A Heart Willing to Take Another’s Place

Genesis 44:32-34

³²For 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.’ ³³Now 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. ³⁴For 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.”

(ESV)

Thought:
Witness here the heart of the true Christian. For here we see a Judah unlike the one we have known in the last couple chapters. He is not selling off his brother for his own gain, he is not blaming others for his own failures. He is taking the blame upon himself, he throws his own life down that might save his brothers.

Was this not the heart of Jesus?

Mark 10:45

⁴⁵For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

(ESV)

Finally we witness the full transformation of Judah, from him who would sell out his own brother just like Judas, to one who imitates our saviour and Lord. So truly this is the great end point of God’s love working in us. No longer would we be the self-seeking, prideful people we use to be, instead we would be images of God himself. Reflections of his love, as we to seek to lay down that which is most precious, our own lives, in order to serve the benefits of others, even to save them.

It is the greatest sacrifice, it is the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and now his love compels us to the same, for it opposes everything that the devil would have us believe and the world would teach us. It tells you don’t waste your life, go and enjoy it for yourself. Jesus says, “Don’t waste your life, go and lay it down for those who do not deserve it”.

Judah is compelled to do this strongly through the guilt of selling out his brother Joseph those many years before. But we are not compelled by guilt, our guilt has been taken away. Why do we lay down our lives? We do it in gratitude for all that he has given us. He has given me everything, I shall surely lay down my life for him.

So let us do as Judah does, and let us lay down our lives, forfeit our bright futures, that we might see souls of others, comforted, supported, encouraged, even saved.

Reflection:
As I go about my day, I need to examine whether I am seeking my own comfort or the good of others. Judah was once willing to sacrifice his brother for his own benefit, but now he is willing to sacrifice himself for his brother. Today I need to apply this by looking for opportunities to serve rather than be served, to give rather than take, and to put the needs of others ahead of my own preferences. Christ laid down His life for me, and gratitude for that sacrifice should move me to lay down my life in service to others.

Prayer:
Father, thank You for the sacrifice of Jesus, who gave Himself to save me. Transform my heart so that I would not live for myself but for the good of others. Help me serve with humility, love sacrificially, and reflect the character of Christ in my daily life. Amen.