What is this about?
A wake up call no matter your beliefs.
This, yes this. The story is defined by clergy and the church as being a great story about a man of God who saved the day!!! But wait!! Really? Exactly what happened here?
Yes Joseph saved back grain for a famine he expected. But was it really all for the salvation, the wonderful good of the people of Egypt?
Read carefully. First he took all of their money, then their livestock, then their land and finally their freedom itself. The citizens of Egypt effectively sold themselves into life long slavery to the Pharaoh just so they could eat. But wait!! There is more to the wonderful story!!! They have to give a fifth of it all back to the Pharaoh!! And one more thing- except the clergy..... yep just like today- the tax free clergy.
So the story of Joseph preparing for the great famine was is reality a story of capitalism at it's best. There certainly was no great act of benevolence involved. In fact it was a form blackmail. It sounds pretty much like the Republican Health Care plan. "Oh we have something great in store for you!! Since you are too dumb, lazy and stupid to prepare for yourself we will take all that you have and save your life!!!! Give us all your money, your house and work as a Wal Mart greets until you drop dead but we will save you!!!"
Genesis 47:13-26New International Version (NIV)
Joseph and the Famine
13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18 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. 19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? 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 may not become desolate.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude,[a] from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.