All Sufficient Substitute
Read Genesis 44:33-34
Today’s Truth
What’s happening here is, Joseph is testing his brothers. He’s saying, “Keep Benjamin here, and you guys go back to your father”. Judah steps up and says, “No. You can’t do that. We can’t do that. I will stay instead of the boy”. Like, “Let Benjamin go back, because if we go back and we don’t have Benjamin with us, then my father will fall apart”. I mean, “Could die”, is basically what he’s saying.
This is a high point for Judah. Have seen Judah in some not so good ways in the book of Genesis. But here he offers his life basically as a substitute for Benjamin. We don’t know what all of his motivations were, but we do know that this is a picture of Judah saying, “I’ll be a substitute so that someone else can go free”.
Discussion Questions
- Describe a time when you sacrificed something significant for another person.
- Jesus is our substitute. Our sin for his righteousness. What does that mean to you?
- Write a prayer of thanksgiving for what Jesus’ substitution did for you.
Application
When Jesus went to the cross, he wasn’t just going as an example of love for us, although that’s certainly part of the picture. He wasn’t just going as an example of love for us, though that’s certainly part of the picture. Jesus was going quite literally as a substitute for us. We deserve God’s judgment and what Jesus did at the cross, is he stood in our place as our substitute. We deserve that judgment. Jesus took it upon himself instead so that we could be free from that judgment and have life.
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