This morning we are beginning at the climax of one of the best known and best loved stories of the Bible and working our way backwards. Joseph is the second most powerful man in all of Egypt. In front of him stand the very brothers who sold him into slavery years before. They are terrified that a brother whom they treated so unjustly now has the power of life and death over them. But Joseph says to his brothers, "Come close to me."

When they are gathered around him he says to them, "Don't be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me into slavery. It was to save lives that God sent me here. For two years now there has been famine in the land, with five more such years to follow. But God sent me here to preserve life. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God."…