Genesis 50: Evil to Good

​Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. 
 
4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’ ” 6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. 12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
God’s Good Purposes
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. 
The Death of Joseph
22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own. 24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. 
 
Meditation
God’s sovereign grace transforms attempts of evil into good and glory. God works in ways we would never imagine, using circumstances we would never script.
 
Jacob dies and his offspring who had been promised the land of Canaan returned to Egypt after his burial (1-14). Genesis began with God’s beautiful creation and ends with Joseph in a coffin (26). The light is now dark. Life is now death. The garden is now exile in Egypt.
 
Buried in the soil of frustrating life in a fallen world is the seed of God’s sovereign grace. Joseph’s brothers fear their father’s death will be a death sentence for themselves, repenting to Joseph using three different, powerful, words for sin: “transgression…sin…evil.” (17) Joseph re-orients the whole narrative by pointing the climax to God- Joseph was not God (19) and none of us understands God’s ways.
 
God uses evil for good (20). God uses the trafficking, slavery, and injustice of Joseph’s story so that “many people may be kept alive.”
 
The end of Genesis is not the end of the story. Scripture’s redemptive narrative climax centers on the person and work of Jesus who, in His moment of crisis, re-orients the whole narrative of Scripture to the truth of God working good and glory through sin and suffering.
 
Jesus was an innocent man who suffered and died as a criminal. Jesus rose from the grave, redeeming suffering and fueling hope for all who trust in Him. God is sovereign, actively using evil for the good of His people and the glory of His name.
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from this narrative, especially how God demonstrates His sovereignty over Joseph’s story through Joseph’s words in vs 20?
 
-Why is it difficult to believe that God is sovereign in this way, to use the evil of this world for the good of His people and the glory of His name?
 
-How does the finished work of Jesus, the One who entered into suffering to redeem suffering and death to be tools for life and love, fuel your faith and empower hope? Where do you need to believe this reality in your life? Be specific.
 
Key Verse
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.