CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 41:34. Take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt.] Lay on a tax of a fifth of the produce. “The exaction of a fifth or two tithes, during the period of plenty, may have been an extraordinary measure, which the absolute power of the monarch enabled him to enforce for the public safety.”—(Murphy.) “The Egyptians were accustomed to a tax of a tenth in ordinary years, for the public granaries. The extra crop would enable them easily to double the tax or rent.”—(Jacobus.)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 41:33-36
JOSEPH AS THE ADVISER OF PHARAOH
The occasion was important and critical, but Joseph was quite himself. The marked and well-known features of his character are manifest.
I. His presence of mind. Joseph was not one of those men whose dull faculties move slowly and require a long time to rouse them to exertion. He was a man of energy and spirit, and of ready resource. He proved himself equal to this present situation by fearlessly offering advice which was at once rational and practical.
II. The kindness and openness of his nature. He wanted to preserve the country from a great calamity; and in all the simplicity of his heart offers this sound advice, not as one who merely wished to be officious, but as one who could sympathise with the sorrows of others.
III. His self-command. He is not embarrased nor over-awed by the situation in which he suddenly found himself placed. He allows himself to think soberly.
IV. His practical good sense. He does not show any fanaticism by taking refuge in a presumptuous dependence upon Providence, but imparts counsels worthy of a great statesman who has the interests of his country at heart. He counsels that excellent prudence which provides for the future. Pharaoh was to lay up, in the time of plenty, for the time of famine. Joseph’s practical good sense is especially seen when he advises his king to chose a man for the times. In great crises of human affairs one wise and strong director is needed. It is those great men who have proved their sufficiency for the times that make history. The qualities of such a man are—
1. That he should be discreet. He should be intelligent and capable of understanding the signs of the times. He must be able to distinguish things that differ, to resist the temptation of what is merely plausible, to look fairly and every side of him and to point out the more excellent way.
2. That he should be wise. He should be a prudent man, one who was capable of using his knowledge rightly, that prudence which foreseeth the evil and hides itself in the impregnable fortress of wisdom. He should be a man of action as well as of thought and of knowledge. Such a man was Joseph, a man truly raised up for the times. He had no interested designs. He did not, like Haman, give advice merely to recommend himself. His only aim was the good of his country and the glory of his God.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 41:33-36. The good counsel which Joseph adds to the interpretation of the dream makes the answer of God an answer of peace, and not of evil. It may be justly questioned whether Pharaoh would have made any good improvement of his dreams if Joseph had merely interpreted them, without speaking of the use that ought to be made of the Divine discovery. God reveals nothing before it happens without some good end in view. The intention of prophecies concerning judgments to come is to excite those threatened with them to take proper measures for averting them. The grand purpose of God in Pharaoh’s dreams was not to gratify a vain curiosity about the future, but to procure deliverance and honour to Joseph, and to preserve Egypt, and the family of Jacob, and the countries around from destruction.—(Bush.)
One practical inference is to be drawn from this history, the same that was taught by our Master in the parable of the unjust steward. He commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely; he was wiser in his generation than the children of light; he had used his opportunity. Our Redeemer tells us that where he gained we fail; we have our advantages, and we, the children of light neglect to use them for the future. The same lesson is taught by Joseph’s history. To us, the years in which we are living are those of plenty, abundance of spiritual instruction; but the years of dearth will come. Blessed is the man who shall use the present well. Blessed is he who makes use of the present opportunity, who is using the present in acquiring spiritual strength. Blessed is he who is laying up for himself, while on earth, a treasure in the heavens which shall never fail.—(Robertson.)
The counsel of Joseph stands good both in regard to earthly and heavenly things; and is all the more necessary, for men generally make a bad use of abundance.