Another Gem

Neh. 5:1 A great cry arose over the matter of the Israelites being made bondmen of their brethren. Their cry reached Nehemiah who asked, Will ye even sell your brethren? Or shall they be sold unto us? They all had been servants in Babylon and now for them to exact upon their brethren the same thing was tragic. Joseph’s brethren sold him into slavery, Gen 37:28. It was cruelty. Later they were remembering their sin against Joseph, Gen 42:21, “we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us and we would not hear.” Again their guilt made them wonder, upon the death of Jacob, their father, if Joseph would exact vengeance upon them, Gen. 50:17 Joseph answered them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? He had forgiven them. True fasting is to undo the knots that bind others. It’s not easy to do it. God heals our wounds. Joseph named one of his sons, Manasseh, which means forgetting. He made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. Jo. 16 Jesus foretold his disciples sorrow turned to joy, and likened it unto when a woman travails in birth she is in anguish, but afterwards no more remembers the anguish for joy of the child’s birth. If we do not undo the knots, then we’ll suffer as it says in Neh 5:13, God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. When the older brother of the prodigal wouldn’t receive back his brother, he was without the house, angry and empty. Within the house was joy and fellowship with the father. Jesus was taken and bound unto the High Priest. He was further nailed to the cross. He was wounded for our sins and through him God made us to be delivered. Who am I to bind others whom Christ has loosed?