Forgiveness

The entrance to our driveway is awash with daffodils and I doubt if they will last until Easter with all the wind and rain we have experienced over the last couple of days.  I just love the different colours and shapes of daffodils.  Each one is unique ... just as we are.  We all have different talents and abilities.  For some of us it takes a lifetime to realise what they are and for others it is easy, like second nature.  As many talents have different facets it is easy to think "well I'm not good at that" but you know we are all useful to God.  He can take us and mould us into what he wants us to be.  Over the past day I have been learning this lesson from the life of Joseph.

These 2 books were recommended by someone who attends our Book Club - I have had so many brilliant suggestions over the past month of books to read and am loving them all.

R T Kendall has written many books, in fact I have quite a few of them on my shelf at home and would not part with them.  In these 2 books he looks at the subject of Forgiveness.  I am always amazed at how many characters there are in the bible whose lives teach me so much even thousands of years later.  Joseph's story is recorded in Genesis chapters 37 to 50.

As a teenager at 17 years of age Joseph was his father's favourite child.  He expressed that love in giving him a coat of many colours.  His brothers were very jealous of him and they decided something needed to be done.  R T Kendall points out that Joseph at this  point in his life showed no sensitivity or humility at all.  Joseph had a special talent - he was having dreams which were from God himself but he couldn't work out what they meant at this point in his life.  Did you know that today God is working through many dreams that Muslims have?  Many people from the Muslim faith are recording instances of dreams that are bringing them to faith in Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

God allowed Joseph's brothers to deal with him ruthlessly.  God could have stepped in at any point in this story but he didn't.  He was sold as a slave to the Egyptians.  Then they told their father a story that made Jacob believe his son had been killed.

In Genesis 39 we read these beautiful words and they are repeated continually in Joseph's story - "The Lord was with Joseph."  In the next stage of Joseph's story we see him working in the house of Potiphar and we know what happened next.  Potiphar's wife made up a story of rape  For doing the right thing Joseph was punished.

Joseph was now in an era of preparation but he didn't know it.  As a result of the false accusation he was put in prison.  But God had great plans for Joseph.  God wanted to ensure that Joseph did not come out of prison or embark on the next phase of his life's work until he was ready - Hebrews 12 verse 6 tells us "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

Just stop and think how Joseph must have been thinking at this stage.  He must have been bitter.  First being sold by his brothers then being falsely accused but Joseph had resisted the temptation.  Why did he resist?  Because of his loyalty to God - "how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"  He did not want to displease God and God lets him go to prison for something he didn't do.

Can you see God's hand in Joseph's life?  After some time another opportunity came up for Joseph to be vindicated.  Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker were imprisoned and they had dreams which needed interpretation.  Remember that was Joseph's talent but now he actually could work out what the dreams meant.

God wanted Joseph out of prison just as much as Joseph wanted out of prison.  But not yet.  There had to be this delay in the plan.  What was going on? Joseph needed to be delivered from bitterness and self-pity.  Joseph whined about being in prison - Genesis 40 verse 15 "I have done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon."

You see Joseph had to learn an important lesson - to forgive his brothers, Potiphar's wife and God.

One day Joseph's brothers would appear before him and when they did Joseph was a changed man.  No bitterness, no grudges.  Something had happened in the intervening years.

Whilst Joseph was able to interpret the cupbearer and the baker's dreams it was another 2 years before he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams.  This was not because Joseph had asked to be remembered  - no it was because God was working in the background.

Joseph became Prime Minister and very soon he would be reunited with his brothers.

This is where R T Kendall's book gets really good!

R T Kendall shows that Joseph recognised his brothers and immediately asked for everyone else to leave the room.  Why?  He did not want anyone to know what his brothers had done to him 22 years before.  And then he told his brothers what to tell his father when they returned home.

God will not reveal what he knows about us!  Joseph wanted his brothers not to be afraid of him, both now and in the future.  He had learned to forgive them long ago and he wanted them to know that forgiveness themselves.  He wanted them to learn how to forgive themselves too.  Joseph wanted to ensure that his brothers did not feel any guilt for what they had done.

Throughout Joseph's revelation to his brothers we see Joseph referring to God's hand in everything - "for God did send me before you to preserve life ... And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth." Genesis 45 verses 5 and 7

This is what we refer to as saving face.  Preserving dignity and self-esteem.  God lets us save face by causing our past (however foolish) to work together for good.  God lets us believe that what happened was as if it was supposed to be.  God, Joseph said, was behind it all.  Joseph was admitting that he would have done what his brothers did too.

God worked on Joseph's heart during those 2 years in prison.  God had meant it for good.  God did send Joseph on ahead.  Joseph was so grateful to God for sending him on ahead.  He had been chosen by God.  The pain he had endured to get to where he was now was forgotten.

I just think the story of Joseph speaks so clearly of forgiveness and there are many lessons to learn from the story.  Sometimes we have to go through multiple trials before we realise what God is doing.  We need God's hand on our lives to teach us important lessons because we have not learned to let go and let God work.  We focus too much on ourselves and how everything is so against us.  It is all about me, me, me.  It shouldn't be this way - God is in control of very situation in our lives and we need to take a step back and see that.  Sometimes we want to be vindicated, we want punishment for others but really that is not God's plan.  God loves us so much and wants the best for us.  We need to hear what he is saying to us rather than focusing on what we think we are hearing.  That may take a time of waiting on God - imagine for Joseph it was 22 years!  God's timing is perfect.  God's purpose is perfect - do I believe this today?

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8 verse 28