Scripture Reading: Genesis 45:1-15
Trust in God’s timing. It’s better to wait awhile and have things fall into place, than to rush and have things fall apart.
Anon.
At many airports in Southeast Asia, the area where arriving passengers can be greeted by family members, friends or a company driver is designated as the “Meeting Hall.” After passengers get their baggage, they walk through corridors until finally they pass through doors that open into the Meeting Hall. There, they encounter a teeming mass of people bobbing and shuffling around in search of their friends and loved ones. Drivers hold up signs with the passengers’ names on them.
If all goes well, everyone will meet the people they came to meet. Everyone is happy.
In the reading above, Joseph is waiting in a “Meeting Hall.” He is nervous, however, about the people he is going to meet. He is meeting his brothers for the first time since they treacherously sold him to traders who took him to Egypt. At the time, they were washing their hands of this troublesome little brother. Or so they thought.
They had come to Egypt now because there was widespread famine. But for seven years, Egypt had saved for the lean years. Now, these brothers had been detained by authorities. They didn’t know why. They are ushered into the presence of a high-ranking Egyptian authority.
And then Joseph reveals who he is!
It is the most touching reunion story in all of the Bible and perhaps all of literature.
Joseph had learned to be gracious. He had learned to be forgiving. He had learned to understand that when you’re in the will of God, there’s no need to fret or fuss. Joseph understood this: “So it was not you who sent me here, but God,” he told his brothers (Genesis 45:8). And later, after the death of their father Jacob, Joseph told them, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
What good thing does God intend for you today?
—Timothy Merrill
Prayer:
We confess, O God, that we can become upset when things do not go our way. Help me to be patient, forgiving and gracious, and to wait upon your timing. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
