HealingStrong's Around the Word

Episode 18 - The Joseph Series: Peace Amid the Famine (Genesis 47:1-27 NIV)

• HealingStrong • Episode 18

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God provides peace and provision even amidst the worst calamities when we seek Him as our provider. The story of Joseph securing the land of Goshen for his family demonstrates God's faithfulness during times of widespread famine and desperation.

This quick episode covers:

• Joseph strategically identifies his family as shepherds to secure the best land in Goshen
• Pharaoh honors Joseph by giving his family choice property and positions
• The Israelites experience peace while those around them sell everything for survival
• Jacob describes his 130 years as a "pilgrimage" with ups and downs
• Our personal pilgrimages, like Jacob's, will have challenges but God's promises remain
• We can stand on God's promises for provision during difficult seasons
• Finding ourselves in these biblical stories helps us apply God's truth to our lives

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Suggested Resources:

BIBLE PLAN - Trusting God's Plan in the Waiting: Lessons from the Life of Joseph

PODCAST - Genesis to Revelation Bible Reading

TOOLS - Refresh Your Spirit through God's Word




Speaker 1:

you can be in the worst calamity and trouble, but if you are looking to God as your provider and seeking Him for your peace in that time he will provide that peace and he will provide for you. Hi, my name is Cheryl and you're listening to Healing Strong's Around the Word. We're friends sitting around the table who love the Lord and love digging deep into His Word. Each day on the podcast you'll hear me read from a Bible passage and then you'll hear us discussing what we learned from it. I'll be reading Genesis, chapter 47, verses 1 through 27 from the NIV version of the Bible. So join us Around the Word of the Bible. So join us Around the Word. Genesis, chapter 47.

Speaker 1:

Joseph went and told Pharaoh my father and brothers, with all their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen. He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked the brothers what is your occupation? Your servants are shepherds. They replied to Pharaoh, just as our fathers were. They also said to him we have come to live here for a while because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants' flocks have no pasture. So now, please, let your servants settle in Goshen. Pharaoh said to Joseph your father and your brothers have come to you and the land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen and if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock. Then Joseph brought his father, jacob, in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, pharaoh asked him how old are you? And Jacob said to Pharaoh the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers. Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence. So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Ramses, as Pharaoh directed. Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father's household with food according to the number of their children. There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe. Both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine.

Speaker 1:

Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying and he brought it to Pharaoh's palace. When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone. Then bring your livestock, said Joseph. I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys, and he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.

Speaker 1:

When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said we cannot hide from our Lord the fact that, since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our Lord except our bodies and our land. Why should we perish before your eyes, we and our land as well? Why should we perish before your eyes, we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food and we, with our land, will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so we may live and not die and that the land may not become desolate.

Speaker 1:

So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians one and all sold their fields because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh's and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other. However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.

Speaker 1:

Joseph said to the people now that I bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground, but when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children. You have saved our lives, they said. May we find favor in the eyes of our Lord. We will be in bondage to Pharaoh. So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt, still enforced today, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh's. Now, the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number. You heard it that was God's word in the reading today. So now let's listen in on the discussion that Susie, angie Maren and myself had around the word.

Speaker 2:

That here the family arrives, right. They're gonna be given land in Goshen because that's where the land was good for shepherds the best shepherds. The sheep were kept there and they were given land there.

Speaker 1:

How smart of it, too, for Joseph to tell them in advance. Oh, by the way, just tell Pharaoh that you guys are a bunch of shepherds, because if I was Pharaoh and my best employee starts bringing a herd of his peeps all to my land, I'd be afraid they'd be an invading army at some point. Because if they're anything like Joseph, as good as he is, then I might have some problems down the road. But we don't see that. I mean. I think that's why God gave Joseph that wisdom to tell him hey, y'all are a bunch of shepherds, we're shepherds, you don't need to mess with it. We're detestable to you guys anyway.

Speaker 2:

Right, exactly. And when Joseph was put in charge by Pharaoh, pharaoh trusted him and he told him who else knows so much? You're in charge, you are in charge. So when Joseph made this oh, my family's here Pharaoh was actually excited for him and he gave them the best land.

Speaker 1:

I also notice here that we see that they have a lot of peace in a time where there's still a massive famine. Like I think Joseph said at one point, there's going to be five more years still of famine and it's getting so bad now the Egyptians and everybody else around are selling themselves into slavery, essentially to just get food. But yet the Israelites are set aside and provided for with the best of the land and we don't see anything in the scripture that's saying that they're fearful for their lives. At that point they're fearful they're gonna die, because God himself gave them a promise that he eventually would take them to their promised land. So it's a principle that you can be in the worst calamity and trouble, but if you are looking to God as your provider and seeking Him for your peace, in that time he will provide that peace and he will provide for you Right exactly, and everyone the world around you can be in fear and can be selling themselves into slavery.

Speaker 2:

can be. You know you name it, but you can still live in peace because God is going to take care of you. He gives you peace in your soul because you're connected through the provision that he has given you.

Speaker 3:

The one thing that stands out to me is Jacob's word use of pilgrimage. To me is Jacob's word use of pilgrimage, and I think of our own lives and how you know Jacob's life. We know the story now as we've read through the story of Joseph and the family, but we're all on a pilgrimage and it's not easy. But it's all about God. It is all about His love, his redemption, his plan, and right now in the Old Testament he is setting up His nation, the nation of Israel, and he's made plenty of promises to this nation of Israel. But as we move into, when Jesus arrives on the scene, his promises are for us. Our pilgrimage, very much like Jacob, will have ups and downs, but God has made these promises for us as well, that he's going to take care of us, he is going to provide for us, and it's just so important that we stand on the word of God and recognize and see ourselves in these stories.

Speaker 1:

Have you been able to see yourself in the story at all? Through Joseph, through Jacob, through his brothers, any of the characters? I know there's something for everybody here in God's Word and I love that. Thank you so much for joining us for Healing Strong's Around the Word podcast. I hope you were encouraged to dig deeper into God's Word with us. Consider taking a minute of your time and checking out our website, healingstrongorg, where you'll find out more about our mission, our community groups, and find some cool resources there. Until next time, remember faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.