Read Genesis 44
Key Verses “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. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
Observation: Interesting that Judah is at the helm of all of this. He becomes the centerpiece of this story as it shifts from Joseph to Judah’s family line. Judah’s story is now being raised up and rightfully so because his family line is the line of King David. It is also interesting to note that Judah is the one who came up with the idea to sell Joseph into slavery in the first place. I also have to note that this might have been the lesser of two evils as the other brothers (minus Ruben who saved him first and wanted to take him back to his father) wanted to kill him. Judah, like Jacob, was not the firstborn son (that would have been Ruben). Judah was the fourth eldest and God’s plan of salvation once again was not going to follow the tradition of the oldest son.
Application: There are consequences to our sins and bad choices. God will forgive, but in His forgiveness, He does not promise to take away the natural consequences. Judah is the reason Joseph was sold into slavery; Judah is the reason they are even there now in committing his life for Benjamin’s. Our choices have a consequence good or bad and while God often does redeem our choices through the consequences, He seldom takes away the natural pain of the consequence. This should serve as a warning to us that we should be careful in our choices because they will have a consequence.
Prayer: Father, when I sin, I am learning more so every day about how that it impacts my life. I cannot escape the consequence of the choices I have made. My sinful choices have an impact (even though I don’t want to admit it) on my marriage, my ministry, and my family. Thank you for forgiving me of the sin and I ask that you now give me the wisdom to learn through the consequences of those bad choices so that I might live more righteously for you.
