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Yesterday, my read-through-bible-in-a-year plan happened to consist of Genesis 41 and Matthew 13.  I say “happened to” because I saw a very interesting connection between them.

Genesis 41 talks about the Pharaoh’s dreams, where 7 seven skinny cows ate 7 seven fat cows, and then 7 whithered ears of corn ate 7 good ears.  Matthew 13 had Jesus’ parable of the sower, weeds, and mustard, accompanied with an explanation of why he talks in parables.  Let me show you the connections that I made.  It was pretty cool.  You can read along in the scriptures here if you like.

In Matthew 13:1-9, Jesus tells of different kinds of seeds.  Seeds along the path get eaten by the birds.  Seeds along a rocky path grew quickly, but whithered away without any soil. Still other seeds grew among thorns and thistles, but they were choked and died.  Only the seeds falling on good soil produced grain, “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”  When I read it, the word “whithered” caught my eye, making me think of the whithered corn and the skinny cows in the Pharaoh’s dreams.  The dreams told of 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine, a subtle parallel to the seeds growing on a rocky path without soil.  However, Joseph was healthy soil for the Lord, and he understood what to do.  He stored up 10% of all Egypt’s grain, and then sold it to families during the famine.

Jumping down in Matthew to 13:18-23, it parallels the families throughout Egypt and the surrounding land, who were proving themselves to be bad soil.  After enjoying the 7 years of plenty, they soon found themselves hungry during the 7 years of famine.  Joseph was a seed that “fell on good soil and produced grain.” Jesus describes such a person as follows, “this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

If you look back at verses we skipped in Matthew 13, verses 10 to 17, you see Jesus’ explanation for why He talks in parables.  It also explains by, back in Genesis 41, God talked through Pharaoh’s dreams.  Jesus says it like this:

11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

To Joseph, it was given to know, but not to Pharaoh or his magicians.  See verse 12?  Joseph was given an abundance, the grain which he stored up and then shared.  Everyone else though, during the famine, even what he had was taken away.  I imagine that Jesus would have said the same thing to Joseph that He said to the disciples.

17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Then Jesus tells the parable of the weeds, where someone planted weeds among the good seeds.  The weeds then tried to choke out the good seed, but did not.  Instead, the gardener allowed them all to grow together.  In the end, he would tie the weeds all together into bundles to be burned.  This kind of reminds me of Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:

6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

The connection I make is that because of this dream, where Joseph’s brothers bow to Joseph, they acted like weeds, and tried choking Joseph out.  Then later, the brothers needed food and went to Joseph to buy grain, and he put them on the hot seat.  He did not kill them, but he could have.

Finally, Jesus likens Heaven to a mustard seed.  He sure could have been talking about Joseph!

31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Joseph was the smallest of all the seeds in his father’s house, but he grew larger than all his brothers, in every way that counts.  Later, they would come to Egypt and make nests in his branches.

My desire is to be good soil.  I pray that for you, too.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 8:41 am and is filed under Bible Commentary, Devotional Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.