Sometimes God seems slow in fulfilling his promises. In those times, people sometimes feel the need to help God out, to take matters into their own hands when God doesn’t seem to be doing His part. That’s what it was like for Abraham and Sarah in the first ten years after God made His promise to Abraham. Sarah still hadn’t conceived a child.

Eventually, when Abraham was 99 years old, he and Sarah had a son named Isaac, who was the son God had promised them. Isaac had a son named Jacob, who had twelve sons. These twelve sons became the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. Those twelve tribes became the nation of Israel, which God would use to save the world.

One of those twelve sons of Jacob was named Joseph. We’re introduced to Joseph when he is 17 years old. He was an optimist, a dreamer, and his father’s favorite son. And because he was Jacob’s favorite, he was not his brothers’ favorite. Joseph’s brothers hated him so much that they faked his death and sold him into slavery.

Joseph was taken to Egypt, where through a series of events tested his faith and his integrity, Joseph rose from slavery to become the prime minister. He was the pharaoh’s second-in-command, and he developed a plan to save Egypt from a coming famine that was so successful that other nations came to Egypt for help.

One day, his brothers came looking to buy some of Egypt’s famous grain. Joseph struggled with unforgiveness. The wrong his brothers had done him was so great, nobody can really blame him for that. But when they were in need, Joseph chose what we should all choose. He chose forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t correct the past, but it can make the future better.

Joseph’s brothers went to get their father Jacob, and they all moved to Egypt. They became a whole family once again. They lived out their days in Egypt, and their families kept increasing in number. They went from a large family of about 70 people to whole tribes while they lived there. They were known as the Israelites, and they stood out from the Egyptians. Some saw that as a threat.

The Book of Exodus begins, “Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country” (Exodus 1:8-10 NIV). As God had told Abraham long ago, his descendants became strangers in a strange land and were enslaved there.

Exodus says, “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites” (Exodus 1:12 NIV). Pharaoh was disturbed by the numbers of the Israelites, also known as the Hebrew people, so he told the midwives to kill any Hebrew child that was male.

The promise God made to Abraham and passed on to his descendants must have seemed like a fairytale. They were oppressed, they were treated to the worst injustices, they were forced to do hard labor. Decade after decade, they must have prayed for God to rescue them, and got no response. And now their children were being murdered.

Then a baby was born who would change everything. That baby was Moses. Rather than being put to death for the crime of being a Hebrew male, Moses was placed in a basket on the river. He was found by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as her son.

The Israelites were in a strange country, as God had told Abraham. They were enslaved for 400 years, just as He said they would be. And just as He promised, God used this man – flaws and all – to bring them out of slavery to become a free nation. That nation blessed the whole world when Jesus was born.

This Christmas, remember that forgiveness can change the world. Joseph’s forgiveness saved his whole family. Through that forgiveness, God set in motion events that would bless the whole world. Jesus was that blessing, and He died on the cross to forgive all our sins forever.