Day 12 – August 13, 2025: Genesis 42-47

It is within these scenes of the story of Jacob where we see the hand of God at work in a way that should be didactic to us. Look at 45:8 where Joseph tells his brothers it is not you who sold me here, but it was God so that a heritage could be established for my father’s house. The evil that the brothers did was turned into the deciding factor for how God was going to save His people as the years progressed. Can you imagine Joseph being able to not only forgive his brothers but to actually place them in a position where they were given the choicest land and given an opportunity to not only survive but to thrive? This is what happened.

In no way is this meant to justify sin. What the brothers did was not only sinful but also cruel and vicious. Let’s look at a real life example. The Holocaust was one of the most horrific modern day events. The cruelty and the evil that it took to allow that to happen and to make that happen is unfathomable in our eyes. But as a result of this historical evil it most probably launched the world opinion in order to create a land for the people of Israel in the modern day. The nation of Israel was created by the United Nations in large part because of the atrocities that the Jewish people experienced. It is almost like a modern day Joseph story. Joseph was able to reign over Egypt and so provide a home for his family because of the evil under which he was subjugated.

Now, unfortunately, not every people group who has experienced wrong and genocide gets their own land or is rewarded later in history. There should always be some kind of historical recompense for those who have suffered. We have our own story of suffering and subjugating people within our own country. We started with the Native Americans whose land we took. We moved on to the African whom we enslaved. All of this is not ancient history, it is our history and we have not done that which is righteous as a result, and we should. We still have time.