So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. – Gen. 45:8
Forgiveness is not easy to dispense to others. The general rule for all Christians is this: When love is able to overcome an offense, it will also cover it (1 Pet. 4:8). The Bible teaches that it is love that “covers a multitude of sin.”
When we hear about the need to forgive the offense of others that had been committed against us, we are often told about how God has forgiven our offenses against Him. This is true and a good analogy to use.
But I would like to look at the power to forgive through the eyes and theology of Joseph.
You may remember that Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt (Gen 37:22ff). While in Egypt, Joseph lived in a foreign land as a slave, endured imprisonment and was accused of crimes he had not committed. He had plenty of time to think about what his brothers had done to him and how he was in this mess because of them.
When the time came to confront his brothers about the evil they had committed against him, Joseph had something else at his advantage. He had the power to punish them. By God’s grace and power, Joseph had moved from a slave in Egypt to being the number two man. Not only would Joseph have the opportunity to confront his brothers regarding their sin, but he had the means to do something about it – exercise revenge!
But his mind was drastically changed. Instead of taking revenge on his brothers, Joseph forgave them. What caused this change?
Joseph had a biblical view of the absolute sovereignty of God and the freedom of man.
Notice what he tells them:
45:5: “Do not be angry and grieved with yourselves because you sold me here.”
Joseph spells it out: “You, all of you, it was YOU who are responsible for me being here. It was you who bound me and released me to others who had eventually brought me here. You have done this terrible evil against me!”
But then, in his very next breath, Joseph tells them: “Now, therefore, it was NOT you who sent me here, but God” (v. 8).
Now wait, let’s see if I understand this. Joseph tells his brothers that it was them who are responsible for him being in Egypt. Then he says, it was not them, but God.
What great theology! What a magnificent Calvinist!
Joseph, while affirming the responsibility of his brothers for the crime they committed, also affirmed that God overruled their evil act, and produced something good from it.
In other words, Joseph is saying, “it was God’s purpose and plan over all that I am here in Egypt. God used you to accomplish His plan for me. And by using you, all of you made a free choice, all in the plan of God, to do this evil against me. God is so sovereign that He used your free choice to accomplish what He already knew and purpose to happen.”
So Joseph concludes, since I know that God was behind your evil choice in bringing to pass a much bigger and better plan for me, “I choose to forgive you.”
Joseph appeals to two things:
First, the sovereignty of God in bringing good out of man’s intentional evil.
Second, the purpose of God in using the evil of men by raising him up to be a help to scores of people – “to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance” (v. 7).
In other words, God is able to use evil in bringing about my good and the goodness and means to help others.
Now listen: I am going to say something that may seem heretical, but look at it closely.
“Evil is not good. But it is good to have evil.”
Let this sink in. At first, this will rub you the wrong way and you may get an emotional reaction to this. But what I wrote above is an overriding theme in the Bible.
“Evil is never good. But it is sometimes good to have evil.”
It was a sinful act by evil men who had delivered up Jesus to die on the cross (Acts 2:22). But the deliverance of Jesus to die on the cross was all part of the plan and purpose of God (v. 23). The death of Jesus on the cross is an absolute good thing. The means used was the evil intentions of man.
Therefore, evil is never good. But it is good to have evil.
One cannot live with such a thought unless he or she believed in God who is sovereign over all things, including man’s evil intentions.
You choice to forgive the hurts of others will largely depend on how big God is in your eyes.
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