So Much To Learn

Genesis 41:1-36, New Living Translation (NLT)

Pharaoh’s Dreams
41 Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. 2 In his dream he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. 3 Then he saw seven more cows come up behind them from the Nile, but these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. 4 Then the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows! At this point in the dream, Pharaoh woke up.

5 But he fell asleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk. 6 Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were shriveled and withered by the east wind. 7 And these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads! Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was a dream.

8 The next morning Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant.

9 Finally, the king’s chief cup-bearer spoke up. “Today I have been reminded of my failure,” he told Pharaoh. 10 “Some time ago, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. 11 One night the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. 12 There was a young Hebrew man with us in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he told us what each of our dreams meant. 13 And everything happened just as he had predicted. I was restored to my position as cup-bearer, and the chief baker was executed and impaled on a pole.”

14 Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. 15 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I have heard that when you hear about a dream you can interpret it.”

16 “It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.”

17 So Pharaoh told Joseph his dream. “In my dream,” he said, “I was standing on the bank of the Nile River, 18 and I saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. 19 But then I saw seven sick-looking cows, scrawny and thin, come up after them. I’ve never seen such sorry-looking animals in all the land of Egypt. 20 These thin, scrawny cows ate the seven fat cows. 21 But afterward you wouldn’t have known it, for they were still as thin and scrawny as before! Then I woke up.

22 “In my dream I also saw seven heads of grain, full and beautiful, growing on a single stalk. 23 Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were blighted, shriveled, and withered by the east wind. 24 And the shriveled heads swallowed the seven healthy heads. I told these dreams to the magicians, but no one could tell me what they mean.”

25 Joseph responded, “Both of Pharaoh’s dreams mean the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. 26 The seven healthy cows and the seven healthy heads of grain both represent seven years of prosperity. 27 The seven thin, scrawny cows that came up later and the seven thin heads of grain, withered by the east wind, represent seven years of famine.

28 “This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. 29 The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. 30 But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. 31 This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased. 32 As for having two similar dreams, it means that these events have been decreed by God, and he will soon make them happen.

33 “Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. 34 Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. 35 Have them gather all the food produced in the good years that are just ahead and bring it to Pharaoh’s storehouses. Store it away, and guard it so there will be food in the cities. 36 That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come to the land of Egypt. Otherwise this famine will destroy the land.”

(Too many great expressions of artwork to only include one today...)

So much to learn from this story:
A forgotten promise can bless others if given at the right time, therefore, it is never too late...
Bridges burned may be bridges needed at a later time...
Some things are important enough that God needs to repeat them before we will notice...

But my favorite in this story has to be:
Just because things are going good now, does not mean we should not plan ahead for when things begin to head in the other direction.  Oh, what we could learn from this lesson!  As a country we have moved through several very prosperous time periods, but instead of putting away and living on less, building up surplus and planning for days of deficit income, we lived to the hilt and then plummeted when the downturn came. 

And certainly, the same can be said for us as individuals and families. I know right now my hubby and I are there. He has a good job and is working all winter, but we know this job has an end. It is simply a contract with a beginning and an end to it. When it is complete, there are no promises of another contract to follow. If we live to the limit and use all the income we are afforded and then the contract comes to an end... then what? Will our outgo be higher than our income??

But we also had gone through a few years where he wasn't working consistently. So there were things that wore out or needed replacing that surely did not occur during the slim years. So we are trying to replace and repair right now. That takes more than our average outgo. It would be easy to use any extra in this way and still have nothing to set aside for another downturn to come... and surely... they will come.

So we have been figuring and talking, talking and figuring, praying and talking some more, trying to figure out how to be responsible to things like replacing an old car that died and a truck who's lease ended; repairing an old broken joint and another that has been torn for 3 or 4 years; repairing or replacing a furnace that isn't working efficiently and wasting fuel along the way; and the list goes on. 

At the same time, we have been discussing how maybe our life insurance needs to be overhauled and our retirement funds need to be doubled.  We are closer to death these days than we are our birth. [sigh...] 

But this we know for sure:
The fat times will go and the slim times will return.  So adjustments will need to be made sooner than later or we too will find ourselves inpaled on poles and weeping as the birds arrive to snack on the leftovers.  (see previous post...)