Miracle Moment

In Genesis Chapter 37, we see Joseph’s brothers conspiring to kill him. Judah was the ringleader that ended up selling him. That wasn’t great but at least he wasn’t dead. Anyway, they were so jealous and had so much hatred in their hearts for him that they were no longer willing to restrain themselves from acting out on it.

James 1:13-15 speaks about temptation, how it starts as a thought and when finally acted upon brings forth death. It mulls around in our minds first, that is the big battlefield. Unfortunately, his brothers were at the commitment stage and didn’t have this devotion to remind them to do the right thing. They thought of no one but themselves and how much his very presence aggravated them. There was no regard for how Joseph’s life would be affected nor how it would impact their dad and younger brother.

Here we are several years later, and these brothers are the ones on the line. They are begging for mercy. Talk about the shoe on the other foot. Word – always watch how you treat people, they may be in a position that affects you one day. Years down the road there is famine in the land and Joseph has been elevated to a position of power within Egypt. He controls everything, even the distribution of grain. His brothers come to him requesting grain not realizing the person they are talking with is Joseph, the one they betrayed. He recognizes them immediately and begins setting small tests to see if they are the same. He ends up framing their youngest brother Benjamin, his full brother, by putting a stolen cup in his satchel of grain. We’re going to step it up to Genesis Chapter 44 to see if the brothers have learned anything through the years.

“Then Judah came near to him and said: ‘O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ And we said, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.'” (Genesis 44:18-23)

“Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave…Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?'” (44:30-31, 33-34)

Yeah, lesson learned, point taken. God bless…

PRAYER:

Father, help me to always see how my decisions affect those around me. Teach me to take that into consideration whenever I decide to act. Forgive me for the things I have already done that have hurt people around me. Raise me up Lord to be a mighty person of God. I want to do right by others and be a great example of Your mercy and grace. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.