Today’s passage: Genesis 45:1-28
Helpful thoughts:
- Joseph had tested his brothers intensely. When they (Especially Judah) refused to give their brother up, he couldn’t contain himself any longer. It was time to let them know who he was.
- Joseph makes it clear, he believes God put him in Egypt to save their family.
- “It was not you who sent me here, but God.” This is a statement of Joseph’s faith and belief in the providence of God.
- There was only one man in all of Egypt who could tell Joseph what to do. Pharaoh commanded Joseph to bless his family and bring them to Egypt in order to prosper.
Questions to consider:
- How many things did Joseph attribute to God in this passage?
- How did Jacob take the news of Joseph’s survival and new job? Remembering the “Heart” can refer to the inner man (The immaterial spirit or mind of a man), what would it have been like for Jacob’s “heart” to go numb and then for him to “revive?”
- Previously, we have considered how Judah pictured Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice. Now we look to Joseph. How did Joseph’s humbling journey into a place that was not his home to save/preserve a remnant of people point forward to Jesus?