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Context No. 1953 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 47:13-19: in context

13There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. 14Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. 15When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails.” 16Joseph said, “Give me your livestock; and I will give you food for your livestock, if your money is gone.” 17They brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock for that year. 18When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands. 19Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won’t be desolate.”

The famine is severe, and there is no bread in the land. The people come to Joseph and buy grain until their money runs out. Then they come again: give us bread, they plead, for why should we die before you? Our money is gone. Joseph gives them bread in exchange for their livestock; and when that is spent, they come the next year and offer their land and even themselves: buy us and our land for bread, that we may live and not die. In their hunger, they give up everything they have for bread to survive.

The desperation of these famished people is striking: they give up everything they have, their money, their livestock, their land, even their freedom, for bread to keep from dying. When survival is at stake, when the hunger is real, no price seems too high; they will part with all they own for the bread that keeps them alive. And this desperate hunger for physical bread points to a deeper hunger that we all carry, whether we recognize it or not: the hunger of the soul for what only God can give. Our bodies hunger for bread, and rightly; but our souls hunger for something bread cannot satisfy, for God himself, for the life that does not end, for the bread that truly sustains. And Jesus claimed to be exactly this: I am the bread of life, he said; the one who comes to me will never hunger. The deep hunger of the soul that the world's goods cannot satisfy is met in Christ, the bread of life. There is an irony worth pondering here. The Egyptians gave everything they had for the bread that would keep them alive a while longer, and it was worth it to them; how much more is the true bread, the bread of life that satisfies the soul and gives eternal life, worth seeking. And yet, unlike the bread the Egyptians bought at such cost, the true bread is offered freely. Come, God says, buy wine and milk without money and without price; why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? The bread of life is not sold for money, livestock, or land; it is given freely to all who come to Christ. The Egyptians paid everything they had for bread to survive; and the bread of life, worth infinitely more, is offered to us for nothing, given freely by the God who invites us to come and eat. The deepest hunger of our souls is met not by what we can buy but by what God freely gives in Christ, the bread of life, for which no price is asked but our coming to him.

Do I recognize beneath my hunger for the things of this life a deeper hunger of the soul that only God can satisfy, and can I come to Christ, the bread of life, who alone meets that hunger, receiving freely the true bread that the Egyptians' desperate purchase of grain could only faintly picture, the bread that satisfies the soul and gives life?

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