“8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”NIV

“…you can hold me personally responsible…” (19).

I appreciate the humour in the Bible. In fact, Jilly and I were talking about this just the other day. She mentioned it to me. There are passages in the Bible that are laugh out loud funny. Others produce, perhaps, a wry smile. Verse 10 has that effect on me. Judah’s comment is so human. It is typical of the sort of thing that get said between family members. You can sense Judah’s frustration behind it. We saw recently how Jacob’s attitude was ‘suicidal.’ If he didn’t permit the brothers to return to Egypt they would all die anyway.

‘Unwilling to face reality, Jacob was living in a private dream world and making others suffer.’ Warren W. Wiersbe: Old Testament Commentary, p.127.

Judah’s leadership, in this story, reminds me of all those people who have been, and who continue to be, willing to ‘step up’ in church life. (It also shows people can change. See 37:26,27). No church can ever be a ‘one-man-band.’ At least, it shouldn’t be.Churches are dependent on many people who are willing to say, ‘You can count on me. I’ll be there; I’m willing to carry responsibility.’

If that’s you…Thank you so much!