Following Jesus as We Come 'n Go
Genesis 43:1-10
The Second Journey to Egypt
43 Now the famine was still severe in the land. 2 So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
3 But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
6 Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”
7 They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”
Genesis 44:30-34
30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
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.”
~ Judah, brother of Benjamin
Pondering Point
This Bible verse about going (or in this case not going) only makes sense with the backstory.
Judah, who once helped sell his brother Joseph into slavery, is now trying to offer his life to save his brother Benjamin from slavery.
Today’s “cancel culture” Judah might never have given Judah another chance based on his terrible mistake of the past, but nonetheless we find him willing to sacrifice his life to free Benjamin. He not only offers the proposal to his father (43:9) but steps up to actually fulfill it when the unfortunate opportunity arises in dealing with the Egyptians (44:30-34).
Driven by a different mindset, Judah hopes to save the young man at personal expense.
Something changed in him over the years. Have you changed over the years? Can you see how choices that you make 'coming' or 'going' affect others around you – positively and negatively? Are you ready to adjust your life out of love for others?
Prayer
Father God, help me learn from my past mistakes and be willing to change, to become more aligned with Your ways of love and kindness – even of personal sacrifice for the benefit of others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.