“THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS” Gen. 50:15-26
FBCF – 6/25/23
Jon Daniels
INTRO – Every person here has at one time or another, found themselves in a situation in which you need to be forgiven by someone, & every person here has found themselves in a situation in which you need to forgive someone. It’s a universal experience.
- Could be an experience w/ a family member
- …a friend
- …a business associate
- …a fellow church member
- …even a total stranger
It can be difficult to grant forgiveness at times for lots of different reasons. Our emotions run high. Our feelings get hurt. Our circumstances have been altered. Our motives are questioned. Our family members are impacted. Our deep-seated pain & anger at those who have hurt us.
And yet, when it is truly & genuinely granted, it is a powerful thing that speaks volumes about the love of God & His power to change hearts & lives.
One powerful picture of someone granting forgiveness came in a LA courtroom way back in 1992. Some of you will remember this. In 1991, a black man named Rodney King was beaten by some LA police officers during a traffic stop. The incident was caught on amateur video (days before cell phones). When the officers were acquitted of any criminal charges, LA erupted into several days of rioting during which 53 people were killed. During the riots, a white truck driver, Reginald Denny, was savagely beaten by four young black men & barely survived. His skull was fractured in 91 places when one man smashed it w/ a concrete block, resulting in years of surgeries & rehab. His assailants were caught, tried, & acquitted of most charges. Yet, @ the end of the trial Denny went over to Georgina Williams, the mother of one of the men, & hugged her. Other family members of the other young men began to hug him as they all offered word of peace & reconciliation. After this unbelievable gesture of forgiveness, a reporter commenting on the scene wrote, “It is said that Mr. Denny is suffering from brain damage.”
For some people, the only logical explanation for granting that kind of forgiveness is that the person must be suffering from brain damage. If that’s the case, then Jesus must have suffered from brain damage b/c He taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Then He drove the point home even deeper when He said in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
- Paul wrote in Colossians 3:13 – “Put up w/ each other, & forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you.” (CEV)
We conclude our series on Joseph’s life – “From the Pit to the Palace” – w/ a powerful display of forgiveness.
EXPLANATION – Genesis 50:15-26 (p. 44)
These verses are at the end of Joseph’s life (notice the next 5 verses – his death). Let me back up & fill in a few gaps in this story.
Remember Joseph’s dreams of his brothers & parents coming & bowing down to him? Remember Pharaoh’s dreams of the 7 fat cows & the 7 skinny cows, & 7 ears of healthy grain & 7 ears of shriveled up blighted grain? All of those dreams came to fruition.
- First, Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream was that Egypt would have 7 years of bountiful harvest followed by 7 years of famine. That’s exactly what happened. B/c of Joseph’s wisdom & character, Pharaoh appointed him governor over all the land, in charge of all the grain production, storage, & distribution.
- When the famine began, Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain. It had been years since they had thrown their 17 yr-old brother into a pit, then sold him into slavery. They had no idea what had happened to him, & certainly never dreamed that he was in this position of authority in Egypt. Joseph’s dream of them bowing down to him was realized. Genesis 42:6 – “Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came & bowed themselves before him w/ their faces to the ground.” Verse 8 – “And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.”
- Over the course of time, Joseph provided food for his family w/out them knowing his identity until he could finally no longer hold it in. Told them who he was & there was an amazing reunion & restoration – Genesis 45:1-5.
Remember that all of these things happened b/c the Lord was w/ Joseph every step of the way. And b/c the Lord was w/ Joseph, he was able to completely forgive his brothers for all they had done to him.
APPLICATION – As Christ-followers, our forgiveness of others must be genuine & complete.
To experience the life-changing power of forgiveness, we need to consider these 3 principles:
REMEMBER OUR PROPER POSITION – v. 19 – In every interaction w/ his brothers in Egypt, Joseph always had the upper hand, always held the trump card. He could have wielded his power & authority over his brothers & made their lives miserable, or even called for their execution.
And yet, when they came to him after Jacob’s death, probably fearing that Joseph was finally going to lower the boom on them now that their father was dead, Joseph’s 1st response showed his tender heart. His next response showed his true humility – “…am I in the place of God?”
Remembering our proper position & humbling ourselves before the Lord is the only way our hearts will be full of grace & forgiveness toward those who’ve wronged us.
- James 4:10 – “Humble yourselves before the Lord, & He will lift you up.” (NIV)
- Philippians 2:3 – “…in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.” (CSB)
- Psalm 25:9 – “He leads the humble in what is right & teaches the humble His way.”
When we’ve been hurt, we want God’s justice poured out on our offenders & His mercy poured out on us. We want them to hurt as much or more than we hurt & suffer as much or more than we suffer. If we’ve lost something, we want them to lose more. If our lives have been negatively impacted, we want theirs to be impacted even more. As much as all of this “FEELS” right to us, all of that changes when we humble ourselves before the Lord & choose to do things His way instead of ours. Joseph was able to forgive his brothers b/c he knew that God is the only perfect Judge, that God would deal rightly w/ each person, & that God was in complete control. Which leads to the next point:
REST IN GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY – v. 20 – Talk a lot about God’s sovereignty. Let’s define it. It’s the term we use to express the supreme rulership of God (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, p. 1041). It is His exercise of power over His creation (Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 217). It is His supreme & absolute authority as Ruler over all His creation (Swindoll & Zuck, Understanding Christian Theology, p. 172). J.I Packer – “God’s dominion is total: He wills as He chooses & carries out all that He wills, & none can stay His hand or thwart His plans” (Concise Theology, p. 33).
In real life that means that when something bad happens to us, we have 2 options: Either God is sovereign &, in His sovereignty & for His reasons, He allowed it to happen; or He isn’t sovereign, & this thing slipped by Him. We need to settle in our hearts & minds that He is the Sovereign God who “makes everything work out according to His plan” (Ephesians 1:11 NLT). When we know & believe that, then we will know & believe that nothing, even the acts of evil done against us, will change God’s plans. That’s why Joseph could say those amazing words in v. 20: “…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” – the OT equivalent of Romans 8:28. This is the only & BEST way to live our lives as Christ-followers!
- Steven Cole: “You may not like it, but you’ve got to submit to the sovereignty of God in your life when someone wrongs you. Although you may not know the reason this side of eternity, God sovereignly allowed this person to wrong you for some purpose. To forgive the person as God commands, you must submit to God’s mighty hand in the situation.” (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-84-forgiving-one-another-genesis-5015-21)
REMAIN FOCUSED ON KINDNESS & LOVE – v. 21 – Let’s be honest: When someone hurts us, we usually want to get even.
- 3 mean-looking guys on motorcycles pulled into a truck stop cafe where a truck driver, a little guy, was sitting at the counter, quietly eating his lunch. Guys him, grabbed his food, & laughed in his face. Truck driver didn’t say a word, got up, paid for his food, walked out. One of the bikers, unhappy that they hadn’t succeeded in provoking the little man into a fight, bragged to the waitress, “He sure wasn’t much of a man, was he?” The waitress replied, “No, I guess not.” Then, glancing out the window she added, “I guess he’s not much of a truck driver, either. He just ran over three motorcycles.”
World says, “Don’t get mad; get even.” But we don’t operate according to the world’s standards. We are called to be different from the world, operating according to God’s standards set forth in His Word. The world tells us to focus on vengeance; God commands us to focus on kindness & love.
Isn’t it beautiful that one of the last things that Joseph said to his brothers was to promise them that he would care for them & their children? He wasn’t concerned about getting the last word in, taking that final shot, or finally blowing a gasket. His focus was on their welfare b/c his focus remained on God. He knew that the kindness & love of God had been poured out on his life. And he knew that it was God’s plan for him to show that same kindness & love to his brothers, no matter what they had done to him.
Our words are nothing if they aren’t backed up by actions. True forgiveness will show itself in kind, loving actions.
CONCLUSION – Bow your head & close your eyes. One question: Who needs your forgiveness today? Whoever has come to your mind right now, pray for them. If you’ve not yet forgiven them, confess that to the Lord right now. Now ask God to help you to forgive that person right now.
