Contemplative Bible Reading

Genesis 47:22 (New Living Translation)

47:22 The only land he did not buy was the land belonging to the priests. They received a regular allotment of food from Pharaoh, so they did not need to sell their land to buy food.

This is part of the (hi)story of the seven-year famine in Egypt and how Pharaoh had Joseph administer the distribution of food. During a part of the famine, Joseph bought the land of the Egyptians with a food-for-land exchange. Exempt from this were the Egyptian priests.

Note, Egypt had priests. These were people who conversed with the Egyptian gods for the Egyptian people. Yes, the Egyptians were religious people. They believed in the supernatural, i.e., things that could not be explained by the natural sciences. And remember, the Egyptians built the pyramids and conducted all sorts of impressive civil engineering projects. They were experts in the natural sciences.

The Egyptians were educated, accomplished, and were not a bunch of superstitious folks bumping into the walls.

They were, however, practicing idolatry. They worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars, the river, the desert, etc. They had priests to converse with all these gods or idols. They were held in high esteem, and that is shown in the verse above in how they owned land, received a regular allotment of food from Pharaoh, and were not involved in the food-for-land exchange.

Still, they worshiped the wrong things. They did not worship Jehovah, the one true God who created everything. Pharaoh told Moses he did not know Jehovah. I suspect that some of the Egyptian priests had heard of Jehovah. Still, religious does not equal belief in God.

There are people today who follow the practices of the Egyptians. They believe in the supernatural, but not in the one true God. There are inroads to reaching these religious people. Please God, help me to find these people and point them to You.