# 415 Judah Foreshadows Another Guarantor

The Book of Genesis

Day 418

Ge 44:32 "For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.'  33 "Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.  34 "For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?"

Judah continues to plea for the release of Benjamin. He tells Joseph that he has become surety for the lad to his father. What a beautiful illustration of what Judah’s descendant (Jesus) actually did at Calvary for you and I! Jesus did this because like Judah, He did not want evil or grief to come upon our heavenly Father. God is grieved over every lost soul. Eze 33:11 says, “'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”

It is His desire that none should perish.

Surety is a financial term. It speaks of bartering or exchanging. Here it is used as Judah asks to be a guarantor for the life of his brother Benjamin. Jesus reminds us of this kind of love when He says, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his brother.” (Jn 15:13) This is what is called “agape” love, and at last Joseph sees it at work in one of his brothers! And it broke him!  It moved him to tears.

Listen, it will do the same thing to you, when you realize that Jesus was surety for you!

Moses also exhibited this kind of love when he pleaded with God in Ex 32:32 "Yet now, if You will forgive their sin-but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written."

There is no greater love than this! How are you doing with your “agape” love? No need to lay down your life as a martyr, but just giving up time that could’ve been spent on yourself for the welfare of others is “agape” love. It could be anything from serving at a soup kitchen or a crisis pregnancy center, or even just providing a listening ear for someone who is hurting. God has “agaped” you and I, let us seek ways to “agape” others!