Joseph’s Survival Plan

Jesus said to his disciples, I have  food to eat you know nothing about John 4:32. 

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

Joseph’s Survival Plan

J. Clayton Sheridan, II

Joseph gathered up all the food of the seven years of abundance—It gives a striking idea of the exuberant fertility of this land, that, from the superabundance of the seven plenteous years, corn enough was laid up for the subsistence, not only of its home population, but of the neighboring countries, during the seven years of dearth.

Joseph was the father of two sons—These domestic events, which increased his temporal happiness, develop the piety of his character in the names conferred upon his children.

The seven years of superabundance ended—Over and above the proportion purchased for the government during the years of plenty, the people could still have husbanded much for future use. But improvident as men commonly are in the time of prosperity, they found themselves in want, and would have starved by thousands had not Joseph anticipated and provided for the protracted calamity.

The famine was far reaching in all lands—that is, the lands neighboring to Egypt—such as, Canaan, Syria, and Arabia.1  Canaan of course was Joseph’s home territory.

This now brings into play the jealous brothers who treated Joseph so poorly in by-gone-days.

Good News Always Travels Well. Jacob heard that Egypt had grain. He sent 10 of Joseph’s brother down to Egypt to buy some food - grain for them back home in Canaan.

Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him—His prophetic dreams [Ge 37:5–11] were in the course of being fulfilled, and the atrocious barbarity of his brethren had been the means of bringing about the very issue they had planned to prevent (Is 60:14; Rev 3:9, last clause).

Joseph saw his brothers, and he knew them, … but they didn’t recognize him—This is not strange. They were full-grown men—he was but a lad at parting. They were in their usual garb—he was in his official robes. They never dreamed of him as governor of Egypt, while he had been expecting them. They had but one face; he had ten persons to judge by.

He made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly—It would be an injustice to Joseph’s character to suppose that this stern manner was prompted by any vindictive feelings—he never indulged any resentment against others who had injured him. But he spoke in the authoritative tone of the governor in order to elicit some much-longed-for information respecting the state of his father’s family, as well as to bring his brethren, by their own humiliation and distress, to a sense of the evils they had done to him.

You are spies—This is a suspicion entertained regarding strangers in all Eastern countries down to the present day. Joseph, however, who was well aware that his brethren were not spies, has been charged with cruel dissimulation, with a deliberate violation of what he knew to be the truth, in imputing to them such a character. But it must be remembered that he was sustaining the part of a ruler; and, in fact, acting on the very principle sanctioned by many of the sacred writers, and our Lord Himself, who spoke parables (fictitious stories) to promote a good end.

By the life of Pharaoh—It is a very common practice in Western Asia to swear by the life of the king. Joseph spoke in the style of an Egyptian and perhaps did not think there was any evil in it. But we are taught to regard all such expressions in the light of an oath (Mt 5:34; Jam 5:12).

He put them … into a prison three days—Their confinement had been designed to bring them to salutary reflection. And this object was attained, for they looked upon the retributive justice of God as now pursuing them in that foreign land. The drift of their conversation is one of the most striking instances on record of the power of conscience (Ge 42:21, 22).

Joseph took … Simeon, and bound him—He had probably been the chief instigator—the most violent actor in the outrage upon Joseph; and if so, his selection to be the imprisoned and fettered hostage for their return would, in the present course of their reflections, have a painful significance.

Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man’s money—This private generosity was not an infringement of his duty—a defrauding of the revenue. He would have a discretionary power—he was daily enriching the king’s exchequer—and he might have paid the sum from his own purse.