Dr. Michael D. Halsey
"THE RECONCILIATION"
GENESIS 45:1-15
INTRODUCTION
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s here that we read of the reconciliation of the family. To have disunity is one thing, but when it’s in a family, it’s miserable. I know of a family that has such division that, if there’s a family get-together, then certain members are excluded. Every year, as the holiday season approaches, Ann Landers get letters from people who are dreading going to be with the family because there’s such tension. For this reason, they hate Thanksgiving and Christmas. In these cases, people, who can’t remember what happened yesterday, have long memories of offenses years ago.
Yet, there’s a key doctrine of Scripture that speaks to this, and we see it in this portion of the book of Genesis.
In the opening verses Joseph’s emotions get the best of him. He can’t control himself any longer. He longs to be reunited with the family and for his brothers to be his brothers. With an emotional outburst, he makes himself known to them. From all he’s observed, he knows his brothers have changed.
In verses 1-4, we have one of the most important statements in the book. It’s a statement about the sovereignty of God. (“Sovereignty” means: #1 Ruler.) Sovereignty means that God is in control. Joseph points out that God sent him to Egypt and that God sent him to Egypt for a reason. The reason was to prepare for the famine so he could save the family. He also points out that God made him the ruler he was. Joseph is a humble believer.
When God sent Joseph into Egypt, this was to preserve the family, the posterity of Israel by saving their lives. The whole purpose was to save His people. Joseph is convinced that God’s will was the controlling reality in the events of his life.
It’s here that we see that the people of the Bible aren’t the heroes of the story—God is. (This is important because when we start preaching and teaching that these people are the heroes, we open the floodgates for trouble in that we’re presenting these people as models and they aren’t moral models; when we present them as moral models, we obscure what God has done and what the results were in history.) Joseph isn’t the hero, it’s God who’s been at work in all this.
God used what the brothers did to save the family. But this doesn’t mean that we have permission to sin. God worked His plan in spite of the brothers’ sin. God can bring good out of evil.
We see that their sin carried a high price tag in that:
The brothers’ lives certainly weren’t what they might have been. Malcolm Muggeridge, the British intellectual and satirist, didn’t believe in Jesus until he was well up in age. When he came to write his autobiography, the title he chose was a sad one—“Chronicles of Wasted Years.” What a sad thing to have to write those words over your life—“wasted years.”
Had the brothers not sinned like they, they would have spared the family years and years of pain and grief.
Yet, God’s plan will triumph.
The thing is, we say we really believe in the sovereignty of God; yes, that’s one of our cardinal doctrines—God is in control; He’s the number one Ruler. Yes sir. The Bible says it and I believe it. But the truth is, every time we try to take revenge, every time we try to “get even,” we’re making a statement that we don’t believe it. If we did believe that God was in control, we’d let Him handle people. The truth is that every time we bear a grudge, we’re saying that we don’t believe in the sovereignty of God. If we did, we’d stop talking about the wrong, stop bringing it up to ourselves, others, and God. We don’t believe in the sovereignty of God if we keep it burning.
In verses 9-15, Joseph again takes command of the family by telling them to go back with the news that he’s alive and he has a high position in Egypt. He tells them that they must move to Egypt to survive the famine. If they stay in Canaan, they’ll be dead in 5 years. He tells them that when they move to Egypt, he will fulfill his destiny as the deliverer of the family.
Say what? Can you imagine just how hard this would be for the brothers to do? They’ve got to go back and confess everything, confess a long-buried sin. They’ve got to tell their father how Joseph got to Egypt in the first place, how they lied to him, how they let him live in such pain all these years. Confession isn’t easy. This would be a long trip home.
It is encouraging to note that, as long as we’re faithful, no matter the opposition, we will fulfill God’s destiny for us. Those who oppose us, who make it hard for us, still, if we’re faithful, God will fulfill his plan for us.
In verses 14-15, the chapter ends with high emotion, just as it began. What we have is a new beginning.
Reconciliation only comes through forgiveness, and forgiveness comes as we recognize God’s sovereignty. (Doesn’t this show us that these great doctrines of the faith aren’t abstract statements with no meaning for our lives? They get right down to where we live.)
When wronged, see things the way God sees them, see them as things that won’t stop God’s plan for your life, in fact they can’t stop them; it’s impossible. Then reconciliation is possible.
But if a person bears a grudge and lives to retaliate, then he has no appreciation of the sovereignty of God, and without that, there can be no reconciliation.