Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” Genesis 42:26-28
The brothers who has sold their own brother Joseph into slavery and left him in a ditch are now in Egypt begging for food. But, they do not recognize the right hand man of Pharaoh is their long lost brother. When they are granted grain and find the money they had paid was also in the sacks, they panicked. “What is this that God has done to us?”
Instead of seeing the generosity of Joseph, they thought they’d been tricked. They were convinced soldiers would be coming over the next sand dune to arrest them for stealing from the Pharaoh. Is this how God was to punish them finally for the burden of sin they had carried for so many years? Was that Holy zap from the sky aimed at their heads?
The trouble was, they did not know God as they should have, even though they were raised by a man we now consider a Patriarch of the faith. They did not know Him a a promise keeper, a provider, and Lord of All. The weight of their unconfessed sins had blocked them from knowing His loving Grace and Mercy. They had spent years waiting to be found out and fearful of when that fateful day would come. So, they convinced themselves God was a revengeful, conniving type of god. Their guilt had formed God not their image.
But unless they repented and turned back to God forgiven and cleansed, how would they become the founders of the Twelve tribes, thus fulfilling God’s covenant with their grandfather Abraham? They needed a catalyst to come back into relationship with their Heavenly Father. So, what had God done? He had begun the process to turn their hearts around. We can all learn from their story.
If left unconfessed, sin can eat away at our hearts and embitter our souls. But, nothing is hidden from God. If we do not confess, He will lead us full circle and make us confront our wrong. Why? Because He loves us and doesn’t wish for anything to separate us from Him, even our own guilt. Until we can stand before Him cleansed, how can we look Him in the eye and take the blessings He wants to bestow on us? How can we see the gold mixed in with the grain as a good thing?
