near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me
before you to preserve life." (Genesis 45: 4-5)
Joseph then shared with them how their evil actually worked for their good, and certainly for Joseph's. In fact, he even asserted that it was God who sent him!
He repeats this profound truth:
"For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet
there are five years, in the which there shall neither be
earing nor harvest. 7And God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a
great deliverance. 8So now it was
not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to
Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of
Egypt." (Genesis 45: 6-8)
Right away, this narrative must minister to everyone of us who believes that we have taken detours in our lives, or that we have suffered setbacks or done things that we should not have done. I can think of no episode in the Bible, aside from evil men crucifying Christ for the redemption and reconciliation of man, that epitomizes this promise:
"28And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
I was not good in itself for Joseph's brothers to betray him, sell him into slavery, and lie about his death to their father Jacob. Yet God made it work for good, to save many! I cannot stress this enough — do not regret your past, do not try to make some morality tale or teaching from what you have suffered. God the Father, who sits outside of time and has made all things fit together into His purposes, is taking all of your hurts and making it work for YOUR good!
Now, you would think that since Joseph told his brothers not once but twice, that they would be able to let it all go.
Sadly, that was not the case. After Jacob died, the brothers met together, fearing for their fate:
"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph
will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we
did unto him. 16And they sent a
messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17So shall ye say
unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their
sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of
the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him." (Genesis 50: 15-17)
They still saw themselves at the mercy of a brother who would retaliate against them because of the death of the their father. One would think that after living in Egypt after all of those years, they would have finally rested.
Yet something inside of man cannot rest about wrongdoing, unless we have a growing revelation of God's grace! He needs to know that the wrong was paid for, not just that it worked for good. Otherwise, the sense of "someone has to pay" will simply not go away!
Joseph wept again — likely grieving because the brothers must have lived in a sense of panic to believe that Joseph would turn on them. Let's read what Joseph said:
"And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we
be thy servants. 19And Joseph said
unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20But as for you, ye
thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as
it is this day, to save much people alive. 21Now therefore fear
ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and
spake kindly unto them." (Genesis 50: 18-21)
The brothers bowed down to Joseph, in the same way the every knee will bow to Christ Jesus, who by His death has taken away all our sins and given us His Life! Joseph told them not to be afraid, because he was not in the place of God. This reference points to what Jesus would do, who being God on earth would take all the wrath for everything that we have done, including all the sins of the world! Joseph could not pay for the sins of his brothers, but he is the type of Him whose death more than pays for the wrongs that we have done, and for the wrongs that have been done to us!
Now, what "evil" is Joseph referring to, that the brothers thought against him? Certainly, they plotted mischief in throwing him in a pit then selling him into slavery. Yet the brothers also thought evil against him because they believed that he was vindictive and bitter, as they were! They did not receive the forgiveness, and therefore they did not let the things that they had done go away, and thus they projected their bitterness onto Joseph!
we fight with? Is the harms that other people have perpetrated against us? The Book of Hebrews explains:
"diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;" (Hebrews 12: 15)
When we miss out on the grace of God, we miss out on the truth that He is doing all things for us, providing us release from our sins, from our own efforts, for this grace works in us, and we do all things by His grace:
"But by the
grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was
not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15: 10)
If we do not grow in grace, we will be bound by the sense of loss irrevocable, the sense that it is up to us to forgive, it is up to us to love, it is up to us to overcome. That makes us bitter, indeed. Yet the Bible teaches different about all of this:
"Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8: 37)
His love makes us "more than" in all things!
This grace is the basis for everything in the life of the believer:
"Be not carried about
with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that
have been occupied therein." (Hebrews 13: 9)
The heart that is established by grace, the person who is defined, enriched, fortified by God's grace, will never succumb to bitterness, will never doubt his righteousness before God. At the time, Joseph's brothers did not have the revelation or the dispensation of grace shed upon them, because Jesus Christ had not shed his blood, yet! For that reason, Joseph had to say "Am I in the place of God?" Joseph was the type of our Savior, but not the substance.