Family Reunion Genesis 45:1-28

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Family, Christian

A popular book of a few years ago, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, extolled the “virtues” of independence and individuality at any price. The seagull is a popular subject for photography, and many people who vacation at the shore end up with some kind of souvenir bearing the picture of a seagull. It is easy to see why people like this figure. A seagull exults in freedom. When flying alone, he thrusts his wings back with powerful strokes, climbs higher and higher, and then swoops down in majestic loops and circles.

In a flock, though, the seagull is a different bird. His majesty dissolves into in-fights and cruelty. Concepts of sharing and manners do not seem to exist among gulls. They are so fiercely competitive and jealous that if you tie a ribbon around the leg of a gull, making him stand out from the rest, you sentence him to death. The others in his flock will furiously attack him with claws and beaks, hammering through feathers and flesh to draw blood. They’ll continue until he is a bloody heap.

-Joseph is God’s vessel for saving the family of Jacob.

I. God Reveals His Purpose vv. 1-8

When we pick up our story, Joseph has received the shock of a lifetime, his own brothers have arrived to buy grain from him in Egypt

A few episodes have happened, but now we are in a critical moment

Joseph is going to reveal himself to his brothers and they are all going to understand how God has been at work through this

We see God’s Guiding Hand vv. 1-4

Of all the people that the brothers could have encountered in Egypt, it is their own brother who stands before them with authority

Not only that, it is a brother that they have betrayed in the most heinous way possible

The brothers are dismayed because they don’t know what to think:

Joseph has the power to treat them with justice

God has delivered them into the hands of Joseph, but what will they find when they get there?

We see God’s Suffering Savior vv. 5-6

They find that Joseph is ready to show grace

In fact, Joseph understands something profound about God; it was not the brothers who sent Joseph to Egypt, but God

God was sending someone ahead of them, a Savior who would deliver the family from destruction

We see God’s Ultimate Plan vv. 7-9

God made a covenant with Abraham that has been passed on to Isaac and Jacob and his sons

However, the whole thing is endangered by this 7 year famine; Joseph is God’s vessel for keeping His covenant promises to Abraham

There is good news that we need to hear today:

God has sent a Savior on ahead of us

Jesus is standing in front of you with grace and mercy; no matter what you have done or where you have been, there is grace for you.

He wants to save you from your own brokenness!

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Salvation, Desire For

The well-known scientist and author Carl Sagan, in a PBS documentary titled “Chariots of the Gods,” commented on the new optimism that there is life elsewhere in the universe: “It’s nice to think that there is someone out there that can help us.”

Unfortunately, this remark implies that for Sagan there is no God, and so his hope of help from other beings is a blind hope, a hope that assumes that other beings exist and that their race will not be affected with the depravity that is so evident in all human endeavor. And that they would be interested in helping us.1166

II. God Rescues a Family vv. 9-24

Next, we see how Joseph is going to rescue his own family

They will experience provision and safety vv. 10-11

Joseph instructs them to go home and bring the whole family back to Egypt

Under his authority, they will have food and survive the famine; further, they will be under his protection

They are going to be united with him and share in his blessings

They are going to experience a new kind of unity vv. 12-15, 24

Joseph very specifically wants his father, Jacob to come to Egypt, because they are all going to be together again

He weeps over the brothers who betrayed him; He genuinely loves them and will have a relationship with them that never existed before

All of their lives together had been marked by jealousy, suspicion, and malice; now they will truly be one family

In fact, Joseph will say to them before they depart: “Do not quarrel along the way” because he has the authority to say it:

In light of all that God has done and all of the grace they have received, there’s no room for fighting

Recipients of great grace have every reason to live at peace with each other!

They are going to receive honor vv. 16-23

To say that Jacob’s family is a little checkered is an understatement: they fight, they deceive, they are strangers in the land God promised them, and they are herdsman who have come to a land of fields begging for bread

Now, however, they are going to be elevated:

It does not matter what they once were, they are Joseph’s brothers

On his behalf, Pharaoh promises them the best of the land

This is the promise that is before us in Christ

He is able to bring restoration to broken families

He is willing to bring us into a new kind of family, a family of the redeemed

Karl Stegall tells of two brothers who entered the first grade. One said he was born January 1, 1984. The other said he was born April 4, 1984. “That is impossible,” said the teacher. “No,” replied the first brother, “one of us is adopted.”

“Which one?” asked the teacher.

“I don’t know,” he replied. One day I asked my Dad and he kissed us both and said, I forgot.”

Christians can never forget that every one of us was adopted into the family of God. So Paul wrote to the Romans that we are “God’s very own children, adopted into the bosom of his family.”

III. God Resurrects Hope vv. 25-28

In v. 25, the scene shifts and the brothers are back together with Jacob in Canaan and they deliver stunning news: Joseph is alive!

This is the news that changes everything

In a very real way, Jacob receives his beloved son back from the dead

His heart is completely numb because this news is unbelievable

If Joseph is alive, there is no more reason for grief or despair; there is hope for Jacob again

This hope changes Jacob’s perspective v. 27

In v. 27, we read that Jacob’s spirit was revived

Jacob had spent decades grieving over the son that he lost, but now the pain of grief has been replaced with a longing for reunion

Jacob isn’t looking backwards anymore at what was, but towards what will be

This hope changes Jacob’s direction v. 28

At the end of the passage, Jacob has a decision to make: Will he stay or will he go?

His response is powerful: “I will go and see him before I die”

Jacob’s hope doesn’t just change his heart it changes his actions

Now is the time for you to respond; it is time to rise up and go to Jesus

It’s time to find your hope in His rescue from sin

It’s time to reunite with Him and to join with His people

It’s time to get on His mission!

300 Illustrations for Preachers Looking for Hope in the Lottery

When times are tough, people begin to look anywhere for relief. Apparently, many Americans are looking toward state lotteries. “Twenty-five of 42 states with lotteries have experienced higher sales of scratch-off and daily lottery games since July 2008, according to Scientific Games.” We are gambling millions of dollars on the hope that we can hit the jackpot and end our financial concerns.

While we may grasp at many solutions for help in times of need, we should remember that our only real hope is in the Lord.

It’s time to stop finding your hope in something and find it in someone!