A letter from Anthony...
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
Genesis 50:15–21
I’m sure we are all familiar with the account of Joseph in Genesis. His life is a story of parental favouritism, sibling rivalry and betrayal. But that is not where the story ends. The reason that Joseph’s story doesn’t end in tragedy – but instead triumph – is because it is ultimately an account of God working in all things for the good of those who love Him.
It’s
hard to imagine how lonely and afraid Joseph must have been as a young man, as
he was sold to strangers in Egypt.
Everyone he loved, and everything that he knew, had been taken
away. But despite all his suffering,
Joseph continued to find his strength in the Lord.
Hebrews
11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what
we do not see.”
Faith in Joseph’s circumstances required him to trust the Lord far beyond what he was seeing and experiencing. It required Joseph to recognise that God had a plan in all of these circumstances, even though he wasn’t able to see or understand at the time.
God’s
plan took Joseph through the valley of the shadow of death, instead of taking
him the more comfortable way around. But
despite the hardships that Joseph suffered, God was still working for the good
of His people.
Sometimes
trusting God with our circumstances is really hard, and other times it is
easy. But whether we are finding it hard
to trust Him with what is going on in our lives at the moment, or whether we
are finding it easy, God continues to remain faithful.
There
will be times in our lives when God takes us through the valley of the shadow
of death – just as He did with Joseph – times when we struggle to see what He
is doing and understand the ‘why?’
But
if our hope is in the eternal rather than the temporary, our certain hope in
God’s good plan of eternal life for us through Jesus will never be taken
away.
As
John 6:37-39 says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and
whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from
heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this
is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given
me but raise them up at the last day.”
Image: https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/joseph-reunion/
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