“The Power of Forgiveness, pt. 1 (Genesis 42:1 - 43:17)” | 8/8/2021
Genesis 42:1 - 43:17 | 8/8/21 | Will DuVal
A Sunday school teacher was explaining the “ABC”s of forgiveness to her young class, that when you sin, if you ADMIT your sin, BELIEVE in Jesus, and CONFESS him as your Lord and Savior, God promises to forgive us. Then being a good teacher, she wanted to make sure the kids were listening, so she asked, “Alright children: what do we need to do before God forgives us?” And without missing a beat, Little Johnny jumped up and enthusiastically exclaimed: “SIN!”
This morning, we’re talking about FORGIVENESS. The POWER of forgiveness. Because power is at the heart of forgiveness. The very need for forgiveness arises from some ABUSE of power by the offender. The ability to extend forgiveness requires a great DEAL of power from the offended - the power to pardon. And the act of doing so, of forgiving, confers a certain type of power - the power to HEAL, to restore.
We see ALL of these dimensions of “the power of forgiveness” on display in our text for this morning: Genesis chs.42 and 43; if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn there with me (if you DON’T have a Bible, we’d love to give you one at the Info Bar). You’ll remember back in ch.37, Joseph’s jealous older brothers had abused their power - they were bigger and stronger than him - so they beat him up, threw him in a pit, and then sold him as a slave. But now, by God’s providence, the tables have turned, and JOSEPH is the one in a position of power. Not only the power to forgive them or not, but as we’ll see, Joseph literally holds the power of life and death, over his brothers.
Joseph’s life has been a rollercoaster of extreme ups and downs - from a place of PRIVILEGE and PREEMINENCE as his father Jacob’s PREFERRED son, down to the depths of the PIT; then elevated to a position of prestige in Potiphar’s house, before being plunged into PRISON. And as of last Sunday, Joseph has been promoted to prominence once again, this time in Pharaoh’s PALACE.
In ch.41, Joseph was named VICE Pharaoh, #2 in command in Egypt, the most powerful kingdom of the day, because he accurately interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams concerning the approaching world-wide famine, and thus helped save the Egyptians from starvation. But now OTHER peoples are beginning to go hungry, and they’re coming to JOSEPH for food. And one of those tribes is none other than Joseph’s very OWN family - his father Jacob, aka Israel, and his 11 brothers.
But before we pick the story up there, I want to quickly zoom out and give you a rubric for understanding not only this story, but really ANY passage of Scripture. Part of my job as pastor is not only to teach the Bible, but to teach YOU how to study the Bible for yourself. That’s my hope and expectation for us as a church, and more importantly, it’s GOD’S hope and expectation for you - that Sundays would serve as a catalyst for your personal time spent with Him, in His Word, all throughout the week. To that end, here’s a tool I hope you’ll find helpful:
I think we can view ANY passage of Scripture from essentially FOUR different angles (the technical term in biblical studies is a “hermeneutic”; an interpretive lens):
On the left, there is a PAST dimension to the text: “What did this passage mean TO THEM? To the original audience in their historical context?”
But there’s a PRESENT-PERSONAL dimension as well: “What does it mean TO US, today?” The Bible was written BY and TO people who lived a long time ago, but it was written FOR everyone who has lived since then as well.
On the other, vertical axis, every passage of Scripture can be understood PRACTICALLY, on the one hand; there’s a surface-level, literal meaning to the text.
But Jesus ALSO claimed in Luke 24:27 that ALL the Scriptures ultimately point to HIM, so if we dig a little deeper, on the bottom half of the chart, there’s a PROPHETIC dimension to every text as well: “How does this passage point us to JESUS?”
EACH of these dimensions is important to appreciate when we study a passage of Scripture; we want to do four things in Bible study:
OBSERVATION: What does the text SAY?
INTERPRETATION: What does it MEAN?
APPLICATION: How should I RESPOND?
And TRANSFORMATION: How does God want to use this passage to CHANGE me?
So here’s your quick outline of chapters 42 & 43 for this morning:
A past-practical reading of this passage sees it as a story about Joseph learning to forgive his brothers.
A past-prophetic reading sees it as a story foreshadowing JESUS, the better Joseph, who offers us eternal forgiveness by saving us not just from hunger, but from HELL!
A personal-practical reading sees a MODEL here, of biblical forgiveness, for you and me to follow.
And a personal-PROPHETIC reading reminds us that try though we may and SHOULD to follow this biblical example, we will inevitably FAIL (like Joseph himself, mind you; Joseph, as we’ll see, is NOT the paradigmatic example of how to forgive). And for that reason, we need to be pointed back AGAIN to Jesus. The One who is able to forgive even our unforgiveness.
So I’m gonna try and trace all FOUR of those hermeneutics in this story, and cover 1 ½ chapters in the process. We’re gonna see SIX practical steps to forgiveness here (you see 8 printed in your bulletin, because I wanted to get all the way through ch43 today, but instead, we’re gonna go all the way to ch45 next Sunday and cover the remaining FOUR steps in forgiveness). But you’ll notice they alternate between the forgi-VEN and the forgi-VER; the offen-DER and the offen-DED. Because the reality is, we have ALL been, maybe you currently are, on BOTH sides of this. Maybe you need to forgive someone this morning. Maybe you need to BE forgiven. Probably BOTH. But as we walk through these 6 practical, “how-tos” for receiving and giving forgiveness, let’s don’t forget the deeper prophetic truth here: that while we ought to forgive, and God gives us steps to help us DO so here in His word, more than anything else, we need to BE forgiven, even of our lack of forgiveness, and God offers us that this morning as well, in His son Jesus.
Let’s pray…
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Chapter 42 opens: “When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2 And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.””
I’ll TELL you why they were just passively sitting around, “looking at one another” instead of DOING something about their food shortage; Jacob doesn’t know it, but we do: his sons weren’t LAZY, they were GUILT-stricken! They KNEW the only place to buy grain was Egypt - there must have been countless caravans of Canaanites headed south to buy food - but Jacob’s sons ALSO knew that some 20 years prior, they had sold their own BROTHER into slavery to caravaners headed south to Egypt. And now, the very MENTION of “Egypt” causes a pit in their stomachs.
But eventually, they get hungry enough to FACE their guilt, and in v3: “So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.” Remember, Rachel was Jacob’s favorite wife, of the 4. And Rachel’s oldest son, Joseph, HAD been Jacob’s favorite, until he thinks Joseph was killed; NOW Rachel’s other son, Benjamin, is the favorite. So we get our first prophetic prefiguring of the gospel story here: not only is Jesus the better Joseph, but God is the better JACOB; the Father who did NOT withhold his beloved son, but who willingly sent him, for our salvation.
But the first step to forgiveness here, if you’re the “offender”, like Joseph’s 10 older brothers, is #1 - to Go WORK IT OUT. (vv1-5).
They don’t KNOW that’s what they’re about to do, by heading to Egypt. Egypt is a big country; they couldn’t have possibly known they would have to face Joseph again, much less BEG for FOOD from him! And notice, they didn’t voluntarily go to Egypt to work things out with Joseph; they had to be TOLD to go by their father.
That’s often how it is with us, too, isn’t it? My son doesn’t instinctively WANT to go apologize after he hits his sister; I have to MAKE him. But you and I aren’t as different from our kids as we’d like to believe. I can’t tell you how many times my WIFE has had to tell ME; “I think you need to apologize to that person”; or even MORE commonly, a friend has had to challenge me: “Sounds like you need to apologize to your WIFE.” But one way or the other, as Christians, when we are in the wrong, we are called to go to the person we have wronged and seek to work it out. Jesus said do it before you even come to church, to worship; apologizing is THAT important: “if you are offering your gift at the altar - i.e., your sacrifice in the Temple; your worship in the Lord’s house - and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come” (Matt 5:23-24).
Now, that said, if you are the offen-DED person, keep in mind that you can and should STILL forgive that person EVEN if they don’t ask for it. I don’t know if my father has ever apologized to my mom for cheating on her 25 years ago, but she says she’s forgiven him in her heart nevertheless. And we SHOULD. Not only because Christ commands us to - seventy times seven times! NEVER stop forgiving… - but because it’s GOOD for us too. They say harboring resentment is like drinking poison; you’re only hurting YOURSELF. So we seek forgiveness, and we seek to forgive.
#2 - if you are the offen-DED party, when your offen-DER comes to you wanting to make things right, the first thing to do is to LISTEN.
Joseph DOESN’T. I told you: he’s not the poster boy for forgiveness here.
V6: “Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him - here is Joseph’s dream from ch.37 finally coming to fruition! - v7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” 10 They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. - Joseph must have fought hard to hold back a big LAUGH at that one! His honest, upstanding brothers who SOLD him into slavery…! - Your servants have never been spies.” 12 He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.” 13 And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” - Joseph must have fought hard to hold back a triumphant, “Are you SURE?!” at that one! But instead, v14 - Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies.”
Joseph decides he’s gonna rough ‘em up a little before his big reveal. Make ‘em sweat, for all that they’ve put HIM through these past twenty years. So he refuses to even LISTEN to them. THREE TIMES they try and tell him who they are and what they came to Egypt for, and three times, Joseph ignores them.
That’s our natural instinct too, isn’t it? When you’ve been wronged, even IF the person comes to you confessing, don’t you sometimes wanna make ‘em sweat just a little? Make ‘em BEG for it? Cuz now the tables are turned. YOU’RE the one in the position of power now. YOU have the power either to pardon, or to REFUSE them acquittal, and leave them in their guilty state. And sometimes we get so HURT that we can’t - or we WON’T - even let ourselves believe that they’re truly sorry - “I hear you SAYING you’re sorry, but I don’t think you really MEAN it. You know what, let’s just give it a couple days… WEEKS… to see if you change, see if your actions back UP your apology, and THEN I’ll decide whether I forgive you or not.”
That’s exactly what JOSEPH does here. V15: “By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.””
Here’s a HOOP I want you to jump through, to prove you really mean it. But true forgiveness makes no demands. It isn’t structured as a hypothetical, conditional statement: “IF you do this, THEN I’ll forgive you.” Why? Because that’s not how JESUS forgives US, friends. He didn’t say, “Alright, listen: I’ll make you a DEAL; I’ll head up on the cross, but FIRST, you’ve got to BEG me for it; I mean, really GROVEL…” No! “While we were yet SINNERS - didn’t even know we NEEDED salvation - Christ died for us!”
So 1 Corinthians 13:5, love “does not insist on its own way”; it makes no demands. Attaches no strings.
Now, reconciliation, in those cases when it is possible, may very well require setting some new BOUNDARIES for the relationship. Forgiveness is NOT the same thing as reconciliation. If you sin against me badly enough - let’s say you seriously harm one of my kids - I may, MAY, with God’s help, be able to one day forgive you. But that doesn’t mean I’m ever letting you around my KIDS again. It doesn’t even mean that you and I are necessarily gonna be able to have a relationship again. Reconciliation isn’t always wise; an abused woman can forgive her abusive, unrepentant husband, and STILL leave him. Sometimes reconciliation isn’t even possible; you might forgive someone who wronged you YEARS ago, even if they’ve DIED since then. You certainly won’t be reconciled to them on THIS side of eternity. But forgiveness is still so important. And BTW: typically the harder it is, the more important it is, to forgive.
Last word on point #2: Listen, make no demands, and SOFTEN your heart.
On this point, Joseph DOES get it right: v17: “He put them all together in custody for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, 20 and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.””
In v16, Joseph was gonna keep NINE of them locked up while ONE returned for Benjamin; but 3 days later, he allows NINE of them to return home while detaining only ONE of them as collateral. He still hasn’t removed all the strings. All the hoops. Relinquished ALL his power, and achieved the kind of vulnerability it requires to TRULY, fully forgive. But he is at least softening. Joseph is trending in the right direction.
Maybe you feel like you just can’t forgive your offender today. Like, “Pastor, I hear what you’re saying, but I’m just not ready to forgive them yet.” To be sure, forgiveness is a PROCESS. If you murdered my family this afternoon, I’m probably NOT forgiving you by bedtime. You hear those stories - MIRACULOUS stories - of family members who extend forgiveness to their loved one’s murderer at his sentencing, or at his execution. But that is YEARS, sometimes DECADES later. That kind of forgiveness doesn’t happen overnight. There’s no set timeline for this kind of thing. It takes time.
But let me ask you, lovingly ask you: are you trending in the right direction? Towards forgiveness? Is your heart softening toward your transgressor… or is it hardening?
#3 - If you are the offender, you need to Feel REMORSE. (vv21-22)
V21: “Then they said to one another - Joseph’s brothers, in their shared prison cell - “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” 22 And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.””
They still don’t KNOW the guy they’re talking to IS Joseph! And yet, they have so much guilt built up from this ONE incident, 20 years ago, that they trace a direct line here between their having sold their brother into slavery 2 decades prior, and their current predicament: “This must be God’s punishment for what we did to Joseph.”
They are REMORSE-full. “Deep and painful regret for wrongdoing”. That’s actually a really good place to be, if you have wronged someone. It doesn’t FEEL so good. But 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” The world says, “Avoid feeling remorse at all costs!” The world elects leaders who double DOWN when they’re caught in a fault; who REFUSE to apologize, because they see it as a sign of weakness. We like STRONG leaders. But King Jesus isn’t interested in “strong leaders”; he’s looking for WEAK followers. The humble, the MEEK. Who understand that godly remorse leads us to repentance, which leads HIM to SALVATION. Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy who need the doctor, but the SICK”; the truth is, we’re ALL sick, we just aren’t all STRONG enough to admit it! But Jesus said, “I came for the lost, the desperate, and the BROKEN; if you think you’ve got it all together and you don’t NEED me, then I’ve got nothing for you.”
One other note here: I find it really interesting that the older brothers come to Joseph BEFORE they feel remorse. It’s not like they feel guilty, and then they set out on a journey to Egypt to find their long-lost brother. And I just wonder if the order there was God’s sovereignly orchestrating this sequence of events as a model for us. That we’re not supposed to wait until we FEEL sorry to go work things out. I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna say, conservatively, that at least HALF of the conversations that END in me apologizing to my wife, don’t even START with me intending to apologize. I’m such a sinner, I can screw up and then convince myself that I am in the right and she owes ME an apology; I go into HALF those conversations trying to JUSTIFY myself; plead MY case. But sometimes the important thing is simply that I go into the conversation. I don’t WAIT, until I FEEL bad enough. Because I know there’s a rift now in our relationship, that needs to be repaired, and even if I have misdiagnosed it - who actually CAUSED the rift - if I genuinely want things to be right again between us, and if I’m at least willing to pay her the respect of LISTENING to her side of things, and allowing God to soften my heart in the process, eventually I trust that if I need to apologize, that FEELING of remorse is gonna come.
#4: if your offender HAS come to you, and you’ve listened to them, relinquished your demands of them, and softened your heart toward them, and especially when you see that they are truly remorseful, then #4: you give them GRACE.
V23: “They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. - they’re speaking Hebrew to one another, which Joseph of course can understand. But by this time, he’s ALSO picked up EGYPTIAN, and that’s what he’s speaking back to THEM. - v24 Then he turned away from them and he wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey.”
Grace is getting a good gift you don’t deserve. Joseph’s older brothers - every last ONE of them - DESERVES to rot in prison for what they did to him, or WORSE. But instead, he gives them food, money, travel supplies. Even Joseph’s WEEPING over them proves that he still desires relationship with them, though they don’t deserve it.
Forgiveness itself is a GRACE. By definition, forgiveness is good, and by definition, it isn’t deserved. Some people have this misconception that forgiveness means you have to say, “Eh, it wasn’t so bad.”
My mom leaving me; my spouse cheating on me; my dad beating on me. “It’s alright. I just need to forgive them.”
But forgiveness actually requires you to recognize that: it’s NOT alright! In fact, if it was “alright”, then there’d be nothing to FORGIVE!
So by definition, forgiveness is always undeserved. Even in the most seemingly benign cases. Polly and I were recently doing some premarital counseling with a couple who shall remain anonymous, and I asked them last meeting: “What’s the biggest fight you’ve EVER had.” And bless their hearts, they’re both just WAY too sweet to have ever had a REAL fight… YET! (Give it time… marriage has a way of exposing the not-so-sweet parts in ALL of us…) But they recalled for us the time that HE booked a spring break trip with his buddies over HER 21st birthday. She wanted to spend her birthday with him, she had TOLD him that, he had agreed to wait to leave for the trip until AFTER her party, but then in the excitement of booking the tickets with his friends, he forgot. Now, when he realized his mistake and went to her to apologize, her feelings had been RIGHTFULLY hurt. It would have been dishonest for her to pretend to shrug it off as “no big deal”; it WAS a big deal to her at the time. And therefore, what he deserved, was to feel the full WEIGHT of what he had done to hurt her. She could have chosen to rub his NOSE in it. But instead, forgiveness extends GRACE. Undeserved benevolence. You deserve the prison, but instead, I’m gonna give you provisions. You deserve the doghouse, but instead, I’m letting you back into my good graces. That’s the power of forgiveness.
#5 - If you have wronged someone, you need to Process your GUILT (vv26-38), Take RESPONSIBILITY (43:1-10), and Make AMENDS (43:11-15).
First: Process your guilt. We’re not gonna read all 13 verses here. But here’s the summary: remember the remorse the brothers were feeling back in point #3? When you don’t DEAL with your remorse, your GUILT, your “deep regret for wrongdoing”, guess what chronic GUILT will do to GRACE? Guilt turns what should be a gift into a GRIEF.
And sure enough, when Joseph’s brothers discover his gift, the extra money in their saddlebags, v28: “their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”” Guilt turns “look what God has done FOR me!” into “what has God done TO me?!” I know God can’t possibly be REWARDING me, for the wrongs I’ve committed, so this MUST be some kind of punishment in disguise. The brothers are afraid the vice-Pharaoh is gonna think they STOLE the money.
So they tell the whole story to their father, Jacob. And he says, “Well sorry, but you’re not taking Benjamin; he’s all I’ve got LEFT.” Rachel is dead. Joseph is dead (he thinks). Benjamin is all I’ve got left. Reuben - Jacob’s firstborn, who slept with his stepmom and fell out of JACOB’S good graces, and still hasn’t dealt with his guilt from THAT incident - says, “Don’t worry, Dad; I’ll bring Benjamin home safely.” To which Jacob essentially replies, “I don’t trust you, and I don’t love you.”
So there are just layers and LAYERS of unresolved guilt here. You know, they say, “Time heals all wounds.” But I’m here to tell you: “they” don’t know what “they’re” TALKING about! Because if you don’t ADDRESS those wounds, all that time is gonna do is allow them to FESTER. The same holds true when you’ve wounded someone ELSE. You don’t wanna let that remain an oozing, open laceration; confession and repentance are like a balm and bandage for relational wounds.
Secondly, you need to take responsibility for your actions, both your past wrongdoing, as well as your present decision to do whatever you can to make things right.
Now we’re into ch43: ““Now the famine was [STILL] severe in the land. 2 And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.”” Now, we don’t know exactly how much time has passed here; could have been months… could have been YEARS. But their UN-resolved guilt leaves poor Simeon rotting away in prison in Egypt. And it’s only when Jacob starts to go hungry - AGAIN - that he seems to notice or care.
But v3: “Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down.”
Judah finally stands UP to Jacob and says, “NO, dad, we’re not just gonna keep ignoring the problem… putting Band-aids on a gaping wound… we need to ADDRESS this!”
To which Jacob replies with more complaining and blaming.
But eventually Judah wins him over, by taking responsibility: ““Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. 9 I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. ”
It takes a big person to admit: “I messed up. But I want to make it RIGHT. I’m asking for your forgiveness.” Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” You don’t fix a problem by pretending it doesn’t EXIST. You’ve got to take responsibility.
And specifically, and thirdly here, you MAKE AMENDS.
V11: “Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. 12 Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother (Benjamin)...”
Jacob realizes, if I do nothing, we’re gonna die of starvation anyway; I might as well try rolling the dice and sending Benjamin.
But I’m not sending him empty handed. And just as he sent gifts to his OWN brother Esau back in ch32 to butter him up before what he anticipated to be a risky reunion, here, Jacob once again sends gifts, to try and make amends.
An amend is more than an apology. Talk is cheap. Anyone can say, “I’m sorry”. But what are you willing to DO to try and rectify things? To win back their TRUST; forgiveness can’t be earned, it has to be freely given. But TRUST is different. You’ve got to EARN someone’s trust. And when you BREAK it, sometimes you’ve got to RE-earn it. I wish I had more time to elaborate on “making amends”; if you need someone’s forgiveness today, go do some homework this afternoon on step #9 in the 12-step recovery process.
But in conclusion this morning, #6 - when you see your offender working through her guit, taking responsibility for his wrongdoing, trying to make amends with you, how ought we to respond as believers? We Give MORE GRACE. (43:16-17)
v16: The brother return to Egypt. And When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” 17 The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men into Joseph's house.
But here’s the most amazing part: we’ll continue the story next week, and see that Joseph STILL hasn’t fully forgiven them yet; YES, he does invite them to lunch, but he still makes them sit at a separate TABLE from him. It’s a visible reminder of the power differential that still exists between them. Joseph isn’t quite ready yet to lay DOWN his power over them, and exercise the power to FORGIVE them instead. But here’s where we bring it back to JESUS, the BETTER Joseph: one day, all those who belong to Christ, his adopted brother and sisters, he’s gonna invite US to dine with HIM one day, at the wedding feast of the Lamb, in Heaven, for the rest of ETERNITY - it’s gonna be one non-stop party. And guess what: Jesus isn’t gonna relegate you to the kids table. Y’all grow up with the “kids table”, at big family holiday meals? You knew you’d MADE it when you graduated to the “big table”. Joseph’s still got his brothers sitting at the kids table. But not Jesus. Because of the FORGIVENESS we now have through him, he can say to us: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20) Will you answer His call? Let’s pray...