Preschool
A righteous man hateth lying (Proverbs 13:5).
God’s Divine Providence
Memory Verses
Primary
A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame (Proverbs 13:5).
Junior
A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame (Proverbs 13:5).
Background Scripture: Genesis 42-47
Lesson Scripture: Genesis 45:1-13
Introduction
Today we are invited again to consider the divine guidance of God. Our short-range vision fails to comprehend the reach and scope of his long-range plan. Because of our finite humanity, we can only see the past and the present. We sometimes lose confidence that God has a good plan and that He is working it out. Our faith can be renewed again as we study the example of Joseph. His faithfulness and submission are remarkable even when the future was unknown and the present was dark and unpromising.
Key Verse
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).
Lesson Scripture
Genesis 45:1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:
10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.
12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.
13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.
Studying the Lesson
At the time of our lesson, God’s chosen people were not a great nation but only a small family. Jacob knew God had promised Abraham that He would make a nation of his children, and God had renewed this promise to Jacob himself in a night vision (Gen. 28:13-15).
By this time God’s promises must have been important to Jacob, and evidently he passed his faith and values on to Joseph. Joseph was a favored son, and although we sometimes see this in a negative light, it probably meant that Jacob spent more time with him and put more into his education and teaching. Joseph seemed to be somewhat of a visionary young man and seemed to be partly aware that God had a long-range plan for his family. Possibly he felt privileged to be a part of it all, but suddenly he was taken away from his family and sold into Egypt, a strange foreign country completely apart from everything familiar. Did Joseph struggle with faith in God? He could not know how he was to be instrumental in God’s plan nor of his role in the famine to come.
Jacob surely believed God, yet he may have wondered if God had forgotten when the food ran out and still the rain did not fall. Jacob had come into the land of Canaan with his young family not so long ago. It was not his land at that time even though God had promised to give it to his seed. In fact, Jacob had to buy a piece of ground to spread his tent and build his altar. How would God accomplish all his promises? How would they survive the famine, living among strangers as they were? We know that God had the situation well under control, but of course, Jacob could not know what the future held.
As Joseph’s brothers trudged toward Egypt in the hope that they would find corn to buy, they had no idea that they were the beneficiaries of a plan that had been years in the making. We do not know what kind of reception the brothers expected when they presented themselves with their open sacks; certainly they did not understand the reasons the stern Egyptian ruler had for putting them through such an interrogation. The last time they had seen Joseph was when he was carried away from them, sold into a life of slavery.
The years of misery and the long nights of loneliness when Joseph longed for his family were unknown to Joseph’s brothers. They knew nothing of the weary days of drudgery in the house of Potiphar before he recognized Joseph’s upright character nor the dashed hopes when he saw all his hard-won trust discarded in a moment to again be a nobody, in prison this time. They were not acquainted with prison life—the hard, uncomfortable quarters, poor food, and criminals for companions.
They did not realize that the Egyptian confronting them was their mild-mannered brother who had kept his faith in God. These brothers thought they would never see him again, and so, not expecting him, they did not recognize him now. But Joseph knew them, and at last he understood God’s providence over him and his family.
Practical Truths for Today
The Bible says that God’s ways are higher than our ways. Accordingly, there are many things that man cannot see and understand that are perfectly clear to God. When God created the earth, He provided a paradise for man where there were no evil days, no sickbeds, no suffering, and no death. All these things and many others bring unhappiness to man, the crown of his creation. When we are faced with trouble, we may hardly be able to accept that God in his wisdom has allowed it to come our way. Why would a loving God allow his servants to suffer? The enemy of our soul wants us to become offended and bitter over these things.
God is not to blame for evil; it was man’s disobedience that unleashed the curse of sin. However, God’s plan of redemption shines through, and He provides good through pain and misfortune.
Man’s view is essentially earthly and limited by time. We do not naturally see things from an eternal point of view. Heaven and hell do not seem so real to us as we go about our daily lives. We often fail to remember that the things we go through here are only temporary. God inhabits eternity, and He clearly sees that our eternal destiny is the one most important thing about our existence. He truly knows the worth of the soul. God knows that trouble can bring about beautiful changes in a person’s spirit. Trouble can turn a soul to its Maker and teach us to trust God. The ministry of pain and suffering can be a powerful witness to the grace of God.
Our key verse implies that God turns trouble and hard circumstances to our good. It gives the impression that He is still in ultimate control and we are not at the mercy of chance or fate. Sometimes God makes the reason clear for the pain and difficulty we go through. At other times, we may not know until we are safely home with God and the answers to all of life’s many questions are understood. We do need to believe, however, that God has a good plan for us, and if we accept it, He will bring us to a good end. If we struggle against the circumstance we find ourselves in and rebel in our heart, becoming offended at God, we are hindering the very good that we desire to be bestowed upon us.
Often we have a plan of our own and naturally think it is good. As we look ahead, we only see the one path that looks desirable to us. When life does not follow the route we have mapped out, we may feel threatened and insecure. Let us remember that God can see many different ways where we see only one.
Questions
- Does God have an earthly plan for our lives, or is He only interested in our eternal destiny?
- How literally can the key verse be taken? Does everything that happens to us turn out to be for our good?
- Is there any merit in mentally or spiritually preparing for potential trouble or difficulty? What is borrowing trouble?
- Why are we tempted to feel abandoned by God when we face trouble?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).