Genesis 41:55
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.
The verse marks the turning point when the seven years of plenty came to an end and the seven years of famine began, exactly as Joseph had foretold. The scarcity was not limited to Egypt but prevailed in all surrounding lands and over all the face of the earth. It reached even to Canaan, where it pressed severely upon the district where Jacob was living.
Yet in all the land of Egypt there was bread, because grain had been laid up during the years of abundance. Joseph had traveled throughout the whole country, ordered great storehouses to be erected, and with sound judgment gathered corn as plentiful as the sand of the sea until the amount was beyond reckoning. He accomplished this after being raised to rule over all the land, while still remaining faithful and continually reliant on God, though a stranger in a foreign land cut off from his father and brothers.
When all Egypt became hungry the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh, having placed responsibility upon Joseph, sent all the Egyptians to him as provider and as the king's deputy, commanding them to do whatever Joseph told them. Joseph directed them where to obtain food, opening all the storehouses and selling grain to the Egyptians as the famine became severe in the land. The stores in Egypt also drew hungry people from other countries to buy food that they might live, including Jacob's ten sons and household who came down from Canaan to purchase grain.
Through his integrity God made Joseph a fountain of life to the Egyptian nation, and by him the life of that whole people was preserved. That temporal rescue was an object lesson of the spiritual blessings God offers the world through those joined to Him and to the God whom Joseph worshiped. Joseph's place in Egypt stands as the pattern for service to the world today, with institutions and sanitariums and every worker in whom Christ dwells to become, by God's power working through them, a river of life and healing that reveals His love and imparts through Christ the Great Physician mighty healing power for body and soul. To act the part of Joseph is to use the means the Lord supplies to relieve present poverty and distress, to break every yoke and set the oppressed free, and never to look upon suffering people and pass by on the other side, for what is done for the least of Christ's brethren is done for Christ Himself.