and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe.
Joseph has just told Pharaoh what the two dreams mean: seven years of abundance, then seven years of hunger. This verse adds the sharpest detail: the famine will swallow every trace of the good years. So what does a person do with plenty while he still has it?
The plenty swallowed up
Seven years of full harvests will not soften the seven that follow. They will vanish as if they never happened. One writer explains why God arranges history this way.
L. M. GrantThe famine would be so severe that the good years would be forgotten. It would be as if the bad years ate them up and left no benefit behind (vv. 28-31). God does things like this to wake people up. He wants them to see that their blessing does not depend on circumstances, but on the God who brings about every circumstance.
Not a guess, but God's doing
Both halves of the dream point to one event. And the fact that the dream came twice carries its own message.
William KellyJoseph explains that both dreams pointed to one event: seven years of plenty, followed by the same number of famine, like nothing ever known before. Both were God's doing, for extraordinary ends. So was His making it all known to Pharaoh, which lay beyond the reach of human knowledge. The doubling of the dream showed not only that it was certain, but that it would come quickly. God does not deceive, and He is not mocked.
Plenty is the time to prepare
The famine will wipe out all memory of abundance. So a person has to use the years of plenty with the famine in view.
W. T. P. WolstonJoseph's advice is very simple. During the years of plenty, store up for the future. Prepare for the future — that is the point.
The same warning reaches whole nations, not only people:
L. M. GrantOften when people are richly blessed, they do not think wisely about what the future may hold. They waste the large amount the Lord has given them. Then the lean years arrive without warning, and they are not ready. It is the same when a nation has lived in luxury. A recession is likely to strike, and the whole air fills with bitter complaining. Through such things God speaks loudly to people.
The world's years of plenty
Commentators also read the two periods as a picture of the present time. One of them points to who does the gathering during the years of plenty.
Hamilton SmithIn this day of grace the world is passing through its "seven plentiful years," when the grace of God is giving out blessings by "handfuls." The people of the world may completely ignore the blessings that grace brings to their door, and go on their way with no thought for the future. It seems the men of Egypt made no use of the years of plenty to store up for the years of famine. We do not read that they gathered any food. It was Joseph who went through the land and gathered the grain. And so today it is the exalted Christ who is reaping a harvest of souls during the day of grace.
Another writer draws meaning from the number seven itself:
C KnappSeven is the number of spiritual perfection, whether of good or of evil. In these two sets of seven years we see two complete periods of time: the present, "the year of the Lord's favor," and what comes after it, "the day of vengeance of our God."
When the plenty of God's word is forgotten
Plenty followed by famine happens with the teaching of God's word too.
The Christian's FriendIn a time of plenty, who thinks of famine? But famine sometimes follows plenty. That is what happened in Egypt. First came seven years of plenty, then seven years of famine. All the plenty was forgotten when the famine ate up the land. It is sometimes the same with the ministry of God's word... some of us can look back and see place after place where this was so, and which is now little more than a wasteland, with almost a famine of the Word.
Very grievous
The phrase that closes the verse is the one to sit with. It was spoken as a plain forecast, and it is turned into a direct appeal:
C Knapp"It shall be very grievous," said Joseph, of the famine that was coming on the land. And Christ has told us that the tribulation soon to come on this unbelieving world will be the most terrible disaster, or series of disasters, that has ever been. Would you escape it? Run to Christ. He will receive you; He will save you.
Summary
- Forgotten — The famine will be so severe that people will forget seven years of abundance, as if they never existed.
- God's doing — The dream was not chance. God announced His plan in advance, and He does not deceive.
- Awakening — God wipes out the plenty to teach that blessing rests on Him, not on good circumstances.
- Prepare — Store the plenty, do not waste it. People and nations alike meet the lean years unready.
- Now — Commentators see today as the world's years of plenty, with Christ gathering His harvest. The warning that the famine will be "very severe" is an invitation to come to Him while the storehouse is open.