Fri.’s Devo - The Interpretation

Read: Genesis 41:17-42:17; Matthew 13:24-46; Psalm 18:1-15; Proverbs 4:1-6 Pharaoh shared his dream with Joseph about the cows and the grain. These were the two sources of Egypt’s food supply so Joseph knew by discernment that God was speaking about a famine in the land since the good was overwhelmed by the weak. When he told Pharaoh that God was entrusting him with the future of the known world, he did this to honor him and give him hope. Pharaoh could see that God favored Joseph with administrative gifts so he put him in charge of his court and all his people. He gave him the authority to make any decision he thought was right for his nation. Amazing, since Joseph was clearly not an Egyptian. Pharaoh also gave Jospeh a wife named Asenath and they had two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh means “causing to forget”. He was a statement of what God had done in Joseph’s heart to cause him to forgive his brothers. Ephraim means “fruitfulness” because God had caused him to be fruitful where he was. Just as the dreams said, Egypt experienced its greatest harvests for seven years. Then a famine swept in and began the next seven years. Joseph had stored up grain during the seven years of plenty and began to sell it to the people during the beginning of the famine. This was a world-wide famine so it had spread to the land of Canaan also. Jacob heard that there was grain to buy in Egypt so he sent his sons, minus Benjamin, to Egypt to buy some grain. Joseph was in charge of the distribution of grain so he was the one to meet with his brothers. He recognized them at once but they didn’t recognize him because he was shaven and wearing the royal robes of Egypt. He played the role of the mean Egyptian ruler and interrogated them. He accused them of being spies and they spilled out the fact that they were all brothers and had another brother at home. To prove they were telling the truth and not spies, Joseph put them in jail for three days to decide who would go home and bring Benjamin back as proof that they were telling the truth. They would get some jail time, like they had given Joseph, to do some soul-searching. Yesterdays’ parable in Matthew was the catalyst for all of Jesus’ parables. The seed was the Word, the gospel of the Kingdom of God. In this next parable the farmer’s good field was infiltrated with the enemies’ seed. When the crops began to grow there was grain and weeds. The farmer instructed his workers to let them grow together and in the end they would separate the weeds from the grain. Jesus told his disciples later that the good seed was his seed that He planted on the earth and the bad seed was Satan’s seed that he planted on the earth. They were to grow together until the end of time when the angels would reap the world. Then the weeds would be separated from the grain and thrown into he fire of hell. Jesus told two other parables from his perspective. God had hidden his treasure in the world, his remnant. The Jews were the treasure and the Gentiles were the pearls. They are hidden all over his world. He gave his son to purchase the whole world just to get the treasure and the pearls. Lord, thank you that you didn’t give up on the world but you gave your only son to purchase us and restore us back to you. You are our rock and our fortress. You are our place of love and safety.