How would you describe famine in a word?
Starvation? Drought?
How about the word, lack?
You might say, yeah, I get that. Lack of finances.
Health. Peace. Love....
Lack of those things can feel like famine.
A couple days ago we experienced lack.
With a few clicks of a mouse, we had our shopping cart
full of groceries and a few hours later they were at our door.
Upon unloading I discovered the Johnsonville beef
brats were missing. Lacking! Oh no! Famine! And they charged us for it! Double famine!
You'll be happy to know we faced the famine head on and
discovered that with a few clicks of the mouse we had a refund. No questions
asked.
Whew... survived the famine.
We’re spoiled. We don’t really understand lack, or famine,
even though the signs of a coming deep dark famine are all around us.
Lack is the opposite
of abundance. It’s the first part of John 10:10, where Jesus says: the thief
comes to steal, kill and destroy (lack, lack, lack), but then He swings the
pendulum to the opposite side and says: but I have come that you have Life
and Life more abundantly.
Lack, the opposite of abundance.
Lack the opposite of El
Shaddai. Hebrew meaning, God Almighty, The God of More Than Enough, The All
Sufficient One. According to Strong’s concordance El Shaddai is used 48 times
to describe God in the Bible.
In God, in El
Shaddai, there is no lack of any good thing.
However, without Him, we lack any
good thing. We live in famine.
James 1:17, Every good and perfect
gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is
no variableness nor shadow of turning.
(no flip-flopping, no wish-washing). Every means:
all, the whole, every kind of.
John 15:5-6, “I am the vine,
you are the branches. He who abides (resides,
dwells, stays, lives) in Me, and I in him,
bears much fruit (abundance) for without
Me you can do nothing (lack, famine). 6 If
anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and
is withered (like famine); and they gather them and
throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Which brings us to our text today, where famine
specifically means lack of rain.
No rain.
That’s all it takes to produce famine.
Long enough without rain and the rivers and streams
and ponds and wells dry up.
Fresh water becomes more valuable than gold.
Nothing green can be seen. Just dust.
Trees wither into branches good for nothing
but to be gathered and thrown into the fire and burned.
No crops.
No food for livestock.
No food for people.
Can you imagine seven years of that?
It happened.
Here’s what it looked like:
Genesis 47:13-14
Now there was no bread in all the land; for the
famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land
of Canaan languished because of the famine. 14 And Joseph
gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land
of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into
Pharaoh’s house.
Famine devoured all the money.
15 So when the
money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians
came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your
presence? For the money has failed.”
16 Then Joseph
said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your
livestock, if the money is gone.”
17 So they
brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for
the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed
them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.
Notice they said, “Give us bread.” They stuck their hands out saying give us a handout, give us food, give us welfare.
Joseph said, “Do I look like your mommy? (Small print,
DRT. Doug's Redneck Translation).
Joe told them he’d help them, but not by treating them
like they were helpless babies. He let them pay for their bread with livestock.
18 When that
year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not
hide from my lord that our money is gone; my lord also has our herds of livestock.
There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. 19 Why
should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread,
and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that
we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate.”
Notice they didn’t ask for a handout this time.
Handouts create a society with a welfare mentality. A victim
ideology.
The way Joseph treated them, promoted dignity, allowed
them to keep their self-respect. Now, they were a society willing to work, to pay
their own way.
We still have value and so does our land, sell us seed
and we'll work the land.
20 Then
Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians
sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became
Pharaoh’s. 21 And as for the people, he moved them
into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to
the other end. 22 Only the land of the priests
he did not buy; for the priests had rations allotted to them by
Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did
not sell their lands.
23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Indeed I have bought you and
your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you
shall sow the land.
Joseph knew the famine would last seven years.
He paid attention to the times and the seasons, and recognized
the end was near. (So should we).
So, he knew it was time to sow. (It's Seedtime—are you
planting?)
24 And it shall
come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths
shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your
households and as food for your little ones.” (be fruitful and multiply).
What Godly wisdom.
No free handouts.
No bailouts.
A simple 20% flat tax.
Not taking their dignity, making them slaves for flat room
and board, but coworkers with incentive; the more you produce the more you make.
God's Wisdom. Genius.
25 So they
said, “You have saved our lives; let us find favor in the sight of my
lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” 26 And Joseph
made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should
have one-fifth, except for the land of the priests
only, which did not become Pharaoh’s.
So, there you have it. Joe's famine.
It was a bit more lacking than a pack of Johnsonville
brats. It took more than a few clicks of the mouse to restore the groceries
that were lacking.
They gave all their money, then all their livestock
(livelihood, tools of the trade; their sheep, cattle, donkeys), then, their
very lives and land, their homes, just to eat.
You might say: “Sure glad, I never have to go through something
like that; since, after all, that was just a onetime thing God did back then,
never to happen again.”
I pray you’re right, that none of us ever go
through something like that.
I know you're right, that it was something God did back
then.
About 3,900 years ago God warned Pharaoh with a couple
dreams and gave Joseph the interpretation and wisdom of how to face the famine,
prepare and win.
Okay now don't miss this.
God used all of it to gather and grow His people into
a great nation just as He told Jacob in Genesis 46:3. “I am God, the
God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of
you a great nation there.”
And just as He told Abraham in Genesis 15:13-16. “Know
certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that
is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four
hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they
serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great
possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to
your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in
the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet complete.”
God used the seven-year famine to
pull His people out of what would one day be the Promise Land. He gathered them
(inside Egypt) to grow as one nation; until the iniquity of the Amorites was
full. Then, by a strong arm The Lord led His People back into the Promise
Land to purge the land and establish His kingdom.
Now pay attention because this is where our HIStory lesson
jumps forward 3,900 years to become an object lesson for us here and now today,
and tomorrow.
You see, we can't say that the story we just read about
the famine was just a onetime thing God did back then, never to happen again.
Because the book of Genesis is the Seedbed for this
heaven and this earth. Genesis not only tells what did happen but
foreshadows what will happen.
Make no mistake. There is a seven-year
famine on the horizon, and Something much more precious and powerful than rainwater
will be lacking.
The Living Water dwelling
in the Ekklésia, the Church, the Bride of Christ, will be taken out of the
way to gather and grow until the iniquity of humanity is
full.
The soon to come seven-year famine, will make Joseph’s
look like a Sunday afternoon ice cream social.
It’ll cost a day’s wages for a loaf of bread. There’ll
be darkness so deep it'll hurt, hundred-pound hailstones, scorching heat, burning
soars, stinging scorpion like demons, fresh and salt water turned to blood, the
unescapable stench of death.
Evil on steroids ravaging the earth.
The one world ruler won’t be kind like Joseph. You won’t
just give money for food or sell livestock or land. No, to buy or sell you’ll
be commanded to pledge allegiance to the antichrist. Hunger will drive you to sell
your soul by taking the mark of the beast. Of course it won’t be called the
mark of the beast, it’ll be something innocent, like, “we can do this, love
your neighbor, get the vax.” Revelation
6-18.
The Good News is nobody needs to be here for any
of it.
The heartbreaking news is, against our prayers, and
against God’s will, many will.
Then, finally after seven years, the hell on earth
famine will run its course, the iniquity of humanity will be full, and,
with a strong arm, The Lord will lead His people into the Promise Land to purge
the earth and establish His kingdom, forever and ever, amen.
First with the Millennial Reign, then, The New Heaven
and New Earth. When His family will literally live happily ever after, and that
ain't no fairy tale. Revelation 19-22.
Hallelujah. Amen.
What do we take away from all this? Where do we go
from here?
Back up one verse from where we began our study today.
Genesis 47:12. Joseph provided his
father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread (FAMILY)—v
13, Now there was no bread in all the land.
They were provided with an abundance of bread, because
they were family. Period.
There’s only one way to miss the soon-coming famine.
That is to be in the family of God. Period.
They were given food. Then just like that. There was
no bread in all the land. In the twinkling of an eye, everything will
change.
We only have enough time left to invest.
Period. None to waste.
With all that is within you, with all the time
left to you, plant Seed, (His Word, His Love, His fruit) to all those God
has given you.
Facing famine, remember this:
Remember El Shaddai, the God of more than
enough; but He gives nothing to waste.
Remember, His warning and promise: The thief comes
to steal, kill, destroy, but I have come to give you Life, (far from
famine), Life more abundantly. John
10:10.
Remember, James 1:17, Every good
and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father... Not Egypt. Not the world.
This world is not our home. This world has nothing but famine to offer.
Remember John 15:5-6, “I am the vine,
you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (famine)
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as
a branch and is withered (like famine) and they gather
them (not to grow as one great nation and family) but to throw them into
the fire, and they are burned.” Forever and ever in the
lake of fire.
Remember Joseph's famine in Genesis, is a foreshadow
of the famine of all famines soon to come.
Remember Joseph is a hero, to this day, not just in
the Bible, but in writings of Egyptian antiquity.
Why?
Because he heard the Word.
Heeded the warning.
Faced the famine.
And thereby saved many people alive.
Genesis
50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for
good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many
people alive.
Let's pray.
Lord El Shaddai, You are all we need, You are more
than enough. Thank You for the great joy and honor of hearing Your Word. Help
us to heed your warning, face the famine, abide in You, and bear much fruit, so
all those You’ve given us, will miss the famine.
Thank You.
We love You, forever.
Amen.
Call or text: 612-554-2522
Email: pray4measap@aol.com
Facebook: Church at WPV
Books: amazon.com/author/dougspurling
Watch online:
Facebook: Facing Famine, Genesis
47:13-26
You Tube: Facing Famine, Genesis
47:13-26
This was feed for you to read. Now it’s Seed for you
to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
No comments:
Post a Comment