DEPTH OF MERCY

DEPTH OF MERCY!

Gen 50:15-17

15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

           Warren Wiersbe, in his Bible Exposition Commentary, has such a wonderful comment on this portion of Scripture that I would like to simply include it here without further comment.

Afraid to approach Joseph personally, they sent a message to him, hoping to convince him. Did Jacob actually speak the words they quoted? Probably not. If Jacob had wanted to intercede for the guilty sons, he could easily have done it when he was alone with Joseph. And he had seventeen years in which to do it! It's likely that the brothers concocted this story, hoping that Joseph's love for his father would give him a greater love for his brothers.

How did Joseph respond to their message? "When their message came to him, Joseph wept" (v. 17). He was deeply hurt that his own brothers didn't believe his words or accept his kind deeds at face value as true expressions of his love and forgiveness. What more could he have done to convince them? Charles Wesley may have had Joseph and his brothers in mind when he wrote his hymn "Depth of Mercy" :

Depth of mercy! Can there be

Mercy still reserved for me?

Can my God His wrath forbear —

Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

Now incline me to repent;

Let me now my sins lament;

Now my foul revolt deplore,

Weep, believe and sin no more.

There for me the Saviour stands,

Holding forth His wounded hands;

God is love! I know, I feel,

Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Dear Lord, your mercy is, in our thinking, so unbelievable that we need constant reassuring. Help us to rest in the depth of your mercy today. AMEN