Not Sure Of Forgiveness

Genesis 50:15-26

Nothing is harder to live with than a guilty conscience. Even after we have done everything possible to make things right the sense of guilt keeps recurring. The offended party may be able to put it completely out of his mind, but we never completely forget. For seventeen years, they had lived in Egypt, blessed by his largesse, but Joseph’s brothers had never forgotten what they had done to him. Just as Jacob had feared retaliation from Esau, even after meeting him and being reassured of his love, Joseph’s brothers feared retribution.

“And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.” (Genesis 50:15-17a)

Though Joseph had reassured them of his forgiveness when he revealed himself to them, the brothers suspected that he hadn’t retaliated out of respect for his father, rather than because he had forgiven them. A guilty conscience makes forgiveness hard to accept. Just as Jacob had sent various gifts in an effort to divert the retribution he felt he deserved, the brothers made up a story about having told Jacob what had happened and his commanding Joseph to forgive them.

"And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.” (Genesis 50:17b-18)

It broke Joseph’s heart to know that they were still worrying about retaliation. He had forgiven them even before he revealed himself to them, and had tried to tell them so. In Hebrews 10:16-17 God said, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” How many times must God weep when we don’t accept his forgiveness and assume that some bad thing happened because of some long past sin? While there are consequences that arise as a result of sin, they are the natural result, not retribution from God, if the sin has been repented of.

“And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” (Genesis 50:19-21)

Joseph recognized something many people don’t recognize, that in refusing to forgive others, we set ourselves above God, implying it is worse to act against us than against God. Mark 11:25-26 commands, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” When we begin to set ourselves above God, we need to remember that “…the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God,” according to Deuteronomy 4:24. Instead, like Joseph, we are to “…be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you,” as Ephesians 4:32 commands.

“And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.” (Genesis 50:22-23)

Joseph lived about fifty four more years, with the rest of his family, living to see his great grand children, even living with his grandson Machir and helping raise his children. What a blessing to a man who’d been separated from his family and believed dead for over twenty years.

“And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50:24-26)

Before his death, Joseph reminded his relatives that God had promised Abraham that they would return to Canaan one day. He got them to promise that when it happened, they would take his body back to be buried there. He was embalmed and put into a coffin to protect his body until that time came, and remained there for over four hundred years.