And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
The words belong to the famine that drove Jacob's family to Egypt, when lack of food in Canaan brought the brothers to buy grain, and they bowed before Joseph without recognizing him, while seeing them recalled his dreams to him. They were spoken when he revealed himself as the brother they had envied and sold, after he had proved his brothers and seen in them the fruits of true repentance. At that moment they stood troubled and amazed, astonished and condemned and confused, to learn that the ruler of Egypt was Joseph.
He sought to make the disclosure as easy as possible for them, comforting rather than censuring them or increasing their embarrassment. He did so because he felt they had suffered enough for their cruelty toward him. He told them not to be grieved nor angry with themselves for selling him into Egypt.
It was God and not his brothers who sent him ahead of his family into Egypt, overruling their sale of him. God so placed him as a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler throughout all Egypt, to nourish and provide for them through the famine. God sent him ahead to preserve life, and to preserve them a posterity and family line in the earth. That sending was to save their lives by a great deliverance from the famine, so that Jacob's family and descendants would survive.
The famine had already lasted two years, with five years still to come in which there would be neither plowing nor harvest, neither earing nor harvest. By being sold as a slave his brothers meant to thwart his rise, to prevent his becoming greater than themselves and to make fulfillment of his dreams impossible, even purposing to kill him. But God overruled the very course they pursued, to make him a deliverer and saviour to his father's family and to bring about the dominion over them they designed should never take place.
His role as saviour of his family foreshadows Christ, for as the brothers' sale of Joseph brought about his saving work, so the murder and crucifixion of the Son of God by His enemies brought about the very kingship they sought to prevent. That crucifixion by His enemies made Him the Redeemer of mankind, the Saviour of the fallen race, the Saviour of the world, and ruler over the whole world. That God controlled these evil acts for His own glory and the good of man to save lives does not lessen the guilt of those who committed them, and the crime of Christ's enemies remains just as heinous as though God's providential hand had not controlled events.
The declaration comforts guilty consciences with God's overruling purpose to preserve life. The brothers had suffered remorse and great distress of mind since their cruelty toward him. They were moved by it to humbly confess their wrongs against him and entreat his forgiveness, to rejoice greatly that he was alive, and to find their troubled minds relieved because they were not guilty of his blood. God also made Joseph a fountain of life to the Egyptian nation and preserved the life of that whole people through him. This deliverance serves as an object lesson of the spiritual blessings offered through connection with the God Joseph worshiped, showing that God brings blessings to the world through His people in whom Christ abides as grace flows from them as a tide of spiritual life for body and soul.
The words belong to the famine that drove Jacob's family to Egypt, when lack of food in Canaan brought the brothers to buy grain, and they bowed before Joseph without recognizing him, while seeing them recalled his dreams to him. They were spoken when he revealed himself as the brother they had envied and sold, after he had proved his brothers and seen in them the fruits of true repentance. At that moment they stood troubled and amazed, astonished and condemned and confused, to learn that the ruler of Egypt was Joseph.
He sought to make the disclosure as easy as possible for them, comforting rather than censuring them or increasing their embarrassment. He did so because he felt they had suffered enough for their cruelty toward him. He told them not to be grieved nor angry with themselves for selling him into Egypt.
It was God and not his brothers who sent him ahead of his family into Egypt, overruling their sale of him. God so placed him as a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler throughout all Egypt, to nourish and provide for them through the famine. God sent him ahead to preserve life, and to preserve them a posterity and family line in the earth. That sending was to save their lives by a great deliverance from the famine, so that Jacob's family and descendants would survive.
The famine had already lasted two years, with five years still to come in which there would be neither plowing nor harvest, neither earing nor harvest. By being sold as a slave his brothers meant to thwart his rise, to prevent his becoming greater than themselves and to make fulfillment of his dreams impossible, even purposing to kill him. But God overruled the very course they pursued, to make him a deliverer and saviour to his father's family and to bring about the dominion over them they designed should never take place.
His role as saviour of his family foreshadows Christ, for as the brothers' sale of Joseph brought about his saving work, so the murder and crucifixion of the Son of God by His enemies brought about the very kingship they sought to prevent. That crucifixion by His enemies made Him the Redeemer of mankind, the Saviour of the fallen race, the Saviour of the world, and ruler over the whole world. That God controlled these evil acts for His own glory and the good of man to save lives does not lessen the guilt of those who committed them, and the crime of Christ's enemies remains just as heinous as though God's providential hand had not controlled events.
The declaration comforts guilty consciences with God's overruling purpose to preserve life. The brothers had suffered remorse and great distress of mind since their cruelty toward him. They were moved by it to humbly confess their wrongs against him and entreat his forgiveness, to rejoice greatly that he was alive, and to find their troubled minds relieved because they were not guilty of his blood. God also made Joseph a fountain of life to the Egyptian nation and preserved the life of that whole people through him. This deliverance serves as an object lesson of the spiritual blessings offered through connection with the God Joseph worshiped, showing that God brings blessings to the world through His people in whom Christ abides as grace flows from them as a tide of spiritual life for body and soul.