What You Meant for Evil: Genesis 50:15-21

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?"

Jacob was dead. The patriarch who had held the family together, whose presence had perhaps restrained Joseph's justice, was gone. And the old fear surfaced.

What if Joseph has been waiting all this time? What if forgiveness was just a performance while Father lived?

So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father."