Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 47:1-4

1 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

4 They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

As mentioned before, Pharaoh had already approved these outsiders living within his land, which enables them to make such bold requests with confidence, such as “let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.” What a thrill it must have been to speak to a king in such a way!

And now is an excellent time to consider the spiritual imagery in this scene. The good son has brought his brethren before the throne of the king, emboldened to ask for a place of their own in the king’s domain, confident that they will receive because their brother is beloved and trusted by the king. This is the Savior bringing us to the judgment bar, to receive our parcel of heaven. The Israelites didn’t receive their reward because of anything they had done, and neither will we, but because of what the good brother has done for us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 46:31-34

31 And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father’s house, I will go up, and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my father’s house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me;

32 And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.

33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?

34 That ye shall say, Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.

Pharaoh had already encouraged Joseph to bring his family to Egypt, so this upcoming interview was probably only a formality. Even so, Joseph wanted to prepare the family for how to conduct themselves when they met the ruler.

Once again, we hear how certain practices of the Israelites are abominable to the Egyptians, and some have speculated that the Israelites’ shepherding was offensive because its endpoint was the slaughtering and consuming of animals that the Egyptians might have considered sacred.

But perhaps this cultural rift was a benefit to the Israelites in this situation. It sounds to me in verse 34 that Joseph is instructing his family to actually emphasize this controversial practice, so that Pharaoh will be compelled to divert the family into Goshen by themselves. Rather than being mingled with the pagan nation, they will have to live apart, according to their own faith and customs. Thus, the Israelites will have the benefit of living under the bounty and protection of Egypt, but they won’t be absorbed into its culture.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:42-45

42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh had declared that Joseph would be second only to him, that he would have power over all of Egypt, to execute things according to his will. And then, to make his declaration more than mere words, Pharaoh began to publish this assignment to all the country.

He did this by dressing Joseph in fine clothes, so he would look the part of the ruler. He put his own ring on Joseph’s hand and had Joseph ride in his second chariot beside him, so that Joseph would be directly associated with Pharaoh. He sent criers before Joseph, so that people would know to reverence him. He gave Joseph a royal woman for his wife, so that he would have legal claim on nobility. He sent Joseph “over all the land of Egypt” so that his name and face would be known.

What a great deal of effort! And frankly it goes to show the imaginary nature of human power. Pharaoh could have verbally granted any status to any person private, but if he did nothing to publicize it afterward, then the person would still have no power. They could go out and try to command others, but without Pharaoh’s nod of approval the order would only be laughed at. Pharaoh’s power was not some actual thing that could be handed over. It was only an idea, and it had to be cultivated in the minds of the people before it would actually start to work.

Contrast that to the power of God, which God sustains by Himself, in Himself, and of Himself. God is God because He requires no other person to pronounce Him God in order to be so. He may enact his will on whomever and whatever He pleases, with no outer approval. His power is self-evident and self-sufficient. Furthermore, whomever God sees fit to bestow His power, His power will be there, whether it is publicized or not. God had declared that Joseph would be a ruler over his brethren. God had seen fit to give Joseph the gift of interpreting dreams. And no man, not even Pharaoh, could ever take those powers and callings away from him.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:39-41

39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.

Ultimately, Joseph never even has to make his case to Pharaoh, never has to convince him that he was wrongfully accused and unjustly imprisoned. So far as our record shows, Pharaoh never inquires about what really went down with Potiphar and his wife.

Joseph doesn’t have to prove his innocence because it is self-evident. The man exudes worthiness. Pharaoh has seen that God is present in him, and that means Joseph must be a clean vessel.

And so, just like that, Joseph goes from the lowest of stations, a prisoner in Egypt, to becoming more elevated than any other. With one conversation with Pharaoh, Joseph supplanted every counselor and prince, every man or woman who had spent their entire lives climbing the social ranks and vying for power. It goes beyond belief. Indeed, it even goes beyond what most of us even dare to imagine in our private grandiose fantasies.

And also, just like that, Joseph must have finally understood the hand of the Lord. Now he must have known why his Heavenly Father had not redeemed him from slavery and imprisonment before this moment. Suddenly the great confusing injustice is a sensible and merciful plan.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:37-38

37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.

38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

Joseph has interpreted the dream and counseled what to do about it, and all of it is “good in the eyes of Pharaoh.” For starters, he believes the interpretation. Not only does it match all of the symbols that he saw, but presumably the message rings true with the feelings of the dream. Also, he is in favor of what Joseph has suggested they should do about it. Joseph has shown how they can prepare against and circumvent the shadow of death. He has given a good interpretation and good advice.

Joseph began this whole thing by humbly stating that it was not he would interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, but God. By his humility he has actually put himself in a better place than if he had claimed the wisdom in and of himself. A man who is cunning is useful only until his skills are exceeded. But Joseph has claimed to be a servant of God, and thus his foreknowledge cannot be exceeded. After all, each of Pharaoh’s “wise men” had failed to interpret this dream, but one “inspired man” had easily prevailed.

Pharaoh recognizes this distinction and wonders aloud to his servants where else they could ever find such a man as this, one who carries the Spirit of God. Throughout the Old Testament we will hear of many rulers who depend upon just such a man of God to counsel and forewarn them, and it seems that that long and noble pattern begins right here with Pharaoh and Joseph.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:33-36

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.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:29-32

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;

31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

Joseph explains the message of the dream in plain terms. Seven years of plenty, immediately followed by seven years of famine. Twice Joseph stresses that the dearth will far surpass the plenty, such that all who are caught within the famine will not even regard the good years any more.

Verse 32 further confirms my theory that the river and the stalk, from which both plenty and famine emerge, are representative of God Himself. I do not believe that every hardship we experience in life is by the hand of God, some tragedies are just the natural result of living in a fallen world. Some trials are authored by the Almighty, though, and the famine is one of these.

It is important to note that God does not only send the famine, though, He also precedes it with years of plenty, by which one could save up and survive the deprivation. That is, they could if they knew to do so, and so it is also important to note that God sent the knowledge beforehand as well. He did not send that knowledge to just any man, either, He sent it to Pharaoh, the single most powerful person in all the country, a man who could really do something about it.

Thus God sends the trial, the solution, and the knowledge. All the tools are there, one has only to pick them up and use them. Of course picking up the tools and using them requires one to have faith that what God has said will be will actually be. They must take Him at His word and trust in His plan. So whatever else God meant to accomplish with this trial, at the very least He was teaching His children in Egypt that they lived by dependence on Him.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:25-28

25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

27 And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.

Yesterday I theorized that the one river and the one stalk from which the cattle and grain emerged was representative of God Himself. Joseph’s introductory statement that “God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do,” seems to support that theory. God is the source of what is about transpire, the bounty and the deprivation, all are in His hand.

Joseph then proceeds to give a rapid identification for each of the separate parts of the dreams. The good cattle and grain are seven good years, the ill cattle and grain are seven years of famine. And now that he has defined all of the main players, he will drop the allegories, and plainly iterate exactly what is about to transpire.

And now that I look back to Joseph’s interpretations of the butler and baker’s dreams, this was the same method he took with them as well. First, he turned the symbols into their corresponding representations: “the three branches are three days,” and “the three branches are three days.” Then he dropped the similes and spoke in plain terms. “Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place,” and “Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree.”

I had not noticed this pattern in Joseph’s dream-interpreting until now. This method seems effective at making sure that all of the dreamer’s questions will be answered. They will know why they saw what they saw, and they will know what it means.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:22-24

22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:

23 And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:

24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.

I mentioned last time that Pharaoh spent far more time describing the sickly cattle than the well ones, and he also spent far more time describing the first dream than he spends here on the second. Evidently the sight of cattle consuming their own kind made far more of an impression than withered stalks consuming healthy ones. But as we will soon find out, it is the dream of grain that is a closer representation of what will soon befall the land. The famine will presumably affect the crops first, and the creatures secondarily.

Something I missed in the first recounting of the dreams is that they show the seven goodly specimens emerge from one source. With the cattle the source was the river, and for the ears it was a single stalk. I don’t know what the significance of that singular source is. Perhaps it is representative of God, stating that He is personally sending these changes?

In any case, Pharaoh complains to Joseph a second time that none of his magicians were able to tell the meaning of these dreams, and at last we are about to hear Joseph’s answer.

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.