Posted on by Abe Austin · 2 Comments

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 9:1-4

1 Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,

3 Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

4 And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel.

Moses came to deliver God’s next promised plague to Pharaoh, and more than any of the previous it was going to cause real, irreparable harm. For the first time, God would bring a plague that would directly cause death. The death was not to be upon the people—that was still to come—but upon the Egyptian livestock. The death would come in the form of a “murrain,” which is an infectious disease. Many types of animals would be afflicted, but most notably the cattle and the sheep.

These, as has been previously discussed, were likely sacred animals to the Egyptians. So this plague was not only to destroy their beasts of burden and their meat supply, but also an assault against their very religion! God is a God of truth, and He does not show respect to the falsely “sacred” rituals that man invents. By destroying the cattle and the sheep God was not only emphasizing His superiority over the Egyptian people, but also over their gods. It might have been deeply offensive to the Egyptians, but what were they to do about it? It was up to their gods to defend themselves against other divinities, and apparently they could not!

Also note that God once again established a divide between the land of Egypt and Goshen. God promised that “there shall nothing die” of the Israelites. Thus, His people would be free to continue raising, sacrificing, and consuming the very same animals that the Egyptians held most dear!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 47:15-17

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

Previously, Joseph traded corn for all the money in the land of Egypt. But now that he has all the money, the typical exchange of currency won’t work, and they must fall back on more primitive methods of bartering. And so, when the people come begging for food again, Joseph now exchanges it with them for their cattle. Horses, flocks, cattle, and asses, Joseph acquires them all for Pharaoh, just as he did with the money.

Of course, during a time of famine, providing feed for one’s flocks would only be an additional burden, secondary to having enough grain for one’s family. Thus, Pharaoh is being made richer, but there is also a double blessing being given to the people. Give up these flocks that you can’t afford to support anyway, and with them gone the grain you receive will last you longer.

What a strange thing, that an act of shrewd business could also be an act of kindness!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:17-21

17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:

18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:

19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:

20 And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:

21 And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

Pharaoh repeats his dream to Joseph, and in his recounting we gain a few new details. First of all, we learn that the ill cattle looked worse than any specimen Pharaoh had ever seen before. We will soon learn that these seven cattle represent a famine, and presumably it will also be worse than any other that had come before.

Another detail is that though the seven ill cattle consume the favorable, they somehow do not grow any fatter. They still appear as thin and sickly as before. This will also become a detail in Joseph’s interpretation, meaning that the bounty of the first seven years, if not carefully managed, will mean nothing when replaced by the seven years of famine. All the splendor will be consumed and more.

Something else that stands out to me in Pharaoh’s retelling is where he puts his focus. In the first account, given from a third-person, omniscient perspective, there was an equal amount of time describing the seven good cattle and the seven poor cattle. In Pharaoh’s recounting, though, there is far more emphasis on the sickly batch. Clearly their haunting visage made a deep and emotional impression on him, and he spends more than three times as many words discussing them as the fat ones!

However, the presence of the seven fat cattle was not given only as a point of contrast to the seven sickly. Each group represents an important message. And thankfully for Pharaoh, even though Joseph hears such a biased account of the dream, by the grace of God the significance of both halves is preserved in his interpretation.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:1-4

1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.

2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.

3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.

4 And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.

I mentioned earlier that the each of the dreams Joseph had to interpret would be more inscrutable than the last. And indeed, it is extremely difficult to tell what specifically this dream of Pharaoh could possibly be about. Really only one thing is perfectly clear in it: that it is foretelling something ominous.

Something good arises from the stream, but then something evil emerges and consumes the good. It is abundantly clear why a person would be troubled by such a vision. Some doom is being forewarned, and to not know its interpretation means that one will be left helpless against it.

But there does seem to be a pattern to how Joseph interprets these dreams. Key elements in all three of the visions have been numbers and subjects (three vines, three baskets, seven cattle), where the vision takes place (in Pharaoh’s presence, upon the head, by the river), and what is happening to the subject (given in a cup, eaten by birds, feasting and being consumed). Something symbolized by a river, something symbolized by cattle, something bad happening to them, and something to do with the number seven…. Vague and foreboding.