Genesis 45

Effectively Resurrected

He was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. He was brutally killed by savages. His blood spilled. His death mourned. He took love and hope and joy to the grave. Surely this was the worst of times. This is the new reality. He would no longer be the favoured son. He is now a memory. A scar. Death, after all, is a permanent thing. Or is it?

News came. He was not dead! He was still alive! Merely hearing the news from the first ones to see was enough to revive the spirit. But this was an exceptional event! Something like this had to be seen to be believed. Good news indeed!

Of course the picture I have painted here is easily evocative of Jesus, but the details also fit Jacob’s perspective on the life of his son, Joseph. Here, I think, is the very first foreshadowing of the resurrection, a son whose “death” allowed for the flourishing of God’s people. Death and brokenness bringing about new and renewed life is a common theme throughout the Bible.

And this is yet another of many reminders that God is in charge. He has a plan. He will not leave us nor forsake us, but our perspective has to remain eternal. Love and hope and joy are gifts that comes from Jesus, the one who beat Satan, death, demons, the grave, and hell to bring them to us. This is something that we should be thankful for every time we breathe.

Genesis 45:16-47:27 | 017/365

Whose Will Be Done?

“I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!” The satisfying release can almost be felt as we reading the thrilling conclusion of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. It is the story of a man whose guilt consumes him, until he can do nothing other than admit the deed. His conscience haunted him. It is a similar condition in which we find Joseph’s brothers during today’s reading.

They are struck by the famine Joseph predicted, and so make the trek to Egypt where food has been stored for exactly this occasion. Joseph’s Brothers bring money to Egypt to purchase food as their own supplies have nearly run out. They do not recognize Joseph when they come before him to request to purchase food. Joseph questions the brothers extensively before telling them that unless they bring their youngest brother, they’ll not be allowed to purchase any additional food. So they pay for their portion and head back to Canaan.

Along the way, they find that they have not only the food they purchased, but also the money paid in their bags. A secret blessing from Joseph. But they cannot even receive the blessing, they were still, after all these years, consumed with guilt about what they had done to their brother. It is a curse! they thought, God was surely punishing them. They could never go back.

But eventually they were forced to return. Now we pull God’s careful positioning of Joseph back out of the pocket from yesterday. Because it was during this trip that Jacob revealed himself saying, “God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors” (Gen 45:7, NLT). Does this mean that God orchestrates evil events to bring about good? Some faithful Christians would say that He does. But I would say that God, in His omniscience, knows what each of us would do in any given circumstance and that He factored in the evil free-will choices of mankind when he providentially arranged the world.

Is it good that you did a bad thing because it achieved God’s Will? No. But God’s Will cannot be defeated by the works of mankind either. His Will be done. Amen.

Genesis 42:1-45:15 | 016/365