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(1). THE HOSTAGE OF SIMEON: "And took them Simeon, and bound him."
(2). THE SACRIFICE OF REUBEN: "Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee."
(3). 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."
In these three suggestions we may see three ways in which sin can be dealt with.
(1). Simeon's way.--This is futile, for it can neither make reparation nor restoration.
(2). Reuben's way.--This goes further, and sees the need of the sacrifice, but two
dead grandsons would be no compensation for Benjamin.
To Reuben's offer might be answered:--
"None of us can by any means redeem his brother" (Psa. xlix.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 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".
(3). Judah's way.--Judah steps forward when all else has failed and says: "I
(emphatic pronoun), 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"
(Gen. 43: 9). So, in Heb. 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 sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10: 7-
10). Here is not the thought of a hostage, nor merely of substitution, but of suretyship
involving identification: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and
blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2: 14, 15).
When Jacob's sons journey again to Egypt, taking Benjamin with them, Joseph
arranged that Benjamin should be suspected and detained. This led Judah to step forward
and make that moving speech which, when Joseph heard, "he wept aloud" (Gen. 45: 2).
Judah rehearsed the history of their movements, told of Jacob's reluctance to part with
Benjamin, and how Jacob would certainly die if Benjamin did not return with his