A Test of Conscience

8/3/2019 A Test of Conscience

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A TEST OF CONSCEINCEGenesis 42

What do you do when your family is awful? Intoday’s language when your family sucks? Wheninstead of a life giving refuge it becomes a placeof deep pain and abuse.

Believe it or not the Bible actually speaks tothis. When you and I struggle with how to resolvea painful past, especially when it concerns ourfamily we can know that Joseph, the man whoselife speaks to us through this series, Every Day is

A Winding Road understands.You say that your family’s awful? Joseph

understands. His brothers were going to murderhim and settled for making a profit and sellinghim into slavery. Welcome to the dysfunctionalfamily! But Joseph’s story is one of hope that canhelp us understand how to face and overcome thepain of our past.

Joseph’s experience shows us three things are

vital when seeking to resolve a difficult past. ASUBMISSION TO GOD’S TIMING, A TEST OFCONSCIENCE AND A BASIS FOR TRUST.

The first thing Joseph’s experience in Genesis 42reveals is his submission to God’s timing.

Joseph had experienced some very radical things

in his life. He was sold into slavery, falselyaccused of rape and thrown into prison. In prisonJoseph looked beyond his pain to care for the

needs of others, only be forgotten. Joseph isreleased from prison and made Prime Ministerover all the land of Egypt, second only toPharaoh.

Joseph is probably 9 years in to histerm as Prime Minister before his encounterwith his brothers. It has been close to 20 yearssince he has last seen them. The point is that inhis new found position and leadership he doesn’t

ride off to set everything straight and makeeverything right with his family.

That’s a lesson I find so hard to learn. It’s alesson of God’s timing and recognizing andrespecting what God is doing in otherpeople’s lives as well as our own.

One of the prime examples of this in myown life happened when Sandi and I left thechurch we had planted in Winnipeg to plant a

church in Vancouver and for an avalanche of

reasons spent a year of transition in William’sLake.

Sandi’s brother was in leadership in achurch plant that had gone wrong and wonderedif we would help get it back up and running.



Somehow Sandi and I missed each other in thisbecause I thought that going to Williams Lakewould be the opportunity to help her badly divided

family to resolve some of the issues that had soseriously fractured them. Sandi, who many of youknow is much wiser than me, finally asked mewhat in the world was I thinking. In my strength I

didn’t heal any fractures I probably created more.As I observe Joseph’s actions I realize how

badly some of us want to make things right in ourfamily. The dysfunction of our past haunts us andwe may even be overwhelmed that we have not

been able to make things right. But notice verse6, ‘6Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in

charge of the sale of the grain, it was to him that his brothers came. They bowed low before him,with their faces to the ground.’

This is important. Joseph was the victim. Hedidn’t go to his brothers to figure things out Hisbrothers came to him. Even though they didn’tknow that it was Joseph that they bowed before,

their steps were out of a place of need and even

humility – qualities that hadn’t been obvious intheir lives before.

Joseph’s experience challenges us that God has atime and that timeline is often in respect tonot only what God is doing in our life but

equally what he is doing in the lives of our

family members. It was 9 years after Josephwas lifted to a position of authority and leadershipbefore he encountered his family.

That time was about what God was doingin Joseph’s life. Joseph needed God to bring himto the place in his life where he was prepared toface his family. The lesson of Joseph isn’t go

make things right with your dysfunctional familyand be buried under guilt until you do. It isrespect God’s time line in your life. When Joseph’sbrother’s appeared he was finally ready to facethem, and even then he was overwhelmed with

emotion.Equally important, the time line wasn’t only

about what God was doing in Joseph’s life. It wasabout God’s movement in the lives of theother family members. We need to recognizethis because sometimes this causes us a lot of pain.

We may think I’m ready. I can handle it. Ican face the past and find peace. But the other

person or people just aren’t ready and sometimes

it feels like insult on top of injury. But the twentyyears that passed before Joseph met his brother’swas as much about what God was up to in theirlives. Joseph challenges us, respect God’stiming.



But that moment finally arrives. You’ve beenpraying. You’ve been waiting and suddenly thedoor swings wide open and the opportunity has

arrived.We can read about this moment in Joseph’s

experience. 6Since Joseph was governor of allEgypt and in charge of the sale of the grain,

it was to him that his brothers came. Theybowed low before him, with their faces tothe ground. 7Joseph recognized theminstantly, but he pretended to be astranger…

If you’ve had a moment like Joseph wherethere was deep hurt from the past you can

possibly imagine how he was feeling. The way hisheart started beating faster. The battle betweenthe longing of his heart and the fear that nothingmay have changed and that these brothers had asmuch capacity to harm in this moment as theyhad in the past. Things get crazy when it comesto family because no matter how badly we’ve

been hurt there’s this irrational longing for family.

But notice how Joseph responds. 7 Josephrecognized them instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger. “Where are you from?” hedemanded roughly .

Why did Joseph act that way? Look with meat verse 8 and 9. 8Joseph's brothers didn't

recognize him, but Joseph recognized them.

9And he remembered the dreams he had hadmany years before. He said to them, "Youare spies! You have come to see how

vulnerable our land has become." What was Joseph’s childhood dream?

That one day his brother’s and father would bowdown to him. Suddenly the dream came into

sharp focus. Here were Joseph’s brother’s bowingas a fulfillment of how actively God was at workthrough all this awful stuff to save an entirefamily from being wiped out in famine.

Joseph’s actions weren’t vengeful. They revealsuch relational intelligence. Really he gave them a

TEST OF CONSCEINCE.Notice how Joseph does this. We read

“21Speaking among themselves, they said,"This has all happened because of what wedid to Joseph long ago. We saw his terrorand anguish and heard his pleadings, but wewouldn't listen. That's why this trouble has

come upon us."22"Didn't I tell you not to do it?" Reuben

asked. "But you wouldn't listen. And now weare going to die because we murdered him."

23Of course, they didn't know that Josephunderstood them as he was standing there,for he had been speaking to them through an

interpreter.



24Now he left the room and found a placewhere he could weep. Returning, he talkedsome more with them. He then chose Simeon

from among them and had him tied up rightbefore their eyes.”

And then in verse 25 we read, “Josephthen ordered his servants to fill the men’s

sacks with grain, but he also gave secretinstructions to return each brother’spayment at the top of the sack.”

Why did he do this? Because it would reveal the

primary ingredient for any relationship to moveahead and grow deeper and that is TRUST.

Joseph would know without a shadow of adoubt the condition of his brother’s hearts. Whatwould they do? Would they care? Would they behonest with themselves and reveal that finallythey cared as much about the welfare of thefamily as they did for themselves?

This is evidence of incredible relational

intelligence. Let’s be honest, relationships can be

brutal. Family, friendships, confrontation candevastate us. Sometimes it can incapacitate us.And there are at least two extremes. We can closeourselves off to everyone. We’ve experienced painand so we just withdraw and we don’t let peoplein. Don’t get me wrong. Our heart still cries out

for relationship and to be loved but we’re afraid totake the risk.

But the other extreme is equally as

dangerous and often leads to the same place. Welong to belong so badly that we blindly walk intoall relationships and are constantly takenadvantage of.

Joseph looks gently into our eyes and says Iunderstand but here’s how you practice relationalintelligence. Recognize God’s timing in your lifeand in others, test people’s conscience andestablish trust before expecting intimacy.

But remember Joseph’s life points us to onegreater than himself and that’s to Jesus. What do

we read about Jesus? One of the ways Isaiahdescribes him is 3 He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.We turned our backs on him and looked theother way. He was despised, and we did not care.

Jesus didn’t hold back. If he did wherewould we be?

But here’s the point as you follow Jesus into

the world and serve others you can expect to bedespised and rejected. If you’re always protectingyourself you will serve no one. But like Jesus youwill need those primary relationships of love likeHe had with His Father. A place of safety andsecurity and belonging that empowered him to

pour his life out for others.

A Test of Conscience

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