I happen to live in a country in which government control and taxation seem to be increasing every year. Sometimes it's difficult to know how to deal with this situation biblically. The people of Egypt had a problem similar to this in the time of Joseph. During the famine the people spent all their money to buy food from their government, food they themselves had raised. When the money was gone they had to sell their livestock to the government in order to buy food. They were effectively decapitalized. Finally they sold themselves into slavery. It isn't clear how the people were released from their slavery at the end of the famine, yet they were released. Afterward they had a 20% tax on what they were able to produce.
We see the outcome. After many years it does not seem to have had an overall ill effect on Egypt. For centuries afterward they remained the major stable food producer in their region. They had an asset that they could exploit freely.
Where's the biblical application of all this? God, in his providence, has supplied us with what we need. In times of hardship and in times of plenty we know that our Lord is the sovereign ruler of all creation. He has cared for his people. We can look confidently at his finished work on the cross and know that our deepest problem, sin, has been atoned for. Our God feeds the wild birds. How much more will he care for and cherish his chosen people?
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