You meant evil but God meant it for good

Genesis 50:15-21 NASB

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!"  So they sent  a message  to Joseph, saying, "Your father charged before he died, saying,  ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, "Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong."’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.  Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."  But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?  "As for you, you meant evil against me,  but  God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.  "So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

My thoughts -

I love these words Joseph speaks to his brothers. While it may seem odd that they would fear their brother after all had done for them, their fear becomes more understandable if you consider their guilt. Their sin against Joseph seems to have stuck with them longer than it has him. When Joseph encountered and briefly imprisoned them as spies when they came to Egypt looking to buy food, although they did not know their captor was their brother, they accepted their punishment. They accepted it as they had done wrong. They knew they would face God's judgement for their sin against Joseph.

Here they seem to still have a guilty conscience all these years later. Decades have passed. I'm sure someone more qualified than I can do the math but I figure it has been at least thirty years from the point that they sold Joseph into slavery until this point. It says that Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years, all of which were after Joseph was restored to him. Plus you have all the time that Joseph lived as a slave, then imprisoned, and then in the service of Pharaoh. The point here is that Joseph's brothers have spent decades waiting for the other shoe to drop and knowing they deserve it.

Now that their father Jacob is dead they freak out. They still believe Joseph will have his revenge. They live in guilt and fear. They know they were wrong. And so they do the thing that I would hope we all can learn to do. They admitted their sin and asked to be forgiven. They confessed to the one they harmed their guilt for that harm and they asked to be forgiven. Their attitude this whole time betrays that they believe that they do not deserve this forgiveness. They deserve to be punished. They have it coming. And yet they beg for forgiveness. And, maybe to their surprise but not to ours they receive forgiveness.

Joseph is moved by this apology that is most of his lifetime in the making. Joseph wept when his brothers came to him with their apology. And then he forgave them. He didn't just shrug off their offense. He didn't just say it was no big deal. He didn't say not to worry about it. Joseph admits that his brothers did an evil thing to him. And then, seeing the redemptive work of God that came out of it, he turns the whole thing on its head.

You meant evil, Joseph says, but God turned that evil into good. You meant harm but God turned it into blessing. You meant wrong but God made it right.

God took this horrible, dysfunctional situation and blessed and redeemed it. That's what God does. God takes the mess of our lives and makes it right. God fixes our mistakes. God redeems our failures. God takes our wrongs and rights them.

Joseph sees the work that God has done in this situation and shows it to his brothers. And in doing so he not only forgives them the wrong that they did to him but he releases them from a lifetime of guilt. Their sin isn't glossed over or swept under the rug. It isn't "no big deal". But it is forgiven. It is redeemed. They are restored. And they no longer have to live in fear, shame, and guilt.

They have been set free from their sin.