Henry Thoreau says, “The mass of men leads lives of quiet desperation.” This may be true, but I don’t see anything “quiet” in Judah’s desperation as he pleads with the Egyptian official for the life of his little brother, Benjamin, who had been found guilty of stealing from the man in charge of all Egypt. In Genesis 44:18, the plea reads, “Oh, My Lord, please let your servant speak a word …for you are like Pharaoh.” The tone of Judah’s plea with the official shows us a desperate man. In a frantic barrage of quick sentences, Judah tells him how he pledged his life for Benjamin’s. Judah tells him how his father’s life is bound up in the life of this little boy. Lives are at stake! It is indeed a matter of life and death. Will Joseph hear his desperate plea for help? This is precisely where Joseph wanted his brothers. Over 20 years earlier, the tables were reversed. Joseph was in the pit, and he cried for mercy. But the ten brothers did not show him mercy. It was Judah who led the discussion and decided to sell Joseph. In Genesis 42, verse 21, the brothers say to each other about Joseph in the pit, “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.”
Guzik says, “Judah’s impassioned appeal to Joseph is a model of a heartfelt, desperate appeal.” He then goes on to quote others that have similar things to say about Judah’s speech to Joseph: “Of Judah’s speech, F.B. Meyer wrote: ‘In all literature, there is nothing more pathetic than this appeal.’ H.C. Leupold wrote, ‘This is one of the manliest, most straightforward speeches ever delivered by any man. For depth of feeling and sincerity of purpose, it stands unrivaled.’ Barnhouse called it ‘the most moving address in all the Word of God.’”1 It is what happens next that cements Judah’s place as the leader of the clan. Guzik goes on to describe it for us, “Judah dramatically offered to lay down his life for the sake of Benjamin. This was a dramatic change from 20 years before when the brothers did not care about Joseph, Benjamin, or even their father, Jacob. Judah distinguished himself as the one willing to be a substitutionary sacrifice, out of love for his father and his brethren.”
Earlier in Genesis, we see Simeon as a substitute taken by Joseph to be imprisoned for the sake of the other brothers. He was taken and bound involuntarily to expose the others of their taking and binding Joseph years earlier. But with Judah, he offers himself. Jesus will be the “lion from the tribe of Judah.” I’m not sure that Judah was well known and lauded as one who would sacrifice himself for others, but it looks like that’s what is happening here. Here is another picture of Christ’s substitution for us and our sins, albeit a clearer one. When Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first letter in chapter 15, verse 3, he explains this doctrine’s importance. It’s of “first” or “primary” importance. The passage says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” Could it be that this descendant of Judah, Jesus, was possibly considering this offer of substitution made by his ancestor in one of the passages he referred to when he said, “according to the Scriptures?” It appears that the only Scriptures available at that time were the Old Testament. When Jesus said that the Old Testament, especially the writings of Moses, were about him. We can sure see his substitutionary atonement in the life of his ancestor Judah. As Judah pleaded for the life of his brothers, so too does Jesus make intercession for you and me with an impassioned plea that includes the offer of his own life.
1 David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 44:33–34.