God Will Surely Visit You

Am I in the Place of God?

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When Jacob died, his sons were suddenly afraid. “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him” (Genesis 50:15). Joseph's answer is one of the wisest sentences in Genesis: “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?” (50:19).

Seventeen years later. Joseph had forgiven his brothers long before, kissed them, and fed their families (45:15; 47:12). Yet they still wondered whether he meant it. Guilt can make us afraid even after we have been forgiven.

Trying to make it safe. The brothers sent a message and then fell down before Joseph: “Behold, we are your servants” (50:18). They were trying to earn what Joseph had already given them for free.

Joseph wept. “And Joseph wept when they spoke to him” (50:17). It hurt him that they still did not trust his forgiveness. When we doubt God's forgiveness, we are doubting His love.

Joseph named the wrong. Forgiving did not mean pretending. Right after that Joseph said, “you meant evil against me” (50:20). He told the truth about what they had done, and then he chose not to make them pay. Real forgiveness is honest about the wrong and generous with the person.

He saw God's bigger story. Joseph could let go of revenge because he trusted what God had been doing: “God meant it for good… to save many people alive” (50:20). When we remember that God is at work, it becomes easier to put down our anger.

Not in God's place. Joseph had the power to punish, but he refused to take God's job. Paul writes, “Beloved, 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). Leaving judgment to God frees us from carrying revenge around.

Spoken to the heart. Joseph “comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (50:21). He also promised, “I will provide for you and your little ones.” Forgiveness that is real keeps showing kindness.

Forgiven for good. God's forgiveness is even more certain than Joseph's. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). If you trust Jesus, God will not one day change His mind.

What it means for you. If someone has hurt you, you do not have to be the judge; you can leave that to God and be kind. And if you have been forgiven, you do not have to keep wondering. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

50:15-21 is the last scene between Joseph and his brothers, and it is about the difference between being forgiven and feeling secure in it.

Fear that lingers. The brothers' lu (say: LOO), “perhaps,” shows that seventeen years of care had not quieted their consciences. They thought Joseph had been kind only for their father's sake, and that his kindness would end now that Jacob was dead.

Pleading through another. The brothers sent a message in Jacob's name (50:16-17), asking forgiveness for “the trespass… and their sin.” Then they fell down: “Behold, we are your servants” (50:18). They were trying to make their own forgiveness safe, but Joseph had already given it freely.

The dreams one last time. In 37:8 the brothers had sneered, “Shall you indeed reign over us?” In 50:18 they offered to be his servants. The dreams had come true, but Joseph refused to rule over them. He answered with grace.

Tears again. Joseph's weeping at 50:17 is the last of many in his story (42:24; 43:30; 45:2, 14-15; 46:29; 50:1). Throughout, his tears mark the places where love is under strain: from his brothers' guilt, from distance, and here from their doubt.

The refusal. Hatachat Elohim ani (say: ha-TAKH-at eh-loh-HEEM ah-NEE), “am I in the place of God?” Judgment and repayment belong to God. Romans 12:19 cites Deuteronomy 32:35 to the same effect: “‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Joseph's refusal is not indifference to wrong; it is trust that God judges rightly.

The theology of 50:20. Having refused God's place, Joseph confesses God's work: the brothers devised evil, and God devised it for good. Forgiveness rests on providence. Because God has overruled the evil, Joseph has no need to settle accounts himself.

Assurance. 50:21 repeats “do not be afraid” and adds provision and comfort: he “spoke kindly to them,” literally to their hearts. Romans 8:1 and 1 John 4:18 give the Christian form of the same assurance: no condemnation, and a love that “casts out fear, because fear involves torment.”

Living it out. Ephesians 4:32 says Christians forgive because God first forgave us “in Christ.” Joseph shows three parts of real forgiveness: he names the wrong (50:20), he refuses revenge (50:19), and he keeps on being kind (50:21). You can do the same with the help of Jesus.

God Will Surely Visit You

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The very last words Joseph speaks in the Bible are a promise: “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (Genesis 50:24).

A coffin and a promise. Genesis began with God creating a beautiful world. It ends with Joseph dying, and “he was put in a coffin in Egypt” (50:26). But it does not end in despair. It ends with a promise.

“Carry up my bones.” Joseph made his family promise: “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (50:25). Joseph had lived almost his whole life in Egypt, and he was one of its greatest rulers. But he knew Egypt was not home. He wanted his body to go where God's promise was.

A life of trust. Joseph had trusted God in the pit, as a slave, in prison and in the palace. At the end of his life he was still trusting, this time for something that would happen after his death. Faith that has walked with God for a lifetime can look past the grave.

A blessed family. Joseph lived to see Ephraim's family to the third generation, and Manasseh's grandchildren “were also brought up on Joseph's knees” (50:23). God had blessed his family, just as Jacob had prayed. But Joseph knew that even a long and blessed life was not the end of God's plan.

Faith that looks ahead. Hebrews remembers this as faith: “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones” (Hebrews 11:22). Joseph believed God would do something he would not live to see.

God kept His word. Hundreds of years later God said to Moses, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt” (Exodus 3:16). When Israel left Egypt, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him” (Exodus 13:19). They were finally buried in the promised land at Shechem (Joshua 24:32).

A greater hope. Joseph hoped his bones would rest in Canaan. Christians have an even greater hope. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). God “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

Death is not the end. “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). Because Jesus rose, the people who trust Him will rise too. “Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15).

What it means for you. When people you love die, or when you think about your own life ending one day, remember Joseph's words: God will surely visit you. If you belong to Jesus, the end of your story is not a coffin. It is resurrection, and home with Him.

Genesis ends with a death notice and a promise. Pakod yifkod Elohim etchem (say: pah-KOHD yif-KOHD eh-loh-HEEM et-KHEM), “God will surely visit you” (50:24-25).

The verb. Paqad (say: pah-KAHD) means to attend to, inspect, or come to someone's aid. It was used of God's visit to Sarah (21:1). The doubled form expresses certainty. Exodus 3:16 picks it up at the burning bush: “I have surely visited you,” and Exodus 4:31 records the people's response when they heard that the Lord had visited them.

The bones. Exodus 13:19 tells how Moses kept Joseph's oath (50:25) and took his bones out of Egypt, and Joshua 24:32 tells how they were buried at Shechem, on land Jacob had bought. One dying man's request was kept for hundreds of years, because God kept His promise.

Faith in Hebrews 11. Of all the things Joseph did, Hebrews 11:22 remembers this one as faith: not his rise to power or his forgiveness, but his instruction about his bones. He “made mention of the departure,” trusting a future promise more than present comfort. Joseph had lived like an Egyptian ruler, but he would not make Egypt his final resting place.

Jacob and Joseph compared. Jacob asked to be buried in Canaan at once (47:29-30), and Joseph saw it done (50:7-13). Joseph asks for something harder: that his bones wait in Egypt until God acts, and then travel with the nation. His request binds a future generation to the promise.

The coffin. Joseph was embalmed and “put in a coffin in Egypt” (50:26), the burial of an Egyptian official. The Hebrew word for coffin, aron (say: ah-ROHN), is the same word later used for the ark of the covenant. Even in death, Joseph's body waited in Egypt for the day God would bring His people home.

The end of Genesis. The book that opened with “In the beginning God created” closes with “a coffin in Egypt” (50:26). From a garden to a coffin, Genesis shows what sin has done to the world. But God's promise to visit His people means the story is not over, and Exodus picks up right where Genesis ends.

Resurrection hope. The New Testament enlarges Joseph's hope from land to life. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25); Peter speaks of “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3); Paul taunts death itself: “O Death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). Hebrews 2:14-15 says Christ's death releases “those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Visitation fulfilled. Luke 1:68 uses the same idea when Zechariah blesses God, who “has visited and redeemed His people.” The visit Joseph promised was first fulfilled in the exodus and finally fulfilled in Christ.

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