Daily Devotionals

Peace Week 3: Saturday

But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Genesis 50:19-20

Can you imagine the moment? Joseph’s brothers come to him begging his forgiveness. He had previously reconciled with his brothers after selling him into slavery in Egypt, but things were different now. Their father had died. The brothers were worried that Joseph’s forgiveness was only to make their dad happy, and they were fearful that now that their father had died, Joseph would finally show revenge. So instead, Joseph doubled down on his love and forgiveness towards them, telling them he saw how God brought good out of the evil they meant against him. 

Joseph’s brothers found themselves at a breaking point in Genesis 50. Fearful that Joseph would finally take revenge on them for selling him into slavery, they sent a message to him. In this message, they begged him for forgiveness. Hearing this message, Joseph wept. Finally, his brothers came over to him. He looked at them and said, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (verses 19-20). These are some of the most profound verses in Scripture. We learn how Joseph offered forgiveness and trusted God amidst many obstacles in these verses. Joseph persevered, forgave, and lived his life above reproach because he saw the bigger picture that God often works in ways we cannot see. He takes even our worst moments and does good things despite bad, hard, and difficult situations. In short, Joseph trusted His plan because He knew God’s character and trusted Him. As a result, he remained faithful through everything.

Joseph knew he served a faithful God and, as a result, lived faithfully and followed Him. What about you and me? We, too, serve a faithful God. He is in control. He is all-powerful. He brings good out of all of the hard things we face. Will you trust Him today?

Moving toward action

Sometimes our past situations are our best reminders of God’s power and control in our lives. How have you seen God use even the hard things you walked through to bring good? Make a list of at least 5 things. After making your list, spend some time thanking God for how He has worked in your life. If there is an area you are waiting for Him to bring good out of a hard situation, tell Him. Ask Him to work specifically in that area, and tell Him that you trust Him to do just that. 

Going Deeper

Genesis 50:1-26 (NLT)

Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Jacob was embalmed. The embalming process took the usual forty days. And the Egyptians mourned his death for seventy days.

When the period of mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh’s advisers and said, “Please do me this favor and speak to Pharaoh on my behalf. Tell him that my father made me swear an oath. He said to me, ‘Listen, I am about to die. Take my body back to the land of Canaan, and bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself.’ So please allow me to go and bury my father. After his burial, I will return without delay.”

Pharaoh agreed to Joseph’s request. “Go and bury your father, as he made you promise,” he said. So Joseph went up to bury his father. He was accompanied by all of Pharaoh’s officials, all the senior members of Pharaoh’s household, and all the senior officers of Egypt. Joseph also took his entire household and his brothers and their households. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen. A great number of chariots and charioteers accompanied Joseph.

When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn memorial service, with a seven-day period of mourning for Joseph’s father. The local residents, the Canaanites, watched them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad. Then they renamed that place (which is near the Jordan) Abel-mizraim, for they said, “This is a place of deep mourning for these Egyptians.”

So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them. They carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the cave that Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

 

After burying Jacob, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father’s burial. But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.

So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.

But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.

So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.

“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.” So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.