A Mighty Understatement Joseph’s simple statement to his brothers that he was “not in the place of God” is pregnant with meaning. For one, Joseph did not see himself as one to bring retributive justice against his siblings for their past abuses – that was God’s business. His duty in that regard was simply to forgive them. It was also a statement about God’s absolute sovereignty and his personal trust in it. Not only did he understand that God was in control of all the details of his life, but he knew that even the bad things that happened to him were part of His perfect plan not only for his personal good – but also for the good of others. It takes an extraordinary measure of grace to grasp and then trust like this just as it did to forgive like he did. God will grant us that measure of grace too if we trust Him to do so. We do, of course, see in this scenario one of the clearest types of Christ in the entire Old Testament. But we don’t want to miss the fact that kind of personal piety that gripped Joseph is something that we should all desire to attain to. Joseph’s brief statement also speaks powerfully to Joseph’s brothers – something we will explore more in today’s message.
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