The temptations just keep getting more severe.  First, there was Potiphar’s wife enticing Joseph into an affair.  That was a serious test for a young man.  But Joseph did what he had to do to escape the trap.  As Joseph’s reward for resisting this powerful temptation, Joseph was subjected to an even more severe temptation—the temptation to despair when you have done everything right and life still goes bad for you.

Up until now I thought this was probably Joseph’s greatest test in life.  But now I think maybe the test he faces in Genesis 42 tops them all.  This is the occasion where Joseph is providentially  reunited with his brothers.  The last time Joseph saw his brothers they had absolute power over him.  He was at their mercy and they showed him none. Instead they ripped his coat off, threw him into a pit, and sold him into slavery.  But now the tables have turned.  Joseph has absolute power over them.  The sweetness of revenge is so tantalizing he can taste it.

Without a doubt this was the greatest test of Joseph’s character. It is one thing to be tested when you are powerless to resist. It is quite another to be given the opportunity to get revenge when your enemies are mere putty in your hands. 

Is Joseph thinking revenge when he starts messing with his brothers?  Or is he testing them?  Even as Joseph endured a series of severe tests, he sees the need to put his brothers through a series of tests designed just for them.  Why does he do that?  Joseph is not bent on revenge.  He’s perfectly willing to forgive his brothers.  But before he does that, he wants to make sure his brothers have actually changed.

God works in our lives in much the same way.  He’s perfectly willing to forgive us, but he wants to do more than that.  He wants to refine our character.  Salvation is more than just the forgiveness of sins.  It is the transformation of character.