Genesis 45:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 45:4

Comments

To assure them of his good will, he invites them to come near to him. The shock is too great; he must repeat what he has said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.’ He does nothing to hide the enormity of their crime against him. When Christ pardons our sin, he does not minimise it in any way, because that would be to minimise the greatness of his mercy to us. Forgiveness is as great as it is, because our sin is as dire as it is. Conversion is a time of incomparable joy, not because sins are not real, but because real sins are no longer reckoned against us. Joseph’s new demeanour matches this wonderful truth. When he who would have been their judge makes himself known as their benefactor, who else is going to do them any harm? ‘Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us’ (Romans 8:34).Their response must have been silence, deep shock, and confusion. If any artist were to paint this scene, it would have to be done with the brothers open mouthed, speechless, thunderstruck, drawing back from him. But immediately he comforts them. He doesn’t want them to remain in suspense about his benevolence towards them. He uses this name and calls himself their brother to make them draw near to him with confidence. He had not used that name before.How can he be kind to them under the circumstances? They are going to have trouble believing this. It is because Joseph is not seeing things from his own personal point of view, but has learned to set aside his just complaints and focus on what God is doing. God is doing something wonderful. The breadth and farsightedness of the divine plan is awe-inspiring. When we consider that the final outcome in all its detail was all along in God’s original conception, and when we think of all the steps along the way and how obscure things were at times, we praise God’s work. Joseph could only see the complete picture right at the end. He had been sent ahead of his brothers by God with the intention that not only should many in Egypt be delivered from famine, but his own family should be saved. The descendants of Israel were to be preserved in the earth and given a remnant.Joseph says that they did not send him there. He has been reflecting much on these things and he is far ahead of them in his understanding, yet even he is learning what God is doing as events unfold, and seeing the foresight of the God. Of course, they did send him to Egypt, but, now that they are so humbled, he wants to alleviate their sense of guilt. The time for forgiveness has come, and, in spite of their wickedness, God was bringing good out of it. That does not excuse their sin, but they must look upon it as sin forgiven, because God has brought good out of evil. If God has done this, then even though they acted with evil intent, the outcome of their actions has been turned into good, and no harm has come from it. Joseph can afford to love his brothers. We take responsibility for all our actions, but God works all things for the good of his people. God has elevated Joseph to this high office, after years of preparation, and made him ruler of all Egypt, and a father to Pharoah. That is a remarkable expression – God made Joseph one who would bring good to Pharoah, this foreign ruler.We must grieve when we realise how we have treated the Lord and how much suffering we have caused him. But he comforts us by reminding us that it was God’s purpose that he should suffer, and that God has brought a great deliverance out of it. The parallels are so obvious that it is hard to deny them. Of all the patriarchs, Joseph is the most comprehensive type of Christ. Very little that is evil is recorded about him. Not that he was without sin, but from beginning to the end, his life is full of details which have typical significance. Even the relationship between Pharaoh and Joseph answers typically to the relationship between the Father and the Son. The Son blesses us because he loves us, but the Father also commands that we should be blessed, and the Son further blesses us in active obedience to the Father.

Application

Joseph comforts them against the memory of their sins, just as God comforts us with forgiveness. Calvin says, ‘By this example we are taught to take heed lest sadness should overwhelm those who are truly and seriously humbled under a sense of shame.’ Christ assures us that in all things God is sovereign, so that even our life of sin against him has led to the point where we have come to know him, and he sent ahead of us to save us.

God has sent Christ ahead of us to save us. Many of us were not born into the world until long after he came into the world. We trust in the Lord and discover that he has paid the price for our sins before we were even born. Others lived before the incarnation, but even they found that God had loved them and chosen them before the foundation of the world, having conceived the plan of salvation, to deliver them from condemnation. Fuller draws attention to the parallel between the brothers’ intent to harm Joseph which had worked for his good, and the evil intent to the Jews to kill Christ which has provided an atonement for the sins of the whole world.

No one can do anything to thwart the purposes of God. If the worst that devils and men do to God’s children only serves to bring about his will, what need we to fear. There are too many examples of this in Scripture for us to think that some new circumstance that we meet with is going to be an exception.

Questions

Calvin gives solemn warnings to any who might reason that because God has turned their evil acts to a good end, no blame attaches to them for those acts. Conversely, he warns against those who would blame God with the actions of evil men. ‘Although [God] seems, at the commencement, to do the same thing as the wicked; yet there is a wide distance between their wickedness and his admirable judgment.’

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Genesis 45:4 Commentary and Bible Study