Ascending Together

We are coming to the end of our time in Genesis as we have shared in the summer series, “God and the Messy Family.”  We started with Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) and then went through Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Esau (along with Laban, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah) and now finish with Joseph and his eleven brothers.

All through this family, we’ve seen the featured biblical figures play favorites.  Isaac was favored over Ishmael.  Jacob was favored by his mother while Esau was favored by Isaac.  Jacob fathered children with four women but preferred Rachel and thus her sons Joseph and Benjamin over his other children. 

Sibling rivalry played out as we saw Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, thinking they would never see him again.

Joseph seems to be one of those people that you can’t bring down.  Bad things keep happening to him and he seems to pop right up like a cork.  He would claim that his faith in God helps him to see the world this way and that may be true.  But I know lots of faithful people that don’t maintain the positivity that Joseph has.

Now we get to test this out as his brothers return with their hats in their hands.  They’ve been struck by the famine in the region and have heard that Egypt may be selling food.  They don’t know that their brother has ascended to be the second to Pharoah in Egypt. 

What will be Joseph’s reaction?  Has he been nursing a grudge for all these years?  How will he treat them when the tables are turned and they are in his power?

On Sunday, we’ll examine this story contained in Genesis 45:1-15 in the sanctuary services and my sermon title will be “Forgiveness Didn’t Come Overnight”.

And if you missed last week’s sermon, you can find it via podcast on Itunes or Spotify or you can access the video here: https://youtu.be/LXzd7G-g55g.