Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
—Genesis 41:53-57
by: Dorothy Noel.
Verse 54 seems to indicate that Joseph did not immediately open the grain stores after the 7 years of plenty. There was a pause where the people cried out to Pharaoh, and then Joseph, when the famine was widespread, opened the silos. But while the primary recipients were the Egyptians, the grain was available to all the peoples of the earth. This emphasis is a reminder that Joseph was a descendant of Abraham, through whom all peoples of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3). While that prophecy refers more broadly to the coming of Jesus, we see a glimmer of that hope in Joseph’s preparation of food for all nations.