Sermon

[Genesis 44.1-34] 2025.05.17  The love of an unfavoured son

 The love of an unfavoured son

Big Idea: In Christ, God exposes our sin, substitutes for our sins, and transforms self-serving sinners into self-sacrificing saints.

1.      A probe into the brother’s love for the favourite son

2.      A plea based on the father’s love for the favourite son

3.      A pursuit to substitute shows a brother’s transformation

Introduction:

Over the past few weeks, our some of our Church members have experienced the sad news of the death of their loved ones or people whom they know.

There have been six deaths, all of them natural courses, some of them overseas, some of them local and two of them are students at a Church that Jenny teaches at.

It’s a difficult time for many of us.

One of the first lessons that I’ve learnt as a minister is that we prepare people for their deaths, and so, as far as we can, we will make ourselves there for those who are grieving.

There’s always a cost for ministers to look after the family of those who are dying.

Our Church preparation time will be cut short.

But I would much rather pay the cost of having less time for myself than to miss out on caring for the loved ones of our brothers and sisters.

I would rather have less time for myself than for by brothers and sisters to think that I don’t want to be there for them.

What would you avoid seeing even at great personal cost?  

In today’s passage, we see Judah, who wanted to avoid seeing something at great cost to himself.

I was very moved when I was reading the passage; I hope you will be moved as well.

In today’s passage, we’ll see three things:

A probe into the brother’s love for the favourite son

A plea based on the father’s love for the favourite son

A pursuit to substitute shows a brother’s transformation

Before we begin, let’s pray, “Our heavenly Father, please open up our hearts and our minds as we come to your word. By your Holy Spirit, please transform us more into the likeness of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.”

A probe into the brother’s love for the favourite son

Over the past few months, we’ve been looking at the family of Jacob in Genesis of the Old Testament.

It was a messy family.

There was Jacob, the father, who was not even trying to hide his favouritism, which brought a lot of pain to the family.

The sons who weren’t the favourites weren’t great themselves.

They committed shocking scandals, one of which was to sell Joseph, their brother, who happened to be Jacob’s favourite son.

After they sold Joseph, they slaughtered a goat, dipped Joseph’s coat in the blood, and showed it to their father Jacob.

All they said was, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?” And they left Jacob to fill in the blanks, “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!”

Jacob tore his clothes, which was how you show that you’re extremely distressed and sad back in those days.

That was bad enough already.

What could be worse? The brothers said nothing.

They saw their father’s heart torn to pieces based on what they knew to be false information, and they just let him suffer the pain of losing his favourite son.

That’s cold. That’s cruel!

Around twenty-two years later, they were having a feast in Egypt with their father’s new favourite son, Benjamin, in Egypt, where, unbeknownst to the brothers, Joseph, now the second-in-charge was their host.

They were having a great time and they were even drunk with Joseph.

Though they haven’t reunited yet, the brothers were having a great time together, with Joseph.

They came to get food; their brother Simeon was pardoned from an Egyptian prison and was having dinner with them; Benjamin was safe and the Egyptian who was in charge was partying with them.

They had accomplished their mission, or so they thought. Look with me at verses 1-2, “Joseph commanded his steward, “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s silver at the top of his bag.  2 Put my cup, the silver one, at the top of the youngest one’s bag, along with the silver for his grain.”

So he did as Joseph told him.” Joseph was setting them up for a crime they didn’t commit.

He asked his steward to hide a silver cup in Benjamin’s bag.

The choice of silver cup was an interesting one.

Do you remember how much Joseph was sold for?

He was sold for twenty pieces of silver.

And now, Joseph was framing them for stealing a cup made of silver.

In most cases, framing someone for something they hadn’t done is bad.

Has anyone been in that situation before, being framed for something you haven’t done? It’s not a great feeling, right?

When I was year seven, I had a great friend in my Arts class.

I wasn’t a great artist but at l was trying my best.

But my best friend, he wasn’t even trying. Now, one of the reasons why he was a great friend was because we were Asians, and there weren’t many Asian boys back in my old school, and we do like similar things.

When I got my half-yearly report back, I had a C, a C!

The teacher said I was disruptive and not giving my best.

But my friend got an A!

However, being the studious Asian boy that I was, I didn’t say anything but kept working to get better.

Looking back, I was pretty certain that my Art teacher got me and my friend mixed up.

The happy ending – I got all A’s for Art for my end of year report and my friend didn’t.

While it wasn’t exactly being framed, it was still bad to be thought badly for things I haven’t done.

However, in Joseph’s case, it was outright framing.

They left Joseph’s house in a good mood.

They set out early in the morning.

They were on their way home with their cargo fully loaded with food when Joseph’s steward overtook them and said what Joseph had told him to say in verses 4-5, “Why have you repaid evil for good? Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and uses for divination? What you have done is wrong!’”

The brothers denied if, of course.

They even said that if what the steward said was true, then he could kill that man who had the cup and the rest of them would become his slave.

They were absolutely certain that they don’t have a silver cup in their bags.

I don’t know about you, but if I was the brothers, I wouldn’t be so sure, even if I knew in my heart that I was innocent.

After all, they did discover an extra silver coin when they got home.

 They even said it themselves that they brought back the silver that they ‘mysteriously’ found in their bags when they got home last time.

Could not the same thing happen again? Well, the brothers didn’t think so.

The Egyptian steward agreed with the brothers, but there was no need for all the brothers to become slaves.

Only the one who had the silver cup, only the guilty one, needed to stay.

The rest were free to go.

Now notice the difference between how the brothers saw the crime and its punishment and how the Egyptian Steward, saw the crime and its punishment.

It was enough for the Egyptian steward that only the guilty one was punished.

But for the brothers, all of them would share the punishment together, if anyone of them was found guilty.

Even though they were framed, they were willing to be framed together.

There’s a beautiful solidarity among the brothers.

They were in this together. If they go home, they go home together.

If one of them was punished, then all of them would be punished together.

They would rightly defence their case, they would make good arguments, but if one of them was found guilty, they would still stick together.

They would not abandon him. That’s brotherly love – a love that doesn’t abandon.

Sure enough, as they searched their bags, from the eldest to the youngest, they found the cup in Benjamin, the youngest.

At this they tore their clothes and headed back to Joseph’s house.

Remember what Jacob did when he assumed that Joseph, his former favourtie son was dead? He tore his clothes.

Remember what the brothers did?

They let Jacob believe in his false assumption and they didn’t tear their clothes.

But now, when Josephs’ new favourite son was framed, they were distressed.

They tore their clothes.

While the brothers didn’t know it, this was a plan to probe into the hearts of their brothers, to see how they now respond to their father’s new favourite son.

Would they abandon Benjamin, just like they abandoned Joseph all those years ago?

Would they take their liberty, as was right for them to do, as the Egyptian steward had told them to do, at the cost of Benjamin’s liberty?

For twenty pieces of silver, they sold Joseph into slavery, taking his freedom away from him.

Would they now let Benjamin’s freedom be taken away, albeit unjustly, for the sake of one silver cup?

They wouldn’t.

They abandoned Joseph before and they’ve lived with the guilt and the consequences of it.

Josephs’ probe shows that they were transformed from self-serving brothers to brothers who would stick with one another.

They have a genuine, loyal love for one another, even for Benjamin, the favourite son of their father Jacob.

I would hate to be their brothers when Joseph was still at home.

I would love to be their brother by the time they were with Benjamin in Egypt.

They have a fiercely loyal love for their brothers.

Our Lord Jesus also has a fiercely loyal love for his brothers.

In Hebrews 2:11 we read, “For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.  That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

Jesus is not ashamed to call those whom he’s saved, those whom he’s sanctified (made clean), his brothers and sisters. Jesus is not ashamed of believers like us!

If Jesus is not ashamed of us, we shouldn’t be ashamed of our brothers and sisters.

Instead, we’ll commit ourselves to their good, even when they go through a rough patch. We will not abandon them.

Over the past few weeks, one of the most encouraging messages I received was from an old friend, “You’re not alone”.

It’s a good reminder that in the midst of life’s challenges, in the life of ministry’s challenges, I’m not alone.

There are Christian brothers and sisters who will not abandon me.

It’s a good reminder. It’s also a good challenge as well.

Would I be there for my Christian brothers and sisters, when I’m tempted to abandon them?

Would I abandon them when they go through a hard time?

My prayer is that God will give me the strength to be loyal, and to be kind of brother that God wants me to be.

How about you? Will you pray that you will be loyal to your brothers and sisters too?

A plea based on the father’s love for the favourite son

When Judah and his brothers got back to Joseph’s house, Joseph was still there.

They hadn’t gone too far at all! Joseph accused Judah and his brothers of hiding the truth and told them that he could’ve found out the truth by divination.

Divination is a practice that uses spiritual powers of some sort to discover secrets and future events.

It’s a practice forbidden by God’s law, that he would give to the Israelites many years later.

We’re not sure what Joseph meant by this, but since the purpose was to set the brothers up for a crime they didn’t commit, the mention of the divination was most likely to strengthen the case against Judah and his brothers.

Listen to Judah’s disappointment in verse 16, “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied.

“How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity.

We are now my lord’s slaves—both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

At first, it sounds like he’s admitted to being guilty of stealing thecup.

He said that God has exposed your servants’ iniquity, or sin.

What other sin had they committed but the theft of the silver cup? It seems like he was admitting to a crime that he didn’t commit.

But Judah was here almost certainly referring to the much greater sin that he and his brothers committed all those years ago, not against Benjamin, but against Joseph.

He was admitting that both he and his brothers were guilty of a cold case.

A cold case is an unsolved criminal case.

About four years ago, while I was away at a conference, someone broke into our Church and stole quite a few items at Church, including my computer.

I gave the police as many details as I could, but to this day, we don’t know what happened to the computer.

The last signal I received from it was in Rockdale. It remains a cold case.

Judah and his brothers knew the truth about Joseph but kept this secret from his father for about twenty-two years.

While Jacob their father assumed that the culprit who killed Joseph was a wild animal, the truth was that Joseph was sold by his brothers to Egypt.

While it wasn’t explicit, the strange events leading up to this point must have prompted Judah to think about what they did to Joseph.

The theme of silver keeps coming back, reminding him about the twenty pieces of silver.

The talk about slavery must have reminded him about him orchestrating a plan to sell Joseph as a slave.

As a man who have at least heard a little about God, Judah believed that it was God who had led these events to happen.

He was right, of course. God did expose his sins, but not in the way that the thought.

Since Judah recognised God’s hand in this, he submitted to the verdict and was willing to be slaves of their new Egyptian master.

However, Joseph said that only the youngest need to remain; the rest of the brothers could go home.

Here again, Joseph was testing the love Judah and his brothers have for Benjamin. How far would they be pushed until they abandon him?

Judah then gave a beautiful and persuasive speech to Joseph, not knowing that it was Joseph, of course.

It’s a humble confession and a humble plea to Joseph. It starts off with a humble beginning, as if Judah was saying, “Sir, with your permission, may I speak with you personally”.

Judah recounts his first visit to Egypt, during which he said that it was Joseph himself who asked, “Do you have a father or a brother?”

It was as if Judah was gently reminding Joseph that it was Joseph who started this whole thing.

Also, it was Joseph who said that the only way for them to come back for more food was if their youngest would come with them.

Judah then reports what happened when they were back home in Canaan.

Now this information that Judah was about to give him would be new to Joseph. Judah said that his father wanted the brothers would go back but Judah told Jacob this could only happen if Bejamin would go with them.

Listen to what Jacob told Judah, remembering that this is the first time Joseph heard about this, in verses 27-28, “‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One is gone from me—I said he must have been torn to pieces—and I have never seen him again.”

I don’t know how Judah would’ve felt but if I was him, I would feel pretty bad. If I was an unkind and unloving son, I might have said, “Sorry, father, you have four wives, and ten other sons. I, too, am your son!”

At this point, it was as if Judah had accepted the fact that he was not even considered to be a son by Jacob, even though he was one of the sons of Jacob’s first wife, Leah.

It was as if he accepted his father’s favouritism.    

I don’t know how Joseph would’ve felt, but if I was him, I would feel horrible too.

All this time, his father Jacob thought that he was torn to pieces, presumably by an animal.

For over twenty years, Joseph’s father Jacob was still grieving for losing Joseph.

And now, the second son, the new favourite son, Benjamin was in danger of becoming a slave.

Judah said that if Benjamin became a slave in Egypt, Jacob would lose Benjamin.

This wouldn’t just be sad for Jacob; it would be devastating for Jacob’s life as wrapped up in the boy’s life.

Jacob had so wrapped up his life around Bejamin’s life that he would die, if they were separated permanently.

Jacob had not wrapped his life around his other sons, of course.

He didn’t even mention what he would do if anything should happen to Judah and his brothers.

It was as if he didn’t care, didn’t love, his other sons.

He only cared about his favourite.

But instead of feeling bitter about his father, instead of abandoning his father to his death, Judah did something extraordinary.

Judah’s argument against Josephs’ sentence was this: Since Jacob so loved Benjamin, since Benjamin was Jacob’s favourite, please reconsider the sentence. Please don’t make Benjamin stay in Egypt alone.

Please don’t separate my father from his favourite son. If you do, my father would die.

Do you see how much Judah loved his father Jacob?

Jacob was selfish and showed favouritism that ruined his family and almost drove it to starvation.

And yet, Judah appealed to Joseph on the very basis of that favourtism.

Judah and his brothers had wronged Jacob before, when they let him sink in sorrow when he thought that Joseph had died.

They had lived with that guilt for twenty two years. They could not bring themselves to doing this to their father again.

That’s a wonderful expression of filial love, or love for our parents.

One of the commandments that God would give many years later was this, “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may have a long lie in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

God puts this command in because it’s the right thing to do and also because it’s something that are tempted not to do.

If it was easy and natural, then God wouldn’t need to command it. God doesn’t tell us to honour our parents only when they are completely fair, only when they are giving us what we ask, or even only when they’re loving. God simply said, “Honour your father and your mother.”

Judah honoured his father, even though his father hasn’t been kind nor loving to him. He didn’t do it to get his father’s approval either.

For all he knew, Jacob would still treat Benjamin as the favourite.

But, after God exposing his sin against his brother, and after seeing what his father went through for the past twenty two years, Judah was determined to learn from his mistake.

He would not dishonour his father by sending him to his grave in mourning.

The New Testament tells Christian children to “obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right.” As children saved by the Lord Jesus, we are to obey our parents in the Lord.

There may be exceptional times when obeying the Lord and obeying the parents might mean different things.

But unless it’s truly against what the Lord teaches, children, obey your parents.

They are not perfect, I know, I am one!

But as Judah did his best to love his flawed father, and more importantly, as the Lord Jesus gave his life up to serve the heavenly Father, obey your father and your mother.

And parents, don’t make it hard for your children to love you.

As the Bible teaches, “Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

A pursuit to substitute shows a brother’s transformation

After explaining how important Benjamin was to Jacob his father, Judah presents an alternative to Joseph’s sentence.

Since Judah had already made a pledge for Benjamin’s life, Judah asks Joseph to consider letting Judah be the substitute instead.

Look with me at verses 33-34, “Now please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him go back with his brothers. 34 For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father.”

Judah was willing to be a substitute for Benjamin; he was actively pursuing the prospect to become a slave, in order to free his brother Benjamin, as well as the other brothers, and to keep his father from dying of sorrow. He was willing to make a self-sacrificial substitute.

Last week, I mentioned that covetousness was seeing a precious thing that was in our brother’s hand and wanting to take it and envy was seeing the previous thing that was in our brother’s hand and wanting to empty it.

Self-sacrificial substitute would be seeing your brother’s opened and empty hand, ready to receive punishment, but shoving his hand aside so that you get punished instead.

Judah couldn’t bear to see the grief that his father would go through losing another favourite son.

That’s the drive for his sacrificial substitute. It’s love for a wayward father that would rather pay the high cost of losing freedom, losing security, losing family, than to see his father going to his death in grief.

A Christian writer by the name of Dr. Barnhouse summarizes beautifully like this:

“Here was the eloquence of true love. . . . Love so burningly manifest, so willing to take full responsibility before God, love which thought only of Jacob and Benjamin, melted the heart of Joseph. Such love moved Moses to ask God to blot his name out of the book of life (Exodus 32:32); such love prompted Paul to wish himself accursed for his brethren if only they could be saved. Judah was transformed by divine love.”

Over a period of twenty-two years, God has performed a marvellous transformation in Judah’s life. He was a self-serving brother who was bitter about his father’s favouritism to his brother.

He’s now willing, indeed, actively pursuing, to be a self-sacrificial substitute for the sake of his father and his brothers.

Judah’s self-sacrificial substitute was a foreshadow of the self-sacrificial substitute of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t need to come to our world. He didn’t need to be born as a man, treated like a criminal and to die on the cross. He could’ve chosen to stay in heaven.

But our of his love for God the Father and out of his love for us, he actively sought us, he actively pursued the path of the cross, not because it was something that he enjoyed, but because he loved God and he loved us.

Jesus came to be the self-sacrificing substitute and opened his hand to receive God’s punishment for our sins.

Unlike Benjamin, we weren’t framed. We deserve God’s punishment, but Jesus, obeying God the Father, took the punishment on our behalf.

Do you know the joy of being substituted by Jesus?

That’s what every Christian knows and live by. We live because Jesus became a self-substitute for us.

And as someone who’s been saved because of Jesus’ self-serving substitute, we are being transformed day by day to become even more like Jesus.

God renews us, our inner person day by day, so that we’ll turn from our self-serving ways to become like Jesus in his self-sacrificial days.

It’s God’s love for us in Jesus, our great Substitute, that transforms us so that we can have that same self-sacrificial love for our brothers and sisters.

As 1 John 3:16 tells us, ‘This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us.  We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.’

Jesus has laid down his life for us, we ought to, we owe it to Jesus, to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

How do we lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters? We can’t die for them for their sins.

Jesus has done that and only he could do it. We can’t lay down our lives for another person’s sin. We can’t be the substitute for their sin.

However, we can lay down our lives to serve them, for their good. We can lay down our interests, for their interests. In fact, the idea of substitution is a great way to think about what it means to serve.

Instead of you taking the rubbish out, let me take the rubbish out. Let me be your substitute.

Instead of you coming in early to set up Church on Sunday, let me do it for you.

Let me be your substitute.

Instead of you giving up your time to teach the children, let me help you. Let me be your substitute.  

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be having training for different ministries and Discovery Sunday.

Discovery Sunday is chance for us to see the different ministries around the Church during morning tea and to see how we can share the load between us.

This is not a recruiting exercise like companies or schools looking for volunteers to fill in vacancies.

This is a chance for you to show self-sacrificial love for your brothers and sisters. This is a chance for you to obey the Bible’s command to lay down our lives for your brothers and sisters.

It’s a chance for you to say, “Let me take up the responsibility for this. Let me be your substitute”.

Jesus is our ultimate Self-Sacrificial Substitute. How will you be a self-sacrificial substitute this week?

What would you avoid seeing even at great personal cost?   

One of my hope is for all of us to want to see harm coming to our families even at great personal cost.

But even more than that, my hope is that we will want to avoid seeing our brothers or sisters fall, even at great personal cost.

My hope is that we will love one another so much that we could not bear the thought of them not following Jesus.

Wouldn’t it be great if God’s love has so transformed us, that the good of the other person, the way they way with Jesus, is something that we long for? Something that we pursue? Something that we’re willing to be self-sacrificial sacrifices for

Friends, in Christ, God exposes our sin, substitutes for our sins, and transforms self-serving sinners into self-sacrificing saints.

Here are three questions for us to think about this week:

Three Questions

1.    What might tempt you to abandon a family member or a friend?

2.    How are you responding to Christ’s substitute for sinners like us?

How will you show Christ’s self-giving love by substituting service today?

Friends, in Christ, God exposes our sin, substitutes for our sins, and transforms self-serving sinners into self-sacrificing saints.

Let’s pray, “Father, thank you for loving us in Jesus. Thank you that because of his self-sacrifice, sinners like us can be transformed into saints. Please expose our sins within us, and by your grace, transform us, so that we’ll be like Jesus, and that we’ll be willing to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.”