DEVOTION/ Forgiving others

Poor Jason!

Jason’s mother raced into the bedroom when she heard him scream. There she found Jason’s little sister yanking hard on his hair. She carefully unraveled the little girl’s fingers and said to Jason, “It’s okay. She didn’t really mean it. She doesn’t understand that it hurts.”

Almost as soon as Mom was out of the room, she heard the little girl scream. Rushing back in, she asked, “What’s wrong?” “She understands now!” exclaimed Jason.          

Revenge

Getting even with those who have done wrong to us is something we learn as little children. Like Jason, we feel we have to take revenge against those who hurt us. Children, teens, and adults face the same problem.    

The Bible is filled with stories about revenge. Esau wanted to kill his brother Jacob for taking his birthright. Jezebel vowed vengeance against Elijah. Herodias displayed the head of John the Baptist as her trophy. And Peter lashed out with his knife at a soldier in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Enter Joseph

If there was ever a man who had a reason to get even, it was Joseph. Yet instead of getting revenge, his life was an incredible lesson in how to forgive.

After years of clawing his way back from the pit of despair, Joseph reached the rank of second in all of Egypt. During those years, a famine arose that would reunite him with the same brothers who hated him and planned for his demise. When Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt looking for food, their path led them right to Joseph. Joseph immediately recognized them. 

Can you imagine the thoughts that raced through Joseph’s mind as he stared at his brothers? Now he had his chance to get even. Joseph’s past was filled with trouble because of his brothers. He was thrown into a pit, sold to strangers, traded as a slave, falsely accused of adultery, sentenced to prison, and torn from the father and home he loved. Now his brothers were standing right in front of him.

A picture of Jesus

What did Joseph do? He said to them: “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you” (Genesis 45:4,5).

Those weren’t “get even” words. They were the words of a child of God. Joseph didn’t have plans for revenge. He knew that as God’s children, children forgiven for all our sins, we forgive those who hurt us.

We see this forgiveness magnified at the foot of Jesus’ cross where God forgave us and the sins of the whole world. Paul gave us words to think about: Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13).

By Reynold R. Kremer