Joseph, Slavery and why it matters today!

 For those who know me know that I love the book of Genesis and the story of Joseph is one my favorites in that book of the bible. For several weeks now the story of Joseph has been on my mind. In particular the part of the story where we see Jacob and all of his sons come into Egypt. It is here we see the climax of everything that happened in Joseph's life. We see the fulfilments of Joseph's dreams that he dreamed as a boy. We see how those years changed Josephs brothers, and we see how Joseph is able to forgive his brothers. Its just a fantastic story. 

However these are not the reasons why this story has been on my mind lately. The reason why this story has been on my mind is because I think we can see in this story certain truths that pertain to some of the things we are going through right now.

So let me begin with a simple question. How did the Israelites become enslaved to Egypt? How did all of the Egyptians fall under the rule and reign of the Pharaoh? How did all that happen.

Now we see in Exodus 1:8-11 we read "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. and he said to his people, "Behold the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens."

So it would seem that this is when and how the Israelites were enslaved. Case closed right? Well not quite. While its true in Exodus we do see the that the king of Egypt placed taskmasters over them. The question is why did they not resist? Why didn't they just up and leave and go to a different part of the country, maybe back to Canaan? 

Well the answer is that they all were at the mercy of the King of Egypt. All of Egypt and all of Canaan were bought by the King of Egypt years before taskmasters were appointed over the Israelites. See the Israelites, that Canaanites and the Egyptians themselves were already bought by the king of Egypt. 

You can find this out for your self if you turn to the book of Genesis chapter 47 and read verses 13 through verse 27. 

But for the sake of time let me paraphrase these verses. If you are familiar with this story you will know that at this time there was a famine in the land. Joseph interpreted a dream of Pharaoh that God had given the king and the interpretation said that there would be 7 years of abundance and then there would be 7 years of famine in the land. So Pharaoh upon hearing this news put Joseph in charge of storing all the food for the next 7 years. 

When the famine hit it hit hard, and people started coming from all over because the news was that Egypt had food. So everyone, everywhere started to buy up food from Joseph and the money was stored in Pharaoh's house. Eventually the people had no more money to buy food so they gave there livestock, which I am sure by this time was not in the best of conditions. So Joseph took the horses, flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and donkeys in exchange for a years supply of food (not a bad deal). 

Well at the end of that year the people had no money and no live stock to give for the food. What could they give to get the food they needed? How could they survive? Well we see what they did next they asked for the Pharaoh to buy them and there land. They willingly indentured themselves as servants of Pharaoh so they could get the food they needed to survive the famine. I want you to read verse 20-21 of chapter 47 "So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Then listen to what Joseph says in verse 23 "Behold I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. 

As I have thought about this story these past several weeks I am left with a couple of thoughts that I think pertain to our current situation both as a state, a nation, and as a world.

1. Fear can led us to sacrifice our freedoms for safety. - Was there something to fear in this famine, absolutely! I am not denying that the famine was not real or that it was made up. These guys were starving for sure. Am I saying what they did was wrong? No not necessarily. I am sure in this situation I would have done the same thing. Is COVID-19 year absolutely. Have we sacrificed certain freedoms for the sake of safety. Yes, no doubt about it we have. Was this the right thing to do? I will leave each of you to answer that for yourself. However I think it is clear that fear can lead us to sacrifice our freedoms for safety. We see it in Genesis and we see it with our current situation with COVID-19

2. What maybe ok for one authority, may not work out so well with the other. - In Genesis we see that it was all working out. The people were feed, and they worked under Pharaoh and gave Pharaoh a fifth of their harvest to Pharaoh and were allowed to keep four fifths for food and seed for themselves. This arrangement was not a bad one for the time. They lived through the famine, and now they have full time employment for Pharaoh. In fact they were happy to do this we see they said in verse 25 "You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. Furthermore for Israel and his family specifically, this must of not been a bad deal. I am sure at the beginning they received preferential treatment. Joseph you see was second in command and as long as he was alive I am sure his family faired well. 

See the problem did not rear its ugly head until a king came up who did not know Joseph. The issue was not severe until a King came up who decided he would take his power one step further. 

I think we need to remember that some leaders who are given power may very well use that power responsibly and carefully. There are some leaders who understand that they too are under authority. However there are some leaders when they gain control of that same power, will seek to abuse it, and expand it for there own desires. During this COVID-19, in my opinion, we have seen several executive orders from the president on down to governors and mayors. Now you may you may agree with those orders, you may agree with some of them, you may agree with none of them. No matter where you land on that, know this. That the power wielded, even for the right reasons, may set a precedent for future leaders to abuse and expand for the wrong ones.

3. God is still in control - Make no mistake about it! God was incontrol when the Famine came in Egypt. God was in control when the people sold their freedom for food. Yes, God was even incontrol when a new king came and put taskmasters over the nation of Israel. The same is true today. God was incontrol when COVID-19 spread throughout this world. God is in control as our leaders make decisions, that limit our freedoms. Yes, make no mistake about it, that God is still incontrol that even if our freedoms become revoked, the constitution becomes shredded, and the bill of rights becomes a bill of suggestions. God is in control. 

Let me end with just this thought....and I am not making any kind of prediction here, but rather a interesting suggestion. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, what we see going on today is God's way of allowing all of our nations to come together in a "New World Order". Perhaps this virus is the catalyst God is allowing to spur fear in the minds of our  leaders to make decisions that will crumble all our economies and sacrifice all our freedoms. Allowing for a one economic system, and one governmental system to be introduced and implemented. Perhaps this virus is the catalyst God is allowing to spur fear among the people that they will willingly submit to being tracked by the government.

Finally, perhaps everything we are seeing happening around us, and everything we will see as the weeks, months and years go on, maybe leading us to the Lords coming. To that day when the church is raptured out of this sin soaked world. What a day that will be!

But no matter what happened,.....no matter what is going on.....no matter what will happen in the future. This ONE THING I KNOW!

GOD is in CONTROL!