#DailyDevotion You Have Someone Who Has Pledged His Life For You
Lent Day 24 Tuesday
Read Gen 43:1–28
Gen 43:8-9 And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. (9) I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.
Now Judah places his own life as a pledge for his brother Benjamin. They had to go back to Egypt to buy food. There was no way to go back without him. Benjamin, as far as Jacob is concerned is the last son of his wife Rachel. We must remember is was Judah who kept his brothers (minus Reuben) from killing Joseph. Instead, Gen 37:26 “.. Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?” Now what profit is Judah and his brothers getting? But Judah is willing to risk losing Benjamin as the risk of his own life.
From Judah comes the one who puts down his own life for a pledge again for his brothers. That one from Judah is Jesus and we are his brothers. As Judah went back to Egypt (the land of misery) with his own life as a pledge to his father in order save the lives of his family, so too, Jesus comes to world (a land of misery) with his life as a pledge to the Father in order to save the lives of the human race.
Jesus comes with his lifeblood as the ransom to save us from eternal death. If we are to live and partake of eternal life then he must give his life as a pledge on the cross. And there on the cross indeed his life is required of him. By his death he has conquered Death. His death becomes our own death and we need not experience it anymore. For Jesus did not stay dead. He conquered stay dead. He rose again. Now he offers eternal life for all who put their trust, their faith in him, his name and in his works. All who have their faith in him possess eternal life now. They never taste death. They are freed from the land of misery and enter the promised land.
Heavenly Father, grant us such faith in Jesus, our ransom from death, that we may be freed from eternal death and possess eternal life and for all eternity in your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.