God Sees in “the Dark” What We Can Only See with 20/20 Hindsight

My Devotional reading has just taken me once again through the accounts of Joseph. If you are using any kind of One-Year Bible, you probably are somewhere in Genesis/Exodus as well. In Genesis 41-47 all of a sudden the separate parts of people’s lives CONVERGE in God’s will.

• Pharaoh has a dream that only a two-year’s forgotten memory can recall. If the butler had remembered earlier, Joseph would not have been where pharaoh could find him.
• Joseph interprets the dream and then helps fulfill it as God works “under the radar” to fulfill his dream that had turned into a nightmare of one day his family bowing at his feet.
• The Famine drives Joseph’s brothers to Egypt where he is “prince” and they are nobodies—where they had shipped him off to be sold as a nobody but now he is Somebody
• Joseph sees his brothers but not Benjamin—had they “offed him” as well? Just like they had Joseph so long ago?? Had Jacob’s favoritism of Rachel’s sons also done Benjamin in just as it had Joseph??
• Jacob loses another son to Egypt as Joseph keeps Simeon captive until the brothers show that Benjamin is still alive and well.
• Jacob does not want to lose Benjamin even as he had lost Joseph
• Jacob has to risk losing Benjamin or he will lose ALL his family because the Famine is forcing them to return to Egypt--- and Joseph
• Jacob does not realize that in fact he will not lose Benjamin but rather gain BACK a son—Joseph!!
• Joseph bursts out in tears because he has not only seen God turns a nightmare into His plan and Joseph’s dream BUT Joseph sees a brother he never thought he would ever see again, His little brother, Benjamin!
• Jacob bursts out in tears for not only is Benjamin returned to him but he finds that Joseph was not entirely lost to him because God knew where Joseph was all the time and used a famine and a risk to bring them back together just like GOD HAD PLANNED ALL ALONG!