BRAGADAYJAH 155

Let us try and understand what was taking place in Egypt at that time. We have already seen that there were seven years when the farmers had pumper crops. They probably produced more corn in those seven years than they had produced over the previous twenty or thirty years. In former years they would mostly eat some, dry some and grind some for their own use and sold very little because landowners small and large and great, everyone had corn. That is basically the way agricultural communities function; but in the seven years of plenty they had more corn than they knew what to do with. Then came Joseph’s mandate to prepare for the seven years of famine, and his proposal to buy all the excess corn. So everyone saw it as an opportunity to make lots of money. For the seven years of plenty, they saw themselves amassing small fortunes and not surprisingly, overcome with a sense of euphoria, they gave up farming. They thought that they had so much money that they would never need to work again. But they forgot one important thing. You can’t eat gold and silver; you can’t eat money. In times of severs drought or famine, money often has no value, unless there are consumables to be bought. So during the first two years of the famine, they had no problem; they had money; they could buy what they wanted. But alas, the corn stock was falling; it was no longer readily available. They turned to Joseph and he fed them for three years; but there were still four more years to go. And here is another important point to see. It was stated earlier that there was no lack of rain; and this is borne out by the fact that after the people had sold themselves and their lands for money to buy food, they eventually realized that their salvation was in the land. So now they were prepared to return to the land, not as freeholders; but as surfs and sharecroppers. “We give ourselves to you they said, but only now give us seed to plant lest we die from hunger and starvation.” more