Read Gen 45:1-15. We’ve just heard the high point in one of the Bible’s greatest stories – the story of Joseph, son of Jacob. We first hear about Joseph in Chapter 37. He dies in Chapter 50. But the great part of his story is in the nine chapters that finish with these tears of joy.
It didn’t start with joy. It started with jealousy. Joseph was the favourite son of his father. God gave him a natural gift of leadership, and the ability to interpret dreams. His brothers hated him so much when he told them about his dreams. His dreams predicted that he would be master over them all, even his father.
Joseph wasn’t very diplomatic in those early days. He was honest about those dreams he had, but he didn’t think much about what was working in the minds of his brothers. They hated him. They wanted to kill him! Worse still, they decided to do just that.
We don’t like people who hurt our pride. We don’t like to lose our position. This is the seed of so much domestic violence today. Some men can’t put up with a woman who has her own ideas or her own ways. They bash their wives and then say it’s the wife’s fault: “Now look what you made me do!”
But Joseph is not a bashed wife. He has gifts which have brought him power. Gifts of vision, discernment and leadership from God. He has been smart with his gifts, and now he has power. He is like a prince, with huge control over the riches of Egypt.
He has been faithful, too. Whenever Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, praises him, he gives honour to God. It’s all God’s work.
That’s how he decides to view how his brothers treated him - all part of God’s plan. His brothers didn’t end up killing him, but instead sold him to travelling traders as a slave. Then he was re-sold to be a slave in Egypt. From there, he impressed important people with his abilities in administration and his special gift to understand dreams.
Did this make the brothers’ actions right? Of course not. Many chapters later, in Chapter 50, when their father had died, their brothers were still nervous. They said, “‘What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?’ (Gen 50:15). Joseph said, ‘Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good” (Gen 50:19-20). That’s how Joseph got to be used by God to keep so many people alive – including the descendants of Jacob.
Joseph could see the bigger picture, but he could still have chosen the Old Testament rule, “an eye for an eye”. He could have punished them greatly.
Instead, he forgave. That’s not easy to do. It requires the eyes of faith. And it requires the leading of the Spirit.
What about justice? What about fixing the wrongs by the abusers? Should women today just forgive their abusers and put up with more of it?
Joseph cared about justice, too. Just before today’s passage, he tested his brothers with tricks to see what they would do, but he saw that now they were acting in love and respect. Violent offenders need to be reformed and not just put away. They need help to see themselves as powered by God, not by their own fragile egos.
Joseph was gifted by God and, by the Spirit, was also given the grace to forgive.We need to call on that grace, too.Sometimes people drive us up the wall.But, like Joseph and his early dreams, the things that annoy us most might be the very things that God will use in another way to build his Kingdom.
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