Please read Genesis 42.
www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/gen/42/1/s_42001
Meditate on this phrase from verse 19.
Confined in your prison …
It had been over 20 years since Joseph’s brothers last saw and heard him. They had thrown him into a pit and callously sat down to eat a meal. Their dinner music was a young Joseph crying in distress (Genesis 37:23-25; 42:21).
The next 20 years they lived a lie, telling their father, Jacob, a wild animal killed Joseph, when they actually sold him to some Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28). The truth had never been told, and Jacob still mourned for his beloved son.
Now, they saw and heard Joseph, the same boy they saw and heard every time they looked into their grieving father’s eyes. However, they did not yet recognize him as their brother.
These brothers were in an emotional prison; now Joseph put them in a physical one. After three days, he released all but Simeon and sent the remaining nine home to return with the young brother they had mentioned. (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.)
When they told their father about their Egyptian adventures, he made a statement revealing he knew 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” (v. 36).
Think about your life. Are you and those you influence in a spiritual and emotional prison? Are you imprisoned by unforgiveness and bitterness? Does anger imprison those around you in fear and insecurity? Are lies keeping all of you in prisons of mistrust and deception?
The best present you could give is freedom from the prisons created by past sins. Ask God for forgiveness, ask others to forgive you, then forgive like Christ forgives.
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 household.
In Your name, Jesus~”
The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell
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