Seven Gaunt Cattle
In the old days, news spread by word of mouth. Thus, Jacob, when the land of Canaan was gripped by famine, heard that there was corn in Egypt. Reunited with Joseph, he and his family settled in Egypt. And the rest, as they say, is history.
It wasn't until 1984 that the world saw on television the shocking pictures of the famine in Ethiopia, famously documented by Michael Buerk. Since then, we have been exposed every few years to pictures on our screens of children too weak even to cry, their eyes fly-ridden in heads out of proportion with their shrunken bodies and stick-like limbs.
The success of Joseph was due to Pharoah's prophetic dream of seven fat cattle, followed by seven gaunt cattle. During the seven years of plenty, Joseph organised the storing of all the surplus grain, which fed not only the Egyptians but also those like Jacob from the neighbouring countries during the drought that followed.
Can famine be predicted? Increasingly, yes. The first famine that was attributed directly to climate change, also in Ethiopia, broke into the news a few years ago. Many countries have always been subject to unpredictable rainfall, but climate change is going to make things worse. There have been three recent catastrophes in East Asia. And East Africa is in the grip of yet another famine, with the World Food Programme estimating that 20 million people are in need of immediate food aid.
It's raining in East Africa now, raining too hard. The rain is too late to save this year's crops, and the parched ground is in no fit state to receive it. Perhaps, however, there will be better harvests next year. If there is a surplus, will countries be able to store it against future drought? During the time of Structural Adjustment programmes, the World Bank forced countries, such as Malawi and Zimbabwe, to sell their reserves of maize in order to improve their balance of payments.
How will future generations judge us - how will they judge the Church - for allowing these things to happen? An outpouring of sacrificial and sustained generosity is the least that God must require of us. But the Church (you and I) must also engage in political action - against climate change and for just policies towards the world's poor.
'I was hungry', says the Son of Man, 'and you gave me nothing to eat' (Matthew 25:42).
Helen Parry
Links
For the first in a series of essays by Helen Parry on some basic principles for understanding the Bible, click here
A new book and an old book relating to the issues raised in this article are David King and Gabrielle Walker's The Hot Topic: How to Tackle global Warming and Still Keep the Lights On, and Ronald Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.
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