They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. —Genesis 45:26
The news to Jacob was unexpected. God loves to do things like that. Sometimes He plans and prepares for a long time. He waited thousands of years before He finally sent His Son into the world. Yet sometimes God likes to do something so suddenly that no one is quite prepared for it. For Jacob, the news that Joseph was alive was stunning. He fainted (according to the King James Version).
The news about Joseph surpassed anything Jacob had ever expected. If you were to ask Jacob what was his wildest dream, he would not have named what his sons told him. He had already concluded that Joseph was dead—that he was out of the picture. I wonder if you have already reached conclusions about which you are so certain that you are unable to conceive any alternative situation.
The wonderful thing was the news that Joseph was alive, but then to learn that he was the lord of all Egypt was almost inconceivable. God loves to do that. He loves to do that which surpasses anything that we ever thought of. When the queen of Sheba came to Solomon, she said, “I had heard of your fame, I had heard of your wisdom, I had heard of your riches. Having seen it, even the half had not been told to me.” (See 1 Kings 10:7.)
The apostle Paul said that when we pray, God does that which goes beyond what we ask for or even think about. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). God has a plan for every single one of us. When we see what He has in mind, it will surpass anything we thought possible. He wants to give us the desires of our hearts beyond anything we thought possible.
Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).
Curt Landry 
Michael L. Brown 
Rabbi Eric Tokajer 
