Genesis 45:21-28: a reflection

21The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. 22He gave each one of them changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. 23He sent the following to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way. 24So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, “See that you don’t quarrel on the way.” 25They went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father. 26They told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” His heart fainted, for he didn’t believe them. 27They told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them. When he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. 28Israel said, “It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

When Joseph's brothers return to Canaan and tell their aged father Jacob the astonishing news, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all Egypt, Jacob cannot take it in. His heart, the passage says, fainted, for he did not believe them; the news was too good, and he had grieved Joseph as dead for so long. But when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive; I will go and see him before I die. The good news brought a crushed old man back to life.

Notice what the good news did to Jacob. He had lived for years under the weight of grief, believing his beloved son dead. And the news that Joseph was alive, once he could believe it, revived his fainting spirit, restored his will to live, gave him something to move toward. The tidings of life brought life; his crushed spirit was revived by the good news that the one he mourned was alive.

That is a picture of what good news can do, and points to the deepest good news of all. Jacob's spirit was revived by learning that his son, whom he thought dead, was alive. And the gospel is, at its heart, the news that the One who died is alive, that Christ, crucified, is risen, and lives. That good news has the same reviving power for a spirit crushed by grief, guilt, or despair. When your spirit faints under sorrow or hopelessness, let the good news revive you: Christ is alive, and because he lives, there is hope. The tidings that revived Jacob point to the tidings that revive the soul: the One who was dead is alive forevermore.

Lord, when Jacob heard that Joseph, whom he had mourned as dead, was alive, his fainting spirit revived, and he found the will to live again. Thank you that the good news of life has such reviving power, and that the deepest good news of all is that Christ, who died, is alive forevermore. When my own spirit faints under grief, guilt, or despair, let that good news revive me. Because Christ lives, there is hope; because the One who was dead is alive, my crushed spirit can be revived. Help me hear and believe the tidings that revive the soul, and let the living Christ bring me back to life whenever sorrow or hopelessness has crushed me.