[Read Genesis 37:25–28; 43:8–10; 44:14-34]
There’s a famous line that Tolstoy wrote in the book Anna Karenina that seems very applicable to this morning’s passage—and to the life of Judah in particular. He begins the book with this statement: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Maybe this is a statement that hits close to home for some of you—especially during this season of Thanksgiving and Christmas. These seasons can be filled with joy and peace and connection and reminiscing, and they can be filled with frustration, fighting, anxiety, and everything else that comes in the midst of complicated family dynamics. Any time you get families together, there is the opportunity for beautiful moments and there are also opportunities for explosive moments. Especially, when that family has a long history of tension and conflict. Everything gets exaggerated when families get together. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
And these moments of unhappiness and tension and conflict create a sense of longing in us, doesn’t it? It creates a longing in us for times when our families can “just get along.” It creates longing in us for times when we can relax in each other’s presence and not feel like we have to walk on eggshells. It creates a longing in us for when things will finally feel “right.”
As we go through the life of Judah, it’s important to understand the family situation he grew up in. It was not a happy family. I was listening to Kevin DeYoung preach through some of these passages a few weeks ago and he asked a question like, “Can you imagine growing up in a family where every child’s name was the representation of the fighting and tension between mothers and servants? One child is named something like ‘gotcha’ and the next is named ‘not anymore, now I’m on top.’?” This family was a mess from the beginning, wasn’t it?
That leads one commentator to make this comment: “God makes the most surprising choices. Here he choses a family divided by favoritism, immaturity, jealousy, and vengeance.” (Waltke, 505). That’s something we’re forced to wrestle with throughout the Bible and throughout the life of Jacob and throughout the life of Judah. Why choose this family? Why choose this line? Why choose this family that very much is characterized by these four things: favoritism, immaturity, jealousy, and vengeance?
These four things are clearly representative of Jacob’s family throughout much of this story. Last week we talked about this ominous line: “[Jacob] loved Rachel more than Leah…” (Genesis 29:30, ESV). Now, at the beginning of this story, we read something very similar: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age.” (Genesis 37:3, ESV). Not only does Jacob love Rachel more than Leah, but he also loves Rachel’s children more than Leah’s children. That’s going to cause some significant problems in the rest of the family. The next verse says, “But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.” (Genesis 37:4, ESV). Now, imagine that family situation. You have wives and servants hating each other and you have the children hating each other. That’s a mess.
As many of you know, this leads to something terrible. Jacob sends Joseph out to help his brothers with the flock. When they see him coming, they decided to kill him and be done with him. Reuben talks them out of that plan by telling them to throw him in a pit instead—hoping to save him out of the pit later. They liked that idea. So they stripped him of his coat and threw him in the pit, then sat down to eat lunch. How callous is that? Some commentators even think that they are eating the food that Joseph brought them. So they take his lunch, throw him in the pit, then sit by the pit eating the lunch without a care in the world.
Then we hear from Judah. It’s important to know that this is the first time that Judah’s name comes up since his birth. Here’s what he has to say: “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” (Genesis 37:26–27, ESV). What a guy, eh? If we kill him we get nothing, but we can REALLY benefit if we sell him. Besides, we don’t want to bear the guilt of killing our own brother. This way our consciences will be eased, we’ll make some money, and we’ll get rid of this spoiled rotten little brat. Quite the entrepreneurial spirit. His brothers listen to him and they sell him to the Midianite traders for twenty shekels of silver. That was a lot of money. When hired by other people, shepherds earned about 8 shekels a year. So, this was three-and-a-half years wages. They make some money, keep their consciences “clean,” and get rid of their problem in one fell swoop.
Everything about this story is written for us to see the absolute and complete wickedness of these brothers—including Judah. Judah wasn’t just one of the followers in the plot. Judah was leading the charge of this wicked plot. It reminds us of that statement from the beginning: “God makes the most surprising choices.” That’s putting it lightly and politically correct, isn’t it? Don’t you find yourself saying, “What was God thinking? These guys are terrible. They’re awful. They’re wicked. How in the world can these guys be the Patriarchs of God’s people?” There’s a sense of longing in you—longing for something better than this rag-tag group of wicked men.
To be honest, this isn’t the first sign of wickedness we’ve seen in this family, is it? I mean, we got a glimpse into the fighting between Rachel and Leah and Bilhah and Zilpah last week. It not long after that we see Jacob completely mishandling the rape of his daughter Dinah, which is followed by the complete mishandling and vengeance of Simeon and Levi, deceiving and slaughtering all the males of a city and plundering it. Then, shortly after that Reuben—the firstborn son—sleeps with one of his father’s wives—his step mom. Which now leads us to this story, where the brothers are seeking to kill one of their own brothers and end up selling him into slavery, which is led by Judah. It’s a story filled with suffering and pain and difficulty and guilt.
I want to make sure we don’t miss that last part because guilt plays a significant role in this story. We know that eventually little Joseph rises to become Pharaoh’s right-hand-man in Egypt. Then there’s a famine and Egypt is the only place people can find food, which causes Joseph’s brothers to come begging him for food and salvation. Joseph plays some games with his brothers throughout the story—at times it feels like The Count of Monte Cristo. In the midst of Joseph’s games with his brothers, his brothers make a telling statement: “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” (Genesis 42:21, ESV). This is years later, and they are still remembering Joseph begging for his life while they ate next to the pit. They still feel guilty for that and it’s been weighing on them for years and now they believe this is their comeuppance. Their wicked deeds are coming back on their heads. All of these years, they’ve been hanging on to this guilt and it’s created a sense of longing—longing to be free.
Here’s what’s powerful and beautiful about this story. Yes, you heard me right, I said beautiful. In the midst of all this pain and difficulty and suffering and guilt, God was at work. Not only was God at work carrying out his plans and purposes, but just as beautifully, God was at work changing the hearts and lives of these wicked men. Through much of the beginning of this family’s life, we see nothing but wickedness and envy and strife, but by the end of the story, we see something very different—especially in the life of Judah.
Throughout this story, we’ve slowly seen Judah stepping into the position of leader in the family. It causes the question: Why, He’s the fourth-born son? Well, we’ve been shown how the other three brothers had disqualified themselves in Jacob’s eyes. Reuben lost his position as the first-born by sleeping with one of Jacob’s wives. Simeon and Levi disqualified themselves in Jacob’s eyes by the way they handled themselves in the Dinah situation. That leaves Judah next in line. We’re going to see throughout the rest of this story that Judah is now being seen as the leader of the family and with this role comes responsibility.
This means that when the family runs out of food, and needs to go back to Egypt for more, Judah is the one who takes responsibility to make it happen. Jacob doesn’t want to send Benjamin there because he’s worried he will lose him in the same way he lost his other loved son, Joseph—see how Jacob is still making poor decisions. However, in the face of Jacob’s mistakes, we see Judah take responsibility and offer his life for the life of his younger brother—Benjamin. First, we see him make the offer to Jacob: “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.” (Genesis 43:8–9, ESV). Later on in the presence of Joseph, with Joseph threatening to make Benjamin his slave, Judah steps in again and says, “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.” (Genesis 44:33, ESV). Judah cries out, “Take me in his place.” Something has changed in Judah, hasn’t it? One commentator says, “But whereas Judah had been happy to sell Joseph into slavery, make money on the deal (37:27), and disregard his father's distress, now Judah pleads to be allowed to stay instead of the boy as my master's slave…No more moving example of true contrition and repentance is to be found in Scripture, unless it be the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15).” (Wenham, 431).
There’s something even more powerful in this story and we see it in the way Judah offers himself to Joseph. Remember the reasoning the brothers sold Joseph into slavery in the first place? They sold Joseph because they hated him and they hated him because they knew Jacob loved him more than the others. Now, they’re faced with a similar situation with Benjamin. They also know Jacob loves Benjamin more than the others. They could easily say—just like they did with Joseph—“Take him into slavery, we don’t like him anyway.” However, the exact opposite happens. The basic argument that Judah gives is this, “This boy is my father’s favorite child. My father has already lost one of his favorite children, don’t make him lose another favorite. Take me in his place.” With Joseph, his favoritism led to envy and jealousy and hatred and being sold into slavery. This time things are different, the brothers had been changed—Judah had been changed. Now the favoritism was the very reason why they couldn’t allow him to be sold into slavery and instead he offers himself in his place. God has done a work in the lives of these patriarchs—Judah in particular.
This is what is so beautiful about this story. In the midst of all the wickedness and pain and suffering and manipulation, God was at work. Last week we were reminded that God was at work carrying out his plans and purposes. This week we’re reminded that God is at work carrying out his plans and purposes by transforming the lives of wicked people. That’s a powerful statement. Bruce Waltke writes, “[This story] primarily pertains to the transformation of Jacob's sons under Providence…this account concerns God's covenant dealings with the patriarchs and the establishment of his plans for the children of Israel. He keeps covenant by transforming all of Jacob's children, particularly Judah, to make them his worthy covenant partners…in God’s providential design, these men are refined through difficult trials.” (Waltke, 491, 496). That’s beautiful.
Don’t miss the important part of that statement: God keeps covenant by transforming. That’s the beautiful follow up to the statement at the beginning: “God makes the most surprising choices.” Yes, God makes the most surprising choices. He chooses evil, wicked, deceitful, manipulative people and then completely transforms them to become more like him. He doesn’t just choose wicked people, forgive them, and leave them that way. What’s beautiful about that? No, he forgives them, cleanses them, then completely transforms their lives and their hearts so that they become more like him. And, as we see in this story, often that transformation happens in the midst of much pain and difficulty and suffering. That’s both surprising and beautiful at the same time.
This understanding needs to do a few things in our hearts and minds—especially during this Advent season of waiting and longing. On the one hand, it must stir a longing in us to be more like our Savior. We have to begin to recognize the envy and jealousy and wickedness in our own hearts and not be content with those things. We must remember that God keeps covenant with us by transforming us—just like he did with the patriarchs. We must long to be saved from these things and transformed from these things to become more and more like our Savior. We must never be satisfied with our sin.
Yet, as we long to be delivered from our sin and become more like Jesus, we must also learn patience and waiting. We must learn that in our own lives AND in the lives of other people. Transformation doesn’t happen quickly. As we see in this story, often it takes place over many years and much suffering and difficulty. That means we must be patient with ourselves when we mess up and we must be patient with other people when they continue to be messed up. We must continue to hold this tension of patience and longing.
As we look forward to the birth of Jesus Christ, we have to remember that the only way anybody is completely transformed is through his life and death. He is the one who ultimately endured suffering and wickedness and jealousy and envy so that we could be delivered from all those things. He willingly suffered and died so that we could be forgiven and set free. In the same way that God providentially worked in the life of Judah—and the other patriarchs—to bring about transformation and create a nation for himself, we read this about Jesus: “[He] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14, ESV). So, believe in him, look to him in faith for the forgiveness of your sins, and patiently long for him to purify and transform you to become more like Jesus Christ.