"Do not be angry with yourselves...for God sent me"

Joseph tells his brothers in Gen 45:5 "Now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life" (ESV). Joseph emphasizes this by repeating it in verse 7, "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors" (ESV). Joseph knows that his brothers are now tempted to be angry with themselves for a bad decision they made in the past. We can completely understand such a response. Their decision involved sin against their brother and against God. We also have made bad decisions in the past that we are tempted to be angry about today--some that were plainly sinful, some that were foolish, and some that were neither of these but have nevertheless led to regret. But Joseph also knows that God was sovereign over his brothers' bad decision. God was in control, as He always is. God delights in incorporating our sin, foolishness, and bad decisions in His wise plan. And God's plan is good (Rom 8:28). Because God was sovereign over his brothers' bad decision, and used it to save the entire family from starvation, Joseph encourages his brothers, "Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves." And today God is saying the same thing to you if you are angry with yourself for a bad decsision you made in the past. May our thoughts not be filled with such regret, but may they be filled with prayer that God will gloriously fulfill His good purposes behind our past decisions.