Liberation

    Have you ever experienced the feeling of liberation?  If you are a Christian the answer should be yes.  If not, I would go to God and ask Him to show you what you need to feel liberated.  Liberation is actually freedom physically, politically, or spiritually.  It is more than a feeling, but we have moments where we feel the weight lift and the air becomes easier or cleaner to breath.  God wants us to live a liberated life.  Sometimes things are just so bad that you can't see things ever being good.  Some people actually live in such a cruel life that they may not even know that liberation is possible.  God is the only one that can provide the everlasting liberty, but we can do small things to make life better for ourselves and those around us.  It is simple, but almost never easy.

    Joseph could have done so many things to his brothers to make them pay for what they had done to him.  I think his complex life gave him wisdom and discernment.  Maybe he saw the error in taking revenge.  Maybe he truly wanted to find a way to make their lives better because his life was so good that he had no room for vengeance in his heart.  Maybe he really did have pity for them because they were all the same and had not changed much.  Joseph had an outsiders perspective which makes decision making easier, but it can also be lonely.  All of our complex feelings influence our decisions, as they did Joseph.  

    Joseph made sure that his brothers had food and lots of money.  However, he was still a little sneaky.  He wanted more time with Benjamin, so he had a special silver cup put into his bag.  When they left he accused them of stealing it, so they all had to return.  Whoever had the cup would be his slave and the others could return home.  When it was discovered that Benjamin had possession of the cup, they were all devastated.  Judah in his desperation for his own sons spoke up to Joseph.  He used Israel and Benjamin as the reason, but it was because he did not want to sacrifice his own sons.

    Joseph ordered all the staff and guards to leave to be truly alone with his brothers for the first time since they reentered his life.  He confessed who he was to them and found it liberating.  He understood his purpose for all that happened to bring him to Egypt.  His confession took the burden off his shoulders and his buried emotion freedom to release.  Now it was on his brothers to decide how they wanted to handle this information.  They were terrified because he had so much power and could torture or kill them if he wanted.  He tried to comfort them and they acted like they accepted it, but deep down they never trusted him.  When you wrong someone and they forgive you, it can be difficult to accept and to let it go.  

    Joseph tried to do right by them.  He introduced them to the Pharaoh who was happy for Joseph to have his family back.  They were given land and a new life in Egypt.  Israel joined them and he came back to life.  It was a liberating reunion.  This is not how things normally go down.  It is the ideal, so that may be why it is so hard to believe.  However, when God is in control anything is possible.

Genesis 44 & 45