Genesis 45:8, commentary and pictures

Joseph spoke these words only after he had proved his brothers and seen in them the fruits of true repentance, when he revealed himself weeping aloud to men who stood amazed, terrified, troubled and unable to answer him. They stood condemned as envy, hatred and murderous intent, their sale of him as a slave, and their contempt for his dreams with labor to prevent their fulfillment rose painfully before them. Their repeated bowing before him in Egypt to buy grain had in fact fulfilled those very dreams they had despised. The meaning of his declaration is that it was not they but God who sent him to Egypt and directed the events that brought him there. God had exalted him to be a father to Pharaoh as trusted counselor and adviser, and lord over all his house and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

God had sent him ahead to preserve life and to preserve a posterity alive in the earth and to save lives by a great deliverance. He used that high position to provide for his family and to save Jacob's family and descendants from poverty during the famine. Two years of famine were already past, with five years still to come in which there would be neither earing nor harvest, neither plowing nor harvest. The brothers had confessed their wrongdoing and were relieved to learn they were not guilty of his blood. Joseph spoke to comfort them and to make the occasion as easy as possible, bidding them not to be grieved nor angry with themselves for selling him.

He refused to censure or scold them or to increase their embarrassment, confusion, shame and amazement, feeling they had suffered enough for their cruelty. He then urged them to hasten to tell his father of his honor and to bring Jacob down to dwell in Goshen near him. There he would nourish and provide for him and all he had, lest they come to poverty. God had overruled the brothers' evil course in selling him as a slave to bring about the very dominion over them they meant to prevent, so that by being sold Joseph became ruler in the land and saviour to his father's family.

This illustrates Christ, whose murder by His enemies to prevent His authority made Him the Redeemer of mankind, the Saviour of the fallen race, and ruler over the whole world, receiving all power and authority. God's providential hand controlling events for His own glory and the good of man does not lessen the guilt of Joseph's brethren or of Christ's murderers, whose crime remains just as heinous.