The Key to Forgiveness
Genesis 45
In Genesis 45 we come to the climax of Joseph’s story. In this text, Joseph, who was hated by his brothers and sold by them into slavery (Gen 37), had been exalted to governor of Egypt (Gen 41). God had been using him to provide for Egypt during a severe famine. In Genesis 42, this same famine caused his own brothers to come from Canaan to Egypt for buy grain. Since Joseph’s brothers didn’t recognize him, he was able to test their character through both harsh treatment and kindness. In his last test when the brothers returned to Egypt with Jacob’s youngest son Benjamin, he prepared an elaborate feast for them and sent them home with great provisions (Gen 43). However, Joseph had his servant plant his silver cup in Benjamin’s luggage, accused him of stealing it, and was going to enslave him. Would the brothers take the resources and leave Benjamin, as they did twenty-two years previously when they sold Joseph into slavery? No, confessed their guilt before God. Judah then made an impassioned appeal for mercy on his aged father, offering himself in place of Benjamin (44:18-34). Speaking for the brothers, Judah poured out his soul evidencing an amazing change of heart. He ended his speech by saying, “Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?” (Gen. 44:33-34).
The brothers have shown true repentance. God has done a work in their hearts. They are no longer the same men who jealously hated Joseph and callously grieved their father. The stage is set for reconciliation. Now, it is Joseph’s turn to respond. We have witnessed the kindness of Joseph toward his brothers over the last few chapters. Joseph has forgiveness in his heart. Now that the brothers have demonstrated repentance, that forgiveness can be transacted. Reconciliation comes through repentance and forgiveness.
But I want you to notice that although the brothers’ repentance was the occasion for Joseph to express his forgiveness, the basis for Joseph’s forgiveness lies elsewhere. Genesis 45:5-9 Joseph makes one of the most astonishing faith statements found anywhere in the Bible. Joseph bases his forgiveness on the sovereignty of God and His good providence. The key to forgiveness and reconciliation is recognizing the providence of God and submitting ourselves to His sovereignty.
We are going to see that Joseph had a heart of forgiveness, a heart that promoted reconciliation because he had confidence in God. He trusted in God’s providence and submitted himself to God’s sovereign purposes.
Genesis 45 breaks into three parts. In Genesis 45:1-15 we see Joseph revealing himself to his brothers and their reconciliation. Genesis 45:16-24 gives us Pharoah’s response of generosity and Joseph’s instructions. Finally, Genesis 45:25-28 shows us the report of Joseph’s brothers to their father Jacob and his faith-filled response.
1. Reconciliation between brothers (Genesis 45:1-15)
In the first four verses of Genesis 45, Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers.
1 Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. 3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
Now that it was time to reveal himself, Joseph made all the Egyptians leave the room. Why did Joseph wish this to be done alone? For one thing, this was a family matter. It was to be an intimate time between brothers, outsiders might be a distraction. Also, Joseph was overcome by his emotions and did not wish to be a spectacle in front of the Egyptians. Mainly, however, I believe that Joseph commanded everyone to leave except his brothers so that he could deal with the matter of the sin of his brothers in strictest privacy. Personal sin and forgiveness is best dealt with personally, not publicly.
To hear Joseph then command everyone to leave them alone must have struck terror into his brothers’ hearts. Perhaps they would all be thrown into prison or worse yet, sentenced to death. After all, they had been caught with the money and the silver cup. Joseph, powerful the Egyptian governor, then weeps aloud. Was this an expression of deep personal grief or pent-up anger? No—for Joseph, who had previously hidden his emotions from his brothers, these were tears of relief and joy at this long-awaited reconciliation and restoration of fellowship with his brothers.
Finally, Joseph reveals his identity. “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” (Gen. 45:3). They were so surprised and terrified by this revelation they were dumbstruck: “his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence” (Gen. 45:3). This word for “dismayed” describes a deep, visceral fear. How foolish and fearful they must be after having told Joseph several times that their brother (Joseph) was dead, only to see the dead man standing before them! No wonder he had been so interested in their younger brother and their father. No wonder he knew their ages when he seated them at the banquet in birth order. No wonder they had bowed down to him—his dreams that they had tried to prevent had shockingly come true!
“Fear and guilt were written on their ashen faces.”[1] It was bad enough to stand before a powerful Egyptian governor who was angered at the theft of a cup—but to realize that this same man was their brother whom they had mistreated and sold into slavery—that was too much! Before this, they might have hoped that the Egyptian would be impartial and show mercy. But now how could they hope for mercy from the one to whom they had been enemies? No wonder they were petrified. Their sin had found them out for sure.
Joseph eases their fears by initiating intimacy. Joseph says: “Please come near to me.” Now, no longer is Joseph the seemingly stern, demanding ruler of Egypt, but their brother. Suddenly they must have understood all the initially harsh treatment from Joseph, the tests he had put them through, the cross-examinations about their father and Benjamin, the money returned in their sacks, their royal luncheon in the governor’s mansion, and the trap of the silver cup.
When they came close enough to truly look at their lost brother, he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt” (Gen. 45:4). He does not remind them of their sin to rub it in or to hurt them, but to prove that he truly was their long-lost brother. He does not minimize their sin but forgives it.
In Genesis 45:5-8 we learn how Joseph was able to forgive the great evil his brothers had done against him, how he was able to look past all the affliction he endured from them, from Potiphar, in the prison—all his years of suffering—Joseph believed that God ordained all these things for good. Listen to Joseph’s faith:
5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
From verse 5 to verse 9, Joseph mentions God’s name four times: “God sent me before you to preserve life” (Gen. 45:5); “God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance,” (Gen. 45:7); “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God,” (Gen. 45:8); “God has made me lord of all Egypt,” (Gen. 45:9).
Joseph’s focus was on God, on God’s providence, God’s preservation, and God’s purposes. Joseph was a man who saw God in everything. Remember when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph? He immediately thought of God: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). When Joseph was in the dungeon and the cupbearer and baker had their dreams, Joseph’s response was, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Gen. 40:8). When he was called before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams, Joseph said, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Gen. 41:16). And in giving Pharaoh God’s interpretation, Joseph used God’s name four times to underscore that “the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass,” (Gen. 41:32; also 41:25, 28).
When Joseph’s wife bore him two sons, he gave them names that bore witness to God’s faithfulness. He named the first Manasseh, saying, “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house”; and he named the second Ephraim, saying, “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction,” (Gen. 41:51, 52). When Joseph’s brothers came to buy grain, even though Joseph wanted to disguise himself from them, he could not hide his relationship with God. He told them, “Do this and live, for I fear God” (Gen. 42:18). When they returned with Benjamin, Joseph, still disguising himself, said to his brother, “God be gracious to you, my son,” (Gen. 43:29). Joseph obviously instructed his steward to tell the worried brothers concerning the money returned to their sacks, “Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks,” (Gen. 43:23).
More than anything else, this was the secret of Joseph’s life: He saw God everywhere. He had such a profound sense of God’s presence that he understood that every event in his life must somehow be ascribed to the hand of God working behind the scenes. The sovereign God was at the center of Joseph’s life and now God is at the center of Joseph’s forgiveness.
When Joseph says, “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Gen. 45:8), he means to say more than simply “God was there” when all the bad things happened. That is true, of course, but it does not comprehend the full sense of his words. Joseph means to say, “God was in charge of the whole process.” It’s not as if the brothers sold him into slavery and then God intervened to bring about a good result. His words demand something more than that. Joseph means that everything that happened—the good and the bad—was part of God’s ultimate plan for his life. He was sent to Egypt to save the lives of his own family—the very brothers who had betrayed him. This was God’s plan from the beginning, and that fact alone explains all that happened to him. What a profound view this is of the sovereignty of God.[2]
Joseph says to his brothers, “But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” (Gen. 45:5). Though what the brothers did to Joseph was cruel (and they were fully responsible for what they did), nonetheless God was at work, using their wicked treatment of Joseph to accomplish His sovereign purposes. God was in control of his life, not the brothers. Nothing had happened by chance or coincidence. God ordained the brothers’ evil actions to achieve His good purposes. Joseph sees God’s good purpose worked out in three ways: to preserve life (Gen. 45:5); to preserve a posterity (Gen. 45:7), and to save by a great deliverance (Gen. 45:7).
If we believe in the sovereignty of God, we have a reason to forgive those who hurt us deeply. To forgive means to clear the record so that we no longer cling to the hurts of the past. This is only possible when we come to see that those who have hurt us, even our enemies, are agents of the Lord, sent by Him for reasons that we may never fully understand. These things have not happened just because of evil men—but because of a good God.
When we understand that God is sovereign over all things, even over the evil that men do, it frees us to forgive even as we have been forgiven in Christ. How do we do this? By faith. We choose to believe that God is at work in everything that happens to us. And we choose to believe that even when we see nothing at all that makes sense to us. Faith like that is made strong when it is based on the Word of God. And that’s why the story of Joseph is so important.
The unsaved have no hope in this world. To those who don’t know Christ, bad things happen with no ultimate purpose. Not so for those who know the Lord. As the Christian navigates a tempestuous ocean, he does so knowing that an All-wise, Almighty Pilot is at the helm. Even when the waves rise around him and threaten to cast him into the deep, he has no fear. Though he does not know what will happen in the short run, he is certain that in the long run God’s plan for his life will be worked out perfectly. Therefore, he is satisfied and has perfect peace in his soul.[3]
The Christian firmly believes that Romans 8:28 is true in every circumstance. He believes that all things work together for his good and for God’s glory because God has said it is so. Thus he walks by faith, not by sight. He firmly believes that someday he will see all the links in the chain of circumstances that led him from earth to heaven. And in that day he will bless the Lord for his sovereign wisdom displayed in every circumstance of life. With that confidence, he can rest in the Lord now, knowing all will be well later.
That’s the main point of this chapter. The rest of Genesis 45 just reinforces that point.
2. Pharoah’s blessing and charge to Joseph (Genesis 45:16-24)
16 Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. 17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, “Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan. 18 Bring your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. 19 Now you are commanded–do this: Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives; bring your father and come. 20 Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.”‘
Can you see God at work here? By God’s providence when Pharaoh heard about Joseph’s family he welcomed them and provided for them for Joseph’s sake. This was an extravagant and abundant provision for their needs. This is the heart of God, who provides for us “abundantly above all that we could ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). This is the heart of God to those who are repentant, forgiven, and reconciled.[4]
21 Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them carts, according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. 22 He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. 23 And he sent to his father these things: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. 24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed; and he said to them, “See that you do not become troubled along the way.”
Joseph’s forgiveness was expressed in his generosity and kindness to his brothers. He believed that God had a plan to bring his family, God’s covenant people, to Egypt for a time just as God had promised to Abraham many years before. By this God would make them a great nation and provide for them a great deliverance.
Joseph tells them, “See that you do not become troubled along the way” (Gen. 45:24). They would naturally be troubled about what to say to Jacob, for now, for the first time in all these years, they would have to tell him the truth about Joseph. Now they were caught in the lie that they had concealed so long and so well. Also, they might be troubled about returning to Egypt. How would they live among the Egyptians, people of different language, culture, and religion? How would they be treated when they returned? Would their relationship with Joseph be smooth and happy?
Joseph wanted them to trust in God as he did. That trust in God would keep them from becoming troubled.
Finally, we see,
3. Revival in the heart of Jacob (Genesis 45:25-28)
25 Then they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. 26 And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.” And Jacob’s heart stood still, because he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. 28 Then Israel said, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
Notice Jacob’s response is one of faith also, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” Jacob is convinced that Joseph is alive, and that realization breathes new life into him. Suddenly he has the courage to make the long trek to Egypt. Words of truth, words of good news bring Jacob comfort and courage. God has brought Jacob’s son back from the dead. He will trust in God’s providence.
God is sovereign over all the events in our lives. Therefore, nothing happens outside the good purposes of God. Sometimes God uses the evil deeds of evildoers to further His own plans in the world. When Christ was born, the Father used the paranoia of Herod the Great to guide the Magi to Bethlehem. Later He used Herod’s slaughter of the innocents to lead Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus to Egypt so that the Scripture could be fulfilled that says, “Out of Egypt I called my Son” (Matt. 2:13-15).
We see this even clearer in the events surrounding the death of Christ. Who killed Jesus? For 2,000 years men have argued that question. Did the Jews kill Jesus? Yes, plotted to have Him killed; they called for Him to be crucified and handed Him over to Pilate and asked for a murderer to be released instead of Jesus. What about the Pilate? He knew Jesus was not guilty and still handed Him over to be crucified. The Romans were the only ones with the legal power to put someone to death—and they put to death this innocent man. And in a larger sense, is not the whole sinful world of humanity guilty of His death? Did not our sins put Him on the cross? There is plenty of guilt to go around in the death of Jesus Christ.
But what about God? Though God cannot be “guilty” of the death of Christ, was not the death of Jesus part of the Father’s plan from the beginning? The answer is yes. Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). How do we reconcile the plan of God with human guilt in the death of Christ? Here is Peter’s answer as he preached in Jerusalem to some of the very men who participated in the death of our Lord: “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:23). Jesus’ death was not some afterthought with God, as if it happened because events suddenly spun out of control. He died according to the “definite plan and foreknowledge” of God, and He could not have died otherwise. But His death took place at the hands of “lawless men” who stand guilty before the Lord. Even though we may not fully see it, there is perfect harmony between God’s predestination and the free moral choices of sinful men. In the case of Christ, God used the wicked deeds of wicked men in crucifying the Son of God to bring salvation to the world.
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[1] Robert Deffinbaugh, Recognizing God’s Providence: Fellowship Restored (Gen. 45:1-28), https://bible.org/seriespage/9-recognizing-god-s-providence-fellowship-restored-gen-451-28
[2] Ray Pritchard, Overcoming Lingering Bitterness Genesis 45, https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/overcoming-lingering-bitterness/
[3] Pritchard, ibid.
[4] Roger Pascoe, Recognizing God’s Providence: Fellowship Restored (Gen. 45:1-28), https://bible.org/seriespage/9-recognizing-god-s-providence-fellowship-restored-gen-451-28
