Closer Day By Day

Bible Passage:  Genesis 50

Now we have come to the end of Genesis. The previous writers have wrote so much about Joseph I am not sure what I should write, whether I am repeating. Indeed Joseph is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. In a way he looks too good to be true, but I believe he is true.

He was sold by his brothers, but he led his life as if without grudges, served faithfully for his master. He rose and fell in his life, not much to his will - he was accused by his mistress and thrown into prison for what he did not do, yet he still led an examplary life in prison. You can’t find anger or self-pity in all these accounts.

Now he is one ancient saint I will really not ever want to speak anything against. There are people who specifically look for weaknesses in ancient saints, perhaps on the noble premise of not wanting to repeat their so-called mistakes. But really even without judging them we are quite far from being who they are, aren’t we?

His principle: “Am I in the place of God?”

Whether he was poor, he was servant, when he rose in ranks of the servants to be overseer over the whole house of Portiphar, when he was thrown to prison, when he got out of prison and became the second-in-command in the nation, he never sought to avenge himself or make himself greater than what God or others have placed him.

Never ever think that he is a stupid man, for he is a man who also devises. As we had read ealier, he had devised to test his brothers, and he also devised to retain his younger brother.

His faith: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good”

Now how many years have you been a Christian? In our pursue for faith, we are told that God sees everything, knows everything, and God cares for us. But in reality, how many times have we asked God “why is God doing this to me?” or “why did God not help me?”

Let’s not talk about situations whereby we did not achieve our goals, but in situations that we are victimised or illness overcomes us, sometimes we may even want to do something good for God (in our own eyes at least) but we meet with obstacles or objections, can we believe that God meant those for good? Well, we cannot say that Joseph led a happy life, in fact he said that he was living in the land of his affliction (when he named his son).

His principle in life and his faith allowed him to learn the biggest lesson of life - forgiveness.

Today I just taught a lesson about how Jesus suffered on the cross and died a very painful death on the cross for us.

How we can ever repay such love? God wants us to love him with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our might. In reality, God wants us to become love, just as He is. And loving Him means loving man too. If we cannot love the brother whom we cannot see, how can we love God whom we cannot see? But sometimes, we only count the times we show love, and forget the times we do not show love, by being apathetic, care less about the people we do not like or have offended us.

Forgiveness is a very great lesson of love, as God had demonstrated to us.

Now I have heard different opinions about the brothers of Joseph. Many people have commented that they have repented and praised them for changing for the better, but someone also tells me that they are still far from admirable.

When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, they were “dismayed at his presence”. When Jacob died, they got worried that Joseph will take revenge and lied to Joseph that their father had commanded him to forgive his brothers. If Jacob wanted Joseph to forgive his brothers (or rather if Jacob thinks Joseph had not forgiven his brothers), he would have told Joseph himself, given they had so much time together.)

The Bible records that Joseph wept even when he was listening to the messengers his brothers sent. If I were Joseph, I would feel very sad to see how his brothers came and fell before him, because they have stayed with him for 17 years in Egypt, and he had already explained it to them how he understood the will of God to send him to Egypt, yet they did not trust in him and resorted to using their dead father’s name.

When I first read this, I felt his brothers were really acting like cowards, sending messengers to speak while they hide at the back, and using the name of their father to gain forgiveness. But I guess with the guilt on their hearts, they have bound themselves in fear.

Whatever the case, forgiveness is not something to be earned. It is something we have to learn to do, whether we think it is deserving or not. For we did not deserve God’s forgiveness, yet He came to earth to die for us even when we were sinners, and today Jesus commands us to forgive others, as we have received His forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not an option but a command; for all the followers of Jesus, this is a very important command. It is not easy… but it is something we have to keep working on. May God help all of us.