July 14 – Genesis 44:14-34

 

July 14 – Genesis 44:14-34

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https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whengodwhispers/episodes/July-14--Genesis-4414-34-e26vqg3

Heavenly Father, I am surrounded by imperfect people every day, but I, too, am imperfect.  Help me to remember that those around me are dealing with me and my imperfections.  Help me remember that I, too, am hard to love.   We were never promised an easy life, or that we would deal with reasonable, loving people.  The more people I am around, the more difficult my day is, because people are frustrating and sometimes downright mean.  Help me to focus on You and show Your love when I am dealing with people that are hard to love.  Help me love them the way You do.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen!  

Jacob clearly had shown favoritism throughout his life. It seems the jealousy of the brothers is what drove the brothers to sell Joseph into slavery.

Have you ever dealt with jealousy so severely that it caused you to act in a way that you felt shame later?

How hard is it to love imperfect people?

Aren’t we tasked with that daily?

However, Judah was committed to his father and did not want to return to Canaan without Benjamin, the youngest brother.

Judah loved his father and was willing to accept the consequences for the act of theft.

Pray today for the imperfect people God places in your life daily. Ask God to give you the ability to love every person you encounter. After all, we are all made in the image of God.

I love this quote, “You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love…be kind.”

Genesis 44:14-34

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. ¹⁵ Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” ¹⁶ And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” ¹⁷ But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸ Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’

²⁴ “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ ²⁶ we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. ²⁸ One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. ²⁹ If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’

³⁰ “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life, ³¹ as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³² For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ ³³ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”