guilty concerning our brother' (Gen. 42:21).  The result was that Simeon was

taken and put into prison as a hostage, the remaining brethren being sent

back home with corn.  To their surprise, each man found his money with which

he had paid for the corn, in his sack's mouth, and realized that this

portended further trouble for them: 'And when both they and their father saw

the bundles of money, they were afraid; and Jacob their father said unto

them, Me have ye bereaved of my children.  Joseph is not, and Simeon is not,

and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me' (Gen.

The Remedy.

There are three remedies suggested in this narrative:

The Hostage of Simeon.

'And took from them Simeon, and bound

The Sacrifice of Reuben.

'Slay my two sons, if I bring him not

to thee'.

The Suretyship of Judah.  'Send the lad with me, I will be surety

for him; of my hand shalt thou require him, if I bring him not

unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame

for ever'.

Let us consider these three suggestions.

Simeon's way.  This is futile, for it can neither make reparation

nor restoration.

Reuben's way.  This goes further, and sees the need of the

sacrifice, but two dead grandsons would be no compensation for

the loss of Benjamin.

To Reuben's offer might be answered:

'None of them can by any means redeem his brother' (Psa. 49:7).

'The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image

of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year

by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect ... For it is not

possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins'

(Heb. 10:1 -4).

Reuben was giving of his best.  So the sacrifices and offerings of the

law were the people's best, but they had no power to deliver from sin.

Simeon the hostage was no remedy.  Reuben's sacrifice was no remedy.  What

made the difference in Judah's case?  Simeon was a hostage, Reuben's sons

were substitutes, but Judah was himself a surety, and it is in the

combination of the two features, 'himself' and 'surety', that Judah's remedy

transcends that of the 'hostage' and the 'substitute'.

Judah's way.  Judah steps forward when all else has failed and

says: 'I (emphatic pronoun), I will be surety for him; of my hands shalt thou

require him.  If I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let

me bear the blame for ever' (Gen. 43:9).  So, in Hebrews 10, setting aside

all sacrifices and offerings that could not take away sin, the Lord Jesus,

the true Judah, steps forward and says: 'Lo, I come (in the volume of the

book it is written of Me), to do Thy will, O God ... by the which will we are