SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

We have discussed Joseph and how his life defines what it means to forgive. “Am I in God’s place? You meant to do evil to me, but God meant it for good.... therefore do not be afraid, I will take care of you and your little one’s” (Genesis 50:9-21. Joseph shows us forgiveness is not about justice (Am I in God’s place?); that it entails neither accepting not forgetting (you meant to do evil to me); that its essential element is God’s grace ( God meant it for good) ; and that it means acting based upon that grace and not upon the hurt (do not be afraid, I will take care of you and your little ones). This week I want us to see the great irony of the Joseph story, and understand a measure of what is at stake if we refuse to forgive.

    Of Jacob’s 12 sons we know about only three - Reuben, Judah, and Joseph. Of Reuben we know that he seemed to have a keen sense of responsibility towards his father ( Genesis 37 :21-36, and since he is the oldest, this not surprising. Joseph, of course, is one of the great characters of the Old Testament. Only Moses and David have more print devoted to their lives. He is THE exemplary man of Genesis. Joseph tells none of the lies Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so easily resort to in time of crisis. He achieves the highest level of integrity, and the highest level of human accomplishment. Judah, on the other hand, is less than nice.

     Judah is the one who has the bright idea of selling Joseph instead of killing him, because that they will at least make a buck (Genesis 37:25-28). Judah is the one who gets his daughter-in -law pregnant ( in his defense he doesn’t know she is his daughter-in -law, he thinks she is a prostitute). Judah is a shark who would seem more at home swimming in the waters inside the beltway, than he would in the pages of the Bible. But he’s there. In fact, he’s the reason for Joseph’s odessy.

     Joseph knows full well he is a tool for God’s greater plan, that he’s not the focus of that plan. “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”(Genesis 45:7) For all the print dedicated to him (Genesis 37-50), Joseph is NOT the brother whom God must keep alive. Neither is Mr. Responsibility, Reuben. The brother who must survive is Judah!  Judah is the father of Kings. David is his descendant, so is Solomon, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah. So is Jesus.The line that will produce the Saviour - that will bring to complete fulfillment the covenant with Abraham ( in your seed will all the nations of the world be blessed) runs through Judah.

    What if Joseph could not have forgiven his brothers? What if on that morning in Egypt when 10 brothers from Canaan came to buy grain, they met sudden execution? We never know what God has planned. We never know who is necessary to His plan. If we usurp God’s role of meting out justice, will we not find ourselves trying to oppose His will?


     The irony of Judah is that the least likable, the least admirable among us may be the very one for whom God has planned great things. The irony of Judah teaches us to never assume. The irony of Judah teaches us that forgiveness is the only way to yield to God’s will.

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