NOTES for Gen 50:1-26

Joseph's brothers turned out to be tough nuts - at least where their own view of the world was concerned. In his time Joseph did much to lead them out of the small world bounded by their own willfulness into God's great world. He even explained to them directly, in so many words, that the issue was not their desire to get rid of him, Joseph, as a rival, but God's plans and God's will: it was God who brought Joseph to Egypt in order to save them from famine. The brothers, in spite of everything, are waiting for revenge. Especially now, after the death of their father, who could have intervened and stopped Joseph. That is why they ask him to forgive them. Not because they have repented fully and completely, but out of fear - that, at least, is the meaning of the biblical story. Joseph teaches them one more lesson: he forgives his brothers.

He forgives simply, freely, from the fullness of his soul. Not at all the way it was customary in those days: the ancient world was rather harsh and not inclined toward forgiveness. There even a mistake was often equated with a crime, and for a real offender to beg forgiveness was far from easy. Besides, forgiveness had to be pleaded for, begged for as mercy, and often it was thrown to the forgiven person like a bone. Joseph is not like that: he does not begrudge forgiving his brothers; he does not expect or demand compensation for the guilt he releases. In this almost evangelical way, only a person who knows what God's great world is can forgive - and that means a person who also knows the Kingdom.

The Kingdom was not yet as near then as it is today, after Christ's coming, but for God the world had always been His Kingdom, at all times, even when people were sure that they had expelled God from the world, which now belonged to them entirely. Some saw the world precisely as the Kingdom, even when others could not. They saw it because they knew how to open themselves to God, to the action of His will, and could let Him into their lives. Of course, before Christ's coming the world was still far from becoming the Kingdom, but it was always possible to see it as God sees it.

If a person sees the world this way, he will live and act accordingly. He will then see God's will where others see only a fortunate or unfortunate set of circumstances. And he will forgive easily and simply too, because he does not need compensation from those he forgives, just as someone who has seen the ocean will not quarrel with his neighbor over a drop of water. This is how Joseph forgives his brothers - and this is how the story about him in Genesis ends. And the Book of Genesis itself also ends: it ends with an example of forgiveness that has no equal in that book.