Genesis 45:1-28; Psalms 23:1-24:10; Matthew 26:1-30
I am Joseph…come near to me. Genesis 45:3-4
Joseph’s brothers couldn’t stand being near him, so they sold him. Fast forward to the end of the story. Powerful Joseph now has the opportunity to banish his begging brothers from his presence as they had done to him years before. What does Joseph say? “Come near to me.” What love! But listen on—he says it again: “And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me” (45:10). Such is the heart of God for us. He was not merely interested in pardoning us. He wants us who were once “far off” to be near to Him. How is such a thing possible? We are “made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). —Brian Cretney
So near, so very near to God, I cannot nearer be.
For in the person of His Son, I am as near as He. —Horatius Bonar