“What Others Mean for Evil Against Us, God Means for Good”
Genesis 50:15-21
9/14/08
From today’s O.T. reading I want to focus
specifically on Joseph’s words to his brothers: “You
meant evil against me, but God meant it for good...” But in
order for us to understand what he is talking about here, I want to
give you a little background information on Joseph and his brothers.
Joseph was the 7th of 12 brothers. But as you
probably learned in Sunday school at one time, Joseph was the favorite
of his father Jacob, who made him a beautiful, multi-colored
robe. (This story is so popular that there’s even a
Broadway musical entitled “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat.”) Well, of course, this made Joseph’s
brothers jealous of him. But then Joseph had a couple of dreams
that made them hate him even more. These dreams suggested that
Joseph’s brothers would bow down before him one day, and you can
just imagine what they thought about that, especially his older
brothers. So, they devised a plan to seize Joseph and hold him
captive in a pit until they were able to sell him as a slave to some
passing traders. From there Joseph was taken to Egypt where he
was sold to Pharaoh’s captain of the guard. God was with
Joseph in all this, however, and blessed him as he served in this
man’s house. But the man’s wife brought false charges
against Joseph, saying that he tried to rape her, and so he was thrown
into prison. And yet, even there God blessed him, causing him to
gain favor in the eyes of the keeper of the prison, who as a result put
Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners.
Some time later, Pharaoh had a dream which disturbed
him. He had heard that Joseph had the ability to interpret
dreams, a gift that God had given him. So, he called for Joseph
and asked him what his dream meant. Joseph told Pharaoh that God
was warning him that there would be 7 years of plenty for Egypt to be
followed by 7 years of famine. Joseph’s advice was that
Pharaoh put someone in charge of gathering a fifth of the produce of
the land during the years of plenty to store up for the years of
famine. So, Pharaoh chose Joseph, putting him 2nd in command over
all Egypt.
Well, once the years of famine hit, they
didn’t just affect the Egyptians. They also affected those
who lived in the land of Canaan, including Jacob and his eleven
sons. So, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt for food. And it was
then that Joseph’s dreams were fulfilled: when his brothers
saw him, they didn’t recognize him, though he recognized them,
and they bowed down to him, just as he had foreseen in his
dreams. Later, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and a
good cry was had by all.
This brings us to today’s O.T. reading,
because afterwards Jacob and his family moved to Egypt, and 17 years
later Jacob died. Then the guilt of what the brothers had done to
Joseph in selling him into slavery came back to haunt them. While
their father, Jacob was alive they thought they’d be protected
from any revenge on the part of Joseph. Sure, he acted like he
had forgiven them, but what would he do to them now that dad had
died? And yet, in wasn’t in Joseph’s heart to get
back at his brothers for what they had done to him. Instead of
threatening, cursing, or punishing them (which he easily could have
done at any time), he spoke words of comfort to them. He said,
“Don’t fear, for am I in the place of God? [i.e., If
God has forgiven you (which He has), who am I to withhold forgiveness
from you?] As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant
it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive,
as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and
your little ones.” And so, he comforted them and spoke
kindly to them.
Now, put into the same circumstances, you and I
would most likely want to seek revenge. Just ask yourself what it
is you feel when some idiot on the road cuts you off and almost causes
you to get into an accident. You want to teach him a lesson,
don’t you? Oh, you may not give into road rage like some
do, but you feel it in your heart. Or what about when someone
takes advantage of you at work or at school? Is it right that
they get away with it? Or what about when someone gossips or says
something negative about you. You want to spread rumors about
them, don’t you? The last thing we want to do in situations
like these is to forgive the people who sin against us.
We’d rather get back at them. “Do unto others, as
they have done unto us” is our motto.
But Joseph teaches us a different lesson, and that
is, that instead of seeking revenge on those who have caused us so much
pain, we are to forgive them, and recognize that God takes even that
evil that’s inflicted upon us and works through it for our
good. In doing this for his brothers, Joseph reflects Christ to
us. Joseph is a picture of Jesus and what He suffers for us, who
are the cause of so much evil towards Him, and yet how He forgives us
our sins against Him. Joseph is a living illustration of how God
worked through the evil which we inflicted upon His beloved Son to
bring about the greatest good of all - our salvation.
Like Joseph, Jesus, too, was betrayed by His
brothers. The Jews were Christ’s brothers by way of their
blood relationship to Abraham. The Apostle John writes that Jesus
came unto these, His own, but that His own did not receive Him.
Instead, they handed Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified.
But it wasn’t just the Jews who were Christ’s brothers and
who disowned Him. Jesus is our brother, too, according to His
human nature. He took on our flesh and become one with us.
But we rejected Him just as the Jews did, and it was our sins as well
as theirs that put Him on the cross. And yet, just as in
Joseph’s case, all this evil done to Jesus was foreordained
by God the Father to happen. As the Apostle Peter preached on the
day of Pentecost, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men.” It was God’s will, plan, and
purpose that Jesus suffer at the hands of sinners and go to the cross,
in order to work our salvation. We meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good.
And like Joseph, after His suffering and death,
Jesus was exalted, confirming that God had worked good through His
cross. First, God did not abandon Jesus to the grave, but raised
Him from the dead on the third day. Second, God gave Him the Name
that’s above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus
“every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.” But like Joseph’s reappearance to
his brothers, Christ’s reappearance to His disciples after His
resurrection at first raised fear in their hearts. Had Jesus
returned to haunt them like a ghost on account of their sins? Was
He angry at them for having abandoned Him? Is He angry at the
world for having crucified Him? Like Joseph’s brothers, the
same questions might be going around in our heads: “Will
Jesus hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we’ve done to
Him?” He would certainly be justified in doing so, and He
certainly has the power to do so, just as Joseph did. But when
Peter convicted his Jewish audience on Pentecost of having crucified
Jesus, and they said, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter
said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the
Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And when on another
occasion Peter was talking to a bunch of Gentiles about Jesus
crucified, risen from the dead, and coming to judge the living and the
dead, he said, “To Him all the prophets bear witness that
everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His
Name.” From these words you can see that Jesus does not
hate you, nor is He angry with you, nor has He come back from the dead
to pay you back for all the evil you’ve done to Him.
Instead, He’s come to give you gifts. Like Joseph, He
announces words of peace and comfort to you, His brothers. They
are the words of forgiveness and the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, what we did to Him was evil, but God worked through it for
good. Where our sins abounded, God’s grace in Christ
abounded all the more, and by trusting in that good that God was doing
through His Son on the cross, we have eternal life.
So, what about us and the evil that is inflicted
upon us? What about the evil that we have to suffer not only at
the hands of unbelievers, but even at the hands of our own brothers and
sisters in Christ when they sin against us? What lessons do both
Joseph and Christ teach us about this? First, we must understand
that because we are in Christ and belong to Him, we will suffer as He
did in this life. If our Lord, the Head of the Church, suffered
in this world, can we, His body, expect that we will escape
suffering? Jesus even promises that we will suffer in this
life. He says, “In this world you will have
tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the
world.” So, expect to suffer. The devil, the world,
and even your own sinful nature and that of your brothers and sisters
in Christ is against you. Because Jesus suffered, you will
too. But when you suffer, how can you view that suffering?
Do you conclude that God hates you, that He’s punishing you for
some sin, that He’s trying to destroy you? Or do you with
the Apostle Paul confess that God causes all things to work together
for good for those who love Him, for those who are called according to
His purpose? I’m sure Joseph didn’t see the good that
God was working through his trials while he was suffering them.
Neither did Job. You may not see yet the good that God is working
through your own suffering, but you can hold onto God’s promise
that He is indeed working everything together for your good. Like
Joseph you can say, “Those who intend to harm me may mean it for
evil, but God means it for my good.”
What does this teach us, then, about how we are to
deal with those people who sin against us, be they believers or
unbelievers? Joseph could have held a grudge against his brothers
and paid them back in kind, but he didn’t. Instead, he
forgave them. Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive
his brother when he sins against him. He thought seven times was
generous enough. Jesus, however, says 70 times 7. In other
words, keep on forgiving no matter how often a person sins against
you. Just as God has forgiven you all your sins against Him in
Christ, so you are to forgive those who sin against you. And
remember again, what harm can they do to you, if God is working even
through their evil behavior for your good? Just as Joseph could
give God thanks and praise for the good He had worked through the evil
that happened to him, so you too can give Him thanks and praise, first
and foremost for the good He’s accomplished through
Christ’s suffering for you and then also for the good He
accomplishes through your own suffering.
In the end, no matter what evil men or devils throw
at us, it cannot harm us, because God takes it and works through it for
our good. He worked our salvation through the evil done to
Christ, and He works our sanctification through the evil done to us,
using it along with His Word to conform us more and more into the image
of Christ. Jesus is our Joseph, who does not hate us nor pay us
back for our sins, but grants us His forgiveness, tells us not to fear,
comforts us with kind words, and promises to provide for us. So,
like Him, we will be little Josephs to those who sin against us, and in
so doing we’ll show ourselves to be Christ’s true
brothers. Amen.