Reconciliation

1/27/2008 10:01 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Reconciliation

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 45:14-15

            Message of the verses:  “14  Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.  15  He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him.”

            I would suspect that all the doubt of whether or not this was truly Joseph was now gone with all of the brothers, especially with Benjamin at this point and I would also suppose that the brothers of Joseph are now ready to confess their sin to Joseph and that may have been what they were talking about as indicated here in verse fifteen.

            Dr. Wiersbe seems to add things that I probably would never think of and he has done it in this small section of Scripture.  I wish to write about two of the points that he makes in his commentary on these verses.  I have written before about the things that Joseph did which were pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ and this is one of them.  Joseph went from suffering to glory when he went from the prison to the throne and so did Jesus do this when He went from the cross and grave to being raised from the dead and now sits at His Father’s Right Hand in Heaven.  Both Joseph and Moses were not accepted by their own people the first time but were the second time, just as Jesus was not accepted by His people the first time but will be the second time as Zechariah writes, “10  "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.  11  "In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.  12  "The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13  the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; 14  all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.

1 ¶  "In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”  There was repentance with Joseph’s brothers and there will be repentance from the Jewish nation also the second time that the Lord Jesus Christ comes.

Dr. Wiersbe also points out how Joseph handled his brothers in leading them to repentance with David on handling his two sons and points out that David and his son’s Amnon and Absalom were involved in sexual sins and perhaps this is why David did not discipline them like he should have, yet in reality this was no excuse, for David should have seen the trouble this brought to him and thus made an effort to stop the trouble for his two sons.  Joseph on the other hand was a pure man and I am sure that this is why he had to make the difficult decision to treat his brothers like he did in order to bring them to confession and repentance.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I will have to admit that it is hard to be hard on someone who has committed the same sins that I have, but as Dr. Wiersbe points out one does not have to wallow in the mud in order to get a feel for what it is like to fall to temptation so one can understand what it is like for Jesus was a friend of sinners, yet He never sinned. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Today is Sunday and for the first time in a long time I did not make it to Sunday school and church, and thus I feel very badly about it, for I know that that is where I should be on Sunday morning, so I have to get over the fact that I did not make it due to lack of sleep and go on with this day and have a good time in celebrating David’s 29^th birthday.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 1:9-11

9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10. so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.