Bible Reading - Genesis 44:14–45:8 (ESV) When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground.  Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?”  And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”  But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”  Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.  My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’  And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’  Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’  We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’  Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’  “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.  And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’  we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’  Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.  One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since.  If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’  “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life,  as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.  For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’  Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.  For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”  Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.  And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.  And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.  So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.  And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.  And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.  So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

To Discuss/Pray (Personal)

• Discuss/Pray About Trauma That You Have Experienced

• Discuss/Pray About Forgiveness For People Involved With Past Trauma

To Pray (Church)

• Pray For Weekend Gatherings

• Pray For Weekend Speakers

Verses To Consider:

• Matthew 6:9–15 (ESV) Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread,  and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

• Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Takeaways From Today: