Trust God to Work All This for Good

The Story Doesn’t End Here, Part I
(Genesis 42, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, August 23, 2015)

After the seven years of plenty, the seven years of famine have begun.  The famine is not only in Egypt, but in Canaan, and thus Jacob and his sons are struggling to survive.  It has now been twenty years since Jacob lost Joseph.  Jacob believes Joseph is dead.  Little does he know that God is about to use this famine to reunite him to his lost son.  And God is going to use his lost son to save him and his entire family from perishing in the famine.  Seeking how to avoid starvation, Jacob sends his sons to Egypt where he hears there is food.  Yet Benjamin he will not permit to go with them, for Jacob will not risk losing his other most loved son.

When Joseph’s brothers arrive in Egypt to buy grain, they bow down before him.  He recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him.  Joseph remembers the dreams in which his brothers bowed down to him.  God had given him those dreams over twenty years ago.  I wonder if he ever thought about those dreams during his thirteen years of enslavement and imprisonment.  Whether or not Joseph had forgotten, God had not forgotten.  God had been working out his plans all along.  He would continue to do so.  Now what do we make of Joseph’s rough treatment of his unsuspecting brothers?  What is he up to in requiring them to bring Benjamin to Egypt?  The text does not tell us.  Is he trying to get revenge?  Joseph’s tears in verse 24 and the words he will later say to his brothers when he reveals himself (45:4-8) indicate that this isn’t what is going on.  Is he testing whether they have changed since cruelly selling him into slavery twenty years ago?  In the next couple chapters, it would appear that this is likely Joseph’s intent.  Whatever Joseph has up his sleeve, we know God is using all this for his own purposes.  We will indeed witness some amazing changes in the brothers in the next two chapters.  For now, what we see are men bearing around considerable guilt over their past wrongs done to their brother.  After all these years, when things seem to be going ill for them in their journey for grain, they immediately assume God is getting them back for their sins.  They do not know that it is Joseph standing before them and that they will all be reconciled in time.  God’s amazing story of grace has not come to an end.

When the brothers report what has happened to their father, he is crushed in spirit.  He believes he has now lost Simeon and he is unwilling to part with Benjamin.  Of course, unless he relinquishes his hold on Benjamin, he will indeed never see Simeon again.  In fact, the whole family will perish.  If Joseph’s older brothers have been consumed these twenty years with guilt over their sin, Jacob has been consumed by his loss and the fear of losing once again.  And yet the story isn’t over yet for any of them.  The brothers’ guilt is not the end of the story.  Neither is Jacob’s loss.  Joseph’s God-given dreams are coming true and God is doing something more glorious than any of them could ever have asked or imagined.  Relationships will be reconciled, the lost will be found, Joseph’s selfish brothers will reach new heights of self-giving love, many lives will be spared from starvation, Jacob will become a great nation in Egypt, and still the story will continue for Israel with much suffering and setback until God’s final happy ending.  Have you done wrong?  Confess it and repent.  Have you suffered loss?  Mourn.  But there is no need to live like your sin or your grief is the last word in your life.  Look to God.  Look to his Son for whom the cross did not end the story.  If you belong to Christ, then his resurrection victory belongs to you.

Put the Word to Work: Are you holding onto your sins, wounds, or fears rather than giving them over to God?  God wants to set you free.  Trust him.  Trust him to work out his story of grace in your life. 

Memory Verse from the Psalms of Ascents: Psalm 132:15 – I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 24:36-51 – The faithful and wise servant