A Famine In The Land

From my personal experience – it’s like I see Jesus -- bending close to me when I hurt. I can imagine Him intently listening to my cries for help. I picture His eyes misting and feel Him wiping away my tears with His NAIL-SCARRED HAND! There may be times when He offers NO answer, times when He solves NO dilemma. There may be times when it seems my cries freeze painfully in mid air – BUT I’M TELLING YOU – JESUS – the One who once SUFFERED HORRIFIC PAIN – for ME – HE understands! HE FEELS MY PAIN! HE SHARES IT WITH ME!

Imagine a DOUBLE YOKE HARNESS for oxen. Whatever the situation, Jesus is sharing the burden with you. Jesus says "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

WOW! WHAT AN AWESOME SAVIOR!

QUESTION? What is the LESSON for us? – In the MIDST OF HIS PAIN – Joseph learned to ABIDE IN God! In the midst of our PAIN – our challenge is to learn to ABIDE IN JESUS!

The Greek “hupomeno” literally means "to abide under" and signifies "to remain in a place instead of leaving it, to stay behind," or "to persevere unto the end"; or "to endure bravely and trustfully." It suggests endurance and longsuffering under something which is burdensome or PAINFUL.

OK, preacher, Joseph learned to ABIDE in God; certainly Jesus knew how to ABIDE in God; and WE need to ABIDE in Jesus. – WHY? WELL – LET’S

2.IMAGINE JACOB’S PREDICAMENT.

Back to Joseph – ABIDING in God while stuck in a dungeon prison. God first prepares him, then promotes him to the very throne of Egypt where he served as a virtual father to Pharoah! You see, what his brothers intended for EVIL God used for GOOD (Romans 8:28).

Only Joseph could interpret Pharoah’s dream concerning the coming ABUNDANCE of grain and the FAMINE soon to follow. Joseph devised a plan to gather and store the grain for use in the famine. In fact, he stored so much grain it couldn’t be counted. The Egyptian “bean counters” couldn’t handle such large calculations of grain! WHAT A BLESSING FROM GOD!

In scripture, GRAIN often represents the WORD OF GOD – GRAIN is a TYPE for the Word of God. The Bible compares the Word to SEED. JESUS the WORD MADE FLESH – is called the BREAD OF LIFE!

Jacob’s predicament was this: he had eleven sons and all their families to feed, seventy in all, but there was a FAMINE in the land of Canaan! A famine is a lack of available food because of DROUGHT, which is a lack of RAIN! It was so bad- they didn’t plant or harvest for seven years! So they were not only lacking in food, but also in water! They were STARVING!

Jacob heard there was plenty of FOOD AND WATER in Egypt, so he sent ALL HIS sons except the youngest (who? - Benjamin) to buy grain in Egypt.

They didn’t recognize Joseph, who in charge of the grain sales, and he ACCUSED them of being SPIES. He tested his brothers’ sincerity before he revealed himself to them. He realized they were genuinely sorry for their plot to get rid of him, and he forgave them. He exemplified God’s forgiveness for us!