A foundation built on Freedom

Genesis 47:13-22

I’ve been blessed to live my entire life in the United States of America, it is a Nation like none other, it’s founders knew that if it was to last it must have a foundation built on freedom and on the belief in God and His written word. When these men wrote our Declaration of Independence from England, it began in this manner; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  These brave men, had much to lose, but this is what they pledged; “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”  That was the price of our liberty, these men were willing to give everything so that you and I, Citizens of this United States could for these many years enjoy freedom, as few in history have known

But once more that freedom is being challenged, not from foreign shores, but from within and it is still not a deterrent, if we the people will be willing to do what our forefathers did.  Many who have read this Scripture have gone away with the impression that Joseph was a power-hungry dictator, but I do not believe that is what these verses are telling us.  It is important to understand who engaged whom, and verse fifteen tells us the people or a group that represented them came to Joseph and they said our money is gone and we cannot feed our livestock.  So Joseph said, “Give me your livestock and I will give food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone.”  That lasted for about one year and now they had no money or livestock and it was back to Joseph.  It should be reported that no one complained about the food for livestock, so we can assume that Joseph was treating the people fair.

Picking up the story in verse 18, “And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent.  The herds of livestock are my lord’s.  There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land.  Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land?  Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh.  And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.” These Egyptians worshiped foreign gods, gods that could not speak or hear, so when they failed, the people turned to government to supply their needs.

In this case the people were willing to exchange freedom for food, but we the Citizens of this great nation are not hungry, but many are willing to be slaves to a government that will promise to take care of them, and I must ask, at what cost?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice