30 Little Things: The Book of Genesisعينة

The Right to Judge.

Compared to Joseph, we are nothing. Our position in our community is surely not higher than Joseph's position. He was the second most powerful man in Egypt after Pharaoh, he manage and was in charge of practically everything that goes down in Egypt. As high as our position might be in our communities, surely we don't have that big of authority that we can somehow run an entire country. So, it is clear that we are much less compared to Joseph. However, a lot of times we forget how small we are that we act like we have the authorities that not even Joseph had. In Genesis 50:19, Joseph said he had no right to punish other people. He knew he wasn't God and that meant he didn't have any right to judge and punish people.

Comparing between us and Joseph, don't we often times take up God's right to judge people into our own hands? We do this all the time when we look at other people. But really, who are we to judge? Joseph is already such a big man in Egypt, yet he kept his humility before the Lord.

We will see people doing things we don't like, saying things we disagree on and dressing up differently than most people, but it is not our place to judge them and even worse, punish them. It is up to God to bring us into justice. Our job is to not respond in anger and offense, but to respond in love and prayer towards offenses.