Genesis 44:27–34 (ESV) —
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.”
NOTE: Judah, representing the brothers, offers his life for Benjamin, because he loved his Father and he loved Benjamin. The commitment to the father by the brothers as a whole has been questionable since they massacred the Canaanite town. And their father was still playing favorites. But something had changed in 20-plus years. They did love their father and the son of his favored wife. It is not just Judah, verse 13 said, and "… they tore their clothes … and everyone … returned to the city." God had been at work in the heart of the brothers just as he had been at work in Joseph's life. As we will see, Joseph has no bitterness, and there is no pride any more. God had cleaned his heart as well.
That is the goal of the Christian life, cleaned hearts, not done in human strength but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, that does require obedience. It is a strange thing how obedience and a relationship with God gives us the ability to change in such a way that can only be described as transformation.
Too many people live in religion these days trying to change their life by human strength when the real power is not in a religion or a church, but in a relationship with Jesus.
PONDER:
- Am I seeking to change in human strength?
- Or am I seeking a deeper relationship with the savior which changes a person from the inside out?
PRAYER: Father, in this new year, I want to continue growing, learning, and following your will. As I take time to review the year, lead me and guide me. If there is a new direction, make it very clear.
