In the previous segment, Judah pledged himself as surety for the safe return of Benjamin. The person in charge of the food in Egypt had demanded that the sons of Israel bring him with them on their next trip or face rejection in their plea for food.
They proceeded down to Egypt and came before the man, as they called him. They only knew him as the man. The man stood before them and demanded, “Did you bring your brother?” At this moment, he saw his brother and couldn’t take it. He excused himself from their company and went into a private room. Joseph wept loudly because he saw Benjamin.
He cleaned himself up and came back. Doubts still plagued Joseph’s mind about his brothers’ characters. Had they really changed? So, he invited them to his house for lunch. Oh, can you imagine the fear that went through those brothers’ minds?
As they assembled to go to Joseph’s house, they talked among themselves of their predicament. “What has the man got in mind? First he threw us in prison. Then, he let us out and kept one of us. Next, he demanded that we bring our brother back with us on our next visit. We brought back Benjamin, and now he wants us. Surely, he plans to kill us.”
Their fears did not materialize. Following lunch, Joseph sent them on their way home with their grain. Again, he put their money back into the grain sacks. In Benjamin’s sack, he placed his personal silver chalice. Shortly after they had left he calls his steward and says, “Steward, chase those boys down. Somebody has got my silver chalice in their bag.”
The steward, not knowing all that had transpired, chased after them, and caught them. He began a search of their bags of grain. As he searched, he said, “One of you guys has got the man’s chalice in your bag.” He searched though the bags and found the silver chalice in Benjamin’s bag.
The steward demanded that they all return with him to meet the man. When they met the man, Joseph, he said that the one whose bag had the chalice would die. Joseph tested his brothers with a serious test. He wanted to know if they had changed.
Judah, the one whom you would not bring home to momma a few years ago, the one who made the surety to his father for Benjamin, stepped up. Judah said,
“For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.” (Genesis 44:32-34)
What has Judah become? A substitute. Not only a surety, he went the extra mile and offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin. “I will take his place. According to your judgment, my brother Benjamin deserves death. But, I will take his place. Send him back home with his brothers to his father. Release him. Free him. I will take his place.”
What a change. Judah, the one who sold Joseph became a substitute for his brother. Joseph, the man, could not take it any longer. He blurted out, “I am Joseph. I am your brother.” After this revelation, the brothers went home, got their father and other family and household people and moved down to Egypt to join Joseph. They would have plenty of food to sustain their lives.
Why would God move upon Moses to include these series of events in this history of Judah? What does God want us to see? He wants us to see the change in Judah. In many ways, we resemble Judah: scoundrels, liars, and thieves…sinners at heart.
Now, we do not like to call ourselves that. We like to brush ourselves up and make ourselves look good, certainly not as bad as others.
In whose eyes do you describe yourself as not as bad as others? Yet, we all have hearts just like Judah. God wants us to see ourselves in Judah, because God changed Judah. God worked with him through the series of events of life, through meeting with Joseph, and by Joseph’s tests of his character. God worked in the heart and life of Judah and changed him from a scoundrel to a surety and substitute on behalf of his brother. God can change our lives, too.
God also wants us to see how Judah provides a link to God’s plan of redemption. God had a wondrous plan when he created the heavens and the earth. He looked upon all of it at the end of six days and called it very good. No sin, no evil, no hostilities inhabited his creation.
But, sin entered. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They chose to yield to the temptation of the serpent instead of obeying the voice of God. God in grace and in mercy came down to them and made a promise. “I will send a Savior. I will send someone, the seed of the woman who will crush the head of that evil, vile serpent.” (Genesis 3.15)
From that point throughout the rest of Scripture, God progressively reveals his plan of redemption. He described how it would come to fruition. He gave us pictures of this Messiah who would come, providing them through the prophets for the people of their day. He explained this Messiah so that they would not miss him, and so that they would trust God in anticipation of this Messiah who would come.
Judah? Oh, he gives us a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. The next segment will explain the picture that he provides.
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