But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I God?
You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from
it,
in order to save the lives of
many people, just as He’s doing today.”
Genesis 50:19, 20
(Common English Bible)
Joseph is a man
with a large life, a great soul. Never does he dip below God’s highest desires
for him. Always a man of considerable dignity, Joseph is humble in service, in
a prison or in a palace. His life unfolds as any life does, in circumstances
that are both tragic and blessed. His greatness is untarnished, even after
years of unjust imprisonment. And in the national crisis that shakes Egypt and
brings alarm to the people – a famine of biblical proportions – Joseph seizes
the situation with uncommon wisdom and saves the country. He shines in the
stiffest test of a great person, the management of prosperity. It is his
management here that emphasizes Joseph’s sterling quality and offers a glimpse
of the face of God.
Those qualities
that distinguished Joseph are tested at an early age. Joseph incurs the
jealously of his older brothers. Desiring that Joseph is removed from the
family forever, the brothers sell him into slavery. Now, because of the famine,
the older brothers stand before their younger brother once again, this time
within Joseph’s power. They come from desperation, cringing, hoping for
gracious treatment. Joseph is now on a world’s stage – at least throughout the
Egyptian empire. People are watching. More important, God is watching. Joseph’s
response to the brothers who once sold him as a slave would be the biggest test
of what he is made of. The brothers cared little for Joseph’s welfare when he
was young. Now the brother’s welfare was in Joseph’s hands.
Joseph answers
his brother’s plea, “Don’t be afraid. Am I God? You planned something bad for
me, but God produced something good from it, in order to save the lives of many
people, just as He’s doing today.” Only the greatest of women and men can
confess to those who have wronged them that the injury has turned out to an
advantage. Joseph rises to such a stature. Joseph’s response is suggestive of
two motives for such a grand and expansive heart; two things that help Joseph
to forgive.
First is that
Joseph is able to see that God is at work upon those who injured him. “Am I
God?” It is as though Joseph is saying that the work of retribution is none of
Joseph’s business. It is a dangerous position of heart for anyone to think they
are the instrument for God’s justice. There are matters to large for us to
assess, turns of the heart of which we are unaware. God always works beyond our
understanding in the hearts of others including the hearts of those who have
wronged us. Joseph understands this. More, Joseph sees that his brothers are
different, that they have changed from the early days when they sold their
younger brother as a slave.
Second,
forgiveness is made easy for Joseph because he has the clarity of insight to
see how God has handled the wrongs he had suffered. God has taken the evil
Joseph’s brother intended and turned it into a blessing for the nation of Egypt . The
cruelty Joseph endured did not loom large in his mind, thoughts of revenge occupying
his life. The wrong inflicted upon Joseph became the impetuous for a chain of
events that would result in his being named Prime Minister of Egypt. God worked
ceaselessly and mysteriously to savage the wrong and build a structure of a
mighty purpose for Joseph and for the world. Joseph’s clarity of God’s hand in
his life, his gratitude and worship of God, swept all bitterness clean out of
his life. Joseph’s disaster has given way to God’s victory. Such is the result
of wreckage that is placed into the giant grip of God.
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