Judah — Saving Grace

Children’s story

I want to teach you a song that goes like this:

D A7 D Bm

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart

G A7 D A7

And lean not unto thine own understanding

Chorus

D A7 D Bm G A7 D

In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths

Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil...

My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, Neither be weary of His correction...

Do you all know the story of Joseph?

He had dreams that his family would bow down to him, but they hated him and treated him aweful.

One day, he came to see how they were doing and they grabbed him, tore his coat off, threw him in a pit, and then later pulled him up and sold him as a slave! That would have been a bad day.

So, what do you think Joseph was thinking about as he was pulled along behind a camel train on his way to Egypt?

I hate this!

I want to be home with my parents.

Why would God do this?

Why does everyone hate me?

Or maybe he was plotting his escape and then revenge on his brothers.

As he was marched passed over the hills where his lived and began stumbling through the rocky desert on the way to Egypt was, I bet he was wondering what might be next… Maybe he was afraid of who might buy him at the slave market.

It was in that moment of uncertainty that Joseph had a choice to make. Should he try to solve his own problem, or should he trust that God had a plan for his life?

Remember the song?

D A7 D Bm

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart

G A7 D A7

And lean not unto thine own understanding

D A7 D Bm

In all thy ways acknowledge Him,

G A7 D

and He shall direct thy paths

I think this is the most important lesson that boys and girls, and men and women, need to learn. To trust in God with all your heart and to lean on Him with all your strength. The harder we try to fix our problems, the more of a mess we get into, but when we let God work out our life’s path, we will find satisfaction, joy, and a meaningful purpose to our lives.

Joseph was eventually sold as a slave, then wrongfully imprisoned. But in all he did he trusted in the Lord. Eventually, God put him into a position of great power and through his diligence and generosity, Joseph fed that whole region of the world during one of the worst plagues they had ever experienced.

Trust in the Lord And he will direct your life.

My Testimony

My name is Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, and this is my testimony. The story of How I was saved by God’s grace.

I was born the son of a prophet, the third in his family to receive the covenant promise of God. God promised to bless him and give him the land of Canaan, and make him fruitful in crops and herds and children, and He even said that kings would come from him.

My story begins with my father. He started out deceptive and greedy. After cheating his brother and lying to my grandfather, he ended up fleeing for his life with nothing but the clothes on his back and a walking stick. When he came to my mother’s village he met and fell in love with her sister, Rachael. He ended up getting cheated by grandpa Laban who snuck my mom, Leah, into his bed the night of the wedding instead of Rachel. Of course, Jacob was displeased, and after a heated argument he ended up getting Rachel too. From then on my mom was the despised and rejected wife.

She felt the sting of my father’s favoritism towards Rachel every day of her life. She named her firstborn son, Reuben, and said, “maybe now Jacob will love me because I have born him a son.” But he didn’t. Her second son she named Simeon and she said, “surely the Lord has seen that I am unloved and has given me a second son.” When my older brother, Levi, was born she said, “Surely Jacob will have affection for me because I have born three sons!” And then there was me. She still hoped that my father would love her and so when I was born she said, “now I will praise the Lord.”

That’s what my name means — praise.

In spite of being born to a prophet and a woman who praised the Lord, things were not wonderful in my family. And that’s the first thing that you need to understand about my story. Most of my life I spent either hiding or running or pushing my pain away. People thought of me as a lion, but despite my strong exterior my heart was damaged and hurting because of my disfunctional family. And, as you probably already know, hurt people… hurt other people.

The jealousy between my two mothers played out in competitions for who could have kids that Jacob would love. And a bunch of us felt unloved. We were the product of an unhappy marriage and my father showed it. After severla years Rachel finally had a baby boy, Joseph, and immediately it was as if the rest of us didn’t exist. Joseph could do no wrong and the rest of us couldn’t do anything right. One day dad gave Joseph a special coat—he worked for weeks on that coat and it was exquisite. But all it did was make us hate the kid even more. One day we were harvesting the fields and he had the audacity to say he had dreamed that all our sheaves of grain bowed down to his, as though we would one day bow to him. We knew he was a stuck up, spoiled brat, and the only ones who couldn’t see it was Dad and his favorite wife.

We got so fed up with him! One day when we were all tending the sheep outside of Dothan we saw him coming up the path to meet us in that fancy coat of his. Someone offhandedly suggested we kill him and suddenly everyone wanted to. We grabbed him, ripped that pretentious coat off him, and then threw him in a pit to squirm. We would have killed him right there if Reuben hadn’t suggested we cool off a minute. When he went for a walk I suggested we take advantage of the situation And instead of killing him we could sell him to some traders that were passing by. I didn’t want to kill the kid, but I certainly didn’t want him in my hair anymore. So we did. We sold him, pocketed the money, and agreed on a story we would tell our father.

I’m not proud of that moment. Even though I was the fourth son, I could tell from an early age that people listened to me. I had a way of convincing people to go along with my ideas, and they seemed to listen to me. I enjoyed that respect people gave me, and I used it to my advantage many times.

Did I mention that my family was a mess? Reuben was caught sleeping with my dad’s concubine, Billha. My younger sister, Dinah, was raped by a guy, and when he asked for her hand in marriage my older brothers Simeon and Levi hatched a plan for revenge. They convinced them to circumcise all the men in the village and if they would, we promised that our family would intermary with their families. But when they were all in a painful recovery, Simeon and Levi snuck in and killed all the men. It was not a healthy family to be part of, and so, after Joseph was gone, I decided to get out of there.

I moved to Abdullah and married a Canaanite woman and had three sons with her, Er, Onan and Sheilah. When he was old enough, I found a wife for Er, a young lady named Tamar. Unfortunately, I wasn’t any better of a father than my dad was. I was gone so often that they didn’t see me much. I was so restless. When Sheilah was born, I was Off in another city doing God only knows what. My absence didn’t serve my sons well. Er did something so heinous that God decided to strike him dead, leaving Tamar childless, and homeless.

In order to ensure a woman was not without protection and a home, if her husband died, the closest relative, a brother For example, would marry the woman and bring her into his home. Her firstborn by her second husband would become heir to all her first husband’s property, thus ensuring her security. After Er died I told my second son, Onan to go take her as a wife and provide an heir for his brother. But Onan was no better than Er. He slept with her, but took measures to ensure she wouldn’t get pregnant. God was so disgusted with his selfishness and debaucher that he struck Onan dead too. Now Tamar was twice widdowed, and I’m ashamed to say that I sent her away with a false promise. I told her that I would give her to Sheilah when he came of age, but I had didn’t want him to die too. If I were an honorable man, I would have freed her to go marry into another family, but I didn’t Do that. I just sent her away, a widow with no means to provide for herself and only a glimmer of hope for a future marriage.

It was a several years later, shortly after my wife died, that I was tending my flocks near Timnah and decided to go into to town to enjoy a little rest. As I walked into town I saw a woman with a veil on. In Canaan the temple prostitutes would often sit, veiled, near town to proposition men and so I assumed that’s what she was doing. I offered her a fair payment, and she took me to her room. I didn’t have the payment with me, so I left her my seal in its carrying pouch and my staff. Later, when I sent a servant to pay her wage and get back my things nobody could find her.

To understand what happened next I need to take you to my dad’s death-bed.

Years and years later all twelve of us gathered together for my father’s blessing. He started with Reuben and didn’t have a lot of nice things to say. He said something like, “you were the firstborn, the strength of my youth. You ranked first, but you’re as unsteady and unpredictable as a flood of water. You will be firstborn no longer!” Then he turned to Simeon and Levi and didn’t have anything better to say. He said, “you two are just alike, weapons and instruments of violence. May I never be part of their plans. I will scatter them among the descendants and disperse them among Israel.” That’s when he turned to me. I steeled myself for his cutting words Because I knew I deserved them. But this is what I heard,

Genesis 49:8–12 NLT

“Judah, your brothers will praise you. You will grasp your enemies by the neck. All your relatives will bow before you. Judah, my son, is a young lion that has finished eating its prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants,* until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,* the one whom all nations will honor. He ties his foal to a grapevine, the colt of his donkey to a choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

I can’t say that I understood every part of it. It was almost as if that last part was about someone else and not me. But what I did understand is that my father was giving me the birthright blessing. He was passing on the covenant promises of God to me and my children! He said I was like a lion crouching down and devouring prey. I definitely used to be like that. I would do whatever I set my heart to do. Anything that seemed good to me, I would do, and anything that was difficult I would push away and abandon—like Joseph and Tamar. But then my father said that i would be the father of kings and that the scepter wouldn’t depart from my family until “the one” comes whom “all nations will honor.” That sounded just like what God had told Eve after she had sinned—that one of her seed would crush the serpent’s head.

How could I be worthy of this great honor. Surely, Joseph should be the one to get this honor. Joseph, the favorite, the one whose prophecies came true to the letter. Joseph, the one who saved the world from starvation. Joseph, the one who never did anything wrong (at least, I never saw him do anything wrong). Why not Jospeh? Why me?

Clearly, I don’t deserve an honor like this, so all I can say is that the honor came to me by God’s immeasurable grace.

People have sung songs about this:

Psalm 78:7–8 NLT

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their ancestors— stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

Psalm 78:67–68 ESV

He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.

Honestly, it still doesn’t make sense to me. But here’s what I can tell you. That promise that God would bless me and give me descendants and even kings—that promise was given to my father First. And I knew that promise belonged to me. It belonged to all of Jacob’s children. It was through us that God would bless Jacob with descendants. But I didn’t trust God. I despised the grace of God and spat upon the principles of his government. I followed a path of money and pleasure rather than the path of God. I abandoned my family so that I wouldn’t have to think about all that stuff.

Until a few months after my visit to Timnah when my servant came back from town and said, “Tamar has played the harlot and gotten herself pregnant! The moment I heard that I was incensed. I couldn’t believe it. How could she betray my family like that? I couldn’t see past my anger so I shouted, “bring her out and let her be burned!”

As they were taking her out of her father’s home to bring her to be burned she sent a messenger with my seal and satchel and walking stick with a message that said, “I am pregnant by the man to whom these things belong.” When I saw those things my heart was cut deep. For the first time in my life I could see the harm that my plans had done.

I hated Joseph and planned his demise just because it was too hard for me to face the truth that God had called him. I hated my family and so I left so I didn’t have to deal with them. I turned my back on God and embraced the family and livelihood of the Canaanites. But my way only ever led to death and misery. My sons died because I had chosen wickedness, and so had they. I left my daughter in law without a home, because I was protecting my son Sheilah and my lineage. I was protecting myself. Or so I thought.

What I was really doing is turning my back on God and his promises. Up to that point I hadn’t trusted in God. It took a pagan who I had sentenced to death for no good reason to make me realize that all my problems were the result of my rejection of God.

It took me coming face to face with my sin in such a public way before my heart broke and I surrendered to God.

Genesis 38:26 (NLT)

“She is more righteous than I am, [I said,] because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.”

I didn’t take Tamar to be my wife. She bore twins, and as they should, they received my sons’ inheritance.

My life changed after that. I took my family to live among my brothers again. I put my trust in the promises of God and submitted myself to my father’s leadership.

After several years of abundance, the land became dry and barren. The famine was so widespread and harsh that no one had food, except the Egyptians. Finally, my father broke down and asked us all to go to Egypt and buy grain. Ten of us went. Every since Joseph dissapeared, Jacob didn’t let Benjamin go very far from home. But when we negotiated for grain the regent questioned us and claimed we were spies. He forced us to tell him about our family, and our younger brother at home. And then he sent us home with grain but promised that he would put us in jail as spies if we didn’t come back with our younger brother next time. A little while later, we ran out of grain again and father asked us to go get more grain.

“we have to take Benjamin with us,” I reminded father.

“No, that would kill me if anything happened to him,” he replied.

I keenly felt the hardship my father was experiencing. Even to that time we had not told our father what we had done to Joseph. It broke my heart in two to think of how I had hurt my brother and my father so badly. So, I offered to be surety for Benjamin. I promised that I would protect him and any harm done to him would come through me and my family first. I told him,

Genesis 43:9–10 (NLT)

I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don’t bring him back to you. Then let me bear the blame forever.”

Father finally agreed and we took the long journey to Egypt.

When we got there, I realized something was up when the regent brought us in for dinner and gave Benjamin five times a much food as the rest of us. When we finally left with our grain we were chased down by the regent’s guard and accused of stealing. The Silver cup they accused us of stealing was found in Bejamin’s bag of grain. I knew that Benjamin didn’t do what he was accused of, but I also knew that I had promised to protect him. So I offered my life in place of Benjamin’s.

And that’s when I knew that my heart had truly been changed. I can’t put my finger on the moment the change happened. I just knew that ever since I was broken by the reality of my sin and distrust of God’s promises, God had been doing something in my heart. I was no longer self-willed. My tendency to take charge and lead my brothers in wrongdoing had given way to humility and a desire to lead them in good ways. I knew the change could only be the result of God’s never-ending grace.

Shortly after I offered myself in Benjamin’s place, the regent sent everyone out of the room and began to speak in our native language saying, “I am joseph, the brother you sold into slavery!”

I was shocked! It was a miracle. A good miracle. Ever since we sold Joseph it was as though my heart had a big open wound in it that would never heal. The perpetual deception every time that father would say something about Joseph and mourn for him. The sideway glances between us brothers. The guilt and shame were unbearable sometimes. And even though God had clearly changed my heart, it wasn’t until Joseph drew us into a giant family hug and wept on our shoulders that I felt it might be possible to experience renewal and grace.

Joseph made sure we knew that he didn’t hold what we did against us. He said that what we intended for evil, God had planned for good. And with that one assurance of forgiveness my heart began to heal. Finally, everything was out in the open. All my sins were exposed before God and the world. And I was free.

And that’s my testimony About God’s amazing grace.

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Judah’s story is an incredible story of redemption. While we don’t know much about Judah beyond these few snippets, we find that Judah was the single most significant so of Jacob. His tribe became so influential that even today we talk about the sons of Israel as “Jews.” His name became one of the most popular names among the Israelites. Just among the close followers of Jesus there was Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him Jude the brother of James, Jude the brother of Jesus, and Judas Thaddeus.

While we don’t know much about Judah’s life what we can tell for sure is that Judah received a gift of God’s immeasurable grace.

If Judah could be saved by God’s grace, is it possible that God could give you his grace too?

Is it possible, in spite of the mistakes you have made as a parent, that God could extend his grace to your children and save them by His grace?

Yes. Yes it is more than possible. God’s hand is not shortened that He cannot save. God’s Spirit applies His grace powerfully to the hearts of his children.

What Judah didn’t tell us in his story is how God worked in the heart of Jacob to transform him throughout his whole life. How God repeatedly applied his grace to him, in spite of his deceitfulness, favoratism, bad parenting, and self-protective nature. Somehow, God got ahold of Jacob’s heart, broke him, and put him back together.

What Jacob experienced is what Judah experienced, and it’s what you and I need to experience too. We must come to the place where we realize that no matter how good we’ve been, we are sinful, broken human beings that need the grace of God. And no matter how bad we’ve been, God’s grace can redeem us.

God’s promise to Judah is also God’s promise to us. The King. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is coming to bind up all our wounds, heal all of your hearts, and reuinte us with our God. All because of God’s incredible, saving grace.

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Please stand with me and sing a song of redemption and grace, The Lord is Coming, #200