No Free Lunch: Economics for a Fallen World: Third Edition, Revised

84 Chapter Four: Supply SUPPLY IN GENESIS Genesis 41:15-32 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16 Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 17 So Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I was standing on the bank of the Nile; 18 and behold, seven cows, fat and sleek came up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the marsh grass. 19 Lo, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such as I had never seen for ugliness in all the land of Egypt; 20 and the lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows. 21 Yet when they had devoured them, it could not be detected that they had devoured them, for they were just as ugly as before. Then I awoke. 22 I saw also in my dream, and behold, seven ears, full and good, came up on a single stalk; 23 and lo, seven ears, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them; 24 and the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. Then I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” 25 Now Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams are one and the same; God has told to Pharaoh what He is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one and the same. 27 The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine. 28 It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh: God has shown to Pharaoh what He is about to do. 29 Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt; 30 and after them seven years of famine will come, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will ravage the land. 31 So the abundance will be unknown in the land because of that subsequent famine; for it will be very severe. 32 Now as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means that the matter is determined by God, and God will quickly bring it about. Chapter 4 will outline Supply. As with Demand, we will make distinctions between shifts in supply and changes in the quantity supplied. Ultimately, the Bible makes quite clear that God is the provider of all things: Jehovah-jireh sends his rain on the just and the unjust alike ( Matthew 5:45) . In this passage from Genesis, God is explicitly identified as the source of both the famine and the abundance, as “God will quickly bring it about.” God is the source of supply: when he chooses to bless, the supply curve will shift right, and when he chooses to curse, the supply curve will shift left. In His providence, God often acts through our individual actions to affect supply. Indeed, the Lord is the source of all supply : Isaiah 3:1 says, “For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water.” Certainly the Christian especially looks to the Lord as the source of supply, since Paul tells us in Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”