Joseph - Reflections (2)

 

 

“Come, and I will send you to them.”

 

“I will go.”

 

“Go now and see about the welfare of your brothers.” (Genesis 37:12 - 13).

 

Genesis begins with one brother saying of another, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It concludes with the story of a brother becoming the keeper of his brothers and their families.

 

Is this not the history of humanity? There are those who kill, and then there are those who save. There are those who reject the notion that they should guard and protect their brethren, and then there are those who say of them, “I will go and see about their welfare.”

 

Cain rejected God’s correction (Genesis 4:6 – 7). Joseph received the correction and discipline of God, “The word of the LORD tested him” (Psalm 105:19).

 

Joseph’s journey to become the savior of his brethren had its deep sorrows, its betrayal into the pit, into slavery, into despair. Did Joseph have any inkling of the purpose of his suffering as he was experiencing it? There was a glimmer of hope with Potiphar, then prison. There was another glimmer of hope with the cupbearer in prison, but then nothing. However, when the fulness of time came and Pharoah had his dreams, as famine approached the land, Joseph’s ascent began and all became clear.

 

“It was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:8).

 

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

 

Cain killed Abel, Joseph’s brothers were intent on killing him – indeed, Jospeh was dead to his father Jacob. We have all killed Jesus, have we not? Our sins have forged the nails, our natures of wickedness have been placed upon Him on the altar of the Cross, and Jesus has cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Yet, as Joseph was raised to newness of life, a life that became the salvation of his brothers, so our Lord Jesus was raised to a newness of life which became our own new life in Him (Ephesians 2:1 – 10; Romans Chapter 6; 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21).

 

There is the way of Cain, and there is the way of Joseph; what we see in Genesis, we see today. Look around you, there are those who desire the best for others, and then those who say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

 

We can always rationalize reasons not to help others, reasons not to love others. Yet John writes, “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how dos the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17).

 

James teaches us, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if is has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:15 – 17).

 

Let us recall what God said to Cain, “Now you are cursed from the ground” (Genesis 4:11).  And when we recall this, let us also recall what Jesus says in Matthew 25:41 – 45:

 

“Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me…Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

 

When the world looks at the professing church, does it see Cain or Joseph?