Genesis 45:4-28

⁴ So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. ¹⁰ You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ¹¹ There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ ¹² And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him. ¹⁶ When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. ¹⁷ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, ¹⁸ and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ ¹⁹ And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. ²⁰ Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’” ²¹ The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. ²² To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. ²³ To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. ²⁴ Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.” ²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. ²⁶ And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. ²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

“It is hard to be a Christian when your head is in the toilet.”

These words were spoken by a lady to the late theologian R.C. Sproul. He writes about this in his wonderful book, The Holiness of God.

            I once talked to an elderly woman who was battling cancer with chemotherapy.  She suffered the side effects of nausea from the treatments.  I asked her how her spirits were holding up, and she offered a most candid reply: “It is hard to be a Christian when your head is in the toilet.”[1]

That is true. It is. And yet, we must be so—we must be Christians even when our heads are in the toilet. Even in times of suffering and misfortune we must be Christians, we must be followers of Jesus. In his film script for the movie “The Counselor,” Cormac McCarthy has the character Jefe say:

…[T]o prepare a place in our lives for the tragedies to come is an economy few wish to practice.[2]

This is also true. And, once again, it is also true that we must do so. We must prepare a place in our lives for the tragedies to come. And I would like to argue this morning that that place we must prepare in our lives for the tragedies and suffering to come must be a place of deep trust in which God is still with us, still sovereign in the midst of the suffering, and, in fact, working things to the good for His people in the midst of it.

Suffering must be seen from above and not merely from below.

Joseph, the son of Jacob, has suffered. He was attacked by his brothers and thrown into a pit. He was then sold to a caravan who carried him off to a foreign land. He rose to prominence by God’s grace but then was falsely accused of sexual assault before being thrown into prison for two years after the man who could have helped him simply forgot he was there. Then, Joseph, unbeknownst to his brothers, is given the opportunity to save them as they came to Egypt seeking food in the midst of famine. So, yes, even though Joseph was now in a position of power, he had suffered and suffered greatly. You can see the strain of it all in the three times he wept leading up to our text.

He has now revealed himself to be Joseph to the brothers who wronged him. They are dumfounded and terrified at this revelation. They do not know what to say. But Joseph does. So he speaks to them and what he reveals is even more powerful than the revelation that he was still alive. Let us listen.

⁴ So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. ¹⁰ You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ¹¹ There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ ¹² And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him. ¹⁶ When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. ¹⁷ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, ¹⁸ and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ ¹⁹ And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. ²⁰ Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’” ²¹ The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. ²² To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. ²³ To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. ²⁴ Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.” ²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. ²⁶ And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. ²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

This is, to put it mildly, a God-saturated text. Joseph’s words to his despondent brothers are God-focused and God-exalting. Gordon Wenham writes:

Four times he makes the point: “God sent me before you to preserve life.” “God sent me in advance of you…to preserve…a great number.” “[I]t was not you who sent me here but God.” “God has made me lord of all Egypt.” In these verses we have summed up the essence or theme of the Joseph story, termed by Longacre its macrostructure: “Joseph’s brothers, meaning to harm him, sold him into Egypt, but in reality God sent him there so that he could save Jacob’s family and many others from death by starvation”…Each episode in the story, Longacre argues, relates to this macrostructure.[3]

So the macrostructure of this whole episode would be this: whereas seen from below, from our vantage point, suffering is a tragedy, seen from above, from God’s view, suffering is the theater in which God most dramatically displays His glory! And if that is true, then we must accept that fact that suffering seen only from below leads to despair whereas suffering seen from above leads to hope and worship.

None of this is to remove the pain of suffering or to scorn those who grieve and lament in the midst of it! Not at all! We are human beings and God does not begrudge our laments. No, it is rather to say that in the midst of our lamentations and heartbreak we find the still small voice of God saying, “I know you are hurting. I know you are in pain. I am here with you. But watch: I am still at work in the midst of this.”

Consider the four statements again:

• ⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. / Meaning: We do not have to be crushed under the strain of suffering because God can take the particulars of the tragedy in the exact opposite direction from where you think you are going.

• ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. / Meaning: We do not have to be crushed under the strain of suffering because God sees the bigger picture and can use the tragedy to affect positively you and even those far outside of your immediate circle.

• ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.  / Meaning: We do not have to be crushed under the strain of suffering because whereas we might think that God Himself was caught off guard by the tragedy in fact God is in the midst of it working all things to His glory and our good.

• ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.’ / Meaning: We do not have to be crushed under the strain of suffering because whereas tragedy threatens to reduce our life’s message to one of despair and bitterness God can use it to give us a word of hope for others.

Do you see? Seen from below Joseph had every reason to be bitter, to seek vengeance, and to turn from God. But what saved Joseph was his awareness that God was with him and that God was working through his suffering to accomplish amazing things! In other words, Joseph decided to see his situation from above, and that made all the difference.

God’s greatest act of love was demonstrated through suffering.

Joseph is an amazing example of how a situation can look very different when viewed from above as opposed to being viewed only from below. But, as always, Joseph’s life and example pointed to a greater fulfillment to come. This “macrostructure” of the Joseph story—that suffering seen from one perspective is an unredeemable tragedy but seen from another is an occasion for divine mercy and grace—is demonstrated most clearly in the greatest act of love the world has ever seen: the cross of Jesus Christ.

In point of fact, we might argue that the world’s inability to see and understand how God is at work even and especially in the midst of human tragedy has played a large part in its rejection of the cross. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1, writes:

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Of course it “is folly to those who are perishing.” Why? Because the thought that the world’s salvation could hinge on the unjust suffering of an innocent man is absurd. The world recoils from this union of suffering and salvation. The world wants a strong salvation, a salvation that crushes its enemies, not a salvation that is crushed to save its enemies. Yet it is through the suffering of the cross that God saves us just as it was through the suffering of Joseph that Joseph became the lowercase-s “savior” of the world in the time of famine!

We have seen repeatedly that Joseph is a type or figure of Christ. In fact, so similar are the words of Joseph in Genesis 45 to the words of Jesus in the gospels that Ambrose of Milan argued that “Jesus is the same who spoke before in Joseph and afterward in his own body, seeing that he did not change even the words.”[4] Consider:

• Joseph: “Come near to me, please.” (Gen. 45:4) / Jesus: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)

• Joseph: “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life…Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.” (Gen. 45:5,9) / Jesus: ““Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” (Matt. 28:10)

• Joseph: “You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.” (Gen. 45:10) / Jesus: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)

Once again we see the gospel before the gospel: it is through the sufferings of the Savior that God brings salvation. And what this means is of paramount importance: we must make room for the sovereignty of God in the midst of our sufferings or else we will despair and go mad! We must believe that it is through the pit and the prison and the abandonment and the false accusation and the cross and tomb that God works His greatest works!

Christians who have gotten this have acted in ways that the world cannot understand. I have spent an entire ministry watching suffering Christians cling to the sovereignty of God! I have spent an entire ministry watching suffering Christians smile from their deathbeds and tell jokes on the other ends of IV drips.

Yes, it is hard to be a Christian with your head in the toilet but I have seen Christians demonstrate the most amazing acts of faith and courage after they lift their heads out of the toilet! I once heard an old lady in her 90s joke with me from her deathbed that she could not wait to get to heaven because she has been worried the last many years that all of her friends who died years before must think she was in hell! She said she could not wait to step through the gates and say “TA-DAAA!” We both laughed and I laugh still about it! I have read the accounts of martyrs going to their burning stakes and beheading blocks with hymns on their lips and words of encouragement spoken for others!

I have seen these things and I have wondered: how can this be? How can the suffering people of God still hold on to hope and joy? And it is because they clung to the truth that God is at work in human suffering, that God’s plan stands unthwarted!

Do not despair, church! Do not despair! It is on the cross that God does His greatest work and it is in the darkest of nights that Jesus shines the brightest!

So, weep! Lament! Grieve! Yes! But in the midst of all leave room for the God-whispered good news, “I am with you! I have got this! Just you wait and see what I do on the other side of this!”

 

[1] R.C. Sproul, Holiness (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1998), p.139.

[2] McCarthy, Cormac (2013-10-15). The Counselor (Movie Tie-in Edition): A Screenplay (Vintage International Original) (Kindle Locations 1756-1757). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[3] Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 16-50, Volume 2 (Word Biblical Commentary) (p. 428). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

[4] Mark Sheridan, ed., Genesis 12-50. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Old Testament II. Gen. ed. Thomas C. Oden. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p.291.