Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis. We will be in chapter 44 of Genesis. You can find this on page 38 of the Pew Bibles, Genesis 44 on page 38. But before we get into this study, I'd like to share with you a story about my grandfather, Robert Wilkie. Now, Pap really wasn't much of a churchgoer. In fact, I think the only preacher that he enjoyed listening to was my own father. And so I can't tell you much about his spiritual state, in a sense. But he did know something about sacrificing for others. My grandfather worked in an industrial plant in the Sheridan section of Pittsburgh for most of his life. But he had a real desire to be a truck driver. But one of the reasons he didn't become a truck driver, and he wouldn't have been satisfied doing local routes, he wanted to do long haul. But he didn't do that because of his family. Pap didn't believe that a man with a wife and kids should be on the road and away as often as a truck driver would have to be. And so he was willing to sacrifice his own desires for the sake of his family. And so we see something like that in this story tonight from Judah in this chapter. I'm sure that we are familiar with the Joseph story, but let's just recap a little bit. Remember, Jacob had 12 sons, and Joseph was the 11th of number 12. And so Joseph was a very special child in Jacob's eyes. And so as a result, often Jacob would show favoritism to Joseph. And this favoritism would create animosity between Joseph and his other brothers. It got to the point where his brothers wanted to actually have Joseph killed for this favoritism that Jacob was showing to their brother. But instead of that, they decided to sell him into slavery. And so they sold him to the Ishmaelites, who then in turn sold him into slavery to Potiphar in Egypt. And interestingly, no matter how much trouble would come Joseph's way, there would always be some kind of blessing in that as well. Joseph happened, as I said, became the slave of Potiphar, and as Potiphar's slave, Potiphar noticed something in Joseph that was a little greater than some of the other slaves, and so he put him in charge over his whole household. And in fact, other than Potiphar himself, nobody outranked Joseph in Potiphar's household. But Joseph was also a very handsome man, and Potphour's wife took notice of this and became infatuated with Joseph. And she was always trying to provoke him to have relations with her, but every time that she would come towards him, he would reject her propositions. And he would say, How can I commit this wicked sin against God? He would have seen having an affair with Potiphar's wife as a sin against God. But again, Potiphar's wife was relentless, and she kept coming after him, and one time it was very intense, and so Joseph just ran away. But when he ran away, Potiphar's wife happened to snatched hold of his garment and was holding on to it and had it in her possession. And so then what ended up happening was when she realized that Joseph would not yield to her, would not give in to her demands, she in turn decided to accuse him of trying to take advantage of her. And when Potter finds out about this, the text says that his anger kindled within him. Now the interesting thing though about Joseph in this story is that rather than having Joseph executed, he puts Joseph in prison. Perhaps he didn't really trust his wife in this case and thought that, well, one way I can protect Joseph from my wife is by putting him in prison. Even in prison, Joseph seemed to draw favor from his superiors. The head keeper of the prison saw something in Joseph and placed him in charge of the other prisoners. And so this is how Joseph ends up in Egypt and he becomes, again, a keeper in the prison, and then through a series of a couple dreams that took place. Two dreams by those who had been fellow inmates with Joseph in jail and prison, and then Pharaoh himself had a dream. And through these dreams, Joseph is elevated to the highest position in Egypt with only Pharaoh outranking him. And so this is how we come to our portion in the text tonight. There was a famine that took place in Egypt and it actually spread itself all the way out to Canaan. And one of the dreams that Pharaoh had was dealing with this dream. And Joseph was able to interpret the dream of Pharaoh. And so Egypt knew this famine was coming. There was going to be seven years of plenty, but then there was going to be seven years of famine. And so Egypt was prepared. They took provisions for this famine. And so the whole known world at the time has to come to Egypt for food because they are the only ones who were ready for this famine. And so again, this is how we come to our text today. The brothers of Joseph in Canaan have to go down to Egypt and have to get provisions and food, and they have to encounter their brother Joseph. Now at first they didn't realize that their brother Joseph is the one that they are dealing with. And so there were some difficulties with that. When they go to Egypt, Joseph knows that he recognizes his brothers, but he doesn't reveal himself right away. Through a series of tests, he tries to see where their hearts are at this point. He accuses of them being spies, and he actually holds Simeon captive and demands that unless you bring your brother Benjamin with you, your youngest brother, you will not see my face again. And so now in chapter 44, we have a situation where it appears that Benjamin had stolen a silver cup from Joseph's palace. And so when we read this text here, we see the interaction between Judah and Joseph and what's gonna happen with this apparent thievery of Benjamin. And so that's where we are in our text tonight. And so let's now pray as we turn to God's word. Holy Father, we do thank you for your written word, which is an expression of your word made flesh through Jesus Christ, and we pray now that your spirit would guide this time, that you would silence any voice but your own, and teach us by your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Hear now the word of the Lord from Genesis 44, beginning in verse 18. This is God's holy word. Then Judah went up to him, Joseph, and said, O my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servants, saying, have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, we have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. Then he said to your servants, bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him. We said to my lord, the boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. Then he said to your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord. And when our father said, go again, buy us a little food, we said, we cannot go down. If your youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down, for we cannot see the man's face unless our younger brother is with us. Then your servant, my father, said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have not seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol. Now therefore, as soon as I come to you, your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, then as his life is bound up in the boy's life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol. 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 will find my father. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. So our main focus tonight will mainly be just verses 32 through 34. We read the greater portion of this so that we can gather some context, but I would like us to focus mainly on those three verses. I would like to present a series of questions for you this evening. And so my first question to you, actually the overall question is, number one, are you willing to lay down your life for your brother? And so, now, the first question I would ask is, are you your brother's keeper? Are you your brother's keeper? Listen again to verse 32. 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. And so what we're seeing here is a pledge that Judah had made to his father Jacob back in chapter 43. Again, Benjamin is the youngest son of Jacob and he is very protective of Benjamin because it seems that as far as Jacob can tell, Joseph is dead and he doesn't want the same thing to happen to Benjamin. And so Judah explains to Jacob that if we're going to go back and get food for us from Egypt, then we must take our brother Benjamin with us. Joseph was very clear that if Benjamin is not with the brothers, they will not see Joseph. And so they must take Benjamin with them. And so, in chapter 43, this is where Judah explains to his father Jacob that, I will take responsibility for Benjamin. If something unforeseen happens to Benjamin, I will take responsibility for him. And it's interesting that we see Judah in this situation because if we look back at the life of Judah, he may be the least likely person that we would figure for this job. In chapter 38, Judah is seen having relations with a prostitute who ends up being his daughter-in-law, Tamar, although She had disguised herself and he didn't realize it was her, but nonetheless there was a child involved with this union. And then in chapter 37, Judah was very much a part of Joseph being sold into slavery. Now he did protect Joseph from being killed by the other brothers. They wanted to have him put to death, but Judah did step in and save his life. But he had no problem selling them away to the Ishmaelites. And so when we come to this portion and see Judah willing to lay down his life for his brother, we see a change in Judah. We see a new Judah, one who's willing to sacrifice his own benefit for his brother. Again, Judah makes this pledge to Jacob, but perhaps it was an outlandish gesture. Back in chapter 42, Reuben makes the same gesture. Again, they're going to go back to Egypt and get food, and they explain to Jacob how intensely and harshly Joseph, they didn't realize it was Joseph, but how hard this guy was pressuring them and questioning them. And Ruben says, concerning taking Benjamin, kill my two sons if I don't bring Benjamin back. Now, we have the same thing with Judah here, except Judah is willing to give him his own life for Joseph. But perhaps they didn't believe that this would actually come about. Perhaps these were, you know, gestures of, well, you know, just outlandish gestures. But then when Judah sees these things happening to Benjamin. He's being accused of stealing this cup and they can't explain why Benjamin has this cup. But for whatever reason, Judah's willing to step in. Judah is willing to take whatever punishment will come Benjamin's way. So when we think about giving for others, sacrificing for others, Solomon talks about this in Proverbs 17, verse 17, he says, a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Solomon's here talking about the difference between somebody who's a friend and somebody who's a brother. A friend may come and go. He may stick his neck out for you on small matters, but when it comes down to what is really important, what is really necessary, a brother will stick by you. And that's what we see Judah doing here with Benjamin. He's sticking by his brother. And, of course, Apostle Paul talks to us about bearing one another's burdens in Galatians 6, and I've noticed that you all have a prayer list in your bulletin, and we have the same thing at Providence. And when we pray for each other, and we go to God and intercede for each other, You know, there are times when the things we're praying for are praiseworthy. Like if a new baby is coming into the world or a new young couple has gotten engaged, those are things that we praise God for. But we also come along beside people when there's times when we need to be mourning for each other. Like if somebody announces that they suddenly have cancer or, God forbid, a child who was just announced has died in the womb. So we rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and we mourn with those who are mourning. And so, the initial question I asked, are you your brother's keeper? Absolutely you're your brother's keeper. You want to be that friend who sticks closer than a brother, and you want to be that friend, that brother, who bears the burdens of your fellow Christians. And so yes, we do want to be our brother's keeper. So the second question I would ask is, are you willing to suffer for the sake of your brother? Are you willing to suffer for the sake of your brother? Again, in verse 33, we see this, And so, There's one thing that we know about this story that the people in it didn't. We know that Benjamin didn't steal this cup. If we look back at the beginning of chapter 44, we will see that Joseph was actually the one who commanded to have this cup put in Benjamin's bag. At the time, we don't know why he is doing this, but we know from our perspective that Benjamin didn't steal this cup. And so, but the boys, the Israelite brothers, do not know this. They don't know what we know in this story. And so, when Judah sees that his brother is in danger, who knows what the Egyptians would have done to Benjamin as this thief. They may have subjected him to some really hard labor. And so when Judah sees what's happening, when he sees what's happening to his brother Benjamin, you know, whatever reason this cup is here, whatever reason Benjamin has this cup in his possession, Judah is going to take whatever punishment comes his way. Whatever punishment would have been due to Benjamin, Judah is going to take that himself. And so when we think about this kind of sacrificing for someone else, we have to remember the words that Jesus spoke in John 15. John 15, Jesus says that one of the best things that somebody can do for someone else is to lay down his life for a friend. And then in Hebrews chapter two, we hear that not only are we considered Christ's friends, but Christ considers us His brethren. He's not ashamed to call us His brethren. And so laying down His life for His brethren was very much a big part of Jesus' earthly ministry. And so we can see the parallel here between Judah's life and his willingness to sacrifice for his brother, and Christ's own willingness to sacrifice for us. Remember Hebrews 2, Christ considers us his brethren. He's laying down his life for his brothers. And beloved, remember one thing, your sins did not just fly away. Christ had to come, and He had to pay dearly for every good thought, word, or action that proceeds from you. And so Jesus came, and He suffered God's divine wrath for my sake, and for your sake. I should have been the one to suffer what Christ suffered, and so should you. But He stepped in, and He suffered on our behalf. Whatever sufferings should have been ours, Christ took that Himself. And so when we think of this story here in Genesis, we ought to see the parallel between what Judah is doing here in Christ's own ministry. Judah interceded for Benjamin, and Christ intercedes for us. Paul in Romans 9 was also willing to intercede for others. He even declared that if he could, he would lose his own salvation for the sake of his Jewish countrymen. Now we know he couldn't do something like that. Nobody can give up their salvation for someone else. That's how much his heart ached for his Jewish brethren, that in large numbers they were not coming to Christ. And if we read the book of Acts and we see the progression of the early church, it wasn't long. We're talking a couple years where the face of the New Testament church went from being mainly Jewish to almost overwhelmingly Gentile. It was only a couple years' time there. And Paul's desire was always to see his countrymen, the Jews, come to faith. And he would have been willing, as I said, to give up his own salvation if he could have. Now I don't know if any of us would be willing to go that far. I don't think that any of us would be willing to give up our own salvation for someone else. But we ought to always have this mentality where we're willing to give as much as we can for the sake of our brothers. And so I think that we see this spirit in Judah here. Again, Judah had a rough history. We're surprised that he's the one who's giving so much for his brother, but we see a similar feeling in Judah for his brother, as Paul had for his Jewish countrymen, and of course, as Christ has for each of us, his brethren. And so I have another question to ask, and this is actually going to take us in a different direction than where we've been. So what I'd like to ask is this. Are you willing to suffer for your brother so that the father is glorified? Are you willing to suffer so that the father is glorified? And again, listen to verse 34. 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. And so there's somebody else who needs to be considered in this passage other than just Benjamin, and that is Jacob. And Jacob has suffered a lot. We are familiar with his struggles with his brother Esau, and then later on he has struggles with Laban. But none of those things between Laban and Esau could really compare to what he had been going through these last couple of years. He believes his son Joseph is dead. Now it's possible that his brothers possibly suspected he was alive somewhere. Because they know they sold him into slavery, and so there's a chance that he's still alive. But as far as Jacob is concerned, Joseph was eaten by that wild beast. And so Judah is concerned for his father. He doesn't want to see any more harm come to his father. Now, there is a theological error that floats around, and it goes sort of like this. God the Son is loving and caring, but God the Father is not. And so God the Son has to step in and take the brunt from this vengeful, wrathful God the Father, But the truth of the matter is that God the Father is just as much delighted in the plan of redemption as God the Son is. In John 3, 16, Jesus says that God so loved the world, and we're talking about the Father here, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And then in Luke chapter 12, Jesus says that the Father delights in giving us the kingdom. And so when we think about the death of Christ, think about how He was willing to suffer for us, He very much was pleasing the Father with that. And so, while I would not want to have a hard parallel between Jacob and the Father here, there's a sense in which Judah is also trying to please his father Jacob in a similar manner as Christ was pleasing the Father. Yes, you know, when Christ laid down His life, it was for our sake. It was for my sins and your sins. But ultimately, His willingness to follow this plan for redemption was pleasing to the Father. So when we think about laying down our life for our brothers and our sisters, It may not necessarily be literal. We may never be faced with a situation that Judah was faced where he had to really step in and possibly go to prison, maybe even be executed for his brother Benjamin. But I will tell you this, I go to seminary with a number of international students. Many are from China. And when they graduate, a lot of them will be going back to China. And so for them, the reality of having to lay down their life physically for the sheep may be a much greater reality than it will be for any of us here in the States. We are always worried, or I shouldn't say worried, but we're always aware that the cultural shift in our country is less and less inviting to Christians. But whether in our lifetime we'll see the kind of persecution they see in China is really hard for us to say right now. But even if we're not called to physically lay down our lives or to physically become a slave for someone else, we are still called to empathize for our brothers and sisters. We're called to maybe sacrifice our time and our talents and maybe even our resources. But again, when we do that, when we are willing to sacrifice for our brothers and give of ourselves for them, it's not just for their sake. We are pleasing our Heavenly Father when we do these things. And so as a Christian, God does expect you, God does expect me to look after each other. And this does bring glory to our Father. So, again, the question that I raised at the beginning, this is one we should contemplate. Are you willing to lay down your life for your brother? Let's pray. Eternal Father, we do thank you for this word. Again, we pray that you would enable us to look at these stories. And of course, they're not just stories, they are historical events. They did indeed happen as we find it written in scripture. But we also know that all Scripture is pointing towards Christ in some way, and we see in Judah a shadow of Christ. Christ's willingness to sacrifice for others. His brethren, who we believe are those who are Christ's followers. And so we pray now that we would be able to apply these truths that when we consider our brothers and sisters in Christ, even if it's just in small, everyday ways, that we would be willing to lay down our lives for each other. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.