“ Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave
to my lord in place of the boy; and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy
is not with me? I fear to see the
suffering that would come upon my father.”
Genesis 44: 33-34
Judah, the hero of Chapter 44, hasn’t seemed all that heroic
to me. In Chapter 37, he stood by and watched
his brothers throw Joseph into a pit, and then suggested selling him off to
some Ishmaelites. He was so horrible in Chapter
38 that it’s not even included in the Daily Office readings. Go back and take a look. Once again, you’ll read of Judah neglecting someone
he should have been protecting. It was
his duty to provide for his daughter-in-law Tamar after the death of her
husband but he didn’t. He had to be
tricked into sleeping with her so that she could secure her rightful place in
the family. Joseph has appeared much
more heroic in this saga than has his big brother Judah. Joseph can recognize omens and interpret
dreams; Judah can’t even recognize his own brother or daughter-in-law when they
are right in front of him. Joseph
resists temptation and plans carefully for the future; Judah acts impulsively
and succumbs to peer pressure.
Yet it’s Judah, not his righteous prophetic younger brother,
who connects the tribe of Jacob to Jesus. The lineage runs through him, through
his son Hezron, through Jesse and King
David, and eventually to Jesus’s earthly father Joseph. It’s a rather murky gene pool in some places and
Judah fits right in. Like King David, he
had a habit of acting without thinking of the consequences. Like King David he betrayed those who trusted
him. Like King David, he rationalized
his self-seeking behavior.
And, like King David, he repents. The word repent can be translated as “a new
mind”. Judah’s repentance, his new mind
and his new heart, are a beautiful reminder of Christ’s message and
mission. In Chapter 44, we truly see a
man with a new mind. We see a man who
has made mistakes, seen the consequences, and has changed. We see a man who is willing to lay down his
life to protect those who trust him. I
think we see a hero.
(Robin Carlo)
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