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Joseph Reassures His Brothers
Genesis 50:15-21
Good News Translation (GNT)
15 After the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said,
"What if Joseph still hates us & plans to pay us back
for all the harm we did to him?"
16 So they sent a message to Joseph: "Before our father
died,
17 he told us to ask you, 'Please forgive the crime your
brothers committed when they wronged you.' Now please
forgive us the wrong that we, the servants of your father's
God, have done."
Joseph cried when he received this message.
18 Then his brothers themselves came and bowed down
before him. "Here we are before you as your slaves,"
they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid; I can't put
myself in the place of God.
20 You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good,
in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive
today because of what happened.
21 You have nothing to fear. I will take care of you and your
children." So he reassured them with kind words that
touched their hearts.
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Commentary taken from 'word-on-the-web'
supplied by Scripture Union
'Reassurance'
When we improvise our part in God's story unfaithfully,
in actions that are untrue to his character
and ways of working,
there are always consequences.
Perhaps one of the most common consequences
is that we struggle to trust God's grace
towards us;
we find his promised forgiveness
for the unfaithful acts and words
that we have recognised
and confessed too good to be true.
This was the experience of Joseph's brothers,
after the death of their father.
'What if ?'
they said, imagining a scenario
in which Joseph's forgiveness of them,
his extraordinary grace and generosity,
turned to furious revenge.
They couldn't imagine a value system
in which grace operated,
other than temporarily and conditionally.
It would be nice to think that they told Joseph
the truth about Jacob's last instructions,
but it's unlikely.
The brothers were so afraid of Joseph
that they first sent a message and only later,
when they heard of his emotional response,
did they approach him in person.
As his brothers 'threw themselves down before him',
did Joseph recall the teenage dream
that launched this story?
His response to them was a summary
of his entire life
and points to another crucial
Old Testament theme -
that sinful human actions,
unfaithful improvisations,
will not ultimately derail God's
good and sovereign purposes.
The closing details of Joseph's life
express a strong sense of a story
that continues through the next generations,
and of his prophetic awareness
of that time when God would come
in a special way to his people
and they would leave Egypt,
taking his body with them.
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