3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

4 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! 5 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. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. Genesis 45:3-7

The brothers were in shock at Joseph’s pronouncement. They probably couldn’t believe it when they heard it. But it was also the realization that they had been “busted” and an even worse fate could befall them. But we know it didn’t.

Interesting that Joseph was very confident about his prediction of a seven-year famine. Joseph knew the score. He knew that God was preserving the lineage in a most peculiar way, so much so that people might not believe it if it were told to them. Joseph had no clue about it when his brothers first sold him.

But it took a modicum of faith to believe that God was in control despite him not being in control of any part of his life. What took place in those solitary prison conditions transformed his entire worldview. Even if he had rehashed his life over and over again in that prison, lamenting, brooding, seething, pitying, the ending would have been the same: he was alone there with God Almighty.

Only God had the ability to alter the course of Joseph’s thinking.

And so it is with our lives.

We can rehash hurts and struggles, but in the end, God can help redirect those thoughts if we want to be redirected. It was now very apparent with Joseph that an incredible transformation had taken place.

God is like that.