DON'T TRUST PHARAOH

Blogging Genesis 41 & 47

Pharaoh is sneaky.

You think you’re getting what Pharaoh gives, but all the while he’s getting you for all you got.  He’s sneaky. 

In Genesis 41 Joseph gave Pharaoh a plan to save his people from starvation during the 7 prophesied years of famine.  The ancient Egyptian government imposed an emergency 20%  federal income tax and ordered municipalities to increase local taxes to build up their capital reserves.

“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.  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.  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” (Genesis 41: 34-36).

This was a whole new deal for Egypt.  And it worked. 

The seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread (Genesis 41:54).

But, they didn’t just give away the government’s grain.  That would’ve been socialism.  No, “Joseph opened all the storehouses and SOLD to the Egyptians”   (Genesis 41:56).

They made their own starving citizens BUY BACK grain the citizens had grown.  And they didn’t just sell to their own people.  The Egyptian government’s new taxation scheme had been so effective that Egypt had enough grain in reserve to sell to merchants and emissaries from starving nations all over the region. 

So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands (Genesis 41:57).

Pharaoh (and Joseph) made exponential profits “saving” people in the economic downturn.  But, the  people received the real, tangible benefit of not starving to death so that’s fair, right?

Check your pockets.  Pharaoh is sneaky.

And patient.

Buying back your own grain at famine prices is expensive.  After some time, Pharaoh had “all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought” (Genesis 47: 14).

Pharaoh took control of all liquid capital in the nation.  He had the financial markets.

Pharaoh continued feeding his people, but not for free.  That would be socialism. 

“Then Joseph said, ‘Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.’ “   Within a year, Egyptian citizen had all signed over the ancient equivalent of their vehicles and heavy equipment (Genesis 47:15-17).

Pharaoh took control of the means of production.

After another year of renting back your own equipment with money you don’t have to buy back your own grain, the good citizens of Egypt began selling the only two things they had left:  their land and their bodies.    They asked Joseph to, “Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate”  Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. . . So the land became Pharaoh’s. (Genesis 47: 19, 20).

Pharaoh became master of the housing sector, and the Egyptians became sharecroppers on their own land.

But wait.  There’s more.  To ensure the new status quo took hold and stayed in place, Pharaoh made 3 more moves:

(1)  He urbanized the population breaking each family’s connection to  their ancestral land.  

“And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end” (Genesis 47: 21). 

(2) The government made the emergency tax permanent because blah-blah-blah the economy. 

And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth . . . (Genesis 47:26).

(3)  Pharaoh used religious tax-exemptions and personal connections (his prime minster was married to the high priest’s daughter)  to make sure that the nation’s religious leaders would support his policies and preach pro-Pharaoh patriotism.

Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s (Genesis 47:26).

Amazing what a sneaky man can do when he sits on the throne (or in the Oval Office).

Now I know what some of you are thinking:  “Pharaoh represents liberal Democrats enslaving our nation through dependence.”

And I know what the rest of you are thinking:  “No. Pharaoh is the conservative Republicans  enslaving our nation through corporate greed.”

Read this blog again. 

Pharaoh owns a donkey and an elephant.  
He’s that sneaky.

--Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

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