He Traded His Life for Ours

Judah Shines
(Genesis 44, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, September 6, 2015)

Joseph has set up the grand test for his brothers.  After wining and dining them, he sends them on their way with sacks full of grain.  Once again he has his steward put their money in their sacks.  But this time he goes further.  The steward is to put Joseph’s own silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.  The brothers begin their journey back to their father.  Everything is going well now, or so it seems.  They have the grain they need to last a while longer in the famine.  The Egyptian official [Joseph] has ceased accusing them of being spies and instead has shown them great hospitality.  Simeon is free to return home with them after his time in custody.  And, to everyone’s relief, no harm has come to Benjamin.  They will bring him home to his anxiously waiting father.  Yet they do not get very far on their journey before Joseph’s steward catches up with them.  He accuses them of theft.  What is this?  They assure him they would not do such a thing!  The steward begins searching their eleven sacks.  Whoever possesses the cup will become a slave in Egypt, he declares.  I’m sure everyone is a little nervous when they see their money in their sacks again.  But the steward pays no attention.  He is looking for the silver cup.  For dramatic effect, he waits to search Benjamin’s sack last.  And then, there in Benjamin’s sack is the silver cup!  The brothers tear their clothes.  They all trek back to the city together.  Joseph is waiting.

Now what will the older brothers do?  Will they let Benjamin be taken as a slave and leave?  Their selling of Joseph as a slave so many years ago might indicate that this is the kind of thing they would do.  Save themselves and leave their brother.  But this is not what they do.  These men truly have changed.  Joseph’s test reveals who they have become.  They all offer themselves to be his slaves.  Joseph declares that this would be unjust.  Only Benjamin must become a slave, for he has stolen the cup.  At this, Judah steps forward and pleads on behalf of Benjamin.  Indeed, he pleads on behalf of their father.  If Benjamin is lost, their father will not survive his sorrow.  Judah will not stand for this.  He declares that he has made himself a pledge of safety for Benjamin.  Thus he begs Joseph that he be taken as a slave in Benjamin’s place.

O, Judah, what noble protection of your younger brother.  What self-giving love for your father.  How you have changed, Judah.  You who once advised your brothers to sell Joseph as a slave, with callous indifference to both Joseph and your father.  How God has humbled you over two decades of watching your father’s grief.  He has never been the same since your crime.  And you are not the same.  God has wrought compassion in your heart.  You are learning to think less of yourself and more of others.  Yet you do not realize the full significance of the heroic words you now speak.  The God of your father is giving us in you a glimpse of his own Son who will one day become a man, one of your own descendents.  He will give his life in the place of sinners who are truly guilty of crime.  Benjamin didn’t really steal the cup.  But we have all robbed and stolen from God.  Jesus will give his own life unto death that we might all go free, yourself included.  God is forming you, Judah, into the likeness of Jesus.  He intends to do the same with us.

Put the Word to Work: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, who gave himself up for our crimes that we might go free, and let us learn from him not to put ourselves first but to give ourselves up for others.

Memory Verse from the Psalms of Ascents: Psalm 132:17 – There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 25:14-30 – The parable of the talents