Genesis 41:46-57
Prosperity and Famine
Introduction: In His word, God uses agricultural themes to teach us spiritual applications. There are thousands of them, used consistently and openly, to teach us moral lessons, prophetic lessons, life lessons, and spiritual lessons – pictures of Christ.
Today’s passage is one of them. There is abundance and there is famine. There is grain and there is need. There is the wisdom of God and there is the lack of foresight in man. God isn’t lording these stories over us to show how stupid we are, but to show us that His wisdom will increase our knowledge and protect our path.
He has given us the most wonderful treasure in His superior word. As I said, each agricultural theme is used to teach us spiritual truths. A perfect one is Jesus standing up and saying, “I am the bread of life” in John 6. Right before that, He had fed 5000 with just 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish. After the meal, they’d picked up 12 baskets of leftovers.
And then, the people came looking for more and for a sign too so they could believe in Him. Here is the exchange –
“What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
It was at this point that He told them that He is the Bread of life. Earthly bread doesn’t satisfy… only Christ can do that. And we can only find Christ in His word. And yet we trade it for flashy presentations, exciting Sunday mornings, and lives filled with misery. It’s not worth it. God’s word is a hard study, but that which is of highest value rarely comes easily.
Text Verse: My foot has held fast to His steps;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
More than my necessary food. Job 23:11, 12
We read words like those of Job, we listen to sermons about them, and we often go right on with life without letting them sink in. Job said he treasured the word of the Lord’s mouth more than his necessary food. We eat three times a day and we’re hungry again in the morning.
How can we expect to be filled with God’s word without consuming it just as often? We can’t. Please, if nothing else that you take from the next hour of your life as you sit and listen, please take the admonition from me now. Read your Bible. It is God’s superior word. And so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.
I. An Abundance of Grain (46-49)
46 Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Joseph’s age is given at the start of his rule for several reasons. First, it gives us a reference for how long he was in slavery. He was sold off to Egypt when he was 17 years old. And so now we know that he remained a slave and prisoner for 13 years.
Next, it provides the details concerning His life and how long he will be in this position until his death at the age of 110 years. He will hold his position of authority for 80 years. Thirdly, this gives us the dating of the world from creation. Joseph was born in the year 2259AM and so this is now the year 2289AM. It is about 1700 years before the coming of Christ.
And finally, his age is given to show the parallel between him in his exalted position and that of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. In Luke 3:23, it says, “Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age.”
At this age, it says he “stood before Pharaoh.” This is a way of saying that he has been granted access to the royal throne. Only the highest officials of the land could stand before the throne of the king. And so this implies that he is now in such a position.
46 (con’t) And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
In his high position, he now has access to stand before, and go out from, the presence of Pharaoh. With this authority, we are told that he “went throughout all the land of Egypt.” He is the ruler of the land and the one to monitor everything that occurs there. He is granted complete and unhindered access wherever he wishes to go.
47 Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly.
The Hebrew literally says that the earth “brought forth by abundant handfuls.” This is a way of saying that either a single stalk produced as many ears as a person could hold in one hand, or the grain from one stalk would fill a hand.
Either way, the reapers would grasp the ears and cut and not bother with the stalk at all. It is an immense harvest which is being described.
The ground brought forth abundantly to the reaper’s cheers
So much grain, such a bountiful harvest
This continued on for seven blessed years
Such were the crops, as the Bible does attest
48 So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them.
“All the food” mentioned here is the one-fifth which he had counseled Pharaoh to collect. That one fifth was gathered up over seven plentiful years and stored in granaries which had been constructed for the purpose.
Each major city had granaries which held the surplus from all of its surrounding fields. Eventually, the amount stored was so immense that it was beyond description as we see next…
49 Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.
The term “as the sand of the sea” is used almost 20 times in the Bible and it is expressive of an uncountable number. Just as it would be impossible to go and count all the grains of sand on the sea, so was the abundance of the harvest stored up by Joseph.
There was so much that he eventually had the bean-counters of his time just stop making records of what was brought in. The Hebrew says that “he left numbering because there was no number.” It became a futile endeavor to even bother numbering the surplus.
There came a point where it was evidently enough for any contingency that was anticipated to arise. We have to remind ourselves though that it was God who said this would happen, and that it was God who brought the flooding waters down into the Nile delta.
And it will be God who stops the floods in the time to come. By using the weather in the upper Nile to control the river, and the lower Nile to control the heat and wind, there will be an immense famine coming. And all of it is for the purpose of leading to Jesus through one select group of people whom He has chosen.
If you think it through from this perspective, it shows you how immensely important the redemption of man is to Him. Every drop of rainfall and every gust of wind has been perfectly arranged to get the world to Jesus. And so what do you suppose is the depth of the heart of God toward us that we should call on Jesus?
In the Psalms, David asked “What is man that You are mindful of him?” The question seems all the more relevant when you consider the amount of time and the incredible care it took to bring the world to the moment when Jesus came. And equally, the same amount of time and incredible care it took to compile the Bible which tells us this marvelous story.
And in that thought, there is a parallel to the seven years of abundance and the seven years of famine in Egypt to that of the world of the end times. In the book of Amos, the Lord speaks about the wickedness of Israel which will lead to famine.
In His words, he speaks of the swelling and subsiding of the River of Egypt, the Nile. But the context isn’t speaking of a famine of food as much as it is another type of famine. Let me read you this from Amos 8; listen carefully –
Shall the land not tremble for this,
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
All of it shall swell like the River,
Heave and subside
Like the River of Egypt.
9 “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God,
“That I will make the sun go down at noon,
And I will darken the earth in broad daylight;
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
And all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist,
And baldness on every head;
I will make it like mourning for an only son,
And its end like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it.
As the end times approach, and they are approaching, there is an abundance of the word like at no other time in the history of the world. The Bible is preached on TV and on the radio. It is preached on the internet. It can be accessed on innumerable sites in a hundred different translations and in 1000 languages.
Bibles and the instruction of God’s word will continue to increase right up until the tribulation period… and then there will be a famine. In the end times, the Bible will be removed from the internet. Christian websites will disappear. Any mention of the truth will vanish. We don’t need to guess if this will happen, it will.
This is certainly what is being pictured in the grain of Egypt. Throughout the Bible, God’s word is considered our food. Without food we will die and without the Bible we are as good as dead. The Bible tells us of Jesus and without Him, there is no hope. One plus one is two… No Bible, No Jesus, No Hope.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God
“That I will send a famine on the land
It will be severe wherever man does trod
The people will suffer for what lacks in their hand
It will not be a famine of bread
Nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord
Masses of humanity will remain forever dead
Because of the lack of My superior word
The abundance of the last seven years before the rapture will be all-but forgotten when the tribulation and the great Day of the Lord comes.
II. The Sons of Joseph (50-52)
50 And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.
Here again in this verse, like last week, we have a picture of Christ. Joseph become a blessing to the gentiles as leader of Egypt and the one to save them from the affliction to come. And at the same time, he obtained a gentile wife. Likewise, Jesus, has blessed the gentiles and in them He has secured a gentile bride.
To this wife, two sons are born. However, the verb for “born” is singular, not plural, and so it is possible and likely that they were twins. In this verse is a multi-leveled play on words. Joseph’s name means, “He shall add.” In essence the repeater, or the doubler.
He was born to Rachel, the long barren wife of Jacob. Eventually, to her was born a second son, Benjamin, thus doubling in person and in type, because both picture Jesus in their lives. However, Joseph is also the doubler in his own children, by having two, thus picturing Jesus, the Lord of Jew and Gentile.
And finally, Joseph has been chosen as the ruler of Egypt, but he also marries into the priesthood of Egypt, thus doubling the authority in his home. And this also pictures Jesus as the King and Priest of His people. He is the priest on His throne. Zechariah 6:13 and Hebrews 8:1 explain this in type and in fulfillment.
51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.”
The firstborn child is named Manasseh. And the explanation for the name is given. “For God has made me forget.” Manasseh comes from the verb nasha, which means “to forget.” But again, there are multi-levels of word play in this verse.
What seems simple becomes amazingly deep. Unlike most of the sons of Israel, Joseph was named based on two words, not one. Joseph comes from yoseph – he shall add. But he was also named based on the word asaph – to take away. Manasseh is the same.
In Hebrew, and thus in the Bible, to forget something doesn’t mean what we think in English. Something can be forgotten because the memory fades, but the Bible’s idea of forgetting is active. It is taking something away. And so Joseph, who was named from the word asaph, to “take away”, is himself taking away the memory.
So you understand, think of the times in the Bible when God says he will forget our sins. God doesn’t forget anything, and so it means that He actively takes away the memory of the sins. When He remembers someone, it doesn’t mean He ever forgot them, but that He is drawing them near to Himself to help them in some way.
This is exactly why it says this in Genesis 30 –
“Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 So she called his name Joseph, and said, ‘The Lord shall add to me another son.'”
Joseph named his son Manasseh because he forgot, even though he hasn’t really forgotten. The word-play on his name is that he “forgot by taking away.”
Having said that about Joseph, the naming of Manasseh takes a new turn. Nasha means to forget, but the same word also means “a debt.” The Bible’s concept of a debt is different than we handle a debt today. In the Bible, when something is lent, it is pushed out of mind. Jesus says this in Luke 6 –
“And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” (34, 35)
The idea is that only a person in need would ask for a loan and so the loan should be forgotten. If the debt is repaid, then it is brought back to mind. If it isn’t, it is to be water under the bridge. And so as much as the name Manasseh means “to forget” it also means “from a debt.”
52 And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
And again, wordplay comes into the picture on several levels. Joseph’s name means “He shall add.” He is the repeater, the doubler, the increaser. He has a second son and thus his name is fulfilled in the second son, just as in the first. This time, the son is named Ephraim. As you can see Joseph’s name is as important in this account as the naming of his sons in understanding what is occurring.
Ephraim means double fruitful or twice fruitful. But again, there is another connection to his name, which is the word for “ashes.” Ashes are emblematic of grief or sorrow, especially for judgment on sin, such as when Abraham said, “I am but dust and ashes.”
He meant that he is a man made from the dust and one deserving of the judgment of being reduced to ashes. And so the double play on this name isn’t just that Joseph is doubly fruitful in the land of his affliction, but that he remained filled with grief over being separated from his father and his home in the land of his affliction.
As Abraim poetically says it, Joseph is behind “the golden bars of a still dismal cage.” In the case of the ruler of the greatest land on earth, he was still mournful, flipping his coin from side to side – from joy to grief as each moment passed.
After the family is reunited, we will read this in Genesis 48 –
“Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.” (14)
Jacob is going to adopt these sons as his own, but he will place Ephraim above Manasseh. Again, as happens throughout the Bible, the second is placed above the first, thus picturing the work of Christ replacing the work of Adam.
By knowing this, the naming of the sons, and the wordplay involved in those names will now make all the sense in the world. Manasseh means “to forget” but it also means “from a debt.” He pictures Adam, who is the man who owes a debt but whose debt… is forgotten in Christ.
Ephraim means, “twice fruitful”, but it also means “ashes.” He pictures Jesus. He is twice fruitful in the land of His affliction, prevailing over the law and thus becoming the Savior of Jew and Gentile, but his work also meant that sin was judged in Him, thus the ashes. Hence, “the land of His affliction.” Astonishing.
If nothing else, God is continually bringing us back to the cross of Christ on behalf of fallen man. If there is no other thing that we can get from these many stories in Genesis, we cannot miss this. It is all about Jesus. He removes our sin, forgives our debt, and has been doubly prosperous through His own affliction.
This ties in with what Isaiah says in Chapter 40, the great turning point of the book of Isaiah –
“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
2 “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.” (1, 2)
In Christ there is double comfort, full pardon of iniquity, and complete payment for sin, even double so. The warfare is ended.
III. Famine in the Earth (53-57)
53 Then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of Egypt ended,
Seven years of plenty was all that they were given to prepare for what was ahead. If the stores were mishandled, or if Joseph was negligent in his duties, then everyone below him would suffer. The book of Proverbs says,
“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.” 13:22
If we don’t prepare for the inevitable, then when it inevitably comes, we will inevitably be found wanting. The famine was foretold and its coming was inevitable. Our death is coming and nothing short of the rapture itself will stand in its way.
And the rapture is meant for those who have prepared in advance for it to come. In other words, be prepared. When Solomon says for you to save an inheritance for your children’s children, he was certainly speaking of worldly wealth. It would be unwise to not save for those who come after you.
But he was building upon a spiritual precept found in Scripture. In Exodus 34, at the great pronouncement of the Lord to Moses, we read this –
“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (6, 7)
David, Solomon’s father was aware of this precept and put it in the positive when he wrote the 103rd psalm –
“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
18 To such as keep His covenant,
And to those who remember His commandments to do them.” (17, 18)
And so, the spiritual picture of the seven years of famine in Egypt, that of the abundance of the Word of God in the world, now comes to an end. From this point on, the Word of God will not come abundantly and freely, but it will cost. For some, it will cost all.
54 and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said.
The famine began right on schedule according to the dreams of Pharaoh and the interpretation of Joseph. Joseph has proven himself to be the prophet of God, seeing beyond what could have otherwise been expected.
To guess a few years of bumper crops is imaginable, but to guess seven followed by seven miserable years could only be revealed by God. And so we see the prophet, priest, and king represented in Joseph and thus picturing Christ.
54 (con’t) The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
“In all the lands” means that this was an immense and wide-ranging famine. Twice in Genesis, there have been localized famines in Canaan with food remaining available in Egypt, but this time the famine encompasses the whole region. Only Egypt has food and only because they prepared in advance.
This type of famine is so severe, that people will stoop to the lowest imaginable levels to survive. In Egypt in AD1071, records show a famine that was so severe that people ate corpses of people and animals. A dog was sold for five deenars, a cat for three, and a bushel of wheat for twenty.
In Deuteronomy 28, under the blessings and curses that the people of Israel could expect as they followed or failed to follow the Lord, these words show us the horror of famine and hunger –
“You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.” 53-55
The words continue on in the next two verses of this chapter to describe something so horrifying that I won’t read it to you until we arrive at that passage someday. But we have to remember, when we read things like this, it isn’t the cruelty of the Lord, but the self-inflicted wounds of man.
The Lord makes His offer of peace, and man runs from it. Someday, there will be no more running and the famine of Egypt will be realized on a global scale; the self-inflicted wounds of the race of humanity who have so far turned from Christ that there is no remedy left.
The cross teaches us, if nothing else, that God does not tolerate sin and that it will be punished in Jesus, as our Substitute or we will face the wounds and horror because we willingly turned from that offer. If it sounds terrible, it is. But now is the time of God’s favor and today is the day of salvation. Jesus’ hands are open and waiting for us to choose. Choose wisely.
55 So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.
I’m not a survivalist, but if there was one thing other than guns that I’d invest in, it wouldn’t be gold or silver. It would be food that lasts and can be eaten cold, like military rations. In the storehouses, the grain would last. The dry climate would have kept the grain from spoiling with no problem.
There are people all over the country who have years and years of food saved up for “just in case.” I know a lady here in Sarasota that could probably feed an army for seven years. The fact is, that if the wheels of the economy stopped today, the stores would be empty in two days, and there would be utter chaos in three.
In the 20s, during the great depression, about 80% of the people in America lived in the country and 20% in the cities. That has all but reversed since then. We have set ourselves up for trouble that will be unimaginable. The people of Egypt cried to Pharaoh because bread was scarce.
Imagine how people will cry to the Lord when they realize that they were wrong about Jesus. The calls for the word of God during the famine will be many. In the 119th Psalm it says this –
“Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.” (11)
We should store up the word as we store up food. If bread which satisfies for a day is important, how much more God’s Manna which He sent from heaven, the Living Word? And we cannot feast on the Bread of Life unless we have a full supply of that Bread. The book is written and is satisfies fully.
Oh precious Bread of life, Jesus my Lord
How I cherish knowing you more and more each day
And this blessing comes from knowing Your word
The Bible is my daily meal which my hunger it does allay
If you spend your time in the word now, there will be no need to call out during times without it. It will be hidden in your heart to fill you any time you need it.
55 (con’t) Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, do.”
Pharaoh, the Great House, gives his instructions, “Go to Joseph. Whatever he says to you, do.” They are words repeated by a woman who understood who her Son really was. In John 2, we read this account –
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (1-5)
Pharaoh, picturing the house of God, tells us what to do. Go to Jesus and whatever He says to you, do it. The pictures tell the message and the message is clear. We’re not going to be fed by allah or buddha or krishna. LIFE APP – GOD ISN’T CONFUSED
There is only one Source of life, and it is found in Jesus. And the famine which will result for those who don’t seek Him will someday cover the whole earth as is pictured in the next verse…
56 The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt.
There are different thoughts on the world of the tribulation period. Some believe that if you have heard of Jesus and didn’t receive Him before the rapture, you cannot be saved. Personally, I believe that to be shallow and vindictive. God is neither.
I would remind you that John 3:16 does not say, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him before the rapture shall not perish, but have everlasting life. No, it doesn’t say that.
But it also warns us to be prepared now. Anyone who feels they have time, or that it will be ok if they enter the tribulation is a fool. The famine will be severe, even in the land of those who have Jesus as their ruler. How much more in the land where they don’t!
*57 So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands.
With the famine in all the earth and with Joseph in charge of the food for all people, the name he was given, Zaphnath-Paaneah, is fully realized. He has become, in his own day, the savior of the world.
All countries of the earth came to Joseph for grain and since the coming of Christ, all countries of the earth have streamed to Him for the true Bread of Life. The patterns are plain and wonderful and the pictures tell the story of Christ to come; each word dripping with hints of His glory and His work.
The message is always about Jesus, either looking forward to Him, or picturing Him, or both. Man’s redemption is tied up in this one Man who came to pay our debt and which He will then forget, represented by Manasseh.
And then He became doubly fruitful, saving both Jew and Gentile, represented by Ephraim. But Ephraim gave us a deeper taste of Christ, who bore our judgment. We are but dust and deserve being reduced to ashes, and yet He took our judgment upon Himself.
The cross of Jesus Christ is the hinge upon which all of history rotates. It opens the door of heaven and it also shuts the door of heaven. It is open now through His blood for each person who hears and believes. Come through that door while there is still time. When the door shuts, it will be too late.
Grant me just another moment, please, to explain to you in a simple way why Jesus came and how you can have a renewed relationship with God through Him…
Closing Verse: So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3
Next Week: Genesis 42:1-17 (The Giver of Grain) (104th Genesis Sermon)
The Lord has you exactly where He wants you and He has a good plan and purpose for you. Call on Him and let Him do marvelous things for you and through you.
The Government Upon His Shoulder
Joseph was thirty years old when he stood
Before Pharaoh king of Egypt
Certainly, things were looking good
And we are told that Joseph went out
From the presence of Pharaoh
To all the land of Egypt he went throughout
Through the broad avenues and side streets so narrow
Now in the seven plentiful years
The ground brought forth abundantly
In Egypt there were many cheers
So he gathered up all the food of the seven years
Which were in Egypt the land
And laid up the food in the cities
In storehouses ever so grand
He laid up the food of the fields
Which surrounded them in every city
And he did it, believe it or not, without a congressional committee
Joseph gathered very much grain
As the sand of the sea it was stored
Until he stopped counting, so much they did obtain
For it was immeasurable, a vastly immense hoard
And to Joseph were born two sons
Before the years of famine came
She the daughter of Poti-Pherah Priest of On
Bore them to him, and Asenath was her name
Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh:
“For God has made me forget
All my toil and all my father’s house
As if the payment of an immense debt
And the name of the second he called Ephraim:
“For God has caused me fruitful to be
In the land of my affliction, like a dream
He has multiplied me most abundantly
Then the seven years of plenty
Which were in the land of Egypt ended
And the seven years of famine began to come
As Joseph had said, the abundance was no longer extended
The famine was in all lands, it quickly spread
But in all the land of Egypt there was bread
So when all the land of Egypt was famished
The people cried to Pharaoh for bread
Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians
“Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, do as he said.”
The famine was over all the face of the earth
And Joseph opened all the storehouses
And sold to the Egyptians, sustaining them through the dearth
And the famine became severe
In the land of Egypt things had turned austere
So all countries came to Joseph
In Egypt they came to buy grain
Because the famine was severe in all lands
The famine which God did foreordain
We need bread to eat lest we waste away
But there is a greater need than bread from the field
We have the need for Jesus, the Bread of Life
Who through Him our heavenly destiny is sealed
God sent His Son to feed us by giving us His life
There upon the rugged cross of Calvary
And through His blood ends our enmity and strife
Peace with God
Golden streets we’ll trod
Fellowship, communion, and the light of eternal glory
Hallelujah and Amen…