To Save Lives

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

TO SAVE LIVES

Gen 45:1-8

45:1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

NIV

The story is now unfolded by Joseph to his brothers. At first, they were terrified, and why not, they believed they had done a terrible thing to him and now he would exact revenge. But that is not the case as we can clearly see that Joseph tells them it was not them who caused all this but it was God who sent him ahead of them to save their lives by a great deliverance. This is a new thought we have not considered before. Joseph is another foreshadowing of Jesus. We have always considered Moses as an example or foreshadowing of Christ, being the deliverer, but Joseph is the one sent ahead by God to save their lives by a great deliverance. Jesus was sent by God to save our lives by a far greater deliverance. Joseph was sent ahead of them so they would not starve to death because the famine was so great and it was going to last another five years. Jesus was sent ahead of us to save our lives from a greater famine, one of being far from God, that without Jesus, would last for an eternity. Before we knew Jesus and accepted his deliverance, we were starving to death. Jesus saved our lives, first by coming to earth, then dying, shedding his blood for the forgiveness of our sins, then he was the first to be resurrected and went ahead of us into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. Jesus has told us He is the bread of life. whoever, that is us, comes to Him will never go hungry, and because we believe in Him we will never be thirsty. Jesus is the one and true deliverer sent by God to save our lives, and to preserve a place in heaven for us.