“Forgiving the Unforgivable”

 

Text:     Gen.37: 3-11

Intro.: Jesus said in Lk.17: 1, “It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!” Then in vs.3-4, He went on to say, “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”

In Mt.18: 21 it says, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith until him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Then Jesus went on to tell the parable of the unmerciful servant to illustrate the need for all of us to be like our heavenly Father who has forgiven us fully, freely and forever of all of our sins.

I believe we have many here in our church that need to practice the kind of forgiveness that Jesus proclaimed and we find this illustrated in the O.T. story of Joseph. I want to use the account of Joseph and his brethren to help you to learn the principles of forgiveness, so that first of all you might not do like Joseph’s brothers did. You see it is never right to hate or envy our brother, or to have malice toward them, or to be partial toward a brother. This includes how you treat each other in your own home. Secondly, that you might not have to go through the severe time of testing like they did because of what they did. God doesn’t turn a blind eye to those who offend others. He will see to it that they will be brought to justice. Thirdly, that you might learn how to forgive the unforgivable like Joseph had to do. Yes even Joseph would have been wrong had he failed to forgive his brothers. It is never right not to forgive someone for something they have done to you. For the sins you have committed against God far outweigh any sins anyone has committed against you!  Let’s turn our attention now to the story of Joseph and his brethren and learn about forgiving the unforgivable . . .

 

A)        The Trespasses: (Gen.37: 3-11, 18, 28)

1)         They hated him (v.4).

2)         They couldn’t speak peaceably to him (v.4). Can you speak peaceably to your wife, husband, son, daughter, mom or dad? If not, why not? Is there some sin that needs to be forgiven?

3)         They hated him yet the more (v.5, 8).

4)         They envied him (v.11). Envy -  to resent for excellence or superiority in any way, and to be desirous of acquiring it; to injure; to do harm to; to oppose; to hate; a feeling of discontent and ill will because of another’s advantages, possessions, etc.

5)         They conspired against him (v.18). Because of their hatred and envy, they conspired to do him harm.

6)         They ended up selling him into slavery (v.28). This reveals the wickedness of the human heart and just how far we will go at times to get revenge against someone we dislike. We must not allow these sins to take root in our hearts or we may end up doing something we regret too.

 

B)        The Testing: (First Visit - Gen.42: 1-24; Second Visit - Gen.43-44)

1)         The time has now arrived for Joseph’s brothers to go through some testing for what they had done years earlier to Joseph.

2)         They come down to Egypt to get food and Joseph recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him (42: 6-8).

3)         Why was he so hard on his brothers? And why did he wait so long to reveal himself to them? Because he wanted to be sure they had repented of their sins.

4)         To excuse people who are not sincerely repentant is to make them a worse sinner.

5)         He spoke roughly to them and accused them of being spies (7-14).

6)         He kept them in prison for three days and told them he would keep Simeon until they brought Benjamin, their youngest brother back with them (vs.18-24).

7)         He then put their money back in their sacks to see how honest they would be (v.25-28).