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In Order. I Volunteer!

January 27, 2017. Genesis 43-45.

 

Siblings can be a pain in the butt some times. You fight, bicker, pinch, hit, and everything else that comes along with living with a brother or sister.  They can be down right mean at times.  

Look at Joseph; his brothers are the definition of cruel.  Judah stands out the most in that area, especially back in Genesis 37:26 where he said “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?” It was his idea to sell Joseph to gain a profit instead of having blood on his hands.  Talk about sibling rivalry. 

Here is the thing with siblings and family, in the end they are family and they will have your back.  Judah does grow up, he does learn what it means to be a brother and part of a family.  

Genesis 43:

Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.

Judah is the one who takes responsibility for Benjamin’s life when Joseph demanded they bring him back to Egypt if they wanted more food to survive this famine.  Judah is the one that stands up to take the blame if anything were to happen to his little brother. 

Genesis 44:

32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’ 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.

Judah does not just offer he follows through with his word to his father.  Ever seen “Hunger Games” where Katniss screams “I volunteer” when her baby sister is chosen for those dreaded games? Judah is volunteering for his baby brother, to take on his punishment.   

Remind you of someone else? Jesus Christ maybe? A man who came to earth promising his Father that he would do whatever it was that he asked of him; a man who was sinless and yet took on the sin of the world to save a sinner who he didn’t even know.  Now Judah was not blameless or sinless, he was to blame for Joseph being sold into slavery.  But like Christ he was willing to sacrifice his life for the life of someone he loved.

Previous Devotional - January 26

Andrea Fite

Andrea is a wife to an amazing man, mother to a sweet little boy, Christ following, coffee addicted, book-loving woman. She grew up as a missionary and pastor’s kid, and learned at a young age that...more