‘God Sent Me Before You’

And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.

Genesis 45:4&5

God sees the end from the beginning, and has ‘foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.’ God used human hands to thrust Joseph into the forge. He fashioned Joseph into a Christ-like character, with many hard hammer blows. He tempered him in the quench of the oil of the Providence of God. God sent him to Egypt, well ahead of his family, to be their well-prepared savior. He faced them with their sin. He brought about repentance and reconciliation. He then graciously made a place for them and provided for them. So God does with us. He puts us into the hardest of circumstances, often by using the bad behavior of wicked people. He hammers us with blow after blow of hardships to form us into the exact shape He knows will be most useful to accomplish His Divine purpose. He conforms us to the Image of Christ, that we might reflect His Holy Character. He leads us, step by step, to do all that will bring Him the most Glory. It’s often not until the end of things that we begin to understand the value and importance of all of those hard and harsh experiences. Let us dwell today upon the way in which God formed Joseph into a Christ-like character. Let us move from Joseph to Christ. Let us see, in Christ, the Ultimate End to Whom God is conforming us, by all of these experiences.

Our Wise and Sovereign God,
we praise You, that in all of Your history, of being God,
You have never made a mistake with one of Your children,
and that You will not begin with us.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Held Accountable

Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us.” But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.

Genesis 42:21-23

Christ holds people accountable for their deeds. Joseph was the Prime Minister of Egypt. Jacob, his father, sent his brothers to Egypt to buy grain. The brothers did not recognize Joseph. Joseph held them accountable for their sin. Before there could be reconciliation with Joseph, there had to be repentance on the part of his brothers. To effect that repentance, Joseph faced them with their sin. He accused them of being spies. He put them all into prison for three days. He incarcerated Simeon for as long as it took them to return with Benjamin, the youngest brother. He arranged to have his personal property hidden in Benjamin’s sack. He threatened to incarcerate Benjamin until his brothers literally begged for mercy. It was why, after they repented, that Joseph reconciled with them and restored fellowship with them. He forgave them after their repentance. So it is with Christ. Forgiveness follows repentance. He stands, ever willing to forgive; is entirely disposed to forgive, but only grants forgiveness after repentance. This is a hard lesson to learn. This is Apostolic truth. Paul, speaking of his ministry declares that he had been, ‘testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.’  We will not receive forgiveness from God, and have reconciliation with God, till we have shown repentance toward God. Let us, today, embrace a whole God, a whole Bible, and a whole Christ. If we are estranged from Him, He stands ready to forgive and reconcile. He calls upon us to repent.

Our most Gracious and Kind God,
we rejoice that Your Goodness leads us to repentance.
We pray, that we will understand Your Holy Character,
and embrace You as our Whole God in every way.

Tomm Tice

Where the Bush is Burning

Into The Forge

Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it….Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Genesis 37: 24&28

God forges, fits, and fashions all the tools which He uses to accomplish His Divine Plan and Purpose. No one of holy character springs from the Head of Jehovah, fully formed. This is no less true for Joseph. Before Joseph could be the savior of Israel, he must undergo the forging from the Master’s Hand, which would conform Him to the Image of Christ. There was much of the ‘pride of life,’ particularly, that God would remove from him before he could become the instrument of God’s salvation to others. The God Who ‘foreordained whatsoever comes to pass,’ had chosen Joseph’s brothers to be the ones who would thrust Joseph into the ‘furnace of affliction,’ out of which God would ‘choose’ him. When Jacob sent Joseph to see his brothers in Dothan there was the previous episode in the background, when Joseph had, in effect, been a talebearer against his brothers. That, mixed with Jacob’s partiality, and Joseph’s unwise disclosure, produced a prejudice from his brothers which provoked them to throw him into a dry pit, and then sell him as a slave. This does not excuse their behavior in any way, but it enables us to see how God uses ‘the wrath of men to praise Him.’ He would use the wicked deeds of these unrighteous men to forge, fit and fashion Joseph into a useful tool to accomplish His Purpose. So, God may use wicked people to thrust us into His forge until He conforms us to the Image of Christ.

Our most Gracious God, and Wise Father,
we rejoice that You know the temperature to which You must heat us,
and that every hammer blow of life,
comes from the Gracious Loving Hand of our most Skillful Master.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning