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God-Given Wisdom (Genesis 41:46-56)

July 21, 2021 | by: Gregg Hunter | 0 comments

Posted in: Genesis 41

Sometimes God speaks to us directly and tells us what we need to do. Other times, God simply sets up our circumstances in such a way that requires us to exercise the wisdom which He has already given us. Through both of these means, God provides for His people. For Joseph, this is one of those latter times.

 

Please read Genesis 41:46-56.

It’s easy to read this scripture passage and conclude, “good for Joseph, doing everything that God told him to do.” But that would be a faulty conclusion. When you take a careful look at Genesis 41, you notice that God may have given Joseph the gift of interpreting dreams, and God may have given the prophetic dream to Pharaoh, but God never told Joseph what to do regarding the prophecy. Joseph figured that out all on his own.

In executing his godly wisdom, Joseph saved an entire nation from famine. He required the whole land of Egypt to give grain to the royal treasury during a time of plenty. One can imagine that the people were willing to give when there was such a great surplus. He collected so much grain in fact that it could not be counted. He even named his children after the great supply that God had provided for him.

Then, when the prophesied time of famine came, Egypt had plenty of grain stored up. I love how the Bible phrases it: “There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.” Because Joseph had used his God-given wisdom to collect and store the grain in the first place, his entire nation could eat when everyone else could not.

Sometimes God miraculously provides for His people through natural means. One of the financial principles that I have learned is the 10-10-80 principle. It simply says this: whenever you receive money (a paycheck or a gift), immediately put 10% in the bank, give 10% to the church, and then you have the other 80% to live off of. That initial 10% is not to be touched for any reason other than low-risk investments and emergencies.

In following this principle, Hannah and I have found that we have nearly always had money in the bank when an emergency came up: when my car broke down, we had enough money in the bank to fix it; when our A/C broke in the middle of a Texas summer, we could pay to have it fixed that same day; when we found out we were pregnant, we had enough money in the bank to cover the medical expenses.

This is not necessarily a biblical principle, but it is good advice. Some would call it financial wisdom. Because we have used this wisdom, we have found that God has provided for all of our financial needs.

We can praise God for providing this worldly wisdom and using it to provide for us, just like Joseph could praise God for giving him the wisdom to store up grain for the coming famine. Imagine what God can do through you if you’ll use your God-given wisdom.

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