January 14 – Reading 14

JANUARY 14 – Reading 14

by John Pra | January 14

“OUR GREAT SUBSTITUTE”
(Genesis 42:1 – 45:15)

For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, 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 evil that would find my father.” – Genesis 44:32-34

What comes to mind when you think of a substitute? Often it carries negative connotations, something of lesser value to replace the thing you really wanted. In our reading in Genesis 44 today, we have a picture of a substitute in Judah that not only had importance to his family, but also is a foreshadowing of the Great Substitute, Jesus Christ.

Joseph is testing his brothers and setting them up for an encounter they never could have imagined since they sold him into slavery and presumed he was dead. Still unaware that they are standing in front of their brother, they are called to give an account for guilt. Joseph required that their youngest brother, Benjamin, be taken into custody while the other return to their father. Judah pleaded for the father’s sake, basically saying, “if we return home without Benjamin our father will die.”

Then Judah does something unexpected, he offers himself up as a substitute. His life for Benjamin’s. And in this act, we see a type of Jesus who came from the line of Judah and would give his life, as a servant, to redeem us from the penalty of sin.

Let’s praise God for his Son, Jesus, our great Substitute who stood in our place and freed us from bondage.

Pray for…

• Humility and a repentant heart, acknowledging sin and the need for Christ’s substitutionary death.
• A heart of sacrificial love, willing to serve others for their good and blessings.