Then Judah went up to him [Joseph] and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears.” Genesis 44:18
When they get back to Egypt, Judah steps forward and speaks to Joseph on behalf of the brothers. Remember, he does not know that the governor is Joseph. Judah refers to his father 15 times in chapter 44!
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… and his father loves him” (44:19-20).
We said to my lord, “The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die” (44:22).
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. (44:34).
Try to imagine Joseph listening to all this. He can only come to one conclusion. Judah has changed. He now loves the father.
“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” (44:33). Again, try to put yourself in Joseph’s shoes: “This is remarkable! Judah was the one who proposed selling me as a slave. Now Judah says he is ready to become a slave in order that his brother may go free?”
Benjamin might have said, “Are you really going to come with me? If you do, you better be ready to take up your cross and follow me.” And this is precisely what the favored Son, Jesus Christ, says to us today.
Are you ready to say, “I’m all in. I’m taking my stand with the dearly loved Son”?
