Thursday, May 15, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Genesis 43-45
Key Verse
Genesis 44:15 — “And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?”
Devotional Thought
The famine had bitten deep into Canaan, and Jacob’s sons had eaten the last of the Egyptian grain. The old man faced an impossible choice: send Benjamin, the last son of Rachel, into the very land that had swallowed Joseph, or watch his family starve. Judah stepped forward with words that must have cost him everything: “I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him.” Here is the same Judah who once suggested selling his brother to Ishmaelites, now offering himself as a pledge for another. Grace does not erase our past; it reshapes us until we would lay down our lives for the ones we once betrayed.
In Egypt, Joseph saw Benjamin and could not contain himself. He fled to his chamber and wept, then washed his face and returned as the Egyptian lord. He sent Benjamin five times the portion of his brothers, tested them with the silver cup, and listened as Judah pleaded to take the boy’s place. Only then did Joseph cry out, “I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?” The revelation broke thirteen years of silence in a single sentence. What his brothers meant for evil, God had meant for good, to preserve life and save a posterity in the earth. The one they sold as a slave now held the power to keep them alive.
We live in the ordinary time between Easter and Pentecost, when the church walks the long road of faith after the empty tomb. Joseph’s story teaches us how to walk that road. God is often working in the years we cannot see, in the prison and the famine and the long waiting. The brothers did not know that the governor of Egypt was their brother; Jacob did not know that Joseph was alive. Yet God was weaving every thread into a deliverance none of them could have imagined. Our seasons of loss and confusion are not abandoned seasons. They are the hidden years of God’s preparation.
When Jacob heard the news, his heart fainted, for he believed them not. Then he saw the wagons, heard Joseph’s words, and his spirit revived. “It is enough,” he said; “Joseph my son is yet alive.” Sometimes we are like Jacob, unable to believe the good news until we see the wagons—the evidence of God’s kindness carried to our door. But the wagons always come. The God who sent Joseph ahead of his brothers is the God who goes before us, preparing a place and a provision we cannot yet see. May we have eyes to recognize His hand when the report arrives.
Reflection
- Where in your life has God been quietly working through a season you could not understand, and how might He be preparing a deliverance you cannot yet see?
- Like Judah, have you allowed grace to reshape the failures of your past into a willing sacrifice for others—or are you still defined by what you once did?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for the hidden years, for the famine and the prison and the long road that led Joseph to the throne. Teach us to trust that You are working even when we cannot see Your hand. Give us the courage of Judah, willing to bear the blame for the sake of another. Give us the tenderness of Joseph, quick to forgive and slow to seek revenge. And when the report of Your goodness reaches us, give us the faith of Jacob to believe it, that our spirits may revive and we may say, It is enough. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.