Sabbath: Rest, Relationships and Healing
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 42:7-20, Matt:25:41-46, Genesis 42:21-24, Genesis 45:1-15, Luke 23:34, Genesis 50:15-21.
Memory Text: “But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5).
A man had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman. She positively identified him in a police line up. Though evidence made his guilt questionable, the woman was adamant that “Johnny” was the guilty party.
And so Johnny went to prison, where he rotted for 14 years for a crime that he did not commit. Only when DNA evidence exonerated him did the woman, “Joan,” realize her terrible mistake.
She wanted to meet Johnny after he had been released. What would this man, who suffered so much, do when he came face-to-face with the woman who had ruined his life for so many years?
She was in a room, waiting for him to come. When he did, and they looked each other in the eyes, Joan burst into tears.
“Johnny just leaned down and took my hands, and he looked at me and said, ‘I forgive you.’ I couldn’t believe it. Here was this man whom I had hated and whom I wanted only to die. And yet, now, here he was, telling me, who had done him so much wrong, that he forgave me? Only then did I begin to understand what grace was really about. And only then did I begin to heal and have true rest.”
This week we will look at forgiveness and what it can do for restless human hearts.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 14.
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Oops. I jumped the gun and wrote my comment yesterday that should have been written today! Serves me right for not reading ahead a bit.
I guess that a fair few of us grew up with siblings. I have a brother and a sister, and if I told you that we never fought, you would know I was lying. My brother dropped a bag of solidified cement on my head once, and my sister bit me when she was about 4 years old. My aging and selective memory has drawn a blank on what I did to them but I think I probably deserved some of the things yhry did to me. My own children were masters of passing the blame for what they had done to one another. Shopping was always an issue because you had to hang on to them tightly or they would start pushing one another in the shopping isles. And our grandsons seem to have inherited the same rivalry. Taking them for a car ride used to be a continual fight that, "He is on my side!"
It seems that sibling rivalry is all part of growing up. Most of us grow out of it and sooner or later strike a truce, and get on fairly well. Unfortunately and sadly, I know of families where sibling rivalry extends even into old age.
Jacob's family was no different and I could imagine that at times it would have been like gang warfare between the four branches of the family. What can we learn from such a family?
Perhaps one practical lesson is to consider the church as a family, and that we have sibling rivalry between ideas and factions within the church. We denounce one another as wrong and call one another progressives, ultraconservatives, concerned brethren, liberals, conspiracy theorists, Jesuites, and so on. Are we above sibling rivalry? How do we see beyond our own tightly held views and the ones we denounce?
Hopefully our study this week many provide us with strategies to live beyond our spiritual sibling rivalry.
Hmmm! I remember I pushed my brother into a patch of blackberries (very thorny brambles) once.
So then Mr. Maurice have you gone to confession and did you pay penance? How many hail Mary did you repeat sir? It not too late you know?
Hehe! I have to stay at home. Old people like me are requested to stay out of the public just at the moment. Perhaps that is my punishment. Actually I spent the morning looking for birds.
Hi Maurice, I’m adding my reply to your post on this week’s lesson too.
Joseph’s family dynamics, unfortunately, was/is nothing new. Dysfunctional families go all the way back to Cain and Abel. Yes, even in our society today, dysfunctional families exist everywhere, even in our Adventist churches.
For some families, the dysfunction runs so deep that Holidays have becomes a Family time to Fight, instead of a time of celebration (and for a few, or more than we care to admit, it has led to a Shoot-out). Those in the family, who feel that they have been hurt, in one way or another, brings their problems and bad feelings to the Family celebration, and sometimes innocent people are hurt.
Also, some people try to make themselves feel better, or make their pain go away, by hurting other people; “hurt people, hurt people”. We see this played out by two of Joseph’s brother in Genesis 34, when two of the brothers of Dinah, convinces his other 8 brothers to kill all the men of the Hivite neighboring town for prince Shechem’s crime of defiling their sister. They did this massacre even after their father, Israel, had already made a treaty with the king of the Hivites; a treaty that was supposed to keep the peace in a land were they were strangers. But Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, could not live and abound by their father’s treaty, because of their hatred and rage toward the Hivites for what they had done to their sister. That’s why, even on his deathbed, Israel (Jacob) when giving out his last blessings to his 12 sons, he remembers what Simeon and Levi had done, and says that they are “ instruments of cruelty” (Genesis 49:5-7), and instead of receiving a blessing, they received a curse that the descendants would be “scatter them in Israel”. Hurt people that hurt other people usually results in adding more hurt to themselves.
I love this lesson because it should force on look at ourselves, at our own pains, and learn how to deal with it. Forgiveness is the first step in healing our souls.
Have a blessed week everyone
I do not want to down play Joseph hurting moving from his home in such a way then, thrown in a pit, sold to foreigners (Joseph saw how his brothers and foreigners got along), then resold to another person as a slave. Worked his fair share as a yard slave, now he is elevated to house slave he is thrown into jail for his integrity. In jail he asked the man to speak on his behalf but the man forgot. Years after the man remembered him.
Another disaster is coming that would affect him, the famine.
I am wondering if Joseph blocked out his family out of his mind to function adequately and properly.
The power of forgiveness. Forgiveness liberates. I purposed in my heart I will not go about dragging things for mths or years. What ever it be the Lord is doing something to change me and for me to see his mighty hands working in his own way.
Another story comes to mind .....that is the story of Naman the leper the the little servant girl.
She was taken against her will we all are acquainted with that story . She was faced with uncertainties in a strange land without her family members and those that she loved.
Yet she displayed a forgiving heart , a heart that love people regardless of wrongs they may have done, the little girl in this story demonstrates the love of Jesus that every true believer should have.
In this story clearly she could have been bitter, spiteful or even cold. Instead she displayed a forgiving heart, the story ends with love forgiveness and healing.
Like Joseph she was there for a reason although it wasn't known at that time this Child was part of God's plans.
Thinking about the power residing in true forgiveness, I am reminded that the greates blessing for the forgiving heart is its peace as it does not hold the crippling grudge of unforgiveness. Luke 23:34KJV gave me insight into Christ Jesus’ thought about the spiritual aspect of sin – sinning without understanding/anticipation of the true spiritual consequences.
In the eyes of the unredeemed, wrongdoing might be just that – simply wrongdoing, but in the eyes of the Creator, sinning against one’s brother needs to be made right because of its fundamental, spiritual repercussions.
It is not given to us to know the mind of God and what His ultimate justice will look like, therefore the Father asks us to do that which we can do - forgive; this is to be the first step to arrest further wrong doing.
After the authority of their father was gone, it is interesting to find Joseph’s brothers approached him with a lie to mitigate the severity of the anticipated punishment for their wrong doing. They were still afraid, they still could not believe that Joseph had forgiven them, even after all the joyous events of their reunification. Their heart still needed to accept Joseph’s forgiveness.
Gen.50:19-20KJV points to why we ought to be ready to forgive: ”Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
Forgiveness works both ways – its restorative power works in the giver's heart and in the heart of the forgiven .
Forgiveness! Can't wait to see what this week's lesson unfolds. I know forgiveness is something I struggle with. I used to think "holding" a grudge was somehow different than being unforgiving. God corrected my thinking on that! There is rest and peace in forgiving and being forgiven. I will get to the point and leave out all the sordid details. A girlfriend and I broke up under a misunderstanding on my part. Even when I recognized my error I was too stubborn to admit it. Fast forward a couple years. I had this feeling that I needed to get things right between us. I called, no response, wrote letters no response.(before email or texting) explaining my error and asking for forgiveness. Two months later she was killed in a car accident. I can only imagine the grief I'd probably still carry if I hadn't at least tried to correct my mistake.
Joseph had many years to process and to be completely molded into a character like Christ. His brothers still had some learning to do as evidenced by their request for forgiveness once Jacob had died.
Oh to be like Jesus hanging on the cross and saying "father forgive them for they know not what they do".
Hi Myron,
I had the same situation that you had, a friend that would not forgive me. You can’t force someone to forgive you, you can only ask and hope that they will. And sometimes, some people feel that they are hurting you more by not forgiving you. I have called, written letters, asking for my friend’s forgiveness; it has been over 17 or 18 years ago since our friendship ended. My friend never responded either; however, she is still alive according to her daughter’s Facebook page. I had a wonderful relationship with my friend’s daughter, which was severed on that day as well, because of the daughter’s loyalty to her mother. I say all this to say, that when we refuse to forgive and hold grudges, we are not only hurting ourselves, but others as well that had little or nothing to do with the situation.
By the way, like Maurice, I’m using this portal as a confession. At the time of my offense against my friend, I thought I was justified in saying what I said; but then, I realized that I had been friends with her for more half of my life up to that point, and she didn’t deserve to be hurt in that way.
It was so long ago that I don’t remember all details. But it started out that she invited me and my husband to several of her work related events. We went to a few of the events with her and her daughter. Also, because she didn’t drive, and her daughter did not have a driver’s licenses either at the time, we had to pick them up and take them home for each event. I did not mind doing that because I would hope that someone would do that for me if I need them to. But what ended our friendship was when I decided not to go to one of the events, and I guess that event was an important event for my friend that she was very mad with me, important enough to end a friendship forever.
Before, you think that I’m the good guy in this situation, and my friend as selfish, spoiled brat, please read on; there’s always two sides to every story. (I’m sorry for the long post, but it helping me to heal.) I thought the event was trivial, a family day event at a popular Water park; but my friend knew that I am deathly afraid of water. I told her the previous week that I don’t like water or going to water park because my fear of going under the water, and I told her that she would probably need to find someone else to drive you there. But she kept saying, “think about it”. She finally got me to say that I would think about it, and would call her back the next week to let her know. I called her back and told her that we would not be going to the water park event. She became so furious with me, she said I should have told her in time for her to get another way to the event, and other choice words.
I was so mad when I got off the phone with her that I forgot to make sure that the phone was shut off; I was using the first version of the cordless phones back then. Anyway, I was furious too, and vented to my husband about her, about how she is a User, using me and all of her other friends, to do things for her. And I added one more hurtful thing in my venting, I said that I ran into my of our other high school friends, her best friend during high school, and she told me that she had to distance herself from my friend because she is Used her too, she said that our friend was only friends with a person if she could Use them for do something for her. My friend heard all my venting. She did not deserve for me to be so harsh and cruel towards her with my words. I called and left her hundreds of voice messages on her answering machine, that what it was called in those days, and she never answered my phone calls or returned my phone calls. I sent her cards, letters, holiday cards (and I’m not usually a holiday card sending person, but I wanted her forgiveness). She eventually moved away, I don’t know where (the cards returned back to me), and I finally stopped writing to her, and lost contact with my friend; I have not heard from her since.
I thought about writing to her only daughter, who now lives in another state, through her Facebook page; but I’ve decided to leave it alone. I don’t know if my friend’s feelings are still hurt, but I feel somewhat better knowing that I tried my best to ask for her forgiveness.
Sometimes, i think, as in my friend’s case with me, that some people would rather hold on to a grudge, then to deal with the Real situation, that forgiveness and healing would bring. For some, it’s easier not to forgive, because then they don’t have to do the hard work of facing the Real problems, the character problems, of both parties involved. This is true with Joseph and his brothers as well. His 10 brothers thought that it would be easier to get rid of their arrogant younger brother by selling him into slavery. But also, Joseph did not try to seek out his brothers, even after he had the liberty to do so. As the second highest leader in Egypt, he could have sought out his father and brothers, instead of waiting more than a decade later when the famine started. It was easier for both parties to do without each other until a real crisis occurred. But in the meantime, the hurt, the anger, the guilt, and the unforgiveness still remained. Fortunately, in Joseph’s situation, God was with him, and he had cultivated the character of his Lord within himself, passed down from Abraham, Isaac, and his own father, Jacob, on how to treat other people, even those that has abused and hurt him. But unfortunately, many of us are not like Joseph. Many of us don’t have that forgiving spirit. May God help us see ourselves in this week’s sabbath school lesson on Rest and Forgiveness.
I’m Sorry again for the long post. I hope that it will help someone else to Forgive Themselves. If that person will not forgive you, then pray that God will forgive you, and pray for that person as well, and then move on, don’t continue to live in the past. The past is gone, and can not be changed, the future is not written yet; the present is under our control, so We must live, act and think with the mind of Christ in this present age.
Gods blessings to you all. Thanks again for letting me pour a little of my heart out here.