Daily Scripture Reading Genesis 47:13-26

During a crisis, people often turn first to the government to manage the crisis and protect all the people from harm. Many people have the mentality that the role of government is to manage crises. It is true the government is in the best position to manage extraordinary situations, and the nature of some crises demands the government get involved. However, people often do not anticipate the long-term effects of allowing the government to manage every crisis.

The famine recorded in Genesis 47 was a massive crisis. The Egyptian government under Joseph’s leadership managed the crisis and kept the Egyptian people from starving. However, the end result of the famine is a warning to us of the dangers that are always lurking when the government manages a crisis.

When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he predicted there would be seven years of famine after the seven years of plenty. Joseph’s family moved to Egypt two years into the famine, which meant there were still five years of famine to endure (see Genesis 45:11).

Gen. 47:13 ¶ Now there was no food in all the land because the famine was very heavy, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

Notice the famine was in both Egypt and Canaan.

Gen. 47:14 And Joseph gathered 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.

Notice that all the people in both Egypt and Canaan ran out of money to buy food.

Gen. 47:15 Then the money came to an end in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan. So all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food, for why should we die in your presence? For our money is gone.”

The Bible does not give us all the details of these transactions, but it appears the Egyptian people produced a lot of excess food during the seven years of plenty, and Joseph “confiscated” much of the excess food through taxation in order to stockpile it. But then when the famine came, Joseph did not give the grain back to the people who produced it; instead, Joseph charged them for it. Within a couple years, the Egyptian people ran out of money.

Gen. 47:16 Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock, since your money is gone.”

Gen. 47:17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses and the flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he fed them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.

This was a massive transfer of wealth, and a massive change in Egyptian society. They essentially started changing from a market economy, where resources were privately owned, to a command economy where the government owned all resources.

Gen. 47:18 Then that year came to an end. And they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money has come to an end, and the livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our land.

Gen. 47:19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

Gen. 47:20 ¶ So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every Egyptian sold his field because the famine was severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh’s.

At this point the transition was complete. Egypt was no longer a market economy where individual people owned land, animals and crops. Instead, it was a command economy in which the government owned everything and all people worked for Pharaoh.

Gen. 47:21 As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end.

There was also a massive migration from rural living to urban living.

Gen. 47:22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they ate off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land.

Gen. 47:23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land.

Gen. 47:24 And it will be, at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”

Gen. 47:25 So they said, “You have kept us alive! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”

Ponder the mentality of the Egyptian people. They were so thankful to be alive, they were more than happy to be Pharaoh’s slaves. That is the opposite mentality of Patrick Henry who said, “Give me liberty or give me death”, or the state of New Hampshire whose motto is “Live Free or Die.”

Gen. 47:26 And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s.

During a crisis, people often turn first to the government to manage the crisis and protect all the people from harm. Many people have the mentality that the role of government is to manage crises.

The famine recorded in Genesis 47 was a massive crisis. The Egyptian government under Joseph’s leadership managed the crisis and kept the Egyptian people from starving. However, the end result of the famine was a massive change in Egyptian society. They went from being a market economy, where the Egyptian people owned land, animals, and crops, to being a command economy where Pharaoh owned all property and resources, and the Egyptian people were merely slaves of Pharaoh.

This illustrates the danger of allowing the government to manage every crisis. A crisis often becomes an excuse for the government to become more wealthy and more powerful, while the individual citizens lose power and wealth.

What examples have you seen over the past century where a crisis led to the government amassing more power and wealth, and wresting control away from the citizens?

What safeguards could be established to make sure the government does what is necessary to manage a crisis without it becoming a power grab and a transfer of wealth?

Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. If you have already joined my email list, thank you and please tell others about Bible Mountain. If you have not joined my email list yet, please do so now. In order to join, go to Bible Mountain dotcom, click on subscribe, and that will take you to a page where you can sign up. Your email address will not be sold nor given away. Once again, thanks for visiting Bible Mountain.

“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”