the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Genesis 44:1-17
The net is closing around Joseph’s brothers. Unforeseeable circumstances — though directed by a faithful hand — constrain them to retrace their steps and appear before the one who knows everything. Now their conscience is affected. "What shall we say? How shall we clear ourselves?" (v. 16). What progress, morally, they have made since the moment when they pretended to be "true men"! (Genesis 42:11). This is why deliverance is near.
As in the whole story of Joseph, these incidents have a prophetic bearing. Israel, temporarily put to one side following the rejection of Christ, the true Joseph, will be brought to acknowledge her crime, and to see in the Nazarene, whom they despised and crucified, the One whom God has made to be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), their Messiah and at the same time, the Son of Man who will reign over the whole universe. Nevertheless in order for this work of conscience to take place, Israel, and specially the tribe of Judah, must first go through a time of deep trials, called the "great tribulation", (Revelation 7:14). The distress of Joseph’s brothers, until they confess their crime, speaks to us of the anguish which will be the lot of the Jewish people before they recognize and honour their Messiah.
