SYNOPSIS

From Joseph's answer found in Genesis 50: 19-21, we note that There were no vengeance here, there were no animosity. Joseph treated his brothers with mercy, he treated them with loving kindness, he treated them with undeserved favor.

But the question is this: How does kindness and love and mercy and grace become cultivated in the heart of one so wickedly treated? How does this attitude of complete forgiveness and compassion and affection and provision and comfort and kindness come out of the heart of the one so horribly treated?

The answer is found in Joseph theology. He had a clear understanding that what his brothers had done to him is evil but though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good. He had a clear understanding that God was at work and God is in control and you can trust God for the outcome. It was his theology of the sovereign purpose and providence of God that generated the attitude of his heart. And that is the great lesson. Unless we see the big picture of what God is doing through the difficulties of life, the sufferings, the pains, the inequities, the injustices of life, we will miss the profound and foundational truth that God is using all of it for our ultimate good and His glory.

The big picture that Joseph saw was the reality that though they had mistreated him it was in the purpose of God. God did not condone their evil actions but God used it. And that purpose was so vast and so all encompassing and so far reaching and really to be staggering amazing. The bottom line: the LORD used Joseph suffering and his subsequent circumstances to accomplish His own sovereign purposes. Far bigger picture. God had a plan for the whole world: preserving the Christ's line; and in order to fulfill that plan for the world, He had a plan for the nation of Israel; and in order to fulfill the plan for the nation of Israel, He had a plan for Joseph; and all was tied together. His plan for His chosen people included their survival, their survival during the seven years famine. During those seven years of famine, they had no food in Israel. That brought them to Egypt where there were plenty of food. And when they arrived in Egypt, because of the greatness of Joseph, they were giving a land of their own, the best of land called the land of Goshen and for the next four centuries, that group of people would be transformed from a family into a nation.

Joseph suffered; he suffered repeatedly in his life; but the Bible never tells us that God was punishing him for sin. God did not condone the evil which were done to Joseph and he did not suffer because God was punishing him for sin; but he did suffered so that God can ultimately save sinners. They had to be a nation in Israel so that out of that nation could come the Messiah who will save the world.