These are such heartening, encouraging chapters aren’t they? To quote the fairy Fauna from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty…
Joseph sets up his brothers with a test. Basically, Joseph frames Benjamin for theft so he can see how his brothers respond. Would they defend Benjamin or were they jealous of him too? Would they take this chance to get rid of him?
They’re all hauled in before Joseph and are once again bowing before their brother.
Let’s pause here for just a sec. Have you ever had an impossible dream? I mean something that is truly from the Lord. How impossible did Joseph’s dreams of his brothers bowing before him seem while he was being handed over to Potiphar? How even more impossible when he’s thrown in prison? Always remember this:
“God does not require favorable circumstances.”
This will not be the last time you hear me say that. God moved Joseph from prison to a throne in a single day. If you and your God-given dream are toiling away right now in Potiphar’s house or the prison, and the fulfillment of that dream seems impossible, well, you might only be 24 hours away from a complete turnaround. Do. Not. Give. Up.
Judah coming to Benjamin’s rescue – offering to take his place – is irrefutable proof that he has changed. His remorse is real.
This reminds me of John the Baptist calling the people to bring “fruit worthy of repentance.” The brothers aren’t just saying they’re sorry- they’re showing it.
And that’s it. Joseph can’t keep it in anymore. More than ten years of emotions come bursting out. He has to tell them who he is.
Then we get this famous bit:
“But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.”
Genesis 45:5-8 NLT
Three times Joseph says it: God sent me.
I have a question for us to ponder. When did Joseph know this?
In the pit? On the back of an Ishmaelite camel? In Potiphar’s house? In the prison?
While Joseph clearly trusted and feared the Lord, there’s no way he could’ve known the whole picture of God’s purpose for him until the time came.
“Sometimes we don’t know God sent us until after the fact.”
Sometimes we can’t tell until we look back.
Your circumstances may be part of the road to God’s purpose. You just don’t know it yet.
Chapter 45 ends with Joseph sending a whole wagon-train of provisions home to Jacob with instructions to move the whole clan to Egypt. And the shocking news that Joseph is alive nearly does him in.
For all intents and purposes, Joseph has risen from the dead and is offering to save from certain death all who will come to dwell with him. That’s what theologians would call, “Christological.”
I’m going to leave you with a song to summarize this part of Joseph’s story:
May the Lord redeem whatever road you are on and give you faith.
To The Reader 