Introduction
Genesis 50:20 is the theological confession the entire Joseph narrative has been building toward.
Joseph’s brothers, terrified after Jacob’s death that the forgiveness was conditional on the father’s continued presence, send word that Jacob’s dying wish was that Joseph forgive them.
Joseph weeps when he hears this.
Then he says the sentence that names what the Great King’s unconditional covenant of grant has been doing across fourteen chapters: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20).
The Hebrew word translated “meant” is the same word translated “thought” in the first clause meaning to reckon, to plan, to design. The brothers planned evil. The Great King planned the same events toward an entirely different purpose.
Both plans operated on the same historical material. The Great King’s design prevailed.
Genesis 42 through 50 covers the full resolution:
the brothers’ desperate journeys to Egypt,
Joseph’s searching test of whether they have become different men,
the weeping reunion,
Jacob’s descent into Egypt with the entire family,
Jacob’s blessing of the twelve tribes,
the deaths of Jacob and Joseph,
and Joseph’s bones oath that sends a covenant promise forward into centuries of slavery ahead.
Genesis closes with the covenant people alive, intact, and in the wrong country. God operating through his covenant of grant has brought them here. The Great King will bring them out.
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