After 15 plus years in Children’s and Youth Ministries as a volunteer you’d think I’d have certain verses down pat and easily pulled from the memory banks. You’d think I’d have all the glorious back story ready to spill forth from my lips and educate the masses. You’d be wrong.
Today’s section is a the latter part of the Joseph story. This is after the brothers show up, find out who he is and have much gnashing of teeth and adjusting of sackcloth (not at the tearing of sackcloth yet) in hopes that Joseph won’t pull out a bazooka and blow them all to smithereens. Which begs the question of what each of us would do in the sandals of Joe? Would you draw and quarter? Or would you kill with kindness?
Never mind that bazooka’s were clearly not invented yet (it is a nice visual though) or that Joe was raised by a good man and nefariously inclined brothers. Or that according to some sources Joe was seriously Emo. Like cried and wept all the dang time. Perhaps this is why Potiphar’s wife was hot to trot for Joseph. Never mind the painful and terrible life that Joseph had lived since his brother’s sold him off. Because at the moment that it mattered none of these things that could have led him down a dark path…did.
Joe made the call that God would have at that moment. A overwhelming overdose of mercy and forgiveness. Never mind that there’s a good chance the brothers made up the story of what his father told him before kicking the etherealic bucket. He still forgave them despite it all.
Even better was that this was the plan God intended. Why would God have done this? You could say this was the “old testament” God that tended to be full of vinegar, fire and brimstone but that doesn’t quite hold water either. I think the answer falls back to what I’ve said before on this subject.
God is good. All the time. That’s a verifiable fact. Billy Mays is probably in heaven recording late night commercials to preach just that line. The flip side of that wonderful coin is that God isn’t safe. He’s never claimed to be the safe cuddly teddy bear that some people seem to be content in labeling. He’s like a crazed MacGyver. Sure he ends up at the end of the mission in one piece and with a spare rubber band just in case. But he sure as hell goes through…hell to get there.
And that’s what stuck with me in this story. Joseph went through hell and back again to get where he was when his idiot (and I mean that in the nicest way) brothers showed up begging for food due to shortage in their own land. And it was God’s intended plan.
Which makes me (and it should make you) wonder…what does God “intend” for me?
I do know one thing. I’ll be watching my own brother very closely.
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