Stuff

 

“Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is your’s.”

—Genesis 45:20

Stuff—my how it accumulates! Generally speaking we don’t think about all the things we have until we are forced to clean out or get ready for a move. Sometimes we simply rearrange our “stuff.” Other times, we give it away or sell it in order to get rid of it.

When Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers who sold him into Egypt, he informed Pharaoh, in whose service he now worked, that they and his father had come from the land of Canaan seeking food during a time of intense famine. So, magnanimously, the king gave to this family of shepherds the beautiful area of Goshen in which to live.

It was during this conversation that Pharaoh told them to leave their “stuff”—as translated in the KJV—behind. These brothers, hateful, spiteful, and murderous of their brother Joseph, were now given a rich future of plenty in the choice area of Egypt.

I love what Charles Spurgeon wrote of this exchange:

How Joseph’s goodness contrasted with their former cruelty. They sent him naked to strangers, he sends them in new and rich liveries; they took a small sum of money for him, he gives them large treasures; they sent his torn coat to his father, he sends variety of costly garments; they sold him to be the load of camels, he sends them home in chariots.” ¹

The parallels to God’s grace, given to us in Jesus Christ, couldn’t be stronger. Obediently, we come to Him carrying our “stuff” from our sinful past. Knowing we have betrayed Him, rebelled against Him, and treated Him with contempt with our behavior and our rejection of Him, He comes to us and says, “Leave your stuff behind. I have greater riches for you than you could ever imagine. Come to me.”

In John 6:37, Jesus Himself, the King with whom we come in our famished state, says:

“Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

God wants us to leave behind the stuff of our sinful past. We can come to Him, with nothing, and He will fill us with His riches. What an unequal, but blessed, exchange!

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1 Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1982. p. 57.