God Overrides Evil w/ Good

Intro

Final Act, Scene 3 of Joseph’s life…been building towards a climx

Seen: Joseph sold, rise and fall in Potiphar’s house, rise and fall in prison, left off with Joseph before Pharaoh

Tonight..the brothers come back onto the scene

The last time he saw them was when they were staring down at him over top of the pit!

And what we’re gonna see tonight is the reverse of that…where Joseph now stands over them

Now, 20 years have passed since Joseph has seen his brothers…in fact, he knows nothing!

Are they all still alive? Is his dad alive? What about Benjamin? Do they have food if they are alive?

But as we read here in , we know they are, even though Joseph does not at this point.....let’s read it

Jacob/Israel finds out that Egypt has grain/food for sale....

Why do they have food? And why do they have enough food that they can sell it to outsiders?

So there is food for sale, and Jacob looks at his sons like, “Why are you still standing here? Go get food so we don’t die!”

The famine has been going on for two years!

But notice what Jacob does here, he doesn’t send Rachel’s other son, Benjamin....so that nothing bad would happen to him....obviously he still remembered the pain of losing Joseph…and I think, still showing some signs of favoritism

Which…it’s not a far stretch to think that the brothers who worked so hard to rid themselves of Joseph, the favorite, returned home and in a short while realized that Jacob had another favorite, Benjamin!

So the ten other brothers saddle up and travel to Egypt to buy food from them

And they come, and they bow down before him....that reminds me of something......oh that’s right…Joseph’s dream!

Remember it? Sheaves of grain would bow down before his sheave. And sure enough, Joseph was sitting on a stockpile of what? Grain. And the brothers were bowing down in search of what? Grain!

FYI…in case you don’t believe it, God’s awesome, and hilarious.

And this is an important part of God’s plan that we need to point out, and we’ve talked about it before....but we see God using circumstances, in this case, a famine, to do what? To bring about His purposes

Read verses 7-8

So as they arrive…Joseph recognizes his brothers, he thinks, even after 20 years, but they don’t recognize him, because he’s dressed like an egyptian.

And what does Joseph do? He treats them like strangers, speaks harshly to them.

And when they responded that they were from Canaan, Joseph then knew for sure that they were his brothers

But let’s not move too quickly past this point.....

Your Joseph at this point. How you feeling? Huh? Be honest…what’s going through your head?

Like, I watched my grandma’s sisters go through a period where they were so upset with her because she put her mom in retirement care, and used some inheritance money to do so! They thought she should just live with her!

We see families get angry and upset with each other over some of the stupidest stuff!

But, if you’re sold into slavery by the very brothers who are bowing before you....what do you do?

Revenge or mercy?

Well, we’ll see Joseph’s response in a minute. But the story continues on that Joseph puts his brothers through a series of tests to see if they had changed:

He tells them they will not be allowed to leave until their youngest brother comes, whom they had mentioned

They were to send one of them home to get Benjamin

He then puts them in prison for 3 days, to think about it

Then changes it a bit, and says, okay, one of you stay here, and the rest of you go return home to get your brother

So Simeon stays in Egypt, and they head home to get Benjamin.

They tell Jacob everything that happened, and initially, Jacob refuses to send Benjamin

But then the grain Joseph sent them back with is gone, and things are desperate, and he finally agrees to send Benjamin

So Joseph sees Benjamin, he’s super emotional, they eat a meal together,

And Joseph has one final test for them, to see if they’ve really changed/repented of their sinfulness

Joseph fills their sacks with food, till they’re bursting, and then put their money back into the top of the sacks

But then, he puts his silver cup into Benjamin’s sack

And the next morning, all the brothers, including Simeon are on their way back home

And some of Joseph’s servants chase after them, accuse them of stealing, to which the brother’s say they obviously hadn’t stolen anything, and even say “Whoever is found with anything stolen you can kill, and the rest of us will be your servants”

To which the servant replies, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent”

And sure enough, they find the silver cup in who’s bag? Benjamins. So they all return to Egypt, mourning over what is going to happen

And the brother’s bow before Joseph, Joseph asks how they could do such a thing, and Judah replies, “we will be your servants, all of us”

And this is where Joseph sees a change of heart....for Judah, the same Judah who came up with the plan to sell Joseph to the slave traders, comes up to Joseph and offers himself in the place of Benjamin

Do you see that? A complete reverse!!!!

And we see a picture of what Judah’s eventual descendent was going to do for all of us who were declared guilty as well, don’t we?

Jesus --- offering Himself in our place on the cross

Well, as the story continues, Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, which you can read about in , invites his family down from Canaan to live in Egypt, thus preserving the family line

Because remember, the famine was to continue for another 5 years!

And again, we see God working through individuals, through sin, to bring about His purposes, and to remain faithful to His promises.

And so Jacob packs up everyone, all 70 people and they move to Egypt

And tells us that God blessed them greatly, and the family line grew and grew and grew

And for 17 years, Jacob lived there with his family, and then he died

But before he died, he delivered a prophecy about each of his sons, all 12 of them

But listen to what he says about Judah:

“ 8  “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. 9  Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? 10  The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

or

“until He whose right it is comes” as HCSB puts it

Wait, why not Joseph? He suffered the most, why shouldn’t Christ come from Him?

Short answer: Because God said so

But seriously, understand that God works in ways and through those He chooses to do so. It’s not based on merit or works

Again, salvation and His plan of redemption is totally dependent on God!

And so the story comes to a close with this

Joseph’s brothers after the death of their father thought that now Joseph would seek revenge on them and repay them for all the evil they had done to him

Remember....how some of us said we’d respond that way?

But listen to what Joseph says, in verses 19-20:

“19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. “

This is where we get the famous line: “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”

And we see here another clear picture of Jesus Christ

We’re reminded that God’s plan of redemption involved using what man meant for evil, for the ultimate good of our own salvation

What man meant for evil in the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, His Son

God meant for good in the climax of His redemptive plan

Closing

As we’ve seen through the story of Joseph, God is in control.

And there is nothing that happens on earth, hear me here, NOTHING, that happens that God won’t use for ultimate good

Everything he allowed to happen in Joseph’s life, we can see why it did

So that His promises would continue and ultimately Christ could come.

See, we have hindsight on our side…we can look back

But in our own lives, not always so easy is it?

Not always so easy to understand

But that’s where faith comes in

Faith that God will do what He said He will do

Faith that He is with us

Faith that He will never leave us or forsake us

Guys....just trust Him

Trust Him with your eternal life

Trust Him with your earthly life

Believe me....He’s got a better plan