Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of our Sunday School preview. This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “God’s Plan Revealed” and is found in Genesis 45:1-15.
We began the story of Joseph, Jacob’s son, the first Sunday in this month and we will end the story on the final Sunday of this month. It all began with the manner in which Jacob favored his son Joseph over his other sons lead to their jealousy and envy of their brother. Eventually, they conspired to get rid of their brother and tell their father he was dead.
God used Jacob’s love for Joseph and his son’s jealousy to carry out a greater purpose for their and our own lives. God used them and Joseph to not only save the Egyptian people and many around them, but also to inspire children of faith for generations including our own and beyond. The inspiration we should take from this is to trust God’s plan and the process.
I was thinking just today, could not God have come up with a better way for mankind than this one that allows so much death, pain and suffering especially at the hands of other people? The answer to this question is certainly yes! Could God have found another way to save Egypt and Jacob and his family without involving Joseph? Again, the answer is certainly yes!
But God has a reason for doing things the way He does that are not always clear or understandable to us. They may be ways and reasons that don’t include that which is the easiest and safest. Regardless as to what it looks and feels like, we must trust God’s plan and process.
After reluctantly allowing Benjamin, Joseph’s only brother by Rachel, to accompany his brothers back to Egypt to buy food, Jacob was reassured by his sons that they would not allow anything to happen to him and they would bring him home safely. First of all, this was not something they could guarantee and secondly, they could not buy any for food without bringing him.
Joseph set up his younger brother so he would have a reason to accuse him and hold him in Egypt. When Joseph saw how his brothers pleaded for Benjamin’s life, how important he was to their father and their willingness to take his place he could no longer constrain himself. He commanded all his servants to leave the room as he revealed himself to his brothers.
He explained to them to not be too hard on themselves for what they did because everything that happened was part of God’s greater plan to save them and others. This led to Jacob and all of his children to come and settle into Egypt where they remained for 400 years. Their descendant became slaves in Egypt but came out a nation God has used to bring forth a Redeemer and Savior for all of humanity.
Could God have chosen another way to accomplish His plan than the process He used? Absolutely! But this is what we must understand though we may not understand or agree with God’s plan or His process. God does not have to explain or justify to us or anyone else His process or His plan. Why? Because all of this is His own doing and He can do it any way He chooses.
God answers to no one neither has to explain or justify His actions to anyone and certainly not us. Whether we are willing or unwilling participants in it all is of no consequence. This is still God’s world and we just live in it. We didn’t make the rules, we didn’t make or approve the process and we didn’t decide on the plan. The good news is that given the rules, the process and what we know about the plan we have some choices as to how we can fair through it all.
So many people will fail to benefit from God’s plan and survive the process because they are too busy judging and criticizing the process. Maybe the point of the process is to weed out those unworthy of the plan. In any case, Joseph is a profile in trusting the God of the process even when the plan is unknown or only partially known.
Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday and share your thoughts with your class. If you cannot attend your own Sunday School, you are invited to join us online at 9:00 am live and interactive at our website. If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview. So, until next time remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
