Joseph’s Act of Forgiveness is an Example for the World & All of Humankind.
Was Joseph not the model child of forgiveness in the Old Testament?
As The Book of Genesis concludes, Jacob, now called Israel, is reunited with his son Joseph and Joseph’s spectacular forgiveness set the stage for all twelve siblings, the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob) going forward.
“Fear not: can we resist the will of God? You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people (from famine). Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly,” was likely God’s foremost example of forgiveness in Genesis, the first chapter of the world and humankind.
Bad, evil things happen to us. We do our best to counteract them but in the end, win or lose, comes acceptance and then God’s enduring and powerful will to turn anything demonstrated as evil into good.
Joseph was the envy of his brothers and left to die and become a slave. Joseph accepted this in terms of maintaining a positive, contributing attitude and through his dream interpreting to Pharao became the ruler of all Egypt. The good to come was his ability to foresee the famine and store grain to feed many people including his father Jacob and his brothers and their families.
My life story does not contain anything as dramatic as Joseph’s on either the giving or taking side. In terms of abandonment my came as a child from my father’s alcoholism. I believe my faith and God help me persevere those difficult times to see the good times as my father found sobriety through his faith in Jesus Christ and never had another drink of alcohol for the last 25 years of his life. Amen! Al-le-lu-ia, as he would occasionally cry out in his later years!
My difficulty, challenge, or cross to bear in life has been to self-medicate myself through food and sugar. Behind this is an inconsistent ability to forgive myself for trying to be perfect and in control of things I should not be trying to control. I am not God of myself or anybody else. God is God. I am grateful for this journey in life through TROML to an ever improving Splendid Spiritual Self. Amen! Al-le-lu-ia!
Genesis is now behind me in this attempt to interpret my life and my being through reading the Bible with a TROML Perspective. As promised, Genesis, the genesis or origin of the world, and the history of Creation was told. We found Noe and experienced the Deluge. The generations of Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and to Joseph evolved and gave us a glimpse of the accepting, loving and compassionate God to come in the New Testament with Jesus Christ forging a new covenant enveloped in us with The Holy Spirit.
At the end of Genesis, Joseph told his brothers that “God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land (Egypt), to the (Promise) land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Day 17: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Joseph’s Act of Forgiveness is an Example for the World & all of Humankind.
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Genesis Chapters 45-50 (END)
Bible Notes:
Genesis, the genesis or origin of the world, the history of Creation.
Noe and the Deluge, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph
Closes with the deaths of Jacob and of Joseph in Egypt, whither Joseph had called his father and brothers.
Genesis Chapter 45: Joseph makes himself known to his brothers; Joseph sends his brothers for Jacob; Joseph’s brothers leave to get Jacob; Jacob is comforted.
And he said to his brethren: I am Joseph: is my father yet living? I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
Be not afraid, and let it not seem to you a hard case that you sold me into these countries: for God sent me before you into Egypt for your preservation.
And five more years of famine remain, wherein there can be neither ploughing nor reaping,
Not by your counsel was I sent hither, but by the will of God…
… that you may eat the marrow of the land,
Be not angry in the way.
Joseph thy son is living; and he is ruler in all the land of Egypt. Which when Jacob heard, he awakened as it were out of a deep sleep, yet did not believe them… It is enough for me, if Joseph my son be yet living; I will go and see him before I die.
Genesis Chapter 46: God speaks to Jacob; Jacob goes to Egypt; Israelites who went into Egypt; Sons of Joseph and Benjamin; Number of Jacob’s family in Egypt; Joseph greets his father.
God to Jacob: fear not, go down into Egypt, for I will make a great nation of thee there, I will go down with thee thither, and will bring thee back again from thence: Joseph also shall put his hands upon thy eyes.
Children of Israel (Jacob?)
Mesopotamia of Syria
All the souls of the house of Jacob, that entered into Egypt, were seventy.
Now shall I die with joy, because I have seen thy face, and leave thee alive.
.. because the Egyptians have all shepherds in abomination.
Genesis Chapter 47: Pharao welcomes Joseph’s family; Joseph presents Jacob to Pharao; Joseph provides for his family; Joseph serves Pharao well; Jacob plans his burial.
The days of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years, few, and evil, and they are not come up to the days of my fathers (Isaac 180 years; Abraham 175 years).
We have nothing left but our bodies and our lands
The fifth part is paid to the king, and it is become as a law, except the land of the priests, which was free from this covenant.
And all the days of Jacob/Israel came to 147 years.
Jacob did not want to be buried in Egypt, but in the burying place of his ancestors.
Israel (Jacob) adored God, turning to the bed’s head.
Genesis Chapter 48: Joseph and his sons visit Jacob; Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons; Jacob prefers Joseph to his other sons.
God Almighty appeared to me (Jacob/Israel) at Luza.
Joseph’s two sons Manasses and Ephraim take the names of Jacob, Abraham and Isaac.
Joseph displeased that Jacob’s right hand was not on firstborn Manasses but Jacob said the younger brother Ephraim shall be greater than Manasses.
Ephrata, which by another name is called Bethlehem.
Behold I die, and God will be with you, and will bring you back into the land of your fathers. I give thee a portion above thy brethren.
Genesis Chapter 49: Jacob calls for his sons; Jacob denounces Ruben, Simeon, and Levi; Jacob blesses Juda; Jacob’s prophecies about Zabulon, Isaachar, Dan, Gad, Aser, and Nephtali; Jacob blesses Joseph; Jacob’s prophecy about Benjamin; Death of Jacob.
I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob): these things their father spoke to them, and he blessed every one, with their proper blessings.
Genesis Chapter 50: Mourning for Jacob; Burial of Jacob; Joseph forgives his brothers; Joseph’s age and death.
There passed forty days; for this was the manner with bodies that were embalmed, and Egypt mourned him seventy days.
Fear not: can we resist the will of God? You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people. Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.
Joseph lived a hundred and ten years: and he saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation.
God will visit you after my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Speak Your Mind