How can you be free from bitterness towards those who have hurt you? What about those who have really hurt you? Joseph had been sold as a slave by his own brothers, it had been a choice between killing him and making a bit of money out of him and they had gone for the latter. It was clear they did not love or care one bit about their own flesh and blood. As Joseph suffered not only as a slave but as a prisoner it must have been hard for him not to be bitter. And yet incredibly in Genesis 45v5 he comforts his own brothers telling them not to be distressed or angry with themselves for selling him as a slave!
How can he be so gracious? I think the key is at the end of v5 “for God sent me before you to preserve life.” And in v8 “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”
Knowing the sovereignty of God frees from bitterness. It doesn’t excuse the wrongdoing, the brothers are still responsible for their evil actions, but behind the scenes our sovereign Lord is working for good. Joseph has the benefit of hindsight here. He’s able to see how God has got him to just the right place at the right time to save many lives.
When you are in the midst of suffering it’s not always so clear what God is doing. Joseph had to test his brothers to see if they had changed before he entrusted himself to them. Sometimes we can’t be reconciled to people because they haven’t changed. But God is still working his purposes out. How can we know that?
How can we know that when your child is in pain or has a disability and is continually getting weaker, when your marriage that seemed so promising is falling apart, when you have just lost that person that meant so much to you, or when your country is at war?
In our Psalm for today we are invited to sing:
“For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
That your beloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand and answer me!” (Psalm 108:4-6)
Those are words that remind us of the steadfast love of the Lord and cry out for His deliverance. It’s striking to think that our Lord Jesus would have sung those words, and what would they have meant to Him? How would God’s beloved ones be delivered? Our reading from Galatians tells us that this deliverance would come through the “Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Jesus would have sung this psalm knowing what it would cost Him for us to be delivered.
As we see that, it helps us to trust Him amidst the heartache. Knowing that He is sovereign helps us not to be bitter, and knowing that He has loved us and given himself for us, helps us to know He’s at work for our good even when we can’t see it.
And just another little encouragement to help us see the Lord’s control throughout it all, remember the promises to Abraham, well there are now 70 people (Genesis 46:27) and because the Egyptians don’t mix with the Hebrews (43:32) nor with shepherds (46:34), this is an ideal place for God to grow this distinct nation! But they are not in the promised land, it’s just as God said, they will live in a foreign land for 400 years (15:13).
We might not understand what God is doing right now, but as we look back we can see how He has fulfilled His promises over the years and that can encourage us to keep trusting in the present.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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