COME AS A CHILD LESSON 107 WHAT JOSEPH AND CINDERELLA HAD IN COMMON

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

On the long, long journey to and from Israel's funeral, Joseph’s brother’s probably had a lot of time to think about what would happen to them in “life after father.”   

Odd as this sounds; these facts reminded me of Cinderella!  

I recently watched a modern-day version of  the "Cinderella" story.  It was very well done and the production really impressed me.  I loved the way the whole story emphasized the fact that Cinderella learned how to be herself and not try to impress others with false and superficial ways.  She learned not to be a people-pleaser and to require those who loved her to accept her for the beautiful person that she really was. 

 In this particular version of the old fairy tale, I loved how they added so many extra little details about Cinderella's life, including her thoughts.  She too had come to a sad time in her life, just like Joseph in our story today.  They both had lost the father they deeply loved.  Cinderella's  father's death was devastating to her.  It changed her world completely.  It was so similar to Joseph's story in that now there was a whole new set of circumstances for her to live through and many changed relationships that she must now deal with.  These circumstances were not easy.  She bravely faced the hard changes with love and courage.  She would miss her father so much!  Nothing would ever be the same again.  I could not help but think of Joseph.

Because they had stayed with their father and done everything the way he wanted basically so they could live underneath his blessings, Joseph’s brothers were now were living at the mercy of the hand of Joseph.  They were foreigners and strangers, living in a foreign land, much like Cinderella’s step-sisters when they had come to live in Cinderella's father's home.  They really had no right to anything in Egypt now, but because of their relation to Joseph, they had come into a rich and rewarding life in that land.  They probably appreciated this about as much as Cinderella's step-sisters.  Until Israel's death they took all of this for granted and simply thought they were entitled, but they surely did not want anything to happen to make them lose the blessings they had gained.

Joseph’s brothers depended on Joseph’s heavily blessed provision from God to survive.  Joseph had shared all he owned freely with them, holding back nothing.  They couldn’t take it all from him like Cinderella’s step family did, because Joseph had grown very powerful in the land; but they needed some type of reassurance that Joseph would always continue providing. They were very afraid of losing this easily gained good fortune that they had not worked a day in their lives for.

 

They knew Joseph had said long ago that they were forgiven, and he had never shown signs of holding a grudge against them for the way they had wronged him, but now; since Israel had died, they wondered if Joseph would become bitter and remember how they had treated him.  

Would he realize how different life could have been and might still be if none of their terrible evil deeds had ever happened and he had grown up in the land of Canaan knowing the constant love of his father and his other relatives?  

Maybe they had even  seen Joseph showing his two Egyptian sons the special places associated with his childhood days in the land of his birth during the time of Jacob’s funeral.  Perhaps they had seen a longing in Joseph's eyes that frightened them as he thought of “what could have been?”

  

The weaker brothers became very afraid of their grieving brother, and they decided to take action based upon their fears.  They all got together and sent word to Joseph asking him to consider that their father had requested before he died that Joseph forgive the wrongs they had committed against him. They knew Joseph would never question his father's last wishes.  

When Joseph received this message, he sat down and wept.  

At this point in our story, one cannot help but think of the shortest verse of the bible; that verse of just two little words: “Jesus wept.”  Joseph must have suffered a sadness similar to the sadness that Jesus felt as he looked upon those that he loved, yet he knew they had betrayed him in their weakness and in their humanity.  He loved them so much; yet they had hurt Him.  They had broken his heart.

The stinging tears of Joseph might have also been over a lot of the things he had lost; his father, the goodness of faithful brothers growing up, his home, the wasted years he had spent in prison for false acquisitions, the fact that his own sons did not really know the people that were his ancestors.  So much must have come to mind at the time and  many things such as this must have given Joseph great sadness and he wept.  

 As he wept, he must have prayed.  

Can’t you imagine Joseph talking to God as he was weeping and asking Him how all of this could be?  I’m sure his prayers were full of emotions and questions.   Even in his questions, it seems he trusted God to provide whatever answers he needed.  He did not lean on his own understanding.  He waited on God to guide him.  

At some point he came to himself and felt the peace of God within.  God must have spoken to him; because it is evident in the way he once again handled the very underhanded treatment of his brothers.  I say “underhanded” because it is clear that the brothers were acting out of fear and not really telling the truth.  

Of course Joseph’s father had wanted him to forgive his brothers, and Israel must have known in his heart that Joseph had already done this long ago.  Joseph had spent many days with Israel as he lay suffering and dying and if Israel had been concerned about how Joseph was going to treat his brothers he would have spoken directly to Joseph at that time, not his brothers.  Anyone reading Jacob’s last words to his sons would have realized this.  The brothers were simply fearful of Joseph’s power, and they were very full of their own terrible guilt.   They had carried it around with them unconfessed  for so many years, and now they simply could not let it go.  It had become a part of them.

Perhaps many of Joseph’s tears fell simply from the fact that he knew his brother’s own sins would always keep him from having a proper brotherly relationship with them, no matter what Joseph did to reassure them or mend the past.  Even if one party forgives, if the other party can't let go of their sin and move ahead, there is a block on the growth of the relationship and it will never mature and grow into what was originally intended.  

After he composed himself Joseph sent for his brothers.  

Can’t you see them coming before him trembling in fear, almost as much as that first day when they found out who he really was as he had revealed his true identity to them years ago in Egypt?

 They came and threw themselves at Joseph’s feet.  

“We are your slaves!”  they said to him.  

I’m sure a very old vision from the dreams of a young shepherd boy in a brightly colored coat must have flashed through Joseph’s mind when this happened.  Joseph had seen his dream from God come true several times now.  His brothers were bowing down to him, just as he had dreamed when he was a boy and they had made fun of him.  This flash-back to the past and remembering the dream probably also reminded Joseph that God was in the circumstances.  All of the details leading up to that moment of the dream coming true had been in God's control all along.  

 

And Joseph’s heart turned to the place of the peace of His Great God.  

“Don’t be afraid” he said to them, “Am I in the place of God?”

In other words, Joseph knew the only way judgment should ever be given was from the hand of God.  He knew in his heart he must totally forgive his brothers, no matter how hard it was for him in the flesh.  Joseph decided right then and there the proof of that old, old scripture so often repeated from Romans 12:19 (written way after the days of Joseph) “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.”

True forgiveness never involves revenge or judgement.  Only God may judge and only God can declare people guilty.  Joseph got that.  He realized that God's perspective was the only true perspective.   In spite of all they had done to him, and in spite of the fact that most likely they were again telling him a lie, Joseph forgave his brothers; completely and unconditionally, without restitution or repayment.

 

He did not overlook what they had done.  He agreed with their confession of their wrong.  They confronted one another and spoke of the facts together.  They did not sweep everything under the rug, but they talked the matter out and they came once again to the final conclusion that Joseph would overlook and forgive the wrongs that they had committed against him.

The forgiveness didn’t come because the brothers had fallen on their faces and begged, or because they had admitted their wrong and apologized.  Joseph wasn’t stupid.  He could clearly see this wasn’t a sincere apology, but only one brought in fear.  Had they not been afraid of the power that Joseph held over them, would they have even bothered?  Chances are slim to none.  Maybe some of them; but not all of them.  Joseph knew this but Joseph’s eyes were not on the humans who stood before him.  Joseph’s eyes were right where they had always been and right where they would always stay; fixed on God. 

Based on the spirit Joseph gained from listening to God, emptying his heart to Him and being obedient to God’s every word, Joseph explained his actions to his surprised and grateful brothers.  Joseph recognized in his life what so many selfish thinkers miss:

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives!”

Had all of the circumstances of Joseph's life not happened the way they did the people of Egypt as well as the people of Israel would have starved to death.  God could have changed this in any way He chose to do so, but He decided to work through Joseph.  

God had shown Joseph the big picture.  Only God can do this, because only God sees the big picture.  This is because He is outside of time and we are inside of time.  We have tunnel vision; He has eternal vision.  His perspective is accurate, and ours is often shortsighted.  We do well to let God’s glasses do the looking for us in matters that are very important, such as this one was to Joseph.

For Joseph this was a moment of truth.  It was the realization of the culmination of all of his life's purpose.  He had matured so much in his walk with God that he didn't need dreams anymore.  Joseph had eyes to see.  God had opened them and he understood so far beyond the others living around him.  Things like this happen when your eyes are focused in the right place instead of worshiping yourself and the things of the world.  Joseph saw a glimpse, in these circumstances, of what Jesus saw on the cross.  He saw the end of the story; the one where God brings all bad circumstances around to work together for good.  Joseph had held on through it all and now he possessed within himself the greatest power and capacity that is possible from the human heart, that of unconditional love and forgiveness.

 

And so he told his brothers not to be afraid, that he would continue to bless them and provide for them.  As so often happens in this world, a whole newly forming nation was blessed from the goodness of one man’s heart toward God.

The people living in that day have long left the earth and gone into eternity, but if you could go back in time and talk to anyone from that day who lived in close proximity to this band of foreign brothers, they would tell you that Joseph was a lot like Cinderella.  He was one who always showed courage and kindness.

So my friends, the story of Joseph as well as the long walk through the Book of Genesis in this study is drawing to a close.  We will have one more lesson with a summary, but I will simply ask you every time you think of Joseph to remember Cinderella’s mother’s words to her; “be kind and have courage and you will do well.”  Joseph did!  


True kindness and courage can only come from God.