Reflecting on Sin
Genesis 42:17–22
Surely we are being punished because of our brother. Genesis 42:21 (NIV)

Solitude! It is a valuable gift of God. In solitude people meet God. One thing solitude did for these guilty brothers of Joseph was cause them to reason spiritually. They thought as most worldlings do, namely: “It’s a mechanical world; God does not exist or at least he does not intervene here. Who is to say that I’ve sinned? Who has a right to hold me to an accounting?” Then God did intervene, and suddenly the brothers’ tune changed: “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come upon us. . . . Now we must give an accounting for his blood” (vv. 21–22 NIV).

Calamity is not always a proof of past sin. Still, if calamity has come to your life and God has used it to bring the memory of your wrongdoings to mind, you know that you cannot escape the moral consequences of your sin by quibbles. Never mind that some suffer innocently! Never mind that God works in some suffering merely to bring himself glory! That is not your case. You see the connection. You know you are guilty. You know that God is not letting you escape unscathed. He is buffeting you to bring you to repentance.

I speak here of the effect of solitude to encourage spiritual reasoning. For God uses solitude to “bring us to our senses.” He reminds us of the connection between sin and its consequences.

But this is not the only way God causes us to reason spiritually. He causes us to reason about salvation also, saying, “Come now, let us reason together . . . though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isa. 1:18). As the brothers of Joseph thought about their past sins, those sins rose up before them like a horrible blood-red mass. They saw no hope of cleansing. They saw only a just and terrible retribution for their wrongdoing. It is the retribution we will see if we remain unrepentant. “Sin means death!” But God continued to work in them so that in time they freely confessed their sins and found salvation through the atoning blood of him who was to come. Christ’s blood washed their red sins white. And they became, not merely redeemed men, but even revered fathers of the tribes of Israel.

You may not have committed the sins Judah or any of these others committed but you have sins of your own. Perhaps God is bringing them to your mind even now. You need to confess them and find salvation through Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the world’s sin.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.