January 16 – Genesis 42-45:15: Famine spread into Canaan gripping Jacob’s depressed heart with more discouragement, defeat, and fear of death from starvation. Jacob sent his ten older sons to Egypt to purchase grain. Without recognizing Joseph, the brothers stood before him to purchase grain. The last time the vindictive brothers saw Joseph, they counted money and turned their backs as Midianite traders seized him as a slave. Though everything concerning Joseph had change – his name, his clothing, and his status in society—Joseph recognized his brothers. He captured fulfillment of the dreams he shared with his brothers, when they bowed to him.
Joseph used tactics to bring his younger brother, Benjamin, to him from Canaan. When the brothers returned with Benjamin, Joseph prepared a feast for his brothers. He broke down weeping. After he revealed his identity to his brothers, he asked, “is my father still alive?” His brothers stunned and speechless, listened to Joseph as he assured them, “‘God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors (and to save you with an extraordinary rescue). And he is the one who made me…the governor of all Egypt.’”
The discouragement, depression, defeat, and fear of death, brought on by hasty decisions lifted as forgiveness rested among the brothers. They wept, embraced, and kissed one another, chatting feverishly with excitement. Joseph sent his brothers back to share this message with their father and to move his family to the region of Goshen, to live near him.
Today’s Nourishment: Obscured decisions lure discouragement, depression, defeat, and death into the arena of life. We sometimes continue to cloud our lives by living our former decisions repeatedly in our minds. Why punishment, when forgiveness remedies the pain of the past. The Lord applies a healing salve when we forgive and not hold offenses.
Joseph saw the good from the bad decisions from his brothers. He declared, “It is God.” He recognized that God saved with an extraordinary rescue. In the arena of our minds, forgiveness saves with an extraordinary rescue from the torment of the past. Recognize today, the extraordinary rescue our heavenly Father desires for us. Forgive and move to a region (time span) of a calm, peace, and settling. Come and rest in the land where His abundance flows and His peace fills.
What is your saving extraordinary rescue?
Leave a Reply