33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. 

35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. 

36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.

Joseph not only interprets the dream, now he provides the solution to its problem, too. If the seven years of plenty came and no one knew that it would be followed by seven years of famine, who knows but whether they would live in rich indulgence, consuming all that they wished and selling the excess for riches, which would all do them little good when their storehouses were empty and their bellies ached. But, they do know better now, and these seven years of plenty can be years of preparation.

Joseph’s plan illustrates how incredible the harvest in the seven years of plenty will be, given that a mere fifth of each year’s yield will be enough to survive a corresponding year of famine. In fact, enough to survive and still have extra grain to sell to starving neighbors. God is providing all the resources that they need and more, if they only have the wisdom to make use of it.

This is Joseph’s counsel to Pharaoh, and it is worth noting that he is, indeed, counseling Pharaoh. To me this seems a very bold maneuver on his part. He had been summoned only to interpret a dream, and he had fulfilled that, but then, unbidden, he ventured to tell Pharaoh how to do his own job. But as we will see in the next verses, Pharaoh was not offended by Joseph’s boldness at all. On the contrary, he was delighted just to have found one who had such clarity and vision.