City Life Starter

Written by Stefan Johnsson

The Word

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. ¹⁵ Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” ¹⁶ And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” ¹⁷ But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

¹⁸ Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’

²⁴ “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ ²⁶ we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. ²⁸ One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. ²⁹ If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’

³⁰ “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, ³¹ as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³² For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ ³³ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

Genesis 44:14-34 (ESV)

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:12-13

Reflection

This was Joseph’s final test for his brothers. Would they leave Benjamin with Joseph in an Egyptian jail and go home without him? Would they treat Benjamin as they treated Joseph, with envy and jealousy? Joseph wanted to know if they had truly changed and this was the way to do it. If he threatened to jail only Benjamin for stealing his cup, then the brothers had a choice, either leave without him or petition for Benjamin’s safe return.

It was Judah who stepped forward. This time, he spoke for all his brothers by first telling Joseph the story about their integrity and honor in the whole story. When he finished, he did something that Joseph did not expect, he offered himself in place of Benjamin. In essence, Judah showed sacrificial love, he volunteered himself to stay because he promised his father Jacob to keep Benjamin safe for the journey. He didn’t want to return full of sorrow, not only for breaking his promise, but also for the pain that Jacob would experience for losing both of his children that came from his most loved wife Rachel.

Judah showed us an example of what Jesus referred to in John 15. There is no greater love than this, than someone laying down his life for his friends. Judah laid down his life for Benjamin, a showing of great love. It was through this experience that Joseph realized that his brothers had truly changed.

Application

As we are surrounded by the world, it is easy to be filled with jealousy and to remove friends who we don’t like anymore. In very few instances do we lay down our lives for one another, much less even $5!

Our love is fleeting and shallow. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus went a step further. We are to love our enemies. And Jesus did the ultimate sacrifice, not only did He lay down his life for his friends, but He laid down His life for all mankind. And we were those people, people who were once enemies of God. So if Jesus died for us while we were still sinners, than this love is greater than we can imagine. If He did this, then why can we not do a simple thing of forgiving and loving those around us, even those who we consider our enemies?

Today, practice reconciliation and pray for those who persecute you.

Prayer

Father in heaven, today I want to pray for those who may be my enemies and who persecute me. I was once an enemy of You, but You showed Your grace to me so I could repent and turn to You. Let me wish the same on all those who I have come in contact with. Give me a heart to love those who persecute me, for those who need Your grace and mercy. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.