It’s been a month since I returned from church camp but the proverbial high it brings lingers still. We had many great Bible studies and classes that week, and I took many notes that will provide the basis for devotionals to come. One of which concerns the character of Joseph. Recently we considered whether Joseph, as he’s portrayed in scripture, was “good to a fault” (he wasn’t).
There’s more to reflect on this amazing figure from the book of Genesis. For example, I jotted down this note on my tablet while sitting in Bible class at camp. To be fair, the teacher was talking about Joseph so it’s not like I wasn’t paying attention. It’s just a curse that my mind tends to wander and usually it settles on something for me to write about later. Anyway, while listening to a class about Joseph, my mind got to thinking about the providence of God.
I hastily scribbled down this note…
I’m sure that all makes perfect sense, but if not let me try and unscramble my handwriting…
Basically the idea is this: The nation of Israel went to Egypt according to God’s providence. The circumstances involved Joseph being sold into slavery, rising to prominence, and bringing his family to the land with him, where they grew into a great nation that was eventually put in captivity, only to be freed and return to the promised land from whence they came. Now, a curious person might wonder: “If the plan was always for the nation to settle in Canaan, why did God make them go into Egypt, only to leave Egypt and circle back around to the land of Canaan, where they were in the first place?”
The answer lies in the event that took place in the meantime between Joseph going into slavery and his kin settling in Egypt: A terrible famine struck the region. Had Joseph’s family remained in Canaan, they would have died of starvation in the famine. At the very least they would have struggled along, never multiplying into the large nation they would become. A non-believer would call it great “luck” that the family of Israel just so happened to have an exiled son who had risen to be the second most powerful man in the most resource-abundant kingdom in the region, who could take them in and shelter them from the famine. I suppose it was also luck that Joseph knew about the famine ahead of time, allowing Egypt to store up stockpiles of provisions to withstand it…
No. Let’s consider how much “luck” we’re talking about here. If “fate” or “luck” would have carried Joseph to some other land, like the land of the Midianites for example, that Kingdom was too small to effectively withstand the effects of the famine, even if they too had advanced knowledge. And even if they could have withstood it, they would not have been big and prosperous enough to shelter a family and allow them room to grow into a nation of their own. It’s not just luck or fate that put Joseph in just the right place to help his family; it’s too humongous a chance; it’s a a “one in a million” coincidence: No. It was the providence and power of God at work.
The fact is, no other nation but Egypt had the resources, not only to survive the famine but to house the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel. The family of Joseph could never have grown into the mighty nation they did without their being in Egypt, which makes Joseph ending up in Egypt (due to the evil done by his brothers) a tremendous example of God’s providence at work. God used men’s evil to accomplish His great good.
That’s amazing.
~ Matthew