Reconciliation - Part I

Well this morning we look to complete chapter 43 really as the first part of At least three messages, maybe four will just sort of see how things go and we get there when I arrived this morning after mentioning last night that the Focus would be on reconciliation in this chapter Tony asked.

Are you sure we're just finishing chapter 43? It doesn't seem like reconciliation is really the theme until the next chapter. Maybe even chapter 45 and I assured him. This is just part one. And so I assure you Reconciliation is something that will be before us for several weeks and we really want to lay the groundwork today I hope in some helpful ways even practically for us to be thinking about reconciliation in terms of scripture in terms of the gospel in terms of how Genesis and this very ending narrative with Joseph and his brothers is sort of a microcosm of the Bible as a whole and God's Interactions with us through Jesus as a whole and I hope there'll be all sorts of practical ways that we can relate Reconciliation to our own lives and our own relationships, which is certainly something we'll begin to do this morning.

Joseph Brings His Brothers into His House

So we're looking at reconciliation as we complete chapter 43 up to this point. We're reminded that Joseph when he sent away his brothers from the first time they stood before him Had arranged for their money to be returned.

So not only did they leave Egypt with food and grain to bring back to their families in Canaan. But they also left with their money and that of course as soon as they discovered it at the at the first Campground in one of the brothers sacks.

That was a cause of great fear among them and then when they returned home and they emptied out the sacks in front of their Father they were all terrified. This has been something that has been Consuming their minds perhaps giving them night sweats and night terrors.

And now they're having to confront their fear as they make their way back to Egypt. But we noted last week that God's grace has been evident in the lives of these men. We saw it Albeit foolishly in the life of Reuben.

We've certainly seen it in the life of Judah. We look forward to seeing that again next week. But really among all the brothers in their honesty in their integrity. Even in the speed they make to return to Egypt for the sake of their father and their families.

We see that these are changed men. God's grace has not been idle. It has not been in vain. Joseph of course has been working out almost maneuvering to bring about these changes that there might be a Reconciliation between him and his brothers as we saw so significantly in the last chapter He remembered the dreams and ever since he remembered the dreams He's very wisely and graciously moved in ways that would expose his brothers in their guilt before him.

So that he could meet them in their guilt with terms of peace and reconciliation. Reconciliation. The brothers are terrified. They don't understand that such kindness the returned money was a kindness meant to lead them to repentance.

They relate their circumstances, of course to God's providence and even though they're afraid they can't deny that. It's something that God has done to them. Remember what they said at the campsite. What is this that God has done to us and that's something that's reverberating into their minds.

Even as they return to Egypt, what is this that God is doing to us? What will happen when we arrive here? I can imagine them. Let's just pray again. All right another five feet.

All right.

Let's just stop and pray again as they get closer in that fateful meeting is about to happen. They must have really understood what it means to pray without ceasing. But they rightly understand that God is at work in their midst.

They've been wrestling like their father with the difficult providence of God. And really as we consider they're wrestling with the providence of God it it begins to move that wrestling toward Reconciliation when God brings his people along a path that causes them to wrestle with him.

It always has the greater design the greater end of bringing about Reconciliation of establishing a relationship and a communion between God and his people and that's what we'll begin to see this morning so beginning in verse 15.

The men took that present you remember the honey the myrrh the balm the almonds and the pistachios. I love pistachios and now I feel validated biblically. This is a very biblical nut to enjoy. Almond second-best pistachios clearly the cherry on the top of this tribute gift.

They took also the double money in their hand and they arose and went down to Egypt and they stood before Joseph. They waste no time going down to Egypt. It's emphasized in the Hebrew through an adverbial construction and I think that's significant because they're afraid but as soon as they've actually Persuaded their father to release Benjamin to them.

They waste no time. They immediately travel down to Egypt. So you again see something of their integrity that they don't dawdle. They don't maneuver. They don't try to find a different way. They know that they have to face down their great fear.

And as soon as they get Benjamin, they rush down toward Egypt. We remember that the pressure of the famine has really brought about these providential Circumstances in their life and it's the pressure of this crisis the pressure of their need that is driving them into God's plan for repentance and restoration.

You can picture them once they actually arrive in Egypt. They're arriving as Canaanite strangers. Hebrew strangers from Canaan into this grand empire. That somehow has floated through the famine because of the wise Viceroy who controls the storehouses.

They're there with their donkeys and they're guiding them down the narrow streets past all the grand architect architecture symbols of imperial pomp and circumstance. Darting in and through the hungering crowds that are gathering in their lines to be able to receive their dole of grain for the day.

They're making sure they have their money and then double and they're preparing. Perhaps trembling as they begin to step forward one by one minute by minute closer and closer to that distribution center of grain.

Jacob meanwhile is back in Canaan. He watched until he couldn't see them cross the horizon. He's been beseeching the Lord for them ever since God have mercy to them. What he said to them is what he's praying for them.

God have mercy upon them be gracious to them protect them. Move in this man's heart. Let this ruler be merciful to them. I pray that it was just simply an oversight a mistake. Let there be no consequences to the money that they returned with and and so they're praying like their father is praying.

And they finally as we see in verse 15 stand before.

Joseph.

Aways off they see him. He sees them but Lord of the land the keeper of the storehouses little do they know he also has been waiting for their return and I imagine he also has been praying for them. I Think we can say that because of the instruction He gives to his steward as we'll see in a moment and what the steward says in response to them.

The steward seems in on the whole story and so surely Joseph like Jacob and like these brothers have been praying for God to be merciful and For God to be gracious and for God to move in their hearts.

Little do they know that he too has been waiting for their return in order to move forward with his plan praying for them hoping. Verse 16. Joseph sees Benjamin with them and he says to the steward of his house.

Take these men to my home. Slaughter an animal. Make ready. It sounds like the prodigal's father doesn't it? Go get the fatted calf. Get ready for this feast. These men will dine with me at noon and then the man did as Joseph ordered and the man brought the man into Joseph's house.

So as the brothers draw near and the lunch line to the sight of Joseph. He sees that they were true to their word. He notices that they have returned with Benjamin as he had ordered them to do lest they Abandon Simeon to an uncertain fate and they would not do that to poor old Simeon.

And so he recognizes that they have changed they they abandoned him 20 years ago. But they would not abandon Simeon. They've returned with Benjamin and Joseph has been longing to see his kid brother. And as he sees him, he immediately rejoices and before they even can come before him in audience.

He starts preparing the feast they have come and they've said nothing. They haven't had the opportunity to sit before him and when he sees them from afar, he's so joyful. He says prepare the feast. It really is Luke 15 here in Genesis 43.

It's the prodigal father as it were seeing the lost one from afar and inwardly rejoicing. The ones have returned. I thought they would be lost. So they've passed this first reenactment. They've retrieved their brother Benjamin and in doing so they've retrieved their brother bit Simeon and the sight of Benjamin as we'll see Overwhelms the heart of Joseph.

It's probably a good thing that he removes himself. He gets too close to Benjamin. He might blow the whole thing. Immediately burst out and reveal his true identity. But he knows God's grace has been working in his brothers and because of that he desires to bring Lavish kindness upon them in the same way.

He sees God is bringing lavish kindness upon himself. These men will dine with me at noon. When he first saw his brothers probably a year and a half maybe two years before this He spoke harshly with them.

He didn't know how to handle that encounter but even as we worked through that we saw that he began to soften to them and then as they parted ways he himself I Think we can say tenderly bound Simeon and he spoke and conversed with them and he gave them provisions for their journey home.

He really let them depart in peace and now we see him even being more compassionate more Sensitive and tender toward his brothers. These men will dine with me at noon what seemed impossible for 20 years is now a lunch date a lunch plan and This is a marvel of God's grace.

We know it also just perhaps it's present here in some ways to remind us of the ironic reversals of God's Providence. Joseph had come as a slave and yet working diligently with integrity and honesty. He was blessed by God and that blessing made him a steward over Potiphar's household.

Well now he's been so blessed and exalted by God that he himself has a steward and he tells that steward What to do and how to act and so we see this Picture as it were of the way that God has reversed the situation of Joseph from steward to now commanding a steward.

Verse 18. The men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house and they said It's because of the money which was returned to our sacks that first time. That's why we're being brought in so that he can make a case against us and and seize us make us slaves even take our donkeys.

So the steward acts according to Joseph's command. The brothers are brought out of the lunch line. You can come here with me. Everyone say hey, no cutting. No fair. No, no. No, this is under orders. This is under orders from Zapnat Panea.

You dare not question him and they're ushered off into his personal home. As soon as they're brought into the home all their fears as they return to Egypt become so powerful and they begin to Imagine the worst they think this is a setup.

This is an ambush. He knew we were coming now. He's got all of us and we we know from the story, right? We know from the roundhouse that was in Potiphar's house. It seems that Egyptian officials always had a dungeon in their basement.

So they're thinking we're in the house and we're gonna be brought Downstairs not to the dining room, but to the dungeon and so they're beginning to think the worst. They've been wrestling with Providence.

They rush down to Egypt. They recognize God's hand is at work in them and in their midst even as they were beseeching their father to release Benjamin. They recognize that that God is moving and he's doing something and they're facing their fear.

But when it comes to the height of facing their fear They imagine the worst like Peters trembling steps on the waves. They begin to sink and the mantra that always comes with an anxious imagination Begins to plague them.

It's because of the money. It's because of the money. It's because of the money. We're gonna be slaves. That's that's the whole setup. Now. All of us are gonna be thrown down into the pit with Simeon.

Well, ironically in some sense it is because of the money. But not in the way they think in fact the exact opposite of how they're thinking. Please notice this. They interpret Joseph's desire to bless them as a secret plot to destroy them.

These brothers have become so fearful in light of their wrestling with the difficult providence of God. That they interpret something designed to bless them as though it were something designed to curse them.

Brothers and sisters when we are working through difficult providence in our lives We are prone to this same fatal mistake the difficulty of the wrestling that which Causes us to face the fear causes those fears to to seep into our Imaginations and they become very fanciful and they have a certain effect a certain control over us.

And as we turn those fears and those anxious thoughts over and over in our minds we begin to see that difficult providence not as a means to God's blessing, but rather as. Surely this is because of something I've done.

Surely. This is a punishment. Surely God's about to pull the rug out from under me. Woe is me. I am being cursed. I am being punished. I am going to perish. That's how these brothers feel and They couldn't be more wrong.

They are 180 degrees wrong about the entire scene. But this is what happens when we wrestle with difficult providence in our lives. We forget to look at what God has promised and how God has moved in his providence and our Anxious thoughts begin to have a grip upon us rather than casting our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us.

We are blind to the way that he cares for us and we begin to think the most Irrational thoughts about what he might be doing in a particular season in our life. There's a poetic irony in their fear. They're afraid that Joseph is going to make them slaves.

They're the ones that made Joseph a slave. You know, this is I'm getting what I dished out. This is karma. This was coming to me. I knew I couldn't escape it. I knew this day was coming. And we begin to view our Heavenly Father as though he were retributive.

So we look at the very design of blessing as though or a design of destruction. Look at their fears just look at their fears. He wants to take us as slaves with our donkeys. Remember we said the the camels that have been passed down ever since Abraham.

That that first fleet of Ferraris that Pharaoh released all the way back in in Genesis 14. Maybe those have been since traded off or at least they weren't brought down into Egypt. They brought their trusty old donkeys and now in the time of famine two years in.

These beasts of burden are very precious indeed. And they think we know what this is all about as they're walking through the Empire. With all its magnificent buildings and palm trees with with all its encrusted jewelry, I believe National Geographic is having a Sort of multimedia display of King Tutankhamen's tomb and I think they're doing it in Boston.

I think it'll probably go down to Providence, Rhode Island. If you were to go to that. Maybe you'd get some sense of what these brothers were seeing as they walked through the streets of the Egyptian Empire.

Especially as they were brought into Joseph's home and they're surrounded by utter splendor clear architectural symbols of wealth and of power and in their anxious fears they think he wants our donkeys.

He has fleets of chariots with the best-bred horses in the world and they think he's trying to trap us to get our donkeys and The governor over all the land who has at his disposal the Egyptian military and every servant you could imagine a Servant to bring the salt a different servant to open the salt a different servant to pour the salt.

He has that kind of power and prestige and they think he must want us to be slaves. And he wants our donkeys too. Oh, I can't let Buster go, you know, hee-haw. It's completely irrational.

Completely irrational.

Their fearful imagination has taken them beyond reason. He is the Lord of the land with grain houses at his disposal if he doesn't need anything. It's them in Fact it's a waste of his time To even give them audience.

It's a waste of his time To even bring them into his home. They're blind to what's in front of them. But the steward is graciously bringing them in and they can only think the worst. They're unable to see the goodwill that he's shown them.

They forgot that when he sent them away He gave them every kind of provision for their journey. He changed his mind Rather than keeping all of them. He said no. No, you've got families to feed. Just just leave one brother here and I'm gonna give you everything you need to return home.

Those provisions that Graciousness it was all forgotten and even as they come here and they have no reason to fear the worst. They're fearing the worst. And so we see again this Irrational anxiety that grips people when they're wrestling with difficult Providence.

They become blind to how God has moved blind to what God has done. Blind to the circumstances right right in front of their face and they're completely irrational. Verse 19. When they drew near to the steward of Joseph's house They talked with him at the door of the house and they said Trump, you know, it's like we're not going in there.

Hold on. Let's just talk about let's talk about this. Let's talk about this. I'll just come in. Oh, hold on. Hold on.

Let's talk about this and.

Finally they they burst out into confession. How are you gonna bring it up? Yeah. Oh by the way. It may seem to you like we stole all our money last time. We were here. How do you drop that bomb into the situation?

So before they even enter the threshold they burst out into confession verse 20. Oh, sir This is an entreaty. It really shows you just how desperate they are. Oh, sir. We indeed came down the first time to buy food, but it happened when we came to the encampment.

We opened our sacks and there each man's money was in the mouth of his sack our money in full weight. It's on you know, really I think was about half. Wasn't it half Reuben? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was definitely just half of our money.

That was returned. They're open about it all our money full weight. We have brought it back in our hand. We've brought it down with other money to buy food. We don't know who put the money in our sacks.

It's sort of their Hail Mary. It's just this is what happened. We don't know how it happened. And here's how we're trying to respond to it. And they're afraid of the worst. But as we said despite their fear despite their panic God's grace has not been idle in their lives.

They face down their fear when they have every bodily reason every thought of their Anxious imagination is pressing them to conceal or to run. You can picture at least some of them kind of getting to the door and looking like is there a gate open if I make?

A break for it, you know, where am I gonna go? How fast is my donkey? But they don't they they confess they give an honest report. All they can say is what they say. We don't know how it got back. So we've brought it back.

We don't know how this happened. Notice that there's these dramatic evidences of grace in these brothers lives. We again see honest Integrity. We see the very things that Joseph was testing. Remember what he said to them in the first encounter.

We will see whether you were honest then. They've come back now and they've passed this test. They're honest men. How have they become honest men? They have been afflicted by famine and by fear and because they have been afflicted by Deprivation by something being taken from them by a lack of comfort a lack of security.

They've been afflicted. And because they've grown fearful. They feel like they have no control over the situation. They feel utterly Incapable of handling the stress and so they've been made needful dependent I'm sure prayerful.

And in light of that famine and that fear God has made them fruitful. What kind of fruit has God grown in the season of affliction and fear? Humility honesty. Integrity. Adam Clark commentator from a few centuries ago.

He says afflictions from the hand of God and under his direction have a wonderful tendency To humble the soul if men knew how gracious God's designs are when he sends afflictions. No murmur would ever be heard again.

If.

We knew God's gracious design when he sends affliction. When he brings us into circumstances that cause us to be fearful if we knew his ultimate design We would never murmur. We would never buck. We would never resist the work that he's doing in our lives.

But it's because we're like these brothers gripped by anxious concern imagining the most Irrational things that were blind to his providence and we begin to murmur and complain and become Fatigued by the way that he's moving in and through us.

So one question to ask yourself this morning is has the providence of God brought you to a place of humility. I'm even getting the violins and chorus here. This is wonderful. Has the providence of God Brought you to a place of humility.

Now, that's the first step. There's many a man that have been humbled by their sins. But that's not enough. I think you could view it. I'm no green thumb, but humility would be Preparing the soil and if all you do every year is go out and and trudge up all the soil and Move those rocks out of the way and get it nice and ready and then you go job.

Well done. We're gonna have a great winter. It's like oh, wait a second. You didn't plant anything. Nothing's growing. What was the work of being humbled if there's not fruit? And so there needs to be fruit that grows out of that humility and we see that out of their humility.

They're becoming men of integrity men of action. Men of honesty and this is the fruit that is growing out of their humility. It's not enough to be humbled by afflictions. God's design never ends with humility.

Humility is the beginning of what God wants to do in your life. Now, of course these brothers have confessed it and they don't know what's coming. Maybe they have good reason to think the steward is gonna be slack-jawed and outraged.

He's gonna call for guards to surround them and he wait till my master hears this. Their stomachs must have been in knots. They have no idea if it will be a response of wrath. Verse 23 he says Peace be with you.

Do not be afraid. I can only imagine in that scene that they didn't even hear that. When he said kind of like yeah, I know peace be with you don't be afraid and they it probably just went right through them and they're like and and we really don't know and we're willing to do anything and Peace be with you.

Don't be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. So the response is almost angelic in the way it greets them. Angels often come to God's people saying peace be with you.

Do not be afraid and this angelic response is probably the last response. They were expecting to hear. They probably thought surely there's gonna be a lot more explanation. Maybe Interrogation under duress.

Maybe we'll be on the torture rack. Maybe we'll be imprisoned. There's going to be some consequence. The last response they could have ever thought was peace be with you. Do not be afraid. This probably as often when the angels come and say don't be afraid.

What's the natural response fear? That's actually when you become afraid. And I can imagine that they went from a certain fear to entirely different kind of fear. They said what is God doing to us the first time they were afraid you can only imagine the response now.

What is God doing? Their greatest fear. From the time they fed their donkeys on the first way home all the way up until this moment. The fear that was plaguing their thoughts giving them nightmares. Stealing sleep from them causing them to panic and and have to gird themselves to be able to confess is now with this phrase.

Effortlessly graciously.

Immediately removed. It's such such a beautiful picture of what happens in the dynamics of a of a guilty conscience making confession to the Lord. And the thing that was Plaguing and clinging and stealing sleep and and causing the the fearful imagination to run rampant is.

Effortlessly graciously.

Immediately comforted God's grace had moved in these brothers to To deal honestly and have integrity and face their fear. And if there's ever been a fitting illustration of John Newton's words from amazing grace it is here it was grace that taught their hearts to fear and Grace their fears relieved in the words Peace be with you.

Do not be afraid. More than ever they connected Honesty and integrity and humility to God's blessing. If only God's people could learn to connect the virtues of the Christian life To the response of God's blessing in this way.

They had likely been praying and praying and praying throughout the lead-up to this moment. What a reassurance for them to hear your God and the God of your father has given you treasure. They knew that they put their trust in the right place.

They were clinging to God trying to be honest and walk in integrity before him. They put their trust in him and because they did that they were relieved of this fear and they were given peace. They were given the greatest comfort they could have ever hoped for but more than that God in that response Reminded them of it your God and the God of your father has given you this treasure.

There's a testimony in the stewards response to them and it must have struck them again. God is at work in the midst of this. And if there can be honesty here, are there deeper things in my life that God would want me to be honest about?

Deeper nightmares deeper fears deeper guilt in One sense they probably feel like the only crisis in their life has it now been taken away. When in fact God has a design to go much deeper still. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure.

Read between those lines. Why would this Egyptian steward be able to testify about not only their God? But the God of their father. Doesn't that sound like Joseph had been speaking of his God and the God of his father in the land of Canaan that he had been Establishing and an understanding of the true and living God within his household.

That's what John Calvin says about this. I think he's right. The steward does not say what we might expect an Egyptian to say. The God of the land of Canaan has given this to you. You know, your regional God has blessed you.

That's how a pantheist was would sort of a panentheism sort of understand it but to the peculiar God of their father Which brings up? Relationship and Covenant and so Calvin says I do not doubt that Joseph though.

He did not openly correct Everything that was superstitious through outside, you know outside of his house at least in his own house. He established the true worship of the one true God and he always held fast to the covenant Which he had heard as a boy from his father.

And so he connects the fact that the steward knows this to the way that Joseph has been operating these 20 years never Abandoning never forgetting the covenant that God made with Abraham and Isaac and his father Jacob and Then if they were lacking any Comfort Simeon is brought out to them.

And I can't imagine it would seem entirely Incongruent if the way that Simeon was brought out was anything less than the same grace That they had seen in the stewards response. They might have thought when they finally retrieved Simeon after perhaps a year However long it had been that he would have been emaciated and changed Unrecognizable Scars and wounds eating rats and he would have been thrust out like a cobble of bones before them but he must have come out like a featured guest from the house of Joseph and When he's brought out we don't have the encounter in the text, but you can imagine when that Brother that had been left behind in the pit in the proverbial death in their mind When he was brought up out of it and they were brought together it must have been quite a reconciliation.

Must have been quite a reunion as they embraced and maybe even wept over each other in light of what God had done to get them to that place and It's a microcosm of gut of what God wants to do between them and Joseph.

So you have a miniature display of the coming reconciliation of chapter 45 verse 24 The man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their feet and he gave their donkeys feed and they Made the present ready for Joseph's coming at noon.

They heard that they would eat bread there and when Joseph came home They brought him the present which was in their hand into the house and they bowed down before him to the earth so all the.

Hospitality a.

Privileged guest could expect is being shown to these brothers. They went in fearing the worst and at every turn they're being blessed and rewarded they're being graciously treated. Their feet are being washed.

They're been being shown lavish kindness in a time of famine and even their precious donkeys are being watered and fed. And they hear that this master is coming at noon. And so they get ready their little gifts.

They arrange their their honey and their myrrh and their balm. Maybe snack on a few pistachios as they get it all set up and when he finally comes They pay their tribute to him. It's a modest tribute not very impressive to the Lord of the storehouses, but We know who the Lord of the storehouses is.

He's not some detached Arbitrary CEO, he's not someone that's unimpressed and things aren't worth his time.

It's his brother and.

His brothers render this tribute to him out of their need and That must have been so touching for Joseph to receive that humble modest gift knowing it came From the fingers of Jacob and the brothers that had once thrust him away from them gifts in the ancient world gift as a concept throughout scripture is so significant, especially when we talk about reconciliation, there's Perhaps something that I'll go into a little bit more in the coming weeks tremendous book called Paul in the gift by a Researcher named John Barclay and he spends so much time talking about the significance of gift as a concept throughout the Bible and the way Gift as a metaphor as a concept for the gospel is one of the primary ways that Paul Discusses or presents the gospel in his letters and so to think about the significance of this small tribute a Tribute that would have been customary a tribute that almost would have been required if you're going into The presence of someone so great and yet it's so much more significant than any servant in that house might have understood.

It really is a tribute that brings about peace. And in the same way Paul then could think of laying down our bodies on the altar as a gift. We need to start thinking about Reconciliation in these ways.

Well, anyways, I don't want to go too far into the next two weeks. When they give their tribute they bow down before him. This is Stepping forward in fulfillment to Genesis 37. They they bow down again prostrate before the earth.

Verse 27. He asked them again about their well-being in the Hebrew text. He asked them about their Shalom about their their peace. Peace can mean it's a sort of Swiss army knife word. It has all sorts of connotations, but it's used here in a significant way.

They're of course seeking peace in the largest sense of that peace and Joseph asks about their peace and Then he says is your father at peace is your father? Well The old man of whom you spoke is he still alive and they said Your servant our father is in peace is in good health.

He is still alive and they bow their heads down and they prostrated themselves. So again, we see glowing through this dialogue. Joseph's natural concern he's patient because he knows that God is is patiently bringing these brothers toward reconciliation and he's content to wait to Reveal his full identity until they're in a place to bring about that reconciliation.

But at the same time his heart weighs heavy because his father is aged. So the first thing that he says to them Essentially is your is my father still alive? Am I going to be able to see him again? That's his foremost concern and must have been another Gracious response when he found out that his father was alive and in good health.

We're reminded again of this larger plot in the chapters the reconciliation of the household of Jacob the son Who was once cast down into the pit of death being raised that he might once again return to the side of his father.

In the most direct fulfillment of Joseph's dream. They again bow their heads and they prostrate themselves. They lay out completely flat before him. This is showing honor. This is showing obeisance to him in the Hebrew.

It just simply says they bowed and then bowing bowed themselves. So we don't translate those redundancies into English. But it's a way of emphasizing just how humbled they were before their brother and it's meant to again Emphasize.

God has brought this dream to fulfillment. The brothers have all come and bowed down in genuine honest humility before the Authority and the blessed status of their youngest brother Joseph. This humility came again from God's affliction and God's relief.

He brought Affliction into the brothers lives because of the crisis because of their fear and then when the stewards spoke words of peace to them. They were relieved and just like affliction humbles a believer.

So does relief from affliction? They're they're doubly humbled if I could put it that way. Never a good thing when the blind men are healed and they don't even return to the one who healed them. Believers are doubly humbled when God brings relief.

They pray for contentment and they're humbled when God sees it fit to bring a thorn into their side. They're humbled and they pray Lord give me patience to bear with it. Humble me Lord. That's why you've given me this thorn and if God sees fit to remove that thorn they ought to be doubly humbled.