As a pastor, there is nothing quite as enjoyable as seeing someone "get it." There is a moment when a Word is delivered, a circumstance comes, or an inspired moment happens and the lights come on. Their life is changed. Jesus makes sense and they are renewed.
This is one of those moments for Judah...
Genesis 44:33–34 (ESV) 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. 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.”
Judah was not always a good man, but this was his moment and in his moment he took his stand. Like Jesus, he was unwilling to go back to his father without his father's love (captured son Benjamin) even though it would probably cost him his life. Jesus was not willing to abandon the cross. Instead, Jesus took our place and became our penal substitutionary atonement (see also). Jesus rescued us and Judah rescued Benjamin. Judah finally got that it is better to give your life for love of others than to live for self.
Judah's decision to sacrifice himself led to God's blessing on his life...
"Though reckless in his behavior with Tamar (Gn 38:6–30), Judah showed firm resolve in taking personal responsibility for Benjamin’s safety in Egypt and acting as intercessor for his brothers before Joseph (Gn 44:14–18). At the time of Jacob’s blessing Judah was granted the birthright privileges of the firstborn; the leadership of Jacob’s family would come through Judah’s seed, as would the promised Messiah of Abraham’s covenant (Gn 49:8–12). Later, Judah’s house was praised at the time of Ruth’s engagement to Boaz (Ru 4:12), and both the Davidic line of kings (1 Chr 2:1–16; 3) and Jesus Christ’s ancestors (Mt 1:2, 3; KJV Judas; Lk 3:33; KJV Juda) traced their descent from Judah." Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1988), 1227-28.
How can you be like Jesus today? What can you give up to serve your Heavenly Father?
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