Redemptive Thoughtfulness

“Joseph remembered his dreams about them.” (Genesis 42:9 CSB)

Joseph was about 17 years old when his brothers sent him off into slavery in Egypt. He pleaded for them to not do that, but they had had enough of his arrogance and insolence. Rather than kill him, they sold him into slavery. When the famine came to Egypt, however, and Joseph was by then in charge of managing the food stores for all Egypt, his brothers one day showed up at his door. At this time Joseph was about 30 years old, married, and had a couple of children. His life was doing quite well, and he had had time for the painful memories to be placed well in the back of his mind. Until that day, at least.

We sometimes have the idea that Joseph never really thought about what happened all that much, and that he was pretty much redemptive about everything throughout. We think that in part because he later made a statement to his brothers that they intended it for evil, but God intended those events for good. In reality, however, it appears to be somewhat different.

When his brothers showed up, Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him. He treated them harshly at first, on the pretense of accusing them of being spies. He put them in prison. He released them after three days, and told them that he would keep one of them in prison until they returned with their youngest brother, Benjamin, to prove their sincerity. He selected Simeon.

Joseph was in the midst of exacting some revenge on his brothers, and he had both the power and the right to do so based on what they had done to him, in terms of the laws of the day at least. However, there is that little statement quoted above, “Joseph remembered his dreams about them.” Presumably, this is the dream where their sheaves of grain bowed down to his.” It would seem that this was the point where God began to speak to Joseph about His purposes for allowing him to go into Egypt. Likely, God began to show Joseph the redemptive purposes He had in mind for his father and all his other family members. Over the next months he had further opportunity to reflect on the events of his life, and that fact that God had placed him at this high government position, and that is the point where he very likely began to see things more clearly.

All of us probably have had events in our lives that we have not understood. We may have been angry at God and toward others who hurt us. We may not have understood why God would allow those events to come our way. What we need to understand, however, is that the God we serve is capable of redeeming any and every situation if we will allow Him to. And it is in the redeeming of the situation that we begin to see a glimpse of the redemptive power of God. When we begin to reflect and think about our life events with the Spirit of God guiding us, some truth begins to come into focus, eventually at least, and we then reach a point where we can move forward in trusting God’s purposes for us.

Father, We confess that we do not always understand Your purposes, but we know You and we trust You. And for that reason, we trust Your redemptive purposes as well. Amen.