Our world runs on power. Nations project power through military and economic strategies. Gangs fight over resources, the stronger taking from the weaker. Mobs form to push their agenda through fear and intimidation. It’s interesting to watch how those in charge of governments around the world manipulate levers of power.

The ancient world was no different. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ruled a vast and wealthy country. When he elevated Joseph, the foreign slave turned dream-interpreter to his second in command, Pharaoh transferred a massive amount of power. This king recognized that God worked through Joseph, even giving him a new name, Zaphenath-paneah, which means either a revealer of secrets, or God speaks and lives.

Later Joseph presented his father, Jacob, to the king. In a remarkable inversion of power, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Held to be the human embodiment of Ra, the sun god, Pharaoh usually did the blessing, and indeed he blessed Jacob and his family with food and a place to live. But this particular Egyptian saw beyond his religion. Perhaps he understood that he was no god at all. Perhaps he realized the work of the true God when he saw it. Perhaps the goodness of this God whom he did not worship nor acknowledge yet who provided for him and him country during a time of extreme famine overwhelmed his previously held beliefs.

Pharaoh allowed the blessing to take place. In this story we see how Jacob, a foreigner with little earthly power, represented God’s covenant, making him spiritually superior to the world’s most influential ruler. In our world of competing power claims, it’s good to realize that no one is truly great, or truly powerful, without the blessing of God.

Genesis 41:45 & 47:10

Photo by Robert Thiemann