Transformed by God's Sovereign Grace

"So it was not you who sent me here, but God" (Gen 45:8)

Both Joseph and Judah experience God's transforming grace through the tragedy of betrayal -- not because they have to, but because they choose by faith to submit to God and trust him. Judah, who devises the plan to sell Joseph into slavery (37:26), experiences his share of suffering after the betrayal -- losing two sons who the Bible says are so wicked the Lord takes their lives (38:7). His own life is immoral and brings dishonor to his family. Yet, he repents and years later offers his own life in place of his brother's. Joseph lives as an alien and stranger in Egypt for years, suffering many hardships and injustices, before being reunited with his brothers. Yet when he is tempted to seek revenge he chooses  instead by faith to relent, testifying to his confidence in God's plan to use their intended evil for his good and to sustain their family (45:7).

Two very different men with different roles in the family and in God's story -- yet they both learn to surrender fleshly striving and submit to God's sovereign grace. We see the beauty of this transformation in Judah when he returns from Egypt and pleads with his Father to choose life instead of death by allowing Benjamin to return with them. He sacrificially offers his own life as a pledge for his brother's safety (43:9). And when he is confronted with the possibility of Benjamin's death, Judah boldly goes before Joseph, pleading for his brother's life for the sake of his Father and following through on his promise, "Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers" (44:33). 

God uses Judah's transformed life of humility, commitment to truth and the desire to honor his Father as an instrument of righteousness to soften Joseph's heart and bring him to repentance (Rom 12:21). Instead of doing what felt right, Joseph chooses by faith to submit to God's plan and return good for evil. In place of declaring his victim status, he testifies to the greater reality of God's goodness in all of his suffering, "And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors" (45:7). By faith, he realizes that it was God, and not his brothers, who sent him to Egypt and honored him there - making him "a father to Pharaoh...lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt" (45:8).

I'm reminded today to relinquish my right to understand and to get justice, trading it for the greater portion of the God's sovereign grace and his assurance that he will work all things together for my good and his glory -- as I trust in him (Rom 8:28).  

 Humility and the Fear of the Lord

"Do this and live, for I fear God" (Gen 42:18)

In reading Genesis 41-42 today, I saw how God was able to use years of slavery and imprisonment to teach Joseph how to walk in the fear of the Lord. His mindset beautifully reflected submission and humility as he gave stipulations to his brothers and responded to Pharaoh about interpreting his dreams declaring, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer" (41:6). While Joseph knew that any ability to discern truth from a dream could never come from following his own heart (40:8), he also trusted that God was willing and able to speak through him. Pharaoh also saw that Joseph was a "discerning and wise" man not because he was so amazing, but because the "Spirit of God" was indwelling him (41:38:39).

I'm reminded afresh today that true humility is not diminishing the gifting and graces that God has given us but instead a desire and commitment to magnify God rather than ourselves as we use them for his glory (Col 3:23). This kind of humility is inextricably linked to the fear of the Lord, which God says is the "beginning of wisdom" (Prov 9:10). As we humble ourselves before him, standing in awe of his greatness and power, his Spirit reminds us (like he did Joseph) that apart from him we can do nothing, but that in and through him we can do all things (Jn 15:5, Phil 4:13). 

God's Abounding Grace

Genesis 38-40

In reading through Genesis 38-40 today, I was newly reminded of the Lord's ongoing blessings in Jospeh's life as I traced the thread of his abounding grace, woven through deep betrayals and seemingly hopeless situations. As he sat at the bottom of a pit, God graciously delivered him from death and to a possibly safer place than with his jealous brothers. When he was locked up in a prison cell, God provided a divine appointment with the cupbearer who later spoke of him to the Pharaoh. As he rose to leadership in a foreign country away from his family, God positioned him to rescue them from famine and death. In his absolute, unchanging goodness, God never desired for his brothers to sell him into slavery or for Pharaoh's wife to lie about him or for the cupbearer to break his promise. But at the same time, he sovereignly used these evils to fulfill his even better plans. What looked like a series of unfortunate events were instead God's tools for blessing, which Joseph eventually realized and testified to in the presence of his brothers. 

God was able to use the horrible -- hatred, betrayal, slavery, slander, isolation, prison and living in exile -- to fulfill his covenantal promises to Joseph and his family as he transformed these evils by his abounding grace. Jospeh's life was blessed and full of grace, not just when he was elevated to leadership in Egypt, but even before he was "knit together in [his] mother's womb" (Ps 139:13-14). God's hesed love could and would not be hindered by intense suffering or persecution. In fact, these difficulties only worked to shine a greater light on God's grace and favor. 

Like Joseph, all of us who are "in Christ" have his promise of covenantal faithfulness and the assurance that his loving plans for us cannot be thwarted. He guarantees us that no on can take us from his hand (Jn 10:28-30) and that he is able to use all that is bad in our lives -- the betrayals, injustices and suffering -- to bless us and bring glory to his name (Rom 8:28). Our challenge, like Joseph's, is to resist the urge to define God's character and purpose for our lives based on our circumstances rather than allowing his proven love and abounding grace to be the starting point for all our understanding (Prov 3:5-6). 

Joseph had a choice to put his trust in his circumstances or to keep his eyes on God, and he chose the greater portion. When circumstances threaten to define us as victims and God as anything other that who he says he is, we can choose by faith to resist by standing on God's promises and trusting in his proven character, declaring with complete confidence that "The Lord is upright, he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him" (Ps 92:15).

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2 Cor 9:8).