Forgiveness Forgets

Read Genesis 49-50
 
Genesis 50:15-17 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brother’s the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
 
JOSEPH’S brothers still feel guilty. For about 17 years since Jacob and his sons came to Egypt, Joseph has continually demonstrated his forgiveness. Still, they wonder if Joseph was waiting for their father’s death to avenge their wrong. They do not trust Joseph has truly said in his heart, “I forgive you.”
    That’s the thing about sin. It will still hold us captive in self-condemnation. We remember our sin to recall the hurt we’ve cause or the failures of our own expectations. It’s easier to avoid it, isn’t it? But yet, the guilt lingers inside to cut away at our hearts and accuse, “You could have done better.” In our own conviction we wonder, “Am I forgiven?”
    That’s the question in Joseph’s brothers’ minds. Their revengeful, murderous hearts demonstrated in Genesis 34 & 37 could not truly understand Joseph’s grace. In response, Joseph weeps. He mourns his brothers’ guilt and their lack of understanding his mercy. In a like manner, God must feel a great sadness when we continually reject his forgiveness. He teaches us in Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. The Son of God went to the cross to blot our sins from God’s sight and from our soul. Even so, we are prone to allow say, “My sin is too much.”
    Do you see? The LORD God will forgive and forget our sins. He reserves his vengeance for the unrepentant. His will is to point us to our new future and restored relationship with him. God has thrown away your sin, and so must you. Do not hold to what God has released from your life. Instead, grasp the good tomorrow your Lord God has prepared for you.
    Will you believe God’s forgiveness? We know Jesus Christ bled on a cross to remove your sin. Trust the blood. Trust the cross. Trust the grace. Trust the forgiveness.
 
Do You Know? God forgives and forgets your sins when you confess and place  yourself in his mercy.

 
Ready to Hear?
Read Exodus 1-2
 
Exodus 1:14 They (Egyptians) made their (the Hebrews) lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
 
400 years have passed since Genesis. God has expanded his nation to nearly 2 million people in Egypt. Was that a mistake? Think of it. A populous nation of God’s chosen people are slaves in a foreign land. Should not the LORD God have put his chosen people in the land of Canaan he had promised to Abraham? Remember, Jacob and his family were in Canaan, the place where Israel would eventually settle. Why “waste” 400 years of hardship in Egypt?
    As we seek to know God, it is always good to walk carefully when we ask, “Why, God, did you do that?” We must not pretend or assume our ways are better than his. That is prideful self-worship – the cause of the first sin. But to humbly ask God, “Why?” will help us to know and understand his ways and his desires.
    So, we humbly ask God, “Why Egypt?” “Why slavery?” Then we can discover the answer in the only place possible – the Holy Bible. God’s Word repeatedly informs how God calls people out of ordinary lives into very difficult circumstances. He will often give remarkable signs to his chosen servants to teach them his ways are sovereign. Moses saw the burning bush. Isaiah saw the Lord’s glory. Daniel learned and saw the visions and dreams. Jeremiah saw Israel’s destruction. David saw Jesus’ glory. We self-focused people must learn God is our focus.
    With Israel, then, one reason for their enslavement was to prepare them for God’s remarkable deliverance. Through the plagues and deliverance, Israel would see and know the LORD God was their God. He is far more powerful than the most powerful nation on earth.
    We can easily consider that if the Hebrews were prosperous from their very beginning, they would have ignored God’s commands and his personal relationship with them. (We learn later that is exactly what they did.) From Egypt’s slave system, they needed deliverance. They called on God to free them. As he did, they began to know him.
    Has God allowed  a hard circumstance in your life because he wants your attention? Will you call on him for your deliverance?
 
Be still and see God’s glory.