Gen. 42:28 And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?
Joseph's brothers, had of course, many years earlier, sold Joseph into slavery. No doubt they thought that their deed would never be found out. After doing such a thing as this, no doubt they were still living with the guilt of it, when famine hits their land and forces them to go into the land of Egypt and buy food.
Never in a million years would they have ever dreamed that the person at whose mercy they were was actually the brother that they had sold in to slavery so many years before.
Now they are faced with this problem. They had to leave their brother in Egypt in order to be sold the food and now when they look in their sacks the money is restored! So they asked the question., What is this that God hath done unto us? It is not "What is this that God has done for us"
In one sense this was a question that sprang from faith. After all they were not like a lot of people in our day, who don't even acknowledge that the things that are happening in their lives are in fact the activity of God. But in another sense it was a question that sprang from guilt, and dout. They assumed that God was doing something to them, no doubt because of the guilt that they were feeling, and because of the adversity that they had faced in Egypt. But in reality, God was not doing something to them. He was doing something for them!
He was preserving their lives. He was preserving their posterity. He was ultimately going to reconcile them to the brother that they had treated so shamefully.
Dear Christian reader, it may seem like God is doing something to you today. But remember that God is actually doing something for you. He is causing all things, both the pleasant and the painful to work together for your good! Trust Him, and refuse to focus on the little picture, but rather focus on the big picture of HIs grace!
