Genesis 45:7

7 For God sent me before you, that there might be left to you a remnant upon the earth, even to nourish a great remnant of you.

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 Now then be not grieved, and let it not seem hard to you that ye sold me hither, for God sent me before you for life.

6 For this second year there is famine on the earth, and there are yet five years remaining, in which there is to be neither ploughing, nor mowing.

7 For God sent me before you, that there might be left to you a remnant upon the earth, even to nourish a great remnant of you.

8 Now then ye did not send me hither, but God; and he hath made me as a father of Pharao, and lord of all his house, and ruler of all the land of Egypt.

9 Hasten, therefore, and go up to my father, and say to him, These things saith thy son Joseph; God has made me lord of all the land of Egypt; come down therefore to me, and tarry not.