When Joseph’s brothers went down to Egypt to buy food, as Canaan was also suffering in the famine, they unknowingly met Joseph who was in charge of selling food. Joseph recognised them and demanded that to prove they were not spies one of them must be left and they must bring their youngest brother Benjamin, Joseph’s only true brother, to Egypt. Benjamin had been left behind at the insistence of their father Jacob who did not want to lose the only other son of his beloved wife Rachel.
When the brothers heard Joseph’s demands they immediately saw it as a punishment for what they had done to him 20 years before (Genesis 42: 21 – 22). Reuben quickly tries to distance himself from their wrong actions and adds blame to their very guilty consciences. It is amazing how much the guilt of what they had done to Joseph and the grief they had caused their father still weighed heavily on them after all these years.
This is what a guilty conscience does. It weighs us down and is never far from our thoughts. When things go wrong we immediately go back to that wrong act or decision we made and decide that is to blame and the reason why we are now experiencing difficulties.
When Jesus died on the cross he not only took our sins but also our guilt and shame. Jesus doesn’t forgive our sins but leave us with a guilty conscience about them. He took the guilt as well and he has no desire for us to live under the weight of it. Nor are our past bad actions or poor decisions causing punishment that leads to difficulties now. As Jesus said as he died, ‘It is finished.’ The grip of sin, death, guilt and shame is broken. The blood of Jesus cleanses our guilty consciences declaring us not guilty in the eyes of everyone including ourselves.
The devil loves to play the blame game and remind us of our past. He wants us drowning in guilt and shame but we must let God renew our minds and wash away every trace of guilt and shame. It does not make us more humble to be reminded of our past failures – instead it paralyses us from moving on. We always have the ball and chain of guilt dragging along behind us.
Cut the chain and decide today to resist every thought that takes us back to those failures. Ask Jesus to cleanse your conscience with his precious blood and declare ‘Today I have the mind of Christ. My conscience is clear. My guilt and shame have been taken away and I am free to live and serve the living God to the fullness of my being.’
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