Pharaoh and Joseph’s people (vv. 11-27). Pharaoh allowed Joseph’s family to settle in the best part of the land of Egypt, where they were more than adequately cared for, and yet the native Egyptians had to pay dearly to sustain their lives. As the remaining five years (45:6) of the famine came and went, the Egyptian people became poorer and poorer, until finally they had to sell themselves into slavery in order to live. To make food distribution easier, many of the farmworkers were moved into the cities until such time as seed would be available for planting.

By the time the famine ended and farming could begin again, Pharaoh possessed all the money in Egypt and owned all the people and all their property, except the land of the priests, and the farmers had to pay a fifth of the harvest to Pharaoh as an annual tax. Not only had Joseph saved the nation from starvation, but also he had set up an economic system that enabled Pharaoh to control everything.

And what were the people of Israel doing? Multiplying! (See Ex. 1:7.) By the time Moses led the nation out of Egypt, the Jews numbered at least two million people. God had promised that He would make them a great nation, and He kept His promise.

Pharaoh was a pagan ruler who worshipped a multitude of false gods, and yet the Lord worked in his heart and used him to care for Jacob and his family (Prov. 21:1). Too many Christian believers today think that God can use only His own people in places of authority, but He can work His will even through unbelieving leaders like Pharaoh, Cyrus (Ezra 1:1ff.; Isa. 44:28), Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 25:9; 27:6), and Augustus Caesar (Luke 2:1ff.).