Genesis 41-44
Godly Sorrow and True Repentance

After their dastardly deed of selling their brother into slavery was done, the brothers of Joseph needed to account somehow to their father for his disappearance. In a flash of brilliance, they decided to take his coat, dip it in animal blood, and suggest he had been killed. Jacob, the father, was heart broken when the coat was shown to him. "Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days... And he said, 'For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.' Thus his father wept for him," Genesis 37:34-35. The brothers must have been ashamed of themselves, but no one said a word. "Just keep quiet and let this pass."

The problem was, the pain they saw in their father didn't pass. The death of his favored child was continually an open wound. The secret sin they shared must have been a black beast on their backs.

Unbeknownst to them, when they arrived in Egypt seeking food for their family, they stood before Pharaoh's assistant-the very brother they had said was dead. They did not know him; but he knew them. Had they changed? Were they still evil brothers, or had they learned a lesson over time? We must also honestly ask if Joseph wanted revenge against them. Regardless, he devised a plot to accuse his beloved brother, Benjamin, of stealing his private property. He told them Benjamin would remain in Egypt as his prisoner. Judah, who was the one that suggested they sell their brother Joseph those years ago. could remain silent regarding the pain he had seen in his father's face every day no longer. In 44:18-34, he pled with the supposed Egyptian for mercy. The thing he could not bear, he confessed, was to see his father, who thought Joseph to be dead, hurt again. Genesis 44:34 tells us, "For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?"

Just how long that guilt had been eating at the brothers, in particular Judah, we cannot know, but it seemed to have been something they thought of often (42:21). In chapter 45, Joseph revealed his true identity to them. While he had been deeply wronged, he was so moved by Judah's sorrow, he quickly forgave them all. "Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over the, and after that his brothers talked with him" (v. 15).

I imagine there were sleepless nights when Judah, if not any of the other brothers, wanted to go and confess their wrong to their father; times when their hearts ached seeing the empty look on their father's face. On that day in Egypt, love for the wronged came out, and the heavy weight of sin was removed.

That's the way sin is for us, friend. It can be a monstrous burden to bear day after day. David wrote, "While I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer," (Psalm 32:3-4). But, confession is good for the soul. David continued, "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin," (Psalm 32:5). The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:10, "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation..." Sin ought to tear us; and when it does, God stands ready to put us back together again if we will only come to him and confess. Do you need to confess sin to God or others day? Then do it. You'll sleep better tonight.