†. Gen 44:18 . .Then Judah went up to him and said: Please, my lord,
let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your
servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh.
Joseph didn't dispute Judah on the matter of being the equal of Pharaoh. Not
that he was a pharaoh; but that to Egypt's people, Joseph was as close to
being the actual pharaoh as anybody under a pharaoh could possibly get.
Compare Dan 7:13-13 where a human being is honored with the powers of
God; so that God's subjects have to bend the knee to that highly exalted
man just as if he were God in person. (cf. Ps 110:1 and Php 2:9-11)
†. Gen 44:19-34 . . My lord asked his servants: Have you a father or
another brother? We told my lord: We have an old father, and there
is a child of his old age, the youngest; his full brother is dead, so that
he alone is left of his mother, and his father dotes on him. Then you
said to your servants: Bring him down to me, that I may set eyes on
him. We said to my lord: The boy cannot leave his father; if he were
to leave him, his father would die. But you said to your servants:
Unless your youngest brother comes down, you will not see my face.
. . .When we came back to your servant my father, we reported my
lord's words to him. Later our father said: Go back and procure some
food for us. We answered: We cannot go down; only if our youngest
brother is with us can we go down, for we may not see the man's
face unless our youngest brother is with us.
. . .Your servant my father said to us: As you know, my wife bore me
two sons. But one is gone from me, and I said: Alas, he was torn by
a beast! And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me,
too, and he meets with disaster, you will send my white head down
to death in sorrow.
. . . Now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with
us-- since his own life is so bound up with his --when he sees that
the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the
white head of your servant our father down to death in grief. Now
your servant has pledged himself for the boy to my father, saying: If
I do not bring him back to you, I shall stand guilty before my father
forever. Therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my
lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let
me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!
Judah's impassioned plea isn't for Benjamin's sake, but for the sake of his
father. That is an incredible turn-around since nobody seemed to care much
about Jacob's feelings back in chapter 37 when they all to a man
manipulated their dad into concluding Joseph was mauled to death by a wild
animal.
Have you ever wondered what motivated Christ to voluntarily to take the
world's blame for things that he himself didn't do? Was it because Christ
cared for the world enough to die for it? Maybe; but the deciding factor was
his Father's care, rather than his own. It was Christ's concern for his
Father's feelings that motivated God's son to do what Judah volunteered to
do for Benjamin.
†. John 3:16-17 . . For God so cared the world that He donated His one and
only son, that whoever relies upon him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God didn't send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to
rescue the world through him.
†. Rom 5:7-8 . . God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God's enemies sometimes accuse Him of being detached, disconnected,
insensitive, thoughtless, unsympathetic, and unloving. But if that were true,
then He would never have sent His one and only precious heir apparent to
suffer and die in order to rescue a thankless world from an otherwise
inevitable destiny with justice and eternal suffering.
Yes, God is definitely going to sentence many, many people to the reservoir
of liquefied flame depicted at Rev 20:11-15; but He'd rather not. God deeply
pities mankind's predicament, and has gone to great lengths to assist them
to escape it. God has been suffering grief for His creation since very soon
after its beginning.
†. Gen 6:5-6 . . Now Yhvh observed the extent of Man's wickedness, and He
saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So Yhvh was
grieved He had ever made them. They broke his heart.
Cont.
/
let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your
servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh.
Joseph didn't dispute Judah on the matter of being the equal of Pharaoh. Not
that he was a pharaoh; but that to Egypt's people, Joseph was as close to
being the actual pharaoh as anybody under a pharaoh could possibly get.
Compare Dan 7:13-13 where a human being is honored with the powers of
God; so that God's subjects have to bend the knee to that highly exalted
man just as if he were God in person. (cf. Ps 110:1 and Php 2:9-11)
†. Gen 44:19-34 . . My lord asked his servants: Have you a father or
another brother? We told my lord: We have an old father, and there
is a child of his old age, the youngest; his full brother is dead, so that
he alone is left of his mother, and his father dotes on him. Then you
said to your servants: Bring him down to me, that I may set eyes on
him. We said to my lord: The boy cannot leave his father; if he were
to leave him, his father would die. But you said to your servants:
Unless your youngest brother comes down, you will not see my face.
. . .When we came back to your servant my father, we reported my
lord's words to him. Later our father said: Go back and procure some
food for us. We answered: We cannot go down; only if our youngest
brother is with us can we go down, for we may not see the man's
face unless our youngest brother is with us.
. . .Your servant my father said to us: As you know, my wife bore me
two sons. But one is gone from me, and I said: Alas, he was torn by
a beast! And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me,
too, and he meets with disaster, you will send my white head down
to death in sorrow.
. . . Now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with
us-- since his own life is so bound up with his --when he sees that
the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the
white head of your servant our father down to death in grief. Now
your servant has pledged himself for the boy to my father, saying: If
I do not bring him back to you, I shall stand guilty before my father
forever. Therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my
lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let
me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!
Judah's impassioned plea isn't for Benjamin's sake, but for the sake of his
father. That is an incredible turn-around since nobody seemed to care much
about Jacob's feelings back in chapter 37 when they all to a man
manipulated their dad into concluding Joseph was mauled to death by a wild
animal.
Have you ever wondered what motivated Christ to voluntarily to take the
world's blame for things that he himself didn't do? Was it because Christ
cared for the world enough to die for it? Maybe; but the deciding factor was
his Father's care, rather than his own. It was Christ's concern for his
Father's feelings that motivated God's son to do what Judah volunteered to
do for Benjamin.
†. John 3:16-17 . . For God so cared the world that He donated His one and
only son, that whoever relies upon him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God didn't send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to
rescue the world through him.
†. Rom 5:7-8 . . God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God's enemies sometimes accuse Him of being detached, disconnected,
insensitive, thoughtless, unsympathetic, and unloving. But if that were true,
then He would never have sent His one and only precious heir apparent to
suffer and die in order to rescue a thankless world from an otherwise
inevitable destiny with justice and eternal suffering.
Yes, God is definitely going to sentence many, many people to the reservoir
of liquefied flame depicted at Rev 20:11-15; but He'd rather not. God deeply
pities mankind's predicament, and has gone to great lengths to assist them
to escape it. God has been suffering grief for His creation since very soon
after its beginning.
†. Gen 6:5-6 . . Now Yhvh observed the extent of Man's wickedness, and He
saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So Yhvh was
grieved He had ever made them. They broke his heart.
Cont.
/
