Abide Together: Reflections on Genesis 44

The transformation within Judah’s heart is what strikes me in chapter 44. The brothers try to leave Egypt to take grain back to their father, but Joseph sets up a scenario where they would be caught stealing. The deal that is made–whoever is caught with the cup becomes Joseph’s servant. However, when Benjamin is found out to have the cup, all of the brothers return to Egypt with him. Then, in an act of humility and self-sacrifice, Judah offers himself up as a servant so that Benjamin can go back to his father. Judah has gone from once selling his brother Joseph into slavery to now offering himself as a slave that another might go free. Sound familiar? From the line of Judah would one day come the Christ, who offered himself up as a sacrifice for sinners. Making himself nothing, he became sin on our behalf that we might be loosed from our chains of slavery to sin. God is working his plan of redemption even here in Genesis 44 as we see an ancestor of Jesus giving of himself that his brother might go free.