# 395 Salting Away For the Future

The Book of Genesis

Day 395

Ge 41:32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.  33 "Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.  34 "Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years.  35 "And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.  36 "Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine."

All right. Having finished the bunny trail of the 24 “verily,verilies” in John, let’s get back to our verse by verse exposition of Genesis!

Joseph had just interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and had predicted 7 bountiful years of harvest, and then 7 years of severe famine. He has given Pharaoh a sense of urgency  about the matter by stating that God was about to do this shortly.

Now Joseph could’ve stopped there. He had done his part, the dream has been correctly interpreted for Pharaoh. But Joseph’s giftedness takes over. We cannot deny that Joseph had special skills in organization and administration. It’s what he had done in Potiphar’s house and in prison. His gift, such a natural part of him now spills out in the wake of Pharaoh’s dream.

By the way, this gift of administrations is still alive in the church today as we read in 1Co 12:28, “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.”

So Joseph suggests to Pharaoh that he appoint a discerning and wise man to be the head of the Egyptian Department of Agriculture, and to appoint some officers under him who would collect 20% of the bountiful harvest for seven years. That food would then be stored in the cities so it would be available for the 7 years of famine.

Only 20%! That’s right, and if you do the math, that 20% would be the equivalent of only 1.4 years of a typical harvest. That means those abundant years were tremendous bumper crops! These would not be typical years! Whatever the harvest, it was stretched an additional 5.6 years in order to last through the 7 year famine!

Seems to me there is a stewardship lesson here. Wouldn’t it be wise to salt away 20% of your income during the good times? Enough that you could handle 1.4 years of financial famine? You might not like giving things up to get there, but think of the peace of mind you’ll have when that lay-off  or plant shutdown comes your way.

Of course the best financial plan is to steadfastly give of your firstfruits to God, knowing and believing this truth: 2Co 9:6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.