An ancient story with a modern application

“And the ill-favoured and lean-fleshed king did eat up the seven well-favored and fat king … and the thin ears swallowed up the seven rank and full ears.” – Gen. 41:4-7

Away back there, when the world was young, a mighty Pharaoh of Egypt had a dream, so much out of the ordinary that his wise men and magicians were quite unable to interpret it. The spirit of disappointment was settling upon the royal Court when one of Pharaohs responsible servants bethought himself of a similar experience that had come to him some while before. He had been in prison with another offending servant when to both of them came startling dreams. With them in the prison was another young man, a Hebrew, and this young Hebrew offered an interpretation of these dreams which came true. The forgetful courtier called all this to mind now as the royal attendants became more and more perturbed, and at last told it to Pharaoh. The young Hebrew was sent for and appeared in the presence of the royal dreamer.

Pharaoh told Joseph the outstanding particulars of his night-visions, for he had dreamed twice, and there seemed the same purport behind both dreams. First of all, seven fat kine had come up out of Egypt’s famous river, followed by seven lean kine which ate up the fat ones, but were not improved in appearance thereby. Falling asleep again, the King saw seven fat, well-laden ears of corn come up on one stalk, and then seven thin ears, blasted by the east wind, spring up after them and devour them. The understanding of the dream came quick and clear to Joseph, for the Lord God was with him, and in all this working out His Providences. From Joseph’s lips Pharaoh heard an outline of things which were to follow hard on the heels of the dream. Seven plentiful years of harvest, followed by seven lean years of famine which would consume all the abundance of the prosperous years! Let Pharaoh prepare during the years of plenty for the years of hardship to follow. Such was the interpretation of the dreams, and such the advice the clear visioned young Hebrew gave his royal auditor. Even here in a strange land, caged within the walls of a prison, the God of his fathers was with him, and was opening for him, not only the prison doors, but the door to a great opportunity.

There are many lessons which could be drawn from this short piece of Bible history, did time and space permit, but for the time being we wish to ponder a little on the fat and lean kine, and the good and parched corn. This dream of the Egyptian monarch may contain a parable for us today and perhaps a warning also.

By the goodness of God, those who have known the way of the Lord for a considerable time, perhaps had the advantage of having come to him in youth or early manhood or womanhood, and into whose hearts has come the “joy of the Lord which is your strength,” can testify to the fact that they thus experienced a time of vigorous growth and active extension of knowledge and understanding of the way of the Lord, which has persisted through the years. Even though the call may have been heard, and answered, much later in life, it still remains true that the commencement of the way was marked by this entry into a broadened field of understanding of what life can hold. And if, added to this, the believer was guided into a full appreciation of the inherent goodness of God and his fixed intention to save all of mankind who can possibly be saved, and to intervene by his great power in earth’s affairs when men seem destined to ruin the world and themselves irretrievably, then he had double cause for thanksgiving. Many there have been who have thus had come into their lives a veritable abundance of spiritual things -things new and old, from the treasury of the Master. To understand that Jesus gave himself a Ransom for All, to be testified in due time, and thereafter opened a High Calling for all who would follow him, through death to immortal life, was sufficient to fill their hearts and minds with joy and gladness, and their hands with willing service. A new song was put into their mouths, and a new fervent and deep love was born in their hearts, for our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. There was a freshness, a thrill, a beauty about it all, as the sweet story of his love flooded their souls, and awakened every tuneful chord within them to sing his praise. The fervent expectation of the coming Kingdom of Christ when all that are in their graves shall come forth to the final stage of their Day of Grace and find the opportunity of eternal life open before them, dispelled as in a moment the old nightmare of a stern and vengeful God. And those today who share this knowledge of God and faith in his redemptive Plan are counted in with such, for we who now serve Christ have at some past time made our own start in the Christian way and have shared in these early joys. And out of the acceptance of all this came the desire to cooperate with, and serve, such a loving God and Father. It was then we gave him our hearts in full consecration – our very selves – that his will might be done in us, and we stepped out, in faith, into the Way that leadeth unto Life. We accepted the assurance of his Word that our consecration was verily a burial “into his death,” a “being planted together with him” really and truly a “suffering with him.” There came a new power into our lives, the power that wrought his resurrection and exaltation, to help us to wage successful warfare upon the meannesses and pettinesses of our little lives, to transform and change them into miniatures of his great life and to bring all our thoughts into captivity to the Spirit of Christ within us, to garrison and to keep our hearts in peace and quietness before the Lord. They were the years of the fat kine, and the good ears! -the years of abundance and plenty, the years when we had to extend our barns and storehouses to enable us to hold all that the Lord our God was giving us, the years of busy husbandry, when the services of hand and heart yielded great harvests as the “wheaten” grains were gathered.

But where are we today? Has the scorching east wind blown upon us and caused the later years to consume all the benefits and fullness of the earlier years? Is the truth of those days no longer to us the truth of today? Have the joys and delights of the New Song vanished from our hearts and lips? And have we grown old and lean and withered, as the lean years have eaten up our store of love and grace and ready response to God? Is our love cold?- have the lean years eaten that up too?

And the readiness to serve the Lord and the brethren-have the lean years quenched this too? Happy indeed are we, if the lean years have not touched us, nor the east wind scorched our souls-yea rather, let us say, happy are we if the good and the plenteous years have not ceased, and we are still enjoying the great abundance, and our years are still of the fat kine and the good ears! They need not be years of leanness, for the same Lord is still our provider and source of supply.

How sad it will be, for all the benefits of the seven years of great abundance to be wasted and swallowed up in these other years of famine and poverty and wretchedness! Wasted years! After years of such abundance! Now to be shriveled, and parched and wasted – no joy- no service – no fellowship – nothing to show out of all we have received -oh, the tragedy of it all, to have received the grace of the Lord “in vain,” to have had the transforming influence of those days, but to no purpose!

May God keep our hearts humbly before him so that our “years of plenty” shall reach right on unto the years of immortal fullness.

-Albert Hudson, England

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