“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. 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” (44:34).
Joseph set up a situation whereby it appeared that Benjamin was guilty of stealing Joseph’s special cup of divination. Again, we don’t know his motive. He acted like he intended to keep Benjamin as his servant, while the other brothers were free to go back.
Here is when we see a change in Judah from the incident where he didn’t deal with his daughter-in-law with integrity (Genesis 38) but then admitted/realized his wrongdoing. Now here it is he who pleads to take the place of his brother Benjamin—that he, Judah, would remain as Joseph’s servant, and Benjamin be returned to his father, who could not handle the loss of his only other son from his beloved wife, Rachel.
Judah is taking seriously what he pledged to his father regarding Benjamin’s safety. And he seems genuinely concerned for his father’s well-being. He is a changed man.
I knew a woman who had some destructive behaviour patterns, but upon being convicted that this was the case, made some real changes in her behaviour. Sadly, people close to her couldn’t see that this was so and continued to relate to her as if her behaviour hadn’t changed. But people do change, especially when God convicts them and empowers them to do so. We would do well to be open to recognize change in people. We will see it by their fruit.
And may we be open to conviction in our lives by God’s Holy Spirit!
Prayer: Lord, may I be open to your work of change in people’s lives. And may I be open to changes that I need to make in my own life. Amen.
