Remorse Or Repentance? How To Deal With A Guilty Conscience Series

No Ordinary Joe: Remorse or Repentance?

Genesis 42

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

12-26-2021

Stolen Bats Story

[Slide] In 2000, three teenagers stole $500 worth of bats from the Dakota Sporting Goods Store in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The police were never able to catch the culprits and the case went cold.

That is until last week when a man in his 30s walked in and asked to speak to the owner. He admitted that he was one of the teenagers who stole the bats. He said that he had carried the guilt of that crime for over two decades.

He offered to write a check for $500 but the owner told him that he could write the check for $250 and donate the other half to a charity of his choice.

Every year, the government gets checks from people with guilty consciences seeking to atone for their past. This money actually goes into what’s called the Federal Conscience Fund.

What is our conscience? Is it a cricket in a top hat that tells us to “let our conscience be our guide?” [Terrible advice by the way].

What happened when we have a guilty conscience? How do we get rid of a guilty conscience?

These are perfect questions to consider on the last Sunday of the year 2021.

Review

When we last left Joseph, he had experienced one of the biggest plot twists in the Bible. He had gone from the prison to the palace in a matter of hours.

Joseph was summoned to the palace to hear Pharaoh’s dreams and, after interpreting the dreams about a coming time of famine, he was promoted to second in command of Egypt.

He immediately got to work on a project to save not only the people of Egypt but those surrounding nations as well. Including his home nation of Israel.

Turn with me to Genesis 42.

Prayer

[Slide] The Command

[Slide] “When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” (V. 1-2)

The famine predicted in Pharaoh’s dreams had now come to pass and Egypt and the nations around it were experienced severe drought and crop failure.

Jacob, an old man by now, looks at his sons and says, “Have you noticed that there is…NO FOOD?! Instead of staring at each other who don’t you actually do something and get on the road to Egypt to get some grain so that our entire clan doesn’t die of starvation. And, by the way, why do you guys always seem to freak out when I mention the word “Egypt?”

Jacob had plenty of money which does you no good if you have no food.

[Slide] The Journey

[Slide] “Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also.” (v. 3-5)

They obeyed their dad’s request and the ten of them kissed their wives and children goodbye and promised to come back with food.

This would have been a 200 mile trip, one way. In good weather, it would have taken about three weeks.

Jacob had forbidden Benjamin to go with them because he was “afraid some harm might come to him.” This is interesting. Yes, with all the travelers on the roads in search of food and loaded with money, bandits would have been out in in full force. But there may be more here than meets the eye.

Could Jacob have started to suspect that the ten brothers had something to do with Joseph’s disappearance all those years ago?

[Slide] The Initial Meeting

[Slide] Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.

“From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”

[Slide] Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”

“No, my lord,” they answered. “Your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.”

“No!” he said to them. “You have to see where our land is unprotected.”

Obviously, Joseph did not personally hand out all the grain to everyone who came to buy it. He oversaw the entire operation.