Joseph was given what Christians dream of, the chance to be in charge of the whole world and do things God’s way. And I’ve often wondered what I’d do if that chance was given to me. How would I do things “God’s way”?
Well, how did Joseph do things God’s way after Pharaoh told him in Genesis 41:41, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt,” and in verse 44, “without your word, Joseph, no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt”?
Well, what Joseph did next sounds a lot like the communist ideal, in which the abundance of the land and the efforts of those producing it are distributed equally to all. During the seven years of plentiful crops, for instance, “Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain” (49), so when the famine struck and “spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians ” (56). Everyone was taken care of equally.
So far, so good. But when the Egyptians’ money ran out, Joseph said, “I’ll sell you food in exchange for your livestock” (47:16). Not only, then, did the people’s personal wealth go into Pharaoh’s coffers (14), now all the people’s livestock belonged to the state too (18). And it got worse, because after their livestock the only things people had left to bargain with for food were “our bodies and our land” (18). And Joseph took them too, first of all “buying up all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh” (20), and then “reducing the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other” (21). Are there not echoes here of typical communism, which starts off with what sounds like a great ideal for the benefit of all, but ends up with total state control benefiting just the few?
On the other hand, losing everything and being provided for by the state was better than starving to death. Wise state control by Joseph had saved the whole country from disaster (25), and when it was all over Joseph made sure that everyone in future had enough seed to provide all the food their families needed (24). Joseph’s aim in all that he did was to save lives and in difficult times see that everyone’s need was met. And on that point Joseph met the ideal of communism, unlike the communism of today that so often ends up leaving people destitute.
But that’s not all that’s going on in this story, because there’s also the bigger picture of “The behind-the-scenes God at work” too….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 