A Second Chance

Obviously applies to me but this is a slightly generic post re: sermon at York Elim today! (sermon links to the mp3 site of sermons but find the one with today's date!)

We went through the story of Joseph today and acknowledged that he was poorly treated by his brothers. The thing is Joseph is the one that we look at when we look at how he was sold in slavery and how God transformed circumstances into stunning, amazing plans! That is great and I really appreciate the story.

Having read through the story of Joseph and the multi-coloured cloaks hundreds of times, I've failed to acknowledge the other aspect of it.

Joseph has 11 brothers and 1 sister. In those days, the oldest is the one who gets the birthright blessing. Reuben the oldest lost the respect of his father because he slept with his father's concubine (step-mom!!). Simeon and Levi killed the Shechemites because the leader's son defiled his sister thus they were out of the question. Judah the next one up slept with a supposed prostitute but it turned out to be his dead son's wife. Talk about complicated!

So more about Judah: it turns out that if you son dies and leaves the wife widowed, the next brother in line has to sleep with the wife to reproduce in order to carry the family line! Er dies so Onan out of jealousy refuses to comply with it so God strikes him and he dies. Judah then promises Tamar (Er's widow) that the next son when he becomes of age, he will allow the offspring to come from him. At this point, Judah's two eldest sons have already died and he was not willing to risk the chance of the 'death associated widow' kill his son too! He doesn't keep his promise and Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and Judah sleeps with her. Tamar then becomes pregnant and Judah finds out and is ready to stone her to death for defiling the family status UNTIL Tamar shows proof that it was actually Judah she slept with! Genesis 38

Well done if you have continued reading..

So the relevance of that is Judah repents and realises that Tamar is more righteous than he is (not that Judah is righteous in the first place.) His character really transforms after that and when Joseph claims that Benjamin has stolen the silver cup and put it in his sack (Genesis 44:12), it is Judah who steps up and gives up his life for Benjamin. "Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers." (Genesis 44:33) He has gone from the dude who sold his brother into slavery to someone who is willing to give up his life for someone who is the dad's obvious favourite. What a character transformation!

Jacob realises this and blesses Judah abundantly - aka he receives the most amazing blessing. (Genesis 49:8-12)

To top that off, God is beyond amazing. He blesses Judah for what he has done -- King David and finally our Messiah Jesus comes from the line of Judah! Did you know that?? I didn't!!

Our God is merciful and this is a true example of how our Lord gives us second chances if we're willing to change.

Thoughts?