January 19: Genesis 42:6-45:15

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012

Genesis 42:6–45:15

Today’s reading continues the account of Joseph’s reunion with his brothers during the great famine that Pharaoh’s dream had anticipated.  Through the brothers’ renewed interactions, we may draw out three beautiful themes that will persist throughout the Scriptures.

 

First, God’s providence and man’s faithfulness may coalesce to produce significant fruit.  Broadly speaking, God desires that His children exhibit the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22,23:  “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  We all wish to bring these qualities into our lives, but we quickly recognize that we are unable to produce the fruit on our own.  If we do generate anything, we find it to last but a short time.

 

In Joseph, we find someone whom God choose to serve his brothers and the people of the entire famine-affected world.  He would bring a partial fulfillment of those words from Genesis 12:1–3, whose ultimate realization will come through Christ:  “I will make you into a great nation,/ and I will bless you;/ I will make your name great,/ and you will be a blessing…. / And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

 

In the endeavor of blessing the nations, God has raised up His children to partner with Him, granting them talents, time, and energy to serve faithfully and to consequently bring glory to the great Provider of all.  Joseph’s path from Potiphar’s slave to jailed “criminal” to warden’s helper to dream interpreter to Pharaoh’s second-in-command comes directly from the heart of God.  Certainly, God willed Joseph through this path, but Joseph joined with God, applying those abilities God had provided and giving honor to Him through pointing to their source.

 

While I served as a missionary in Venezuela in 2001 and 2002, God shared a crucial lesson:  we may only give our faithfulness; the results lie in God’s hands.  We were seeking to reach out to college students with the great news that, in the Person of Jesus Christ, we may have complete forgiveness and restored fellowship with God.  Many students were quite receptive to the Gospel and began walking with him.  As with any young people, however, we encountered some flakiness.  Students would arrive 30 to 60 minutes late for planned get-togethers, and we often found ourselves with unexpected “free time.”  At the outset, I found myself taking this apparent rejection personally, but I soon realized that God would ultimately be honored primarily through my faithfulness to the work and my love for the students.  He would take care of the results.  (And, despite a challenging year with more than a few setbacks, He has multiplied this campus ministry throughout Venezuela, increasing the cities in focus from two to seven.)

 

As we understand from the Parable of the Talents, God does grant His children wisdom, intelligence, athletic talent, insights, wealth, loving hearts, well-tuned voices, and simply time.  When we partner with God, seeking His strength to apply these gifts, great fruit may result.  Yet, we are not mere passive observers in this combination of God’s providence and human faithfulness.  Rather, God implores us to invest our lives, to multiply or “earn interest” on those deposits He has given us.  Joseph embraces this calling, and God provides for His people.

 

Second, Joseph’s demands prompt Judah to rise to sacrificial leadership.  Today’s history explains the fairly convoluted steps that Joseph took to “test” the genuineness of his brothers’ hearts.  By placing them in danger through his accusations of theft and demanding that the 10 brothers bring Benjamin, Joseph found out whether the brothers were willing to imperil themselves individually for the benefit of the whole.  In the first instance, Reuben offers to remain as “security” prior to Benjamin’s arrival, but, due to Reuben’s long-ago concern for Joseph, Joseph instead places Simeon in Egyptian custody.  When it comes time to persuade Jacob to grant that Benjamin may journey to Egypt, Judah offers himself as “security.”  Although his moral shortcomings with Tamar marred his past, Judah now begins to assume the leadership role that his tribe will later take, ultimately culminating in the Lion of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will rule over all.  Like his descendant, Judah lives out Jesus’s call of sacrificial love:  “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

 

Third, God desires to restore fellowship between His children, and humility serves as a helpful lubricant.  To conclude today’s passage, we read:  “Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping.  And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them.  Afterward his brothers talked with him.”  Although the brothers had abandoned Joseph to slavery 20 years earlier, the group now shares loving fellowship.  The arrival of his father Jacob will bring Joseph’s joy to complete fruition.  While the brothers had treated Joseph spitefully, Joseph shows a forgiving and compassionate heart after witnessing the change in the brothers’ hearts.  Their bout of hardship has caused them to relinquish their pride and to seek relief in Egypt.  As Paul admonishes in Philippians 2:3,4, we should “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  Challenging circumstances do indeed reveal our true character, and the brothers clearly demonstrate how their maturity has caused them to value the entire family’s interests above their own.

 

QUESTIONS

1. In what ways have you seen God’s providence in 2012?
2. How may you specifically multiply the gifts that God has given you through your faithfulness?

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