Joseph’s Brother with a Dark Secret Petitions Him: Jesus Christ Wants Our Belief and Loyalty to the Word of God

Genesis 44:18-34

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.

• Honor God and fear only Him through Jesus Christ.
• Jesus Christ sees the darkness of an unbelieving and unrepentant heart.
• The compassion of God through Jesus Christ is more than human compassion.
• Obedience to the Word of God is how we receive the requests of our heart.
• Holding to the testimony of Jesus Christ is more important than family love.
• God gave His only Son to bring Salvation to the whosoever.

Honor God and fear only Him through Jesus Christ. When prayers are made to God, we are taught to always do it with reverence towards Him, “So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” Luke 11:2 When Judah approached Joseph, he was displaying that type of reverence, knowing that if he angered Jospeh, it could turn nasty, “Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh.” Genesis 44:18 Jesus teaches us not to fear the anger of others, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 We should never honor nor fear someone or something else as the focus of our prayers. Unfortunately, when requests are made to a higher power, even in the form of prayers, many are speaking to the thing that has power over physiology. It is able to create circumstances favorable to those who live by the mark of the beast, and it is also able to destroy the life of those who anger them. That is spoken about here, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with it?” Revelation 13:4 The Holy Spirit symbolizes Jesus Christ through Joseph and making it clear that Jesus is the Son of God, operating under the power and authority of God. Where Joseph is even like Pharoah, Jesus Christ is even like God. When you see Jesus, you have seen God.

Jesus Christ sees the darkness of an unbelieving and unrepentant heart. There was still a deep dark secret that was in the heart of Judah when he was coming to Joseph with his petition. He knew what had happened to his brother and he continued to declare that he was dead. That brother was Joseph and Joseph was hearing the unresolved and unrepentant darkness of Judah’s heart. That is written here, “My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’” Genesis 44:19-20 An unrepentant heart denies that Jesus Christ is alive and declares that He is dead. As followers of Jesus Christ, we proclaim that He is alive after being put to the death on the Cross to atone for sin. After the death of Jesus Christ, the Jewish leaders and Jewish nation were declaring Jesus to be dead, and they perpetuated that lie. The Jewish people have that darkness in their heart to this day as they deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the same time, the “old man” of the Jewish religion began passing away after Christ was raised from the dead. The “child of his old age, who is young”, is the birth of Christianity. God loves us.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we end the lie of Christ being dead and we declare plainly that He is alive. The belief we have in His resurrection purifies our heart so that Jesus can freely make intercession on our behalf. At the same time, if we have a dark secret within our heart, and we go to Christ with our prayer request, He sees the unrepentant sin within us. Before we come to Him in prayer, He wants us to make things right with those we have done wrong, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24 The majority in this world refuse to accept reconciliation or they try to take advantage of it for their own benefit, but it clears our heart in at least attempting to make something right. It is a choice of whether to reconcile with God through Jesus Christ or not, and most won’t, but some will.

The compassion of God through Jesus Christ is more than human compassion. I have often heard people coming to Christ in prayer by reminding Him what the Bible says, like Judah was doing with Joseph, “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’” Genesis 44:21 Then in the next sentence they remind God how right they are for not being able to live by His word, like Judah said to Joseph, “And we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.” Genesis 44:22 Those who live by humanism, empowered by the mark of the beast, feel that their human compassion is more important than the saving compassion of Jesus Christ. Even then, it is necessary to follow the word of God as given to us through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit insists on it, “But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.” Genesis 44:23 Jesus Christ does not show His face to those who disregards His word and continues the lie that He is dead.

Obedience to the Word of God is how we receive the requests of our heart. Jesus Christ wants to hear about our obedience to sharing the word which He has given us to share, which is that God has loved us so much that He sent Jesus so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Judah was obedient in sharing the word of Joseph, “So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord.” Genesis 44:24 When we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we pray that others will want more of the grain of the Bread of Life, like Judah’s father wanted more, “And our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little grain.” Genesis 44:25 The only way that we can have more of the Bread of Life is by living according to the Word of God, that is the only way to see the face of Jesus, the Holy Spirit says that here, “But we said, ‘We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.” Genesis 44:26 Those who live by the mark of the beast will never be obedient to the Word of God, they do not have a prayer in their heart, and their future is filled with turbulence and tribulation.

Holding to the testimony of Jesus Christ is more important than human love. Jesus Christ wants us to give Him the dearest treasures of our heart, and that includes family members, money, possessions, and physical comforts. That is especially important to do in this world which establishes its society of the mark of the beast on social and economic rewards. Social and economic rewards are withdrawn from those who choose to make their body the home of the Holy Spriit instead of the seat of government for the mark of the beast.

Judah was persistent in justifying himself based on family love but continued to allow the lie to spread that Joseph was dead. He repeated what his father Jacob said about Joseph being “torn to pieces” which is a lie that he started, “Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since.” Genesis 44:27-28 The truth is, Jesus Christ is alive, and He can be seen at the Cross where He gave His life to atone for sin and was resurrected three days after. As human beings, we feel more compassionate and humane than Christ Himself when we are determined to embrace a loved one while declaring that Jesus is dead. Hiding the truth of the resurrection of Jesus leads others to make poor decisions related to the Word of God. For example, Jacob was reluctant to do as Joseph requested because he was led to believe that Joseph was dead, “But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.” Genesis 44:29 If someone believes that Jesus Christ is dead, then they will refuse to follow the teachings of the Bible.

God gave His only Son to bring Salvation to the whosoever. The dark secrets of self-righteous people find it too difficult to love Jesus Christ more than the human love of this world. They readily embrace humanism, empowered by the mark of the beast, while rejecting the Divine word of God. They reject any need for Jesus and scoff at the love of God that brings Salvation through His Son. Judah had a very hard time of letting go of family love and obligations, “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave.” Genesis 44:30-31

Judah had this going for him, he was willing to take his brother’s place so that his brother could go free. “For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.” Genesis 44:32-33 That is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to be willing to give all of who we are, and what we have, to live by the Word of God. In the Spirit of Jesus Christ, there is a desire for the welfare of others. The Holy Spirit represents that through the words of Judah “For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?” Genesis 44:34

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11