#WhenTrustIsBroken

Dare To Believe When Trust Is Broken

Our core trust should be in the Lord and him alone. He will never let us down.

We also have to trust our leaders, our parents, and friends and so on. So what do you do when that trust is broken? What does a husband/wife do when their partner cheats? What does a parent do when their child is raped/molested by a relative or friend? What can you do when you are betrayed by your family members? What do you do when a Pastor divulges privileged information that you shared trusting they are your leader? What do you do when your leaders offend you? What do you do when a congregant betrays you as a pastor?

I can go on and on with these questions. The point is that somewhere in the course of our lives people who we have trusted will let us down. We don’t like to talk about sour topics but we can’t run away from them. At a certain point in our lives trust will be broken.

Let’s take Joseph as an example. His brothers were jealous of him and wanted to kill him but eventually sold him into slavery. Let’s take a look at the story in Genesis 37:23-36

And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.

Can you even begin to imagine what was going on in Joseph’s mind at this point? His own brothers had sold him into slavery. Apart from the degradation of the favored son of an influential man being made a slave, think of the heartbreak and agony of knowing your own family has sold you into slavery.

Now in this case Joseph’s brothers betrayed both their brother and their father. At the time the father did not know what had transpired but Joseph did and I can only begin to imagine his thoughts and feelings on his way to Egypt. Being in chains did not help the situation.

Life eventually gets better for Joseph. He begins to rise in the house of his master Potiphar. However a problem arises as Potiphar’s wife continually seduces him to sleep with her but he refuses. The wife eventually accuses Joseph of trying to rape her and he is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. This is the second time that the trust was broken. If Joseph had been someone else he would have easily given up on life. The challenge of having trust broken is if you are not careful it changes your perspective of life, it changes the way you see people.

So Joseph is in prison. And a third opportunity arises for him to trust again. He interprets the dreams of the baker and wine bearer of Pharaoh. He tells the wine bearer that once he is restored to his post according to the interpretation of Joseph he should make mention of Joseph to Pharaoh. Unfortunately the wine bearer forgets Joseph and for the third time trust is broken again. It took 2 full years for the wine bearer to remember Joseph and this only after Pharaoh had a dream that his astrologers and magicians could not interpret. Can you imagine what went through Joseph’s head during these two years? Joseph was strong in faith!

We have to be strong in faith. We have to Dare To Believe that no matter what is done to us by other people, God sees all we go through and he will pull us through and raise us up. I understand why Joseph is in faith’s hall of fame. He was truly a man of faith.

Now here is the climax of the whole story. You will need to read Genesis 42-45, I will just glean gems from this whole story. In Genesis 42 the brothers of Joseph are sent to Egypt seeking grain. Joseph recognizes them but he does not immediately reveal himself to them. He had to test them first. When someone breaks your trust do not just quickly go back to them or give them your heart again, you have to observe them from a distance and go through a period of testing if they are worth you giving them your trust again. That is what Joseph did. First he spoke roughly to them. Why did he do this, he wanted to see their reaction. Remember Joseph knew his brothers very well. So he had to see if their hearts had changed or if they were still the same old same old. When someone has broken your trust you have to test them first to see if they are worth you trusting them again. Don’t be foolish and just trust again without proper due diligence.

Next he puts them all in prison for 3 days. This was all a test. On the third day he takes the brothers out of prison but then takes Simeon and keeps him in prison as security to ensure that the brothers would return. What is he doing here? He is trying to see where their loyalties lie. He is trying to bring out what is in their hearts. He also then puts back their monies that had come with to buy grain in Egypt. Before you trust again you have to really find out if a person has changed. Joseph had learnt his lessons. His trust had been broken 3 times and he had to make sure. But he still was believing for the best. That is what we have to do, we have to believe for the best in people but all this is done in wisdom.

The brothers return after some time, this time they return with the youngest brother Benjamin. They had not come with him on the first trip. Joseph new how he had been treated and he knew that Benjamin had taken his place as his father’s favorite. So now he had to put the brothers through one more test. He brings them into his house and serves them to a meal. He puts a penta-portion in Benjamin’s plate. Why is he doing this? He wants to see his brother’s reaction to seeing the younger brother being favored while they were treated ordinarily. Oh my Joseph was a man of wisdom. You have to focus on the weaknesses of the person who broke your trust before you can give them your trust again. Why do this? Because you want to test if they have changed yet. If they have not yet changed then they are not worth you giving them your trust again for it will surely be broken!

The final test is in Genesis 44. Joseph wants to see if his brothers have truly changed. He creates a scenario where he Benjamin is at fault and he wants to take him and says all the brothers can go their way. If they had not yet changed they would just have left Benjamin at the mercy of Joseph. But the brothers had changed. And that is all that Joseph needed to know. After this final test he then trusts the brothers again. When trust is broken its easy to get bitter and want revenge but you have to DARE TO BELIEVE and forgive and work towards building that trust again.

Whatever has been done to you I want you to know that in God there is redemption. Let us DARE TO BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!!