Remember Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-tale Heart.” Like many of his stories it is a dark tale with a twist. A man’s guilt drives him to death. Guilt will consume us, if we let it.
Joseph’s brothers could not forget the way they had treated him. When they went to Egypt and unknowingly encountered their brother, they unwittingly fulfilled his dreams that they would bow down to him. As he tested them by taking one of their brothers, Simeon into custody, their first response was guilt. They felt that they deserved difficulty because they have not yet found God’s forgiveness, nor had they forgiven themselves. Later when they returned home and found that the money they gave Joseph had been returned to them, their first response was, “What is this God has done to us?” Even as God was using their brother to save their lives, they thought God was trying to hurt them.
How do we see God? Is he angry and out to get us? Is he waiting for us to make a mistake so that he can incinerate us with lightning? Students were asked how they saw God the Father and they answered “angry, ready to punish.” Then they were asked about Jesus and they saw him as loving. Our guilt will make us see God the Father as “out to get us.” Remember that it was the Father who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” The question of our lives is not, “What has God done to us?” but “What has God done for us?” Our answer to this question is extremely important.
God is not out to hurt us but to save us. He did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. God wants to forgive us today. Will we receive his forgiveness? Will we forgive ourselves? Psalm 126:3 says, “The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!”
