12/14/23 - Genesis 50:15-21

 Genesis 50:15-21

Observation:

After Joseph's and his brother's father, Jacob's death, Joseph's brothers feared of Joseph's vengeance or retribution for the wrongs they had committed against Joseph. So in an attempt to reconcile their wrongs, they fabricated a message from Jacob, asking for Joseph's forgiveness. Upon hearing his brother's pleas, Joseph wept. The brothers in turn approached and bowed before Joseph and offered to be his servant. However, Joseph, displaying a gracious and merciful heart, reassured his brothers that he is not in the place of God to seek revenge. Joseph acknowledged that despite his brother's evil intentions, God used their sin for good, saving many lives. Joseph then promised to provide for his brothers and their families, offering comfort and speaking kindly to them.

Interpretation:

God shows how omnipotent and omniscient He is by reversing the roles between Joseph and his brothers. Using Gen 37:5-8 and Gen 37:9, Joseph dreamt two dreams where the first dream showed a form of authority that Joseph would have over his brothers. The second dream indicated Joseph's future authoritative position over his family, which fueled the jealousy and resentment of his brothers that lead to Joseph's life being at the mercy of his brothers hence Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. Keep in mind that originally, his brothers wanted to kill Joseph, but because of Reuben, they utlimately throw Joseph into a pit instead. God provided Joseph a couple visions to Joseph via dreams and God knew Joseph's personality and characteristics where Joseph would go to his brothers and share his dreams to them. God knew this would anger his brothers and build up their animosity towards Joseph. 

Obviously Joseph's brothers carried out several sinful acts, first through the attempt of killing Joseph yet instead selling Joseph into slavery and covering it up with lies to their father, Jacob. However, several years later, God was with Joseph the entire time and eventually became a high official "second only to the pharaoh". At some point, a famine strikes across the land and when Joseph's brothers come to Egypt during the famine, they bow down before him and eventually acknowledges Joseph's position of authority. This fulfills God's visions that were shared with Joseph and through Joseph, God revealed to Joseph's brothers that while their intentions were meant for evil, God used that for good. Nothing God shared with Joseph became untrue and everything that transpired became reality with great purpose.

Personal Reflection:

How great is our God who will use not only our failures but also our sins to do good. In Joseph's story, we get to see two extreme situations where Joseph's brothers were at the mercy of his feet and Joseph could have had his brothers put into prison and according to the worldly standards, his decision would have been seen acceptable according to the "eye-for-an-eye" standard. And his brothers were taught a humbling moment that while they indeed sin against their brother and Jacob and their Holy Father God, Yahweh. Family will do wrong against each other but forgiveness is a must as God had Joseph forgive his brothers for selling him into slavery. That's quite extreme and majority of the people here on this earth in today's day in age would have taken the road less traveled where it would have been easier to punish those who did them wrong. Both my parents have wronged me during my childhood and even into my adulthood. I have forgiven my mother for what she has done and I told her that I have forgiven her for them. I don't hold grudges and I hope that through my revengeless action, my mother will learn from her mistakes and not continue to manipulate situations for her own gain. Looking back, the sin that God used to humble my life and teach me is when I had sex outside of marriage. But I can wholeheartedly say that I learned and matured being a father at such an early age. There was a purpose there and God was in complete control through the entire time.

Application:

I will never ever stop believing in God. I've gone through too many things in life that simply enhances my faith towards Him. But that doesn't mean that I lack vision on where He wants to take me. It's obvious that during the journey we'll never know where God is leading us. Some of us are fortunate and blessed with visions of God sharing them the future. Throughout my life, from the time I was a child who first accepted God into his heart to the time when I decided to become a father myself to the point when we moved to a different city, I've had a hard time trusting God's vision. Using movies as an example, I like to read up on what happened before I see the movie (yes, that does not ruin the movie for me). Deep down I don't like surprises because I've gone through too many things in life where I simply ask God for an easier life. But nothing in life is easy and I've learned that everything we go through in life is life otherwise it wouldn't be called life. Right now, I'm at a point in my life where I don't know what to do about my kid's future in terms of education and housing. We want to move to a bigger home but it'll require a significant amount of finance. And first and foremost, we want to send our children to King's Academy (Christian private school) but it'll also require a significant amount of finance. Our hearts are leaning towards sending the children to King's but it'll require us to give up on our dreams of having a bigger home. I'm praying and giving it up to the Lord and I need to continue to seek His guidance and direction. I, also, need to trust that whatever God has in store for us will be good.