“And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life.”
– Genesis 45:5
This is one of my favorite verses in Genesis. I can’t really describe in this little amount of time the way this verse has ministered to my heart. How the Lord has used this verse in my life. But the reason it’s so powerful is that this phrase, this “You sold me here, but God sent me here.” Like why do certain things happen in our lives? Usually there’s a lot of human factors that go into things happening in our lives. Like decisions we make. Why make this or that decision? Well, there’s all kinds of human factors at work that lead us to make this or that decision, that lead us to this or that circumstance.
Genesis 45:5 Reminds Us That God Is Working
But the picture in Genesis 45:5 is that over and above all those human factors, there is a divine hand at work. Like always at work. God is working in ways we never could imagine. We can’t see, but we can trust that amidst all the human factors, things that we might like to happen, that happen, or things that we didn’t want to happen, that happen.
Even through times that seem pointless and only hurtful, God is always working and His plans can be trusted.
That’s certainly the case here in Genesis 45:5. Joseph never would have planned for his brothers to sell him into slavery. He never would have planned to be in prison. He never would have planned so many things in his life, but thankfully, God was planning it all. Even in the difficult things, God was planning it all, to bring about good. “God sent me before you to preserve life.” Genesis 45:5 is just a glaring reminder on the pages of scripture that the plans of God can be trusted. Even when they’re different from our plans. Even when we experience something, or need to make a decision that we would not have planned, that we would not have walked into, we can trust that ultimately, God is planning in ways that we can’t see, but we can trust.
This Verse Leads Us to Thank God and Trust In Him
So I just want to pray that over you right now. “My own life, God, we are making decisions today. Some small decisions, some big decisions in our lives. We are doing things. Others are doing things around us that are affecting our lives, our work, bosses at work, other co-workers doing things that are affecting us. At home, different things going on in our families. There’s so many things happening on a human level right now in our lives, but we are so thankful that in the middle of it all, over it all, your hand is at work. That you right now are planning, and orchestrating, and directing, and guiding, and leading in ways that are far beyond what we can imagine, in ways that we cannot see. But God, we say to you, in ways we trust are good. And will ultimately bring you glory.
So we just pray right now. We trust in you. We trust in your plans, that even when this or that happens on the human level, we trust that you are working on the divine. We are thankful that you are. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
