Genesis 45

Genesis 45 answers the question we all often wonder: how do we experience reconciliation in our broken relationships? What Genesis 45 shows us is that, for true reconciliation to happen, God must reorient our hearts and resurrect our hopes.

Outline

  • First, God reorients our hearts (45:1-8)
    • God reorients our feelings by reshaping our understanding of our pain
    • God reorients our future by reshaping our understanding of our past
  • Second, God reconciles our relationships (45:9-15)
    • When God brings reconciliation, it doesn’t just transform our relationship but also what’s happening around us (45:9-13)
    • When God brings reconciliation, it doesn’t just transform our relationship but also what’s happening within us (45:14-15)
  • Third, God resurrects our hope (45:16-28)
    • First, God resurrects their hope for their future (45:16-24)
    • Second, God resurrects the hope in their father (45:25-28)

Christ Connections

  • God sends a chosen one ahead who is sold as a slave in order that the slave one day might save his people, this pattern keeps going all the way up to the coming of Jesus who is sent to earth and becomes like a slave in order to save us. Now, Joseph realizes that it was not the brothers who sent him here but God. God allowed the pain in Joseph’s past to prepare the path of providence for Joseph’s future.
  • Just like Jacob, when the disciples learned of Jesus’ resurrection, they couldn’t believe it. Soon their disbelief gave way to overwhelming delight. When reconciliation and resurrection come together, it restores our hope, the story of Easter is a story of resurrection but it is also a story of reconciliation. Our sin has separated us from him and broken our relationships but he makes a way for us in Christ.

Applications

  • The first step toward making things right in the future is by remembering what was wrong in the past. Joseph chooses to let go of any anger he once carried and tells them not to be angry with themselves.
  • Marriage is one of the main places that resentment and friction can happen. There’s more at stake in your marriage than you realize. In the passage,Joseph points out that what’s at stake in this moment impacts not just their generation but the next generation.Your relationship doesn’t just impact you but your children and your children’s children.
  • We see ourselves as Joseph when we should actually see ourselves as Joseph’s brothers. Just as bitterness and jealousy provoked them to sell Joseph, we too are provoked by bitterness and jealousy to sin against others. It often takes as much humility to be forgiven by others as it does to forgive. Is there a situation in your life where you need to have a conversation you don’t want to have? Will you commit to seeking forgiveness and reconciliation?