Now that Judah has revealed his heart and demonstrated repentance, how will Joseph respond? Is it time for him to make full disclosure?
Read Genesis 45:1-15
Joseph is overcome with emotion and can no longer hide his feelings. He sends out the Egyptians with him and begins to weep. It seems that Joseph’s apartment is attached to the royal palace so that Pharoah’s household are able to hear him weeping (v1-2).
Then he reveals his true identity to his brothers. He asks them about his father’ welfare. They are too afraid to answer. Joseph reassures them, confirming his identity and inviting them to draw in close to them. He goes on to tell them that all that has happened, even the terrible things they did was part of God’s plan God had planned and purposed it for their deliverance or salvation (v3-8).
He then makes plans for them to live in Goshen, the fertile Delta region of Egypt and tells them to go and get his Father, to bring him down to Egypt. Then he brothers again, Benjamin first with all of them weeping (v9-15).
Digging a little deeper
Joseph introduces to God’s sovereign purposes. It’s not just that God makes the best out of bad circumstances, but he is fully in control of all that happens and is the one planning and orchestrating events. Keen Bible students will remember that God had in fact predicted many years previously to Abrahma that his descendants would be exiled to Egypt.[1]
If the build up in the narrative has been towards this big reveal, then we may describe it as something that had been a mystery but now revealed or made clear. This is both in terms of Joseph’s identity as a mystery to his brothers and both for the brothers and for future readers to understand what is happening.
Paul in the New Testament will describe the Gospel
A look at ourselves
One of the reasons why Joseph is able to forgive is that he is able to see all that God is doin. It’s our sense that the grat mystery has been revealed and to see God’s sovereign purposes in our own suffering that helps us to forgive. We don’t need to control the outcome with others. Also, when we gain sight of the big drama, then we become less concerned about our little soap operas.
[1] Genesis 15:13-16.
Faithroots 