Sermon: Forgiveness in God

Today Pastor Choi talks about three attributes of forgiveness through the story of Joseph: 1) forgiveness is not easy but not impossible.  2) Forgiveness is possible only in God and with God’s help.  3) Forgiveness requires initiative.  May God help us all to forgive those who trespass against us and overcome evil with good.

 

Forgiveness in God

 

 

Following is a summary of the sermon:

Forgiveness in God 

Genesis 45:1-15  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

45 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph!  Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” And they came closer.  And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10 You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. 11 There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished.”’ 12 Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. 13 Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and bring my father down here.” 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.

 

Introduction

Today I will finish my Genesis series with the story of Joseph.   There can be several things we can talk about Joseph such as favoritism, dreams, temptations, integrity, wisdom to prepare for hardships and so on, but to me, one word stands out above all others: forgiveness.  Did you know that in the entire Bible the word “to forgive” first appears in Joseph’s story (Genesis 50:17)?   Before I dig deeper, let me summarize his life story as briefly as I can.  I am covering 14 chapters (Genesis 37-50), so folks stay with me closely.

Jacob had twelve sons altogether, but he loved Joseph the most.  He made him a multicolor tunic when the rest of his brothers got plain ones.  Because of this favoritism, his older brothers hated him.   One day Joseph came to them while they were in the fields with their flock.  Originally, they wanted to kill him and throw him into a pit but ended up selling him for 20 coins of silver to a caravan that was headed to Egypt.  Of course, to their father, they lied that Joseph was mauled by a wild beast and showed Joseph’s tunic that was stained with goat’s blood.

Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery.  For the next 13 years, he had a rough life serving as a domestic slave and later on was falsely accused by his master’s wife that he had tried to rape her.  For that, he was imprisoned until he was 30 years old.

Well, God never left Joseph during the years of slavery.  In fact, He was with him and made him prosperous in everything he did.  When he was in jail, he worked as an assistant to the jailer.  One day two royal servants of Pharaoh (king’s head cupbearer and head baker) were imprisoned due to the king’s wrath.  Both of them had dreams the same night and Joseph interpreted their dreams: the baker would be hanged and the cupbearer would be restored to his former position.  Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him if his dream came true.  However, when the cupbearer was restored to his position, he forgot about his promise to remember Joseph.   Two years passed.  This time Pharaoh had a dream.  The king was deeply troubled with his dream—the same dream twice in a different way.  He asked for interpretations from his advisors to no avail.  That’s when the cupbearer remembered Joseph and recommended him to the king.

Of course, once again, Joseph was able to interpret king’s dream with God’s help.  He said that there would be seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine in the land of Egypt.  So, Joseph advised the king to find a wise one who would prepare the kingdom for the upcoming hardships.  Pharaoh appointed Joseph to that position and made him the second-in-command in his kingdom.  At the age of 30, Joseph became a prime minister of the Egyptian Kingdom.

Joseph’s interpretation of king’s dream came true.  There was plenty in Egypt for seven years.  During that time, Joseph gathered all the spare food and stored them in the cities.  After seven years of abundance the seven years of famine started.  The text we read this morning happened in the second year of famine.  The famine was so severe that it affected not only Egypt but also the land of Palestine where Jacob and his eleven sons and their families dwelt.  They too felt the pinch of famine—no food to eat.

One day Jacob heard that food was available in Egypt.  So, calling up his ten sons who sold their younger brother to slavery, he sent them with money to buy some grain for food.  Off they went to Egypt and stood before Joseph who handled all trade of grain.   They bowed down before him and explained why they stood before the prime minister: to buy food.  As soon as Joseph realized that they were his older brothers, he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them saying, “You are spies.  You have come to see where our land is unprotected” (Genesis 42:9).  The brothers denied emphatically, but Joseph brushed off their explanations, took Simeon as a hostage and commanded them to bring their youngest brother to Egypt to prove their innocence.

After returning home, the nine brothers reported to Jacob what had happened in Egypt and why Simeon was missing.  They begged Jacob to send Benjamin with them so that they would bring back more food with Simeon.  Jacob said, “No!” at first.  However, when they ran out of food, he had no other choice but to consent to his sons’ demand.

So, they went down to Egypt again—this time with Benjamin to buy more food and bring Simeon back home.  Benjamin was Joseph’s younger brother from the same mother.  Well, when they stood before Joseph again with Benjamin, Joseph wanted to keep Benjamin with him and send the rest of 10 brothers back to Canaan. Judah, one of the older brothers, panicked and volunteered to stay instead because if Benjamin became a hostage, it would break their father’s heart.  That’s when Joseph couldn’t pretend any longer.  He broke down and revealed himself to his brothers.  That’s what’s happening in today’s text Genesis 45.

Contents

Today’s text is about forgiveness.  It reveals three important aspects of forgiveness.  By the way, the concept of forgiveness here is to lift up the burden of guilt and shame from the trespasser.

First, forgiveness is not easy yet not impossible.   Many biblical scholars call Joseph a Tzaddik—a righteous man who lives a blameless life before God.   Even to such a righteous man, forgiveness was not easy at all.  It took him 22 years to forgive his brothers who had done wrong to him (13 years of slavery and imprisonment, 7 years of abundance, and 2 years of famine).

Let me tell you this.  His older brothers were mean and jealous.  They were so cruel to Joseph that they blocked their ears to Joseph’s cry for life.  They sold him to slavery in Egypt.   For the next 22 years, in Joseph’s heart, they were the source of bitterness and anger.   What people do when they are hurt?  They try to forget, right?  Joseph tried the same thing: he wanted to forget everything at home—father, brothers, and everything else in his family.  And, that’s what he did: when his first son was born, he named him “Manasseh”—which means “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.”   Remember Manasseh was born after Joseph became the prime minister.  That means, he didn’t forgive his brothers or forget his trouble for at least 13 years, but he eventually did.  Forgiveness is not easy but not impossible.

Next, forgiveness is only possible in God and with God’s help.  Imagine you were Joseph.  In front of you your ten brothers are standing who sold you to slavery.  They bowed down before you.   You would have the urge to extend this sweet moment to punishing them “because they deserve it.”  I don’t think it was easy for Joseph to resist that temptation of revenge.   But, Joseph would not be the avenger because of God.  So, he revealed himself to them, saying, “Come close to me.  I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping.  But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God…” (Genesis 45:4-8a).

Who helped Joseph change his mind from revenge to forgiveness?  It was God, wasn’t it?  God convicted Joseph that He sent him into Egypt not his brothers.  Joseph had seen in his own life that God turned the evil meant by his brothers into good for his entire family.  Because the good in the end was far greater than his ordeal, Joseph was able to forgive his mean brothers.

Folks, how about you?  Do you have some people in your life who had done wrong to you?  Are you still holding grudges against them?  May God open your eyes and heart to see that forgiveness is necessary and possible in God.  May you see God’s protection and providence in your life as Joseph did.  May you see that the outcome is far better than your ordeal.  Only then, you can forgive those who harmed you.

Finally, forgiveness requires initiative.  I believe there are two ways to forgive the trespassers.  One, we forgive the trespassers when they repent.

The other way is we forgive them even if they never ask for forgiveness.  This is more challenging than the first one.  However, we must know what God wants us to do.  His will is to forgive the trespassers whether or not they repent.   For instance, Jesus on the cross forgave the crowd when they mocked Him.  They never showed any sign of repentance (Luke 23:34 ff).   What about Stephen the martyr?  He also asked God to forgive those who stoned him to death (Acts 7:59) because they didn’t know what they were doing.

Consider Joseph in the story one more time.  How did he forgive his brothers?  Did he do so after they were repentant?  No, he didn’t wait for them to say that they were sorry.  It reminds us that we take initiative to forgive those who hurt us even though they never come to us and say sorry.    Not easy at all, but with God’s help we can do the same as Joseph did.

A question arises.  What is going to happen to those who hurt us yet never repent of their sins?  God’s Word answers in two ways: first, vengeance is God’s business not ours.  When his brothers were so worried about Joseph’s getting even with them after their father died, Joseph assured them he is not an avenger saying, “Am I in place of God? “ (Genesis 50:19).  Romans 12:17-21 says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written; “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.  On the contrary; if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Next, each of us will be repaid for our deeds, whether good or bad: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Conclusion

Do not wait for another day to forgive someone in your life who hurt you.  You may want to argue, “You have no idea what s/he has done to me!  I will never forgive that woman/man!”  Folks, I hear your hurt, but as long as you maintain that position, your sins will never be forgiven by God (Matthew 18:35).

May God help us to forgive our trespassers.  Remember that forgiveness is done with your will not with your emotions.

Forgive in God and overcome evil with good!

Let us pray.