On Overcoming Adversity

The scene is strange.  Eleven men found themselves dining with a stranger in a strange land.  Their father had sent them to Egypt to acquire grain from them during the drought.  The last time they were here, they were given grain, but also their money back in their grain sacks. Now, a trip to Pharaoh’s palace for a meal with a high-ranking official… what’s going on here?

And then, the master of the feast draws them to himself and says,

I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.

                                                        Genesis 45:4-10 

“So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”  

As Joseph’s brothers began to understand who this benevolent stranger was, they began to see the deep faith he had in God’s plan. He held no bitterness towards them for selling him into slavery.  He saw the bigger picture. He had an eternal view.

And that’s one of the things I learned from Joseph in Genesis.