Many times when we consider the interactions between Joseph and his brothers who came to buy food from Egypt we try to explain away Joseph's roughness. We make countless excuses for Joseph. We try to compare him to God, who shows us many difficult providences. We try to guard him from all blame. After all, he's a hero in the Scriptures, right?
I want to propose something a little bit radical today. Joseph is sinning against his brothers. They sinned against him in selling him into slavery and in holding animosity against him before that. Now, some twenty years later, he is sinning right back at them. He's angry. He's upset that he has been taken away from his family and his home. He doesn't want them to recognize him. He may even be thinking of doing them harm. He sells them grain and then puts their money back in the bags. This allows him to prosecute them if he wants to. He makes their interactions difficult.
Are we holding things against others who have hurt us in the past? Are we, like Joseph, in need of repentance? Are we causing people to bear the sins that their Lord and Savior has already died for? Let us then repent and see the depth of the forgiveness our Lord purchased for us, the same forgiveness the Lord purchased for those who sin against us. Let us not repay sin with more sin, but let us be used by our Lord to repay sin with the forgiveness our Lord has given us.
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