Facing our past

We can see as we study this week that little by little, God is awakening the consciences of Joseph's brothers. It's not easy to face our past - and sometimes it is quite painful...

Remember when Jesus told the story about a young man who demanded his inheritance from his dad? Off he went to a country far away and spent his fortune on "wine, women, and song." As long as he had money, he had lots of buddies, but when the money was gone, he discovered his friends were gone, too. In this story, just as in the story of Joseph and his brothers, it was a famine that caused him to be in dire need. Even today, God can use the "famines" of life to bring us to our senses, or to make us face our past.
The young man in Jesus' story found himself alone.
No friends.
No home.
No money.
Only job he could get was feeding another farmer's hogs, and sharing their food. (Ugh)
Quite a come-down, eh?
In Luke 15, Jesus says that the young man "came to his senses." We don't know how long it took.....only that his suffering finally brought him around. The famine showed him the folly of his ways.
Isn't that the way, for some peeps?
The expression my grandma used to use was "he/she had to learn the hard way." And indeed, it does seem that some people can ONLY learn that way! But I guess that anything that brings us to our senses must be for our own good! (I see some of you nodding, here.)
We might wonder why it took such a long time for the brothers to come to their senses. I think the answer lies in God's timing.
If the brothers had come to their senses while Joseph was in prison, it wouldn't have made any difference, I don't think. Joseph was needed as the PM with a plan when the good years and the famine years came. When the right moment came, and they were in dire straights, that was different. They came to a totally different country and threw themselves on the mercy of the leader, hoping that he would give them grain for the money they brought with them.
When the right moment came, their memories were stirred....they heard once again the cries of their younger brother in the pit. There was no escaping what they'd done twenty years earlier. We can see that God moved in the events of the day, to orchestrate just the right atmosphere, opportunity, and timing for their consciences to be awakened.
I don't believe they were ready before now, to face the consequences of their sins. Sometimes in our efforts to help people, we may intervene too soon. Think about it: one day before the prodigal "came to his senses," he was not ready to come home. We might have looked at him and the situation he found himself in and thought, "Yup. He's definitely ready." But it's possible that if the father in the story had gone after his son, and tried to bring him back early, the son might have resisted. It might be that he would protest and tell his dad that he was getting ready to make his big comeback, investing in pork bellies. Or that he was going to make a fortune on a new feed for hogs that he'd developed.....
We may smile at this example, but just because we think someone has hit rock bottom, doesn't mean they have. They may still be planning their comeback in their own strength. It has to happen to every prodigal; it can't be forced (or predicted, either).
Repentance is the work of God in a human heart. As long as their lying and scheming (and deceiving themselves) continues, the best thing that we can do is to pray for God's Spirit to bring them to their senses, and to wait patiently until that happens.

That leaves us with two final applications from these chapters, for our own lives.
We may, like Joseph, have been the victim of mistreatment at someone else's hands. We may have been betrayed. We might have been abused. Perhaps we were falsely accused. What can we do to awaken the guilty conscience of our tormentors?
In a word, nothing.
Sorry.
That's for God to do, and only He can do it! We can't force someone to repent. Only God can bring that person "to their senses."
If we are like Joseph, we must simply do as he did; he served the Lord where he was, and did a great job at his tasks. He waited on the Lord. He gave God time to deal with those who had hurt him. And we can do these things, too. We can let go of the past and move forward with God's help.
Secondly, if we are like Joseph's brothers, and are burdened with a guilty conscience, we can grab hold of God's promise to make us white as snow, even if our sins are as red as scarlet. We should run, not walk, to the cross and claim the blood of our Savior Who died for us. The door of heaven is open, and we'll not be turned away!

Back to our story......back at the banquet hall, we're about to see the final act.
They still don't know Joseph is alive.
They have no clue that he is standing in front of them.
Is this going to be a happy family reunion, or will it be a mass heart attack?

We'll see......