The Book of Genesis
Part 103
Chapter 50:15-26
A man’s greatness does not emanate from his position but from his personality. It is not how much he governs that makes him important but how gracious he is. Haughtiness discredits a man, but humility distinguishes a gentleman. How true these maxims were in the case of Joseph! His true greatness was never so manifest than when after his father’s death, disturbed by the incredulity of his brethren, he assured them of his forgiveness.
Did his brethren judge him to be such as they? Did they expect that with the removal of their father and the influence of his maturity and love, Joseph would at last seek revenge? Had they forgotten that he had fully and generously forgiven them before he had been reunited to his father? Obviously, they had. Nevertheless, their unbelief and Joseph’s benevolence illustrate clearly not only the security of the believer in Christ, but the conscious assurance of that security. Let us consider this, the closing section of Genesis, in just such a manner.
Conviction Of Sin
As these men spoke among themselves there were three stages in the process of their thinking.
Memory: They spoke of “all the evil which we did unto him.” They recalled the hardness of their hearts and of their wickedness toward Joseph. The circumstance drew from the files of memory the dark deeds of the years that had passed.
Conscience: They not only recalled their past actions among themselves, but they called them trepasses as they appealed to Joseph through their messenger. They justly suffered from a serious guilt complex, and faced the reality of their guilt. What once to them seemed a great success, was now only sin. Thank God for the promptings of conscience!
Reason: Fear of reprisals filled their hearts, for they said, “Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil that we did unto him.” Reason could lead them to only this one conclusion. Conscience convicted them of sin, and reason convinced them of its penalty. Under the pressure of conscience and reason Joseph’s brethren sought some means to determine his attitude toward them; they looked for a mediator.
A Mediator
The messenger the brothers chose to represent them prepared the way for these conscience-stricken individuals to appear before Joseph, and to deal directly with him. Job longed for such an one to stand between God and him. The Apostle Paul points to the divine answer to Job’s wish: “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). All must eventually deal with God, but we have in Christ One who in His death made intercession for the transgressors (Isa. 53:12).
Joseph
Joseph acts the part, not of a brother, but of a saviour. True, they had caused him to pass through a dreadful experience, but behind their hatred, and behind the circumstances that resulted from that evil, he traced the hand of the Lord. He said to them, “Ye thought evil against me: but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” By divine guidance he had been sent before them as a deliverer. How this reminds us of the teaching of the New Testament: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
His Brethren
In order to understand the magnanimity of Joseph’s act, we must look again at his brothers. Several salient points suggests themselves as we consider them in his presence:
Their fear: There lingered in their minds the fear of reprisal. Sin makes cowards of all. How real are the deductions of the Apostle Paul as he wrote about the Gentiles. “When the Gentiles, which have not the law (the ten commandments), do by nature the things contained in the law,… shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (Rom. 2:14-15).
Their plea: “Forgive,” they ask, “the trespass of the servants of the God of thy fathers.” Do they indicate by these words a change of heart? Do they now consider that when they did the evil to him, they were the servants of sin? Is there an intimation here that they had now become the servants of God, that they thought differently and acted differently? One thing is obvious, in asking for pardon they do not even hint at the basis upon which a righteous pardon might be granted them. They left Joseph to provide the ground upon which he could be gracious to them.
In dealing with mankind God has provided for Himself a righteous ground upon which to extend a full pardon: “Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24-26).
Their hope: “Behold, we be thy servants.” How like the prodigal son in our Lord’s story whose highest hope was to be like one of his father’s hired servants (Luke 15:11-24). The father did not treat the prodigal son that way, nor did Joseph treat his brothers that way.
Their Security
The princely generosity of Joseph is seen in every word he spoke to these repentant men. His words were those of comfort, assurance and peace.
The comfort: “He comforted them, and spake kindly (Heb. to their hearts. Marginal reading) unto them.”
The assurance: How assuring are his words, “God meant it unto good, … to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones.”
The peace: “Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” By his question Joseph seems to imply that he too is human, and therefore cannot condemn. With this sense of his own weakness, he fully forgave them all.