February 7, 2018: Day 44 – Genesis 44

Judah here becomes a type of Christ with an unsolicited request that Joseph take his life as a slave instead of his youngest brother, Benjamin.  The twists of this story continue, with Joseph pulling all of the strings.  He loads up all his brothers with as much grain as they can carry and arranges a plot so that Benjamin would be found guilty of stealing.  This would force him then to become the slave of Joseph.  Joseph doesn’t want Benjamin as his slave.  Maybe, actually, unlike what I said before, maybe he just wanted to be reunited with his brother Benjamin and keeping him in Egypt was his end goal.  But now we have to wonder how is he going to react when he hears the pleading of Jacob.  I don’t think he expected this from him.  I’m guessing he expected Jacob and all the other brothers to allow Benjamin to stay behind, much like Simeon was forced to stay behind.  But now Judah intervenes on his behalf.  I’m not sure that Joseph expected this.