And now don’t be worried or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. (45:5-8)
God never promised that life would be easy. You’ve heard the old workout adage, “No Pain, No Gain,” but it is true in more than just physical exercise. Life can be difficult, and no person is immune to physical, emotional, or spiritual pain. What sets the mature believer apart is the ability to take a step back and see the big picture for what it really is. How do you know when you are reaching new heights in your sanctification and spiritual growth? When you can equally thank God for the hard things as much as the blessings. Joseph had been through a lot of difficult times. He stood before his brothers, looking back over a lifetime of betrayal, false accusations, slavery, imprisonment, and suffering, and He thanked God for all of it. He saw the hand of God in allowing him to walk that path and face the pain, and he also saw the goodness of God that all of this had happened for a reason. That is genuine spiritual maturity. When you get to a point where you desire to bless the people you used to blame, you can know that you are becoming more like Jesus. When thankfulness for the journey supplants any bitterness in your heart, you can know that you are on the right path.
I don’t believe that Joseph (or God) was letting his brothers off the hook. They were responsible for their actions and felt their own shame and guilt for how they had treated him. However, Joseph was able to leave the judgment to God for their actions and instead focus on the bigger picture of what God was orchestrating amid the pain. God did not cause his brothers to sin against him, but in His sovereignty, God used their actions and Joesph’s righteous response to save hundreds of thousands of people from starvation and preserve the future nation of Israel (and, by extension, the line of the coming Messiah). When Joseph said, “Don’t be angry with yourselves,” he was lifting his eyes from his own pain and focusing on the greater purposes of God. What do you need to let go of today? What suffering have you endured that you need to see through a different lens? People are people, and they will let us down and sell us out. True maturity is when you can get past what someone did to you and focus more on what God is doing in and through you.
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