God Abundantly Provides
Field of Wheat
Photo by Raphael Rychetsky on Unsplash
Some circumstances can seem impossible for God to work with much less bless through. The people of Israel needed to be reminded of this. Genesis was originally written to recently freed slaves, slaves who have known nothing but forced service for 400 years. They have just been let go, and are now wandering through the desert looking to one day enter the promised land.
Now it is hard to have hope in a desert. There’s not much food or water. Everything is hard in a desert, and some might be tempted to believe that even God has a hard time working in the desert. Is He able to provide in hard circumstances?
Joseph’s brothers are likely wondering this as well in this moment. They have been shocked to hear that Joseph has forgiven them, but as we will see from this text, the reason that they are about to be blessed is because God has been the one watching over them.
We will look at some of these things as we look at our main point: God promises to provide for His people more than they could deserve to point to Himself.
God promises to provide for His people more than they could deserve to point to Himself.
Here we see Joseph, having just given us a masterclass in forgiveness, now shows us a great deal of generosity. Behind all the rest of this chapter is a smiling God, but you won’t see His name mentioned beyond verse 9 here. But when you hear what is being described you can see His fingerprints all over the chapter.
Does anything sound familiar in verses 9-11? I think there are subtle notes of God’s promise to Abraham of a land, seed, and blessing. Even though they are going to have to leave Canaan, they are going to be provided the land of Goshen, apparently, a very nice place, as we will see in a minute.
Further, there is the mention of children and grandchildren. The fact that there is land, that means that there will be space for descendants. They won’t be displaced to simply wander. They are going from one home to another home.
Finally, there is the promise of provision, of blessing from Joseph’s own hand. Joseph is instrumental in providing food for the rest of the world, so they have been a blessing to the entire world. Now, they are getting some in return.
All of this from a brother sold into slavery. All of this taking place in a foreign country. God is showing that He is able to provide for His people regardless of where they are. This doesn’t mean that this is the fulfillment of God’s promise. He hasn’t settled on plan B. It was always the plan to go to Egypt, but even there is a preview of what is yet to come. Canaan will still be the land of promise, but God can provide even outside its borders. It points to the fact that God is an international God and has something grand for His people yet. This is something that you can really see in our next section.
One might say that all is well and good with Joseph providing for things, but what a wonder that Pharaoh himself provides in such an obvious way. He is pleased that Joseph’s family is moving in and he provides for all their needs along the way. He is sending them with twenty donkeys carrying treasures of Egypt as well as everything they would need in order to move down. He is basically telling them to just get in the car, don’t even bother packing. There will be better versions of everything when you get there.
Notice this little word here in verse 18. “you shall eat the fat of the land.” Does that remind you of any other time that came up in Jacob’s life? It was when Isaac, his father, was blessing him back in Genesis 27:28 “May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.” Notice the last line of that verse: plenty of grain. There are ten female donkeys loaded up with it! And those are meant to just be some snacks along the way to Egypt the only place on earth that has five more years of grain enough to feed the world! You want to talk about plenty of grain—this is almost ridiculous!
And let’s not even get started on verse 29 that talks about ruling over brothers. Joseph, Jacob’s son, is second in command of Egypt and in charge of everyone’s food for the next five years. That’s a lot of power.
All of this from God, far more than could be imagined. It’s the same God we worship. Now, we get to see the big moments like this and don’t get to appreciate the day by day struggles that they went through, but this blessing is the way that God loves to operate (Matthew 7:11). And He can use even foreign kings to accomplish it. After all, Proverbs 21:1“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”
Never think that God needs something or someone in order to get provision to you. You never have to do something sinful in order to ensure God’s blessings come your way. God doesn’t need the supposed “right people” on your team in order to bless through it. He doesn’t even need you to be the best in order to be a blessing to others. You and those around you don’t have to be stars for God to bless through you. You just need to be surrendered to God. Be obedient to Him, and let Him work through you. God already has all your crazy all factored in.
Incredibly, all of this blessing is coming onto this family that up until five minutes ago we didn’t even trust to not sell another brother. Even after all this, they have to be reminded not to quarrel along the way.
Note the generosity of Joseph. Yes, he gives his full brother more, but he gives a lot to people who the last time they were all together he was sold.
These seem like very undeserving people. I can imagine in their position, I wouldn’t want to accept this gift. I couldn’t possibly deserve that level of kindness after what I would have done. But I don’t have to imagine their position. I don’t deserve anything that I have here, much less anything that I will inherit in heaven. If I wait to feel worthy to accept these things, then all I will have done is grown in my pride.
I was talking with a friend of mine over the weekend who’s dad did a lot of ministry in prisons. He would talk about every time his dad finished ministry for the day in the prisons, he would be so excited to see grace in action. He would do Bible studies with men who were murderers and the worst kind of criminals who know beyond all doubt that they are sinners and starving for grace. They know they need it and are so grateful for it. Watching it play out was so encouraging for him. A couple of his students, themselves prisoners, would turn around and lead Bible classes themselves in the prison. One class is led by two inmates, one white, one black, each one a former leader of a race-based gang. Now they teach together when in years past they would have tried killing each other. That’s happening right now in Bibb county. That’s our God! That’s your Father. No, you don’t deserve that kind of grace either, but that is what is on offer! Will you take it? Will you humble yourself and say, “I don’t deserve it, but I need it?”
Let these examples of God’s grace walk past you to point you to God. That is what we see in this last section.
Jacob hardly knows how to react to this kind of news. It is only when he has seen and heard the words and actions of Joseph does he believe and resolves to go see Joseph. The blessings have pointed beyond themselves to a son seemingly risen from the dead.
That’s what your blessings are meant to do for you. All of them. From air conditioning to laughter around your dinner table, they are all meant to point you to Jesus. Jacob doesn’t stop at the donkeys and say, “Well, I think that we’ve got enough to carve out a spot for us right here, don’t you think? No! He says, “All of this proves my son is alive, let’s go!” His real treasure isn’t on the back of a donkey, its the one who sent them!
If your possessions aren’t doing that for you, then you’ve missed the point. So it is no wonder that you aren’t satisfied yet with what you have. That was never the object’s purpose. It was always meant to get you to look up. 1 Timothy 6:17–19has some practical guidance for us: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”
All of us in this room on the scale of most of the rest of the world are in the rich category. We all should be nearly delirious with joy that we have been born in the age not only of clean water and plentiful food but of air conditioning and ibuprofen. And we are told in what I just read how to react. We don’t become boastful of what we have, neither do we set our hope in it. What does it mean to set our hope on riches? I read a quote this week that said something to the effect of, “If you can end your day relatively happy having despite not praying at all that day, you are probably living a more secular life than you realize.” If I don’t feel the need to pray throughout my day, I’m probably too hopeful in how much money I have, how healthy my children are, and how competent I imagine myself to be. No, my hope should come from the Lord who has provided all of these things to me.
Now the verse doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t say, “don’t set your hope on riches, and in order to do that, you need to get rid of it all.” That’s not what it says. It says to hope in God who gives you these things to enjoy. Enjoy—don’t trust in—but enjoy it. Treat your blessings like a delicious and healthy dinner made by someone you love. Savor the taste, sus out each note of flavor, knowing that you won’t be full forever afterward. Knowing that this experience doesn’t last forever. But neither of those realities ruin the dining experience. It’s just there to be enjoyed and to point to the one who made it.
Of course, a good meal, a good blessing, is multiplied when it is shared. God gives us these things, as it says in verse 18, to do good works with them. Don’t let social media be the only way a blessing is broadcast. Let people find out how God has blessed you by the way you serve them with that blessing.
And when you do those things, God is so good as to reward you anew in heaven. You make a blessing multiplier. All of it made possible by Christ’s work on the cross. This chapter of Genesis was paving the way for the ultimate blessing in Christ. His death on the cross paid for your salvation to go to heaven one day. This is a gift so great, that no circumstance could ever dull it. No matter what rolls past you, good or bad, you can look at the empty tomb and say, “Jesus is still alive, and I will see Him when I truly come alive in heaven.”
So what should this change this week? Be grateful for what you have. Spend some time either literally writing it down or just sitting in a quiet place picturing in your mind all the blessings you have this afternoon. You don’t have to be ashamed of them. Enjoy them like a good meal. Then pass the plate around, let others enjoy your blessings on earth so as to make them treasures in heaven.