15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

Warren Wiersbe writes about three ‘burials’ in Genesis 50; and between the burial of Jacob and Joseph, coming at the beginning and end of the chapter, we have in the middle the ‘burial’ of the past.

No wonder “Joseph wept” when his brothers spoke as they did. He had been so gracious to them. He had forgiven them everything. He held nothing against them. It must have hurt deeply then, that they were not convinced of his love for them.

I was thinking, aren’t we so often like this in our approach to God. Like the prodigal son we say, ”…make me like one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19). But He sees us as sons, and treats us accordingly.

PRAYER: Lord, help me please to really believe in your love for me, and to revel in it. Enable me to bathe in the wonder of ‘love so amazing, so divine…’