In other words, he took it from them; then sold it back to them until they ran out of money – all the money was gone, in payment for the grain they were buying. And he brought it to Pharaohs palace.
When the money from the people of Canaan and Egypt was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said – give us food. In other words: give it to us for free now, c’mon seriously, we’re starving! “
“Why should we die before your eyes, our money is now used up.”
“Then bring your livestock”, Joseph said. “I will sell you food, in exchange for livestock, since you’re money’s gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for the horses, sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, and he brought them through that year with food, in exchange for their livestock”.
So first he took all their money for the food (that he took to begin with), and then he took all their livestock, and everything they had.
Now watch what happens – “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 our land. 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 not becomes desolate.”
So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt, for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, for the famine was too severe for them; and the land became Pharaohs, and Joseph reduced the people to slavery!” Joseph reduced the people to slavery.
In other words, you can’t trust the government to do for you, what God has called you to stand up and take responsibility to do for yourself.
Let me make one more wise observation: Jesus might not come back in your lifetime. It is better to be prepared, than to hope for that. You want to play Russian roulette with your whole financial future, over a theological concept that you have no idea when it might come to pass?
We have got to be wise. #1, we’ve got to work hard. #2, we’ve got to be wise, which means staying out of debt.
It means not putting money in things going down in value. It means not trusting the government to do it for us.
It means all kinds of other things: it means live on a budget. Take charge of your finances; show self-control.
If you want a good book on that, the best book I’ve read is called “The total money maker”, by Dave Ramsey. It will really help you a lot with those practical things. It has budget worksheets, and all kinds of things in the back of it.
So #1, Work; #2, Wisdom - stay out of debt; don’t put your money in things that lose value; save 10% of your income - don’t trust the government to do it for you.
#3, Honor. You want to stay within your calling, and your strengths; and you want to honor strengths and callings of other people.
Without going through the whole scripture, one of the things that stand out for me, from the story of David and Goliath: David is a shepherd, and the issue with David is the plan-o-graph.
You guys remember the plan-o-graph? How big is David on the plan-o-graph, and how big is Goliath? Goliath was like 9 foot 6; but the idea that David was some kind of small, puny guy is not true.
David was a shepherd, he was a tough man, he was a man’s man. He killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands! This guy is not someone you would just go mess with.
Goliath is challenging the armies of Israel, and he’s blaspheming God. David goes to Saul and says: are just going to let him do this? I’ll go handle this…
I would say that David was probably a little bit hot-headed… David said: I’ll go handle this, no problem, let me at him.
Saul says: we’ll, if you’re going to go at him, at least wear my armor, right? When David put the armor on, did it say that David couldn’t use it, because it didn’t fit? No, it says: David couldn’t use it, because he wasn’t used to it – it wasn’t his tools.