Who Can Say To Him, “What Are You Doing?” No. 7

This will be the last in our series on this topic. I do hope the readers have found the lessons edifying and helpful. In this article, I want to discuss God’s providence in the narrative of Joseph, found in Genesis 37-50, a wonderfully delightful story that has a happy ending. I’ll just recount the basic facts here, but if you will start reading in Genesis 37, I suspect you won’t put your Bible down till you’ve read all the way through chapter 50.

Joseph was Jacob’s 11th son, his first by his favorite wife, Rachel. Jacob had four wives and 12 sons (and one daughter) and the polygamous situation Jacob was embroiled in created some family hardships, jealousy, meanness, and downright wickedness. God never intended for man to have more than one wife, and it is also an interesting point about how He used this polygamous relationship to accomplish His great purposes, too. But I won’t go into that. Suffice it to say that, since Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son, it created jealousy and hatred of him among his brothers.

Joseph didn’t help matters by announcing, while a teenager, that he had had two dreams that appeared to indicate that his family was going to bow down to him at some point in the future (which did happen). His brothers were irate, and soon after, took the opportunity to sell him into slavery into Egypt. It almost destroyed Jacob because the brothers led him to believe that Joseph was dead, but he was alive, in slavery in Egypt.

The young man stayed faithful to God. His first master’s wife unsuccessfully tried to seduce him, which, when the wife lied about it and accused Joseph, made the husband mad and got the young man tossed into prison (innocently, of course). While there, he interpreted a couple of dreams by close servants of Pharaoh, both of which came true—one was restored to his position and the other was put to death. Yet it was two years before the butler (the one with the favorable dream) remembered Joseph; he did so because Pharaoh had had two dreams, and the butler was reminded that Joseph had interpreted his dream. Pharaoh called for Joseph, who came, and by the power of God, interpreted the king’s dreams.

The dreams amounted to a prediction that Egypt was to enjoy seven years of astounding agricultural bounty followed by seven years of grievous famine. Joseph suggested to Pharaoh that as much grain as possible be stored those first seven years to prepare for the lean years. Pharaoh thought that was a splendid idea and put Joseph in charge of the whole thing. Nobody was as powerful as Joseph in Egypt, except Pharaoh, of course. Well, Jacob’s son did a marvelous job, and by the time of the famine, Egypt had plenty of food to survive the hard times. From slavery to second in the kingdom. Quite a move upward.

The famine came, just as predicted. But it not only struck Egypt, it hit Canaan as well, where Jacob and his family lived. When their food ran out, Jacob sent 10 of his sons to Egypt to buy some; he kept Benjamin at home, because, as the second and only surviving (at least Jacob thought so) son of Rachel, he became the favorite. So the 10 other sons of Jacob went to Egypt, where they came face to face with Joseph, whom Pharaoh had also put in charge of distributing the grain. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Joseph then concocted a brilliant plan to see if there had been any positive change in his brothers. He treated them harshly, ask them about their family, and said that he would not see them again—thus they could buy no more grain—unless they brought Benjamin with them the next time. The brothers went home and, the following year, when their food ran out again, Jacob was going to send them back to Egypt to buy more.

But Judah told him that “the governor” of Egypt would not see them again unless they brought Benjamin with them. This distressed Jacob greatly, but there was nothing he could do—they needed food and the only place to get it was Egypt. So he unwillingly acquiesced and allowed Benjamin to go.

Joseph met his brothers again and saw Benjamin, his only true full blood brother (the rest were half-brothers, of course). In order to test his brothers, Joseph had one of his servants put his favorite cup in Benjamin’s bag—unbeknownst to the brothers. When they headed back to Canaan, Joseph sent a steward after them to retrieve the "stolen" cup. The message was that, with whomsoever the item was found, that brother would become Joseph’s slave while the other brothers could go on home. Well, naturally, the cup was found with Benjamin. The other brothers were beside themselves with grief because they knew what it would do to their father if Benjamin never returned home.

So they all went back and talked to Joseph. Joseph said only Benjamin needed to stay, but Judah explained the situation about Benjamin and Jacob and asked that he be a substitute and be enslaved, rather than the youngest son. This so touched Joseph that he had to go aside for awhile and weep. His brothers had passed his test.

What was the test? To see if the 10 brothers would sell out Benjamin like they had Joseph some two decades before. Were they still so calloused towards their father and brother that they wouldn’t care if Benjamin, too, were a slave in Egypt? No, the brothers had grown to the point where they would not grieve their father again. That’s what Joseph wanted to know.

At that point, he revealed himself to his brothers, much to their consternation, but eventual delight. To shorten the story, Joseph then had his father and entire family move to Egypt, where they stayed, and multiplied, for 400 years.

And that’s how God got the children of Israel into Egypt where He would deliver them under Moses. The twists and turns of this story, the workings of God to perform His will, are more than we can imagine. He uses the hatred of the brothers, the selling of Joseph, the lust of a woman, dreams and the forgetfulness, then remembrance, of a butler, a wise Pharaoh, a deceptive Joseph, penitent men—what else?—to achieve His purposes. Again, it took awhile, at least two decades between Joseph being sold into Egypt and the move of his family to that country. But as I have noted several times in this series, God will not be rushed in doing what He plans for you and me, or for peoples as a whole. We simply do not know what God is doing, His mind is far, far above ours, and our response is to trust and obey, and not try to take uncontrollable matters into our own hands.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

“Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’” (Job 9:12).

Don't question what He is doing; you will never figure it out.  Trust…and obey. For there’s no other way if we intend to please God and receive the fullest of His blessings.