Please read Genesis 42.
Meditate on this phrase from verse 19.
Confined in your prison …
The last
time Joseph’s brothers saw and heard him was over 20 years ago. They had thrown
him into a pit then sat down to eat a meal. Their dinner music that day was a
young Joseph crying and pleading in his distress (Genesis 37:23-25; 42:21).
They spent
the next 20 years living a lie. They told their father, Jacob, a wild animal
killed Joseph. The truth was they sold him to some Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28).
The truth had never been told, and Jacob still mourned for his beloved son.
Now more
than 20 years later, they saw and heard Joseph, the boy they had been seeing
and hearing in their memories every time they looked into their grieving
father’s eyes. They did not recognize him yet as Joseph their brother.
They lived
in an emotional prison; now Joseph also put them in a physical one. After three
days, he released all but Simeon and sent the remaining nine to go home and
bring the young brother they had spoken of back to Joseph. (Benjamin is
described as a little child and a lad in Genesis 44:20-22. Genesis 42 is
probably the first time Joseph knew he had a younger brother.)
They returned to Canaan and told their
father what happened in Egypt. After hearing their story, Jacob made a
statement revealing he had known all along these older brothers were behind
Joseph’s disappearance, “You have bereaved me of my children; Joseph is no
more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin ...” (Genesis 42:36).
Think about
your life and the lives of those you influence. Are you in a spiritual prison?
Have you put others into spiritual and emotional prisons? Are you in a prison
of unforgiveness and bitterness? Does your anger, selfishness, or jealousy put
those around you into prisons of fear and insecurity? Are lies keeping all of
you in prisons of mistrust and deception?
The best
present you could give this Christmas is freedom from the prisons created by
past sins. Ask God for forgiveness, ask others to forgive you, and forgive
others like Jesus forgives you.
Pray Genesis
42:19 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful
watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).
“LORD, ___________ and I are confined in our prisons.
Help us
go and carry grain for the spiritual famine that has been in our households.
In Your
name, Jesus~”
The WATCHMAN on the WALL ~ Dr. Ron and
Marsha Harvell
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