# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_Juni 1948_S41
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner
NEWSPAPER FOR EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONGREGATIONS
IN GERMANY

"If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:31–32.

Number 6                    Frankfurt am Main, June 1948                    Year 2

Holy Tears

Genesis 46:29. And Joseph made ready his
chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father,
to Goshen, and presented himself unto him;
and he fell on his neck, and wept on his
neck a good while.

That was a moving moment, when Joseph
was permitted to see his beloved father again
after 22 years of separation. He fell upon
his neck and wept a good while on his neck.
Moving tears! — There are many kinds of
tears, noble, holy, but also unholy ones.
Whoever weeps out of anger or wounded pride
weeps unholy tears. But there are also holy
tears, tears of repentance, such as Peter wept
on the night of Maundy Thursday, or tears of
joy, or tears of compassion. Yet the holiest
tears are surely those which Joseph wept here
upon his father's neck. He looked back upon
the path of his life. What dark paths he had
been forced to walk! It was 22 years since
his brothers had sold him as a slave into
Egypt. How he had pleaded with them then
with tears, but it did not help. With cold
hearts, with hatred in their eyes, they had
given him up. Then came the sale on the
slave market and the harsh servant's lot in
Potiphar's house, the seductive enticements
of his mistress and her hatred when he would
not do her will, then the long time in prison
— ah, what dark hours! Ever deeper the way
led, ever darker it became in his soul. How
he had cried out to his God, in how many
sleepless nights had he gazed heavenward
through the barred window of his dungeon!
Had his God forgotten him, cast him off?
A hard, hard trial of faith for years, which
sometimes almost exceeded his strength! —
Then, all at once, the light of divine grace
and kindness broke into the midst of the
darkness of his overwhelming distress. He
was unexpectedly brought out of prison
before Pharaoh's throne, he was permitted
to interpret the mighty king of Egypt's

The LORD's counsel is wonderful,
and he carries it out gloriously.
(Isaiah 28:29)

Let us learn the order which God is accustomed to observe in the governance of his saints.
I too have often presumed to prescribe to our Lord God a certain manner
which he should use in governing either his church or other
matters. "Ah Lord, I would gladly have this happen according to such order,
and that it should have such an outcome!" But God did the very opposite of what
I had asked. Then I thought to myself at the time: "Well, my counsel is surely
not against God's honor, but will be very useful, so that thereby the name
of God be hallowed, his kingdom gathered and increased, etc.; in sum: it is
indeed a fine counsel and well considered." But God has without doubt
laughed at such wisdom and said: "Very well, I know well that you are an
understanding, learned man, but I have never been in the habit of letting Peter
or Doctor Martinus, or whoever it might be, instruct, govern, or lead me. I am
not such a God as lets himself be taught or governed, but one who is accustomed
to lead, govern, and teach others."
Luther

dream, he was heaped with royal honors,
he, the poor, dishonored slave, was permitted
to sit enthroned on a royal seat beside
Pharaoh. He felt as one in a dream! God's
goodness and kindness were incomprehensible!
But the miracle of grace grew still greater.
One day his brothers appeared before him.
During the great famine, which lay also
over Canaan, they had come as far as
Egypt to buy grain. Astonished, Joseph
sees how the dark veils fall away which
God had spread over the path of his life.
Astonished and adoring, he recognizes the
holy, wondrous ways of his heavenly Father,
God's high, holy wisdom, his incomprehensible
mercy, his eternal, unchanging faithfulness.
Then tears of holy adoration come to him.
Five times we are told of this. (Genesis 42:24;
43:30; 45:2; 45:14; 46:29) Especially
when, after the long years of separation
and affliction, he is permitted to see again his

youngest, beloved brother Benjamin and then
his old, dear father, and when it then comes
to his awareness that he himself has been
permitted to become an instrument of blessing
for many peoples, he weeps in adoration of
God a long while upon the neck of his brother
and of his father.

Yes, God's thoughts lead on high, far above
our small human thoughts. In your life too!
Do you not think so? You too have surely
already been led along heavy, dark paths,
especially in recent years. You have perhaps
become homeless, perhaps separated from your
own, live far from your congregation or in a
wretched, miserable room, have become poor
in possessions and goods, or you have had to
give up the person dearest to you or know
nothing at all of him. Ever darker has your
life become. But do you not think that you too
will one day weep tears of holy adoration?
God will one day take away the veils as well,