BRAGADAYJAH 162

Having buried his father Jacob, Joseph and the whole company, including his own brothers and their family returned to Egypt. After that Joseph’s brothers began to fear him. They said among themselves that it was possible that Joseph had only shown kindness to them for their father Israel’s sake; but that now he was dead and gone, surely Joseph would turn on them, and perhaps take out vengeance on them for the evil they had done to him. So fearful of Joseph were his brothers that they did not have the courage to go to him in person; their guilty consciences continued to plague them; so they sent a messenger to Joseph to remind him that their father while he was yet alive, sought to intercede for them, and had even instructed them to go to Joseph and confess that they had done him great evil, and to ask him to forgive them their trespasses against him. Even after their emissary had gone to Joseph, they themselves appeared and bowed down and knelt before Joseph and prayed for his forgiveness; and when Joseph saw them prostrating themselves before him, he wept. Joseph also responded and told them that he was not God, neither could he take the place of God; and as such they had nothing to fear from him. It is true, he reminded them that they intended evil against him; but God turned that very evil around for the good of many people. Therefore he comforted them, “I will nourish and sustain you and your little ones;” you have nothing to fear from me, he told them. Thereafter, Joseph and his father’s household and his brethren lived in Egypt. And Joseph lived to a ripe old age and saw the children of his sons unto the third generation. And when he was one hundred and ten years old, Joseph said unto his brethren “I die, and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land, and into the land that he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “As I live,” Joseph swore to his brethren, “God will surely visit you and you will carry up my bones from here.” And so Joseph died and was embalmed, and was buried in a coffin in Egypt. Do join me tomorrow for a summary of the lives of the people of God from Eden to the coffin in Egypt.