It’s All Grace

 

 I was stopped in my car at an intersection when I noticed the light turned green for cross traffic, and a vehicle responded to the green light and started to move. Then suddenly parallel to me, a large pickup pulling a trailer came barreling through the light on red. The cross-traffic car missed being hit broadside by a spit-second. It was one of those moments when you say to yourself, “Where are the cops when you need them?” Suddenly, I saw lights and heard a siren; a trooper had been sitting in the turning lane on the other side. Shortly up the road, I saw the pickup pulled over and the patrolman writing a citation. It will be an expensive one for speeding, running a red light, and perhaps reckless driving. That is how guilt works; it comes out of nowhere and gets our attention. It tells us that we are wrong. The purpose of guilt is to move us in the right direction. Hopefully, that driver stops running red lights.

Joseph’s ten brothers came to Egypt to buy grain during a famine. What were the chances of running into Joseph, the head administrator of all of Egypt’s business? God had designed the meeting. The Hebrew-speaking brothers did not recognize Joseph, but of course, Joseph recognized them. Joseph was at an advantage because he could understand them, but they had no clue who he was. He needed to test them to see if they were the same heartless men who had sold him into slavery. Were they still capable of such sinister acts?

Joseph listened to their words when they talked among themselves: “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come upon us.” Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood” (Gen 42:21-22). The brothers were dealing with guilt, but would the guilt lead them to repentance?

Joseph accused his brothers of being spies, and that opened up their history. They told him that they were twelve brothers, one is gone, and one is home with our father. Joseph put them in jail for three days. After that, he put Simeon in prison while releasing the rest to go home to their families. But if they ever wanted to free Simeon and get more food, they would have to bring back their youngest brother, Benjamin. That was the tricky part because they knew their father would refuse to send Benjamin.

When the brothers stopped for the night, they spotted the silver they had paid for the grain. They did not know that Joseph had returned their silver. Here is their reaction: Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?” (Gen 42:28). This is the first time they realize that God is behind what is happening to them.

The brothers were slowly being introduced to grace. Grace is forgiveness that refuses to hold grudges. Grace shows mercy and patience and lifts the little person while guilt pushes them down. How beautiful grace is and how ugly guilt is. Guilt, however, is useful if it leads us to repentance.

Guilt helps us acknowledge our wrongdoing and admit our sin. Then we begin to realize that our sin is against God, and we experience sorrow. All of this leads us to repentance and, ultimately, forgiveness. It’s all grace. When we acknowledge the wrong and own our mistakes, we experience relief. Respite from guilt comes through forgiveness. To live under guilt is no way to live, especially since grace is available for all of us.

Joseph’s Testimony

 

The book of Genesis wants us to know Joseph’s testimony. That is understandable because it is one of the most powerful found in the Bible. The betrayals and disappointments could have sidelined Joseph for good, but they were only stepping stones to more incredible things. Most importantly, God gave Joseph insight into his own life that he summed up in his testimony around the names of his two sons:

Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering” (Gen 41:50-52).

Manasseh means “he who causes to forget.” We, too, have been demeaned, hurt, betrayed, and abandoned. The pain of that hurt will not leave us. It affects how we think, how we feel, and how we view the past, present, and future. We feel powerless and think that our life is pretty much over.

But, this isn’t Joseph’s testimony! He says that God made him forget all his trouble—those terrible things that once haunted him. It is an admission that he once hated, once felt sorry for himself, but God took it away. God changed how he looked at his own life, his past, and his future. Some things will hinder us from moving forward unless they are forgotten, but we will not be able to do that on our own. God, however, can make us forget the pain so we can move on.

Joseph named his second son, Ephraim, which means “fertile.” Forgetting the bad things is the first step; growing is the second step. God made Joseph fruitful, and where did he do it? Right in the middle of his suffering. This is a most remarkable feat when God takes someone who has emotionally and spiritually died and helps them begin to grow again. They grow and grow and eventually produce fruit, something that long ago seemed impossible!

In later years, Joseph looked back with gratitude and said that the only reason he survived the terrible ordeal done to him was that God helped him forget. Amazingly, God enabled Joseph to forgive the cruelty that had been dealt him. Consequently, Joseph experienced freedom when he forgave his brothers and the others who had betrayed him. When Joseph let the hurts go through forgiveness, he unleashed a new future where good things would grow. Only God can help you do that. Joseph knew why things were going well. It was because God planted him in Egypt and made him fruitful in the land of his affliction.

Thy Will Be Done

 

I don’t always know God’s will for every facet of my life, and I rarely know what God is planning in this world of ours. So when I don’t know how to pray, I have learned to pray God’s will be done. That is what Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Thy will be done” (Matt 6:10).

The Jesus we see in the garden of Gethsemane is a Jesus we are not used to seeing in the Gospels. Mark says that Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow to the very point of death (Mark 14:34). As Jesus prayed, his body and his soul were overwhelmed with the impending fear of death.  Strangely, Jesus had never shown fear, not when he battled Satan in the wilderness, nor when he barely escaped death in his home town of Nazareth, not even when he confronted demons or his enemies who wanted him dead.

Why this fear? Jesus was fearful in the garden, not out of fear of his physical death, but his spiritual death. Jesus understood that he was about to become sin for the whole world. He knew the wages of sin was death. Jesus asked his Father, “…if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). We see Jesus’ humanity and his understanding of what he would have to endure spiritually, so he prayed for another way. Jesus asked his Father to take away the cup.

What did Jesus see in the cup? Imagine the appalling filth, the most wretched of human sins, and you have the contents of the cup. Jesus saw the sin of the world, and he recoiled so much that the thought of the cup repulsed him.

Jesus, however, finished his prayer with these words, “take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). What a small word will is, but what a difference it makes. Jesus asked his Father if there was any other way, yet what he wanted most was his Father’s will. What a prayer, and what a model for us! We often beg God for deliverance, but where is the part of the prayer where we pray for God’s will?  Every emotion and every thought in Jesus’ mind and spirit demanded deliverance from the cup.  Jesus knew what was ahead, but despite that sadness that overwhelmed him, he chose the will of the Father.

Where is the man or woman of God who can submit every prayer and petition through the filter of God’s will?  More important than the miracle we want or the deliverance we crave is God’s will.  May we, like Jesus, learn to pray with every petition “...yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).