"When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, 'Perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him'...And Joseph wept when they spoke to him." vv.15,17
Read chapter 50.
It had been 17 years that Joseph's brothers and father came to live in Egypt (47:28) when Jacob died. 17 years they'd been reunited as a family and saved from the famine to to Joseph's love and mercy and forgiveness of his brothers. Yet 17 years till the brothers finally accepted and realized Joseph's forgiveness. Did they live those 17 years with this fear in their soul thinking things will change once their father dies? I wonder what their friendship looked like all that time. Joseph still live din Egypt's capitol no doubt while the rest of the family in Goshen, so how often did they see and spend time with each other? Joseph doesn't even seem to have known as he weeps when his brothers tell him this message showing this as a sincere confession finally of the weight that'd been on their shoulders so much longer than Joseph's separation from his family and that difficulty. What have you been forgiven for that you still carry on your shoulders and not accepting forgiveness?
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