God's Providence In Evil's Path

Joseph's Right to Revenge and the Depth of His Betrayal 0:35

Have you ever heard the saying, revenge is a dish best served what? It's actually a French expression. Revenge is a dish best served cold. I guess they like their cold revenge in France, because that's where it originally came from.

With that said, when you think about revenge, let's say you go to the movies. Have you ever seen a Liam Neeson movie? Liam Neeson movies all play the same way. He's out to exact revenge against those who have harmed him or his loved ones.

Basically, all the movies have the same plot line, and it's all based on revenge. With that said, in today's text, there are few people on planet Earth at this time who more deserve to have revenge over those that had harmed him than this man Joseph. This man who was upright and just and devout in his ways and his practices had been harmed by so many, from Potiphar and Potiphar's wife to the slave traders who sold him all the way back to his own siblings.

And there's no betrayal. There's no harm that leaves a greater scar on the soul than when we're hurt by blood, by someone that we're related to. So that said, in today's text, Joseph, as we said earlier, had had just a horrible set of weeks that turned into a horrible set of months that turned into a horrible set of years.

All manner of terrible things had happened to him. And the incipient cause, the moment that it all started to go downhill for him, was the moment he shows up on the hillside in his coat and his brothers threw him in the pit. So as he walked through life for the next few weeks and months and years, as he thought about, for decades, really, how his life had gone downhill, he could always trace it back to one event, to what happened then, and he could always trace it back to one set of people, his own brothers.

With that being the case, it would be understandable if Joseph harbored hard feelings and even desired revenge.

God's Sovereign Exaltation of Joseph Over Egypt 2:19

And what's fascinating about Joseph's narrative is that although he was truly rags at one point, he was in a pit and then he was in prison and the like, we saw over the past number of weeks that God, God did not leave him there, but God raised him up bit by bit, gave more power, more responsibility, to ultimately, as we've seen in today's text, to ultimately he's the number two guy in all of Egypt.

And newsflash, to be the number two guy in all of Egypt at that time, on the entirety of the globe, he was the number two guy on planet Earth, based on Egypt's rule in this age. Well, that said, what was keeping him from exacting any revenge against his brothers at this point? Well, only really one thing, if he so desired, and that was that they weren't Egyptians.

They didn't live in Egypt. They were far off to the north. But what if, what if, what if his brothers came to him? What if his brothers came to him?

What if his brothers, who had been safe, so to speak, from any possibility of his wrath, when they lived up to the north, when they were up in Canaan. What if that changed, and what if they, by their own volition, traveled to him, not just traveled to him, but stood right in front of him?

Would that not be the opportunity for the most delicious revenge for Joseph, knowing that they think he died years and years and years ago, knowing that they won't recognize him, knowing that he now has them standing before him? Would that not be an opportunity, theoretically, for this wonderful, great, delicious, perfect revenge?

Judah's Intercession: A Type of Christ from the Tribe of Judah 3:44

“Please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.”

— Genesis 44:33 (NKJV)

Well, in the preceding chapters, prior to chapter 45, in chapters 43 and 44, we see that Joseph, that revenge was not a priority for him. If he'd wanted to, he could have dealt with them all immediately, the moment that he saw them, off with their heads. He could have done anything he wanted at that time.

But rather, he did something in chapter 43 and chapter 44 that's interesting. He looked at his brothers and he recognized them, but he also recognized that they were not quite the same brothers he remembered. And so he decided to test, test that perception he had, that something was different, that they changed. And so he actually tested them on multiple occasions to see their heart.

And what he found, what he found is that their hearts were different than they had previously been. Specifically at the very end of chapter 44, the very end, right before today's text in chapter 45. Remember Joseph's still testing his brothers and he's talking about his father and he's talking about his younger brother, Benjamin.

You have to leave Benjamin here and go tell your dad this and then come back with that and so forth. So he's testing them. And at one point, one of his brothers just says, all right. He says, look, we can't do this to the old man.

We can't do this to Jacob. We can't do this to our father. We already have lost one brother long ago, referring to Joseph. We've already lost one brother.

If his sibling, his youngest sibling, Benjamin, sired of the same mother as he, if his youngest sibling was to perish, not only would that'd be terrible for Benjamin, but it'd be terrible for our father. He will die in his grief. Now, the man who said this, his name was Judah. This was the brother Judah.

And Judah did something interesting at the end of chapter 44. Judah says, you know what? Take me instead. Let it not happen to Benjamin, who at that point was his father's precious joy, the apple of his eye at that point.

Let it not happen to Benjamin. Take me instead. I'll stay. And what's fascinating with that is that was intercession.

That was sacrifice. That was a willingness to say, I will pay. I will become your slave. Only let my brothers go.

Let my brothers go and preserve my father's life from grief. It's interesting that it was Judah. Judah who interceded for the others at this point. Judah was willing to offer himself as a sacrifice.

Because as we all know, ultimately Jesus Christ would be born of which tribe of Israel? Judah. So that's the narrative going up to verses one and this morning. The brothers are no longer the same brothers that they were.

In fairness, Joseph isn't quite the same guy that he was either. There are things that have changed. God has been at work in the ensuing years.

Joseph Weeps and Makes Himself Known to His Brothers 6:09

“Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Make everyone go out from me!" So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.”

— Genesis 45:1 (NKJV)

And as I reread now verses one through two, we're going to see that Joseph acknowledges that in tears. Let me read verses one through two, and then again, we'll kind of work our way through this text. Verse one. Now that Joseph, he couldn't restrain himself.

He couldn't restrain himself before all those who stood by him. And so he cried out. He said, make everyone go out from before me. So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and he wept aloud, and the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard it.

All right, by the time we get to chapter 45, we've already said Joseph's story has hit its nadir. The top of its emotional arc, so to speak, occurs right here in verse 1. When his heart breaks, he can't take it anymore. Judah has volunteered to lay down his own life, so to speak, on behalf of his brothers.

Joseph recognizes the love they have for one another, love that they didn't ironically have for him when he was their brother years ago, but he recognizes they're different. Something has changed. And so his heart just breaks in a million pieces as he hears Judah's willingness to give up his life for Benjamin when none of them would have done the same for him all those decades earlier.

So his heart just breaks and he sends everyone out. Specifically, he sends the Egyptians out. He sends out the Egyptians and he sends out the interpreter. Because remember, when the Israelites would have come before him, when at this point the brothers would have come before him, they would have been speaking a different language.

It wasn't quite Hebrew at this time. It was kind of a pre-Semitic language. Nevertheless, it needed to be interpreted. And at this point, Joseph, he sends out the Egyptians.

He sends out the interpreters. Now it's just him and his brothers. And scripture says at this point he made himself known. And the idea is that he spoke to them.

He spoke to them in a tongue they were familiar with that they never in a billion years would have thought that he knew.

Remembering Yet Forgiving: The Biblical Nature of Forgiveness 7:58

He made himself known to them. Years, years of time. For some of us, when we've been hurt in the past, it calcifies. You may have been hurt by someone or something or someones in the time before us, maybe last week, maybe 10, 20, 30 years back, maybe in your childhood.

For a lot of us, what happens is that that hurt, it's a scar that's opened up at that point, but then it just calcifies and hardens. And it gets hard for us to, when we think of that person or that circumstance or that point in time, it's hard for us not just to flinch or even just to get kind of a little bit red-faced over what happened then and who did this to me.

Well, here at the moment that Joseph was enabled to enact whatever cold, hard, Liam Neeson-style revenge he wanted on his brothers, instead his heart just shatters. And so he speaks to them. Let's look at verses 3 through 8 now to see what he says. Verse 3.

That Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph, does my father still live? As an aside, I'll bet you his brothers never heard the second part of that statement. They never heard the question. I bet when he said, I am Joseph, that's all they heard.

The rest of it was like Charlie Brown's parents. They did not hear. They heard, I am Joseph. Can you imagine?

I am Joseph, in their own native tongue, from a mouth, a voice that had to be somewhat familiar. I am Joseph, and they were undone. I am Joseph, does my father still live? Verse 3, but his brothers could not answer him, because they were dismayed in his presence.

The English translation of the original Hebrew does not do justice to what dismay means here. They were undone. They couldn't even talk. They couldn't even speak.

They were flabbergasted. Their jaws are on the floor. And so because they don't speak, Joseph speaks in their place, verse 4. And so Joseph said to his brothers, please come, come near to me.

And so they came near. Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother. He has to restate it. I am Joseph.

I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. You know, sometimes we're told that we're supposed to forget and forgive, right? Two kids are arguing, forget and forgive, right? That's not the biblical model.

It never says once that Joseph forgot, but it does say that he forgives. You don't necessarily gain any brownie points in heaven because age has robbed you of the memories of those who messed with you in times past. What is a credit, so to speak, to us is when we can remember everything that happened and yet still forgive, and yet still forgive.

He says, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And he doesn't do that to hold it over their heads, but to remind them of the nature of fracture that occurred between them.

God Sent Me Before You: Providence to Preserve Life 10:47

“But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.”

— Genesis 45:5 (NKJV)

Verse 5, but now, now as they're close, now as the fracture is about to be healed, now as they've come near, now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, because God sent me before you to preserve life.

We're going to see that Joseph was a Reformed theologian. He had his theology figured out. He says there, do not blame yourself. Do not blame yourself for what has happened.

It was still sin, make no mistake, but do not blame you. But God used it. God sent me here before you to preserve your life when you stand before me. Verse 6, for these two years the famine's been in the land, and there's still five more.

Remember, seven years was his vision. There's still five in which there'll be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me. He sent me here.

He sent me to Egypt. He sent me to a place where we could store up all that you would need. He sent me. He sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you, for God's people, for God's covenant family.

He sent me here to preserve a posterity for you and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So it's now not you who sent me here, but it was God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land. I am Joseph.

If Joseph had sprouted wings and flew around the room in that moment, they could not have been more surprised than when he said, I am Joseph. They must have thought he was long dead. In fact, we know that they thought he was long dead. No one could survive what he'd been through.

They must have thought he was long dead. But in verse 3, again, Joseph sends out the interpreters. He speaks to them, and he says, I am. I am Joseph.

Now, let's say that's all you heard. You're standing there. The brother that you did wrong, the brother that you did dirty, the brother that you sold off to slave traders and almost killed, that brother, who you perceived to be dead, that brother, who's got to be harvesting a lot of resentment by now, that brother stands before you and says, I am he.

The Aggrieved Party Bears the Burden of Reconciliation 12:43

What would your reaction be at that moment? Well, we know what their reaction was. They were freaked out. They were dismayed.

Why? Oh my goodness, he's going to kill us, right? There he is. He's got all the power.

He can just snap his finger, off with their heads, and it would be so. And at that moment, they're dismayed. You're Joseph? You're the one that we did wrong?

Oh no, what does that mean for us? So it says there that they are absolutely dismayed. In verse 3, they think they're about to pay for their crimes. The payment has come nigh for what they did all those years ago.

But instead, instead of snapping his fingers and saying off with their heads, what happens? He says, come here, come here, come here, come here to me. Come close to me. There's a picture of him even putting his arms out to hold them.

He says, come near to me. And at that moment, this 22-year wall of hurt and bitterness was replaced. A man who could have been Liam Neeson here, who could have been angry and desiring revenge, whatever part of him had any impulses in that direction was utterly replaced, and in its place was simply a man who wanted his brother's back.

This moment is just a man. Forget the power. Forget the authority. Forget all that he had.

He would have traded in a moment for what he was now given. He just wanted his brothers back. He just wanted to have the family that he'd lost. And in that moment, he sees it's possible.

But something has to happen. A rift is opened. That rift still has to be closed. But the person in the best capacity to close it is the person who is most aggrieved by it.

And that was Joseph himself. If someone has hurt you deeply in times past, perhaps a relative, perhaps a sibling, mother, father, brother, husband, spouse, what have you. If someone's hurt you in times past, the person in the greatest position to effect reconciliation is you. Joseph was in the greatest position to effect reconciliation and to close the rift.

And for what it's worth, rifts like this happen throughout Scripture. David and Absalom, Paul and Barnabas, the prodigal son and the father of the prodigal son. There's all sorts of depictions of this sort of thing. But the one thing that's true in each case is that in order for a relationship to be bridged, someone had to take the first step.

Someone had to say, either I'm sorry or I forgive or both. Someone had to take that sort of step here.

Forgiveness Is Mandatory: The Gospel Grounds of Our Forgiving 15:19

Reconciliation requires at least one person willing to lay down their arms, the harms and the angst that we have or relationships that have been bruised or crushed in times past. The good news is if that person is still breathing, reconciliation is still possible. However, the onus may be upon you and I to affect that change.

And for those who say, I can't. It's impossible. Won't do it. Can't do it.

Here's the thing. Forgiveness is not optional for the Christian. Forgiveness everywhere you see it in scripture is mandatory. Why?

Whatever someone has harmed you with, whatever someone has done against you, whatever has occurred to you in times past that has been such a hardship and laid such a scar on your back, whatever sin has been committed against you is nothing compared to the sins that you've committed against the Holy God. And that Holy God has not only forgiven you, but willingly paid the price to atone for you.

You see this? This is the difference. God's forgiveness is not, He says, all right, man, we're cool. You say you prayed the sinner's prayer.

We're cool. We're good. That's not what He does. He can't do that.

If you sinned against holy God and break His laws and the wages of sin is death, what has to happen? If a man has sinned, a man must die. Now, for you and I, that's the bad news, because we've sinned a whole lot of times. So how are we going to be reconciled with our maker?

Well, scripture from one end to the other says, here's how it happens. You and I cannot climb a ladder of our works and heave ourselves onto His golden shores, but rather God Himself had to come down as a ladder. He had to pay our price on Calvary. Our sin had to be imputed to Him.

He who knew no sin became sin for us, and when He died and said, it is finished, that's when you're forgiven. Through our trust and confidence, not in our work, not that I can earn reconciliation, not that I can somehow earn His good pleasure, but rather because He paid the price that I should have paid.

Christ doesn't just offer you forgiveness like He sweeps your sins into the dust room of heaven under the coat closet under a rug and says, let's not talk about that anymore. Rather, He took that sin, every sin that you've committed in your life, sins you can't even name right now because you don't even remember doing them.

He took all of them on His own back, and He paid the punishment for every last one of them. So when He says it is finished, when He says you're forgiven, it means something, because He paid for that forgiveness with His own blood. And because of that, how silly it is that we would withhold forgiveness from someone else, given what we've been forgiven from and by who.

Forgiveness is not optional for you and I as Christians. You want to be Christ-like? It's mandatory. In any case, this is what we see here in Joseph.

Joseph as a Type of Christ: Forgiving From a Place of Power 17:55

Joseph is a type of Christ in this text. He has been wounded. He has aggrieved. He has been harmed.

And yet, when the opportunity presents itself, and he is in a sovereign, transcendent point of power, what does he do? He forgives and he reconciles. In any case, notice in verses 5 through 8, Joseph goes on to say something. He not only forgives his brothers and welcomes them closely.

Come here, come here, come here. He not only does that, but then in verses 5 through 8, he talks about what happened, not only in the purview of what they did, what you brothers did a long time ago, but he says, let me help you frame that wicked action, that sinful action. Let me help you frame where that fits in God's redemptive plan.

And he tells them, he says, you know, you did wicked. You did wicked, but what you meant for evil, he'll say this in chapter 50, which we'll look at next week, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. And he unpacks just a portion of that here in verses five through eight.

He says, don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, but God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years, the famine's been in the land. There's still five years left in which there's not going to be any plowing or harvesting, but God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your by a great deliverance.

So it's not you who sent me here, but God, and He has made a ruler throughout all of Egypt.

God Enfolds the Worst Evils Into His Sovereign Decree for Good 19:19

You see this Joseph, again, this theology is on point. Joseph talks to them and he says, look, you did wrong, but here's the thing. God is capable. God is willing to even unfold wrong things into his great plan of redemption.

You see that? God can take the worst events, and there's no worse, more worse event than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ Himself. God can take the most wicked, depraved, evil things that's ever happened on this planet and enfold them in a sovereign decree for our good. Now, do we ever know it when it's going on?

Most of the time, no. Most of the time, we don't have a clue, whether the one's perpetrating the wickedness or those who are the victims of the wicked. We have no idea how God could ever use such a thing, but He does. All things work together for good for those who love Him.

That's what we see, not only in the book of Romans, but here in Genesis chapter 45. But in this case, he spells it out even more. He says, not only did God plan to use this for good, but here's the good specifically. Look where you're standing.

He says, I know all about the famine. I called it, the vision of what was going to happen. I knew there was going to be a famine, but here's the bad news. We're only two years in.

There's five more to go. But God used that famine to bring you here to make the reconciliation possible. And what's more, he knew the famine would absolutely affect our entire homeland, the entire promised land, the region of Canaan at this time. He knew that it's absolutely going to decimate the lives of the people there.

But God sent me here to a place of storehouses and many. He sent me to a place where I could store up enough to provide for you so that when you showed up at my doorstep, I'd be here to help and save your life. And truly, God would preserve His people in Egypt for decades and decades and decades yet to come.

With that said, nothing's an accident. The providence of God and the sovereignty of God, nothing is an accident. Even the things that we think God can't possibly use, this loss. He can't give me back what I've lost or who I've lost, right?

He can't fix this hole. He can't mend this scar. Wrong. You just don't have the vision and perspective to see it now.

Good gravy. When we get on the other side of this equation, or on the other side of the veil, and you get to look back with eyes of retrospect and 100% good theology of what God has done, you'll marvel. You'll marvel what he did using even stuff that you can't believe he would use.

You'll marvel at things that went down in your life that you're not even perceiving are happening to you right now. The amount of data points we have, you know, our whole human experience is a box. The amount of data points we have are like here, here, and here. God's filled it with data points that He alone knows, and in due time, he'll share that with us.

And we'll say, aha, God is good, even when the things looked really dark. Here again, we see this in a microcosm in the narrative of Joseph. All right, let's look at the remaining verses.

The Scope of Joseph's Forgiveness: A Longing to Dwell Together 22:07

Let's look at verses 9 through 15. So hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph. God has made me Lord of all Egypt, so come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds, all that you have.

And there I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty, for there are still five years of famine left. And behold, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it's my mouth that speaks to you. So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and that what you have seen, and you shall hurry, and you shall bring my father down.

Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him. They had a lot to catch up on, I imagine. You know, as you look to where I put this morning, one of the things that stands out in these last verses is the scope of Joseph's forgiveness.

You know, it's not as if Joseph said, all right, gosh, I know I'm supposed to forgive you, so I do, but now just stay out of my sight. You ever done this as a parent? I forgive you, but I can't look at you right now, right? Have you had anyone say it to you?

I forgive it, but I just need some, I need time. What kind of forgiveness is that? That's forgiveness that's also punishment. It says, I forgive you, but I don't want to see you and we can't talk, you can't be near me, at least for a bit here, right?

Well, what we see here is not a forgiveness that he just kind of does, all right, I forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive, on your way now, take your stuff, you know, or even if he didn't just send him north, he could have sent him out, you'll be on the fringes somewhere down by the Nile, you know, we'll see each other from time to time.

I'll pass by on the boat and wave. He doesn't do anything like that. It's not just this forgiveness that is still at arm's length. You and I are really good at giving forgiveness at arm's length.

We're really good at that. In Christendom, there's no forgiveness that comes with a bigger smile and yet a bigger stiff arm than sometimes the forgiveness that we give to one another. We say, I forgive you, and yet our actions don't necessarily demonstrate that. With that said, look at the scope of this.

He says, not only do I forgive you, not only are we reconciled and the like, but I want you to be where I am. I want you to dwell with me. In fact, here's this great spot, the land of Goshen. You're going to love it.

You're going to love it and everything you need. Everything you need. I'm your guy. I'll provide for you.

We'll hang out. It's going to be great. And they continued to talk here. The scope of his forgiveness was not just forgiveness so that he could stamp his heavenly passport and say, I did it.

God, I forgave him. I got that checkmark done.

The Gospel Picture: God Who Forgives and Dwells With His People 24:38

No, he desperately wanted to be with them thereafter. and this in closing, this is a picture of the gospel. The God who we've sinned against, the God who we've transgressed against, the God who gave us these 10 commandments that we've managed to break in a myriad of different ways, not a day goes by, almost not a breath goes by, that we're not sinning, this God who we've sinned against so often and so egregiously and will still sin against tomorrow, this God not only wants to forgive you, but He wants to dwell with you.

He wants to be with you, just as Joseph wanted to be with his brothers. It wasn't enough to forgive and send them packing. Imagine if that's the way it worked. You get to heaven and God says, all right, hey, hey, that's close enough.

I forgive you. Here's your room key. You're going to be down at the end of the property, right? It's not like we become peons in the heavenly kingdom upon arrival there, but rather, who are we?

We're sons and daughters. We're welcomed into His very throne room. The place the angels fear to tread, we can now go boldly, as Hebrews says. We can approach the throne and the one who sits there.

Think of how majestic that is given who we are and who he is. But that's the picture. God regularly wanted to be with His people. He didn't just go sit on Mount Olympus somewhere.

But Jesus, when He came to earth, He dwelt with broken, sinful people. Wretches like you and I. Even when Israel was behaving so badly and sinning so terribly, God says, you are My people and I will be your God. And I will dwell in your midst in a tabernacle, a tent of all things.

And then at the temple thereafter. But I'm going to be with you. I'll be with you. Even though you've done all this.

This is what Joseph's saying. We're going to be together forever. We'll never have the fracture that we've had. Forgiveness has come.

Sanctification has occurred, and now we're always going to be as one, as a family. Christian, this morning, this is the promise of the gospel to you and I. You and I are the brothers in this equation. We are those who have done wrongly in times past. We have done all manner of things wrong.

And yet God not only says, come here, come here, come here. Brings us close, but he says, now, I want you to know something. I not only forgive you, but I want to dwell with you forever.

The Thief on the Cross: With Me in Paradise 26:47

When the thief on the cross, the two thieves, you remember there was two of them. They both initially were mocking Jesus. And then the thief, the thief to Jesus' right, something happened in his heart. Something happened in his heart was changed.

And he was enabled and persuaded to look at the man on the middle cross and see something in Him that he didn't previously see. And he looks at him, he recognizes, you are the Christ. Truly, this one is the Son of God. And so he asks him one question.

He says, Lord, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Remember me, the thief. Remember me, the person that no one else will remember. Remember me, the guy that my own society can't wait to be rid of to the point that they've nailed me to this here cross.

Remember me when You go into Your kingdom. What does Scripture say Jesus did? He says, truly, truly, this day you'll be with Me in paradise. Not just you'll be in paradise, which would have been amazing enough for that guy.

But this day you'll be with Me in paradise. You know what makes heaven heavenly? God is there. And in due time, we'll be invited into His kingdom as those who have been blood-bought, born again, sons and daughters of the Most High God, and we shall never be cast out.

In due time, all the hardships, all the scars will dissipate from memory. All the tears will be wiped away. And we will dwell in that heavenly, glorious, wonderful, forgiven estate on into eternity. Let's pray.