Faith & Finance Fridays
Reflect • Commit • Equip • Apply
Gensis 41:33-56
Commit: Wisdom Requires a Decision
Last week we reflected on the opportunities we miss when we enjoy plenty to the detriment of preparation. It’s not a matter of if but when droughts will happen and seasons of plenty are gifted to us both for enjoyment and for shoring up our resources for the hard times.
There Will Always Be a Drought Ahead
When we’re in a season of plenty, we have a choice. We can wait until hardship teaches us what we should have known, or we can learn from Joseph and acknowledge that abundance won’t last forever.
We may not know what our drought will look like, but we can be certain that some form of financial pressure will come. For all of us, one of those possibilities is aging. Retirement represents a future point when the income we rely on today won’t come from a paycheck. When that happens, the financial resources we’ve accumulated during our working years will need to support us.
Unemployment can bring another kind of drought. During the financial crisis of 2008–2010, many people in banking and financial services had built their lifestyles on what they believed to be a never-ending harvest of exorbitant annual bonuses. As many of us know, when unemployment hits, that income disappears, but the commitments built around it remain.
A health emergency such as a serious illness or injury can bring medical expenses while also affecting our ability to work and earn. Insurance cannot be counted on to cover 100% of all related expenses. A sudden change in health can alter both sides of our financial picture at once, creating expenses we didn't expect while reducing the income we depend on to meet them. What begins as a medical crisis quickly becomes a financial one as well.
Understanding God’s Design Requires a Response
“Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land, and let him take a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt as a tax in the seven years of abundance. Then have them collect all the food of these good years that are coming, and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh’s authority, and have them guard it. Let the food be used as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land will not perish during the famine.” – Genesis 41:34-36
Joseph responds to God’s revelation without hesitation. His faith and immediate action were a lesson to Pharaoh, who himself acts swiftly by enacting Joseph’s plan.
We can look at our own plenty in much the same way. It’s easy to view financial abundance as earned and due to us that we can freely consume. But Scripture gives us another way to see it. What God provides today can be an opportunity to prepare for what lies ahead. The question is whether we’re awake enough to recognize what He may be showing us and willing to respond to it.
That’s what gives preparation its deeper meaning. Joseph’s proposal wasn’t simply a clever response to an economic crisis. It aligned Egypt’s decisions with what God revealed about its future. Understanding God’s design gave purpose and made preparation a response to God rather than merely a strategy for managing uncertainty. What is your plenty? What is God’s purpose for your plenty?
The same is true for us. When we recognize that our resources have a purpose beyond today, preparation becomes part of how we respond to what God has entrusted to us. Wisdom leads us to consider what lies ahead and respond to that understanding through the decisions we make today.
Most of us won't get a revelation as clear as Pharaoh's. But we don't need one. We have already established, and wisdom tells us, there is always at least one drought ahead. When the simple math of our own finances doesn’t make it plain enough to know if we’re prepared, seeking the wise counsel of Scripture and financial professionals is essential. Simply assuming we will be ok won’t go in our favor.
The Proposal and a Commitment
"Now the proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants…So Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only regarding the throne will I be greater than you.'" – Genesis 41:37-40
This is often where good financial intentions fail. We recognize wisdom, even commit to it in the moment, but never rebuild the structures of our daily decisions around it. Pharaoh not only responded to the proposal, he acted upon it, set aside time and people and made a plan of action. His example challenges us to ask the hard question: "have I actually reorganized my life to reflect my commitment?"
It's one thing to agree, in principle, that we should save more or give more. It's another to actually revise a budget around it, save more into an emergency fund, budget our time to serve that ministry we’ve been meaning to, invest for our child’s college, or for the time we are forced to slow down. Agreement without action unravels gradually, and we usually don't notice until the season of plenty is already behind us.
There's a kind of peace that comes from that margin, too, one that has nothing to do with the size of the number in the account. It's the peace of not having to wonder, every time life takes a hard turn, whether you'll be caught flat-footed again. Joseph knew what it felt like to be unprepared for hardship. What he built for Egypt was, in part, a way to make sure a whole nation wouldn't have to learn that lesson the way he did.
The Cost of Not Committing
It is possible to admire wisdom and still not submit to it.
It is possible to agree with preparation and still postpone it.
It is possible to believe plenty has a purpose and still spend as though it does not.
Imagine if Pharaoh had listened to Joseph’s interpretation but chose not to act on it. Would there be an Egypt today? The famine would have come, creating a crisis of such magnitude that the entire region could have collapsed under the weight of starvation and instability. Egypt itself might not have endured, and the world would look vastly different now without its influence.
As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Wisdom requires more than agreement. At some point, we have to commit to following it.
Committing ourselves to God’s call for preparedness allows us to hold plenty differently. We can enjoy what God has provided without treating today’s abundance as though it has no purpose beyond today. Preparing for what lies ahead doesn’t take away from our ability to enjoy what we have now. The two can exist together. We can receive today’s provision with gratitude while also setting aside what may be needed for tomorrow.
The decision is ours while we still have the opportunity to make it. We can admire the wisdom of preparation, or we can commit to it.
Reflection Question
Where is God asking you to commit to His purpose? what resources has He entrusted to you? and what financial decision can reflect your commitment this week?
Next Week
Next week, we’ll follow Genesis 41:33-56 and look at how we can equip ourselves to prepare for the lean years.