Skip to main content

When Money Means Nothing

Genesis 47:15 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."


There are several events in the Bible where the money comes to mean nothing. This account in Genesis 47 is one of those. God sent Joseph on ahead of his family in a very unusual way so that he would be there for them in the future. He had to suffer for about 15 years to be in the right place at the right time. 


The Egyptians were so hungry that they had spent all of their money to buy the bare necessities. But the funds were gone! But, they knew that their money was worthless, and they were willing to do anything to get what they needed. So, they gave all of their animals to Joseph, Pharoah, to provide food for their families. But, did you ever wonder why they didn't eat the cows? They must have been sacred. 


I have never gone hungry in my 68 years that you can see by looking at my fat tummy. I have heard that hunger changes everything. You can come to the point of cannibalism if left too long. We see that in 2 Kings 6:28,29 where King Jehoram hears the pleas of a woman who had eaten her son just the day before in the sieged city. In that same account, dove's dung was sold to eat with donkey heads. Yummy.


Money means nothing when hunger hits. God brings hunger to punish a nation. How does one stop a famine? One doesn't. One can look to God and repent, or one can finger God and get hungry. We don't believe in famines, do we?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tottering!

I was watching my one year old grandson, Brandon, today. He had on some baggy little shorts, weird flip-flops over his socks, and he was tottering. It made me think about how I often feel these days. Funny how that when we are little and "innocent" and tottering in our baggy pants, with our little potbelly sticking out from under our t-shirt we look precious. When we are older and tottering in our low slung trousers and the same potbelly, we looks pathetic! I guess that the two drastically opposite points of view are based on the viewer's chronological perspective. Brandon is growing and I'm dying. He is cute because the little guy has a lot to learn and we love to see him progress. The old guy has already had his chance at learning and what he is progressing toward is not quite so much fun to ponder. When I have these weird thoughts I praise my God because He never lets go of my hand whether a tottering little guy or an old one. And I found this verse to prove my po...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Are You Worth?

What are you Worth?  Have you ever thought about what you are worth? In investing circles there is a term used to gauge this exact question, it's called Net Worth. You take all of your assets, like property owned, funds in your bank account, clothes, jewelry, car, etc.. You total all of these things. You then take everything you owe, like mortgage, car loan, and credit card debt, and you subtract these items from the first total. This gives you your net worth. That number represents where you are financially. Most people never stop to think about this number because they don't understand anything about it. They never have two nickels to rub together. They live from hand to mouth and know (or at least believe) nothing will ever change so, they fall into the "daily grind" mentality. Psalm 49 should be a great encouragement to such as these. The sons of Korah write about them. These sons write about all of us. They call all people everywhere to listen to their wisdom. Bo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Missionary Thing

"I wish I could get into this Missionary Thing!" I have heard this statement a number of times during my missionary career. People say it in feigned jest. Especially when they see something special happening to missionaries. Tonight for instance a friend loaned us his brand new Chrysler Sebring. Or how about this one, Someone once gave us $10,000. I think that the "Missionary Thing" statement is a reaction to perceived preferential treatment. Granted, I had never receive $10,000 in a lump sum offering until I became a missionary. I had never had anyone give me a car, house, apartment, computer, airline ticket and myriad other things until I became a missionary.  Being a missionary does have it's definite benefits. One of the biggest of those being that we get to do what Paul did. Paul was able to recount his story to perhaps thousands before his death at the hands of Nero. We are still feeling the after-shock of his message. Paul's is that Christ-like exampl...
Post a Comment
Read more