Joseph's Story: God's Saving Mission Kept Alive
Daily Scripture
Genesis 50:12-21
12 Israel’s sons did for him just as he had ordered. 13 His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as burial property from Ephron the Hittite. 14 Then Joseph returned to Egypt, he, his brothers, and everyone who left with him to bury his father.
15 When Joseph’s brothers realized that their father was now dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us, and wants to pay us back seriously for all of the terrible things we did to him?” 16 So they approached Joseph and said, “Your father gave orders before he died, telling us, 17 ‘This is what you should say to Joseph. “Please, forgive your brothers’ sins and misdeeds, for they did terrible things to you. Now, please forgive the sins of the servants of your father’s God.”’” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 His brothers wept too, fell down in front of him, and said, “We’re here as your slaves.”
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I God? 20 You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from it, in order to save the lives of many people, just as he’s doing today. 21 Now, don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” So he put them at ease and spoke reassuringly to them.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
At the end of Genesis, the patriarch Jacob died. With him gone, Joseph’s brothers were again (or still) afraid. It often takes time to work through feelings before we forgive deep hurts, and we see in the brothers that it takes time to trust forgiveness for those deep hurts. Their fearful, transparent effort to put words in their dead father’s mouth moved Joseph to tears. “Some have defined forgiveness as ‘giving up the hope of a different past.’ I would add that it’s taking on the hope of a joyful future. Forgiveness is believing that the future can be better than the past. The past can’t be changed, but God can do something redemptive with it. Joseph’s story ended with his brothers bowing down before him, just as he had dreamed when he was a boy. When he revealed himself to them—the betrayed little brother now Pharaoh’s right-hand man—they were convinced that Joseph would kill them…. But, on the contrary, it is just at that moment in the Bible that we come to the book’s first use of the word forgive. Joseph’s brothers asked for forgiveness, and Joseph extended it.” *
- Imagine you’re one of Joseph’s brothers. Joseph said he forgave you, but you know what you did. The family patriarch, whose authority might have held Joseph back, just died. Would you still be afraid of what might happen? Joseph had a different outlook. “Had his brothers not sold him into slavery… he would not have been in this position to save his family. Joseph was able to look back and see God’s hand working through all the things that had happened.” ** Even more, this was an early chapter in the vast Biblical saga of God’s salvation. “Joseph is the first great embodiment of Romans 8:28…. the good God brings out of these experiences is not just the good it brings Joseph… but the good it brings his family. That is not the end of it…. This is the family through which God is going to bring blessing to the world…. We as twenty-first-century readers owe our salvation to the fact that God kept this family alive (so that Jesus could be born from it) and used Joseph’s suffering to that end.” *** Do you trust God to be as creative and redemptive in your life as in Joseph’s?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for forgiving me, many times. Let your forgiveness “go viral” in my life, shaping all my relationships and attitudes. Amen.
GPS Insights
Scott Chrostek
When Scott Chrostek wrote today's blog post in 2010, he was a recent arrival at Resurrection serving as location pastor for the new Downtown location. Today he serves as Resurrection's Executive Director of Ministries and Programs and Lead Director of Worship.
Every time I read this passage of Scripture, I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to be Joseph. How might it have felt to stand face to face with the people (your brothers) who threw you in a ditch and left you for dead? Then I imagine how it would have felt to know that these people (your family) were in need of something that only you could offer them? I think of what I might do in that situation.
In this passage of Scripture Joseph’s brothers stand before him in need. They want something to eat, and Joseph was the only guy who could give them something. Rather than seeking revenge, rather than refusing and rejecting them, Joseph pulls them closer to him and forgives them. He says, ‘You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from it, in order to save the lives of many people, just as he’s doing today. Now, don’t be afraid.” Joseph forgave his brothers, who had treated him like their worst enemy. But where does he draw such strength? And how can we live a life that forgives in that same way?
Peter Storey writes, “Ordinary people, touched by the power of the Cross, can become extraordinary in our capacity to love and forgive.”
Unlike Joseph, Christ wasn’t given the luxury of standing before his human family when they needed something from him. He was hanging on a cross. As He hung there face to face before his brothers and sisters, the very people who betrayed him, of all the things he could say, he cries out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”
Because he did, we are given the ability to do the same.
It was written, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Jesus, suspended on the cross by his perfect love, offers us the forgiveness we so desperately need, that life might be preserved. Our job is simply to go and do likewise.
Who is it that needs your forgiveness today?
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Hamilton, Adam, Forgiveness: Finding Peace Through Letting Go (pp. 122-123). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.
** Ibid., p. 121.
*** John Goldingay, Genesis for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 17–50. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 161.
