Conspiring to Love

The conspiracy against Joseph was no theory. His brothers really did hate him. They really did plot to destroy him. With Judah as the ringleader, they really did sell him into slavery and convince their father he had been killed by a wild beast. Their conspiracy was a success. Joseph was as good as dead. He was a slave, bound for Egypt.

We can only guess at his emotions: confusion, disillusionment, rage, grief. Joseph lost a lot more than his freedom; he lost his father, his little brother, everyone and everything else he’d ever known and loved, along with any illusions he might have had about the goodness of humanity. He should have been bitter. He should have been as defeated as his brothers wished him to be. Yet everywhere he went regardless of the misery of his circumstances—even as a slave with no human rights, even as a prisoner falsely accused—the dignity of his conduct inspired confidence and respect. He served his masters faithfully, with all his heart. And he prospered, ultimately and impossibly becoming the right-hand man of Pharaoh himself.

So how did he do it? How, while the world seemed hell-bent on destroying him, did Joseph side-step bitterness and cynicism to maintain his integrity and faithfulness as a man of God? The Bible says precious little about the world of Joseph’s thoughts until the very end, when he finds that he finally has his own treacherous brothers at his mercy:

“Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come near to me, please.’ And they came near. And he said, ‘I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God’” (Gen. 45:4-8, emphasis added).

“It was not you who sent me here, but God.” Joseph was no Pollyanna. He did not deny his brothers’ wickedness, nor did he make excuses for it. As he would later put it, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good . . .” (Gen. 50:20). 

Knowing that even the conspiracies of his enemies served God’s ultimate plan of redemption was all Joseph needed to know. It was what freed him to live and serve with integrity as a slave. It was what enabled him to shine like a light in the darkness of a dungeon. It was what enabled him to reject the desire for vengeance and instead to embrace his treacherous brothers, weeping tears of heart-felt love (Gen. 45: 15). Knowing that God’s plan is to love and to redeem even our enemies will do the same for us.