Genesis 44:18

Things were arranged so that the apparent guilt fell on Benjamin. Judah had stood as guarantor for him to Jacob. That brought Judah forward as the spokesman. He had led the way in selling Joseph to the Midianites who were going to Egypt, and he spoke then with a hard heart. Now he has to speak about Benjamin, and what a change is clear! Instead of hardness, great tenderness of feeling, especially for his old father, Jacob. Then it did not matter how Jacob would feel; now it mattered everything to him.

Tell me, what wrongdoing was there over the cup? None; but it served to rouse conscience. It brought up the twenty pieces of silver, and the wickedness of their history in days gone by. The poet said it well: "Conscience makes cowards of us all." They were in a miserable state as they say to Joseph, "and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself." But the truth must come out. And it is a great thing when God reaches the conscience in this way.

Here we have a most earnest pleading, full of touching affection… We see a heart that has been brought right, at the very point where the sin lay. "We said to my lord, We have a father, an old man." Ah, there was no tearing of his heart now! "And a child of his old age, a little one." How little they thought of that once! "And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him." Can we not feel how far his brothers now were from hating Joseph for their father's love to him!

This indeed is excellent, but these are words and may be only empty profession. Words must be proved by deeds… As a son he pleads for Jacob. He is our father. He is an old man. He loves Benjamin, and "his life is bound up in the boy's life." How can "I see the evil that would find my father"? As a true brother he pleads for Benjamin. He is "a lad," "a little one," "our youngest brother."

There is no attempt on Judah's part to protect himself from the consequences of his crime. There is no attempt to soften his actions or their results. He vividly describes Jacob's grief, which implies their guilt. The account of this is not toned down with a view to improving Judah's current situation.

Judah's appeal is no empty rhetoric; he offers to give himself up to save Benjamin. This spirit of self-sacrifice marks all true intercession. "Blot me, I pray you, out of Your book," said Moses. "I could wish myself accursed," said Paul. "Let me be slave instead of Benjamin" (in effect), says Judah. All these said what they were willing to do: the wounds of Christ show what He has done.

Many find it hard to see why we should need intercession with God at all, when He already stands in perfect love towards us. But look at Joseph. He stood in perfect love towards these forgiven sinners. From the beginning he had fully made up his mind to save and bless them. And yet how natural, how fitting, how beautiful and moving is Judah's noble, generous intercession! It did not alter the final outcome (though it may have hastened it), but it altered everything else.

He came near to Joseph, as Israel will yet eventually come near to the Lord Jesus without realizing who He is. He asks Joseph not to be angry that he speaks again, "for," he says, "you are equal to Pharaoh." In just the same way, Israel in a coming day will confess that Christ is equal to God.