Crybaby

Genesis 45:2 ESV

And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

It seems tragedy is woven into the fabric of our existence. As men and women of noble or low birth die every week in tragic and unexpected ways. I can say it seems that way simply because we know different. Tragedy is tear in the fabric. All of mankind knows that something is wrong when it comes back into view. When the string is pulled and comes loose once more tragedy is closer than is we like. Our hearts and our souls cry out to God and our bodies must soon conform to the reality of our life. Passages created simply to cleanse and hydrate the eye for some reason respond with fountains instead of mere drips. Our hearts break and with the help of the good physician heal overtime. Always bearing the marks and scars of countless little and massive losses.

As we make our yearly march through the word of God, we come time and again to this reality of life. God is not shy in revealing it to us. He does not shield his sons from sorrow. Coming to this particular text this time I was overwhelmed more by it than previously. Joseph is one of the greatest men in the book of Genesis. He doesn’t lie about his wife being his sister, he doesn’t covet his brothers position, he resists being seduced, he doesn’t give into despair while being forgotten in prison, and in the end he recognizes that both God was responsible for the wrongs he had endured and that God made the right decision (it was worth it). (Genesis 45:7 ESV) This revelation of God’s sovereignty in good times and bad is one hard for most of us to accept, but it is paramount to your faith to both accept it and rejoice in it.

Joseph has been working in Egypt for thirteen years. He has worked faithfully in Potiphar’s house and in the prison. Reading this passage, we are overwhelmed with him and his situation. We come to the fullness of the story in the reunion with his brothers. One point is brought full circle to me. The leader of Egypt is a crybaby. Here we have the leader of the wealthiest kingdom on earth and he is crying at the drop of a hat, it seems. As we look at Joseph, we see a man who loves his brothers. Even when the last thing he remembers is them laughing and selling him into slavery. A man who weeps over those who have wronged him so deeply, and yet forgives when repentance is shown. In Joseph we see some of the shadow of who our savior is and his heart for us.

The Man of Sorrows, Isaiah 53:3, was sent to be our savior. Like Joseph he was to save us, rejected by us, and yet forgiving us. Growing in love and affection as time transpires. As you look to Joseph and admire him for all he did, and you are right, we must recognize that in the story of Joseph and his brothers we are the brothers not the savior of the story. In our hearts is treachery, in our mouths are lies. Yet, in Jesus, we have a better savior than Jacob’s son. For they would be forgiven and filled only to hunger again. Our savior gives life eternal. Joseph’s love and longing for his brothers grew over the twenty-two years he was absent from them. All of the crying God records is that of a full-grown man. He cries for and longs for his brother after they have wronged him. His love for his family had grown in his absence. Such is the love of Christ. As he is absent from those he loves, recognizing the value and necessity of the Spirits ministry we must remember that such an advocate is seated at the right hand of God interceding for us. Even as Christ calls his treacherous disciples back to him, when he comes from the grave, he comes loving those who had betrayed him, and ran in cowardice. Let us rejoice in the heart of our Savior for his people. Because he longs for us more than we do for him.

“Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO