Day 135: Loving Enemies, Forgiving All [3]

May 15

Today's Connected Passages: 

• Genesis 42-45, 50:15-21 [Romans 8:28, 2 Timothy 4:16] 
• Proverbs 10:12;  17:9; 19:11
• Hosea 3:1-5     

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Canon Connected, where we read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections of the Bible. I thank you for joining us here on day number 135 of the Canon Connected, and we are on day three of a four-part series, and truly a five-part series, because the fifth day will be a contrast to the first four days. Not a contradiction, but a contrast to these four days on loving enemies and forgiving everybody. Okay. These are two very important pillars to Christianity. I put them together because they're very similar, probably perhaps not the exact same thing, but they're close enough to where I thought that it would be beneficial and fruitful to study the two ideas together and do it over four days because that's how many readings I found. And truly, as I've said over and over again, there are probably others. I'm sure I missed some. But we're studying some of the main ones and some and plenty of passages over these four days that'll make it clear to us that the Bible does teach you forgive people and you do love your enemies. Okay. We've said every day to this point that that doesn't mean you always trust people, you don't stay, stay in relationships, okay, especially if there's things like abuse, things like that. Um, we see that even in you know David and Saul. Saul's chasing David in chapter 24. David gets the jump on him, and David, you know, confronts him, and Saul's like, Oh, I'm so sorry, David. You know, you're a better man than me, and he acts like he's all repentant and he's apologizing, but it didn't mean anything. And David knew that. And David didn't say, Oh, I've got to forgive him. So, Saul, let's go and eat dinner now together. No. David still was remained on the run, and two chapters later, Saul tried to kill him again. So all of these things don't undo that. But at the same time, we can live in a very jaded society and a very jaded culture in the sense of we absolutely want to constantly just get people back. All right. And we don't want to experience, we don't have to experience the the the idea of forgiving somebody because our culture wants us to be self-consumed and self-centered. Our culture wants us to look out for number one, okay? Absolutely. That is sin nature at its finest. And Satan knows exactly how to do that and and and at least in the cultures that I've grew up in. And one of the biggest ways is to is to absolutely to hate your enemies, same way the the Jewish leaders apparently were teaching, which is why Jesus broached that in Matthew 5, and to not forgive people, to try to get revenge or just to ignore them or whatever, you know, and not even at all think about what I can do to show the gospel to this person because um of what they've done to me. Because the gospel is, again, founded in these ideas that even while we were still enemies, according to Romans 5, Christ still died for us. And that forgiveness is absolutely how we find restoration with God through Jesus Christ. There's no there's no Christianity at all without forgiveness. And so, as God forgives, we forgive. That's part of Ephesians 4, you know, in Colossians that we're reading this week as well. But today I started with the story of Joseph and his brothers in um Genesis. Now, we studied the first part of this story earlier this year. I did not repeat the part where his brothers sell him into slavery just for time, you know, and space constraints. I'm trying to keep these readings from being absurdly long. But if you need the, again, the refresher, you know, um Joseph's brothers were jealous of him because of how Jacob treated him, because of, you know, Joseph's mother being the favored wife. And so not even being the wife of, you know, one of the servant ladies, you know, the servant wives or whatever, you know. And so they they come to the point where they're so sick and tired of him, they put him in a pit, they plot killing him, and they get talked out of that, and finally they just sell him into traitors and they take take him down to Egypt. And so after 20 years, you know, Joseph finally comes face to face with them again. And there's some dispute, I would say. I I grew up just thinking and assuming that when Joseph is messing with his brothers at first, you know, and you know, he's he's you know saying, you know, that you're you're obviously here spying, that sort of thing, and you know, and and and uh making one of them stay back while the others go back home and and and stay in prison, that all of this is Joseph's way of acting out of revenge and acting in a vindicative spirit, not fully, because he could have done a lot worse to them, but still in a way of saying, you know, I still harbor it against them what they did to me. Other people would say that's not right, that Joseph was just acting in a in a manner that's natural with his position, that he had to be, you know, he couldn't be trusting and he had to treat, you know, foreigners as with an eye of suspicion. So I don't know, maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. If I if I had if I had to make an interpretation, I would say that Joseph, at points in this story, definitely can feel this vindicative spirit rising up in him, and that's why he's messing with his brothers. But that may be wrong. Nevertheless, okay, regardless of what a person says about that or how they interpret that part of the story, it is absolutely crystal clear that this story teaches us that we forgive people because God takes evil and uses it for good. This comes up both in chapter 45 and in chapter 50, because in chapter 45, um, again, so Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please, after he finally reveals himself to them, after he's been messing with them and he's been hiding behind his new position and 20 years of aging and all of that, and new language, and he's, hey, I am Joseph, as my father still alive. He says, Come near to me, please, and they come near. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. This is Genesis 45, 5. For God sent me here before you to preserve life. And that's probably the lesser of the and of course all he did with the famine is what God produced out of that. That's probably the lesser of the two famous quotes on this, because Genesis 50 has a more famous one, at least in my experience. Joseph said to them, They're scared because you know Jacob's dead now. They're afraid Joseph has only been holding back for the sake of his father. But his brothers came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for I am I in the place of God. Isn't that a huge point of theology in all of this? Don't do what God is supposed to do. God gets revenge, okay? Not us. It's not our job, it's not our role, it's not our ministry. Okay? He said, Behold, am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear, do not feel telling his brothers, don't be scared, I'm not gonna get revenge on you. I'm not in God's place. I will provide for you and your little ones. Isn't that forgiveness? Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Can you imagine enduring what Joseph did? Because he didn't just have the betrayal, he had twenty years to stew on it and think of it, and thirteen of them were in either in prison or as a slave. He's only had seven years of prosperity in his life since he got sold. And even then, I'm willing to bet, even up high on the mountaintop, so to speak, you know, a second in command in the whole country, I'm willing to bet he still thought about what his brothers did to him. But he knew God, and God won out. God's grace and forgiveness and God's sovereignty won out over Joseph's desire to mistreat his brothers. He comforted them and spoke kindly to them. How often do we mention that? Verse 20, verses 19 and 20, very famous quote. But we we don't want to miss that. What Joseph did in these moments. Not just what he said, but what he did, because actions can make us hypocritical. And of course, the Romans 8.28 is like the New Testament version of this. And we know that all those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Um we are going to see this, these two next to Philippians 1, because Paul says something similar in Philippians 1, but I saved that one for a reading on how suffering produces good at the same time we do persecution in November. But Philippians 1 also has a similar sentiment on that note, but I just did these did these two for right now. This is what Romans 8.28 is Paul says is the same thing I think Joseph is communicating to his brothers. Then 2 Timothy, this is another one I think is that fits perfectly with Joseph's story. Paul says that my first offense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. It's the same heart, you know, sentiment that Joseph expresses. Paul expresses it too. That's forgiveness. That's not, you know, eye for an eye in the vindicative sort of way. And then many proverbs. We've seen, you know, see three more today. We've seen a lot of these so far. And then Hosea. Hosea chapter three is the final one for today. And again, this is one that is very, very, you know, hairy, so to speak, because it involves an adulteress. And now you you can probably tell my personality by now. It's not that I don't think I'm afraid to be bold and speak truth, but I also worry that there are times I don't understand different experiences. So I want to be sensitive to that, and especially since I'm not sitting face to face with people who are listening to this, I want to be a little extra graceful on this because I have not experienced what Jose experienced. So I don't know what it's like to be cheated on, okay? And I pray, you know, that that nobody that I know ever has to experience this. But the harsh reality is that people in my life have, and people in my life probably will. And so I want to say that to say how how how much you forgive whenever there's an affair or whatever in marriage, I'm not even gonna try to get into that, okay? Because people have different views on that. I've heard wide-ranging views on how often you should forgive whenever there's, you know, adultery. But there is something clear in this passage about how you do forgive, even whenever it absolutely shatters your heart. There at least has to be some measure of forgiveness. And God used this relationship again, you know, with Jose and Gomer to communicate how he feels about us, what he does for us. So that's what we have to remember. We're gonna see tomorrow in Matthew 18. We forgive because God forgave us. Ephesians 4. It's the same thing. Because God forgave us, it's not just that he's sovereign and he'll get revenge, it's that he forgave us, so we forgive other people. And we're gonna hit that one hard tomorrow. Okay? Cannot miss that connection. All in fact, pretty much all the readings tomorrow are centered around this very idea. God forgave us, we have to forgive. So fourth day tomorrow, finishing this part of the series, and then an addendum, so to speak, on self-defense for the fifth day. But come back and be with us again tomorrow as we finish up this four-day part of the series on on loving enemies and forgiveness. As we continue to through connected readings, you know, see the connections and read the connections and study the connections. Thank you.