The Difficulties of Reconciliation (Gen. 45:1-3). After Judah plead with Joseph to return home with their younger brother, Benjamin, Joseph could no longer contained himself and cried out, “Have everyone to leave my presence!” Everybody left the room except for Joseph and his brothers. Joseph revealed to them that he was the “lost” brother they had sold into slavery. Joseph wept loudly; so loudly that those outside the room could hear him crying. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph!” He asked, “Is my father still alive?” The brothers were so stunned until they were unable to speak.
God Is At Work to Bring About Good (Gen. 45:4-8). Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” Joseph told them, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! Do not be distressed nor angry with yourselves for selling me because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now, there has been famine in the land and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. It was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and rule of all Egypt.”
The God Who Watches Over His Own (Gen. 45:10-13). Joseph told his brothers to return home and tell their father that he was still alive and what position he held in Egypt. He told them to ask their father, their children, and his grandchildren to join him in Egypt where they would live in the region of Goshen, Joseph told them: “I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute. Bring my father down here quickly.”
Modeling God’s Love and Forgiveness (Gen. 45:14-15). Joseph hugged his brother, Benjamin, and the two wept. He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterwards, Joseph sat with his brothers and wept.