Fool Me Twice...

 Read Genesis 44

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

The saying emerged in the English and Scottish cultures about 500 years ago.  It means if you are out to deceive me, that’s all on you. That’s about who you are. If you are a deceiver, then shame on you.

But if you fool me once and I didn’t learn the lesson, then that’s on me. I am expected to learn from my life experience.

Solomon thought it appropriate to pass on godly, life experiences, mostly in the Proverbs.  We should learn from our life experiences.  The wise learn from the shared experience of others. If we don’t, then shame on us.

So, 11 brothers departed Joseph’s household with bags full of grain.  Of the 11, 10 had done this drill before, but not one of them said, “Let’s inspect our loads before we head out.  Remember what happened last time.”

We can discuss the reasons why Joseph had his cup put in Benjamin’s bag ad naseum, but at least 1 of the 10 older brothers should have had the wherewithal to say, “Hold your horses—ok donkeys—we are not going anywhere until we check the contents of our bags.”

It’s as if they were the forerunners of TSA.  Did anyone put anything in your bag that you don’t know about?

How do you answer that other than no?  How do I know if I don’t know?

My formative political years were the Reagan years.  The United States and the Soviets were mutually reducing the number of nuclear warheads we had.  Each country would self-report, but Reagan had this policy of trust, but verify.

As a Marine officer, it was essential to trust your Marines.  You trusted but you also inspected.

My point is that these knuckleheads should have inspected their loads before they left. But they didn’t and so Joseph was able to have his brothers returned to him once again without having to reveal himself to them.

That revelation was coming soon, but for now, it appears he was wondering how they would treat their youngest brother.  Joseph knew how they treated him.  Were these the same men they were 2 decades ago?

Apparently, there had been some remorse.  As we will examine in the next service, they were not fully repentant, but they did care greatly for Benjamin, if only because they knew how the loss of him would devastate their father.

This whole cup in the sack ploy moves the story along faster than if the 11 brothers returned home and didn’t come back until they ran out of food again, and they would have run out again.  The famine would last 7 seven years.

Joseph had seen his brother Benjamin, but he also wanted to see his father.  What had his father been thinking all of this time? His brothers had not revealed to Joseph the story they concocted and told their father after they sold him into slavery. There is more to come, but for now, let’s keep it simple and relevant only to this part of the story.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

We are people of forgiveness but we are also people of wisdom.  We must learn from our life experiences.

We will talk about repentance in the next service, but for now, let’s talk experience and growth.

If we want to fulfill our commission and make disciples and teach people, we need to learn from our life experiences and be able to help others in their life experiences.

If you repeat the same mistakes over and over at your job, you might need to find a new job.

If you forget to change the oil in your car every 3000 or 5000 miles—some of these new vehicles don’t need oil changes as frequently—but if you keep forgetting, you might be needing a new vehicle.

If you forget to charge your phone overnight, you might have to talk to people face to face.

These 10 brothers needed to be a bit gullible to move the story along in the way we know it.  We don’t.

Most of the time when I pray with teachers or students, I ask God to grant those coming to learn a teachable spirit.  We need that disposition as well.

Jesus tells us to take his yoke and learn from him.  That learning often begins in our life experience.

So today, the thought that I send you out with is this.  Lord, grant us a teachable spirit.  Help us to learn so that we may better serve you and love our neighbors.

Amen.