Read Genesis 47
Key Verse: 20 “So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other.”
Observation: Joseph was an incredibly gifted manager of people and resources and through this made Pharaoh rich. He was also very honest in that all that he made he brought back to Pharoah for he knew his place and knew Pharaoh was ultimately in charge. What surprised me was that while he saved thousands of people from hunger in Egypt and Canaan, in the process, the scripture tells us he reduced them to servanthood or slavery. He first mandated all the people of the land give him food during the good years (a forced food tax). Now that drought had come, he then sold it back at a high price (I would assume, even to the people they took it from in the food tax). The people willingly paid for the food to survive until they had no more money. The famine was so severe that he then took their livestock, their land, and even their persons as slaves to pay for the food. Pharaoh became absolute ruler through all of this and Joseph is looked at as a hero while he enslaved the entire nation and reduced all people to servitude. The only people not reduced to this were the Egyptian priests and presumably the nation of Israel now residing in Goshen.
Application: I processed all of this for some time and then it hit me. What we long for will eventually enslave us, it is just human nature. The entire nations of Canaan and Egypt become enslaved to Pharaoh because they longed to eat. The need for food is a simple basic resource but what we need and what we long for has the powerful potential to enslave us. For the most part, our basic needs are met today and yet we still choose slavery over what we perceive we need. We perceive we need acceptance and so we become enslaved by the opinion of others. We perceive we need a new car and so we become enslaved by a car loan. We perceive we need power so we become enslaved by work and wealth. We perceive we need entertainment to relax and we can become enslaved by commercialism and Hollywood. The greatest need of all of humanity has always been salvation, salvation from famine, salvation from dictators, salvation from ourselves, and ultimately salvation from sin. Jesus Christ came to satisfy our greatest needs and therefore he has the greatest right to enslave us. The good news is, Jesus is a benevolent and loving master, unlike all the other things we willingly enslave ourselves to. So I have to ask, what am I enslaving myself to?
Prayer: Jesus, I want to be your servant and enslaved by your love. Help me to let go of all the other things that beckon for my attention and desires to enslave or master me. I know that at the moment of my perceived need those things promise good but, in the end, they lead to my own destruction.
