Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of LifeSample

“And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Say to your brothers . . . go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land’” (Gen. 45:17–18). These words from Scripture should blow your mind. How could this kid, who had been sold to strangers by his brothers, ascend to such a place of power? And why would an Egyptian ruler care at all about an old man and his boys? This story goes places you wouldn’t expect.

Joseph is now second-in-command in Egypt and has overseen the storage of so much food and grain that the amount can no longer be measured. A famine has set in throughout all of what we now call the Middle East but, because of Joseph’s work, Egypt is rich with food. When Pharaoh hears that Joseph’s brothers are in Egypt, he tells Joseph to tell them to go home and bring back their father and their households. Pharaoh will provide them with everything they might need.

What is going on here? This is way more than a story about evil brothers and Joseph’s successful ascension to power in Egypt. This is a story about the power of God and his unshakable zeal to be faithful to his covenant promises. God will never let anything get in the way of what he has promised to do. He will never turn from what he has promised to do. But the way that he chooses to fulfill his great and precious promises will often confuse and surprise us. No one would have thought that selling Joseph into slavery would be the first step in God’s sovereign plan to preserve his covenant people. Without Joseph’s place in Egypt, Israel, and his sons would probably have died in poverty and starvation in Canaan, and the line of Abraham would be no more. There would be no descendants great in number, like the stars of the sky. There would be no nation of Israel. There would be no King David. There would be no Messiah born in Bethlehem. There would be no Jesus, resisting temptations and living a perfectly righteous life. There would be no perfect Lamb for a sacrifice on the cross. There would be no victorious resurrection. There would be no forgiving grace, no adopting grace, no transforming grace, no church, and no sin-free eternity.

Although at first read it might not look like it, God was writing the story of Joseph’s troubled life because he knew how much we need Jesus and his saving work on our behalf. He was being perfectly faithful to his covenant promises, preserving the line of Abraham, so he could give us the seed of Abraham, Jesus, who would come and save us from our sins. We’ll never make sense of our stories until we start with the power, presence, faithfulness, and grace of God.

For further study and encouragement: Numbers 23:18–24