In
Genesis 45:1-15, God reveals His
providential plan to Joseph and His brothers.
As believers, we can read these truths into our own lives as well. God has a providential plan and purpose in each
one of our lives. My desire is that you
and I would learn to trust the providential plan of God with all of our
hearts. Let’s consider two reasons from
this text why we should.
I. The
Providence of God is Certain (45:4-15)
a.
Certain Providence Means Certain Sovereignty (45:5,7-9):
Four
times in five verses, Joseph clearly establishes that it was God who ultimately
“sent” him to Egypt and “made” him “lord of all Egypt.” This
does not mean that what the brothers are not responsible for their sins or that
God forced them to. It does mean that
only God is ultimately sovereign over all things, that in the end, only His
plans succeed and are never thwarted. Let’s
hear the testimony of the rest of the Word, because the sovereignty of God is a
life changing truth that we must settle in our hearts.
Proverbs 16:9: “The
heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Proverbs
19:21: “Many are the plans in the
mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” Psalm
139:15-16: “My frame was not hidden
from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of
the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed
substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were
formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Isaiah
46:8-11: “Remember this and stand
firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying,
‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird
of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken,
and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”
Daniel 4:32-35: “and you
shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of
the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of
time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom
of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled
against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox,
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as
eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted
my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High,
and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does
according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Matthew 10:29: “Are not
two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground
apart from your Father.” Acts
17:26: “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the
face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of
their dwelling place,”
The
sovereignty of God is certain. He is the
God “who works all things according to
the counsel of his will,” (Eph.
1:11) who “does whatever he pleases” (Ps.
115:3). Let this truth warm your
heart. He is never taken back when His
people are betrayed, enslaved, framed, persecuted and even killed. It is His plan that is ultimately
unfolding. However you work that out,
you cannot escape the truth that God is sovereign.
b.
Certain Providence Means Certain Goodness (45:5-7,10-15)
There
is another inescapable truth that providence implies and it is that God is not
just sovereign, but that He is good to His people in all He does. Joseph does not simply leave it at God
sending him there. God sent him there “to preserve life” (5), to “preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to
keep alive for you many survivors” (7).
In verses 10-11, we see that God’s purpose in sending Joseph ahead of
them was to provide for them. God provides both rescue from the famine and
reconciliation within the family through His sending Joseph.
This
is why providence is such a beautiful
word & concept. It brings to mind
something much more poetic than simply saying that God is sovereign
does. To say that God is sovereign means
that He rules and reigns and does whatever He wants in and with all of history
and creation. To say that God is
providential is speaks more to the way that He rules and reigns over all of
history and creation. He does so in a
way that provides for His
people. And sometimes it doesn’t look
that way! Yet hidden under what appears
to be is His good and unstoppable plan.
In what seems to be a catastrophe, God is providing everything
that is necessary for the good of His people and the display of His glory. And no attempt to thwart the plan
of God is ever successful. Romans 8:28: “And we
know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose.”
II. The
Providence of God is Liberating (45:5)
a.
A High View of God’s Providence Frees Us from
Bitterness & Un-forgiveness
Joseph
is able to be a person of incredible grace, mercy, and forgiveness because He
has such a high view of God’s providence.
This is what a high view of God’s sovereign goodness can do in your
heart. It can free you to trust God with
the wrongs committed against you and to entrust vengeance and justice to Him
and the powers that He has ordained to secure it. I know someone at some point in your life has
wronged many of you. Understand this:
God meant that for your good. Trust Him
with that and forgive those who have wronged you. View even their wrongs through the lens of
God’s working for your good. Be free
from bitterness and un-forgiveness.
Ephesians 4:31-32: “Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you,
along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
b.
A High View of God’s Providence Frees Us from
Guilt & Shame
Joseph
also tells his brothers here to “not be
distressed or angry with yourselves.”
Why? He does so because God was
the ultimate sender of Joseph to Egypt for all of their good. Again, this does not mean that what they did
was not wrong or that they are not responsible for what they did. It does mean that they should confess and
repent of their evil and accept that God used it for all of their good. These brothers have already confessed their
guilt before God and Joseph (44:16). We
said last week that one thing that God is after in His providence is repentance
on our part. If true confession and
repentance has taken place in a believer’s life, then we should bear the guilt
and shame of that sin no more. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Believe that. Your sins have
been nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ and you bear them no more. So don’t bear the weight and shame of them
either. Confess, repent, and be
free.
God
can take even our failures and use them for good. What failures have you gone through? And what have you learned from them that
could help others avoid those same mistakes?
Settling
the certain providence of God in our hearts is a life-changing thing. For those of you going through heavy trials,
I do want to encourage you that settling these things may in fact be a daily
battle. You may settle these truths
today only to find that you need to again tomorrow for your own peace of
mind. Our battle is a daily one, so be
strong in the Lord, courageous, and fight the good fight of faith for the glory
of God!
I’ve
said this many times, but if you have ever questioned the truth of God’s
sovereign goodness toward you, you need look no further than the cross of Jesus
Christ. Acts 4:27-28: “for truly in
this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom
you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the
peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to
take place.” When you combine the
truth of that passage with all those like Romans
5:8 that say that the cross was God’s demonstration of His love for us, you
come away with a breathtaking truth: God purposed to declare His love for us
before the foundation of the world!
Before the foundation of the world, God decided to publically declare
His love for you and me on the cross of Jesus Christ. Has your heart ever been changed by the good
news of this providence? It can be
today.
No comments:
Post a Comment