(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
So Jacob and all of Joseph’s brothers
settled in the land of Egypt and Pharaoh gave them choice land in the district of
Ramses, just as he had promised. They prospered and did well there.
They, their children and grandchildren and their herds had food and shelter
because of Joseph’s favor with Pharaoh.
It wasn’t too long until Joseph had
collected all the money in the land and placed it inside Pharaoh’s treasury in
exchange for food. Both Canaan and Egypt
continued to suffer from drought and produced no crops.
When all of the people ran out of money they cried out to Joseph, “Give
us food! We have given you everything
that we have and we are still hungry!”
Joseph told the people to bring their
cattle,sheep, goats, horses and donkeys
in exchange for food from Pharaoh.
They did and everyone came through that year of famine by trading all of
their livestock to Pharaoh for food.
The next year was the same story. The horrible famine continued. The people
came before Joseph needing food. They
said they had nothing left to trade for seed to plant to grow food, so they
offered themselves as servants to Pharaoh and their land as collateral for
food. So Joseph bought every citizen and
all of their land and put them into service for Pharaoh, except for the priest
of the land, because Pharaoh allotted them land and had allotted them seed to
grow their own food and they were not in need.
The rest of the Egyptians though, were now Pharaoh’s slaves. Pharaoh owned all of their land and all of
their livestock.
Joseph, however, was a fair man. When all the people became slaves, he gave
each of them seed to plant to grow and harvest for food. He made a new law in the land, which remained
in effect throughout time, that all of the people would give one fifth of their
produce to Pharaoh. They were able to
keep four fifths of the crops they grew for seed and for food for themselves,
and the other portion belonged to Pharaoh.
I guess you could say that Joseph established the first official
government tax system. Only the land
that belonged to the priest of the land was not taken or taxed. That land remained free and was used by the
priest for sustaining their households.
Not only does one begin to see how the
first government taxes came about here, one also begins to see that taxation by
the government is also a form of slavery.
The people were in bondage to Pharaoh, yet they were able to take what
he allowed in order to sustain themselves.
It was only preferable if one had no other choice but death by
starvation. This was the case. It could be said that Pharaoh gained all of
his wealth from the suffering of his people.
They bargained with him in order that they might live. Joseph brought balance into this
equation. He allowed the people to
flourish in spite of their bondage to their leader.
By this time Jacob's family was well
established in the land of Goshen. They multiplied and grew and were very fruitful in the land. Their numbers increased greatly.
Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen
years. He lived to be 147 years
old. When Israel was so old and tired
that he could only worship God by leaning on his staff, he requested a promise
from Joseph. “Bury me in the land of my
fathers. Do not forget this! Do not leave my bones here in the land of
Egypt but let me rest with my fathers in the land of my heritage.”
Joseph made this faithful promise to the
father that he loved with all of his heart.