Love that overcomes jealousy (Gen 44:14-34)

Being unloved in a family is a hard thing to live with, whether the parents wish they had a child who is a boy rather than a girl or vice versa, or whether one child is preferred over another. Often, a neglected child does everything and more to earn a parent’s love making themselves over to please the one whose approval they crave. Yet, the reason for human love cannot always be explained and it will rarely if ever respond to this kind of prompting. In such circumstances, the unloved child’s jealousy of the favourite is an understandable human reaction, and it is hard to overcome. Jacob’s family lived with this kind of favouritism all their lives. Jacob fiercely loved Rachel and her sons and seemingly never quite forgave Leah who was party to the deception played on him at his wedding night (Gen 29:20-25).

The past comes forward

Given this background and the consuming hatred Jacob’s sons showed Joseph, Judah’s moving speech is an astonishing turnaround. The brothers’ deep-seated guilt is expressed in Judah’s admission (Gen 44:16). Although on the surface it relates to the alleged stealing of Joseph’s cup,[1] where the brothers cannot prove their innocence, the way they admit to having been found out by God Himself and the plural (‘your servants’, v.16) implicating all of them, suggest that they attribute the present events to God’s retribution for their past sin against Joseph (cf Gen 42:21-22). Joseph’s insistence that only Benjamin should be kept back and enslaved re-creates the earlier situation when the brothers sold Joseph into slavery. If their hearts were unchanged now, they would happily leave Benjamin behind and good riddance. But Judah, who once suggested selling Joseph into slavery, now responds with a moving speech in which he offers himself as slave in exchange for his little brother (Gen 44:33).

Love for the unloving

The most striking aspect of his speech is the tender love he shows his old father who is doting on this last child of his beloved wife. How painful to admit that his father loves this son and cite Jacob’s words that his wife (i.e. Rachel) bore him two sons (Gen 44:20, 27), as if Leah and his sons did not exist! Yet, Judah’s tone is not jealous but tender. He wants to save his father sorrow because he understands that ‘his life is bound up in the lad’s life’ (Gen 44:31). He is willing to sacrifice himself for a father who consistently disregarded and ignored Judah and his brothers. Such favouritism is not right, and it is hurtful, yet Judah has come to love the old man despite his failings. How did such a change come about? No doubt, that Judah’s own experiences as a father losing two of his sons and desperately trying to protect the third even if it meant doing the wrong thing, had something to do with it (Gen 38:6-11; see my post on Genesis 38 Repentance: The Doorway to Change).[2] Recognition of our own weaknesses make us more compassionate towards those of others.

God’s hand and surpassing mercy

Once again, we see God’s amazing providence in the life of this family. Although He is only occasionally mentioned in the narrative, it is clear that the brothers recognise God’s hand in the way they are confronted with their past sin. Through human actors and circumstances God also plays a part in the transformation of their perspective and attitude, especially in Judah’s. Little do the brothers know that at their lowest ebb, when they think God is finally paying them back for their sin with just punishment, He is working on their healing and rescue. As Christians, we understand this pattern as it is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ and His cross, but it is very much present in the Old Testament, too. No wonder, since the God revealed in the Old Testament is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God that He can transform our hearts and attitudes, too, no matter how angry, embittered or hurt we may be. And just as the prodigal son, who acknowledged God’s justice in repentance, when we do the same, we come face-to-face not with the burning anger of the Lord, but with His surpassing mercy.

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[1] Readers may feel uneasy that Joseph has a cup used for divination (Gen 44:5), which was a pagan practice that involved looking for omens discerned from patterns forming in liquids such as wine, oil, water, or some combination of these. Divination is a practice forbidden to later Israel (Deut 18:10), but we are still before the law in Joseph’s story. It is also unclear whether Joseph really used that cup for divination or whether the steward’s emphasis on this point is simply to stress the gravity of the theft. There is nothing in the narrative to suggest disapproval of Joseph, in any case, just as Abraham’s marriage to his half-sister, Sarah, is considered incest according to later law (Lev 18:9; uncovering a woman’s nakedness is a euphemism for sexual intercourse) but is not condemned in the patriarch. God’s revelation regarding acceptable behaviours and actions is a gradual process. What should be remembered is that whenever Joseph is involved in interpreting what is thought to be divine communication, he always acknowledges God. At the same time, we should also note that these avenues into the spiritual world are closed for us, the later people of God, and Joseph’s potential example should not be used as a precedent.

[2] Given the time needed for Judah to have had several sons growing up to marriageable age, it is possible that the events in Genesis 38 come to their climax around the time when the brothers go to Egypt 20-22 years later. For the assessment of Tamar’s behaviour, see also my post on the same chapter (What Matters to God?).

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