Originally posted: 02/15/2019
Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land,” (47:23).
As a result of the famine the people were faced with certain starvation, desolation of their land, and imminent death… unless someone intervened, someone in the position and power to do so, someone with the resources to stop their impending fate. They needed a solution outside of themselves, for they were powerless to stop the turn of events.
Recognizing there was only one qualified, one with the authority and means to save, they turned to Joseph, the one in position and power; the only one with the capability to alter their inevitable end.
When that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our lands.19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate,” (47:18-19).
Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land…” 25 So they said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.” (47:23, 25).
And there was the solution; Joseph bought them that they might be saved! Joseph’s story is remarkable; it is an astonishing foreshadow of the only One worthy and able, Who would one day come to purchase mankind, that we would not perish, but have eternal life.
Consider Him Who Bought Us
- He Bought Us for God.
- And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation,” (Revelation 5:9).
- He Bought Us with a precious price.
- knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, (1 Peter 1:18-19).
- He Bought Us to be free.
- You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men, (1 Corinthians 7:23).
- He Bought Us to glorify God.
- For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, (1 Corinthians 6:20).
- He Bought Us for eternity.
- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).
How do we respond to Him Who Bought Us?
The truth is, if we belong to God it is because we have been bought with the most incomparable and precious of payments; purchased to be free to live for Him and to glorify Him for all of eternity. That is the truth.
But often we forget; we allow circumstances to speak louder than the truth of His Word. That is why the Scriptures so often encourage us to “remember.” Today as we consider Him Who Bought Us, let us deliberately set our hearts and minds to remember all He accomplished in His most holy transaction.
- Remember, we belong to God. He Bought Us; now He lives in us, empowering us for victory.
- But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world, (1 John 4:4 NLT).
- Remember, we were bought with an incomparably precious price. He Bought Us with such an extravagant payment to make us His own; how can we doubt He will not provide all we need to live for Him?
- He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32).
- Remember, we are free. He Bought Us out of slavery and adopted us as His children; He is our Abba Daddy Who set us free to live boldly for Him!
- For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Romans 8:15).
- Remember, we are in the prestigious position to represent the Family Name. Let us live all of life in a manner to glorify Him Who Bought Us.
- Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, (1 Corinthians 10:31).
- Remember, our eternity is settled and sure. We cut the feet out from under the enemy when we do not use our valuable time to wrestle in doubt about our future. Let us live in bold confidence to love and serve Him, knowing He Who Bought Us keeps us by His love.
- Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Romans 8:35, 37-39).