13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14 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. 15 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.”
16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 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.
18 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. 19 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 that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20 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, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude,[c] from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 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.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24 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.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
Dear God, I do not remember this story, but it is really interesting to see that Joseph basically used the famine to increase Pharaoh’s wealth and enslave the Egyptian people. It is hard to believe that he would do this. In the framework of “what would Jesus do?” this doesn’t seem to quite fit. I would have thought that after about year four or five of the famine, when all of the money was gone, Joseph would have said, “You know what, it’s okay. I know you are out of money. Just take a ration of food since you are a citizen of Egypt.
Here at our charitable medical clinic we charge for the services we provide, but if the patient tells us they are out of money we find a way to make arrangements for them. I have to admit that, yesterday, I did try to make a woman feel guilty because she had received services almost two years ago from a surgeon who helps our patients and still had a balance with him that she hadn’t paid. Now, she needs more help and the surgeon said that he needs some attention to the previous balance before he can address the new one. We were able to get it all worked out, but I think the woman knows in a new way that the care she receives here does come with at least some amount of cost.
Father, I guess the trick is to find the line between responsibility and charity. I am surprised that Joseph didn’t show more charity here. Perhaps it is because of his feelings of responsibility to Pharaoh. Perhaps it was a cultural norm. Regardless, I do not think Joseph’s example is a good one. I also don’t, however, think that he should have just given all of the food away for free. There needs to be a balance, and it is a balance that I need to work harder to find as well. I tend to go too far the other way from Joseph, and that isn’t right either. So help me to simply look at a given situation with your eyes and then wait for your still, small voice to guide me as I make decisions on how to show mercy to and yet require responsibility from others.
Emails to God 