“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. ¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” Genesis 50:15-21

Joseph tells his brothers these words, “Even though you intended to do me harm, G-d intended it for good.”  You know, Joseph has every right to deal harshly with his brothers – after all they did sell him into slavery, driven by their own jealousy And many would agree that they even deceived their own father for so many years. But, the maturity of Joseph’s faith and his understanding of how G-d can work in his life through adversity and destructive forces leads him to this mature declaration. I wonder, if things had turned out different, and Joseph, instead of in Pharaoh’s court as his right hand man, had instead ended up on the Jerry Springer show, I wonder how different his reaction to his brothers might have been? But then, would the average Jerry Springer interviewee be able to say that they believed that G-d had intended their lives to be dysfunctional?  G-d intended Joseph’s life to eventually turn out to fortune and fame, but he had to endure persecution, slavery, abandonment, and misfortune before he hit the promised land. We always have a say in how our lives turn out, but an important lesson that we learn from Joseph is that patience is necessary if we are to allow G-d to lead us and direct us. 

My friends, G-d reassures us that, through Jesus, we also will not only have opportunities for full lives now, but the promise of eternal life. They may not be straight paths, or without their road-blocks, but G-d promises to be with us through all our endeavors.

Pastor Dave

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. ⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ ⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. ¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.” Matthew 22:1-12

Did you ever have the dream where you showed up for some important event, but were not dressed properly? While I was in the Blue Band, I used to have the dream that I could not find my band uniform and it was time to leave to go to the football game. It was always very distressing to me that I could not find what I needed – and I knew that I could not go to the game unprepared – without being dressed properly. Jesus tells the parable of the Wedding Banquet. Many are invited but none of them want to come. Finally, the king gathers anyone that his slaves can find and they are brought to the banquet – but one man is not prepared – is not dressed properly. We might say, “Well this is unfair, because he was hastily brought to the banquet without time to prepare.” But, the parable seems to also tell us that we need to always be prepared, because we never know when our invitation will come. The parable seems to warn us that we need to prepare for what we know is to come – a great heavenly feast. But, we can’t wait until our invitation comes to prepare – by then it will be too late. Begin the preparations now, while you can, because we have already received our invitation – for Jesus says, “Knock, and the door will be opened unto you.”

Pastor Dave