Genesis 45:7

7 And God sent me before you [all] to preserve for you a remnant in the land and to keep alive among you many survivors.

Genesis 45:7 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 45:7

And God sent me before you
This he repeats to impress the minds of his brethren with a sense of the good providence of God in bringing him to Egypt before them, to make provision for their future welfare, and to alleviate their grief, and prevent an excessive sorrow for their selling him into Egypt, when by the overruling hand of God it proved so salutary to them: to preserve you a posterity in the earth;
that they and theirs might not perish, which otherwise, in all human probability, must have been the case; and that the promise of the multiplication of Abraham's seed might not be made of none effect, but continue to take place, from whence the Messiah was to spring: and to save your lives by a great deliverance;
from the extreme danger they were exposed unto, through the terrible famine, and in which deliverance were to be observed the great wisdom, goodness, power, and providence of God.

Genesis 45:7 In-Context

5 So now, do not be distressed and do not be angry {with yourselves} that you sold me here, for God sent me as deliverance before you.

6 For these two years the famine [has been] in the midst of the land, but [there will be] five more years where there is no plowing or harvest.

7 And God sent me before you [all] to preserve for you a remnant in the land and to keep alive among you many survivors.

8 So now, you yourselves did not send me here, but God put me here as father to Pharaoh and as master of all his household, and a ruler over all the land of Egypt.

9 Hurry, and go up to my father and say to him, 'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me and do not delay.