Context No. 2583 of 4322 · Genesis
Context · Reflection
Genesis 42:8-12: in context
8Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. 9Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.” 10They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. 11We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.” 12He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
The famine has driven Joseph's brothers to Egypt to buy grain, and there they stand before the very brother they sold, without recognizing him. But Joseph knows them at once. And the text notes what runs through his mind: Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, the boyhood dreams of their sheaves bowing to his, the dreams they had hated him for. Now they are bowing before him, and the dreams are coming true.
Consider the long road those dreams traveled. The brothers had tried to kill the dreams by killing, then selling, the dreamer; they meant to bury the whole thing in a pit and a caravan to Egypt. And the very act meant to destroy the dreams is what carried them to fulfillment, landing Joseph in Egypt exactly where he needed to be. God's purpose ran straight through the betrayal that was supposed to end it. What was meant to bury Joseph's future is the thing that brought it to pass. The dreams did not fail because they were opposed; they were fulfilled through the opposition.
Can I trust that God's purpose for me will be fulfilled even through the betrayals and detours that seem designed to bury it?
Sources
- Genesis 42:8: Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn't recognize him.
- Genesis 42:9: Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, You are spies!
- Genesis 50:20: As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.