“Now therefore, I pray you, let your servant abide instead of the lad a slave to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brothers.” (v.33)
Here in chapter 44 we see that Joseph had one more test for his brothers to pass before he would reveal his true identity to them. He wanted to see how they would handle a threat to their younger brother Benjamin. So Joseph set the trap, asking his servant to set his silver cup (the cup of divination) into Benjamin's grain sack, then over take them on the road and accuse them of stealing. Joseph would then watch to see how they responded to the pressure once they were brought back before him. Would they simply sell their youngest brother down the river a second time (as they had done with him many years before), or had God worked some integrity into their lives?
Judah passed the test. He easily could have done the same thing they did last time and simply said, “Take our little brother. After all he’s only a half brother anyway, a stepbrother. He’s Rachel’s kid, so it’s no big deal.” However this time Judah is saying, "let me bear the blame (and) ... let (me) remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers." No wonder it would be prophesied of him, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah..." (Genesis 49:10).
Perhaps 13 years of guilt had made Judah more compassionate. Truly God had softened this man (and his brothers), into a man willing to give up his own life for someone else's – sound familiar?
The Truth: "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
