Genesis 45:7

As to the past, Joseph cannot allow any regrets to rise up and spoil their enjoyment of his love. "Now therefore," says Joseph, "do not be grieved or angry with yourselves that you sold me here" (verse 5). The sin had been confessed, and Joseph will not only forgive; he will remove every lingering regret and self-reproach. He assures them that behind their sin — yes, by means of their sin — God was working out His purposes of blessing. It is true, "You sold me here," Joseph has to say, but he adds, "God sent me before you to save your lives by a great deliverance." So he frees his brothers from being taken up with themselves. He engages their thoughts and affections with himself, with his glories, and with the blessings that flow to them through his exaltation.

You have been guilty, Joseph says, but God had a purpose in it.

So it was in that deeply moving scene between Joseph and his brothers recorded in Genesis 44 and 45. The guilty brothers must pass through deep and painful searching of heart. At last they stand in the presence of the brother they wronged, with the arrow of conviction piercing their inmost soul. Then, but not until then, these soothing words fall on their ears: "God sent me before you to preserve life… So it was not you that sent me here, but God."

"And God sent me before you to establish for you a remnant on the earth, and to preserve your lives by a great deliverance." Here was the true key. It was not merely the disclosure to Pharaoh and the rescue of Joseph, nor the general provision through the long plenty and the equally long famine. It was the carrying out of God's plans, revealed long before to Abram in Genesis 15. His ancient people would grow up out of the family of Jacob in a foreign land of bondage and affliction. The oppressing nation would be judged, and they themselves would come out with great wealth.

Also, God had sent Joseph down into Egypt to preserve on earth a posterity for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He knew what Joseph can hardly have known. Many centuries later, by human descent, the Christ would come from that family line — He who is over all, God blessed forever. Wherever we turn in Scripture, Christ is always before the mind of God. At this point Joseph was the instrument God used to preserve the line of descent that would in the end lead to Him.

Joseph was the great saviour of Old Testament days, one of the chief pictures of our Lord Jesus. The name Pharaoh gave him, when he raised him to be lord of all Egypt, carries the meaning of "the Saviour." When he made himself known to his brothers, he worked hard to assure them that God had raised him up to save them: "God sent me… to save your lives by a great deliverance" (Gen. 45:7). By the wisdom God gave him he became the source and centre of salvation to the whole world. At once Acts 4:12 comes to mind: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Joseph had saved their lives with a great deliverance (Gen. 45:7); he had put them in possession of "the best of the land" of Egypt, and he had fed them with bread (Gen. 47:12). For seventeen years they had received Joseph's generosity. They had been the special objects of his loving care. Yet when a crisis comes, it becomes clear that they have no personal knowledge of Joseph. They know something of his greatness and glory. They know the great work he has done. They know every blessing they enjoy comes from his position and work. But they had no personal acquaintance with his mind and heart.