“53 The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. 55 When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.’56 When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. 57 And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.” NIV

“Go to Joseph and do what he tells you” (55)

If things seem to be going wrong in your life this does not necessarily mean God is not with you; that His Hand is not on you. Consider Joseph. So much ‘went wrong’ in his story on the way to everything being set ‘right’. But we know that God was with him in the valleys as surely as He was on the mountain. God was working out His great, mysterious purposes in all things.

On the summit of the mountain is where we now find Joseph. He was raised to extraordinarily high office (41-44), but it was not for his own sake. He was there for others; placed there to ‘feed them world’.

There are so many similarities between the Joseph account and that of the life of Christ. Joseph stands, in Scripture, as one of the great types of Christ. As I look at verse 55, I feel I hear God saying, ‘Go to Jesus and do what He tells you.’ Jesus is “…the bread of life” (John 6:35). He is so much more than Joseph. We don’t simply come to Him for bread – He is the bread we come for. Those who come to Him will never go hungry, and those who believe in Him will never be thirsty.

The bread Joseph provided was not just for the Egyptians (55), but for “the world” (57). Similarly, Jesus said:

“This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

‘There is a famine of the bread of life throughout the whole earth. Go to Jesus, and what he bids you, do. Attend to His voice, apply to him; he will open his treasures, and satisfy with goodness the hungry soul of every age and nation, without money and without price. But those who slight this provision must starve, and his enemies will be destroyed.’ Matthew Henry.

Prayer: ‘Bread of heaven…feed me now and evermore.’