Lord, Teach Me to Forgive
By Terance Clark January 4, 2025 7 Minute Read
Week 11
This Weeks Passage: Genesis 44:18 – 47:27
There is an underlying theme in the book of Genesis that encourages us and even teaches us how to deal with forgiveness and repentance. It’s as if this foundation needs to be laid out at the very beginning of the scriptures if one is to have any chance of success in life. There is nothing more difficult for us to do than to say I’m sorry or to forgive someone who has wronged us. As I write this, I stand on the verge of my 62nd birthday in 2025 and I have discovered the greatest enemy to my heart and the one that can possess my soul is bitterness from those who have hurt me in life. The older one gets the more pain one has experienced and the greater opportunities for one to build a stronghold of isolation and solitude against even the very people we love. How many of us can acknowledge that we know someone who lives in isolation as a result of the pain they’ve experienced from those around them.
The Theme of Genesis is How to Overcome Deception
This week we look at the culmination of the Genesis story, one which requires reconciliation and healing, as Joseph reveals himself to the brothers who thirty years prior had sold him into slavery. At this point we have seen Jacob deceive his father and steal his brothers blessing. We’ve experienced Laban’s deceitful act of exchanging Jacob’s bride for her sister. Tamar has deceived Judah into providing what he had refused to do on his own, and the ten brothers sold their brother into slavery, and that brings us to the conclusion of the story as Joseph conceals his own identity from them in another deceptive act, so that they could deal with the pain they’ve caused the whole family. What a book! The story is just getting started.
“Every one of us could write a book on the wrongs
committed against us“
Every one of us could write a book on the wrongs committed against us. When we are offended, we can easily feel justified in holding resentment and anger against those who have hurt us. Only the love of God can help us to forgive those who have wronged us, but there is a sentence against us when we fail to forgive others, we find ourselves chained and locked in a prison cell of emotional baggage and pain without the possibility of parole or pardon, only forgiveness sets us free. That is why in the story of Joseph and his ten brothers we find the three keys for repentance and reconciliation.
In the story of Tamar, it is the first time in the bible that someone acknowledges their wrongdoing and accepts responsibility as we see Judah change his course. It helps him as he now also accepts responsibility for the actions against his brother Joseph. In Joseph we see his plan to walk his brothers through the process of repentance. Step one was to acknowledge they had hurt him and done wrong which they acknowledge when he first put them in prison for three days. Step two is the commitment to never do it again which we see occur when the brothers are at home with their father and take ownership to not let Benjamin experience what Joseph did. They took responsibility. Finally, the last step is when they were put in the same position again, they chose to do the opposite of what they had done before. In repentance, I can only take responsibility for what I have done, I cannot make anyone else own up to what they’ve done.
“How often are we trying to solve a past issue or offense“
Relationships are complicated. When it’s family it’s even more complicated because it comes with those we are closest to. If we could stop and ask ourselves the question, do I feel this way because of this event or another one that occurred in the past. How often are we trying to resolve a past issue or offense or even feeling we were treated wrong and therefore we continue to treat this present situation in light of past experiences. As we start the new year of 2025 can I offer you a suggestion. Let it go! All of it. Stop trying to figure people out and just accept them for who they are baggage and all. Let go of all expectations and resolve to just enjoy family and friends for whatever you have and whoever they are. Life is too short to be stuck carrying needless baggage. I’m not saying to stay in toxic relationships, I’m saying to keep the door open into the lives of others as they grow and heal so that you can make a difference and bonds are not lost.
Finding a Way to Reconcile
Joseph found a way to reconcile with his brothers without ever blaming them. Even when they did acknowledge their acts against him, he continued to downplay it choosing instead to see it as the plans and purposes of God. God is not asking us to remove blame from others, but He is asking us to let Him help us to forgive others and find ways to keep relationships intact. I don’t think we’ll find anything in this life harder to do and that is why we must continue to pray Lord, teach me to forgive.