Abide Together: Reflections on Genesis 45

In Genesis 45 Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. They are stunned when he first tells them, so he has to tell them again. He tells them not to be grieved or angry with themselves for selling him to the slave traders, for it was God who sent him before them to preserve their life.  Joseph seeks reconciliation with his brothers, because of his love for them and his father.  He instructs them to go home and bring his father and their entire family back with them to live in Goshen, so that they will be saved from the severe famine.  Pharaoh hears that Joseph’s brothers had come, so he sent them home with the best things of Egypt and also instructs them to being their father and entire family and return to Egypt.  They return home and tell their father and it revived his spirit.  The thing that stands out most to me in this passage is how much Joseph loved his brothers and father and that love led to him pursuing reconciliation with them.  This reminds me of God’s Motivation of love in reconciliation as recorded in Ephesians 2:4-5:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). The fact the God loved and loves me so much that He would send Jesus to die in my place to reconcile me to himself is overwhelming.  Father, may my motivation to call people to be reconciled to You through Jesus, be that of love.

– Bryan McKenzie