“Dealing with Doubts” (Part Two)

We are learning from the Joseph story how to help those who struggle with doubts about God and their faith. In Genesis 50, Joseph and his band of brothers return from Jacob’s funeral. The brothers’ hearts are troubled. After 17 years of unending kindness from their brother, his older brothers are filled with fear. They are convinced that Joseph has restrained his desire for revenge in order to respect his father Jacob. But now Jacob is gone, and they doubt that their awful sins of abandonment and lying are really forgotten and forgiven. When they vocalize their doubts, Joseph’s initial response is tears (verse 17). He weeps over the bondage of guilt that was still brewing in their hearts. But his second response is a theological statement about God’s justice. Joseph tells his brothers, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?” (verse 19). In other words, it was God’s place to seek justice, not his.

Paul wrote in Romans 12:19, “ Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Joseph was living out this biblical principle 6,000 years before Paul penned it. Joseph is dealing with the issue of justice. He was the victim of the injustices of betrayal and slavery and lying. These actions were wrong. But he had turned these wrongs over to God in heaven.

Once in a while the opposite is true. The victim states he is keeping a “little black book” filled with the names of those who have victimized him and is just waiting for the day when he can retaliate. Joseph did not have names written in a book, he had grace written in his heart.

Next time we will consider more of Joseph’s theology.