Mark continued his series on Joseph this morning, looking at Gen 41:45-54. At this point in the story, Joseph’s fortunes have been dramatically reversed, thanks to his interpretation (by God’s help) of Pharaoh’s dream. As a result, Pharaoh gives him a new name, meaning ‘God speaks and lives’, a testimony to God’s power throughout Egypt as Joseph travelled the whole of the country, making plans for how to deal with the years of plenty and famine. God’s fame was thus spread throughout Egypt.
The seven plentiful years came and Joseph used his administrative and organisational skills to store the overflow of grain (more numerous than the grains of sand!) Despite initially trying to keep track of the surplus grain, Joseph found it was ‘immeasurable.’ God is that kind of God! – as Rend Collective sing in ‘Immeasurably More‘,
‘More than all we ask
Than all we seek
All our hopes and dreams
You are immeasurably more
Than we can know
Than we can pray
All our words can say
You are immeasurably more
There’s nothing greater than Your love
You’re more than we can imagine
There’s nothing sweeter on this earth
You’re more than we can imagine.’ (Rend Collective, ‘Immeasurably More’)
God does things in a bigger and better way than we can ever imagine (see Eph 3:20-21) and in so doing, demonstrated the futility of the Egyptian gods of harvest. God is plentiful, abundant and immeasurable; He lavishes His love on us. (1 John 3:2)
Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife (the daughter of the priest of the sun god!) and during the seven years of plenty, two sons were born to him. The first, Manasseh, means ‘God has made me forget’, testimony to how Joseph’s circumstances were changed by God. The second was named Ephraim, for God caused Joseph to be fruitful even in the land of his affliction. God can enable fruitfulness wherever we are. After thirteen years as a slave, the dream is about to be fulfilled and everything is changing for Joseph. When the seven years of famine came, as God had foretold, there was bread in Egypt. God is faithful and accurate to do all He has promised. We may have to wait at times for the fulfilment of the dream, but it will come.