Lesson 32: Nothing is Unforgivable

“When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him” Genesis 37:4.

Joseph’s brothers hated him because their father loved him the most (Genesis 37:3). An elaborate coat Jacob gave Joseph shouted this favoritism to everyone who saw Joseph wearing it. As a result, his brothers took the opportunity one day, when Joseph came to visit them in the fields where they were working, to get rid of him. They intended to kill him, but the oldest brother talked them out of that; instead they sold Joseph to some passing traders as a slave.

We often think we must “forgive and forget.” While that is what God does (Isaiah 43:25 and Psalm 103:12), nowhere in the Bible does God tell us we must forget the sin we have forgiven. Joseph’s situation is a great example of why forgetting is sometimes impossible. He was far from home, a slave who could not leave his master, living in a situation that eventually made him a prisoner as well as a slave (Genesis 39). Forgiving means letting go of what happened, giving what was done to you to Jesus.

We know Joseph forgave his brothers soon after he was sold, even though he could not tell them. How? We see it in the way he acted toward his master in Egypt. He served Potiphar well; so well, in fact, that Potiphar made Joseph the overseer of everything he owned. It is impossible for us to live peacefully in the unwanted consequences of someone else’s action against us without having forgiven those who caused our pain or injury.


Another proof we see that Joseph forgave his brothers was that he treated Potiphar’s wife righteously when she tempted him. Had Joseph still been angry at his brothers, his anger would have transferred to this situation where he would have wronged Potiphar without anyone probably discovering his sin; he would have felt it was his right to get something for himself out of this bad situation. He did not do so.

What helped Joseph when he could not forget? He gave the whole problem to God! He had learned from his father’s stories of how Laban and Esau had harmed him. He remembered God’s promises to Jacob, and how those promises had been kept (Genesis 35).

Then came the impossible; he met his brothers again (Genesis 42-44)! Joseph, now a man of great power second only to the king of Egypt, could easily have sought and been granted justice by the king. But, rather than seeking vengeance on his brothers, he did the hard work of seeking reconciliation with them. He looked for assurance that they had changed from what he had experienced from them nearly 20 years before. He tested to see if they still harbored jealousy in their hearts. He even set up a situation to see how they would treat his own younger brother, Benjamin, differently: would they sacrifice him for their own gain? He worked toward and won reconciliation even though his brothers were afraid of him.

Relationships, whether they are friends or family, deserve our hardest work of forgiveness.

Memorize: Genesis 50:20 – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”