Genesis 44:32-34 - 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!’ “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. 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.”
Joseph had placed his silver cup in the mouth of Benjamin’s
sack as another test of his brother’s change of heart. Judah... who had taken a
stand for Joseph’s life in the beginning…takes a stand for Benjamin’s now. He
stood true to his vow to his father and requested to take Benjamins place.
This moment of surrender and substitution marks the point in
these brother’s lives when Joseph stops testing their motives. They could have
all run back home and left Benjamin to the mercies of Joseph…but they did
not. They tore their clothes and
returned with him…and Judah steps up as the leader he always was….and offers to
take his younger brother’s life.
Repentance is a powerful force that gives us new courage to
do things we never imagined having the strength to do. It gave Judah the
courage and strength he needed to step out in faith and fulfill the vow he had
made to his father. Judah had no idea
that it had all been a test…in his mind this was a forever statement…his life
for his brother’s.
It is a reminder to me that daily confession of our sins
helps to keep our faith strong and full. Sin of any kind begins to build up in
our heart and turn it cold and unmerciful. This step in Judah’s life I am sure
began to help him find the courage he would need later to confess the full
story to his father.
Holding those sins inside builds wall between us and God.
The more sin we try to hide…the stronger the wall is. It results in an
inefficiency of all God has placed inside us to do the work he called us to
do. It delays the good that God is
trying to accomplish through our lives.
Father…thank you for the reminder that I need to confess my
sins daily. Forgive me for the times that I have delayed the confession of any
sin that I have realized might be separating me from your power and love. Instill
in me a desire to always stand firm to the truth…even if I know the
consequences will be hard to bear. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment