February 15

Genesis 47:15 (NIV)
15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is used up.”

The people not only gave up their cattle, but they gave up their land and themselves! Why? What they had didn’t compare with what they wanted – life! When we see that what we have, all of our abilities or our materials won’t get us what we so desperately need – life – eternal life – abundant life – we will be willing to give up everything to get it.

Genesis 47:24 (NIV)
24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”

Please notice what happened to the seed. One fifth wasn’t even theirs, it was Pharaohs. The rest they could do with what they wished. What I noticed is that they kept coming to Joseph for seed to plant crops, which tells me that they were eating everything they produced. The only thing that they didn’t eat was a governmental compulsory tax. We have got to get to the point where we don’t eat all of our seed! This applies to everything in our lives from money to talents to investments to time! If we are the consumers of all we have, then we may have to sell ourselves to Pharaoh to get more seed.