(Genesis) Genesis 45:5-12

Now, notice the reaction of Joseph here. He's not angry, and he doesn't seek revenge. Why doesn't he do that? A normal human reaction would be, well, I'll take care of you, brethren, now for what you did to me.

Listen to him. Now, therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life.

You see, the thing that Joseph could see in all of this, that God had permitted this for a purpose, that God was moving in his life. Now, if you and I could see the hand of God in our lives, actually, would we become angry and seek revenge? I don't think we would. If you'll notice the explanation that he gives here.

This man, he gives God the glory. He says, God sent me before you. Now, listen, let me read on.

Verse 7, And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

God had been in his life, and you can see now that this famine is yet to run. Well, we'll see in verse 11, he says, And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast come to poverty. So that, frankly, there is about two years into the famine.

Now, notice he sees the hand of God. Listen to him. Verse 8, So now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God.

God was back of it. Verse 9, Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not.

And so he sends up word for his father to come down. We'll read on. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast.

And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast come to poverty. In other words, actually, Jacob and his family could not have survived had they stayed up in the land of Palestine at this particular time. They would have perished.

And so Joseph wants to bring them down to the land of Goshen, which is actually the best part of that land. And it was in that land that God was going to make them a nation, sheltered from the rest of the world, out of the land of Canaan. It's in this place.

And the life of the family reveals they needed to get out of the land of Canaan. Now, verse 12, he says, And behold, your eyes see in the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it's my mouth that speaketh unto you. I think that they stood there absolutely spellbound and were down on their faces and up again and just had absolutely nothing to say as they listened to Joseph speaking words that absolutely seemed unbelievable and would have been had he not been right there before them.