Genesis 41:37-57 - Joseph's Rise: From Prisoner to Palace - The Mysteries of God's Word

Joseph's dramatic rise from Hebrew slave to Egyptian Prime Minister showcases God's sovereign power to position His servant during a time of global crisis. Through divine wisdom, Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams and implements a national survival strategy that ultimately saves the entire region from devastating famine.

• Pharaoh recognizes God's Spirit in Joseph and appoints him ruler over all Egypt
• Joseph receives symbols of authority including Pharaoh's signet ring, fine linen, and gold chain
• Pharaoh integrates Joseph into Egyptian society with a new name and marriage to a high-ranking priest's daughter
• At age 30, Joseph oversees collection of one-fifth of all produce during seven plentiful years
• Grain is stored strategically in cities throughout Egypt, becoming "like the sand of the sea" in abundance
• Joseph's sons Manasseh ("God made me forget my hardship") and Ephraim ("God made me fruitful") are born
• When seven years of famine begin, Joseph's preparations save Egypt and surrounding nations
• Joseph's wise distribution method involves selling rather than freely giving grain to prevent waste.

Chapters

• 0:30 Pharaoh recognizes Joseph's divine wisdom
• 4:35 Joseph receives symbols of authority
• 7:51 Joseph's organization during years of plenty
• 10:31 Birth of Manasseh and Ephraim
• 11:55 Famine begins as prophesied
• 13:50 Egypt becomes breadbasket for surrounding regions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:17

Praise the Lord, grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today we're in the last half of Genesis, chapter 41, and we're looking at Joseph's rise to power in Egypt. It begins at verse 37, and it reads has shown you all of this. There is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over all of my house and all of my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards to the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. In these first verses, it is revealed to us how Pharaoh and his entire court was stunned and awed by what Joseph had said Joseph's boldness to proclaim the spirit of God in him. This is an interesting statement coming from a pharaoh, considering the Egyptians don't even recognize the triune God. Yet in Pharaoh's own understanding, there was no denying that there was some divine presence and empowerment with Joseph. Something was coming from Joseph, and Joseph described it as Elohim, the God of the universe. For those unfamiliar, there are examples throughout the Old Testament of God empowering people with his Holy Spirit for a special service, just as here where God empowered Joseph to prophesy the coming 14 years of prosperity and famine earlier in this chapter. Other examples of God empowering people in the Old Testament are Exodus 31.3, judges 3.10, and 1 Samuel 16.13. 16.13. The Pharaoh goes on to talk about how there's nobody as wise as Joseph in all of the land. Now the Pharaoh is not exaggerating. This is reality for the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh had extensively searched throughout all of the land of Egypt looking for a professional wise man or a professional magician to discern his dream, and he had zero success. Yet here stands Joseph, a Hebrew slave and the only one in the land able to give a proper interpretation of Pharaoh's troubling dream, upon which hinged the very existence of Egypt, upon which hinged the very existence of Egypt. Now, recognizing the value of the man, joseph who stands before him says I will set you over all the land of Egypt. Considering the very seriousness of the events that are about to come upon Egypt and the need for someone to manage it well, he places Joseph as his right hand man over all of Egypt and, with the exception of the Pharaoh himself, joseph has authority over every person in all of Egypt to carry out what needs to be done to save Egypt from the devastating famine that will be coming. Picking up in verse 42,. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck and he made him ride in his second chariot and they called out before him 1. Bow the knee. Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, pharaoh said to Joseph I am Pharaoh and without your consent, no one shall lift up a hand or a foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphonath-Paneah and he gave him in marriage Zephanath Paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenah, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Back in verse 42,. Pharaoh had taken his signet ring and he placed it on Joseph's hand. Now, this is very significant. It's a sign that Joseph was more than just another high court officer. The signet ring of a king carries with it the king's authority, and it was used to seal royal instruments. Therefore, joseph is being given authority to rule over all of Egypt with the pharaoh's authority.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Then Joseph is given fine linen and a gold chain. These items of fine clothing and jewelry were proper attire for Joseph's new reign. They symbolized his status of authority and his office in the Pharaoh's court office. In the Pharaoh's court, a gold chain was a customary mark of royal appreciation dating back for a very long time. After Joseph was all decked out in his new garbs, he was given a ride and paraded through Egypt in Pharaoh's second chariot. And as he was paraded through the streets, heralds would cry out to the crowd, bow the knee, and in this way Joseph was publicly placed over all the land of Egypt. And then the Pharaoh tells Joseph that no one will lift up a hand or a foot without his permission, and that further shows us the fullness of the authority he's given Joseph. He's given Joseph authority over all of the activity in the land of Egypt. Finally, giving Joseph an Egyptian name and then giving him in marriage to the daughter of a high-ranking Egyptian priest completes the Pharaoh's assimilation of Joseph into Egypt. By giving Joseph this Egyptian name and having him marry a high-ranking Egyptian woman, joseph will now be accepted by all of the Egyptians and after Pharaoh's appointment and Pharaoh's integration into Egyptian culture, joseph goes out into the land and rules the land of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Picking up in verse 46, joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly and he gathered up all the food of those seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and he put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it, and Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured Well. The first item of note here is that Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the Pharaoh's service. Joseph's age, given here, helps us to date these events. It is now 2,289 years after creation, or 1715 BC, and during those first seven plentiful years the fruitfulness and the abundance is emphasized. The phrase the earth produced abundantly literally means it was producing by the fistful and that likely describes how the ears of grain were so large that they filled the hand. So Joseph gathers up all of the food, and that's describing how Joseph was able to gather that entire one-fifth of all the produce that was being produced according to his plan. Then we see that Joseph had placed granaries in every local city next to the farming community so that the gathering of the grain would not be a problem. This also ensured that the local communities felt invested in their own protection and, at some level, were overseeing their own grain. And then, as the grain was being stored up, we see that it gets to be overwhelming. The amount of grain Joseph was able to store up became so much that it became futile to even try and count it. It describes its being like the sand of the seashore, which we also know was used to describe the abundance of Abraham's descendants back in Genesis 22, 17.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Picking up in verse 50, before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenah, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An, bore them to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh for, he said, god has made me forget all my hardship in all of my father's house. The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. So here we see Joseph had two boys born to him prior to the first year of the famine, with his wife who was the daughter of the priest of On. Joseph named that firstborn Manasseh, which means to be forgetful, because the Lord helped him to forget the difficulty that he had with his brothers and his family and the cruelty that he faced with his imprisonment here in Egypt. And he called the second son Ephraim, which means fruitful, because the Lord had blessed his life with fruitfulness in many ways and now he has two sons, even in the land in which he was sold as a slave.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Picking up in verse 53, the seven years of plenty that had occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end and the seven years of famine that had occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come. As Joseph had said, there was famine in all of the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to the Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to the Egyptians Go to Joseph what he says to you do.

Speaker 1: 12:07

In these three verses we recognize that, just as Joseph had prophesied the word of the Lord earlier to Pharaoh regarding his dream, it is now coming to pass. Seven years after the plenty, seven years of famine begins. We read there was famine in all of the land. So the extent of the famine was greater than just that of Egypt. The famine included all of the eastern Mediterranean region, which is actually a very rare occurrence, because the land of Canaan is watered by rainfall, but Egypt is watered by the Nile, which gets its waters from the mountains. And when this happened and Egypt is crying out to the Pharaoh for answers, he says go to Joseph. The Pharaoh directs the people to Joseph, and so we see that the Pharaoh still trusts Joseph and he continues to place the kingdom of Egypt, even at this desperate time, under Joseph's authority Verse 56.

Speaker 1: 13:18

So when the famine had spread over all of the land, joseph opened up the storehouses and sold to the Egyptian, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was so severe over all of the earth. In our last two verses we see that Joseph waited until the famine had spread fully and taken its full effect over the land before he opened the storehouses, and once it did, he sold the grain that he had gathered in the prior seven years back to the Egyptians. Selling the grain here shows Joseph's wisdom. If Joseph had just given it out without charge back to the Egyptians. They would have developed a tendency to take more than they needed, perhaps even selling it to other people for a profit. This system of selling the grain kept the people in check and the needed grain in storage so that there would be enough for the full seven years to come. And we read, the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 14:33

History has shown us that Egypt can have very severe famines. It is but a very thin fertile strip that lies between two very arid deserts and Egypt is watered by the Nile. There are actually historical records that indicate twice the Egyptians resorted to cannibalism because the famine had become so severe. Because the famine had become so severe this time, however, it was averted because the Lord used one of his chosen people to bring him glory and save all of Egypt. Finally, we read that not only did the Egyptians come to buy the grain, but all of the earth came to buy grain from Joseph in Egypt At some level.

Speaker 1: 15:23

When we read that all of the earth came, it might seem like hyperbole describing the whole earth, but it is describing the areas connected with Egypt Canaan, syria and Arabia. I think it's also very important to remember the age of the earth and the context of this event. It's 580 years after the global flood of Noah that destroyed the entire face of the earth, leaving only one family. It's also 474 years since the Tower of Babel that dispersed the nations, and at this point the majority of the earth's population and known civilizations are still in the Near East. So, while certainly other people have dispersed to other places on the face of the earth, it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that all of the earth was coming to Egypt. Egypt, at this time, was the breadbasket for the earth. Thank you for joining me this week. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and may his face shine upon you In the name of Jesus, our Savior, our Redeemer, amen.