Bible Passage: Genesis 45:3-15
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: February 23, 2025

Bulletin – February 23, 2025

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The whole scene is too delicious!  It couldn’t be scripted any better.  It sets up to be the ultimate story of revenge.  There are the brothers.  They are before the one they believe to be the second-in-command in all the land of Egypt.  They believe his name to be Zaphenath-Paneah (Genesis 41:45).  Little do they know the man is really their own brother, Joseph!  Their brother Joseph whom they had cruelly sold 22 years earlier.

The memory of that horrible day was still fresh in Joseph’s mind.  He never forgot how they had thrown him down into the water-retention cistern.  From the bottom of the cistern he cried and called for help.  The brothers ignored Joseph’s cries as they had callously sat down to eat their lunch.  Joseph still remembered being pulled up from the cistern and watching the Midianite merchants hand over twenty pieces of silver to the brothers as they handed Joseph over to them!  They sold their own brother for twenty pieces of silver!

The Midianites took Joseph to Egypt.  There Joseph was sold again.  This time to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guards.  And there in Egypt, alone and away from home, at 17 years of age, Joseph was a slave.  Then he was thrown in prison for being falsely accused of trying to seduce his master’s wife!

And now, 22 years later, there before him were the brothers who had done this to him!  And Joseph held all the cards!  He was now in a position of power!  He could do whatever he wanted to them!  What should he do?  Maybe he should sell them all as slaves so they could see how that felt!  Maybe he should expose them in some public way and humiliate and shame them!  Maybe he should torture them.  Maybe he should just execute them and be done with it.  What Joseph does is as shocking as it is sublime. Joseph instead does what our lessons today encourage.  Joseph overcomes evil with good (Romans 12:21)!  Joseph loves and does good to those who acted as his enemies (Luke 6:27)!  He Forgives Them!

Now, nowhere in this text do we read the words, “Joseph forgave his brothers.”  But we see EVIDENCE of forgiveness throughout.  Consider the moment Joseph makes himself known to his brothers.  In the verses just before our text, we are told, [Joseph] cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!”  So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. (45:1-2)  Joseph cleared the room; the Egyptians didn’t need to know what the brothers had done.  This was a private family moment.  Joseph seeks to spare them embarrassment and shame.  This is what forgiveness does!

I am Joseph! (v. 3)  For the first time he speaks to them in Hebrew instead of speaking in Egyptian and using an interpreter.  We are told the brothers were terrified at his presence (v. 3)  Can you imagine their thoughts when they hear this man say, “I am Joseph”?  At this moment, Joseph does not call out, “Guards!  Arrest these men!”  No. In this moment of terror and disorientation he invites them to approach him, Come close to me. (v. 4)  This is something forgiveness does!

He reassures, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.  And now, do not be upset or angry with yourselves for selling me here. (v. 4-5)  Wait!  Joseph, you let them off too easily!  It feels so good to let someone who has wronged us wiggle around the hook, at least for a little while!  Let them wiggle, Joseph!  Let them squirm!  But he immediately tells them not to be distressed or angry.  That is something only forgiveness does!

Then Joseph “doubles-down” with kindness.  Not only is Joseph NOT going to torture or otherwise punish them, he gives instructions for them to go get dad and their families and all their stuff and move to Egypt.  There is a terrible famine at that time.  Joseph promises, I will take care of you here. (v. 11)  This is something forgiveness does!

The last scene of our text is the most touching of all.  We read, Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping.  And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. (v. 14-15)  If that scene doesn’t grab you, check your pulse.  These brothers had once heard Joseph crying for help from the bottom of a cistern and they had ignored him.  Now he cries as he hugs each one!  That is something forgiveness does!

He forgives them!  How?  How could he?  How could he forgive the hurt they caused and the hate they showed?  How could he forgive them for all the lost years away from his family, away from the dad he so obviously loves?  If we look at our text carefully, we will see that Joseph mentions “God” four times.  Joseph understood God was at work even in all the brothers’ cruelty.  And trusting in God, Joseph was able to forgive his brothers.

How can we forgive “them”?  The “them” who have sinned against us.   The “them” who have caused us pain, and sadness, and hurt.  The “them” whose sin ruined our childhood, whose sin robbed us of enjoying years of our lives.  The “them” whose sin caused wounds and scars we still deal with today.  Where do we go with the hurt and the anger?  How can we forgive them?

We turn to our God.  We remember we have a brother who has forgiven us!  We have a brother, not named Joseph, but named Jesus!  A brother who once told a story in which he portrayed himself as a father hugging and weeping over a wayward son who has come back.  We are that prodigal son!  Picture that!  Jesus hugging you!  Jesus weeping over you, Joseph-like!  Speaking kind words to you!  Assuring you of his forgiveness!  Like Joseph’s brothers, we stagger trying to comprehend the moment.  “He forgives me!”  In the forgiving embrace of Jesus we begin to find the strength, the strength like Joseph to forgive even “them”!

Amen.