Healing in Process

We have been all over the place with this journey in the life of Joseph and the family of Jacob. We have ridden a roller coaster of events from beginning to end. We have cried alongside Joseph in his despair, we have question God in the jail cells of abandonment, we have clutched to pain in the place of betrayal....even betrayal by those we love, we have fallen on our faces when confronted with the need of repentance for freedom in our life.

In our story the brothers have gone home to get Benjamin and remember from the very beginning the relationship of Joseph and Benjamin. Show photo again of family tree. So, yes Benjamin and Joseph are the two favorite sons in the family. In Jacob’s heartbreak it seems that he is clutching all the more to Benjamin and probably very obviously to the brothers....remember what happened last time something like this happened. Pay close attention when reading to a couple of things:

how similar the situation with Benjamin is to the situation with Jospeh early at the beginning

How different their attitudes are and how far they will go to protect Benjamin.

Read ;

Opening Illustration: What are the tough lessons in life that you have learned? In the third grade I had a solo in a music play we had. Yeah. Let me put it this way....if I accidentally leave the microphone on in worship I will ruin a song. “I can be a lawyer, with many cases to try.” My teacher after called me over and said these words…John Wayne next time I think you are going to help us so much with set design.”

And what are the tough lessons in life that you are refusing to learn?

I love food. but refuse to acknowledge some food is not good for me. We got this incredible caserole in our care calendar. It taste so good but it made me feel so bad.

What are the hard lessons you have learned…and more importantly what are the lessons you are not learning.

I think what you find in this story is what comes after repentance. Turning and change of heart. It is the process of healing and formation of the character. It is the hard lesson learned. For Joseph it will always be that tough life lessons but the one of healing and grace....for the brothers, it is the one they had refused to learn but learning it made all the difference. Sanctification!

Definition of sanctification by Wesley:

“Expressed in the most general terms, sanctification addresses the entire work of transformation in human lives by the Holy Spirit from the moment individuals are born again until they are given glorification in death. The ultimate end of the Spirit’s work is to restore the full image of God in humanity, making humanity like Christ.” (Theology of John Wesley, Lecture 6) In other words, salvation itself is the process of cleansing man from all sin, thereby making it possible for him to once again dwell in the presence of God and enjoy perfect communion and eternal life with Him.

“To love someone is to desire and work toward their becoming the best version of themselves. The one person in all the universe who can do this perfectly for you is God.”

― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

Transformation of the Brothers

Notice the change from the brothers. And remember this is about Benjamin, the one Jacob surely let it be known was his favorite:

Genesis 44:11–13 NIV

Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.

They are clearly different than where they were before. They are a long ways from the dudes that got rid of their father’s favorite. Now they react in mourning. Think about this for a minute:

The dad surely flaunted Benjamin in light of everything. We have no idea if Jacob ever came to a place of acknowledging all of the jacked up things in the story....as a matter of fact when telling them to bring Benjamin back he says, this is one of my two sons!

On top of all of that the brothers have found a way to love their brother Benjamin and love their father.

Catch this....we spend so much time trying to change other people and pointing out what is wrong with other people and we spend 0 time asking about ourselves. Next time you find yourself complaining about your spouse or your kids about something....slow down a minute and consider what the point of transformation in your own heart my be.

This is the place of inviting God to sanctify you.

Even in the dialogue Jacob does the same thing he did decades ago that devastated the brothers to the point that they sold Joseph into slavery and faced with the same hurt and betrayal this time, the are willing to risk everything to bring him back.

Isn’t that the Christian journey? Growing to a place of loving others in spite of themselves, in spite of what they do or might do. Pure God-given love.

The author is pounding this home in the story we read: He names his father 14 times in the dialogue and puts his life on the line. This is Judah....the one who when he had a responsibility in the story with Tamar earlier to do and help her as a widow…to claim her for the family, he did nothing.

Genesis 44:33 NIV

“Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.

Genesis

Sanctification of Joseph

You know, up to this point, and considering all things…Joseph is a pretty good dude. He is successful, he has endured pain and suffering. Pressed through the injustice and the wrong that has been committed to him. And know he is responsible for the survival of civilization. He would have every right, you think, to be pleased with life. And yet, God is not done with him either. No God desires to introduce the brothers and the world to love and he is going to do that through Joseph.

Genesis 45:8 NIV

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

Genesis 45:8 NIV

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

When we choose complacency, we are limiting the work that God wants to do in us and through us

“We may be content to remain what we call 'ordinary people': but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility; it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Healing

Friends, in humility there is healing. If we can stop being the greatest victim. Political ads....they prey on this. If we can bow the knee then God can use us. Not only can he use us but he wants to heal us!!! What are you asking healing for this morning? I cant guarantee it happens today but it is God’s will that you are whole....do you believe that?

This is probably not ripping you out of the circumstances you are in, but giving you the strength and peace to conquer. After Paul witnesses to the suffering that is present in the world.

Romans 8:31–39 NIV

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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