so that the entire population become Egypt’s servants. However, the narrator highlights how the land that belongs to the priests is not incorporated but rather set apart.
This seemingly random detail is a forward anticipation to the future arrangement of the promised land for the tribes of Israel. In the Joshua scroll, we find Joshua, a son of Ephrayim-Yoseph, providing the land allotments to the tribes of his kinsmen, except for the priests, whose land is never to be sold to anyone.
2 “Command the Israelites to give cities out of their hereditary property for the Levites to live in and pastureland around the cities. 3 The cities will be for them to live in, and their pasturelands will be for their herds, flocks, and all their other animals. 4 The pasturelands of the cities you are to give the Levites will extend from the city wall five hundred yards on every side. 5 Measure a thousand yards outside the city for the east side, a thousand yards for the south side, a thousand yards for the west side, and a thousand yards for the north side, with the city in the center. This will belong to them as pasturelands for the cities. 6 “The cities you give the Levites will include six cities of refuge, which you will provide so that the one who kills someone may flee there; in addition to these, give forty-two other cities.
This goes all the way back to the book of Numbers when, hey, when you go into the land, set Joshua up, and he's gonna apportion the land. And make sure that all the sons of Israel, the 12 tribes, are all to give just little plots of cities and land to the Levites for pasture lands around the cities. And the Levites are gonna get 48 cities, and six of them are little Edens where there's no death allowed in that city. The cities of refuge.
1 “The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They will eat the Lord’s food offerings; that is their inheritance. 2 Although Levi has no inheritance among his brothers, the Lord is his inheritance, as he promised him. 3 This is the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether it is an ox, a sheep, or a goat; the priests are to be given the shoulder, jaws, and stomach. 4 You are to give him the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and fresh oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in his name from now on.
And why is this? Well, Deuteronomy 18, "The Levitical priests and the tribe of Levi, they have no portion along with their brothers, because Yahweh is their inheritance." So they have, I mean, they're gonna be provided places to live, but they're renters. They don't have any permanent landholdings like the rest of the tribes. And so when you get to the book of Joshua, this is exactly what Joshua does. And he gives the tribes of Levi little places set apart within the tribes, but in the year of Jubilee, like, or in, that land can never be sold and so on.
1 Joshua was now old, advanced in age, and the Lord said to him, “You have become old, advanced in age, but a great deal of the land remains to be possessed. 2 This is the land that remains: All the districts of the Philistines and the Geshurites:
14 He did not, however, give any inheritance to the tribe of Levi. This was their inheritance, just as he had promised: the food offerings made to the Lord, the God of Israel.
32 These were the portions Moses gave them on the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan east of Jericho. 33 But Moses did not give a portion to the tribe of Levi. The Lord, the God of Israel, was their inheritance, just as he had promised them.
This part of the story, because it seems like Joseph is being kind of cruel as a ruler in our modern way of looking at things. Because, first of all, he takes the grain from the people, and then he sells it back to them at these sort of exorbitant prices where he's taking, you know, all their silver and their animals and their land and then their actual, themselves as servants. And this is portrayed by the narrator, it seems, like a good thing, like a wise thing to do.
If you go and look at Genesis commentaries, you'll find a real variety of opinions about whether this is a positive or negative thing.
So what's interesting is that the narrator just tells the story back here in chapter 47.
but when the people respond, what they say is, "Man, you know, you're shrewd and you drive a hard bargain." What they say is, "You've saved us! Let us find favor! We'll be your servants 'cause you saved us all!" So the characters themselves see it as a positive thing.
But that doesn't prevent commentators from seeing the sequence of a ruler who stored up grain, and then, so some people see it as he's being snakey here. And so the question is, how do you know?
And so one, I think all the analogies to Noah and the flood are a key one. So he's being portrayed as the chosen one who, it was his idea to store the grain in the first place. And so he did that. And now when the people come, even though they're out of money, he's bringing this generous provision of like, "Well, gimme your animals." And then, "Okay, we'll just take it all. I'll bring you all into the ark." And so it's the analogy with Noah
This is all about in the midst of a de-creation, God appoints a chosen one to bring about life. And the narrator I think wants us to make the connections and see it as positive. But if you don't see that, you could easily read it as he's kind of like a shrewd guy who's just make the rich getting richer.
verse 23. "So Yoseph said to the people, 'Look, I've purchased y'all and your land for Pharaoh. Look, here's all the seed. Go sow your land.'" So he both receives but then gives back so that the land can have seed.
"And it will come about that y'all will give Pharaoh one fifth of everything." Think of this analogy with the priests and the Levites. They give one-tenth, double of what's going on here.
And they say, "Thank you, you saved us." And Yoseph set up a decree. A fifth is for Pharaoh, but those priests, it as if Yoseph here becomes the one who sets the model that the later laws of the Torah will imitate. As you're reading through, it's as if the laws set up for Israel and the priests become another example of the wisdom of Joseph back here.
Because you could say, oh, this is a narrator modeling what Yoseph is doing after the laws of the Torah, 'cause the narrator knows about the laws of the Torah. And you could put it that way. But in the narrative, it's actually the laws about the priests of Levi that are modeled after the wisdom of Joseph.
Last sentence, "Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. They took possession of it, and they were fruitful and multiplied very much."
And you're like, "Yeah, all right!" A little temporary Eden, ark, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah, Heaven has touched Earth just a little bit in the midst of this famine. .
Yaaqov’s Age ane Exile in Egypt
Yaaqov’s Age ane Exile in Egypt
a Jewish commentator, Nahum Sarna, said When Yaaqov tells you his age right there, what it means is that he was 130 years old when he left Canaan.
And that links up to a sequence of just little comments about the age of the patriarchs at different, back to Isaac and Jacob. And what's interesting is that you were told that Abraham was 75 when he entered the land of Canaan, and that he was 100 when he had Isaac, and that Isaac was 60 when he had Jacob. So when you put the math together, Abraham was in the land 25 years, then he had Isaac who was 60 before he had Jacob, and then Jacob lived in the land for 130 years for a total of 215. Yeah, okay, cool. What's interesting is there's a little note at the end of the Passover legislation on the night that Israel leaves. And the little note says, "The sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt was 430 years." Precisely two times 215.
So in other words, the exile in Egypt was twice the number of years that the patriarchs were in the land.
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
And there are some people that think, because the exile in Egypt becomes a pattern for the exile in Babylon later, that when Isaiah 40 "Bring comfort, comfort to my people, her iniquity has been removed, she has received from Yahweh's hand double for her sins."
It's kind of weird 'cause you're like double, the exile was double, and the 70 years of Babylonian exile, people have struggled to know how to make sense of that.
But it is interesting that the Egyptian exile was precisely double of the 215 years that the patriarchs were just like ruining everything I mean, all the terrible things that happened in the book of Genesis happened in those 215 years that was doubled in their exile in Egypt.
So that could be what's going on.
Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons
Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons
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