Today we are reading Genesis 44. In this chapter we read about Joseph threatening to hold captive Benjamin. ““Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”” Genesis 44:30-34 ESV Judah is now speaking for the group of brothers. He knows that the sadness of his father when they return home without Benjamin could be fatal. Have you ever “feared the evil” that would come when a friend or family member hears sad news? How did you resolve the situation. Sometimes there is no way to avoid the sad news. That’s when we must speak the truth in love and trust God to work through the details. May God give you the courage to do this! Pastor Tim
