Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Genesis 44:30-34 (NIV)
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.”
In this instance, Judah did nothing wrong. Joseph had planted a cup in Benjamin’s bag to make it appear as if it were stolen. But Judah does not know this and to him, it does not matter. He is willing to lay down his life for the sake of the apparent thief. Jesus is a descendant of Judah and like his ancestor, Jesus has laid down his life for the guilty. He cared more about us than he did about himself or his own innocence. Any time we are faced with guilt or shame over something that we have done Jesus steps in and takes the blame. Every time. Instead of condemnation, we are given God’s love. Let the love of God be what motivates your thoughts and actions this day!