Judah Pleads For Benjamin. Then Judah approached him, and said, “O my lord, please let your servant say a word to you in private, and do not let your anger blaze against your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh [so I speak as if directly to him]. Gen 44:18
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
II. GOD AND THE CHOSEN FAMILY, Genesis 12-50
3. The History of Jacob’s Sons, Joseph and His Brothers
(3) The Journeys of Joseph’s Brothers to Egypt, Genesis 42-45
80. How did the trying situation call forth a noble plea from Judah?
JUDAH PLEADS FOR BENJAMIN
Then Judah approached him, and said, “O my lord, please let your servant say a word to you in private, and do not let your anger blaze against your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh [so I speak as if directly to him].
My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’
We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a young [brother, Benjamin, the] child of his old age. Now his brother [Joseph] is dead, and he alone is left of [the two sons born of] his mother, and his father loves him.’
Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that I may actually see him.’
But we said to my lord, ‘The young man cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you shall not see my face again.’
So when we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
Our father said, ‘Go back [to Egypt], and buy us a little food.’
But we said, ‘We cannot go down [to Egypt]. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down [there]; for we [were sternly told that we] cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife [Rachel] bore me [only] two sons.
And one [son] went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since.
If you take this one also from me, and harm or an accident happens to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’
Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the young man is not with us, since his life is bound up in the young man’s life,
when he sees that the young man is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in [great] sorrow.
For your servant became security for the young man to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’
Now, therefore, please let your servant (Judah) remain here instead of the youth [to be] a slave to my lord, and let the young man go home with his brothers.
How can I go up to my father if the young man is not with me–for fear that I would see the tragedy that would overtake my [elderly] father [if Benjamin does not return]?”
JUDAH PLEADS FOR BENJAMIN
No portion in Genesis could be more suitable for Jesus’s Crucifixion. Judah’s proposal to give himself instead of Benjamin reminds us of Him who freely gave Himself up for us all. It was with such love, but of infinite intensity, that Christ loved us. In Judah’s words we find the loftiest type of pleading which man has ever put forth for man. It is extraordinary to get this glimpse of the strong and noble emotions that slumber in hearts where we should least expect them! But these words are poor and cold compared with those that Jesus utters on our behalf. It must have required extraordinary self-command on Joseph’s part to make his brethren suffer thus. But he dared to enforce it, because he knew the goal they were approaching. Christ often turns aside to hide His sorrow at our griefs, which are the necessary pathway to where all tears are wiped away.
Comments by
WILLIAM MACDONALD
Believers Bible Commentary
On
Genesis 44:18-34
II. THE PATRIARCHS OF ISRAEL (Chaps. 12-50)
D. Joseph (37:1–50:26)
6. Joseph’s Brothers in Egypt (Chaps. 42–44)
4:18-34 Judah stood near Joseph and gave a detailed review of Benjamin’s involvement—how Joseph had demanded the presence of the youngest son, how their father, still grieving over the loss of one son, had protested against Benjamin’s going to Egypt and how Judah had offered himself as surety for Benjamin’s safety. Judah said that their father would die if the brothers went back without Benjamin, so he offered to stay in Egypt and serve as a slave in the place of Benjamin.
What a change had been worked in Judah! In chapter 37 he ruthlessly sold Joseph for profit, without concern for his father’s heartbreak. In chapter 38 he was involved in deception and immorality. But God was working in his heart, so that in chapter 43 he became surety for Benjamin. Now in chapter 44 he pours out his heart in intercession before Joseph, offering himself as a slave so as not to bring upon his father the crushing sorrow of losing Benjamin. From selling his own brother into slavery to becoming a slave in his brother’s stead; from callousness toward his father to sacrificial concern for his well-being—this is the progress of the grace of God in the life of Judah!
Philippus Schutte Note* We must never forget: Jesus was born from the Tribe of Judah!
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