August 14, 2007

• Discovering God’s Character – Part 22
  
  
  
  Reconciliation

  Finally, in Genesis 45, we pick up where we left off last time with
  Judah pleading with Joseph to take him to be his slave instead of
  Benjamin so that his father would not die from sorrow from the loss of
  both of his sons from his beloved wife, Rachel.

  This was simply too much for Joseph and he told everyone (of the
  Egyptians) to leave. So when they all had left, Joseph begins to weep
  loudly enough that the Egyptians and the household of Pharaoh hear it
  and he revealed his identity to his brothers. At this point, this is
  absolutely the last thing that his brothers wanted to hear. Their
  brother had so much power as the 2nd in command of all Egypt and they
  were the ones who had planned harm for him and sold him to the
  Ishmaelites. They had to be feeling terror at this point. They were
  speechless and utterly dismayed.

  Joseph sees their fear and tells them to come closer. He tells them he
  is Joseph again, the one who they sold into Egypt and continues saying
  for them not to be grieved or angry with themselves for having done
  that because God sent him there first to preserve life. He explained it
  this way and had further instructions for them…

  
  Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” And they
  came closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into
  Egypt. Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold
  me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine
  has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in
  which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me before
  you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive
  by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me
  here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all
  his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to
  my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, “God has made me
  lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall live in the
  land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and
  your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that
  you have. There I will also provide for you, for there are still five
  years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you
  have would be impoverished. Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my
  brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. Now
  you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you
  have seen; and you must hurry and bring my father down here.” Genesis
  45:3-13 (NASB)

  This is an amazing example of what true forgiveness is all about. We
  most certainly see that Joseph is not held captive by bitterness here.
  He understands that God used extenuating circumstances to bring Joseph
  to the place he needed to be and that his brothers were not even aware
  that their evil deed was transformed into God’s working in the end. One
  cannot stress this sort of thing too much.  When bad things come and
  they most assuredly will, NOTHING is too big for God to make right in
  one way or another if we will be patient and trust in him.

  At this point, Joseph hugs his brother’s neck and weeps and Benjamin
  also weeps. He kisses all his brothers and weeps with them as well.

  Now the news that Joseph’s brothers had come was heard in Pharaoh’s
  house and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.  So Pharaoh tells Joseph
  to tell his brothers…

  
  Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your
  beasts and go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your
  households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of
  Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land.’ “Now you are ordered, ‘Do
  this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for
  your wives, and bring your father and come.  ‘Do not concern yourselves
  with your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’” 
  Genesis 45:17-20 (NASB)

  What an emotional rollercoaster for the brothers and Joseph! His
  brothers being fearful in coming the first place and then being in the
  present of a great ruler in Egypt and finding out it’s the brother
  you’ve sold off years earlier and now there’s reconciliation and even
  Pharaoh sends a message to them to bring everything they have to
  Goshen, the best in the land of Egypt, is theirs. Once this sinks in,
  the sons of Israel did exactly what they were told. Joseph fully
  provisioned them, gave them changes of clothing, and gave them all the
  wagons they needed. Now to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and
  five changes of clothes. To his father, he sent ten donkeys loaded with
  the best things of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and
  sustenance for his father on the journey.  Joseph then sends his
  brothers away with a brotherly admonition… “Don’t quarrel on the
  journey.”  So his brothers went back home to their father in Canaan. 

  Jacob was stunned when he heard that Joseph was still alive and he
  didn’t believe them. However, when they told him what Joseph had told
  them and saw all the wagons that he had sent back with his brothers to
  carry him, we are told “Jacob’s spirit was revived.” When he finally was able to let it sink in a bit, he says “It is enough
  that my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
  From this statement, we learn that Joseph’s brothers never told their
  father the “secret” of what really happened.

  So what might all this tell us about God’s character?  God is with us
  when we go through the trials necessary to accomplish the things He
  calls us to do.  God works in all things so that there will be peace in
  families if they will let him do it. He does ask us to do things like
  “forgive” and not wanting revenge. Why? Because that is how He works.
  He asks us to be patient for the same reason. God is not in a hurry.
  Remember that it has taken 22 years to get to this point where Joseph
  and his brothers are reconciled and his father learns that he did not
  die.  We also see that God is setting up the fulfillment of what He
  told Abraham many years earlier…

  
  God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be
  strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and
  oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom
  they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many
  possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you
  will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they
  will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
  Genesis 15:13-16 (NASB)

  Now while this does not sound like good news, at least in the shorter
  term of their enslavement, however at this time, it is a life saving
  event that brings them to Egypt. However, we should not fault God in
  doing this because this is the very sign and experience that gives
  Israel, the nation, its identity and its own past… the deliverance from
  Egypt. It is the sign that these people, the sons of Jacob, who are the
  ones to whom Canaan was granted as an inheritance and no other has
  legitimate claim to it not even the other sons of Abraham.  From this,
  we see that God keeps His promises even though its going to take a
  while to fulfill. In fact, it will take some 400 years of bondage to
  bring Israel into such a bond that they can become a nation from these
  12 sons.

  Today, God has promised us certain things.  For instance, through
  Christ, we have eternal life yet we still have to wait to attain it at
  the end of our earthly lives.  We like Israel, sojourn in this life,
  struggling with all sorts of things that oppress us and attempt to
  enslave us but as surely as Israel left Egypt for the land of Canaan,
  so it will be for us when we wait in hope for the inheritance that
  comes with our faith in Christ. What we see here is God wants us to
  know that we can depend on Him to keep His promises even if it takes a
  long time to realize them. He keeps them even if we aren’t the model
  servants of His since we have seen (and will see) that Israel fails at
  times as well.  This is a matter of His faithfulness. When we fail in
  our faithfulness, we see more clearly how He is faithful to us… even
  through our trials.  Know this for certain… it is the firm knowledge
  that He never fails, that gives us solid hope in Him. Hold steadfast in
  the faith. He is worthy of your trust.  Mr.Vee

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