What Goes Around...

What goes around…comes around, is the saying we are all used to hearing. In Gen. 42-44 we see how Joseph starts to handle how his brothers treated him now that they need his help. The brothers have NO clue Joseph is the man they are dealing with to get the grain they needed, but Joseph knew who they were. To be honest, that is pretty amazing that after all those years and aging,  Joseph knew they were his brothers. I am sure to a point, Joseph had run the day he would see them again through his head a gazillion times. If I were him, I think I would have responded much differently than he did. I have had a similar  situation happen in my life. I had separation from several family members for just over a decade, and when the chance to see them again came about, I thought about how it would go, over and over. I tried to predict the different scenarios of how it might go down. Thankfully it didn’t go even close to the worst scenario I had thought of. The way that Joseph handled the meeting went a lot better than any of us could have predicted. He could have sentenced the brothers to death and said that’s what you get for attempting to kill me but then selling me into slavery instead. Joseph accused his brothers of being spies and trying to scope out what he had. When they can’t prove they are not spies, Joseph puts them in prison for 3 days.  Because of all the questioning, the brothers thought about what they had done to Joseph, even though they had no clue that they were talking to him. They felt bad about what they had done to Joseph. While they were talking, Joseph could hear what they were saying and understood what they were saying. This caused Joseph to weep knowing that they felt bad about what they had done. Joseph asks for one of the brothers to stay imprisoned, and tells them that in order for them to get their brother back and in order to get any more grain, they must bring back with them the youngest brother. He then gives them the grain and all the provisions for their journey, on top of that he puts their money back in their sacks. What Joseph chose to do I believe had a greater purpose than we could understand. We know that he was not angry with them and that he didn’t mean any harm. What he chose to do shows us his character and his trust in the Lord. He chose to follow what God wanted, for him, and for us, “to treat others as we want to be treated”. (Matt 7:12 and Luke 6:31) Joseph shows us an amazing example of how having that character trait can better shape us as people and shape how our families need to be built.