Wed.’s Devo - Joseph’s Revealing

Read Gen. 44:1-45:28, Matt. 14:13-36, Ps. 18:37-50, Pr. 4:11-13 Before Joseph can reveal himself to his brothers, he gives them one last test. He wants to see if they would sell out Benjamin to save themselves, but they pass this test. Now, Joseph feels free to reveal his identity to his brothers. He saw the big picture of why he had been sent to Egypt and why he had to go through all he did to get where he was today. He had a plan to preserve his family and move them to Goshen, while his brothers were still trying to process the fact that their dead brother was now standing before them as the surrogate father of the Pharaoh. I can imagine their fear that Joseph might use his powerful position to punish them or make them slaves, but that was not Joseph’s intent at all. He realized that God sent him ahead to prepare a place for them during this famine to preserve their posterity. After a tearful reunion he sends them home with carts loaded with gifts for them and his father. Once again, he gives Benjamin five times what he gives the others. This is a promise we can stand on when the economy looks bleak… which will only get worse. Our Jesus has gone ahead of us and prepared a Goshen for us that we might live and have the “good of the land”. They endured two years of the famine before they realized they had a very rich brother who would richly supply them with the king’s best. We have a Savior who has gone before us to prepare a place where we are supplied with God’s best. When Jesus fed the five thousand or the three thousand, there was always food left over. God’s supply is more than enough. It is overflowing. We just have to step out of our comfortable boat into the raging sea with God-sized faith. All praise to the king who gives great victories and shows unfailing kindness to his anointed! Lead us today along straight paths.