March 18, 2025 • 16 mins
Joseph's dramatic rise from Hebrew slave to Egyptian Prime Minister showcases God's sovereign power to position His servant during a time of global crisis. Through divine wisdom, Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams and implements a national survival strategy that ultimately saves the entire region from devastating famine.
• Pharaoh recognizes God's Spirit in Joseph and appoints him ruler over all Egypt
• Joseph receives symbols of authority including Pharaoh's signet ring, fine linen, and gold chain
• Pharaoh integrates Joseph into Egyptian society with a new name and marriage to a high-ranking priest's daughter
• At age 30, Joseph oversees collection of one-fifth of all produce during seven plentiful years
• Grain is stored strategically in cities throughout Egypt, becoming "like the sand of the sea" in abundance
• Joseph's sons Manasseh ("God made me forget my hardship") and Ephraim ("God made me fruitful") are born
• When seven years of famine begin, Joseph's preparations save Egypt and surrounding nations
• Joseph's wise distribution method involves selling rather than freely giving grain to prevent waste.
Email: nathan@nathandietsche.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Praise the Lord, grace and peace to you from God
our Father, and from the Lordand Savior Jesus Christ.
Today we're in the last half ofGenesis, chapter 41, and we're
looking at Joseph's rise topower in Egypt.
It begins at verse 37, and itreads has shown you all of this.
(00:42):
There is none so discerning andwise as you are.
You shall be over all of myhouse and all of my people shall
order themselves as you command.
Only as regards to the thronewill I be greater than you.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph See,I have set you over all the
(01:04):
land of Egypt.
In these first verses, it isrevealed to us how Pharaoh and
his entire court was stunned andawed by what Joseph had said
Joseph's boldness to proclaimthe spirit of God in him.
This is an interestingstatement coming from a pharaoh,
(01:42):
considering the Egyptians don'teven recognize the triune God.
Yet in Pharaoh's ownunderstanding, there was no
denying that there was somedivine presence and empowerment
with Joseph.
Something was coming fromJoseph, and Joseph described it
(02:02):
as Elohim, the God of theuniverse.
For those unfamiliar, there areexamples throughout the Old
Testament of God empoweringpeople with his Holy Spirit for
a special service, just as herewhere God empowered Joseph to
prophesy the coming 14 years ofprosperity and famine earlier in
(02:27):
this chapter.
Other examples of Godempowering people in the Old
Testament are Exodus 31.3,judges 3.10, and 1 Samuel 16.13.
16.13.
(02:51):
The Pharaoh goes on to talkabout how there's nobody as wise
as Joseph in all of the land.
Now the Pharaoh is notexaggerating.
This is reality for the Pharaoh.
The Pharaoh had extensivelysearched throughout all of the
land of Egypt looking for aprofessional wise man or a
professional magician to discernhis dream, and he had zero
success.
Yet here stands Joseph, aHebrew slave and the only one in
(03:14):
the land able to give a properinterpretation of Pharaoh's
troubling dream, upon whichhinged the very existence of
Egypt, upon which hinged thevery existence of Egypt.
Now, recognizing the value ofthe man, joseph who stands
before him says I will set youover all the land of Egypt.
(03:39):
Considering the veryseriousness of the events that
are about to come upon Egypt andthe need for someone to manage
it well, he places Joseph as hisright hand man over all of
Egypt and, with the exception ofthe Pharaoh himself, joseph has
authority over every person inall of Egypt to carry out what
(04:00):
needs to be done to save Egyptfrom the devastating famine that
will be coming.
Picking up in verse 42,.
Then Pharaoh took his signetring from his hand and put it on
Joseph's hand and clothed himin garments of fine linen and
put a gold chain about his neckand he made him ride in his
(04:22):
second chariot and they calledout before him 1.
Bow the knee.
Thus he set him over all theland of Egypt.
Moreover, pharaoh said toJoseph I am Pharaoh and without
your consent, no one shall liftup a hand or a foot in all the
(04:42):
land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh called Joseph'sname Zaphonath-Paneah and he
gave him in marriage ZephanathPaneah.
And he gave him in marriageAsenah, the daughter of
Potipharah, priest of An.
So Joseph went out over theland of Egypt.
(05:06):
Back in verse 42,.
Pharaoh had taken his signetring and he placed it on
Joseph's hand.
Now, this is very significant.
It's a sign that Joseph wasmore than just another high
court officer.
The signet ring of a kingcarries with it the king's
authority, and it was used toseal royal instruments.
Therefore, joseph is beinggiven authority to rule over all
(05:27):
of Egypt with the pharaoh'sauthority.
Then Joseph is given fine linenand a gold chain.
These items of fine clothingand jewelry were proper attire
for Joseph's new reign.
They symbolized his status ofauthority and his office in the
Pharaoh's court office.
(05:48):
In the Pharaoh's court, a goldchain was a customary mark of
royal appreciation dating backfor a very long time.
After Joseph was all decked outin his new garbs, he was given
a ride and paraded through Egyptin Pharaoh's second chariot.
And as he was paraded throughthe streets, heralds would cry
(06:13):
out to the crowd, bow the knee,and in this way Joseph was
publicly placed over all theland of Egypt.
And then the Pharaoh tellsJoseph that no one will lift up
a hand or a foot without hispermission, and that further
shows us the fullness of theauthority he's given Joseph.
(06:35):
He's given Joseph authorityover all of the activity in the
land of Egypt.
Finally, giving Joseph anEgyptian name and then giving
him in marriage to the daughterof a high-ranking Egyptian
priest completes the Pharaoh'sassimilation of Joseph into
(06:56):
Egypt.
By giving Joseph this Egyptianname and having him marry a
high-ranking Egyptian woman,joseph will now be accepted by
all of the Egyptians and afterPharaoh's appointment and
Pharaoh's integration intoEgyptian culture, joseph goes
(07:18):
out into the land and rules theland of Egypt.
Picking up in verse 46, josephwas 30 years old when he entered
the service of the Pharaoh,king of Egypt, and Joseph went
out from the presence of Pharaohand went through all the land
(07:38):
of Egypt.
During the seven plentifulyears the earth produced
abundantly and he gathered upall the food of those seven
years which occurred in the landof Egypt and he put the food in
the cities.
He put in every city the foodfrom the fields around it, and
(07:59):
Joseph stored up grain in greatabundance, like the sand of the
sea, until he ceased to measureit, for it could not be measured
Well.
The first item of note here isthat Joseph was 30 years old
when he entered the Pharaoh'sservice.
Joseph's age, given here, helpsus to date these events.
(08:24):
It is now 2,289 years aftercreation, or 1715 BC, and during
those first seven plentifulyears the fruitfulness and the
abundance is emphasized.
The phrase the earth producedabundantly literally means it
(08:47):
was producing by the fistful andthat likely describes how the
ears of grain were so large thatthey filled the hand.
So Joseph gathers up all of thefood, and that's describing how
Joseph was able to gather thatentire one-fifth of all the
produce that was being producedaccording to his plan.
(09:11):
Then we see that Joseph hadplaced granaries in every local
city next to the farmingcommunity so that the gathering
of the grain would not be aproblem.
This also ensured that thelocal communities felt invested
in their own protection and, atsome level, were overseeing
(09:34):
their own grain.
And then, as the grain wasbeing stored up, we see that it
gets to be overwhelming.
The amount of grain Joseph wasable to store up became so much
that it became futile to eventry and count it.
It describes its being like thesand of the seashore, which we
(09:54):
also know was used to describethe abundance of Abraham's
descendants back in Genesis 22,17.
Picking up in verse 50, beforethe year of famine came, two
sons were born to Joseph.
Asenah, the daughter ofPotipharah, priest of An, bore
(10:15):
them to him.
Joseph called the name of thefirstborn Manasseh for, he said,
god has made me forget all myhardship in all of my father's
house.
The name of the second hecalled Ephraim, for God has made
me fruitful in the land of myaffliction.
So here we see Joseph had twoboys born to him prior to the
(10:41):
first year of the famine, withhis wife who was the daughter of
the priest of On.
Joseph named that firstbornManasseh, which means to be
forgetful, because the Lordhelped him to forget the
difficulty that he had with hisbrothers and his family and the
cruelty that he faced with hisimprisonment here in Egypt.
(11:01):
And he called the second sonEphraim, which means fruitful,
because the Lord had blessed hislife with fruitfulness in many
ways and now he has two sons,even in the land in which he was
sold as a slave.
Picking up in verse 53, theseven years of plenty that had
(11:23):
occurred in the land of Egyptcame to an end and the seven
years of famine that hadoccurred in the land of Egypt
came to an end.
And the seven years of faminebegan to come.
As Joseph had said, there wasfamine in all of the lands, but
in all the land of Egypt therewas bread.
When all the land of Egypt wasfamished, the people cried to
(11:43):
the Pharaoh for bread.
Pharaoh said to the EgyptiansGo to Joseph what he says to you
do.
In these three verses werecognize that, just as Joseph
had prophesied the word of theLord earlier to Pharaoh
regarding his dream, it is nowcoming to pass.
(12:04):
Seven years after the plenty,seven years of famine begins.
We read there was famine in allof the land.
So the extent of the famine wasgreater than just that of Egypt
.
The famine included all of theeastern Mediterranean region,
which is actually a very rareoccurrence, because the land of
(12:29):
Canaan is watered by rainfall,but Egypt is watered by the Nile
, which gets its waters from themountains.
And when this happened andEgypt is crying out to the
Pharaoh for answers, he says goto Joseph.
The Pharaoh directs the peopleto Joseph, and so we see that
(12:52):
the Pharaoh still trusts Josephand he continues to place the
kingdom of Egypt, even at thisdesperate time, under Joseph's
authority Verse 56.
So when the famine had spreadover all of the land, joseph
opened up the storehouses andsold to the Egyptian, for the
famine was severe in the land ofEgypt.
(13:14):
Moreover, all the earth came toEgypt to Joseph to buy grain
because the famine was so severeover all of the earth.
In our last two verses we seethat Joseph waited until the
famine had spread fully andtaken its full effect over the
land before he opened thestorehouses, and once it did, he
(13:40):
sold the grain that he hadgathered in the prior seven
years back to the Egyptians.
Selling the grain here showsJoseph's wisdom.
If Joseph had just given it outwithout charge back to the
Egyptians.
They would have developed atendency to take more than they
needed, perhaps even selling itto other people for a profit.
(14:02):
This system of selling thegrain kept the people in check
and the needed grain in storageso that there would be enough
for the full seven years to come.
And we read, the famine wassevere in the land of Egypt.
History has shown us that Egyptcan have very severe famines.
(14:24):
It is but a very thin fertilestrip that lies between two very
arid deserts and Egypt iswatered by the Nile.
There are actually historicalrecords that indicate twice the
Egyptians resorted tocannibalism because the famine
had become so severe.
Because the famine had becomeso severe this time, however, it
(14:48):
was averted because the Lordused one of his chosen people to
bring him glory and save all ofEgypt.
Finally, we read that not onlydid the Egyptians come to buy
the grain, but all of the earthcame to buy grain from Joseph in
Egypt At some level.
(15:09):
When we read that all of theearth came, it might seem like
hyperbole describing the wholeearth, but it is describing the
areas connected with EgyptCanaan, syria and Arabia.
I think it's also veryimportant to remember the age of
the earth and the context ofthis event.
It's 580 years after the globalflood of Noah that destroyed
(15:36):
the entire face of the earth,leaving only one family.
It's also 474 years since theTower of Babel that dispersed
the nations, and at this pointthe majority of the earth's
population and knowncivilizations are still in the
Near East.
(15:56):
So, while certainly otherpeople have dispersed to other
places on the face of the earth,it wouldn't be a far stretch to
say that all of the earth wascoming to Egypt.
Egypt, at this time, was thebreadbasket for the earth.
Thank you for joining me thisweek.
(16:17):
May the Lord bless you and keepyou, and may his face shine
upon you In the name of Jesus,our Savior, our Redeemer, amen.
Praise the Lord, grace and peace to you from God
our Father, and from the Lordand Savior Jesus Christ.
Today we're in the last half ofGenesis, chapter 41, and we're
looking at Joseph's rise topower in Egypt.
It begins at verse 37, and itreads has shown you all of this.
(00:42):
There is none so discerning andwise as you are.
You shall be over all of myhouse and all of my people shall
order themselves as you command.
Only as regards to the thronewill I be greater than you.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph See,I have set you over all the
(01:04):
land of Egypt.
In these first verses, it isrevealed to us how Pharaoh and
his entire court was stunned andawed by what Joseph had said
Joseph's boldness to proclaimthe spirit of God in him.
This is an interestingstatement coming from a pharaoh,
(01:42):
considering the Egyptians don'teven recognize the triune God.
Yet in Pharaoh's ownunderstanding, there was no
denying that there was somedivine presence and empowerment
with Joseph.
Something was coming fromJoseph, and Joseph described it
(02:02):
as Elohim, the God of theuniverse.
For those unfamiliar, there areexamples throughout the Old
Testament of God empoweringpeople with his Holy Spirit for
a special service, just as herewhere God empowered Joseph to
prophesy the coming 14 years ofprosperity and famine earlier in
(02:27):
this chapter.
Other examples of Godempowering people in the Old
Testament are Exodus 31.3,judges 3.10, and 1 Samuel 16.13.
16.13.
(02:51):
The Pharaoh goes on to talkabout how there's nobody as wise
as Joseph in all of the land.
Now the Pharaoh is notexaggerating.
This is reality for the Pharaoh.
The Pharaoh had extensivelysearched throughout all of the
land of Egypt looking for aprofessional wise man or a
professional magician to discernhis dream, and he had zero
success.
Yet here stands Joseph, aHebrew slave and the only one in
(03:14):
the land able to give a properinterpretation of Pharaoh's
troubling dream, upon whichhinged the very existence of
Egypt, upon which hinged thevery existence of Egypt.
Now, recognizing the value ofthe man, joseph who stands
before him says I will set youover all the land of Egypt.
(03:39):
Considering the veryseriousness of the events that
are about to come upon Egypt andthe need for someone to manage
it well, he places Joseph as hisright hand man over all of
Egypt and, with the exception ofthe Pharaoh himself, joseph has
authority over every person inall of Egypt to carry out what
(04:00):
needs to be done to save Egyptfrom the devastating famine that
will be coming.
Picking up in verse 42,.
Then Pharaoh took his signetring from his hand and put it on
Joseph's hand and clothed himin garments of fine linen and
put a gold chain about his neckand he made him ride in his
(04:22):
second chariot and they calledout before him 1.
Bow the knee.
Thus he set him over all theland of Egypt.
Moreover, pharaoh said toJoseph I am Pharaoh and without
your consent, no one shall liftup a hand or a foot in all the
(04:42):
land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh called Joseph'sname Zaphonath-Paneah and he
gave him in marriage ZephanathPaneah.
And he gave him in marriageAsenah, the daughter of
Potipharah, priest of An.
So Joseph went out over theland of Egypt.
(05:06):
Back in verse 42,.
Pharaoh had taken his signetring and he placed it on
Joseph's hand.
Now, this is very significant.
It's a sign that Joseph wasmore than just another high
court officer.
The signet ring of a kingcarries with it the king's
authority, and it was used toseal royal instruments.
Therefore, joseph is beinggiven authority to rule over all
(05:27):
of Egypt with the pharaoh'sauthority.
Then Joseph is given fine linenand a gold chain.
These items of fine clothingand jewelry were proper attire
for Joseph's new reign.
They symbolized his status ofauthority and his office in the
Pharaoh's court office.
(05:48):
In the Pharaoh's court, a goldchain was a customary mark of
royal appreciation dating backfor a very long time.
After Joseph was all decked outin his new garbs, he was given
a ride and paraded through Egyptin Pharaoh's second chariot.
And as he was paraded throughthe streets, heralds would cry
(06:13):
out to the crowd, bow the knee,and in this way Joseph was
publicly placed over all theland of Egypt.
And then the Pharaoh tellsJoseph that no one will lift up
a hand or a foot without hispermission, and that further
shows us the fullness of theauthority he's given Joseph.
(06:35):
He's given Joseph authorityover all of the activity in the
land of Egypt.
Finally, giving Joseph anEgyptian name and then giving
him in marriage to the daughterof a high-ranking Egyptian
priest completes the Pharaoh'sassimilation of Joseph into
(06:56):
Egypt.
By giving Joseph this Egyptianname and having him marry a
high-ranking Egyptian woman,joseph will now be accepted by
all of the Egyptians and afterPharaoh's appointment and
Pharaoh's integration intoEgyptian culture, joseph goes
(07:18):
out into the land and rules theland of Egypt.
Picking up in verse 46, josephwas 30 years old when he entered
the service of the Pharaoh,king of Egypt, and Joseph went
out from the presence of Pharaohand went through all the land
(07:38):
of Egypt.
During the seven plentifulyears the earth produced
abundantly and he gathered upall the food of those seven
years which occurred in the landof Egypt and he put the food in
the cities.
He put in every city the foodfrom the fields around it, and
(07:59):
Joseph stored up grain in greatabundance, like the sand of the
sea, until he ceased to measureit, for it could not be measured
Well.
The first item of note here isthat Joseph was 30 years old
when he entered the Pharaoh'sservice.
Joseph's age, given here, helpsus to date these events.
(08:24):
It is now 2,289 years aftercreation, or 1715 BC, and during
those first seven plentifulyears the fruitfulness and the
abundance is emphasized.
The phrase the earth producedabundantly literally means it
(08:47):
was producing by the fistful andthat likely describes how the
ears of grain were so large thatthey filled the hand.
So Joseph gathers up all of thefood, and that's describing how
Joseph was able to gather thatentire one-fifth of all the
produce that was being producedaccording to his plan.
(09:11):
Then we see that Joseph hadplaced granaries in every local
city next to the farmingcommunity so that the gathering
of the grain would not be aproblem.
This also ensured that thelocal communities felt invested
in their own protection and, atsome level, were overseeing
(09:34):
their own grain.
And then, as the grain wasbeing stored up, we see that it
gets to be overwhelming.
The amount of grain Joseph wasable to store up became so much
that it became futile to eventry and count it.
It describes its being like thesand of the seashore, which we
(09:54):
also know was used to describethe abundance of Abraham's
descendants back in Genesis 22,17.
Picking up in verse 50, beforethe year of famine came, two
sons were born to Joseph.
Asenah, the daughter ofPotipharah, priest of An, bore
(10:15):
them to him.
Joseph called the name of thefirstborn Manasseh for, he said,
god has made me forget all myhardship in all of my father's
house.
The name of the second hecalled Ephraim, for God has made
me fruitful in the land of myaffliction.
So here we see Joseph had twoboys born to him prior to the
(10:41):
first year of the famine, withhis wife who was the daughter of
the priest of On.
Joseph named that firstbornManasseh, which means to be
forgetful, because the Lordhelped him to forget the
difficulty that he had with hisbrothers and his family and the
cruelty that he faced with hisimprisonment here in Egypt.
(11:01):
And he called the second sonEphraim, which means fruitful,
because the Lord had blessed hislife with fruitfulness in many
ways and now he has two sons,even in the land in which he was
sold as a slave.
Picking up in verse 53, theseven years of plenty that had
(11:23):
occurred in the land of Egyptcame to an end and the seven
years of famine that hadoccurred in the land of Egypt
came to an end.
And the seven years of faminebegan to come.
As Joseph had said, there wasfamine in all of the lands, but
in all the land of Egypt therewas bread.
When all the land of Egypt wasfamished, the people cried to
(11:43):
the Pharaoh for bread.
Pharaoh said to the EgyptiansGo to Joseph what he says to you
do.
In these three verses werecognize that, just as Joseph
had prophesied the word of theLord earlier to Pharaoh
regarding his dream, it is nowcoming to pass.
(12:04):
Seven years after the plenty,seven years of famine begins.
We read there was famine in allof the land.
So the extent of the famine wasgreater than just that of Egypt
.
The famine included all of theeastern Mediterranean region,
which is actually a very rareoccurrence, because the land of
(12:29):
Canaan is watered by rainfall,but Egypt is watered by the Nile
, which gets its waters from themountains.
And when this happened andEgypt is crying out to the
Pharaoh for answers, he says goto Joseph.
The Pharaoh directs the peopleto Joseph, and so we see that
(12:52):
the Pharaoh still trusts Josephand he continues to place the
kingdom of Egypt, even at thisdesperate time, under Joseph's
authority Verse 56.
So when the famine had spreadover all of the land, joseph
opened up the storehouses andsold to the Egyptian, for the
famine was severe in the land ofEgypt.
(13:14):
Moreover, all the earth came toEgypt to Joseph to buy grain
because the famine was so severeover all of the earth.
In our last two verses we seethat Joseph waited until the
famine had spread fully andtaken its full effect over the
land before he opened thestorehouses, and once it did, he
(13:40):
sold the grain that he hadgathered in the prior seven
years back to the Egyptians.
Selling the grain here showsJoseph's wisdom.
If Joseph had just given it outwithout charge back to the
Egyptians.
They would have developed atendency to take more than they
needed, perhaps even selling itto other people for a profit.
(14:02):
This system of selling thegrain kept the people in check
and the needed grain in storageso that there would be enough
for the full seven years to come.
And we read, the famine wassevere in the land of Egypt.
History has shown us that Egyptcan have very severe famines.
(14:24):
It is but a very thin fertilestrip that lies between two very
arid deserts and Egypt iswatered by the Nile.
There are actually historicalrecords that indicate twice the
Egyptians resorted tocannibalism because the famine
had become so severe.
Because the famine had becomeso severe this time, however, it
(14:48):
was averted because the Lordused one of his chosen people to
bring him glory and save all ofEgypt.
Finally, we read that not onlydid the Egyptians come to buy
the grain, but all of the earthcame to buy grain from Joseph in
Egypt At some level.
(15:09):
When we read that all of theearth came, it might seem like
hyperbole describing the wholeearth, but it is describing the
areas connected with EgyptCanaan, syria and Arabia.
I think it's also veryimportant to remember the age of
the earth and the context ofthis event.
It's 580 years after the globalflood of Noah that destroyed
(15:36):
the entire face of the earth,leaving only one family.
It's also 474 years since theTower of Babel that dispersed
the nations, and at this pointthe majority of the earth's
population and knowncivilizations are still in the
Near East.
(15:56):
So, while certainly otherpeople have dispersed to other
places on the face of the earth,it wouldn't be a far stretch to
say that all of the earth wascoming to Egypt.
Egypt, at this time, was thebreadbasket for the earth.
Thank you for joining me thisweek.
(16:17):
May the Lord bless you and keepyou, and may his face shine
upon you In the name of Jesus,our Savior, our Redeemer, amen.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.