Genesis 45:5, commentary and pictures

The words were spoken immediately after Joseph revealed himself as Joseph and asked whether his father was still alive, having first proved his brothers and seen in them the fruits of true repentance for their sins. He was so deeply affected that he wept aloud and asked to be left alone with them for the disclosure. His self-revelation left them surprised, terrified, troubled, confused, condemned, amazed, astonished, and unable to answer. As they stood before him there passed before them their envy of him, their desire to murder him, their sale of him as a slave into Egypt, their ill-treatment and cruelty toward him, their contempt for his dreams and their labor to prevent their fulfillment, together with their repeated obeisance that fulfilled those dreams and acted their part in fulfilling them.

Seeing their confusion, Joseph called his brothers to come near to him and nobly sought to make the occasion as easy as possible for them. He endeavored to comfort rather than condemn them, with no desire to increase their embarrassment by censuring them. He felt they had already suffered enough for their cruelty. He told them not to be grieved nor angry with themselves, not to grieve or condemn themselves, for selling him thither into Egypt. The reason given was that not they but God had sent him before them to preserve life.

God overruled their act of selling him to put him ahead in Egypt during the famine, then two years old with five years still without earing nor harvest. The purpose was to preserve them a posterity in the earth and to save their lives and save lives by a great deliverance. God so made him a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler throughout all Egypt. In that place of rule he could bring Jacob down to dwell in Goshen near him and nourish him and his children and flocks and save his father's family, lest they come to poverty through the famine, with Joseph providing grain in the setting in which that purpose was fulfilled. Their harmful act thus became part of God's purpose to protect them.

God's providential use of the brothers' evil act of selling Joseph to bring about good did not lessen their guilt, and their crime remains just as heinous. They sold him as a slave to prevent his becoming greater than themselves and to stop his dreams from coming true, but God overruled the very course they pursued to bring about the dominion over them they designed should never take place. So Joseph's sale and rise illustrates Christ, for as the brothers' act brought Joseph to Egypt to preserve life and save his family and raised him to authority despite their intentions, Christ's enemies crucified and murdered him, yet God used his death to make him the Redeemer and Saviour of mankind and of the fallen race and ruler over the whole world. That brought about the very kingship the Jews sought to prevent by killing him, while the guilt of Joseph's brethren and of Christ's enemies remains. God's hand thus controls events for His own glory and the good of man.

Joseph's comforting relieved his brothers' troubled minds. They had suffered remorse and great distress of mind since their cruelty toward him. Now they humbly confessed the wrongs they had committed against him and entreated his forgiveness. They greatly rejoiced to find that he was alive and to know that they were not guilty of his blood. Through Joseph God also preserved the life of the whole Egyptian nation, making him a fountain of life to that people for the glory of His name. That physical deliverance is an object lesson illustrating the spiritual blessings offered through connection with the God Joseph worshiped, revealing God's design for every worker in whose heart Christ abides to let a tide of spiritual life flow out to others for the healing of body and soul, the pattern sanitariums are to follow as rivers of life and healing.