Receiving Forgiveness

Genesis 49-50:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2049-50&version=NIV1984

            Yesterday we read in Genesis 47:28 that Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years.  Throughout almost two decades Joseph and his brothers lived at peace—or so Joseph thought.  It turns out that Joseph’s brothers had a different opinion.  They thought that Joseph was biding his time until Dad died.  Then, they thought, Joseph would finally have his revenge.  Perhaps it reveals something of their hearts; perhaps they were accustomed to hold grudges like that.  Perhaps it just reveals the fear and guilt that dominated them.  Perhaps it was a little of both.

            This is a story that hits a lot of us right where we live.  Sinful humans that we are, we do keep a catalogue of sins.  We talk about ‘forgiving and forgetting,’ but we know how very difficult it is to forget.  Hurts leave scars and, even long after the wounds have healed, the scars remind us of the pain we once endured.  Two things help.  First, Psalm 130 says that the Lord keeps no record of wrongs (verse 3).  There is something empowering about knowing that he forgets our misdeeds.  If God, who knows all things can forgive so thoroughly, if He can ‘remember our sins no more’ (Jeremiah 31:34), then we have a fighting chance at setting aside the pains afflicted on us.  Second, it helps if we understand what forgiveness is.  Forgiveness does not deny that a wrong was done; it is a conscious choice to set aside the debt owed to us because a wrong was committed against us.  Said another way, forgive is the decision to live and act as if we have forgotten.  That means that forgiveness is an ongoing discipline.  Whenever old hurts flair up, forgiveness says, “No, that is in the past; that is gone.”

            It hits us right where we live for another reason, too.  Sinful humans that we are, we have a hard time accepting forgiveness.  Sometimes people will say they have a hard time forgiving themselves.  I’m not sure that’s exactly right.  I think it’s probably more correct to say that we have a hard time believing people have actually forgiven us.  After all, if we struggle to grant forgiveness, others must similarly struggle.  “Maybe,” we wonder, “they were just showing good form when they said they forgave us.  Maybe they didn’t really mean it.”  In terms of the Lord’s forgiveness for us, there’s no need to doubt.  He means what He says and does what He says.  It is a mind-boggling thing to think that God so completely let’s go of the chains that bind us, but He does.  In terms of the forgiveness that is exchanged between humans, we have to learn to live with the messiness of good intentions and inconsistent follow-through; it means taking people at their word and not holding it against them if they fail to live up to what they’ve said.  Perhaps the best discipline to help us receive forgiveness better is to grant it better.

            Joseph and his brothers give us insight into the trickiness of living forgiven.