Messing up is easy for me

 

Genesis 43:15-25

Have you ever messed up, not just a little mistake, I mean real bad, and it required you to do whatever you could to make things right?  I remember a time, when I was totally misunderstood by the Vice President of Procurement at Exxon; over the Electrical contract that had been rewarded to one of 3M’s many distributors.  He heard, that I had said that they made a big mistake, in choosing that distributor, and shared that information with the distributor, who was at that time one of 3M’s largest.  In truth, I was only trying to understand why Exxon would put their trust in such a bad distributor.  They returned my vote of confidence, by trying to get me fired.  I did what Jacob told his sons to do, I ask for an appointment with the V.P. of Procurement, and I came with hat in hand, and 3M’s largest gift box.  We kept the Exxon account, and that distributor was not able to end my career.

Joseph’s brothers were not looking forward to their return to Egypt anymore than I was looking forward to my humbling visit to the V.P. of Procurement.   But there was no other way, the encounter with the leader who had accused them of being spies, had to take place in order for them to get grain and the return of the older brother Simeon.  What happened was not expected, and caused the brother to fear that they were going to be taken as slaves.  So before entering the house of the ruler, they told the steward of the house about the money they found in each sack, and that they wanted to pay it back, and also pay for the grain they came to take home.   They also wanted the steward to understand that they came with gifts for the man of the house. 

Now let’s look at the response of the steward of Joseph’s house; “He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid.  Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you.  I received your money.”  (Genesis 43:23)  What happened next was the return of Simeon and they were given water to wash their feet and the steward made sure their donkeys had fodder.  It is at this point, they were told that the man who they feared was on his way to the house to have lunch with them and the brother prepared the present for Joseph’s coming.

Can you identify with these brothers?  In my case it looked like a twenty-five year career was over and it took weeks, before I knew for sure if I was going to be sacrificed to appease this large distributor, who was pulling out all the stops to get me fired.  It is in times like this, that many of us turn to prayer, and in my case, my knees had calices.  It is without question, that the brothers of Joseph came to the same conclusion as I had, that God is in charge.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice