Genesis 41:40, commentary and pictures

Pharaoh set Joseph over his household with authority for all the people to be ruled by his word, with only the throne itself remaining greater than he. He was chosen because he was recognized as wise and discerning above all others, with the Spirit of God in him and with God-given insight into coming plenty and famine and the plan to store food for the preservation of the nation. His sudden lifting from prison and the dungeon to wealth, honor and responsibility beside the throne of the world's greatest empire was not accident but ordered by Providence, which overruled temptation, false accusation and malice for good. God used temptation, adversity and prison discipline to prepare him to govern, teaching him obedience, humility and self-government through cheerful service until firm principle, purity of motive and trust in God had formed solidity of character. Exalted, he carried his religion with him in faithfulness, humility and continual dependence on God, so that through his wisdom, justice, purity and benevolence among an idolatrous people God might manifest Himself to Egypt and to all connected nations, even though such prosperity tests character as searchingly as adversity and makes living faith and victory over self continually necessary.

Appointment Over Egypt

Pharaoh set Joseph over his house and household with authority to direct it, and all the people were to be ruled according to Joseph's word. Only Pharaoh's royal throne itself remained greater than Joseph, so that Joseph stood second only to the king in rank and honor. The appointment was made because Pharaoh recognized Joseph as wise and discerning above all others, with wisdom given by God who had revealed the coming events to him and with the Spirit of God in him.

Joseph alone had wisdom to point out the danger ahead and the preparation needed, and his evident wisdom and sound judgment marked him as discreet and wise above all the officers of state. That wisdom was joined to pre-eminent administrative ability already proved in managing the prison, with divine power with him. His being a Hebrew and a slave counted for little against such evident wisdom and sound judgment, and Pharaoh regarded him as the most suitable person to govern. The appointment was to carry out the plan of storing food in the plenteous years against the famine, a choice on which the preservation of the nation depended.

The appointment was confirmed by putting Pharaoh's ring upon Joseph's hand and arraying him in fine linen with a gold chain about his neck. Pharaoh made him to ride in the second chariot and commanded all to kneel before him with the cry, Bow the knee.

Prophecy Fulfilled in Time

The setting of the appointment carries a prediction of seven years of plenty to be followed by seven years of famine in Egypt, made known through Pharaoh's dreams in Genesis 41:28-54. What was at first only prophecy was afterward fulfilled exactly in accordance with the prediction. It is one instance of a predicted event bound to a given time occurring within that appointed time.

This fulfillment stands together with many other scriptural examples of time-limited events taking place within their given times. Such cases show that the chronological portions of the Bible are as certain as any other portion and as worthy of serious consideration. They give ground to expect that the chronological periods reaching to the second coming of Christ will likewise be fulfilled.

Providence, Character, and Witness

Joseph was lifted in a single day from prison and the dungeon, where he had served as a servant of captives, to sudden wealth, honor, responsibility and usefulness at the side of the throne of the world's greatest empire. He was set over the household with authority over the people, with rank second only to the king. His rise came after false accusation, wicked revenge, and the malice and ingratitude of enemies had brought him low, and his faithfulness in temptation and prison prepared him to govern.

That exaltation was no accident but was ordered by Providence, with the eye of God upon him and the hand of God leading him. God overruled temptation, hardship, false accusation, wicked revenge, and the malice and ingratitude of enemies for good, raising him after he had been brought low and exalting the faithful in His own time. Joseph himself knew he was a stranger in a strange land, separated from his father and brethren, yet firmly believed God's hand had overruled his course to bring him there.

God designed that experience of temptation, adversity, hardship and prison discipline to prepare him to fill the exalted position second only to the throne. He first learned obedience and humility, learning to govern himself by obeying God, bearing the yoke in his youth, and humbling himself in order to learn to govern. In prison he brought his principles into active exercise by making himself useful to others, entering cheerfully and with sympathy and courtesy into the troubles of his fellow prisoners, and being willing to learn the lessons God would teach him.

God could use him to carry out His purposes because he was a youth of firm principle, solidity of character, courage, uprightness, wisdom, purity of motive, purpose of heart and simple trust in God. Careful training in early years enabled him to consult duty rather than inclination, to remain favored under great responsibility, and then to trust God without discouragement when unjustly accused and cast into prison without fault, so that the purity and trust of the boy bore fruit in the deeds of the man. His character bore the precious fruits of God's Spirit, in contrast to those who lack those graces and fail to bear the fruit God seeks.

Exalted beside the throne he showed the same lofty and sacred regard for God's will as in the prisoner's cell, carrying his religion with him wherever he went with an all-pervading power that gave tone to everything he did. He did not forget God but depended on Him continually, performed all the duties of his office with faithfulness, kept humble, remembered God as his strength, and would suffer any temporal loss rather than sin. His rise was sudden, but his faithfulness remained unchanged in prosperity.

That lofty height was full of danger, for fierce temptations that leave the lowly untouched assail the exalted, and prosperity tests character as searchingly as adversity. As the tempest spares the modest flowers of the valley while it wrestles with the lofty tree on the mountain, so the more difficult the position the more Jesus is needed. Safety there requires living faith connecting the soul with God and complete consecration, hiding in Jesus and holding His hand, guarding against presumption and self-sufficiency and trust in own strength and wisdom, gaining the precious victory over self, and letting selfish ambition and desire for supremacy die.

God placed him over the house and substance with authority to bind princes and teach senators wisdom after much affliction, as a sacred trust to work in the line God had chosen so that the knowledge of God might shine forth in Egypt. The position was given so God could manifest Himself not to Egypt alone but through Joseph to all nations connected with that kingdom, making him a light-bearer to extend heavenly illumination far and near. By his wisdom and justice, by the purity and benevolence of his daily life, and by his devotion to the interests of the people though they were idolaters, he was a representative of Christ, so that in their benefactor to whom all Egypt turned with gratitude and praise the people and through them all connected nations were to behold the love of their Creator and Redeemer.

His life therefore calls parents to educate children and young men to gain such character that they may be fitted for usefulness and share in the earnest work to be done in this age. His role in Egypt serves as a model for how an institution of God's people is to stand before the world. Training that uses the physical powers as well as the mental powers in an all-round education leads to being assigned various positions of trust as Joseph was, and sets the pattern for ministers today.