I just finished reading the Book of Genesis again. The more I read this incredible book the more I see the forest through the trees, so to speak. It’s this big picture perspective that really helps me understand how very absolute God’s sovereign will is. For example, from Chapter 3 on, we see man’s constant rebellion and God’s merciful responses. We see this pattern repeated over and over throughout the book, particularly with the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob (aka Israel). Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him, so they sold him into slavery and he ended up in Egypt. Since God was with him all along, he was blessed, eventually becoming Pharaoh’s right-hand man.

When Joseph was finally reunited with his brothers years later, he gave them God’s perspective on all of the God-given success which had transpired in his life, despite his brother’s efforts to destroy him. In other words, what his brothers meant for evil God used for good.

Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
-Genesis 45:1-8

According to Holy Scripture, God used man’s will to accomplish His own purposes. Did God force Joseph’s brothers to commit evil against their brother? Nope. The Bible clearly teaches that man is responsible for his unholy acts. From man’s perspective, he is certainly acting freely (e.g., he decides with his own faculties to make decisions, day in and day out). Man is given a moral conscience and is therefore held accountable by God for his decisions.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
-James 1:13-15

Since, from man’s perspective, he is able to make his own moral decisions (whether good or evil), is God’s sovereign will then somehow enslaved to man’s will? May it never be! It’s normal to be confounded by these parallel truths in Holy Scripture - “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Romans 11:33)! For more on this, I recommend you read the blog I wrote on June 3, 2022, titled, The Blessing of Knowing What You Don’t Know.

At the end of the Book of Genesis we see Joseph reiterate the sweeping pattern of man’s rebellion followed by God’s decree to save some for Himself (e.g., believers in Israel were referred to as the “remnant” – Genesis 45:7). God saved some in order to fulfill His covenant with Abraham. “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17:7). Paul harkened back to this covenant in the New Testament.

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”
-Romans 9:27-29

This “remnant” of believers in Israel was saved because God decreed it. Is it fair to also say that those in this category of Israelites chose to believe? Indeed. But we mustn’t suppose that God’s sovereign will throughout the ages is somehow dependent on man’s will. The simple truth is that God decided before the foundation of the world how all of this would play out, including who, exactly, would be members of said “remnant”. If you read the Book of Genesis once through, quickly, you’ll see that God’s sovereign will is what keeps His salvific plan on track, nothing else. Without God’s direct intervention at every stage of human history (e.g., if man were left to his own devices), man would self-destruct and we’d all end up in Hell. That’s a fact.

We may become confounded like Joseph’s brothers were when Joseph gave them a bit of theology regarding God’s sovereign will. We may even be inclined to buck this fundamental truth, searching for the unsearchable. Such endeavors will undoubtedly become the shipwreck of one’s faith. The best we can do – what the Word of God instructs us to do - is accept God at His Word. If He tells us that He controls history, then it must be true.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
-Genesis 50:15-26

Verse 26 is the last verse in the Book of Genesis. The great comfort Joseph imparted to his brothers was to assure them that no matter what they’d done, God was always in control. We ought to be encouraged by this, as well. God is in control. Repeat that to yourself often. It’s easy to forget, especially with the chaotic lives we live nowadays. It’s easy to misappropriate control to ourselves as we attempt to architect the end from the beginning. It is only the Lord who has this ability,.

Soon enough, the Lord will return and the final stages of God’s salvific plan will commence. Come, Lord! Let us fear Him, for that is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10). Let us cast our anxieties on Him, for that is His desire (1 Peter 5:7). Sleep well, my friend, resting in the fact that God is in control.

“Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
-Revelation 22:11-14

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins