Famine and the Family

Genesis 47: 13-31

So the famine's gotten bad and the people are out of money- and even worse, they're out of food. So they come to Joseph pleading- don't let us starve. Joseph replies less than compassionately, sure you can eat, if you give me your livestock. I'm not sure why they didn't consider eating their livestock instead unless it was obviously not enough to keep them going.

But they sell their livestock for food- which works great until the next year when they have no food or livestock. So they say- buy us and our land in exchange for food. And Joseph goes for it. Pharaoh more than prospers and the people have placed themselves in bondage.

This seems pretty harsh to me, at least initially. The people of the land are starving and the powers that be force them into perpetual dependance upon them. We'll take everything you have and give you just enough to survive.

But after it happens, Joseph gives the people seed and tells them to plant and eat- only give one-fifth of your crop back to Pharaoh. And while twenty percent may seem a somewhat steep price, Joseph has saved the people's lives and set up a system to keep Pharaoh prosperous.

Seventeen years after arriving, Israel knows his days are numbered. So he calls Joseph to his side and says to him "If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried."

To which I might have replied, If I have found favor in your eyes, let me skip the whole thigh part.

Lessons tonight:
Joseph has mercy on the hungry. It may not be a handout, but he still finds a way to let them eat, even when they can't pay for it.

Secondly, there seems to be a statement about the value and responsibility of family. Even though he did a lot of growing up on his own, Joseph is still the one called by his dad to carry out his final wishes. Maybe he was in the position to be most likely able to carry them out, but in a ceremonial way, Israel calls family to carry out what he sees as a need.