On May 19, Pastor Jim preaches on Genesis 50:15-21.

If anyone deserved to be resentful, it was Joseph. His big brothers hated him all his life and treated him accordingly. At one point they grabbed him and threw him in an underground cistern.

Just as they were about to leave him crying out in the darkness in that terrible chamber of death, along came a caravan of Bedouin traders on their camels. Realizing the opportunity, they pulled Joseph out from that pit and sold him into slavery. He was taken to Egypt, put to work, and eventually landed in prison.

Fast-forwarding ahead, Joseph rises to power and all but rules Egypt. God was with him through it all.

One day a group of Hebrew brothers, starving from famine, came down to Egypt to buy grain. Imagine how Joseph’s heart must have leaped in his royal robes when he saw them bowing before him, not knowing who he was. It was payback time.

He could have had them jailed or killed. At the very least he could have let them quake in fear and uncertainty. Instead, Joseph wept and forgave them. He said, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good...”

Is there someone you haven’t forgiven?