Genesis 41:37-57--Joseph Rises to Power

​Joseph Rises to Power
37 This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. 43 And he made him ride in his second chariot. And they called out before him, “Bow the knee!” Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. 47 During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, 48 and he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it. 49 And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

50 Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him. 51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.” 52 The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

53 The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.”

56 So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57 Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

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Remember from last time that God has sent Pharaoh some disturbing dreams that none of his spiritual advisors, the magicians of Egypt, could interpret for him.  The chief cupbearer who had been in prison with Joseph and had a disturbing dream of his own that God had given Joseph the interpretation for, remembers Joseph and wrongly ascribes the interpretation that he received to the man--he wasn't really paying attention when Joseph said "The Lord will give the interpretation."  The chief cupbearer tells Pharaoh that he should call for Joseph because it couldn't hurt to ask this man if he could interpret the dream that none of the magicians could, and the chief cupbearer feels guilty for forgetting his oath until two years later that he was going to bring up Joseph and his predicament to Pharaoh and this seemed as good a time as any to make good on his vow.

God has given Joseph not on the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, but a plan of action to save the kingdom of Egypt from destruction by this famine, and the plan would not only save Egypt, but many of the other surrounding nations that would come to Egypt for food--in a way this is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant that "through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed," though it is not the ultimate fulfillment of that promise.  Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of executing the plan that God has given him and makes him authority to speak and act on behalf of Pharaoh so that there is no one higher in the entire kingdom with the exception of Pharaoh himself--quite a change from the position Joseph had been in to this point being a slave in Potiphar's house and a prisoner in "the pit."  We'll see God work in similar ways to bring about role reversals and but His person in the right position in the books of Esther and Daniel later in the Old Testament--and I'm sure there are other examples as well through both the Old and New Testaments.

Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name (though he never goes by it, much like the Babylonians gave Daniel a new name that he never went by).  The meaning of this name is unknown but appears to be a combination for the words "to hide or store," "to come to rest," and "to shine or be beautiful."  One way it could be looked at to "To rest in God's glorious storehouses of provision" so that we fear nothing because we know that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills..

There is a brief note here about Pharaoh giving a wife to Joseph (important because we'll see later in the chapter that he will have two sons by her).  Most of the chapter though gives some specific details about Joseph executing the plan God had given him--details like he was 30 years old when he started his career as what some have referred to as the Prime Minister of Egypt (though I'm not even sure that title is correct).  It's an interesting parallel that we'll see Jesus starts His ministry at 30 years of age as well.  And God blessed the land of Egypt so much in the time of plenty (and I believe that he moved the heart of the people of Egypt so that they gave above and beyond what was required) so that Joseph could no longer count the grain that had been stored up and it is described as being "like the sand of the sea."

A quick aside, not to be confused with Biblical interpretation here, but I've often wondered how there could be room to store such grain and we wouldn't see the remnants of these storehouses.  Surely you'd think we'd see some silos or something to protect the grain since it was the property of Pharaoh and the kingdom of Egypt.  Is it possible that this was the true purpose of the pyramids and that they had nothing to do (at first) with death, burial or storing up earthly treasures for the afterlife?  Maybe they were seen as a place of protection and storing of treasure (in this case the valuable food that was necessary to feed the people for seven years) and like many things they became icons that lost their real meaning and people associated the power to be in the object instead of in the God who provided the deliverance.  Just a thought and maybe I'm way off-base, but it does say that Joseph's plan was to store up the grain in the big cities and we do see the pyramids near the major cities.  It would be interesting if these are left as memorials to God's provision from this point in history and I could definitely see no longer counting the grain if it was enough volume to fill all the pyramids of Egypt.

  Back to the actual biblical account now.  God blessed Joseph with two sons, the first named Manasseh as God had allowed him to forget all the pain and suffering to this point and to have a new family apart from the one in Canaan that had brought about so much pain and suffering, and he called his second son Ephraim because God had made him fruitful and blessed him abundantly in the land of his affliction.

Notice that the grain that had been taken from the people by tax and stored up for this famine had to be bought back when the people wanted it to make bread--this was not a government welfare program.  Joseph was responsible for rationing out enough for each family according to what they could afford and it is no surprise that Egypt became wealthy as we'll see soon that people from other nations would come to buy grain.  In fact this famine is going to lead to an awkward "family reunion" for Joseph that we'll talk about next time, Lord willing.