The Rotten Apple Made New

Genesis 37:26-27

“Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.”  

It is hard enough to realize you have made a mistake. It is even harder to live with it.

After Judah and his brothers sold Joseph into slavery while he was a boy, they had to cover it up by telling their father that a wild beast killed him. I can only imagine how that tore up Jacob, and to watch their father deal with the loss of a son must have scared them all. After all, it was their doing that started it. And Judah was the ringleader, convincing everyone to sell him to the Ishmaelites. Two decades later, we find Judah in a very different posture.

Joseph, while in the middle of his little game of Jumanji with his brothers, now has his younger brother in Egypt and plots to make him out to be a thief by putting a silver cup in his bag of grain. While they are headed back to Canaan, the temple guards track them down and accuse them of stealing the silver cup. None of them know any of this until the guards find the silver cup in little Benjamin’s bag. He is made out to be a thief, and they all are forced back to Egypt to answer for this crime.

Remember Judah, the guy who was the ringleader in selling his little brother Joseph into slavery and covering it up by telling a lie about his death? The same guy who had to live for two decades under the conviction of this and watch his father grow old living a lie. Not one of the brothers ever told Jacob what had happened. I once watched an apple that sat on the counter. No one moved it, no one thought anything of it, it just sat there, week after week, until I picked it up. The entire bottom side was rotten as could be, rotten from the inside out. That was Judah.

But chapter 43 shows us a different Judah. He now throws himself on the mercy of Joseph, the man who could snuff out his life for the sake of his little brother Benjamin. Judah pleads to take his place instead, to become the slave, only let the boy go. What a transformation.

Prayer:
Lord, thank You that You are patient with us even when we fail. Thank You that You can take a heart that is guilty, heavy, and broken, and turn it into one that is humble, surrendered, and transformed. Help me to confess my mistakes, to walk in Your mercy, and to put others before myself. In Jesus’ name, Amen.