Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.” (Genesis 42:21)

Joseph’s brothers had treated him terribly. Their jealousy was understandable, because their little brother Joseph was openly favored by their father. They hated him so much that they beat him and sold him as a slave to desert wanderers headed for Egypt. After many years their conscience may have quieted, but it never died.

When problems rose as they tried to buy grain in Egypt, the brothers thought the mess happened because of the way they treated Joseph many years before. Their conscience said, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, and we are getting what we deserve.”

Was this a good thing? It probably was good. The quickness with which they associated these events with their long-before sin against Joseph probably meant that they often remembered their sin against him. After all, there was not a completely logical connection between their present problems and their previous treatment of Joseph. But a guilty conscience sees every trouble as the penalty of some prior sin.

The United States government has something called the Federal Conscience Fund, which collects money that people send in because they know they have cheated the government in some way. People have sent in money after taking army blankets for souvenirs, after cheating on postage, or cheating on their income tax. But our consciences are notoriously weak or corrupt. One man wrote the IRS and said, “I cheated on my taxes and can’t sleep at night. Here is a check for $100. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send the rest I owe.”

Some have described the conscience as the “sundial of the soul.” Like a sundial, the conscience is reliable when there is light, but in darkness it is of no use. At night, you could shine a flashlight on a sundial and make it read any time you want it to.

The human conscience is a gift from God, but it isn’t infallible. It can be either dulled or made overly sensitive. It works best under the light of God’s word. When the light of God’s word shines on our conscience, it is reliable and trustworthy. Otherwise, our conscience can become like a trained dog: whistle once, it stands up; whistle twice, it rolls over; whistle a third time and it plays dead.

When trouble comes, do you immediately think it is the consequence for a sin you have committed? Do you live under the burden of a guilty conscience? Jesus can change that.

Hebrews 9:14 asks the right question: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

If you need a conscience-cleaning today, talk to Jesus about it. He’s a specialist in that procedure.