Genesis 45:1-15

William F. Schnell

August 17, 2008

   In the “That's Good, That’s Bad” tradition which has inspired various books, songs and TV episodes, I offer the following joke describing a conversation between two fellows.  "Did ya hear I got married?"  "Oh, that's good."  "No, that's bad!  She's homely!"  "Oh, that's bad."  "No, that's good!  She’s also rich."  "Oh, that's good!"  "No, that's bad!  She won't give me a cent."  "Oh, that's bad."  "No, that's good!  She used the money to buy me servants and a big house"  "Oh, that's good."  "No, that's bad!  The house burnt down."  "Oh, that's bad."  "No, that's good!  She was in it."

   Sometimes the things that we think will make us happy, end up making us miserable instead.  For a lot of people, winning the lottery is the American Dream.  But for many lottery winners the reality is more like a nightmare according to a current article on the MSN Money website.   Consider the experience of one 16.2 million dollar winner.  A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings.  It wasn't the end of his legal involvement. 

   A brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him, hoping to inherit a share of the winnings.  Other siblings pestered him until he agreed to invest in a car business and a restaurant in Sarasota, Florida--two ventures that brought no money back and further strained his relationship with his siblings.  This so-called winner even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector.  Within a year, he was $1 million in debt and shortly afterward declared bankruptcy.  The point of the article was that this kind of nightmare was less the exception and more the rule for big-time lottery winners.

    On the one hand, many things that we first view as bad turn out to be good in retrospect.  Hulk Hogan says jail is probably the best thing that ever happened to his 17-year-old son.  Nick is currently serving an 8 month jail sentence on reckless driving charges that left his passenger in critical condition.  "He was moving through life and maybe not real appreciative of things," Hogan says.  "When this happened, it totally spun him in a 180.  ... It's the best thing that ever happened to him.  I'm not saying it's a good thing.  But it happened for a reason." 

    Sometimes even bad things happen for a reason—a redeeming reason.  Jesus’ death on a cross happened for a redeeming reason.  Perhaps that is why Jesus was able to forgive those who sinned so grievously against him, because he was looking past the sin to the redeeming work of God.  The title of our message for this morning is, “Seeing Beyond the Sin.”  Maybe we can find it in our hearts to forgive those who sin against us if we are able to see beyond the sin to the redeeming work of God.

    That is what Joseph is able to do in our text from the book of Genesis—the first book of the Bible.  Now stay with me and you will learn about an involving but inspiring biblical narrative.  After God entered into a covenant with Abraham, the latter had a son named Issac.  Issac had two sons named Jacob and Esau.  Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, eventually had 12 sons who became progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel, but we get ahead of ourselves.  Jacob’s eleventh son was named Joseph, and he was not well-liked by his 10 older brothers.   Why?

    First, Joseph was his father’s favorite child since he had been born in Jacob’s old age.  Second, Jacob made a richly ornamented robe for his favored child to wear.  You may have heard of the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  That musical was inspired by our text for this morning.  Finally, Joseph was a dreamer whose dreams foretold the day when he would rule over his brothers.  No wonder they did not like their privileged little brother.  No wonder they plotted to be rid of him.

    One day they stripped off his coat and threw him into a cistern until they could sell him as a slave to a passing caravan on its way to Egypt.  The coat they smeared in goat’s blood and took back to their father with a tall tale about how he had been torn apart by a wild animal.  From that day forward Jacob assumed his son was dead, the brothers split the 20 shekels of silver they got for their brother, and Joseph arrived in Egypt where he was resold as a slave to the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.

    Joseph diligently worked for his master and things went well…until his master’s wife tried to seduce him.  Joseph resisted her advances, and you know what they say about a woman scorned.  She made up a story about Joseph attempting to rape her, and he landed in prison.  However, he was a model prisoner and the warden put him in charge of all the other inmates and even certain administrative tasks.  As the Bible puts it …the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did (30:23). 

    Sometime later Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker both offended their master and also ended up in the same prison where they had vivid dreams they could not interpret.  Joseph, hearing of their dreams, was able to interpret them in ways that proved true.  Eventually the cupbearer was restored to his position in Pharaoh’s house.  When Pharaoh had a vivid but puzzling dream, the cupbearer told him about Joseph and his amazing ability to interpret dreams.

    Pharaoh sent for Joseph and told him his dream.  Joseph interpreted the dream as foretelling 7 years of agricultural abundance in Egypt followed by 7 years of famine.  Joseph also advised using the 7 years of abundance to store up the surplus to tide the Egyptians over during the 7 years of scarcity.  Pharaoh thought this was a swell plan, and guess who he put in charge of the effort?  So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt” (41:41).

    As it happened, Joseph was spot on in his dream interpretation.  There came the 7 years of plenty that allowed Joseph to store up a superabundance of food.  Then the 7 years of famine followed, and not only in Egypt.  There was also a famine in the surrounding lands, including the land of Joseph’s father and brothers.  Word had spread about the stores of food in Egypt, and Jacob sent his sons to buy some so that they wouldn’t starve. 

    Since Joseph was in charge of selling surplus grain, imagine his surprise when his brothers arrived to buy some.  But while Joseph recognized them, they did not recognize him since by now a lot of time had passed.  To make a long story a little less long, Joseph eventually reveals himself to his brothers in our text for this morning.  Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph!  Is my father still living?”  But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence (Verse 3).

    They were in the presence of Pharaoh’s second-in-command, a powerful presence they had sinned grievously against.  Of course they were terrified!  But Joseph was able to see past their sin to the redeeming work of God.  He said to them, “…do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  …God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God (Verses 5, 7 & 8).

    That is a pretty charitable attitude.  Joseph was able to forgive his brothers because he could see past their sin to the redeeming work of God.  In the end his family relocated to Egypt and, over time, grew into the 12 tribes of Israel-God’s Chosen People.  So we have this rather involving story of seemingly bad things that turn out to be good things because God’s redeeming power is greater than our sin.  And we have a case study of forgiveness.  Joseph is able to forgive his brothers because God’s redeeming power transformed their sin into the best thing that ever happened to him.

    Are we able to forgive our brothers and sisters, our children and parents, our husbands and wives?  I think it is easier to forgive our enemies than it is to forgive our families and friends who make up our primary relationships.  The German philosopher Schopenhauer compared our primary relationships to a bunch of porcupines huddling together on a cold winter's night.  He said, "The colder it gets outside, the more we huddle together for warmth; but the closer we get to one another, the more we hurt one another with our sharp quills.  And in the lonely night of earth's winter eventually we begin to drift apart and wander out on our own and freeze to death in our loneliness." 

    If you are feeling estranged from some of your primary relationships, welcome to the human race.  What you are going through is more common than most imagine.  Ernest Hemingway wrote a story about a father and his teenage son.  In the story, the relationship had become somewhat strained, and the teenage son ran away from home.  His father began a journey in search of his rebellious son.  Finally, in Madrid, Spain, in a last desperate attempt to find the boy, the father put an ad in the local newspaper.  The ad read: "Dear Paco, Meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon.  All is forgiven.  I love you.  Your father."  The next day, in front of the newspaper office, eight hundred Pacos showed up seeking forgiveness from their fathers.

    Estrangements among family and friends are not that uncommon.  What may be uncommon are those instances where broken relationships are restored by the healing power of forgiveness before it is too late.  On a cold winter evening a man suffered a heart attack and, after being admitted to the hospital, asked the nurse to call his daughter.  He explained, "I live alone and she is the only family I have."  The nurse went to phone the daughter. 

    The daughter was quite upset and shouted, "You must not let him die!  Dad and I had a terrible argument almost a year ago.  I haven't seen him since.  All these months I've wanted to go to him for forgiveness.  The last thing I said to him was 'I hate you."'  The daughter cried and then said, "I'm coming now.  I'll be there in thirty minutes."  The patient went into cardiac arrest and the nurse prayed, "O God, his daughter is coming.  Don't let it end this way."

    The efforts of the medical team to revive the patient were fruitless.  When the daughter arrived, the nurse could see the pathetic hurt in her face.  The nurse took the daughter aside and said, "I'm sorry."  The daughter responded, "I never hated him, you know.  I loved him, and now I want to go see him."  The nurse took her to the room, and the daughter went to the bed and buried her face in the sheets as she said good-bye to her deceased father.  The nurse noticed a scrap of paper on the bed table.  She picked it up and read: "My dearest Janie, I forgive you.  I pray you will also forgive me.  I know that you love me.  I love you, too.  Daddy."

    Maybe the redeeming lining of the dark cloud of estrangement in our primary relationships is that we are given an opportunity to practice the divine art of forgiveness.  The only portion of the Lord’s Prayer that is conditional has to do with forgiveness.  “Forgive us our debts, our trespasses, our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”  If we cannot find a way to forgive the sins of others, how can we expect our sins to be forgiven?

    I suppose that if we are sinless and have no need to be forgiven, we don’t have a problem.  Yet Jesus was sinless and even he forgave those who sinned against him.  How much more should we, who are not without sin, practice forgiveness beginning with those primary relationships that have such power to imprison us in bitter feelings and lasting hurt?  To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.  That is why it feels so right and good and true when broken relationships are restored by the healing power of forgiveness.

    Forgiveness is “Seeing Beyond the Sin” to the redeeming power of God that makes broken relationships whole, including our relationship with him.  However hurt we have been, and however legitimate our complaint against others who have sinned against us, let us remember that we too have sinned against others and against God.  We too stand in need of forgiveness.  May God forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.  I am sorry.  I forgive.  Wonderful Words of Life.