Trust in the overruling providence of God (Gen 45:1-28)
Gen 45:1-23
Few narratives in the Old Testament have the same emotional appeal for modern readers as that of Joseph and his brothers. Although the story is well known, it can still move us as it explains a tragic, even evil event (the selling of Joseph into slavery) as part of God’s overruling providence. As human beings, we long for significance and want to know that what happens to us in life matters, that we are not just the objects of arbitrary incidents living without rhyme or reason. Occasionally, we see connections in the sequence of events, but from our perspective, happenings are mostly random threads without a discernible pattern. Yet, we want to think that our suffering or difficulties have meaning, nonetheless. I believe that our dissatisfaction with the idea that our life’s events have no significance is actually a sign or echo of the truth: we were created for a meaningful life.
Knowledge and ignorance
In his analysis of the Joseph story, Robert Alter highlights the motif of knowledge and ignorance, understanding and lack of awareness. This is particularly noticeable in Genesis 42 where Joseph recognises his brothers, understands their language (Hebrew), and makes the connection to his earlier dreams while the brothers are oblivious to Joseph’s identity.[1] However, in our reading, the meaning of all that has happened is revealed. Seeing his brothers’ genuine change of heart as is evident from Judah’s speech, Joseph can no longer control his emotions (Gen 45:1-2). There is no more need to maintain distance and keep his real self away from them, so Joseph finally reveals his identity (Gen 45:3). His question whether his father is still alive (v.3) may seem strange given the previous assurances (Gen 43:28) and Judah’s speech (Gen 44:30-31), but it may simply be the expression of Joseph’s anguish after the long years of separation from family.
God’s purposes
Joseph’s insight is astonishing in its generosity as he comforts his dismayed brothers by acknowledging God’s providence in his suffering (Gen 45:5-7). It is a specific example of what Paul describes as all things working together for the good of those who love God (Rom 8:28). However, not only has Joseph grown into a mature and wise human being through his experiences, but the evil perpetrated against him became God’s means of deliverance for the brothers who wanted to destroy him, as well as life for the known world. In this, Joseph’s story remarkably foreshadows Jesus’ who was likewise eliminated because of jealousy (Mk 15:10), yet His cross became the means of salvation for the very people who wanted to destroy him, as well as for the whole world.
True reconciliation
True reconciliation can now occur and Joseph’s instructions demonstrate that he wants to provide for his family by bringing them all down to Egypt and granting them land, which Pharaoh ratifies with his own authority (Gen 45:9-11, 17-20). Joseph’s emotional response to all his brothers and the way they can finally talk (Gen 45:15), something they could not bear to do some twenty-two years earlier (Gen 37:4), suggest the healing of family relationships. Joseph’s open-handedness in giving the brothers and his father generous gifts and provisions are a token of what they can expect in the future (Gen 45:21-23). Finally, Jacob receiving news that the son he thought long-dead is alive concludes this episode (Gen 45:26-28).
Trusting in the overruling providence of God
The reason why Joseph’s story is so satisfactory is precisely because we are allowed to see plainly what is mostly hidden from us in our experience: God’s purposes in the twists and turns of life. Nevertheless, this wonderful resolution to family conflict and the revelation of God’s greater purposes for good and for salvation are an affirmation that God knows what is happening to us and can overrule even in the direst circumstances. Like the characters in Joseph’s story who are mostly ignorant of what is really happening and only see the connections at the end, so we, too, may not understand in this life what the Lord is doing. Nevertheless, Joseph’s story teaches us to trust God’s character even when things are hard and life does not make sense, because He is faithful.
[1] Other aspects of ignorance and knowledge in the story include Jacob’s recognition of Joseph’s robe, but ignorance as to what really happened to him (Gen 37:32-33), Joseph’s uncertainty as to the change in the brothers (hence their testing), the brothers’ confusion of what is really happening to them through the strange events in Egypt, Joseph’s intimate knowledge of the brothers birth order (Gen 44:33) and his presumably gradual understanding of his destiny culminating in the revelation that it was God who sent him to Egypt (Gen 45:5). Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (Basic Books, 1981), 157-177.
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