(This post is based off of a section of the sermon I heard this morning**. All references refer to the book of Genesis. Sorry for the length, but I think it's worth it...)
Judah was the 4th son of Leah, Jacob's first--but unloved--wife. Jacob outrageously favored his 2nd wife, Leah's younger sister Rachel. And Rachel's two sons, the youngest of the 12, were also inapropriately favored in the family. In regards to Joseph, Rachel's first-born, the Bible tells us: "When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him" (37:4).
The last straw was when young Joseph bragged to his older brothers that God had given him a prophetic dream announcing that they would all kneel and serve him. He was right, but perhaps not properly humble?
As Joseph approached his elder ten brothers out in the hills where they were shepherding far from their father's encampment, they decided to kill him and tell their father that Joseph had been attacked by a wild animal. Reuben, the eldest, talked them into tossing him down an empty well, with the plan of coming back and rescuing him later. Judah then suggested: "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" (37:27).
And so Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites (his great-uncle's descendents) who then sold him in Egypt. The 10 brothers returned to Jacob and told him that Joseph was dead. In Egypt, by the grace of God, Joseph ended up 2nd in command under Pharaoh over the greatest superpower nation of the day.
Judah's life proceded to get "interesting." He married a foreign woman and, as is implied by later events, forsook the God of his fathers for her gods. You can read about Judah's downfall in detail in Genesis 38, but suffice it to say that 2 of his 3 sons-by-his-wife died, and he ended up impregnating his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar when she tricked him into thinking that she was a shrine prostitute. When he learned that Tamar was pregnant, Judah commanded that she be stoned to death for her sin. When she gave him proof of his paternity, he repented and humbled himself and acknowledged her twin sons as his own.
You're wondering why I want to name a son Judah, aren't you?
Later, the whole region suffered under major famine, and Jacob's eldest 10 sons went to Egypt to buy food. (Egypt had food only because of Joseph's wisdom.) Joseph, while hiding his true identity, demanded that the brothers go back to Canaan and then return to Egypt with Benjamin, Rachel's 2nd son who replaced Joseph as their father's favorite. Joseph kept his brother Simeon in prison as assurance that they would return.
When they arrived home and told Jacob that they must return to Egypt with Benjamin, Jacob was NOT HAPPY. He cried out, "You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me! ... My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow" (42: 36,38). Benjamin is the "only one left"? Thanks, Dad.
And so Simeon was left to rot in jail.
Once again the family needed food, and Judah--broken, repentant Judah-- said to his father, "Send the boy [Benjamin] along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life" (43:8-9). How Judah has changed! As a young man he sold his father's favorite son into slavery, and now, as a chastened father, he offers his own life in place of his father's current favorite.
The brothers presented Benjamin to Joseph-in-disguise, reclaimed Simeon and bought more food. On their return to Canaan, Joseph sent soldiers to bring them back under false charges. Joseph claimed Benjamin as a slave as restitution for their supposed crime.
Judah fell on his face and explained the situation in a passionate speech recorded in Genesis 44:16-34. He begged for Benjamin's life out of love for Jacob and for Benjamin himself. He ended his plea this way: "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. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father."
Joseph revealed himself, and the whole family moved to Egypt where they received noble treatment as Joseph's family. As Jacob was dying, he gave his special blessing to Joseph and Joseph's two sons. He gave curses and blessings to each of his sons. To Judah, he said:
"Judah, your brothers will praise you;
your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons will bow down to you.
You are a lion's cub, O Judah;
you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness--who dares to rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs
and the obedience of the nations is his.
He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes will be darker than wine,
his teeth whiter than milk."
(49:8-12)
Jacob gave Joseph the greater blessing, but in the eyes of history, Judah's line is the most blessed on earth. For from Judah's line (through Perez, one of Tamar's twins) came David, the greatest king; Soloman, the wisest man; and a faithful young man named Joseph, who gave his name to his adopted son Jesus, the King of Kings, the Lion of Judah.*
If Judah's name is good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for any kid of mine. And if I have a son who falls on his face before the Lord, repents of his sins and offers his own life in place of his brother's, I would consider myself blessed among women.
*also, the current nation of Israel is almost entirely descended from the line of Judah, which is why they are known as "Jews" (the German "Juden" makes the linguistic link clearer), more often than "Hebrews."
** sermon link: http://welcome.theshoreline.org/content.aspx?id=308 Choose the March 11, 2007 sermon
9 years ago
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