That's what Joseph's brothers were saying after Jacob died. Rightly so. The evil they had committed against Joseph had yet to be avenged. Now that their dad was out of the picture, little brother had no reason to hold back. He was in the position of power to pull it off too. The hammer was about to drop.
"So let's tell him that dad said he should forgive us."
They lied at the end of this story like they did at the beginning of this story. "A wild animal killed your son." "Dad said to let us off the hook."
To me, that makes this all the more remarkable.
Joseph kept perspective throughout the trials of his life. I'm sure he would have rather not gone through them at all. But he did. So he worked to keep perspective. And he saw that the Lord was with him every step of the way. And that allowed him to drop this bomb on his brothers (and me!) in 50.19-20:
Do not fear. Am I in the place of God? What you intended for evil, God meant it for good...Wow. What kind of man says that at the end of that kind of story? What kind of man shows that much restraint when he could exercise so much power to exact retribution against so much evil?
I don't know. But I do know God was with Joseph. And I think that made all the difference in his life - and will make all the difference in mine when trials come.
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