Day 16: Gen 42:24 - 44:34

In this part of the story we learn a very important lesson about trust and forgiveness. Alot of times, people seem to think that if you forgive someone, you're just supposed to begin trusting them whole heartedly without even thinking about it. But I think this story shows us that that isn't how it should be done. It's difficult to say for sure what I would've done if I were in Joseph's shoes, but I probably would've ended up putting all of the older brothers in prison and forgetting about them. But we see here how wise Joseph really was. There are alot of people out there who probably would've gone ahead and forgiven all of the brothers and just assumed that they will magically be faithful without first making sure, but although Joseph had already forgiven his brothers, he needed to make sure that he could trust them again. This is a very important and practical lesson for us to learn. We've all had people in our lives who have done things to hurt us, and although we absolutely need to forgive them, we should also learn a lesson from Joseph and make sure that they've changed and matured before we just patch everything up and go on like nothing had ever happened. It has always been and will always be God's will for us to forgive others, but He also wants us to be smart and not foolishly put ourselves into positions where we can end up getting hurt again. God gave Joseph a wonderful plan to search the hearts of his older brothers and, fortunately for everyone, he was able to determine that they had matured.

- Lord help me to walk each and every day with Your wisdom. Help me to not just walk around with my heart on my sleeve waiting for someone to hurt me, but help me to be smart and careful about the relationships I build. And help me to be strong enough to forgive others even when they don't deserve it and even when they haven't changed. You've forgiven us and given us mercy when we never could have possibly deserved it, so the least we can do is pass it on to others. -