Have you ever had someone treat you badly? Maybe they were very nasty or hurt you in some terrible way. You may wonder why the Lord allowed that to happen to you.

Joseph was treated terribly by his brothers. They were jealous of him, hated him and so threw him in a pit and then later sold him as a slave to some traders. Some of the brothers even wanted to kill him.

When we read about these brothers, the Lord is reminding us of how sinful we all can be. Sometimes we do terrible things, too, that we later wish we had not done. Sometimes we do not obey God’s good commandments and instead do the wrong thing. At times our sins can be a burden to us. We feel really bad because of our sins. It feels a bit like a weight on our shoulders. We can almost feel sick because of the wrong things we have done.

The Lord wants us to feel this way about our sins so that we go to him in repentance. If we just ignored our sins and did not care about them, then we would continue to do the wrong thing and would not have a relationship with God. But we need to feel guilty because of our sins, so that we turn to God and ask him to forgive us.

And the Lord will forgive us for Jesus’ sake. Jesus Christ was also treated very badly by the people around him who should have been his spiritual brothers. Like Joseph’s brothers, these brothers were jealous of Jesus and rejected and hated him. They not only thought about killing Jesus, they did kill him. They crucified him on the cross. But God used the plans of these wicked men to bring salvation to mankind. Because of Jesus’ death we can now be saved from our sins.

When other people treat us badly, then we should never doubt that God is still with us. We might not understand why the Lord allows things to happen, but just like God cared for Joseph, so you can know that he will care for you.

Reflection with your child:

How can you see the Lord’s love for you in these verses?