Economic Distress

Reading through Genesis (41-47) with the kids, I was given new insight while studying the 7-year famine that came upon the land during Joseph’s time with Pharaoh. With our economy having been in its own recession/depression these last few years, I can’t help but make a connection to the Egyptian government of the time.

While the people in the land continued to lose their money and their livestock (likely a source of income), Pharaoh continued to gain under the plans Joseph had set forth. The government continued to grow in power and authority until eventually the people had to sell themselves and their land to survive. From then on, the Egyptian government owned them (so to speak).

For fear of their lives (fear being a keyword here), the people had no choice but to turn to the government. The Lord delivered Joseph and his family, though, from the famine that swept the land. In the midst of total loss all around, Joseph rose to a position of great authority and Jacob and his sons were blessed with land, livestock and all they needed to grow their estates.

In a country with a similar economic downturn and a government increasing in ultimate power and authority, Do you know where your help comes from? Does it come from the Lord, on whom we can always depend, who is ever-Faithful, who will not suffer to see His seed begging bread (Ps 37:25)? Or does it come from the government, on an economy that is bound to fail and will never truly provide for its people?

2 Tim 2:13 says, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." God’s very nature is to be faithful—whether we believe or not. Our actions, our thoughts, our beliefs do not change the character of God. His Word is truth—God is not a man that He should lie (Num 23:19). Our lives—our finances, our families, our jobs, our every care—can be committed to Him, knowing that He is Jehovah Jirah: the Lord Who Provides; for He is able to keep that which we commit unto him (2 Tim 1:12).

God used Joseph’s bondage in Egypt to fulfill His purpose and ultimate plan, while keeping His children through times of despair. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).