Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dream in the PalaceBible World
41:28Genesis 41:28
This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.
God was showing Pharaoh in advance, through Joseph in a dream, what God Himself was about to do. What was shown was seven years of great plenty followed by seven years of severe famine. The seven fat kine and seven full ears meant seven years of great plenty when field and garden would yield more abundantly than ever before, and the seven lean kine and seven thin blasted ears meant seven years of famine afterward so very grievous that the plenty would not be known in the land, as detailed in the following verses to verse 54. Pharaoh's two dreams were one message, and the doubling and repeating of the same message showed the matter was established by God and that fulfillment was certain and soon or near.
The revelation gave time to prepare and called for immediate action. Pharaoh should set a discreet and wise man with officers over Egypt to take up the fifth part of the land in the plenteous years and gather and keep corn under Pharaoh's hand in the cities for store against the seven years of famine. The warning led to storing food, so Egypt had provisions during the famine and people from other countries could buy grain there.
The predicted seven-year periods occurred within that given time exactly as predicted. This shows that divine foreknowledge is given beforehand within a definite period of years and that predicted events fulfilled in the past often occur within a given time. That seven-year period, once only a matter of prophecy and then fulfilled in accordance with the prediction, gives ground for trusting chronological periods in the Bible that extend to the second coming of Christ.
God was showing Pharaoh in advance, through Joseph in a dream, what God Himself was about to do. What was shown was seven years of great plenty followed by seven years of severe famine. The seven fat kine and seven full ears meant seven years of great plenty when field and garden would yield more abundantly than ever before, and the seven lean kine and seven thin blasted ears meant seven years of famine afterward so very grievous that the plenty would not be known in the land, as detailed in the following verses to verse 54. Pharaoh's two dreams were one message, and the doubling and repeating of the same message showed the matter was established by God and that fulfillment was certain and soon or near.
The revelation gave time to prepare and called for immediate action. Pharaoh should set a discreet and wise man with officers over Egypt to take up the fifth part of the land in the plenteous years and gather and keep corn under Pharaoh's hand in the cities for store against the seven years of famine. The warning led to storing food, so Egypt had provisions during the famine and people from other countries could buy grain there.
The predicted seven-year periods occurred within that given time exactly as predicted. This shows that divine foreknowledge is given beforehand within a definite period of years and that predicted events fulfilled in the past often occur within a given time. That seven-year period, once only a matter of prophecy and then fulfilled in accordance with the prediction, gives ground for trusting chronological periods in the Bible that extend to the second coming of Christ.