God’s Providence Is Practical – Genesis 45 Series

The word ‘providence’ is not a word found in the Bible. However, it is a word that describes a very important group of things about God in the scriptures. We're going to take three things. It combines the wisdom of God. Wisdom has this idea that God has this amazing ability to put it all together in ways that are wise. Secondly, it's the compassion of God. That God is caring and knows us. So the way that those things are worked out have compassion involved in them. And then also the sovereignty of God, which has to do with His control or His lordship. If you take the sovereignty of God, the compassion of God, and the wisdom of God, you group them together, you have what we call providence. Providence. The providence of God.

I'm convinced that when we understand the providence of God, it changes us. As much as we can understand it. The more we reflect on it, the more we recognize that it's there, the more we're able to change the things. It changes the way we think about ourselves. It changes the way we think about other people. And it changes…well, it gives us a spiritual vitality, I would suggest, in our lives.

Now we are looking at the man Joseph in the Old Testament. We see a guy here that just keeps going. He's like the Energizer Bunny. Things try to knock him down, but he just keeps going and going and going. How could he do that? We are not told, except at the beginning when he had those dreams. But those dreams aren't mentioned again throughout the rest of scripture. Those dreams are mentioned right there at the beginning, but as his life progresses we don't know what he's thinking. Until we get to today's passage.

Now we get it because now we look at Genesis 45. As we look at Genesis 45, we see here the thinking that he has. We see that Joseph got this idea of the providence of God. He understood that God was in charge, that God is caring, that God was wise. And he was able then to trust the Lord in the downs of his life and the ups of his life. We'll see today he's going to talk about my successes because of God's providence. He's going to say my pit that I was in was a part of God's providence. It's the providence of God that guided him.

I think we're going to take that today and we're going to look at our own lives. We're going to say, “Lord, what is it in my life that I haven't turned over to you and recognize that you're in control?” God is in control of every aspect of your life, including the fact that you're here today. He's brought you here for a reason. God wants to do something in your heart. We’re going to look at Genesis 45 to see how this plays out.

Now let me bring you up to speed on the story, in case you haven't been with us. See, Joseph is now in Egypt and he's just listened to a speech by Judah, a long speech. You can read it in Genesis 44. I think that Joseph is listening to his brother plea because he's trying to see is his brother a changed guy. In Judah’s plea, we see Judah saying, “Look, would you please send my brother back to be with my dad because my dad will die if he loses another son. Leave me here in Egypt. I'll be the one to be the servant.” That's very different from the conversation that Judah had with the Midianites when he was selling Joseph into slavery into Egypt. You see, now Judah is a broken man. I think it's the brokenness, that Judah experiences that Joseph is waiting for. It's what Joseph sees. When Joseph sees the brokenness of his brother, he says now is the time to reveal myself to my brothers. And that's where we enter Genesis 45.

Watch the emotion develop, watch what happens. This is what we've been waiting for. In all of Joseph's life and all the trials, he comes to this place where, yes, now the dreams are fulfilled, now he's going to share this with his brothers. Enter Genesis 45 with me. Let me read it to you.

It says in verse 1 – Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He's all alone with his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.