Burning Bush Blogs
Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: New to the Bible – The Patriarchs – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Post Topic: Judah- Haunted by sin
Post in Thread: #5
Previous: Joseph – What God means for good
Next: Moses
Scripture: Genesis 37:12-35
Genesis 38:1-26
Genesis 44:18-34
Note on this series of posts
This post fits within a continuing series meant for readers who are less familiar with Scripture, but anyone can enjoy.
The patriarchs are the fathers of the Hebrew nation, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. For this series we’ll be giving honorary patriarch status to Moses, and we’ll throw in a bonus study of Joseph’s brother Judah. The patriarchs gave birth to the Jewish nation, but were quite human. Genesis doesn’t shy away from describing both their successes and failures; their virtues and their failings. Neither then, shall our blogs shy away from these topics.
Today’s story introduces Joseph’s brother Judah, a man haunted by unconfessed sin.
Key Verses:
Genesis 37:26-27
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s 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.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
Genesis 38:15-16
“Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.”
Genesis 44:33
Observations
I’m switching the order of the Good, Bad, and Ugly sections to correspond to the sequence of events in Judah’s life.
The Bad (told like a story)
Judah points at the ever-nearing dust cloud. “Is that our brother? That coat-“
Simeon spits on the ground, the disgust evident. “What an idiot. Only Joseph would wear something like that out here. All it’ll do is attract attention-the wrong kind of attention.”
The multi-colored coat is unmistakable, even in the distance. Their half-brother had been shown extreme favoritism by Jacob, and was certain to receive the old man’s blessing. Worse – Joseph bragged about his supposed dreams. Their interpretation was clear. They were all supposed to bow down before the little brat someday. Even his father rebuked him over the last dream.
Now, Joseph has shown up where they’re tending sheep, far away from home. Why had he tracked them so far? Who cares? Nobody wants to hear another of his dreams.
Faces harden as he nears. One brother pulls out a knife. Others nod.
“Wait,” says Reuben, the oldest. “Let’s throw him in that cistern over there while we decide what to do with him.”
Ignoring Joseph’s cries, Judah strips off the robe while others hold him down. They mock him as the drag him to the cistern and toss him in. “Where’s Father to protect you now?”
Calmly, they eat their lunch, contemplating what to do with him. Most just want him eliminated. Judah tries to ignore the shouts from the bottom of the dry well. He represses a twinge of remorse. There’s no turning back.
A merchant caravan approaches, headed toward the coastal route south. Ishmaelites.
Inspiration strikes. “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?” Judah says. “Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.”
Slowly, the heads nod in agreement. One of them proposes sprinkling animal blood on the robe. That’ll convince their father that Joseph is dead. They haul him out and strike the deal with the Ishmaelites. 20 silver shekels. Joseph turns strangely silent.
The caravan disappears in the distance. The 10 come together and make a solemn pact. Nobody will ever learn the real story.
The Ugly – bearing children with his daughter-in-law
This story seems extremely weird to us in modern times, not understanding ancient Jewish law. The law in Deuteronomy 25:5-6 says that if a married man dies without a child, the widow must be given to the next brother to conceive and keep the family name going.
This happened to Judah’s daughter-in-law, but Judah refused to give her to his youngest son. She tricked Judah, making him think she was a prostitute, and he ended up fathering twin boys with Tamar instead.
Interesting aside – Tamar is in the line of Jesus.
The Good – Repentance
- Judah’s moment of truth has finally arrived. He’s bowed before his brother, thinking Joseph is a powerful Egyptian.
- This influential man wants to keep Benjamin in Egypt as a slave. If Joseph’s full brother is taken away from Jacob too, it will literally kill their father.
- Judah quakes in fear and repentance, his unconfessed sin of what they had done to Joseph haunting him.
- Judah’s speech in Genesis 44:18-34 demonstrates his remorse over the horrible actions of his past.
- He offers himself as a substitute for Benjamin.
Interpretation
Takeaways
- The Judah-Tamar story tells me the Bible is real. Would a book that is made up tell such a tale about its patriarchs?
- The reconciliation with Joseph is an amazing story.
- The brothers didn’t recognize Joseph in his Egyptian garb.
- He put them through a series of trials, forcing them to bring Benjamin back to Egypt with them.
- It seems that Joseph was testing them, to see where their hearts were after all this time.
- Judah, at least, seemed full of remorse. He didn’t have to offer himself as a substitute for Benjamin.
- His speech in this passage is moving.
- He’d come full circle. From selling Joseph into slavery to offering himself as a substitute bondservant.
Correlation
Genesis 49:8-9
Before Jacob dies, he gives blessings over his sons. For Judah, he declares him and his future tribe a lion’s cub, before whom the others will bow. This is a prophecy that Jesus, who is called the Lion of Judah in Revelation 5:5, will emerge from the tribe of Judah. Click here to read more
Application
Generic Applications
Our unconfessed sins will haunt us our entire lives.
Look at Judah’s change from selling Joseph into slavery to protecting Benjamin from it. Also, to spare his father from losing another beloved son.
Personalize it
- Is there some unconfessed sin that I need to get off my chest? I can start in the quiet of the night by asking God to forgive me. He’ll make it clear what my next steps should be.
Historical Significance of Judah
The Lion of Judah, as Jesus was called, would descend from the tribe of Judah. Food for thought – why do you think the Son of Man (as Jesus called himself) descended from Judah/Tamar and not from one of the sons of Joseph? Considering Joseph was the pure one…
Also significant: many years later, the kingdom of Israel would split in two. The northern kingdom would be named Israel; the southern kingdom Judah. Both would turn from God and be overthrown by invaders, but Judah had pockets of faithfulness longer, and remained independent until the Babylonian empire.
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.