Last time we saw how Joseph met his
brothers again. They were clearly remorseful and tormented by what
they had done to Joseph. They have lived with the guilt for more
than 20 years and it still plagued them. But they were truly sorry
and God used what they did for good and later on He also used them
as the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, His beloved nation.
God can use us as well, no matter what we have done in the past. We
must simply turn to Him for forgiveness, make amends with those
that we have hurt and continue with Him into our future, knowing
that He is mightily with us.
As we saw last week, Joseph
overheard his brothers when they were saying how sorry they were
for what they had done to him. He was overcome with emotion and
wept. It must have been very emotional for him. He must have hoped
that they will be remorseful, but he never knew until that moment.
Yet, still he wanted to test them and make sure that it was not
only lip service, but that they had truly changed. He secretly
returned their money into their sacks of grain, as he wanted to see
how they handled that:
"Then Joseph gave a command to
fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man's money to his
sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for
them." Genesis 42:25
His brothers turned out to be
honorable men. For instead of being joyful when they found that
their money had been returned, they were dismayed:
"But as one of them opened his
sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money;
and there it was, in the mouth of his sack. So he said to his
brothers, "My money has been restored, and there it is, in my
sack!" Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying
to one another, "What is this that God has done to us?" Genesis
42:27, 28
They weren't glad that their money
was returned, they were honorable and wanted to pay for it. Later
on we will see that when they returned, they offered to Joseph this
money as well as extra for the new food that they wanted to
acquire. They wanted to pay their dues. They aced that test.
Sometimes God will also test us. He
will never allow things to come on us that we will not be able to
handle. God wants us to live a life of excellence. He wants us to
stand out from others, so that we can do the honorable thing. When
we live a life of excellence, God will start to entrust us with
more and more in HIs Kingdom. He wants to see if we can do the
small things well, and then He will progress to entrust us with the
bigger things. God has started to do that to me and I must say it
hasn't been easy. The small things can be very difficult to do,
especially if you are in a hurry. For example when you have tried
on clothes in the shop, go back and place it where it belongs. When
your hands are full in the shops and you accidently let products
fall from the rack, do you pick it up? Do you go and replace the
trolley after you have placed the groceries in your car? Do you
make sure that the public toilet is nice and clean after you have
used it? Are you honest with your taxes and what you earn? Do you
make way for other cars to come into your lane? Do you truly listen
to your children or your spouse? Do you go on holiday even if the
government has closed the borders? And so I can go on and on. God
cannot use us for bigger things if we cannot get the small things
right. He wants to see that we are living a life of excellence in
all areas of our lives. He wants to entrust us with so much.
We need to walk the walk, and not just be a Christian in our
speech. He wants us to influence the world, but first He needs to
make sure that He can trust us with the small things in life. At
the end of the day, they show our character and what we are truly
made of.
Father we want to honor You in
everything. We want to lift up Your Name and bring glory to You. We
want to live a life of excellence, help us with it and give us the
strength to follow through. We want to be used by You. Amen