Homilist Genesis 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before you to preserve life. Is it allowable, in any case, to forgive ourselves? Some of those who have a proper sense of man's responsibility to his Maker would be inclined at first to say, No. Most of those whose views of man's responsibility are inadequate would at once reply, Yes. It is only too evident, in fact, that they do forgive themselves where they ought not. But does it follow that their reply can never, in any case, be correct? The text implies, on the one hand, that we ought to grieve for our sins; and, on the other, that there is a proper limit to grief. I. LET US CONSIDER OUR SINS IN THEIR ASPECT TOWARDS GOD, the most serious aspect of all. Acts of enmity and rebellion, treating God's law with dishonour and scorn. Cause enough here for being grieved and angry with ourselves. Yet, if these sins are repented of, and if we have true faith in the Redeemer's blood, there is an appointed balm for this wound. II. THE EFFECTS OF OUR SINS UPON MAN. "One sinner destroyeth much good" — like an infectious disease introduced into a community. There is not a greater murderer in existence than the man who, through neglect or obstinacy, should introduce a fever into a city. Is the man very much better who sins against other men's souls? Yet we have done this, all of us, in our time; we have sinned against many a soul, and we have occasioned many a pang and many a sin by our sins. On this account, therefore, it well becomes us to be grieved; and yet, as before, not to grieve in the way of despair. For if our sins have been repented of and forgiven, they are not the things that they were, either in God's sight or in their effects upon men. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. |
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