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Pentecost 9, Year A, 8-14-11 Genesis 45:1-15 Psalm 133 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 Homecoming at Last The last time we saw Joseph he was sold into slavery in Egypt. He ended up being a servant in Potiphar’s home. Potiphar was the captain of the guard, a fairly prestigious position in Pharaoh’s administration. Things did not go well for Joseph at first. He did well in Potiphar’s household and eventually was put in charge of the household and was entrusted with everything. Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph but he was not interested. In her anger at being rebuffed she lodged a charge against Joseph of unwanted sexual advancements. Joseph was thrown into prison. The Lord was with Joseph and he eventually found favor with the prison warden. Sometime later Pharaoh threw his cupbearer and baker into prison because they had offended him. Joseph be befriended them. He asked them why they were in prison. They said they both had dreams but there was no one to interpret them. The cupbearer told Joseph his dream and Joseph gave him the interpretation. Joseph told him when all goes well with you remember me to Pharaoh so I can get out of prison. The chief cupbearer was restored to his position but he did not remember Joseph. Two full years passed. Pharaoh had a dream but no one could interpret it for him. The chief cupbearer then remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh he could interpret dreams. Joseph was brought before Pharaoh. He told Pharaoh, “I cannot interpret drams, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires” (Gen. 41:16). So Pharaoh told Joseph his dream. In this dream there were seven fat and sleek cows that came out of the river and then there were seven scrawny and ugly cows that came out of the river. Joseph said, “It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do “(v. 28). There will be seven years of great abundance through out Egypt. But then there will be seven years of famine. The famine will be severe. So Pharaoh selected Joseph to be Prime Minister of Egypt. He put together a plan to set aside enough wheat during the seven years of plenty so that there would be enough to feed people during the time of famine. This took place. There was seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. The famine spread from Egypt to Canaan where Jacob was living with his family. The famine was so bad that Jacob and his family were on the verge of starving. So Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to get food and supplies. It was in Egypt that Joseph was reunited with his brothers. We read of the account, “Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, ‘Have everyone leave my presence!’ So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it” (Gen. 45:12). The brothers did not recognize Joseph. It had been twenty years. Joseph had grown up. He also looked and dressed like an Egyptian. They were stunned. They were stunned at what they thought was the Prime Minister was weeping before them. They were clueless and trembling. Joseph said to his brother, “‘I am Joseph! Is my father still living?’ But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence” (v. 3). Through his tears, Joseph saw their paralyzing terror. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “‘Come close to me.’ When they had done so, he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to prepare for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God’” (vv. 4-8). Notice that there was not a hint of reproach, but only encouragement. It was apparent that Joseph had already forgiven his brothers. Joseph had spent the last two decades perpetually praying, thinking and rethinking what was going on – and that God had given him wisdom. Joseph saw the hand of God in his life situation. Just as Joseph had been given insight about the divine plan in the dreams of Pharaoh, he knew the divine plan in the affairs of his brothers. So now Joseph stripped away the superficial surface of human activity to reveal the hand of God. Four times Joseph mentions it was God who sent him to Egypt and raised him up in leadership. How comforting to know that their sin, though they had caused immense hurt to Joseph and their father and themselves, had not thwarted the plan of God but actually had been used to bring it about “to preserve life” and “to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.” Joseph was effecting reconciliation with his brothers. It was being made possible by two things: first his brother’s admission of guilt and repentance; and second, by Joseph’s forgiveness that had been encouraged and enabled by his knowledge of God’s providential care. Having calmed his brothers with the comfort of the knowledge of God and forgiveness, he commissioned them to bring back his father and his household. They would be able to settle in the land of Goshen which is a fertile area in the Nile delta. During the next five years of the famine this area would provide food to sustain Jacob and his family. And then the brothers wept and hugged each other. There was now reconciliation in the family. When Jacob received the news that Joseph was alive, we are told “the spirit of their father Jacob revived” (v. 27). For so many years Jacob had lived in despair and hopelessness. There were days when he thought that the God who had revealed himself to Jacob decades earlier had abandoned him. But when this news reached him, his spirit revived and he suddenly took on a new life. There was what we might say ‘a spring in his step.’ God had not abandoned him but in fact had always been with him working out his will and purpose. It was God who informed Joseph’s heart as to the ultimate good that would triumph over his brother’s evil deeds. And it was God who gave him the grace to forgive. Without forgiveness there would never have been reconciliation. In the New Testament we now see how the cross of Jesus overcame sin and evil and brought reconciliation between God and man. The apostle Paul writes, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Rom. 5:6-8, 10-11).