Download The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2011

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).