Gen 41:44    Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt."

     

This verse, we might say, is the climax of Joseph's life. As a young man he had been given prophetic dreams by the Lord. Then everything had apparently gone terribly wrong and his brothers had sold him into slavery. By a further miscarriage of justice he then ended up in prison and stayed there for a number of years. It was only when the Lord started giving him more prophetic dreams that he was eventually brought before Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the whole of that part of the world. As it becomes clear, as a result of interpreting Pharaoh's dreams, that he has God's wisdom and revelation, Joseph is promoted to the position of second most important and most powerful man in the area, second only to Pharaoh himself.

  

This verse today is Pharaoh bestowing on Joseph authority and power above any other man in Pharaoh's land. Joseph has been transferred from a son of a sheep farmer in Canaan to the Prime Minister of Egypt. The road that brought him there had been rather rocky, but he is there and he is now in the position, with God's help, to influence the whole region. In fact he is going to be its saviour because his wisdom (from God) will be the means of preventing the whole area from starving to death.

This is God's plan of salvation at work; God who knew what would be coming, God who planned accordingly and had his man in the right place at the right time, to be able to communicate God's wisdom to save the world.  Who is available today to be used by God to bless His world by bringing His wisdom? In the New Testament, we Christians are described as 'the body of Christ' led by the 'head' who is Jesus, seated at his Father's right hand in heaven. From him we receive directions, revelation, wisdom and power so that we too might influence this world for good. May it be so!