In my previous post I talked about my “aha” moment that transformed my understanding of forgiveness. And because that “aha” moment came through seeing God’s direction in the “Our Father” – a prayer given to us by Jesus Christ I thought it would be a good idea to see what else Scripture had to say about forgiveness.

Turns out it says a lot.

Using The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, I count 120 references to the word “forgive” and its derivatives. And the first reference comes in the last chapter of the first book of the Bible. Genesis, Chapter 50.

At this point in the story of salvation and God’s plan for the redemption of people, we come to Joseph. Joseph, the son of Jacob whose jealous brothers tried to kill him and then sold him into slavery. Joseph, who endured false imprisonment in Egypt and then rose to prominence and power. Joseph whose God-given dreams protected a region from famine. Joseph, who never let pride – or anger – poison his character.

Joseph has just returned from burying his father, Jacob. Here is what Scripture says:

Now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful and thought, “Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!” So they approached Joseph and said: “Before your father died, he gave us these instructions: ‘You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you to forgive the criminal wrong doing of your brothers, who treated you so cruelly.’ Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we, the servants of your father’s God, committed.” When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.  … But Joseph replied to them: “Have no fear. Can I take the place of God? Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.”(Genesis 50:15-17, 19-20)

Joseph forgave. And here are the principles I see in this passage – principles we can all learn from as we work through our own journey of forgiveness.

1. Joseph does not judge his brothers’ actions. He does not play God.

2. Joseph forgives – and releases his brothers from fear of retribution.

3. Joseph sees a bigger picture – and understands that he has learned from his experiences. He knows that through the hardships he endured he has become more than he might otherwise have been.

God uses everything – every experience, every person, every blessing, and every difficulty – to grow us into the people He needs us to be. We will encounter hardship and sorrow. People – sometimes those closest to us – will hurt and betray us.

We can choose to dwell in anger and resentment. We can choose to allow the poison of bitterness to shrivel our spirits and our potential.

Or we can learn the lesson of Joseph — to forgive and in forgiving release a power of strength and grace that God will use in ways we cannot imagine.

“Forgive” appears for the first time in the book of Genesis. “Genesis” is a greek word for beginning.

Forgiveness is a genesis – a beginning.