Many of the modern movies contain a theme of vengeance. It seems we like to see the oppressed get even. I like seeing evil people get what they deserve, yet at the same time, it never feels like a happy ending when that happens. I think the Bible gives us stories with real happy endings. I never get tired of reading the happy ending of Joseph’s story beginning in Genesis 44. I love stories with a happy ending. This one is the best. Not only does Joseph’s early childhood dreams come true as he rules not Just over Egypt but, in effect, over the whole known world. He saves his whole family, as well as much of the world, from the famine, and he is reunited with his family. God directed this happy ending. It was not orchestrated by Joseph. The best part of the story is that Joseph’s brothers plotted his murder and sold him as a slave. He had every reason and justification to strike back in vengeance and “get even” or “ahead.” Joseph had learned that God would deal with the issues of justice and vengeance. Had he taken his own vengeance, that would not have constituted a happy ending at all.
But instead, he tested their repentance. He recognized they were indeed sorry for their deed and had changed because they would not desert their little brother Benjamin. Joseph wept with joy and fell upon them! That means he hugged and kissed them all! But the real happy ending is Joseph’s recognition of God’s hand in it all!
In his complete forgiveness of them, Joseph says, “But don’t be upset and don’t be angry with yourselves.” This was because Joseph was not angry with them. He goes on in Genesis 45:5, “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Once our sins have been confessed and forgiven, we need not look back at them with remorse and regret as we often do. I will sometimes toss and turn over my past, sometimes as recent as yesterday, but that is not from God. I often “get distressed and angry with myself” over failures in my walk with the Lord, but He doesn’t want me to do that anymore than Joseph wanted his brothers to. The purpose of Joseph’s suffering was to “preserve life.” Please notice that! I don’t think Joseph is more gracious than the Lord Himself, do you? So with the past forgiven and the relationships restored, indeed, there is a sense in which we can say, “And they lived happily ever after!” We, too, can have that ending tagged on to our lives as well. John 3:15 says, “Everyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life.” Doesn’t that sound like “and they lived happily ever after?”