GOD VIEWED IN JOSEPIl's ADVANCEMENT.
Gen. xlv. 8. So now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God.
BY looking through second causes to the first Cause of all, we learn to trace events to an all-wise Being, who " worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," and whose prerogative it is to bring good out of evil, and order out of confusion. To this view of things we are directed, and in this we are greatly assisted, by the Holy Scriptures ; which draw aside the veil of mystery that is on the ways of God, and set before our eyes the most hidden secrets of divine providence. The history before us more especially affords a beautiful illustration of those ways, in which the Governor of the Universe accomplishes his own designs : he suffers, in many instances, such adverse circumstances to occur, as apparently to preclude almost a possibility of their terminating according to his original purpose : yet does he wonderfully inter- pose in such a manner as to bring them easily, and, as it were, naturally, to their destined issue. If in any thing his intentions could be frustrated, we should have found them fail in reference to the predicted elevation of Joseph above his brethren : yet that event took place at last, and that too through those very means which were used to defeat it : and Joseph, after the event was actually accomplished, referred the whole dispensation to God, as its primary Author and infallible Director.
To elucidate this subject, we shall shew,
I. What part God takes in the actions of wicked men —
Though God cannot be a partaker in the wickedness
of men, yet he may, and certainly does, bear a part
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in those actions which wicked men perform. We need go no further than the text, to confirm and establish this truth. That the conduct of Joseph's brethren, notwithstanding it was ultimately instrumental to his advancement, was deeply criminal, can admit of no doubt: yet says Joseph, "It was not you that sent me hither, but God." The question is then, What is that part which God takes in the actions of wicked men ? To this we answer,
1. He affords them opportunities of perpetrating what is in their hearts —
[The brethren of Joseph were full of envy and malice against him : but while he was under his father's wing, they could not give full scope to their hatred, because they were afraid of their father's displeasure. To remove this difficulty, God so ordered matters that Joseph should be sent to inquire after the health of his brethren when they were at a distance from home. This gave them an opportunity of executing all that was in their hearts. But as the executing of their first intention would have defeated the plans of Providence, it was so appointed that certain Ishmaelite merchants should be passing that way, and that he should be sold to them for a slave instead of being put to death.
That we do not err in tracing these minuter incidents to divine providence, is manifest ; for the elevation of Pharaoh to the throne of Egypt is expressly said to have been effected by God for that very purpose, that he might be an instrument on whom the divine power should be exerted, and in whose destruction God himself should be glorified4.
But in thus facilitating the execution of evil, God does not make himself a partner in the crime : he only affords men power and opportunity to do what their own wicked disposi- tions prompt them to : and this he does, as in the instances before referred to, so also in every crime that is committed in the world. What our blessed Lord said to his judge who boasted of having power to release or condemn him, we may say to every criminal in the universe, " Thou couldst have no power at all to commit thy crimes, except it were given thee from above."]