We’ve all got something that terrifies us. No matter how many times we are reassured, we can see only the impending disaster.
Perhaps it’s the neighbor’s dog, or the ice skates our kids want us to try. For some it’s bungee jumping or standing on a precipice knowing we might tumble to the ground far below.
What makes these things so fearful to us? What gives them power to make us afraid over and over? They are out of our control. They are bigger than we are.
They are the might of Egypt compared to one set of brothers from Canaan.
Through a series of interpreted dreams for two fellow prisoners, Joseph was eventually brought before the pharaoh. We’ve heard the story of Pharaoh’s dream, of the seven fat cows and the seven skinny ones. In Genesis 41:25-32 Joseph told of the coming seven years of bumper crops and the seven years of famine. The pharaoh praised Joseph’s wisdom, making him the second most powerful man in the land.
This was the man his brothers bowed before when they arrived in Egypt to buy food for their family. They did not know him, but Joseph recognized them immediately. Now was his chance for revenge. It had been 22 years, and in that time, he had been sold into slavery, falsely imprisoned, and elevated to great power. With a word he could have had them executed, and no one would have questioned him.
Yet, he remembered his dream. He had to know if his brothers had changed. Their hearts would determine how he dealt with them.
He devised a test to show them his true power. For three days he held his brothers in prison, and then he released them, save one. He told them to bring their youngest brother back to Egypt in order to redeem the one.
Joseph’s brothers were distraught, for they understood the position they were in. They did not recognize Joseph, but clearly he could crush them with a motion of his hand. They whispered among themselves, “Our brother, Joseph, pleaded with us to save him, and we refused. This is why these troubles have come upon us.”
Joseph turned away from them, hiding his emotions, for he had understood their words. His heart was touched, but he could not yet admit who he was. His brothers still had to prove themselves. Would they abandon still another brother to prison in a foreign land?
He sent them on their journey while holding them to their promise that they would come again, bringing their youngest brother, Benjamin, with them.
The second confirmation of true forgiveness is that when we are given the opportunity to take revenge against our offenders, we choose to set them free.
When a wrong has been done against us, we must turn loose of our desire to take revenge.
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