Genesis 45.5-8-Joseph's Undeserved Suffering and God's Plan
Wednesday February 27, 2007
Genesis: Genesis 45:5-8-Joseph’s Undeserved Suffering and God’s Plan
Lesson # 288
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 45:1.
On Thursday evening we read Genesis 45:1-4, which records Joseph revealing his true identity to his brothers after hearing Judah offer himself as a substitute for Benjamin so that his father would not have to suffer the loss of another child.
On Tuesday we noted Genesis 4:5-8 and in particular we noted the “magnanimity” of Joseph towards his brothers.
This evening we will study this same passage, where we will see Joseph reassuring his brothers that he will not exact revenge upon them but rather reveals to them that their cruel treatment of him fourteen years before was a part of God’s plan to deliver their family from starvation and the corrupt Canaanite influence.
Genesis 45:1, “Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, ‘Have everyone go out from me.’ So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.”
Genesis 45:2, “He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it.”
Genesis 45:3, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.”
Genesis 45:4, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come closer to me.’ And they came closer. And he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.’”
Genesis 45:5, “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
“Now” is composed of the conjunction we (w+) (waw) and the adverb `attah (hT*u^) (at-taw), which together are used in an emphatic sense meaning, “in fact.”
The adverb `attah is frequently used in Scripture in order to introduce a new development or episode.
In Genesis 45:5, this adverb along with the conjunction we introduces in an emphatic way Joseph assuring his brothers that he had no plans for revenge and that their actions against him in the past were a part of God’s plan to deliver their family from starvation and the corrupt Canaanite influence.
Joseph’s two prohibitions “do not be grieved or angry with yourselves” means that both he and God have forgiven them for selling him into slavery twenty two years before.
He does not want them to be consumed with sorrow because they sold him into slavery nor angry with themselves for doing this since both he and God have forgiven them.
“God” is the noun Elohim, which emphasizes the sovereignty of God over Joseph and his family as well as the providence of God in that their lives were not ruled by chance or fate but by God.
The noun Elohim, “God” also emphasizes that God is omnipotent and is able to bring to pass that which He has determined to take place, which was to deliver Joseph’s family, the Egyptians and the entire world from starvation.
“Sent” is the verb shalach (jl^v*) (shaw-lakh), which refers to “persons who are sent by other persons such as the action of sending messengers.”
Therefore, Joseph is saying to his brothers that he was a messenger of God sent by God to deliver his family from the coming famine.
The causal clause “because you sold me here” refers to the actions of Joseph’s brothers twenty two years before when they sold him to the Midianites/Ishmaelites who in turn sold him to Potiphar in Egypt and gives the reason why Joseph’s brothers might become sorrowful or angry with themselves.
Notice that Joseph does not minimize or overlook their sin, nor does he belabor what they did to him since they have acknowledged their sin against him and have demonstrated that they have repented from their actions in that they have confessed their sin to God and have proceeded to be obedient to God by loving each other.
The causal clause “for God sent me before you to preserve life” gives Joseph’s brothers the reason why they should not get angry with themselves or sorrowful for selling him into slavery years before.
The statement “God sent me before you to preserve life” means that it was a part of God’s will that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers in Egypt in order that Joseph might be the instrument God would use to deliver not only his family from famine but also the Egyptians and the inhabitants of the entire world.
The phrase “God sent me” appears in Genesis 45:5, 7 and 8 and the word “God” appears in Genesis 45:5, 7, 8 and 9 emphasizing the sovereignty of God over Joseph and his family and the divine decree.
The statement “God sent me before you to preserve life” means that the sale of Joseph into slavery in Egypt by his brothers was figured by God into His plan from eternity past, which is called “the divine decree.”
Knowing this, gave Joseph the capacity to forgive his brothers.
God had figured into the divine decree so as to fulfill His sovereign will and thus to bring glory to Himself not only the resentment of Joseph’s brothers towards him but also their selling him into slavery and Joseph ending upon in Egypt.
The divine decree is the eternal plan by which God has rendered certain all the events of the universe, including both angelic and human history-past, present and future and so therefore, God rendered certain to take place that Joseph’s brothers would sell him into slavery in Egypt and it was thus a part of God’s plan.
God’s decree rendered all things as certain to occur and He decided that they would exist and so therefore, God sent Joseph to Egypt in the sense that God rendered certain to occur that Joseph’s brothers would sell him into slavery in Egypt and God decided that these things would exist.
The divine decree took place in eternity past before anything was ever created and is God’s eternal and immutable will.
Therefore, God sent Joseph to Egypt in the sense that it was a part of God’s plan from eternity past that Joseph would be sold into slavery by his brothers.
The “providence” of God is the divine outworking of the divine decree, the object being the final manifestation of God’s glory and expresses the fact that the world and our lives are not ruled by chance or fate but by God.
Therefore, the fact that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in Egypt did not happen by chance or fate but because God ordained for it to take place in order to fulfill His plan for Jacob’s family and to bring glory to Himself.
The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all God’s works and so God sent Joseph to Egypt in the sense that it was a part of God’s chosen and adopted plan that Joseph’s brothers would sell him into slavery in Egypt.
The decree of God is His eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatever comes to pass.
Therefore, God sent Joseph to Egypt in the sense that it was part of God’s eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will for His own glory that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery so that he might be the instrument God would use to deliver his family from famine as well as the entire world.
The decree of God is the sovereign choice of the divine will (His sovereignty) and mentality (His omniscience) by which all things are brought into being and controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and producing His glorification.
Therefore, the fact that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers was the result of God’s sovereign will and omniscience by which this event was brought into being and was controlled and made subject to God’s pleasure and glorified Him.
The “decree of God” is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, courses, conditions, successions, and relations and determining their certain futurition (i.e., that they will certainly take place).
When I say “comprehending” I mean that the omniscience of God is the source of the divine decrees by “determining” I mean that the sovereignty of God chose before anything existed which things would actually become historical events.
Therefore, the omniscience of God comprehended at once in eternity past that Joseph’s brothers would resent him and sell him into slavery and that Joseph would end up in Egypt.
God also comprehended at once in eternity past the course that these events would take and their conditions and relations and determined that these events would take place.
Therefore, God sent Joseph to Egypt in the sense that the selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt by his brothers was sovereignly determined by God to take place and was known by God in eternity past before anything was created.
The decree of God is His eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events, which will happen in time and regarding the precise order and manner of their occurrence.
Therefore, it was God’s eternal and immutable will that Joseph’s brothers would resent him and sell him into slavery and that he would end up in Egypt and God decreed that these events would take place in time and the precise order of events leading up to these events and the manner in which these events would transpire.
The will of God in common usage refers to what God desires of an individual or group in a particular situation and in relation to the divine decree refers to the decision God made in eternity past, from His attribute of sovereignty, which established that certain things would actually come into being while other things would not.
The will of God is His sovereign choice as to what will take place in time.
God sent Joseph to Egypt in the sense that God from His sovereignty decided in eternity past that Joseph would be resented by his brothers and sold into slavery by them and end up in Egypt and He decided that these events would take place in the exact time that they did.
God in eternity past decreed that angels and human beings would have volition and would be allowed to make decisions contrary to His sovereign will and without compromising His justice.
In giving angels and men volition, God decreed that their decisions, whatever they might be, would certainly take place-even those that are contrary to His desires.
Therefore, God decreed that the decisions of Joseph’s brothers, Joseph and Jacob himself would all take place in time and even those by Joseph’s brothers, which were contrary to His desires.
Being omniscient, God had the good sense to know ahead of time what men and angels would decide, and He not only decreed that those decisions would exist but He also decreed the exact manner, consistent with His integrity, in which He would handle our decisions.
Since God is omniscient He knew ahead of time the decisions that Joseph’s brothers would make and decreed that those decisions would exist and He also decreed the exact manner in which He would handle their decisions.
Therefore, the statement “God has sent me before you to preserve life” means that Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and his ending up in Egypt was a part of God’s sovereign will that is based upon His omniscient knowledge of all the facts concerning what will take place in the future.
The Lord knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible and thus has all knowledge of every event in human and angelic history.
Therefore, the Lord looked down the corridors of time and decreed to take place Joseph’s brothers resenting him and selling him into slavery and that Joseph would end up in Egypt.
The statement “God has sent me before you to preserve life” implies that the selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt by his brothers was figured into the divine decree and was a part of the providence of God, which is the outworking of the divine decree, the object being the final manifestation of God’s glory.
God used the sale of Joseph into slavery in Egypt to deliver not only the Egyptians but also Joseph’s family and the entire world from starvation.
If Joseph doesn’t get sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, he never ends up with Potiphar and if he never ends up with Potiphar in Egypt, then he would never have met Pharaoh’s cupbearer.
If Joseph does not meet Pharaoh’s cupbearer, then he never meets Pharaoh and if he never meets Pharaoh, then Joseph will never be able to interpret the dreams God gave Pharaoh, which predicted the impending seven year famine.
If he does not interpret these dreams of Pharaoh, then he will not be able to give Pharaoh the contingency plan to deal with this impending disaster and if so, then Pharaoh would have no one in his kingdom to administrate the nation of Egypt during the seven years of plenty and famine.
If Joseph does not administrate the nation of Egypt during the seven years of plenty and famine, then the nation of Egypt would be destroyed by the famine and if so, Joseph’s family would have died of starvation since they came to Egypt to buy food to deal with the famine in Canaan.
If Joseph’s family dies of starvation, then the nation of Israel dies in its infancy and if so, then the Savior cannot come into the world and then there would be no salvation for man and no fulfillment of the four unconditional covenants to Israel (Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New) and thus making God unfaithful.
We can look at the selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt by his brothers in relation to the will of God from even another perspective.
The selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt by his brothers is another example of the function of the “permissive,” “directive” and “overruling” will of God.
The “directive” will of God refers to what God directly requires of an individual, His “permissive” will refers to Him “permitting” His creatures to act contrary to what He desires and His “overruling” will refers to the fact that at times God “overrules” the bad decisions of His creatures in order to perpetuate His plan.
The “directive” will of God prohibited Joseph’s brothers from attempting to murder him and sell him into slavery however God “permitted” their decisions to take place that were contrary to His “directive” will.
God also “overruled” their bad decisions in that He caused Pharaoh to promote Joseph as prime minister of Egypt in order to deliver not only Egypt from famine but also Joseph’s family and the entire world.
Genesis 45:5, “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
Genesis 45:6, “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.”
The statement in Genesis 45:6 indicates that there would be five more years of famine since God told Pharaoh in his dreams that there would be seven years of famine according to Joseph’s interpretation (See Genesis 41).
The expression “neither plowing nor harvesting” is a figure of speech called “merism” which is an expression of totality through the combinations of opposites and so Joseph is referring to the agricultural activities in Egypt in the sense that there will be no effective plowing, which would produce a yield.
Genesis 45:7, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”
“Remnant” is the noun she’erith (tyr!a@v+) (sheh-ay-reeth), which denotes descendants who have survived a great catastrophe.
This word signifies that the nation of Israel in its infancy narrowly escaped complete destruction because it is a part of God’s plan to bring in the Greatest Deliverer, the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Great” refers to the fact that this deliverance of Joseph’s family and the Egyptians and the entire world from famine was “supernatural” in the sense that God was responsible for it.
“Deliverance” is the noun peletah (hf*yl@P+) (pel-ay-taw), which literally means, “survivor” and is a technical term along with “remnants” for the descendants of the patriarchs who survive great catastrophes of their collective pilgrimage (See Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis, A Commentary, page 564, Zondervan).
The statement in Genesis 45:7 implies that like Noah whom God used as His agent to deliver his family from a worldwide flood, so Joseph was used by God as His agent to deliver not only Joseph’s family and the Egyptians but also the entire world.
Genesis 45:8, “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”
Joseph makes clear to his brothers that God has given him his power and authority in Egypt.
The statement “He (God) has made me a father to Pharaoh” means that God has chosen Joseph to be Pharaoh’s chief advisor in that just as a father instructs his son so Joseph instructed Pharaoh.
The statement “He (God) has made me a father to Pharaoh” is synonymous to the statement “when he (Joseph) stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt” which appears in Genesis 41:46, which refers to the fact that Joseph possessed the honor of being on intimate terms with Pharaoh and having his confidence.
The statement “it was not you who sent me here (Egypt) but God” is an attempt by Joseph to alleviate the guilt and shame of his brothers for selling him into slavery by placing their crime against the broader picture of God’s sovereignty.
God overruled their bad decision in order to preserve his plan for the nation of Israel and to bring in the Savior of the world.
This is the third time that Joseph has referred to the fact that the crime his brothers committed against him was figured into the divine decree and was thus a part of God’s plan for him in that God would use Joseph to deliver the entire world from famine and not only his family.
H.C. Leupold gives this excellent comment, he writes, “Here Joseph shows himself particularly wise in ministering to the souls of his brethren. If their sorrow does not learn to reckon with God, His mercy and His mighty providence, it will remain a mere earthly sorrow, which serves no particular purpose. To see God’s purpose and judge from His point of view, that throws clear light on everything” (Exposition of Genesis volume 2, page 1094, Baker Book House).
The expression “lord of all his (Pharaoh’s) household” is a reference to Pharaoh’s statement “you shall be over my house” in Genesis 41:40, which means that Joseph was given control over Pharaoh’s entire household including all of his advisors.
The expression “ruler over all the land of Egypt” is a reference to Pharaoh’s statement “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt” in Genesis 41:40, which means that Pharaoh conferred upon Joseph total authority in the task of administrating the nation of Egypt and would only be under Pharaoh’s authority.