Devotional on Genesis

2013 – David Crockett State Park, Lawrenceburg, TN

Time doesn’t heal all wounds.
Genesis 42: Now we’re paying for what we did to our brother.
As a famine crushes the region only Egypt, under Joseph’s rule, prospers. Soon, those from the surrounding nations are coming to Egypt, ready to pay any price for grain. In time, aged Jacob sends his sons to Egypt and for the first time in the over 20 years since they sold him into slavery the brothers come face to face with the one they terribly mistreated. When they don’t recognize him, Joseph uses his authority to find out what kind of men his brothers have become. If one of them is put in jeopardy, will they abandon him as they abandoned Joseph long ago? With Simeon held back, the others are free to go. As I hear the conversation they have I’m taken with the enduring and debilitating power of guilt. They say to one another: “Now we’re paying for what we did to Joseph.” The truth of the matter is that all these years they’ve been paying for their terrible deed and dark secret. These are men haunted by their past and I have the idea that through the years they’ve thought or said these words every time some unexpected difficulty rose. People think they’re getting away with something just because no one knows but that’s never true. Not only is it untrue on the big stage, at the Judgment Day level; it’s also true in day-to-day living. In this case it’s a wound that time will not heal and the only resolution is to confess and take appropriate action to make things right.
Take away: Some things never heal until they’re exposed to the light.