Genesis

Genesis 45: God sent Joseph to preserve life

Begin in prayer

Before we read how God sent Joseph ahead to preserve his family, let us thank Him for His wise and merciful rule. Please ask Him to show us Christ, whose finished work brings guilty sinners into peace with God.

Praise our God, you peoples! Make the sound of his praise heard, who preserves our life among the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved.

Psalm 66:8-9

Father, help us understand Your purpose through this family's wrongs and needs. Show us Jesus and the mercy secured by His cross and resurrection. Make us more like Him, ready to speak honestly, forgive and seek peace. Please bless our family with faith in Christ and thankful hearts for the care You give. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Joseph reveals himself privately to his brothers, weeps aloud and invites the terrified men near. He names their sale of him and explains that God sent him ahead to preserve life through the famine, which has five years remaining. He sends for Jacob to live near him in Goshen, promises food and embraces his brothers, who then speak with him. Pharaoh welcomes the family and supplies wagons, while Joseph adds clothes, gifts and food and warns the brothers not to quarrel on their way. They tell Jacob that Joseph lives and rules Egypt, and his spirit revives as he hears Joseph's words and sees the wagons. Jacob resolves to go and see his living son before he dies.

As you read Genesis 45, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God sent Joseph ahead to preserve his family, giving life and welcome through the brother they sold.

Joseph sends the attendants away, weeps aloud and tells the brothers who he is, leaving them too terrified to answer. He invites them near and names their sale of him, then explains that God sent him ahead to preserve life. Two years of famine have passed, and five remain without ploughing or harvest, so their need reaches far beyond this visit. God's purpose preserves a remnant of the promised family, while the brothers remain responsible for the wrong they chose. Joseph credits God with his authority and sends for his father to live near him in Goshen, where he will provide food. His embrace and tears reach Benjamin and all his brothers, and afterward the men who once could not speak peaceably with him speak again. Pharaoh welcomes the household, supplies wagons, and promises the good of Egypt, while Joseph adds clothing, gifts and food for the road. Joseph warns against quarrelling on their journey, and their report and the wagons revive Jacob, who resolves to see his living son. God rules even over human wickedness, as the cross shows, where Christ's enemies carried out His saving purpose (Acts 4 verses 27 and 28).

How does Genesis 45 show us that God sent Joseph ahead to preserve his family, giving life and welcome through the brother they sold?

God preserves life through the brother who was sold.

Joseph tells the brothers that they sold him and that God sent him ahead to keep them alive. The famine has five years remaining, and God has placed their brother where he can provide food. God's saving purpose makes their guilt plain and gives them a reason to receive mercy. The cross shows His certain purpose through guilty human choices, and Christ receives sinners who repent and trust Him.

God gives welcome through Joseph's care for his family.

Joseph asks them near, embraces Benjamin and kisses all his brothers, who afterward talk with him. He sends for Jacob to live near him in Goshen and receive food through the remaining famine. Pharaoh's welcome and Joseph's gifts provide transport and supplies for the whole household. Christ reconciles believers to God through His death and keeps them through His risen life (Romans 5 verse 10).

God gives good news that revives a grieving father.

The brothers return with news that Joseph lives and rules Egypt, yet Jacob at first cannot believe them. Their account of Joseph's words and the sight of his wagons revive Jacob's spirit, and he resolves to see his son. His long grief has rested on a loss that God was already overruling to preserve the family.

God's mercy gives His people reason to seek peace.

Joseph sends his brothers away with provision and tells them not to quarrel on the road. Their journey follows his embrace and gifts, so obedience responds to the welcome already given. Those whom Christ has forgiven should forgive each other, because His mercy shapes their life together (Colossians 3 verse 13).

Memorise

God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

Genesis 45:7

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what wrong am I excusing that I need Jesus to forgive and change?

Joseph tells the terrified brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth”. He names their sale of him, then invites them near, embraces them and provides for their journey. God's purpose has brought help through the brother they wronged, and Jacob will hear that his son lives.

At the cross Christ's enemies acted wickedly while carrying out God's determined saving purpose (Acts 4 verses 27 and 28). Jesus willingly endured the judgment due to His people and paid their debt with His own blood. God raised Him, and His finished work is enough to reconcile every sinner who trusts Him. The living Savior receives guilty people through the sacrifice He has completed.

Please turn from the sin you have excused because some good followed it, and trust Jesus Christ. Everyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith receives forgiveness and peace with God. If you belong to Him, confess the wrong plainly and seek peace with those you have hurt. The Lord who forgave you can teach you to forgive and to speak with kindness again.

Parent's note

Tell your children that God sent Joseph to preserve life while the brothers remained guilty of selling him. Jesus bore His people's punishment and rose, so call each child to repent and trust Him for forgiveness and peace. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Pray that God would give them new hearts that receive His mercy and seek peace with others.

Pray together

Please confess the wrong named in the heart question and seek mercy through Jesus. Thank God for His purpose to save sinners through His Son, and ask Him to help your family seek peace. Invite each child to pray if they want to, thanking Him for His care or asking forgiveness.

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

Romans 5:10

Father, thank You for ruling with wisdom and mercy and for sending Jesus to reconcile sinners to You. Please forgive the wrongs we excuse and the quarrels we keep alive. Please turn our family from excuses and quarrels and lead each of us to trust Jesus. Help us speak honestly, forgive one another and give thanks for Your care through sorrow and need. Amen.