“So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” Genesis 45:8
How did Joseph get to a place where he could put all that happened behind him and reconcile with his brothers—the ones who threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery, and grieved their father’s heart for twenty years with lies and pretense?
In Joseph’s speech to his brothers, he spoke just one time about what they did and four times about what God did. “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt” (45:4). Joseph said it, as he must, because reconciliation does not avoid the reality of what has happened, but that is not his focus. Then he spoke about what God had done four times:
“God sent me before you to preserve life.” (45:5)
“God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.” (45:7)
“So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (45:8)
“God has made me lord of all Egypt.” (45:9)
When Jesus suffered, He did not focus on what Judas or Pilate had done, but He saw His suffering as the cup the Father had given him to drink (John 18:11). Jesus looked beyond the secondary causes and discerned how God was at work. That is how He was able to forgive.
How do you get to a place where you are ready and able to forgive? You have to look beyond the secondary causes. Look beyond what another person has done. Focus on how the gracious and loving hand of God has been at work in your life. That is how you get to forgiveness.
Are you struggling to forgive someone? Or to talk with them about it? Take some time right now to write down one thing that person did to you that needs forgiveness, then write down four ways you saw God’s hand at work through this difficult situation.
