Genesis 47:1-2

Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

What a beautiful scene this is.

Joseph does not keep his brothers at a distance. He does not make them earn their way back into the family. He does not stand before Pharaoh and rehearse their history. He does not say, These are the men who betrayed me. These are the men who wounded me. These are the men who failed me. No. He simply brings them near and presents them.

That is grace.

And it is striking that Joseph brought five of his brothers. In Scripture, five is often connected with grace, and that detail fits this moment so well. These are not men who earned their standing. These are men with a past. Yet they are brought in and presented because of Joseph’s favor toward them. Grace brings us in where guilt says we should be kept out.

These brothers had a history. They had said things they should never have said and done things they should never have done. Their record was not clean. Their hands were not innocent. And yet Joseph stands as their representative and says, in effect, This is my family.

That is such a tender picture of Jesus.

We come to Him with so much behind us. Regrets. Failure. Coldness. Pride. Fear. Moments we wish we could take back. But when the Lord brings His own before the Father, He does not present us on the basis of our performance. He presents us on the basis of His love and His finished work.

Jude says it so wonderfully.

Jude 24

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

Faultless.

Not improved a little. Not cleaned up enough. Not finally acceptable because we managed to do better.

Faultless.

That does not say a great deal about us. It says everything about Him.

Joseph took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. That number quietly strengthens the picture. Grace is written all over this scene. Men who should have hung their heads are brought near. Men who had no speech to make in their own defense are presented by another. In that picture we get a little glimpse of a much greater reality. One day Jesus Christ will present His people in a far greater court than Egypt’s palace. And when He does, it will not be with embarrassment. It will not be reluctantly. It will be with joy.

Think about that for a moment.

The enemy loves to remind us of what we have been. The Lord speaks of what His grace has made us. The enemy points to our stains. Jesus points to His blood. The enemy says, Look at their history. Jesus says, They are mine.

That is where rest begins.

Beloved, if you are in Christ, your hope is not in how well you can introduce yourself to God. Your hope is in the fact that Jesus is the One who presents you. And He will never present one of His own as a stranger. He will say, This is my family.