Chapter 7: Ruler of Egypt

Pharaoh looked at his servants, then back at Joseph. The decision came swiftly.

PHARAOH“Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God? Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”— Genesis 41:38-40

Pharaoh removed his signet ring and placed it on Joseph's finger. They clothed him in garments of fine linen and hung a gold chain around his neck. He rode in a chariot as the second in command, and men cried out before him, "Bow the knee!"

Joseph - once thrown into a pit by his brothers, once sold for twenty pieces of silver, once falsely accused and forgotten in prison - now ruled over all the land of Egypt. He was thirty years old.

Pharaoh gave him a new name: Zaphenath-Paneah. He gave him a wife: Asenath, daughter of a priest of On. In time, she bore him two sons. Joseph named the first Manasseh, saying, "God has made me forget all my hardship." He named the second Ephraim, saying, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

The seven years of abundance came, just as Joseph had said. The land produced plentifully, and Joseph gathered grain like the sand of the sea - so much that they stopped measuring it.

Then the good years ended.

Famine spread across the earth. Crops failed. Rivers dried. Nations began to starve. But in Egypt, there was bread.

And from every corner of the world, people came to Joseph to buy grain.

Among them, ten brothers from Canaan.