Three times in four verses Joseph says the same thing: God sent me (Genesis 45:5, 7, 8). Then he says something surprising: “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God” (45:8). What did Joseph mean, and what did he not mean?
It does not mean the brothers were innocent. One verse earlier, Joseph said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt” (45:4). At the end of Genesis he says it again: “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (50:20). The brothers really did a wicked thing, and they were responsible for it.
It does mean God was at work. While the brothers were planning evil, God was planning good. Psalm 105 tells the story from God's side: “He called for a famine in the land… He sent a man before them” (Psalm 105:16-17). Joseph did not land in Egypt by accident.
God's plans stand. “There are many plans in a man's heart, Nevertheless the Lord's counsel—that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21). “A man's heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). People make choices, good and bad, and God is never pushed out of His own story.
All things work together. Paul writes, “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). That does not mean every thing that happens is good. Being sold was not good, and prison was not good. It means God can weave even those things into something good.
The greatest example. The worst thing people ever did was to crucify Jesus. Peter said Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,” and that people had “taken by lawless hands” and put Him to death — “whom God raised up” (Acts 2:23-24). People meant evil. God meant it for the salvation of the world.
Joseph had learned to see it. He did not understand it in the pit or in prison. But years later, looking back, he could say, “God sent me.” Sometimes we only see what God was doing after it is over.
What it means for you. If someone has hurt you, God has not lost control of your life. What they did was still wrong. But God is able to bring good out of it, and to use your story to help other people, the way He used Joseph's.
After Joseph told his brothers who he was, “he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept… Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over them” (Genesis 45:14-15). All of them — including the ones who had thrown him into a pit.
He had every chance to get even. Joseph was the most powerful man in Egypt after Pharaoh. His brothers were in his hands. He could have thrown them into prison, or worse. Instead he said, “Please come near to me” (45:4).
He told the truth. Forgiveness is not pretending. Joseph said plainly, “whom you sold into Egypt” (45:4). Forgiving someone means you know exactly what they did, and you choose not to make them pay for it.
He left revenge to God. Paul writes, “do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Joseph trusted God with justice, and he chose kindness.
He made a way back. Joseph did not just say, “I forgive you,” and walk away. He gave them a place to live in Goshen and promised, “There I will provide for you” (45:11). Then something happened that had not happened in twenty years: “his brothers talked with him” (45:15). Long ago they “could not speak peaceably to him” (37:4).
How many times? Peter once asked Jesus how often he should forgive his brother: “Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus meant that we should keep on forgiving and never keep count.
Why we forgive. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). “Even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Colossians 3:13). We forgive because we have been forgiven so much. On the cross Jesus prayed for the people who crucified Him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
What it means for you. Think of someone who has hurt you. You do not have to pretend it was fine. But you can ask God to help you forgive, leave the paying back to Him, and look for one small way to be kind. That is how families and friendships are put back together.
Complete all sections to finish!
Read each section and answer the questions correctly.