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That is, until we turn to the pages of the New Testament, where the apostle Paul raises the question: “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” (Rom 8:32).
For Christians, Abraham's offering of his son Isaac foreshadows Good Friday.
We have now come full circle from “God the Monster?” of Gen 22. Only this time the father did not withdraw his hand from slaying his son. This was no test; he went through with the sacrifice (cf. Isa 53:10). And so we see that Genesis 22, cruel though it was, is a foreshadowing of the cruelty our heavenly Father endured for our sakes on Good Friday. The God who demands all gives all. He may appear to be a monster, yet he surprises us with gifts beyond our wildest imagination.
And we have also come full circle from the strange covenant ritual of Genesis 15, when God himself passed between the dissected pieces of the animal sacrifices and invoked on himself the curse of the breached covenant.
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As Paul says elsewhere, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.(Galatians 3:13–14).
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God Behind the Scenes (Gen 37-50)
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Unlike the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stories, God is "offstage" and the plot is driven by human decisions and actions.
In the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stories (Gen 12-36; 38) Yahweh speaks and acts in virtually every chapter, but in the Joseph stories (Gen 37; 39-50) he speaks to no one directly, with the exception of Jacob (Gen 46:1-4).
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The closest we get is Pharaoh’s dream, which Joseph interprets to be a revelation from God (Gen 41:25, 28). In four instances—all within the story about Potiphar’s household—the narrator tells us “Yahweh was with Joseph” so he becomes “successful” (e.g., Gen 39:2, 3, 21, 23). In the same chapter Yahweh gives his “blessing” “for Joseph’s sake” (Gen 39:5). These are more general statements that account for Joseph’s sudden turn of events: from being sold into slavery to being promoted as household overseer. Otherwise, the narrator reports no direct interventions from God. The Joseph story is a very human story, where people drive the action, dialogue, and plot.
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The Joseph story is well known. He was sold by his brothers as a slave, but then rose to become household overseer, only to be cast into prison. Then after being summoned before Pharaoh himself, interpreting his dream, and offering counsel, be becomes the second most powerful person in Egypt. Then during the famine, the brothers who betrayed Joseph must come to him to buy grain, and here he reveals himself: "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life…. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 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, do not delay” (Gen 45:4b-5, 7-9).
Here God’s interventions are revealed, not by God’s own speech or by the sacred narrator but in Joseph’s own retrospective interpretation. Given the reality of the famine, had Joseph’s brothers not betrayed him and Joseph not risen to a position of influence, Jacob’s family would have had no special access to the stores of Egypt.
Later Joseph reminds his brothers, "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today” (Gen 50:20).
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It is Joseph's testimony that reveals God's providence in the midst of human intrigue.
This verse sounds like an OT version of Rom 8:28: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” In the Joseph story we see that God is in control when people are least aware of it. We see the mystery of God at work in human decisions and actions. Some might consider Joseph a spiritual inferior to his ancestors, but we learn that God works as providentially in Gen 37-50 as he did in Gen 12-36. The ways of God can’t be put down to a single scheme. God works dramatically for some people and more behind the scenes for others. We may hear his voice, or we may only see his footprints as we look back over our lives.