Genesis 42:
Have you had the joy of spending time with two and three
year old children, aren’t they sweet, until one of them sees something in the
hands of the other that he/she wants, and hell on earth breaks out. Now the good-news is that they grow-up
and become civilized; refined, educated, enlightened and polite, in most cases,
but many are still driven by that same flesh that desires to want what someone
else has. God calls that greed or
coveting and the apostle James has this to say on the subject; “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among
you? Is it not this, that your
passions are at war within you?
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” (James
4:1-2)
With that as our backdrop, look at the pickle Joseph is in;
he and Egypt have something that everyone in the world wants and must have to
live, he has food. Joseph is not
just dealing with the people of Egypt but with a great need for food, from both
friends and enemies all over the world.
The national treasure is no longer gold and sliver, it is food, and it
is Joseph’s job to make sure that some king, acting like a two or three year
old, does not come into the land and take what he wants.
It could be that all foreigners had to come through Joseph
in order to buy the grain they needed so that he could make sure they were not
spies, working for one of the neighboring kings. I’ve come to this assumption, it is as important having a
plan on keeping your wealth, as it is to accumulate it.
So Joseph’s job continues to expand and with it comes
greater power, he is not a man you want to be on the wrong side of. But Joseph has by faith listened to God,
it is who is at work, it is all part of His plan to provide and protect Jacob
who is now called Israel, and the twelve tribes that will come from him. And as we move on in the story of
Joseph, we will see the hand of God all over the place.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
No comments:
Post a Comment