The importance of an Emergency Fund – Bible story of bumper harvest and drought

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We live in a generation of information but the human behavior is still exactly the same as thousands of years ago. We still do not have the power to know the future and even if we happen to be warned about the coming disaster, we can still continue to live a reckless life. The importance of an emergency fund should never be taken lightly.

On this article, we are going to try and take lessons about the human behavior from the story of 7 years of bumper harvest and 7 years of drought in the land of Egypt as written in the bible in Genesis 41 and 47.

The bible story of 7 years of bumper harvest and 7 years of drought

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams:

²⁸ This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. ²⁹ Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; ³⁰ but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land. ³¹ So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. 

Genesis 41 : 28 – 31 (NKJV)

Joseph suggested that reserves should be created in preparation for the drought:

³⁴ Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. ³⁵ And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. ³⁶ Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine.”

Genesis 41 : 34 – 36 (NKJV)

What Joseph did during the bumper harvest times:

⁴⁷ Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly. ⁴⁸ So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. ⁴⁹ Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.

Genesis 41 : 47 – 49 (NKJV)

The events that happened during the famine:

⁵⁶ The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt. 

Genesis 41: 56 (NKJV)

¹⁵ So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.”

¹⁶ Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.” ¹⁷ So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.

¹⁸ When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is gone; my lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. ¹⁹ Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate.”

²⁰ Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s.

Genesis 47 : 15 – 20

Lessons from the story

There are many conclusions we are deducing from the story. This story can be understood by dividing the events into the following categories:

1. What happens before a crisis
2. What happens during a crisis
3. Post crisis events

1) What happens before a crisis

God always provides

It is very important here to note that God did not send the famine first, He sent bumper harvests first. This clearly shows that God is a provider.

By understanding this, we can be careful of what God gives us during good times. We need to avoid wasting what God give us. The most important thing to understand is that God want us to be good managers of whatever He give us.

What are we doing with what God is giving us? Are we too comfortable? Are we being good stewards?

We do not have power over the future

Suppose that Joseph was not there to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, the drought was probably going to happen anyway which emphasize that no one has power over the future except for God only.

Likewise, in our generation, we hardly know about future disasters that will befall us. We witnessed the economic turmoil that was caused by the Covid19 pandemic. Many people lost their sources of income.

When we are warned about the future, we may choose to do nothing about the future

Of course in this story, the government of Egypt did something to prepare for the coming disaster during good years.

However, if the people were not commanded to contribute, there is a higher chance that they could have done nothing to prepare for the coming disaster.

By reading further in Genesis 47, there is evidence that people relied on the government for provision which shows that they never took the responsibilities for their own future welfare.

Recently, we witnessed an increasing reliance on the government during the coronavirus pandemic. If this is not a wake up call to everyone, I am not sure if we can ever learn from anything.

Many people have a tendency of living a life without any investments or savings and then expect the government to give them grants when they retire. This dependency on the government is too much and it can create a lot of problems since the government itself will never give you what is good enough for you.

People get too comfortable during good times

Seven years of great harvests happened before the famine. In those years, it is only mentioned that the government collected 20% of the produce from the people. There is no mention that people had their own personal reserves. This seem to imply that people upgraded their consumption during the great times and they did not make an effort to have their own personal reserves for the future.

This behavior is very common in our generation. When people get salary increases, they are likely to increase their spending instead of investing more, giving more or saving more. It is very easy to upgrade a lifestyle during good times. What if God is giving us these great years for us to prepare for the future?

Many people struggle to save, invest or give during good times and it is only during the bad times that they realize the importance of an emergency fund.

2) What happens during a crisis

People are vulnerable during a crisis

We clearly see in Genesis 47 how difficult the situation was. At first, people used money to buy grain. They went broke and started to trade their livestock for food. Eventually they had to offer their land and their bodies in exchange for food. In other words, they lost their freedom completely.

Clearly, when people are faced with a difficult situation, they can easily trade their possessions to solve a crisis. People can easily sell their cars, houses and other possessions when they are sick or if they lose their sources of income.

I firmly believe that if they had some form of reserves, the people would not have sold their lands to get food. At least maybe they would have remained with a bit of freedom.

Similarly, if we have something in store for the future, we will have something to help us in difficult times. This is good management of the God-given resources.

People are easily manipulated during a crisis

The bible says, people willingly offered their lands and themselves to the government for food. This is sad. When people are desperate, they can surrender their will for manipulation.

Should we blame the government of Egypt for making its people slaves or landless? Maybe we can but this was a voluntary consent. They opted for it. This is something dangerous. If people had their own reserves in place, the government probably would not have had any power to manipulate their rights.

Likewise, in this generation we see rich governments manipulating poor governments for their own gains. Since the poor are in poverty, they end up trading the little they have to those with resources. In return, many things whether good or bad are forced upon the poor.

Being poor can be used as a breeding ground of manipulation. Those who once lived in poverty can attest to how difficult it is to have a voice or to have freedom when you have nothing.

3) Post crisis events

People are likely to be worse off after the crisis

Those who sold their lands and livestock were left with nothing after the crisis. Reading the story down in Genesis 47, we noticed that the land ownership was transferred from the people to the government. Some lost their freedom completely as they became slaves to the government of Egypt.

After that, a new system emerged on which people were now paying rent on the land they once had so that they could earn a living.

We must never underestimate the importance of an emergency fund. If we happen to face a crisis without enough reserves, there is a higher chance that when the crisis ends, we may be in a more difficult situation. Many people are left in bad financial shape after a wedding or sickness or job loss.

Some people will be better off after the crisis

Depending on whose side you were, other people became rich after the famine. The government of Egypt became stronger and Pharaoh was more richer than before. Those who had relatives in the government were in a very good position.

If Joseph was not in authority during that time, his relatives would have been in a very tough situation but God ensured that His people never suffered during the crisis.

Having people in high offices may not be something important during good times but it may be the only survival strategy during difficult times. What we learn from this is that it is very good to form good relationships with people because we may never know when they will make a difference in our lives.

Conclusion

This story is pregnant with wisdom that we can surely apply to our daily lives. We learnt the following lessons from this:

• God always provides and we need to be good managers of whatever He gave us.
• We do not know the future so we should be wise enough to prepare for it.
• Taking responsibilities is very important and it is not the responsibility of the government to help us.
• Being too comfortable during good times is dangerous.
• People are vulnerable during a crisis.
• In a difficult situation, people can easily be manipulated.
• A crisis can make others worse off or better off depending on what you did before and during the crisis.

This explains why the importance of an Emergency Fund should not be taken lightly.

References

The New King James Bible. Available at: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+47&version=NKJV (Accessed: 10 October 2021)