Judah Pleads for Benjamin
18Then Judah approached Joseph and said, “Sir, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are an equal to Pharaoh. 19My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’
20And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
21Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so that I can see him for myself.’
22So we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’
23But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your younger brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’
24Now when we returned to your servant my father, we relayed your words to him.
25Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy us some food.’
26But we answered, ‘We cannot go down there unless our younger brother goes with us. So if our younger brother is not with us, we cannot see the man.’
27And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28When one of them left me, I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29So if you take this one from me as well and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’
30So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, my father—his life is wrapped up in the boy’s life— 31when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. 32Indeed, your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will bear the guilt before you, my father, all my life.’
33Now please let your servant stay here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him return with his brothers. 34For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
"The most moving address in all the Word of God." Barnhouse
Judah’s moving address exposed the love in his heart for his father and his brother, he offered himself up in place of Benjamin, to take the penalty for the offense.
Christ did that for us, He who was sinless bore upon His shoulders all the sins of mankind. He did it willingly so that anyone who accepted Him as their savior could spend eternity with God in heaven.
Where will your soul go when you die? You have a choice to make that affects your soul.
Will you go in to the presence of the Father or the devil?
What will Joseph do next?
Blessings, David
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