Why did God allow a famine in Psalm 105:16? Canonical Setting Psalm 105 is a historical psalm that celebrates God’s covenant faithfulness from Abraham through the Exodus. Verse 16 reads, “He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food” . The famine referred to here is the seven-year scarcity recorded in Genesis 41. The psalmist is not lamenting; he is praising God for orchestrating events that advanced His redemptive purposes. Immediate Literary Context 1. Verses 16–22 summarize Joseph’s story. 2. Verses 23–38 recount Israel’s sojourn and deliverance from Egypt. 3. Verses 39–45 highlight wilderness provision and conquest. The famine is therefore framed as one element in a larger tapestry of divine providence. Historical Background Genesis 41 specifies that the famine extended “over all the earth” and was severe in Egypt and Canaan alike (vv. 56-57). Archaeological data corroborate cyclical Nile failures: • The Famine Stela on Sehel Island records a multi-year drought remembered in Egyptian lore. • The Ipuwer Papyrus laments food shortages contemporaneous with ecological upheaval. • Sediment cores from the eastern Nile Delta reveal abrupt reductions in flood levels in the Middle Bronze Age, aligning with a biblically consistent time frame. These data sets demonstrate that a famine of the scope Genesis describes is historically plausible. Theological Purposes 1. Sovereign Governance God “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). By “calling down” the famine, He retains agency over natural processes without negating secondary causes (e.g., Nile hydrology). Scripture uniformly presents creation as responsive to its Creator (Job 37:13; Amos 4:7). 2. Covenant Preservation God had promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation (Genesis 15:13-16). The famine compelled Jacob’s household to migrate to Egypt, the incubator where Israel grew from a clan to a nation (cf. Genesis 46:3). 3. Providential Positioning of Joseph The famine validated Joseph’s God-given interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams, elevating him to vizier. Genesis 50:20 : “You intended evil against me, but God intended it for good...” The adversity that threatened life became the pathway to preservation. 4. Moral Formation Scarcity exposed human sin and fostered humility. Joseph’s brothers confronted past guilt; Jacob’s family learned dependency. Deuteronomy 8:3 establishes the pedagogical value of deprivation: “so that He might make you understand that man does not live on bread alone” . 5. Typological Foreshadowing of Christ Joseph, a rejected yet exalted savior who provides bread to the nations, prefigures Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:35). The famine motif magnifies the fullness of Christ’s provision (Acts 7:11-13 connects the two themes explicitly). Providence and Human Freedom Genesis never portrays the famine as random. Yet Joseph’s administrative wisdom—storing grain, selling provisions, managing logistics—operated within the divine decree. This concurrence of sovereignty and responsibility illustrates the compatibilism implicit throughout Scripture (cf. Proverbs 16:9). Pastoral and Practical Lessons 1. Suffering can be both disciplinary and preparatory. 2. God may withhold physical abundance to supply spiritual and redemptive abundance. 3. National or global calamities serve cosmic narratives beyond immediate perception. 4. Believers today, facing shortages or instability, can trust the same God who turned famine into salvation. Concluding Synthesis God allowed—and indeed summoned—the famine mentioned in Psalm 105:16 to accomplish multifaceted objectives: to validate Joseph, preserve the Abrahamic line, forge Israel’s identity, typify Christ’s redemptive work, and display sovereign dominion over nature and history. Far from contradicting divine goodness, the famine magnifies it, revealing a God who can transform deprivation into deliverance for His glory and His people’s ultimate good. |
    |