Read Genesis 42:1-38. What happened here, and how does it reveal the providence of God, even despite human evil and malfeasance?

The famine obliges Jacob to send his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Ironically, it is Jacob who initiates the project (Genesis 42:1). The unfortunate old man, a victim of circumstances beyond his control, unknowingly sets in motion an amazing chain of events that will lead to him being reunited with the son for whom he had mourned so long.

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The providential nature of this meeting is highlighted through two fundamental characters. First, it is seen as a fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams. The event — predicted in Joseph’s prophetic dreams: “your sheaves … bowed down to my sheaf” (Genesis 37:7, NKJV) — is now taking place. Joseph is identified as the “governor over the land” (Genesis 42:6) and “the lord of the land” (Genesis 42:30, Genesis 42:33). Joseph’s powerful position contrasts with that of his needy brothers, who “bowed down before him with their faces to the earth” (Genesis 42:6, NKJV) — the same 10 brothers who mocked Joseph about his dream and doubted its fulfillment (Genesis 37:8).

Second, this providential meeting is described as a response. The linguistic and thematic echoes between the two events underline the character of just retribution. The phrase “they said to one another” (Genesis 42:21, NKJV) was also used when they began to plot against Joseph (Genesis 37:19). The brothers’ sojourn in prison (Genesis 42:17) echoes Joseph’s sojourn in prison (Genesis 40:3-4). In fact, Joseph’s brothers relate what is currently happening to them to what they did to their brother perhaps 20 years ago. “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’” (Genesis 42:21, NKJV).

Reuben’s words, “his blood is now required of us” (Genesis 42:22, NKJV), which echo his past warning to “shed no blood” (Genesis 37:22, NKJV), reinforce the link between what they were now facing and what they had done.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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For Joseph, Pharaoh’s dreams revealed what God was “about to do” (Genesis 41:28, NKJV) in the land. Joseph, however, does not call on Pharaoh to believe in Joseph’s God. Instead, Joseph’s immediate response is action. Joseph proposes an economic program. Interestingly, only the economic part of Joseph’s discourse is retained by Pharaoh, who seems more interested in the economic lesson than in the spiritual meaning of the dream and God’s role in producing it.

Read Genesis 41:37-57. What is God’s place in the success of Joseph?

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Pharaoh selects Joseph to take charge not so much because he had interpreted his dreams correctly and revealed the forthcoming problem of the land, but because he had a solution to that problem, because his “advice was good” (Genesis 41:37, NKJV), an opinion also shared by Pharaoh’s servants. Pharaoh’s choice seems to have been more pragmatic than religious. And yet, Pharaoh recognizes that the presence of “the Spirit of God” (Genesis 41:38) is in Joseph, who is qualified as “discerning and wise” (Genesis 41:39), an expression that characterizes the wisdom that God gives (see Genesis 41:33; compare with 1 Kings 3:12).

All the details reported in the biblical text fit the historical situation of Egypt at that time. Politically, the fact that Pharaoh appoints Joseph as vizier is not unusual in ancient Egypt, where cases of foreign viziers have been attested.

The next seven years are years of abundance in such a way that the grain production becomes “immeasurable” (Genesis 41:49, NKJV), a sign of supernatural providence. The comparison “as the sand of the sea” (Genesis 41:49) reveals that this is God’s blessing (Genesis 22:17). Joseph personally reflects that blessing in his own fruitfulness, a coincidence that evidences the presence of the same God behind the two phenomena. Joseph has two sons whose names show Joseph’s experience of God’s providence, which has transformed the memory of pain into joy (Manasseh) and the former affliction into fruitfulness (Ephraim). What a powerful example of how God turned some bad into something very good!

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 41:37-46; 1 Kings 3:12; Genesis 42:1-38; Romans 5:7-11; Genesis 43:1-34; Genesis 44:1-34, Genesis 45:1-28.

Memory Text: “And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt’” (Genesis 41:41, NKJV).

Joseph is now leader of Egypt, and his own brothers will bow before him without knowing who he is (Genesis chapter 42). Joseph’s brothers will humble themselves when Joseph forces them to return with Benjamin (Genesis chapter 43), and — when Benjamin’s safety is, they fear, threatened (Genesis chapter 44) — they will plead for grace before this powerful man, whom they see as “like Pharaoh.” At the end, when Joseph reveals his identity, they will understand that, despite what they had done, God had brought good out of it all.

Interestingly, this whole next sequence of events, which were supposed to be about Joseph’s success, are more about his brothers’ repentance. Their back-and-forth journeys from Joseph to their father, and the obstacles they encounter, made them remember their wicked acts toward Joseph and their father, and they realized their iniquity toward God. Joseph’s brothers live that whole experience as a divine judgment. And yet the moving emotional conclusion, which brings everyone to tears and joy, also contains a message of forgiveness for them, despite their unjustifiable acts of evil.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 18.

Sunday–>

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Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVSC9nkrnXM&w=560&h=315]

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This video is produced by the South Pacific Division Discipleship team.

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