Bible Reading for January 27 – Genesis 43-45

So, what does repentance look like in real life? We need look no further than the example Judah gives in today’s passage. Remember, he had been the ringleader, the one who suggested that his brothers sell Joseph into slavery so many years previously (Genesis 37:27). And he went right along with the rest of the brothers as they lied to their father, convincing him that Joseph had died (Genesis 37:31-32). All the brothers were so consumed by their jealousy and resentment, they didn’t care if they broke their father’s heart – because they were sure he didn’t love them anyway.

And now, Joseph presented all his brothers with an opportunity to repeat their sin. He showed elaborate favoritism to Benjamin (Genesis 43:34), thus reminding them of their jealousy of Jacob’s two favorite sons, the children of his favorite wife. And then, he arranged for Benjamin to be caught with a silver cup, accused him of stealing it, and threatened to keep him in slavery – while he allowed the others to return to their father (Genesis 44:17).

In short, Joseph gave his brothers the chance to finish what they had started with him, to rid themselves of Rachel’s children, and thus to get back at their father once again for his favoritism. Of course, losing Benjamin would break the old man’s heart, but they hadn’t worried about that 13 years earlier, right?

Well, whatever the other brothers thought, Judah changed his mind. In fact, he changed the entire direction of his life. Now, he valued his father’s health and well-being above his own. Far from nurturing old resentments, he had become willing to remain a slave in Egypt so that the favorite son, Benjamin, could return to Jacob. Oh yes, Judah had changed.

And that’s what the Christian life always involves. We must turn away from ourselves and live for the good of others. We have to love and serve even those who don’t love us, even those who prefer other people over us. For isn’t that what Jesus did for us? So, could there be any other way to follow Him?

Genesis 44:18-34 (ESV)

18 Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, 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.
19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’
20 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.’
21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’
22 We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
23 Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’
24 “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
25 And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’
26 we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.
28 One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since.
29 If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’
30 “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life,
31 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.
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.’
33 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.”