May 17, 2010 (Genesis 41-50)

Chapter 41 begins with Joseph being brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream, because Pharaoh had heard that he could do this. Joseph was quick to give God the glory for this ability:

^41:16 “It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.”

After the intrepretation, it was known that a great famine was coming to the land and that the wisest man in Egypt needed to be put in charge of the program to ration food. Here was Pharaoh's response:

^41:38 "...Pharaoh said, “Who could do it better than Joseph? For he is a man who is obviously filled with the spirit of God."

Even Pharaoh recognized that someone filled with God's Spirit was a wise person. All the more important for us to be filled with God's Spirit.

The remainder of Genesis tells the story of the great famine in Egypt and the story of Joseph's brothers discovering that he was in fact alive. They had sold him into slavery and just assumed that he was killed somewhere along the way. And their guilty consciences never left them. When things started going bad for them, they immediatly remembered their guilt:

^42:21 Speaking among themselves, they said, “Clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn’t listen. That’s why we’re in this trouble.”

And then Joseph's wisdom shines through, as he recognizes that the awful thing that happened to him was all part of God's plan to save His people. He wasn't bitter - he just submitted himself to God and allowed God to do with his life what was best, even if it meant being imprisioned unjustly.

^45:5 But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.

When Joseph's father blessed him, here was his blessing:

^48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my grandfather Abraham
and my father, Isaac, walked—
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life, to this very day,
¹⁶ the Angel who has redeemed me from all harm—
may he bless these boys.
May they preserve my name
and the names of Abraham and Isaac.
And may their descendants multiply greatly
throughout the earth.”

I especially liked the bolded parts...

And finally, after Jacob (Joseph's father) died, his brothers still were governed by their guilty consciences. They figured now that their father was dead, Joseph would get retribution, so they lied to him and told him this:

^50:16 So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us ¹⁷ to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. ¹⁸ Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.

And here was Joseph's response:

¹⁹ But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. ²¹ No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.