Reconciliation and God’s Sovereign Goodness

Gen 50:15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 

16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

22 Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years 23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees.

24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Two key themes in <Gen 50>:

1. Reconciliation.
2. God’s sovereign goodness.

It is important in life to:

1. Be reconciled with God.
2. Be reconciled with men.
3. Lead men to be reconciled with God.

Are we fully reconciled with God?

• Reconciled with God:
  • Forgiven and saved by God.
  • Discover God’s love, repent, love God and like to obey God.

Are we also reconciled with men?

1) “Am I in the place of God?” <v19>

• Know our position well.
• Let God be the Judge.
• Even if others sin against us, it doesn’t give us the excuse to sin also.
• Humbly surrender to God’s sovereignty.
• Humble before men too.

2) “You intended harm, God intended good.” <v20>

(1) God’s sovereign goodness.

• Sin, not God, is to be blamed for the sufferings of the world.
• The assumption that all suffering is bad may not be always true: Think about the Cross.
• God promised us: “… in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.” <Ro 8:28>
• Elisabeth Elliot: “The experiences of my life are not such that I could infer from them that God is good, gracious and merciful necessarily… My belief in the love of God is not by inference or instinct. It is by faith.” 
• Put God’s sovereign goodness at the centre of our thinking.

(2) “You intended harm”: Speak the truth in love.

• So that people are not just set free from guilt, but will also grow in their character and relationship with God.
• Love is not just to forgive, but also to correct.
• Point the sinner to God, so that they too can be reconciled to God.

3) Don’t be afraid, I will provide for you <v21>.

• Being Christ-like is to go beyond forgiveness to acts of love.
• Since no man is perfect, be prepared to forgive, bless and help those who hurt us.