March 9 I Wednesday

Deuteronomy 7-9

Mark 11:19-33

“For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah....”   —Hebrews 7:14

The Lord Jesus Christ was a descendant of Judah, who was one of twelve sons of Jacob, whom God renamed “Israel.” What was special about Judah that gave him the honour of being an ancestor of the Messiah? Judah’s tale in the Bible includes deception and disobedience, before God turned his life around. These next few devotions will uncover Judah’s road to redemption.

      Many of us are familiar with the story of Joseph in the Bible. The favoured son of Jacob was envied by his brothers and they decided to hatch a plan to kill him. Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, told his brothers not to take Joseph’s life, rather, throw him into a cistern. But when Judah saw a caravan coming, he convinced his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery and pretend that he died. Although Judah was the fourth born son of Jacob, he was quite influential amongst his brothers. After selling Joseph, the brothers took Joseph’s special technicolour robe, dipped it into goat’s blood and went back to Jacob with a story claiming how Joseph was attacked by a wild animal and died. The brothers allowed their own father to believe a lie.

      Following these events, Judah left his father’s family and moved to a different region. One may wonder why did Judah do this? He got away with the deception of selling Joseph into slavery by convincing his father that Joseph died. Was Judah struggling with guilt? Maybe as he witnessed his father’s grief, holding onto that secret was causing his own conscience to be plagued, so he decided to part from his family. Whatever the reason may be, Judah left the blessing of Jacob and went to live in a different part of Canaan. Judah’s life continued to spiral downwards as he married a Canaanite woman, which would not have been pleasing to his family, as his uncle Esau did. Judah’s wife gave birth to three sons Er, Onan and Shelah.

      So far in Judah’s life, he had got away with selling his brother, deceiving his father and mixing with the Canaanites to create his family. Everything seemed good, but the truth was, Judah was headed in the wrong direction.

      Some of us may be walking in sin and think that it is okay, because everything else in our life seems to be going well. Yet, what is hidden from others is not hidden from God, and He will expose what we have hidden in the darkness into the light. Are there any hidden sins that we want to confess to God today?

Prayer: Dear God, I humbly come before You, acknowledging areas in my life where I have been walking in sin. I ask for Your forgiveness of my sins and for Your hand of guidance in my life. Thank You, Lord.