One of
my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 was to read through the bible completely in
a year. Luckily I have several bible reading plans in the back of my HCSB Study
Bible that keeps me on task with my goal. Even though I am reading through 4
books of the bible at any given time during this year, I am amazed at how much
Genesis has fascinated me. Maybe it’s because we are working our way through
Genesis in my Sunday school class as well… Any way it goes, I am constantly
amazed at how plans were laid out in Genesis for things that wouldn’t occur
until the Gospels.
The
topic that has really caught my eye this week is Judah, one of Jacob (or
Israel)’s sons. Judah was the founder of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and
as we learn in Matthew, Jesus’ forefather. With a biological connection to the
Savior, it only makes sense to look at Judah’s life.
Judah
wasn’t the firstborn (that title went to Reuben). He wasn’t the father of a
line of priests (that would be Levi). He wasn’t the son of Jacob’s favorite
wife like Joseph and Benjamin. He didn’t even hold an obviously special place
in his father’s heart. Rather, Judah, I believe, proved his worth during the
seven-year famine.
Don’t
get me wrong, Judah was by no means perfect. In the limited knowledge we have
of Judah, we see him as someone who
plundered Shecham’s land after Simon and Levi killed all of the males, a guy
who willingly slept with a woman who he thought was a prostitute but turned out
to be his daughter-in-law, and a jealous young man who sold his brother into
slavery.
It is
after these occurrences that we see a different side of Judah. Once again, God proves
that no one is unusable with Judah. When his family is out of food, the brother’s
head to Egypt and buy food from Joseph. When Joseph decides that the only way
they will get more food from Egypt is to bring their younger brother to Egypt
and until then Simeon will be kept as a prisoner, it is Judah that sacrifices
himself in response. Reuben volunteered his own children if Benjamin did not
return from Egypt. Judah volunteered himself.
When Benjamin is caught with Joseph’s silver cup, it is Judah that pleas
for Benjamin, and it is this pleading that results in Joseph finally revealing
his identity.
This
sacrificial mindset is a foreshadowing of what his descendent will be born with
the sole purpose of doing. Unlike Judah, however, Jesus didn’t go through all
the bad to get to the good. He was born with the sacrificial mindset that it
took Judah years and years to obtain. I could go on and on about the
sacrificing of Christ, but that’s not what this post is about. This blog is
about encouraging people, so here’s my encouragement for the day:
Don’t
be discouraged by what you have done in your past. All of us have things that
we are not proud of, and even things that we might feel are unforgiveable. You
are not alone and you are not unforgivable. God uses all people. Judah had many
skeletons in his tent but that didn’t stop God from using him. Judah sold his
brother, slept with a prostitute/his own daughter-in-law, and was a plunderer.
Even with all of that baggage, Judah went on to provide the line that Jesus was
born to. Judah was the tie between Abraham and Isaac and Jesus. Don’t give up
on yourself because God won’t.
Your Fellow Water Walker,
-Ashlee
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