Genesis 50 -- Resurrection

Sunrise this morning from the high school hill

I finished the book of Genesis today.   Since I was in Bethel Teacher training, the last book of Genesis has always seemed to me to contain on of the important messages of the book:

Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.  (Genesis 50:20)

God can bring good, even out of the most horrific history -- such as brothers selling their brother into slavery.

What does God do in our lives?  Are we chess pieces -- pawns that God moves for his purposes?  I don't believe so; however, God is involved in our lives.

It always strikes me that those who say that God "has a plan" -- and that by saying that mean that whatever has happened in the world is God's will -- are incorrect.  I don't believe all that happens is God's will or that he has engineered it for his own purposes. 

I don't believe that for many reasons, but not least among them is that a belief like that lets us off the hook.  We can't take responsibility for something that happens if it is God's plan.  God becomes our scapegoat.

Joseph isn't telling his brothers that none of what happened to them is their fault.  He doesn't say that what they did was not wrong (can you follow that double negative?) or that God motivated them to do it.  I think what Joseph is saying is that in spite of what the brothers intended, God's intentions are different.  God can bring about good in spite of what we do.  His actions to bring about his will despite what we do don't negate our sin.  In fact, in this passage, Joseph doesn't say the brothers did no wrong; he forgives what they have done.

Forgiveness loses its power if there is no sin.  If we can make excuses for the behavior, then we are saying that the sin did not exist.  That's not forgiveness.  Forgiveness is grace in spite of -- in face of -- the sin. 

The cross - the ultimate in forgiveness -- doesn't say we commit no sins.  It says that God forgives us, and love us anyway. 

The resurrection is life out of death.  Perhaps that is what Joseph is talking about here.  God can bring resurrection out of our death -- and sometimes the death isn't literal.