Verse of the day:
Genesis 42:7 Joseph saw his
brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke
roughly to them. Then he said to them, “Where do you come from?”
After
many years of suffering, and now enjoying the blessings the came as a result of
remaining faithful to the Lord, Joseph now has the opportunity to see his
brothers face to face. The process now begins of Joseph testing his brothers to
see if they are still “the same old” brothers that betrayed him, or if they have
changed and matured as men. One of the consequences for betraying others and
being dishonest is broken trust. We see evidence of their father’s distrust in
that he did not allow his youngest son Benjamin to accompany them on this
journey (v. 4). We cannot live dishonestly, cheat, and deceive others, without
expecting that people will not become distrustful of us. On the other hand, we
must also be patient in allowing others to go through the process of trusting
us again, which could take some time. Although we are called to forgive, this
does not mean that we cannot test the person/people we forgive to see where
their heart is at the time they seek our forgiveness; for we are called to be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). Mending of broken trust
will take love, humility, patience, communication, and the asking and granting
of forgiveness. We see this process in Joseph’s interaction with his brothers.
We have already established that Joseph loved his brother before they betrayed
him (Gen 37), and he showed his willingness to forgive them when he recounted
what happened to him to the butler while in prison, not naming them as his
betrayers (Gen 40). In his interaction with his brother, they are now beginning
to show their humility, and will later express their regret in what they did to
Joseph; even confessing their guilt for their callousness as Joseph pleading
with them from within the pit (v. 21). However, we see that Joseph did not just
announce to them that he was their brother, and had forgiven them. Instead, he
put them through a series of tests to see if this repentance was genuine or
just an act of desperation on their part to get out of the mess they think they
are in now before the governor of Egypt. There is much application for us here
in learning how to regain trust with one another. John 15:13 tells us that
there is no greater love then a friend laying down his life for a friend. We
must not only say we love, we must show that we love, just as Christ
demonstrated His love for us when He died for us on Calvary. This is an
important part of the reconciliation process. We see this love when Judah, the
lineage from which God chose for the Messiah to come from, took the place of
Benjamin, when Joseph told them that he would hold him captive (Gen 44). What a
beautiful picture of what Jesus did to free us from our captivity to sin,
death, and enslavement to the devils. We must understand that this process did
not happen over a one day period, for we see the brothers having to travel back
and forth from Egypt to Canaan on several occasions; thereby, delaying the
process of Joseph revealing who he was and expressing his forgiveness. We must
be patient with each other, whether we are the ones giving forgiveness or
asking for it. Today, let us stop and ask God to examine our hearts to see if
there is someone we are refusing to forgive, or if there is someone whom we
need to ask forgiveness of. Let us ask the Lord to guide us, and give us wisdom
in how we approach mending those broken relationship in our lives; especially
relationships that have been broken with those we call brothers or sisters in
Christ. God makes it very clear in His Word that He desires unity with the body
of Christ (Psalm 133:1; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Colossians 3:13-14; 1 Peter 3:8).
Let us strive to keep that unity in Christ, and God to help us mend all that
which has been broken because of our sinful ways.
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