Genesis 42-43

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. Today is no different. If you’d like a hard copy to follow along with, raise your hand, because we have plenty to share with you. And if you want to follow along on your device, our network information is on the screen.

I think I might have said this before, but just know that part of prepping for a sermon is studying the Word and reading commentaries and praying and listening to other sermons, and we meet together and talk about it. But another part of that during the week is thinking about you guys and praying for you as the Spirit brings you to mind. So just know that as we’re prepping for a sermon, we’re thinking and praying for you guys. It’s part of our process.

So, the title of today’s message is “An Unexpected Reunion.” And I’ve got to ask right off the bat, anybody here have those family members that you just… I don’t even know what to say about it!  When they walk in the door at a family reunion, you just kind of cringe, right? And as they walk in, you have this desire to just move far, far away?  You know, those family members you don’t want to introduce to your friends, kind of Cousin Eddie from Family Vacation. We all have them.

True confession here, we have some of those distant cousins, and I can remember, this has been a while back, but one of them, I’m going to call him Fred, Cousin Fred. “Hey Matt, this is your cousin, Fred.” But Fred calls and leaves us a voicemail, “Hey Matt, we’re coming through town a couple of days. Just wanted to come out and see you and Kristen and the boys, see the farm.” And I’m thinking, “Bro, there is no way I’m going to return your call. And there is no way I’m telling you where we live, because I don’t want you to show up at our house.” True story. A little embarrassed…but not that embarrassed.

So, here’s some other thoughts. I did our cute little internet search of what some other people say about having a family and family reunions. Actor and comedian Martin Moles says,

“Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your head.”
Martin Moles

Legendary actor and comedian George Burns, he once said (I love this):

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”
George Burns

Right? Yes. Amen. And the last one, famous author Robert Heinlein said (so true):

“A family reunion is an effective form of birth control.”
Robert Heinlein

So okay, seriously, families at their best, loving, supportive, caring, awkward, life-giving, intimate. But we’re going to see in our chapters today, they can also be full of, gosh, lies and hurt and anger and trauma. And we’re going to see today how God is using events and circumstances to bring about an unexpected reunion between Joseph and his ten older brothers that sold him into slavery. A reunion that has far-reaching implications for the covenant that God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’ll see how, on Joseph’s part, a faith and a trust in God paves the way for forgiveness and reconciliation. And I particularly love this passage because, man, I think it shows us a picture of our sinfulness and God’s love and grace and mercy towards us.

Can you believe we only have four weeks left in Genesis? Which is crazy. We’ve been in it for a while. And if you count the two chapters that Pastor Tommy taught us through last Sunday, these last five weeks, there’s eleven chapters left. And it looked good on paper when we were planning this out, because we really do plan this out. But remember as a kid when you’re learning how to write, you start writing a sentence, at the beginning of the sentence, the letters are really big and then they progressively get smaller and smaller and smaller. Okay, so that’s kind of what’s going on here. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, but we’ll do it.

So, this unexpected reunion in today’s passage, it’s preparing us for the epic conclusion to this story that’s going to lead to the creation of the nation of Israel and the salvation and redemption of Israel. And to set the stage from last week’s passage that Tommy taught us through, remember that Joseph has correctly interpreted these dreams, that Pharaoh is predicting the seven years of plenty and then the seven years of famine that lie ahead for Egypt and all of the Middle East. Pharaoh’s wisely appointed Joseph to administer the preparations for this famine. And he’s made Pharaoh second-in-command only to himself, vice Pharaoh if you would call it. And some commentaries have suggested that Joseph is almost a physical savior, if you will, of Egypt and this area of the Middle East, because God used him to prepare for the famine, so he was able to provide food for that area of the Middle East.

Famines are often reported in the Bible. We see them frequently. We’ve already seen several in Genesis. And if you think about it, that part of the Middle East, it’s so arid that even a small season of drought can have dire consequences. Egypt typically doesn’t share in that so much, especially upper Egypt where Joseph lived, because of their proximity to the Nile River and that fertile delta around the Nile. But as we’ll see in these couple of chapters, the famine reaches even Egypt. And think about the Dust Bowl, the drought of the 1930s that led to the Dust Bowl and the Great Plains. And then I was thinking too, I don’t know if any of you remember this, in 2007 we had a heat wave and a drought in the summer. And it didn’t last very long, but it was miserable. And I can remember the feed store, where we buy hay and feed for our animals, the drought was so bad that they were bringing in hay from as far away as Canada. And that was just a couple of months that it lasted. So, you can see how the famine in Egypt might have had a lot more dire consequences.

So, there’s a few things I’d like you to keep in mind as we read through the chapters. The process of forgiveness and reconciliation can take time, but we’re seeing this taking place in the narrative. So pay attention to the changes in the brothers; especially Ruben and Judah are starting to turn and grow in their character. There are three different camera angles that we’re going to be looking at. We’re going to view these circumstances, past and present, through the camera lens of Joseph, the ten elder brothers, and of Jacob. That’s something to remember. Think about the contrast between sin and grace, especially in the way Joseph deals with his brothers. And then it’s a literary device, especially in the Old Testament, the use of repetition to really point to places, people, things, and events that have import.

So, let’s pray and then I’ll read through the passage. It’s almost as long as Tommy’s passage was last week, so I’m going to do my best to reign in my comments and we’ll just have a couple of points after the text. So, let’s pray, church:

Lord, we come before You. We are grateful for Your Word. We ask that You might bless this reading of Your Word, illuminate our hearts and minds by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Thank You for the gift of Your grace that follows us every day of our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Okay, here we go. So, chapter 42. Oh, by the way, I’m reading the English Standard Version (ESV), if that is helpful for you to know. Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt.

“When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, ‘Why do you look at one another?’ And he said, ‘Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die.’”

Think back to early 2020 when we couldn’t find toilet paper and paper towels. And you’d see on Facebook, “Hey, Publix at Cool Springs has toilet paper.” So that’s what is kind of going on here. “So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, but Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy, among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.” So, a lot of people are going to Egypt to buy grain and food.

“Now, Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.” Remember that from Joseph’s dreams when he was a teenager? “Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. ‘Where do you come from?’, he said. They said, ‘From the land of Canaan to buy food.'” And here’s the repetition: “And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.”

When Joseph got up to go to work that morning, he had no idea he was going to be reunited with his brothers. Tommy talked about this last week. It’s not like these guys had Genesis to refer to, right? They’re living this in real time. And here Joseph is flooded with memories of his dreams, of what’s been going on, what happened with his brothers. And he had been at a place of intentionally putting that behind him at the closing of chapter 41, where his sons Manasseh and Ephraim were born. The name Manasseh means, “God has made me forget all my hardship in all my father’s house.” The name Ephraim means, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” So, he had been at a place of being able to leave things in the past and move forward, trusting in the Lord. And it’s that faith that is propping him up at this moment when he’s faced with this unexpected reunion of his brothers.

So, “He said to them,” verse 9, “‘You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land.’ And they said to him, ‘No, my Lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.’ And he said to them, ‘No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.’ And they said, ‘We your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father and one is no more.'” It’s been twenty years and they are still maintaining this lie, this story that they made up that Joseph got killed by a wild animal. They’re progressively having to maintain this lie their whole adult life.

And they don’t know Joseph, but Joseph knows them, right? He knows that they’re lying. “Joseph said to them, ‘It is as I said to you. You are spies. By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you and let him bring your brother while you remain confined that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.’ And he put them all together in custody for three days. Then on the third day, Joseph said to them, ‘Do this and you will live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households. And bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die.’ And they did so.”

And you’ve got to think that maybe Joseph is wondering, “Well, did they kill Benjamin too?” He’s wanting proof of life. Verse 21: “Then they said to one another, ‘In truth we are guilty concerning our brother. In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.’ And Ruben answered them, ‘Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.'”

Finally, we’re seeing some remorse and guilt and confession in these brothers. And here, Ruben is saying, ‘We’ve got to give an accounting for his blood.’ They talk about it freely in front of Joseph because they have no idea that he speaks Hebrew. They think he’s Egyptian.

So, verse 23, “They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept, and he returned to them and spoke to them.” And, gosh, what’s going through his mind when he finally hears them confess to what they had done? “And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.” And you’ve got to think, was he thinking about when he was bound and sold to the Ishmaelites when he’s binding Simeon?

“Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man’s money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place.”  It’s about 250 miles from a Hebron to Egypt. It would’ve probably taken them ten days to two weeks, so they’re going to stop probably every night. They’d probably travel about twenty, thirty miles a day. “So, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, ‘My money has been put back. Here it is in the mouth of my sack.’ At this their hearts failed him, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, ‘What is this that God has done to us?'”

Pastor Jim made the comment the other day, we were talking through this passage, and he said, “Grace often makes a proud heart suspicious.” And you’re kind of seeing that with the brothers all through these chapters. Their uneasy consciences make them question. Every event that happens to them they’re interpreting as some form of judgment.

Verse 29: “When they came to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, (here’s some more repetition) “‘The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies at the land. But we said to him, we are honest men. We have never been spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the Lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this, I shall know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households and go your way. Bring your youngest brother to me, then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men.'” That’s got to hurt every time that that’s repeated to them. “‘And I will deliver your brother to you and you shall trade in the land.’“

Verse 35: “They emptied their sacks. Behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob, their father, said to them, ‘You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.’ And then Ruben said to his father, ‘Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you.'” Thanks, Ruben. “‘Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you.’ But he (Jacob), said, ‘My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you were to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.'”

So, there’s a stalemate here, right? The brothers are trying to do everything they can to convince Jacob to allow them to take Benjamin back down to Egypt to buy more grain, to secure the release of Simeon. But Jacob just won’t have any of it at this point.

Let’s move on to chapter 43. “Now, the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, ‘Go again. Buy us a little food.’ But Judah said to him, ‘The man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ Israel said, ‘Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?’ And they replied, ‘The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say bring your brother down?'”

So, there’s a little hierarchy of desperation that we’re seeing develop here, right? Because in chapter 42, man, Jacob was desperate with fear to protect Benjamin. That was what he did. That’s the way he operated, keeping Benjamin safe. And he wouldn’t let Benjamin go. Well, now fear’s been displaced by hunger, and they’re desperate with hunger at this point, and now Jacob’s willing to let him go.

And here we see a little turn in Judah. Verse 8: “Judah said to Israel, his father, ‘Send the boy with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.'”

Jacob finally relents. “Then their father, Israel, said to them, ‘If it must be so then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight.'” So that’s three times the original amount of money they’re taking.

And by the way, Jacob’s not a poor man, right? He’s got plenty of money. What he doesn’t have is food. Wealth is not everything. Perhaps it was an oversight. Verse 13: “‘Take also your brother and arise. Go again to the man. May God Almighty, El Shaddai, grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.’ So the men took this present and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.'”

Philip Yancey says this about desperation. I saw this and wanted to put it in here:

“Human beings do not readily admit desperation. When they do, the kingdom of heaven draws near.”
Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

And friends, that’s what God is waiting for, is for us to come to the end of ourselves and come to Him.

Verse 16: “When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, ‘Bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.’ The man did as Joseph told him and brought them into Joseph’s house. The men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house. And they said, ‘It is because of the money.'” Again, thinking about the judgment of all their circumstances. “‘It is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.'” Which is a little humorous, but, in their minds, they’re interpreting this as Joseph means to do them harm—he means to kidnap them, make them slaves. And instead, he’s wanting to bless them and give them a royal feast. That’s where his heart is.

Verse 19: “They went up to the steward of Joseph’s house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, ‘Oh my lord. We came down the first time to buy food, and when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man’s money in the mouth of his sack. Our money in full weight. So, we have brought it again with us and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.'” And I love this. “He replied, ‘Peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.’ Then he brought Simeon out to them. And when the man had brought the men into Joseph’s house and given them water and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.”

“When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground.” They’re bowing again. And here’s where, again, I love the detail of the Bible. The gifts that they brought included aromatic spices, honey, balm, myrrh. Those are the same spices that the Ishmaelite traders were carrying with them in chapter 37, when Joseph was sold into slavery. And I just wonder if there’s this flood of memories as he smells these spices, remembering that day he was sold into slavery.

Verse 27: “He inquired about their welfare and said, ‘Is your father well? The old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?’ And they said, ‘Your servant, your father is well. He is still alive.’ And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, ‘Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son.’ Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother. His heart was just bursting, and he sought a place to weep, and he entered his chamber and wept there. And then he washed his face and came out, and controlling himself he said, ‘Serve the food.'”

Notice that Joseph doesn’t speak harshly to them anymore. And he sees Benjamin and he starts weeping. Here’s his only full brother. And then you’ve got to think that he’s grieving for all that was lost—a lost childhood, his lost home, all of those lost years. Grieving for that, but also weeping with deep joy that there’s something going on that is regaining all that was lost.

Verse 32: “They served him by himself and them by themselves and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as of any of theirs. And they drank and were merry.”

This chapter is amazing. It ends with grace and mercy in a feast. And these brothers, they’re amazed, because this man who is second only to Pharaoh, who’s an Egyptian, they still don’t know who he is, he has correctly seated them in their perfect proper birth order. And that just had to have blown their minds. And then the youngest, who usually typically gets the scraps, Pharaoh is just heaping blessing on this kid. What an ending to this chapter.

So, what can we learn from this passage? There’s a couple of things that I’ve been thinking about a bunch this week while we’ve been studying this. Kind of bad news/good news situation. So, we’ll start with the bad news, end with the good news.

The first thought that I think we can take away from this passage is that the ripple effect of sin affects us all. The ripple effect of sin affects us all. One of the first lies of sin is, “No one’s going to know. It’s just me. I’m here. It’s just me. No one’s going to know.” Surely the brothers thought that when they were throwing Joseph into the pit. They were out in the wilderness, out in the boondocks. ‘Nobody’s going to know what we’re doing here. We’re just going to throw him in here. We’re going to sell him into slavery. Nobody’s going to know. We’ll just tell dad he died.’

That lie is typically followed by the second lie of, “Hey, leave me alone. It’s just me. This sin, it’s not affecting anyone else.” So, “No one will know. This sin’s not affecting anyone else but me.” And that’s just not true, right? It’s not true. Every sin, first and foremost, is a sin against God, but every sin casts a ripple effect out. Just like the analogy of throwing a stone in the water and those concentric circles expand outward far past where the stone entered the water, sin, the ripple effect of sin affects us all. And from the very beginning, God has told us about this very thing. Genesis 3:17, right after the fall, God says this to Adam:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you.” Bro, the very dirt you’re standing on has been affected by what you’ve just done.
Genesis 3:17

That goes for all of us. If we consider, let’s just say that sin casts a blue tint, a blue shade on us, every one of us has a little bit of blue in our skin color, right? The ripple effect of sin affects us all. And the New Testament describes this as, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” This terrible deed that the ten brothers committed when they sold Joseph into slavery, and then the lie that they told for twenty years, affected everyone in this story, right? Joseph was ripped from his family, ripped from his home, he was sold into slavery. And then he endured this up and down process for twenty years of being in the pit, being in a palace, being thrown in prison, back to the palace. And his faith and his integrity in this whole process are remarkable, but he’s been the victim of this trauma.

And then the ten brothers, they have had to live this lie for the last twenty years. This has become the prominent narrative of their lives. It’s this lie of a tragic death of their father’s favorite son. And then they’ve had to maintain that lie for twenty years. And they’ve had to deal with Jacob’s unassuageable grief and his unrelenting shame and guilt directed at them, for how could they have let his son get ripped apart by a wild animal? And then Jacob himself, he’s lived a narrative for the last twenty years of a grieving husband and father who lost his favorite son. He’s refused to be comforted. He has clinged to Benjamin as a result of this. And the story might have been false, but the result and the grief are real. Sin has a ripple effect which affects us all.

Charles Spurgeon says it like this.

“As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.”
Charles Spurgeon

Man, Spurgeon. So, I think there’s a chance that many, if not all of us today, we can identify with each of those three people at some point in our lives. Because at some point we’ve sinned against someone else. We’ve hurt someone, intentionally or accidentally. We’ve been the ten brothers. We may have owned up to it, we may have covered it up, but at some point we’ve been the ten brothers. And at some point, undoubtedly, we’ve been in Joseph’s shoes, hurt by someone else, accidentally or on purpose. And we’ve had to carry the weight of that hurt with us. Or like Jacob, we might have been stuck in an emotional pit. It’s not his fault but stuck in an emotional pit. And there’s been a single event or trauma that has been controlling our lives.

So, if this is the bad news, what’s the good news? Where’s the good news? What is the hope? What propels us? What moves us forward out of this? And therein lies the second point that I think we can learn from this passage: reconciliation is the heart of the Gospel. This passage, it paints such a beautiful picture of the redemption of Christ. Joseph could have legitimately and justifiably held onto his anger at his brothers. He could have thrown them in prison for the rest of their lives. He could have had them executed on the spot. But instead, he chose to treat them far better than their sins deserved. And that laid the groundwork for the sweet forgiveness and reconciliation that we’re going to see in the next couple of chapters.

I love that scene in chapter 43 where the brothers come back down to Egypt. Joseph is sending them up to his house, and they have it in their minds, because they know they’ve rightfully sinned against him, they’re expecting him to kidnap them, take their donkeys, sell them into slavery. And instead, they’re treated as royal guests and given a banquet. It’s just like the prodigal son, just like us; through Christ, we’re not treated as our sins deserve. Rather than facing the judgment and an abandonment of God, man, we’re welcomed as children and heirs and family. Tolkien, there’s a quote I ran across from the Lord of the Rings:

“It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing.”
Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

God does not meet our sin with anger and revenge. He welcomes us in Christ.

So, the thought occurred to me this week—Tommy and I were talking about this. There’s a nuanced difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is a bit of a one way, like a unidirectional flow to it, right? And reconciliation, there’s a relationship there. It’s kind of a two-way forgiveness, if you will. You can forgive someone and never have contact with them. You can forgive someone that lives on the other side of the world. Unidirectional. But reconciliation implies relationship. And that’s why God not only forgives us our sins in Christ, but He is in pursuit of reconciliation with us because He seeks relationship with us. Reconciliation, that’s what the Gospel is all about.

So we read in Colossians, 1:19 and 20, absolutely love this verse:

“For in Him, Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And through Him, to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.”
Colossians 1:19-20

Think about this. Reconciliation, it works vertically between us and God, and then it works horizontally between us and other people. Kind of the picture of the cross, isn’t it?

In second Corinthians, Paul tells us that God gives us this message of reconciliation:

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:18

Man, that is the heart of God towards us.

Some of us were eating dinner together Friday night, and we were just talking about social media and even traffic, driving on the highway, how depersonalized things are, and how we are losing this idea of reconciliation and relationship. Because it’s so easy to blast somebody in anger and untruth when you’re not in relationship with him, when you’re not in the room with him. And I just want to encourage all of us that the heart of God towards us is to experience this rebuilding of relationships with each other. And He considers this such a high priority that He’d actually prefer us to be reconciled with each other than give Him an offering.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus gives this instruction.

“So, if you’re offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Matthew 5:23-24

So powerful.

Reconciliation, it’s a process. Forgiveness is an event, but reconciliation is a process. It might take time and effort. Trust and confidence have to be rebuilt. It’s not a constant walk forward, is it? So, we walk, we fall down, we sin, we get back up, we ask for forgiveness, begin restoration again. We move forward.

For all of us, for me too, I’ve been thinking about this this week. Where might God be calling us today? Each one of us individually, to restoration, to forgiveness and reconciliation. I urge you to think about that. Listen to that prompting. Listen to the Holy Spirit and respond to that. Whether you find yourself still caught in the ripple effect of sin, or if you’re experiencing that joy, forgiveness, and reconciliation, God’s promised never to leave you or forsake you, right? He’s walking alongside you and equipping you for the season and the moment that you’re in right now.

Lastly, going back to our little family reunion thing at the very beginning, I just want to encourage you, God is not moving away from you as you enter the room. Jesus is not embarrassed to have to awkwardly introduce you to his friends, right? It’s just the opposite. God is moving towards us. He’s running to us. Always. Always. Amen? Amen.  Let’s pray, church:

Lord, Your forgiveness of sinners, it’s a signature mark of Your grace. Your Word tells us that You don’t remember our sins. You remove them, You blot them out, You tread them under foot, You cast them into the depths of the sea. Then You rebuild and reconstruct us. You now see us in Christ, unified with Him, justified by His death and resurrection, clothed with His obedience, covered by his love. This can only be called amazing grace. Lord, we are truly thankful and we give you thanks. In Jesus’ name. Amen.