For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
Joseph has just told his terrified brothers who he is. Now he tells them where they stand in time: two years of famine behind them, five worse years ahead. How could he speak about years that had not yet come? And why did his brothers need to hear it now?
The Words: No Plowing, No Harvest
Joseph names the two ends of farming: the plowing that starts a crop and the harvest that gathers it. For five years neither would happen — nothing going into the ground, nothing coming out of it.
Morrish Bible Dictionary'Ploughed' and 'ploughing,' as the same Hebrew word is elsewhere translated. Gen. 45:6; Ex. 34:21; 1 Sam. 8:12.
So the sentence describes a total collapse at both ends of farming — nothing put in and nothing taken out. One writer describes how that worked out in practice, and how far it spread.
G C WillisThere were still five years of famine in Egypt. Though the Egyptians planted fields, they got little or nothing. Soon all lands were starving. They went to Pharaoh for help. He said, "Go to Joseph."
Speaking Of Years Not Yet Come
Joseph states the length of the famine as plainly as he states the past. He is not guessing. One writer takes that confidence as an answer to everyone who doubts that God tells the future.
William KellyWhat a lesson follows! It rebukes the shameless unbelief of prophecy found in this generation of people who call themselves Christians. Joseph speaks to his brothers with the calmest confidence, just as he had spoken to the king and court of Egypt. He tells them of five years of famine on top of the two that had already driven them to come for the stores of grain. The years of overflowing plenty had enabled him, by his faith, to lay up those stores against the years of want. Near or distant is alike easy to the revealing Spirit of God. Both are beyond man's power. Unbelief would explain both away.
A Word They Did Not Question
This was hard news. The hunger that had driven them to Egypt was nowhere near its end. Yet notice what is missing from their reply.
L. M. GrantThen he lets them know that the two years of famine they had suffered was only the beginning. There were five years to come. They must have wondered how he knew this, but they did not question his word.
The Eye That Rested On God
Joseph could have read the same seven years as the story of what his brothers had done to him. Instead he reads them as the story of what God was doing.
F. B. HoleOne more thing marked Joseph out, as we see in verses 5-8. His eye rested on God, not on circumstances, however hard they had been. The evil actions of his brothers had faded into insignificance in his mind. He recognized that God had been behind all they had done. God had worked it in as part of His plan for salvation and deliverance. We are reminded of the prayer of the early church. They acknowledged that Herod, Pilate, Gentiles and Jews gathered together against the Lord Jesus, and yet only did "whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:28). Joseph brought about "a great deliverance." Yet it was very small compared with the deliverance won by the death and resurrection of Christ.
Need Drives Everyone To One Man
The famine did more than ruin crops. It drove everyone, family and foreigner alike, to the feet of the man they had ignored.
Hamilton SmithDuring the days of plenty the world paid little attention to Joseph. We hear nothing of his brothers; they were completely indifferent to him. But when the famine set in, need wakes up… The need calls out a cry for bread. So the Gentiles have to learn, and the brothers discover, that no one can meet the need except the man they once scorned and rejected.
Commentators read Joseph's place in Egypt as a picture of something larger. One writer sees in it God preserving Israel through the long centuries while their Messiah is rejected.
Leslie M. GrantIn the same way, it is the Lord Jesus by whom God has in fact preserved Israel. He did it by means of the rejected and exalted One being among the Gentiles, as He has been all through this present age of grace, for many centuries now. Yet Israel has not known the glory of their rejected Messiah.
Summary
- Famine. Five years remained with no plowing and no harvest. Nothing would go into the ground and nothing would come out, until every land was starving.
- Forewarning. Joseph named the future as surely as the past. "Near or distant is alike easy to the revealing Spirit of God," so the verse stands against unbelief in prophecy.
- Faith. His brothers "must have wondered how he knew this, but they did not question his word." They could not check the news, but they trusted the man who gave it.
- Focus. Joseph's eye rested on God, not on circumstances or on his brothers' crime. He saw the seven years as part of God's plan for deliverance — a small picture of the far greater deliverance won by Christ.
- Funnel. The years of want awakened need. Need drove family and nations alike to the one man they had scorned — a pattern commentators trace forward to Christ.