"Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them." (Gen 50,21)

Shouldn't it be the other way around? After all, Joseph was the one who was hurt, he lived his hell on Earth, so it would be logical for the brothers to comfort Joseph... But there was poverty, dryness in their hearts. In their inner prison they did not find the freedom that Joseph had, and thanks to which he internally abounded with the wealth he could give out.

Joseph doesn't take revenge on his brothers - he could, but he doesn't have to. The greatness of a person, but also the simple joy of life, is apart from other things determined by what we could, but do not have to. This is also the essence of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which is not always understood correctly. Turning the other cheek is not a provision of the new commandment or a law, it does not mean that I always have to get slapped, but that I have achieved the freedom not to have to revenge.

"And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them." Josef, "Safenat Paneach" - Savior of the World - comforts those who have hurt him and intended to kill him. What a perfect image of Christ who sent the Spirit of consolation to stay with us for the same purpose. He rests quietly where he is welcome, does not count thousands of grievances, and distributes the peace and love of God.

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Gen 50,20)

It is uncertain whether Joseph understood his dreams at first, but his father immediately explained them. Josef was "favored" in the family, so it didn't even surprise him that his brothers would bow to him ("after all, who else is better fit to be the boss here?"). But when he was humbled, he went through the hell of a life that took a completely different direction, apparently shifting his dreams off deep into his subconscious: it will no more come true.

And lo, the brothers are here, bowing to the ground... But in the meantime, Joseph has matured into a different person than he was in the beginning. He did not give in to bitterness, he did not allow himself to be controlled by self-pity, he did not think of revenge.

It always depends on how we look at our lives, from what angle and from what height. Who are we, why are we here, where are we going to? "You intended evil against me, but God intended good". When Joseph looked at the things from above, he found that they looked quite different; he understood that the common events of his little life had far-reaching implications in God's plan.

If we don't see the whole picture, it can deceive us what things look like at the moment. But when our eyes are opened, we understand that the greatest victories of life are fought in secret, and that every little deed, when performed in God, is permanently recorded in eternity.

"Then Joseph could no longer control himself... he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” (Gen 45,1-2)

How much pain Josef had to bear all these years. His own brothers wanted to kill him, and when they did not kill him physically, they executed him at least spiritually. They did away with him forever from their and their father's world, inflicting such a hateful blow on him that it would paralyze many for the rest of their life.

When a person is harmed, he can react basically in two ways. The most common thing is to become a victim to a greater or lesser extent and to blame others and the life itself for the hardships that befell him. It's human, it's understandable - could anyone blame Josef if he didn't find strength to stand up and walked on with his head bowed and remorse in his heart for those who had hurt him so badly?

But Joseph fought in that situation ... and won. However, it must be understood that such victories are not a gift of a happy nature. They are something that a man grows into, they cost much, require struggles to forgive, a will to rise up.

The same situation that kills one can help the other one grow up and become inwardly someone else than before. Despite all the pain that people can cause others, this is also a kind of a "victory that overcomes the world ...".

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. (Gen 45,4-5)

From the outside point of view, it seemed that it were the brothers who had won, but what they gained in reality was a life of hypocrisy, fear, and guilt. The shared secret, which was not to have been revealed in any way, made them conspirators, and it was not possible for any of them to come out with the truth, because it would harm others. With all this, the brothers got into a prison worse than Joseph because it held them from within. The balance is depressing: in the end, the brothers spent more years in prison than the one they hurt.

Unlike them, it did not take long for Joseph, who was supposed to end up humiliated and defeated and found himself in prison literally, to rise up in his heart - as if the subsequent change of his position only proved what was going on inside. Like everyone else he also must have had a number of personal faults, but when he was in the whirlwind of events, he fought his inner struggle and won: he decided to forgive and not be destroyed by any bitterness. Therefore, unlike his brothers, he could walk towards the inner freedom and would have been experiencing it whether his life was outwardly successful or not.

He thus confirmed the old wisdom of Plato that it is much better for a man to be hurt than to hurt someone else.

 "And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt." (Gen 41,45)

After dark night the dawn will come - yes, it will surely come and will not be late! Mother Basilea Schlink often repeated that with God a suffering is never the last thing. If we have chosen God's way and now have to go through difficulties, they too will end one day and we will be able to go out into freedom. 

Joseph was liberated after years in a dark dungeon and could rise like the sun - or better to say, he even became the sun (v. 45). Thus the followers of the Lamb, who walk in His way, even if they are lead through difficulties and self-denial, become precious to others, they are filled with the heavenly treasures of wisdom and truth.

Safenat Paneach is the perfect forerunner of the savior of the world, who was exalted to the highest glory from the deepest humiliation: "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." (Phil 2,9-10)

We can assume that the brothers, until the outbreak of hunger, because of which they went to Egypt, were not quite bad. After all, their father had an extensive farms, herds and servants, he passed on his experience to them, they started families, had children. From the human point of view, their path of life lead upward or at least was not going down significantly.

On the other hand, Joseph's path kept falling lower and lower. He was first rejected by his own brothers and sold to his half-brothers, the Ishmaelites. They dragged him away and sold him to total foreigners, Egyptians. From a beloved son with an exceptional position in his father's house, he became a slave without rights. But that was not the end yet - in Egypt, which stands for "this world" in Scripture, he was condemned and found himself in the most degrading place: in a prison among criminals. And in the end he was abandoned and forgotten even by the prisoners...

Joseph's path led from the heights to the lowest position on this earth. He is thus a prototype of Christ, who "came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:11). He who was "in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross" (Phil 2,6-8). And he "was numbered with the transgressors." (Is 53:12)