#DailyDevotion Is Someone A Pledge For You?
Lent day 25 Wednesday
Read Gen 44:1–18, 32–34
Genesis 44:9 Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord’s servants.” 10 He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” 11 Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. 12 And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. 14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. 15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” 16 And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” 17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”…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.”
Joseph again test his brothers. He wants to see whether or not they have changed. He wants to know whether or not they have repented of their treatment of him in wanting to kill him and selling him into slavery.
We see here they tear their clothes. It is a sign of repentance. They believe God is bringing this upon them because of what they had did to their brother Joseph. We might take a brief note to remember these are God’s people. Judgment begins with the house of God. God may indeed discipline those who have been called to be his through various and sundry punishments until such time they repent. As Jesus is apt to teach us, “Unless you repent you will likewise perish.” Joseph uses their words against them when he searches for the cup and lays the blame squarely on the one who has it, the one he is framing, his little brother. How do his brothers act? What is their response to being sent away without Benjamin? Judah as we recall from yesterday fulfills his promise. He will stand in the place of Benjamin. He will be the substitute.
The seed of Judah, Jesus of Nazareth is our substitute so we may return home to the Father. Satan wishes to accuse us, rightly and wrongly before God. But Jesus is our scapegoat. He takes the blame. He is punished for our transgression so we may live and return to our Father in heaven without sin, guile, blame, shame or guilt. It is all laid on our elder brother Jesus.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for fulfilling the promises you made in the Old Testament. Grant us faith to believe it. Amen.