terrifying kindness

What am I to do? That is the question.

This morning as I was reading the familiar story of Joseph from Genesis 42, I ran across verse 28 and got an insight from Matthew Henry’s commentary on this passage, that I don’t think I had thought of or heard before. This verse is coming right after the part where Joseph sends his brothers back home to get their brother Benjamin and bring him back to Egypt. On their way home with the grain that they had acquired, we are told that one of them notices some silver in his bag, and he says to his brothers in verse 28, “My silver has been returned … Here it is in my sack.” Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

While I understand that the reason that their hearts sank was because of the fact that they had one of their brothers being held in prison … and that they were going to have to go and tell their father what had happened … and come back with his youngest son … and that they had been dealt harshly with by the person from Egypt who accused them of being spies … not only all that, but now they were bringing home a whole load of grain, and they hadn’t paid a single penny for it! … and now they would probably get to be accused of being thieves.

I understand their thinking, but then to think of it from another perspective … Joseph gave the orders to provide his brothers with grain, and what they needed for their journey and then to give them back their money… he was generous and cared for them …. He was kind to them … if you think of it that way, the brothers were experiencing a kindness that terrified them and caused them to ask, “What is this that God has done to us?”

When I stop and think about this, God has done a similar thing for us through Jesus? He has provided all that we need, paid the price and made a way for us, and we have ended up not paying the price. We never could … He paid it all! How kind! How amazing!

We should really be moved and terrified (in a sense) by the loving kindness of God through his Son. And as we are moved by and realize what has happened, our hearts ought to tremble and gratefully ask … “What has God done for us?” … followed by … “What are we going to do?”

Amazing!

Lord, I am moved, terrified, blown away, etc. … your kindness and what you have done for me …my grateful words to you tonight are, “Lord, what am I to do?”