Failing to deal with our past only traps us in the past and keeps us from our future...

We have been looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible, called the book of Genesis. We looked on as Jacob’s sons, desperately needing food, approached Joseph and bowed to the ground as a customary sign of respect for his position as Prime Minister. However, while Joseph’s brothers failed to recognize Joseph, Joseph clearly recognized his brothers. Twenty years after being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph was now face to face with his brothers. And just like the dream that Joseph had when he was with his brothers; Joseph’s brothers were now bowing before him.

Joseph responded to the appearance of his brothers by harshly accusing them of being enemy spies who were on a reconnaissance mission to discover the exposed and unprotected areas of the nation in preparation for a future attack. Joseph’s brothers, recognizing that they were in serious trouble, and unaware of who they are talking to, deny the allegations by claiming that they were honest men.

However, instead of revealing himself to his brothers, Joseph turns up the heat by repeating the allegation. You see, by turning up the heat, Joseph was hoping to get more information about his father and the rest of the family. Joseph’s tactics worked, as his brothers defended themselves by pointing to their father and their youngest brother who were back in the Land of Canaan waiting for the famine relief that they had come to seek. What the brothers did not know, however, was that they were speaking to the brother that they had assumed had died long ago after being sold into slavery.

And now, some twenty years later, Joseph’s brothers believed that they were experiencing this principle play out in their lives. Joseph, upon hearing the conversation, was overcome with emotion. The brothers did not realize that they had just admitted to their brother the wrong that they had committed against him. After composing himself, Joseph begins to give the test in the second half of verse 24:

 But when he returned to them and spoke to them, he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to restore every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. And thus it was done for them. So they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed from there. As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money; and behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. Then he said to his brothers, "My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack." And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

Moses tells us that Joseph chose Simeon and placed him into custody. The test was whether or not the brothers would bring back Benjamin, who was the second son of Jacob’s wife Rachel, for the life of Simeon, who was the second son of Jacob’s wife Leah. Joseph then ordered his servants to provide the brothers the food that they had come for, along with supplies for their trip home. And, to make the test all the more interesting, Joseph secretly placed the money that they had brought with them to buy the food in the sacks with the food.

 As they stopped for the evening on their way home, one of the brothers opened his sack of food to feed the donkeys, only to find the money in his sack. Upon telling his brothers that he had found his money in his sack, Moses reveals for us that the brother’s hearts sank. Now this phrase literally means that their hearts stopped beating. Their hearts skipped a beat in fear as they trembled and asked a powerful question "What is this that God has done to us?"

You see, the brothers were overcome by the feeling that their past had caught up with them. The brothers were overcome by their past selfishness and rebellion that was now trapping them. The brothers were overcome with the reality that they were deserving of judgment by God for what they had done to their brother. The rest of the brothers did not dare to look in their sacks for fear that they too would find the money that they had brought with them to buy the food in the sacks with the food. Moses then records for us what happened next in verse 29:

 When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, "The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly with us, and took us for spies of the country. "But we said to him, 'We are honest men; we are not spies. 'We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.'  "The man, the lord of the land, said to us, 'By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households, and go. 'But bring your youngest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.'" Now it came about as they were emptying their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were dismayed.

Moses explains that upon arriving back at their fathers in the Land of Canaan, the brothers recounted the story of what had happened in Egypt. The brothers recounted the accusation of the Prime Minister and the conditions of the test that he had given them. The brothers recounted how one of the brothers had opened his sack on the way home only to find the money that they had brought with them to buy the food in the sack with the food.

Then as the brothers unpacked the food that they had brought back from Egypt, their worst fears were realized, as every sack contained the money that they had brought to buy the food. When they saw all the money with all the food, they were dismayed. This word is a word picture of being shot with arrows of fear. Fear was now piercing the hearts of every family member. And it is here that we see Jacob respond to the story he had heard in verse 36:

 Their father Jacob said to them, "You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me." Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, "You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my care, and I will return him to you." But Jacob said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow."

Jacob’s response, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “You are making me childless. First, Joseph went for you and did not come back. Now, Simeon went with you and did not come back. And now you want me to let you take Benjamin with you? You kids are against me. This is your fault.  And I will not even consider Rueben’s offer to use two of his children as collateral for Benjamin. Benjamin is staying with me, because if a tragic accident happened to him that killed him, I would die from overwhelming sorrow.” You see, Jacob could not even consider the future of his son Simeon by allowing Benjamin to travel to Egypt because he had failed to deal with the past loss of his son Joseph.

And it is here that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact our relationship with God and others. And that timeless truth is this: Failing to deal with our past only traps us in the past and keeps us from our future. Just as it was for Jacob and his family, just as it has been throughout history, failing to deal with our past only traps us in the past and keeps us from our future.

Throughout this story, we see how our ability to deal with the past impacts our ability to move forward in the future. Of all of the members of Jacob’s family, Joseph was the one who you would think would be most trapped by his past in a way that kept him from his future. After all, it was Joseph who had been sold as a slave by his brothers. It was Joseph who had been wrongly accused by Potiphar’s wife. It was Joseph who had been a forgotten man in prison after the person who invested in him failed to return that investment.

However, throughout his life, Joseph dealt with the past, by leaning into doing the right thing and trusting God with the results of his obedience. Joseph allowed God to use his past to prepare him for the future as he trusted God with his past hurt, pain, and disappointment.

Joseph’s brothers, on the other hand,  never dealt with their past. Joseph’s brothers never came clean to God or to their father about what they had done to their brother. Instead, Joseph’s brothers covered up their past with twenty years of deceit and deception. And after twenty years, Joseph’s brothers now found themselves trapped by their past in a position that threatened their future.

Jacob never dealt with his past hurt, pain, loss and disappointment over his son Joseph. Instead of dealing with the past, he covered up the past by replacing Joseph with Benjamin.  And after twenty years, Jacob now found himself trapped by his past in a position that threatened his future.

So here is the question to consider: Have you dealt with your past? Have you dealt with your past selfishness and rebellion by confronting it, confessing it, and repenting from it so that you can move forward to the future? Or is past selfishness and rebellion that you have not dealt with now trapping you in the past and keeping you from your future?

Have you dealt with your past hurt, pain, loss, and disappointments by giving up your right to be right and trusting God as the just judge who is full of grace and truth? Or are past hurt, pain, loss, and disappointments that you have not dealt with now trapping you in the past and keeping you from your future?