Genesis 47:13–26, The economic results of famine. Severe food shortages likely brought on by drought resulted in the Egyptian people becoming dependent on the government for food and survival. This is because the people had failed to prepare for such an event. 

Because of famine resulting in people starving, the Egyptian government was able to step in and literally take control of the people’s lives, their land and material possessions. The government then collectivized them by moving them into cities where it could “take care of” or control the people. In the process, the government became the master and the people became its serfs, if not slaves. 

This all happened in large part because during prosperous times the people failed to make preparations for hard times and thus became unwitting victims of natural circumstances and their own careless lifestyles. 

The more a person prepares for hard times such as famine, natural disasters or economic collapse, and the closer they are to the land thus giving them the ability to raise their own food, the less dependent upon the state they will be, the more freedom they will have, and the less likely the government will be able to control their lives. Spiritual freedom is tied to physical independence as well. 

In Revelation 13, the Bible prophesies a time coming when the end times Babylon the Great New World Order world ruling economic, political and religious system will exclude earth’s inhabitants from being able to buy and sell food and other life-sustaining essentials unless they take a subcutaneous “mark” on their bodies famously called “the mark of the beast.” 

Most people will take this mark resulting in their eternal spiritual damnation, while a few people will refuse to take it. 

Hunger and privation, whether man-caused or naturally occurring, can be the means by which an evil governmental system can control its people simply because humans will do and accept virtually anything to feed their starving bodies. 

The more Elohim’s saints do now to prepare, especially spiritually, but also physically, for the horrifically hard times the Bible prophesies will occur globally in the end times, the more likely they will be not to deny their faith and to survive the end times spiritually intact and ready to meet King Yeshua the Messiah in the air as his glorified, triumphant bride!

Genesis 47:15, The money has failed. This was a collapse of Egypt’s economic system brought on by a widespread famine.  When there is no food to buy, money is worthless, since people cannot eat money. The people were now totally dependent upon the government for their survival, and were willing to sell themselves into bond servitude or slavery to the government just to eat. The Bible in the Book of Revelation indicates that widespread famine will occur in the last days prior to the second coming of Yeshua. We read,

When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Rev 6:5–6)

Sometime after this, the mark of the beast will be forced on earth’s population (Rev 13:16–17), where no one will be able to buy or sell anything, including food, without this biometric mark. Since the Bible prophesies that a famine will encompass the whole earth in those days, it seems unlikely that this will be the result of a global drought. More likely, this famine will be bought on due to failed economic policies, disease pandemics, war, fuel shortages  and supply chain issues. We have already begun seeing the harbingers of this in recent times. This is all the more reason for YHVH’s people who are not ignorant of the times and seasons in which they are living (1 Thess 5:1–11) to prepare themselves most importantly spiritually but also physically. 

YHVH went ahead of Jacob and his family and placed them in the grass-covered, well-watered land of Goshen located in the Nile River delta area of northern Egypt where they were likely somewhat isolated from the famine. Similarly, during the hard times of the end days, YHVH promises to protect his saints as well (Rev 12:14).

Genesis 47:21, Moved them into the cities. Collectivization of a nation’s people into cities has often been the goal of oppressive governments. This was true in ancient times and is true today, and will be the case in the end times as the Bible prophesies.

For example, Marxist economic philosophy has always been about collectivizing people under government control by taking control of manufacturing, housing, education and health care and placing it in the hands of the government, or the elites of the ruling party. This idea is put out or sold to the people as a form of security where a nanny state, big government will take care of you from cradle to grave. The problem is that in so doing, one gives up their personal freedom, independence and civil liberties in exchange for security. Since the government now has management over a collectivized population, it can, to one degree or another (at least in pure communist society), control where you go, what you do, where you work, when and what you eat, how you spend your money, how your are educated, whether you receive health care or not, and what you think and say. 

Such a system may not be completely the place in many Western nations yet, but what student of history cannot see us moving in that direction? Who cannot see the trajectory of the social, political and economic path that we have been on in the last 60 to 100 or more years as little by little or freedoms and social liberties are being slowly eroded away in favor of more big government control—for people’s good and well-being, of course. 

Needless to say, big government never wants an independent populace that is self-sufficient, can feed itself, educate and think for itself, express its own ideas and speak freely, travel freely, or defend itself (against government tyranny and over-reach). Such is the enemy of big-government control and the wealthy elite who control the politicians.

The control and collectivization of people along with big government control is the end times world-ruling system that we see in place just before Yeshua’s return as prophesied in Revelation chapters 13, 17 and 18.