Thursday, September 22, 2011

Devotional--Hope, Part III

Genesis 37:12-24

 Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ So he said to him, ‘Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.’ So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he said; ‘tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’ The man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” ’

So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’

But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
************

  It's one thing to be betrayed by your enemies, as we discussed yesterday.  It's another to be betrayed by those closest to you, as happened with Joseph and his brothers.  We can certainly critique Joseph's attitude, but we all know how heartbreaking it is when those you love dearly turn on you and become your enemies.  It shatters our world, and we wonder if there is a way forward.

  The good news is that God can bring hope out of such despair.  God is at work in each of our relationships, no matter how broken they may be.  God is present and moving, and when we display our sin and brokenness, God searches for ways to repair broken relationships.  It took Joseph decades before he was reconciled to his brothers, but God never gave up on any of them, and was at work in their lives and hearts to prepare them for the moment of reconciliation.

  May we be open to God working in the same way in our lives, shining the light of hope into those relationships that cause us to grieve, that cause us stress, and may we be patient enough to allow God to repair them.

Blessings

No comments: