CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 45:6. Earring.] To ear in the Anglo-Saxon means to plough. The word is used in this sense in Exodus 34:12; Deuteronomy 21:4.—
Genesis 45:8. A father to Pharaoh.] “Second author of life to him.” (Murphy.) “Most confidential counsellor and friend.” (Keil.) So Haman is styled a second father to Artaxerxes. (Esther 13:6.) Also in 1Ma. 11:32, King Demetrius writes to his father Lasthenes.—
Genesis 45:10. The land of Goshen.] Otherwise called (Genesis 47:11) “the land of Rameses.” “It was to the east of the Nile, as lying nearest to the immigrants from Canaan; and neither at this time, nor in the history of the exodus, do we hear of any crossing of the river. But it must have extended to the Nile—witness the hiding of the infant Moses, and the regrets for the fish which they used to eat in Egypt. (Numbers 11:5.) The LXX. render the word used here and in ch. Genesis 37:35, by “Gesen of Arabia; and we know from Herodotus and Strabo that the ancients reckoned the Eastern cities of Egypt, Heliopolis and Herroopolis, as in Arabia. So that it was to the north-east of Egypt, where even now is the most fertile part, and in the neighbourhood of the capital, where Joseph dwelt.” (Alford.)—
Genesis 45:12. My mouth that speaketh unto you.] He speaks no longer by an interpreter, but by his own lips and in their native tongue.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 45:1-15
JOSEPH MADE KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN
Joseph’s brethren would be naturally anxious while Judah was so eloquently pleading. Powerful and tender as that speech was, they must have trembled as to the issue; for they could not help regarding all their calamities as a most righteous judgment of God upon them. Benjamin would feel most acutely for his afflicted father who is destined to suffer another bereavement, and for his brother who is about to give himself up for him. But how does their judge, all this time, stand affected? All depends upon the temper in which he listens to the appeal, upon the end which he has in view. But Joseph was now to be made known to his brethren. In this discovery, mark—
I. The ripeness of the time. The great object of Joseph, in all his dealings with his brethren had now been gained. They were brought to a bitter sense of their sin. Their sorrow for the past was deep and overwhelming. They were in the penitent state, and were now prepared for forgiveness and blessing. Now that the end had been gained, to lengthen out their trial any further would have been both a cruel and useless experiment. We are prepared for the grace of Christ by the sorrows and discipline of repentance. He will not prolong our trial further than is necessary for us, but will reveal His mercy at our worst moment, when we are ready to believe that all is lost. After our greatest trials, when we have toiled all night and caught nothing, even at the fourth watch, He will come walking on the wave and will stand on the shore and reveal Himself. (John 21:7.) We value God’s mercy most when we are made to see the awful depth of our sin.
II. His delicacy of feeling. “He cried, cause every man to go out from me: and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.” (Genesis 45:1.) The deepest and tenderest feelings of the heart are not to be exposed to strangers. Hence all such witnesses of his emotion were to be put away. There are some who love to expose their feelings to others, who express their various emotions without reserve. They feel a sense of luxury in the display of grief. But the greatest and most exalted minds shrink from thus vulgarizing their feelings. They respect the sacredness of human sorrow. Our Lord, who took our human nature upon Him, and who was the highest example of that nature, did not announce His deepest truths and feelings to the multitude, but reserved them for his disciples.
III. His entire forgiveness. Now that he is about to forgive he does not chide them for their past conduct. He will not spoil the gift by his manner of giving. It shall be like the gifts of God, “liberally and without “upbraiding.” (James 1:5.) The completeness and the gracefulness of Joseph’s forgiveness may be gathered from these two considerations:—
1. He strives to prevent remorse. He hastens to preserve them from sinking into the lowest possible deep of misery at the remembrance of the past. “Be not grieved,” he says “nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither.” (Genesis 45:5.) He will not allow them to fall into that state of remorse in which true penitence is impossible. He will prevent despair by leading them away from themselves and from self-reproaches, so that they might see and enjoy the mercy which was prepared for them.
2. He bids them see in their past history the plan of God. “For God did send me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis 45:5.) Throughout all the dark and evil things of their history the hand of God was manifest. Providence, even by such strange means, was working out redemption. God had a saving purpose in view. All those things of which they were most afraid had been allowed to happen to them to further this benevolent design—“to preserve life.” The end of the Lord is salvation, however strange the means by which that end is brought about. God brings good out of evil, and these men were but instruments in His hands. The actors in this history had no plan. They knew not whither all these strange things were tending. Even Joseph himself did not know one step before him. “There is a danger in the too easy acquiesence in the fact that good comes from evil; for we begin to say, evil is then God’s agent, to do evil must be right, and so we are landed in confusion. Before this had taken place, had Joseph’s brethren said, ‘out of this good will come, let us sell our brother,’ they would have been acting against their conscience; but after the event it was but faith to refer it to God’s intention. Had they done this before, it would have been presumption. But to feel that good has come through you, but not by your will, is humiliating. You feel that the evil is all yours, and the good is God’s.”—(Robertson.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 45:1. Now at length all the love, which during twenty-two long years had been pent up in Joseph’s breast, bursts forth with irrepressible might.—(De Sola.)
No more can Jesus refrain himself in the extreme afflictions of His brethren. (Isaiah 42:14.) For he is a very tender-hearted Joseph, and though He speak roughly to His brethren, and handle them hardly, yea, and threaten grievous bondage to His best beloved Benjamin, yet can He not contain Himself from weeping with us, and upon us.—(Trapp.)
He does not choose to have any spectators to the tender scene before him, except those who were to be the actors in it. The heart does not like to have its stronger emotions exposed to the view of many witnesses. Moreover, had hisservants been present, they must soon have learned what treatment Joseph oncereceived from his brethren; and it was not to be expected that they would so easily forgive the injuries done to their lord as their lord himself could do. Joseph, with his characteristic generosity, determines at once to spare the feelings of his brethren and consult their reputation by having all spectators removed.—(Bush.)
That religious feeling which is never at a loss for appropriate words is a religion and a sensibility which has in it no depth. With deep truth we are told this in the parable of the sower and the seed. He cast his seed on the stony ground, and the seed sprang up rapidly, simply because there was no depth of earth. Therefore we learn from this that feeling, to be true and deep, must be condensed by discipline.—(Robertson.)
Many passions do not well abide witnesses, because they are guilty to their own weakness. Joseph sends forth his servants, that he might freely weep. He knew he could not say, “I am Joseph,” without an unbeseeming vehemence.—(Bp. Hall).
Genesis 45:2. It was the wicked brothers who should have filled the house with outcries and bitter groans of repentance. But it is Joseph who weeps in the presence of the transgressors. How our New Testament Joseph weeps at the grave of Lazarus to think of all the ravages which sin has made! Not your tears, sinner, but the tears and agonies of Jesus must avail for salvation.—(Jacobus).
Genesis 45:3. He must now speak out in the plainest terms. I am Joseph. How this brief sentence goes to their heart, explains the mystery, fills them with awe and self-reproach, yet invites their confidence. How we are reminded of Saul of Tarsus when our New Testament Joseph reveals Himself to him. “Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” What shall Joseph now say? Shall he remind them of the pit, and the sale into slavery, to confound them utterly? No! He asks only, “Doth my father yet live?” This is to confess them as his brethren, by acknowledging their common father. So Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. (Hebrews 2:11). Only as a next step will Joseph refer to their wrong-doing, and then the rather to bid them not be grieved nor angry with themselves so as to keep them aloof from him with fear.—(Jacobus).
Those words, “I am Joseph,” seemed to sound thus much to their guilty thoughts:—You are murderers, and I am a prince in spite of you. My power, and this place, give me all opportunities of revenge: my glory is your shame, my life your danger—your sin lives together with me. But now the tears and gracious words of Joseph have soon assured them of pardon and love, and have bidden them turn their eyes from their sin against their brother, to their happiness in him, and have changed their doubts into hopes and joys, causing them to look upon him without fear, yet not without shame. Actions salved up with a free forgiveness are as not done: and as a bone once broken is stronger after well setting, so is love after reconcilements.—(Bp. Hall.)
They could not answer him. They were troubled at his presence. So the sense of sin makes us dread the presence of God. We are confounded before Him, and know not what we shall say. Adam hides himself among the trees of the garden. Only the clear revelation of God’s love to sinners can restore us to confidence and peace. That comfort which the Gospel brings is the only healing for our afflicted souls.
Wonder, doubt, reverence, fear, hope, guiltiness, joy, grief, struck them all at once. Shall it not be so with the Jews at their glorious conversion, when they shall hear, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye have persecuted and pierced?” (Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7.)—(Trapp.)
Genesis 45:4. How disposed to forget and bury their sin. He invites them to his free favour. So our Joseph in the Gospel bids us come to Him. This is the Gospel message, Come unto Me. This is the entreaty of love. He will have them approach more closely and come boldly that he may more fully reveal himself. They felt the power of this gracious word and they came near.—(Jacobus.)
I am Joseph, your brother. Their great transgressions had not broken the bonds of nature. Christ is “not ashamed to call us brethren,” though we have rendered ourselves unworthy by our manifold sins. Even in all his wandering, the prodigal was still a son.
Genesis 45:5. Here is a lively imago of Christ’s love towards His enemies, for whom he prayed and died. This Angel of the Covenant first troubles the waters, and then cures those cripples that step in. This sun of Righteousness first draws up vapours of godly grief, and then dispels them.—(Trapp.)
A less delicate mind would have talked of forgiving them; but he entreats them to forgive themselves, as though the other was out of the question. Nor did he mean that they should abuse the doctrine of Providence to the making light of sin; but merely that they should eye the hand of God in all, so as to be reconciled to the event, though they might weep in secret for the part which they had acted. Their viewing things in this light would not abate their godly sorrow, but rather increase it. It would tend only to expel the sorrow of the world which worketh death.—(Fuller.)
The cross of Christ is an example, and the highest, of that Power above us which brings good out of evil. The murderers of Jesus only intended evil, and yet God by their means wrought out salvation. They were the unconscious instruments of His gracious will.
We shall ever find abundant cause of thanksgiving that a gracious God has counteracted the tendency of sin to produce the most misirable effects in ourselves and others, and preserved us from the pain of seeing misery diffused around us as the fruit of our doings. Yet for our humiliation let us remember that the nature of sin is not altered by the use that God makes of it. Poison does not cease to be poison because it may enter into the composition of healing medicines.—(Bush).
The principles illustrated in Joseph’s statement are these,—
1. God’s absolute control over all creatures and events.
2. That while sinners are encouraged to hope in His mercy, they are left without excuse for their sin.
3. That God orders all human affairs with a view to the preservation of His sacred and gifted family,—the Church.
Genesis 45:6-7.—Whatever might be the pressure of the famine, God designed not only to preserve the lives of those who then existed, but to preserve also a posterity in the earth for Abraham and Jacob. If Isaac had perished on Mount Moriah, what would have become of the promise to Abraham? If Jacob’s sons had died of hunger, what would have become of the promise to Jacob, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed? Let us learn from this to be thankful to God for those mercies to our fathers by which they were preserved from destruction. They were upheld for our sakes as well as their own.—(Bush).
That is the most rational view in all cases, especially in the dark dispensations of human life, not to halt at human causes, or stay there, but to look at God’s ways, as Joseph does here; and to trace His leading, like a golden thread drawn through all the follies and errors of men.—(Lange).
Genesis 45:8. Had such words as these been spoken by Joseph’s brethren, we should justly have thought they were uttering a blasphemous lie by endeavouring to transfer their criminal conduct to God. Had thay said, “It was not we that sent you hither, but God,” we might justly have pronounced them guilty of daring impiety; but when Joseph is the speaker, we recognise the drift of the words at once. His object was to intimate that his coming to Egypt was more God’s work than theirs. Their intention was no doubt evil; but his thoughts were so much occupied with God’s intentions, that he forgot theirs.—(Bush.)
God hides Himself behind human history, where only the eye of faith can discern Him.
Joseph ascribes his exaltation and prosperity to God.
1. He looks, beyond all hindrances, to God. Beyond the persecutions of his brethren to that Providence which has a purpose of good, even in things evil.
2. He looks, beyond all human instruments, to God. Pharaoh had been the means of his exaltation, but it was from God that he derived that knowledge and wisdom which gave him favour in the eyes of Pharaoh.
3. He accepts the position which God has given him. He was a father to Pharaoh,—in very deed, the second author of life to him. It is not a sin against humility to accept what God appoints for us.
4. He maintains the right disposition through all the changes of Providence. He bears his affliction with meekness, and his elevation with humility.
Genesis 45:9. Better than abundance of corn is it, to be assured that the lord of the granaries is his son Joseph. How blessed to know from the Gospel that the dispenser of universal providence and the proprietor of the universe is our God, for ever and ever—that our elder brother is exalted at the right hand of the Majesty or high. And then the message come down unto me—tarry not. (So John 14) Faith in the Father and the Son is the cure for heart trouble. “I will surely come again to take you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also.”—(Jacobus.)
Christ seems to send from heaven, and say unto us in like sort, God hath made me Lord of all; come up unto me, tarry not.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 45:10-11.—He already has a place prepared for the covenant household. The land of Goshen was the most fertile part of the land best suited for shepherds. The covenant household is now to be transferred to Egypt, for their development from a family to a nation. (Genesis 47:11)—(Jacobus.)
I will nourish thee. Joseph kept his word to the letter. (Genesis 47:12.)
Genesis 45:12. He appeals to their natural senses in proof of his identity. So our Joseph reveals Himself that we may not fail to recognise Him. It is I, be not afraid.
(1.) Filial piety is beautiful.
(2.) It is a shame to a son when he becomes exalted to despise and neglect his poor parents.—(Jacobus.)
The mercy of God to us, in Christ, is so great that we require the strongest evidence in order to believe it.
Genesis 45:13. A lover of God takes pleasure in telling what God has done for him, that his friends may magnify the Lord with him. Joseph had, perhaps, another end in view in desiring his brethren to tell his father of his glory. This part of the message might give them the hope of finding forgiveness with their father. By hearing of Joseph’s glory, he could perceive that God had sent him into Egypt by their hands to accomplish his prophetical dreams. The grace of God, in giving such a favourable issue to Joseph’s afflictions, would reconcile Jacob to the men who had brought those afflictions upon him.—(Bush.)
Genesis 45:14. God’s people are not senseless Stoics or flinty Nabals, but have natural affections in them.—(Trapp).
Genesis 45:15. In the spirit of a fond brother, and not of an offended judge, he kisses all of them as well as Benjamin, and thus assures them of forgiveness more expressly than any laboured language could have done. They were emboldened to speak to him after this. After all our Joseph’s assurances to us by word and deed in the gospel, by His loving life, and His living love, we may come boldly to the throne, seeing it is the throne of grace. Our Elder Brother, our Kinsman Redeemer is such an one as we need. Our Joseph will have us emboldened to talk with Him in prayer and communion.—(Jacobus).