How stunned Joseph must have been to see
his brothers before him, begging for bread
in famine.

Here they knelt before him, bowing to his position
and to his power over them.

And the dream of his youth, long dead, came back . . . .

Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers,
they hated him all the more.
He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:
We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field
suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright
while your sheaves gathered around mine and
bowed down to it."
His brothers said to him, Do you intend to
reign over us? Will you actually rule us?"
And they hated him all the more because of his dream
and what he had said.
Genesis 37:5-8
 
The dream fulfilled and its symbols clear.
The sheaves of his brother's grain
were bowing before his own.
 
The brothers of treachery had been bound by God!
Forced to bow.
Joseph, bound as well by God, forced to rise
from the cutting of a divine scythe to stand upright,
in ruling power over his brothers,
true to the dream.
Amazingly, it was all over the issue of grain.

But the brothers were blind to
their participation in the dream they scorned
and the presence before them of
the dreamer they despised.

This brother, this blood brother, they
cruelly exiled,
was being vindicated as a seer of God
and they had no clue.
Their only awareness: acute hunger.

They did not recognize him in his ruling position.
They had sold him as a slave. Such they assumed
he still was . . . if alive.

And notice please, they did not inquire of this
Egyptian Ruler, the whereabouts of their lost brother
nor did it seem they made any effort to find him.
Still indifferent to their brother's plight,
still self saving and self serving.

Joseph must have waited, longed to hear their
concern for him and quest for his restoration,
but none came.


Yet Joseph stood above them, so broken and tender
in spirit that he had to
leave their presence and weep.

If he had so forgiven, then
why didn't he immediately shout at his brothers,
"It's me! Joseph! I'm so glad to see you."

For this reason . . .
Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.

Joseph wanted his brothers' restoration and
that requires repentance, a sorrow of which
there was no evidence in them.

I can forgive the person fully for all the wrongs
but reconciliation is the restoring of a alliance
and that requires both persons
to be of the same mind
and values.

There is always one Way, one Truth, one Lord.
Only on that basis can there be true relatedness.
So it requires that the offender comprehend
his offense,
know the pain he caused . . . God!
And both must come to agreement
about the Way, the Truth and the Life.
John 14

Relationship to anyone is not a "right" we have
simply because we are Christians.
Friendship is alive only under
the Bright Light of God's Truth,
of mutual accountability,
only in and for Christ's pleasure
and then - of necessity -
the cleansing Blood of the Lamb.
I John 1:7

 
The Christian world believes
forgiveness and reconciliation are the same thing
but restoration does not occur on the
heels of forgiveness alone.
Relationships stand only on mutual values
and utter honesty, dwelling together
under the dominion and presence
of our reigning Savior-Joseph.

Our sheaves also, must be cut down and bound,
to bow before to Him . . .

Reconciliation has to be built with
full recognition and accountability for the wrong.

On any other ground, true fellowship is dead
and forgiveness alone will not resurrect it.
 
The brothers may have regretted
their treatment of Joseph.
They may have been in pain over
their father's long term grief.
But they had no idea what it was to
experience danger and injustice,
to be terrified under the power of a cruel foreigner.

Remorseful, perhaps
but repentant, no . . .

They could not know the suffering
of Joseph by the loss of his homeland.
Their actions put Joseph in the place
of being imprisoned under a lying accusation
and in moral innocence
left there for years.

Such an experience was outside even their imagination
and certainly not in their sphere of caring.

The eleven brothers had always lived by the security of
their tribe, under the wealth and
God-blessed power of their father.
Never had they experienced the vulnerability
and utter aloneness
they had forced on Joseph.

Repentance is ever merely partial until we
actually enter by empathy the living
experience of those we hurt.

God will see to this!

The empathy of "feeling for the affliction of those I hurt"
can happen on your knees by the mercy of
the Holy Spirit and bring your
repentance to full completion.

There being no "experience" because of no kneeling,
you might find a silver cup in your saddlebag.

 
It was not vengeance on Joseph's part.
Revenge would have refused food to them
and said, "Starve! You deserve it."

Joseph didn't see his position as a
power - at last - over his brothers or
his own long awaited vengeance.
He saw his power as a responsibility given by God
to help them make it right, for their own sakes.
For His sake.

 
God trusted Joseph with a position of control
over the very existence of his earthly family
in order to clear their consciences and
restore them to God.

Joseph would not use his position and victory as a
yaya in their faces,
a vengeful " I have life-and-death power over you."

He did not tout his power but wanted for them all,
the holy way of moral rectitude,
to bring - not just their peace with Joseph -
but with themselves and
most of all, above all . . . with God.

This is a true peacemaker:
one who brings you to peace with God.

Spiritual forgiveness is wanting more for God
than for yourself.

Joseph had no need for them to see. He had
solved and resolved his destiny.
THEY needed to understand the living experience
of their cruelty.

Joseph forfeited his own agenda,
gave up his personal vendetta, and
by amazing self restraint

he orchestrated - in God-given brilliance -
an arena for their understanding,
all the while,
never, ever putting them in any real danger.
Tenderly hiding in the shadows,
giving unseen care.

Feeding imprisoned Benjamin from his own table of
proper Jewish food.

He cared for their souls.
Rarely has the world seen such love,
such forgiveness.

Joseph loved them enough to forgive them.
Amazing in itself. Humanly rare.
But that he loved them enough to restore
them . . . that is the love and mercy
of God Himself.

It exists only in God's love in Christ,
willing to chasten us in the safety of His shelter
that we might know the effects of our hatred . . .
of Him!
played out on the lovely Josephs of our world.

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Copyright © 2001 Martha Blaney Kilpatrick