Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 45-47.

I wanted to write about something other than what Joseph said to his brothers when he revealed himself to them, and I still may, but the more I looked for other things to write about the more important that part seemed to me.  When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, he starts by acknowledging that they sold him into slavery.  However, he tells them that God was using them for His own ends when they did that.  We usually, and correctly, interpret this as being that we should see how the bad things which others have done to us were used by God to bring good things into our lives.  I just realized that there is a more important lesson here.  Joseph told his brothers that God had them sell him into slavery so that he might go ahead of them into Egypt in order to save their lives when the famine came (I want to note that if Joseph’s brothers had not sold him into slavery, he would have starved to death along with them in Canaan).  In the same way, God has used the stupid, sinful things we have done to bring good things to us when we turn back to Him.  This does not mean that we should embrace doing more sinful things, merely that we should accept God’s forgiveness and forgive ourselves.  We should not be angry at ourselves, or beat ourselves up, over the mistakes we have made in the past.  God has used, and will use, our mistakes to accomplish His will.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.