So that's Genesis chapter 45,
and we'll read from verse one. Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause
every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept
aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And
Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet
live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said
unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came
near. And he said, I am Joseph your
brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath
the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years,
in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. and God
sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth,
and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not
you that sent me hither, but God, and he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father,
and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made
me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not,
and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be
near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children,
and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast, and there
will I nourish thee. For yet there are five years
of famine, lest thou and thy household, and all that thou
hast, come to poverty. And behold, your eyes see, and
the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh
unto you. And ye shall tell my father of
all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and ye
shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon
his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon
his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren
and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with
him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Perhaps some of you were wondering
how long it was going to take Joseph before he revealed his
identity to his brothers. How long was Joseph going to
persist with this scheme to test his brother's feelings towards
Benjamin? And even now, in the verses that
we have read, it seems that Joseph has overcome more with the emotion
at Judah's expressions than that he had necessarily planned his
intention to disclose his true identity at this time. He couldn't
keep the pretense up any longer. and yet his purpose surely had
been fulfilled. Judah's plea for Benjamin's liberty
and his own detention in his place as surety showed Joseph
that the brothers held no malice against Joseph's younger brother. The revelation of Joseph's true
identity must have come as a shock to these men. And Joseph, he
almost swamps them with the many evidences that he gives them
of who he is. He gives them his name. He gives
them that in Hebrew language. He speaks to them in their own
tongue. He speaks of his affection and concern for his father's
well-being, knowledge of their actions and even their guilty
feelings. He speaks with familiarity about
the Lord God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He speaks and freely
tells them of the understanding that he has of the way that God
has dealt with him. But the surprise of Joseph's
brothers seems to give way to a sense of dread and a sense
of fear. They realised that Joseph now
had it in his power to take revenge upon them and to dispense upon
them a form of justice, whatever he wanted, and thereby to punish
them. But of course that wasn't Joseph's
purpose. He had a love and an affection
for his brethren and Joseph could not hide that and he quickly
reassures his brothers. He tells them that his perspective
on this whole affair is that God had been dealing with him
in order to preserve the whole of the family. And Joseph here
reveals his spiritual understanding of what it was that had happened. And it seems as if Joseph would
have us to understand three important things here in this little passage. God had done this. He said to
his brothers, don't be afraid. God did this. And God did it
with a view to saving and preserving all of us. There were yet five
more years of famine to come. and Jacob and his sons might
well have been ruined and starving, perhaps even dead, had not this
most unexpected deliverance been supplied to them. The Lord had
promised, had he not, to look after Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. That was part of the covenant
promises. And Jacob had had that word many
years ago, that God would feed him and clothe him and bless
him. There had been lots of trials,
there had been lots of problems in Jacob's life, but God had
been faithful to his words. And that was the lesson that
here Joseph was teaching to the brothers, that here was the greatest
deliverance of all. God always keeps his promises. The second thing is this, that
this must also have been seen as preserving the covenant seed. Because remember, Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, they understood that that promise that God had
given wasn't just for their immediate family and their immediate lifetime,
but extended into the future and that there were spiritual
promises included in the physical promises as well. And so we see
that spiritual dimension as well in Joseph's words. Joseph understood
he had confidence in God's covenant promise. It was not only the
brother's survival but it was their posterity as well. They would live and prosper and
from that their children and their children's children and
their children's children's children From that line would come the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so the spiritual promises
to Abraham would also be preserved. The hand of God was at work in
all of these things, working together for the good and the
safety and the glory of the people that he loved and that he had
committed into the care of their Redeemer and their Lord. So let us remember not only that
God keeps his promises, but let us remember this covenant promise. It wasn't a hidden thing. This wasn't a hidden secret,
it had been revealed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
Joseph all knew that God had a gracious plan and they believed
it. God's greatest promise of all
is salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the third thing,
Joseph saw that the hand of God was behind all of these providences
and he interpreted the involvement of his brothers as instruments
to achieve God's purpose. When his brothers were frightened,
when his brothers were anxious, when his brothers thought, oh
no, the terrible things that we've done to Joseph, he's bound
to want to take vengeance upon us. Joseph reassured them that
he had another way of looking at this. It's true, they were
guilty. of terrible wickedness in the
things that they had done to Joseph. And yet, God had overruled. And that overruling had softened
Joseph's attitude towards his brothers. He wasn't angry with
them. That anger that he might have
had, that desire for revenge that he might have had, was no
longer there because he understood God's overarching control and
purpose in these things. And that's a good lesson for
you and for me today. Sometimes in life, someone will
hurt us. And we might desire to get back
at them, to get revenge. And certainly if we can't get
revenge, we find it hard to forgive them. but let us remember this
fact too. Without God being in any way
the author or initiator of sin, without God being complicit in
sin, without God being in agreement with sin, God nevertheless uses
the evil deeds of men and women to bring about good ends, good
objectives, and his purpose of glory. He uses the wicked acts
of evil people to bring to pass the blessings of his people,
the people that he loves and the people that he protects.
And if we are the Lord's people, we're never outside of his protection,
even when bad things and difficult things and trials happen to us. Every trial and tribulation will
ultimately appear for our greater good. And this is the God that
Joseph served. This is the God that he worshipped.
And this is our God too. And he is worthy of our faith.
He is worthy of our love. And he is worthy to be worshipped
by us. Joseph certainly suffered much
in the years that he was in Egypt, before his promotion into this
position of Lord and Governor, and as he calls it, Father to
Pharaoh. He suffered much, he was many
years in prison. He was maligned, he was accused,
he was beaten, he was forgotten. He suffered a lot. But by his
suffering, his whole family was saved. Our Lord Jesus Christ
suffered at the hands of wicked men and by his sufferings, his
whole family has been saved as well. So that even the wrath
of man praises the Lord. The wrath of man is only allowed
to go so far and to transgress no further. Certainly that is
true against God's little ones. Isaiah tells us that Jesus bore
our griefs and carried our sorrows and with his stripes we are healed. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.