Now that Daddy is Dead
These brothers were afraid of what Joseph might do now that Jacob was gone.
They sent a messenger - be man enough to talk to me face to face.
Joseph wept over this situation. Won't you give me the benefit of the doubt? Has Joseph given any sign he did not really forgive them?
Wiersbe writes: After all that Joseph had done to encourage them, it was cruel of his brothers to say, “Joseph will perhaps hate us and pay us back for what we did to him.” (We often suspect in others what we’d do ourselves if we had the opportunity!) When you doubt God’s Word, you soon begin to question God’s love, and then you give up all hope for the future, because faith, hope, and love go together. But it all begins with faith: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
What the men should have done was to sit down and calmly review all that Joseph had said to them and done for them. In many tangible ways, Joseph had demonstrated his love and forgiveness and had given them every reason to believe that their past sins were over and forgotten. They really had nothing to fear.
How did we know God loves us and forgives those who put their faith in Christ? His unchanging Word tells us so. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). How we feel and what God says are two different things, and we must never judge God’s eternal Word by our transient emotions. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” asked Paul, and then he proceeded to answer the question: Nothing (Romans 8:35, 38–39).
Genesis 50:15New Living Translation
But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.