Genesis 41:37-42:38

 What Genesis 41-42 is going to show us is that, even when our lives don’t make sense, God is making sense of our lives.

Outline

  • First, God makes sense of our unbelievable success (41:37-45)
  • Second, God makes sense of our unbearable suffering (41:46-57)
  • Third, God makes sense of our unexpected situations (42:1-17)
  • Fourth, God makes sense of our unresolved failures (42:15)
  • Fifth, God makes sense of our unspoken fears (42:26-28)

Christ Connections

  • God knew the brothers’ needs before they did and he provided for them once they felt the pain. God invites us to give our suffering to our savior—Jesus suffered in our place on the cross so he can sustain us in our suffering today. 
  • This chapter ends with the family in an impossible situation but it does not end without hope. Just as Joseph starts his ruler at age 30, that’s when Jesus starts his earthly ministry. Just as Joseph goes from a lowly servant who is forgotten to a mighty ruler over a kingdom, Jesus takes the form of a servant on the cross so that he might rule over his kingdom. Just as those who oppressed and sought to destroy Joseph now bow to him, Philippians 2 tells us that one day all of us will bow at the name of Jesus.

Applications

  • In mountain top moments with God does great things instead of giving credit to God for working a miracle we try to take it for ourselves. What Joseph’s life shows us is that it is the God who sustains us in the valley who sets us on the mountaintop.
  • God doesn’t just make sense of our past suffering but also our present struggles. God spent 7 years preparing for the needs of the world before the world ever knew there was a famine. When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances that we did not see coming, we must put our trust in the God who saw them coming all along.
  • We can find ourselves in the same spot as Joseph’s brothers where we are focused on our unresolved failures even after all these years. We are filled with the same guilt and shame as Joseph’s brothers over our unresolved failures but here’s the reality that Genesis 42 shows us—you can’t grasp the future God has for you if you are still holding on to the past.