Genesis 42:17 “And he [Joseph] put them all into custody for three days.” (NIV)*

Lamb (Photo credit: GrahamPics1)

Joseph, when your brothers came

Did years of emotion surge?

Did revenge seep through those Hebrew veins,

Flesh and blood seeking what they didn’t deserve?

………………..

Into a cistern, your life disdained

Those mockers sold you slave.

Now thrown in prison, their lives sustained

Kindred hands cupping their fate.

………………..

Three days to sift the years

To decide how to handle this twist.

Home came to you, uninvited yet near

In your grasp, the gavel sits.

………………..

Flashbacks of a richly ornamented robe

Those who stripped it, dipped it red.

For twenty shekels of silver your life they sold

Now in prison, they came begging bread.

………………..

Joseph, do you want to pin them to the wall

And tightly grip their necks?

Rubbing in your dream-come-true once for all

Label them spies, no one would suspect.

………………..

Or, will forgiveness rain down a flood

And mercy soften your hand?

Your robe, once stained by goat’s blood

To forgive in three days takes a lamb.

………………..

poem by Patty Perkins

*The One Year Bible, New International Version, copyright 1986, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois.