Genesis 45:5 KJV
Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Joseph developed in his life a testimony that is perhaps the most magnanimous in the Scriptures.
• His brothers had sold into slavery only after throwing him into a pit and debating killing him
• He had spent years as a slave and as a prisoner all because his brothers were jealous of his relationship with his father and because God had revealed to him that one day his brothers would bow before him.
I know that everything worked out for Joseph. But the circumstances he endured before they worked out were trying indeed. And that he missed his father all of those years is obvious in his questions concerning him before his brothers. Joseph requested that when he died, his bones be taken back to the Promised Land; evidence that he had not accepted Egypt as his home.
Still, he told his brothers not to be either grieved or angry about selling him as a slave. He said it was all of God. It is not, as some have suggested, that he thought they should feel some sorrow to repentance, just not overly sorrowful. He did not say that. He said that God used them to send him ahead and they should not feel badly about that at all.
We would be a whole lot better off if we would learn to not have to see the one who hurt us hurt before we forgive them or move on emotionally.
• If we would learn to trust God that He is at work
• If we would give God leave to use any method He pleased to bring us to Christlikeness and to bring glory to His own name
• If we would come to rely upon God so fully that we didn't get offended at any injustice committed against us
how much happier we would be.
Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Joseph developed in his life a testimony that is perhaps the most magnanimous in the Scriptures.
• His brothers had sold into slavery only after throwing him into a pit and debating killing him
• He had spent years as a slave and as a prisoner all because his brothers were jealous of his relationship with his father and because God had revealed to him that one day his brothers would bow before him.
I know that everything worked out for Joseph. But the circumstances he endured before they worked out were trying indeed. And that he missed his father all of those years is obvious in his questions concerning him before his brothers. Joseph requested that when he died, his bones be taken back to the Promised Land; evidence that he had not accepted Egypt as his home.
Still, he told his brothers not to be either grieved or angry about selling him as a slave. He said it was all of God. It is not, as some have suggested, that he thought they should feel some sorrow to repentance, just not overly sorrowful. He did not say that. He said that God used them to send him ahead and they should not feel badly about that at all.
We would be a whole lot better off if we would learn to not have to see the one who hurt us hurt before we forgive them or move on emotionally.
• If we would learn to trust God that He is at work
• If we would give God leave to use any method He pleased to bring us to Christlikeness and to bring glory to His own name
• If we would come to rely upon God so fully that we didn't get offended at any injustice committed against us
how much happier we would be.
No comments:
Post a Comment