Matins Devotion: April 2, 2025

Genesis 44

It’s easy to be a man of your word if you never have to keep it. It’s easy to make promises if you never have to deliver on them. Telling your wife you’d take a bullet for her is easy until you see the gun. Telling your children that you won’t give up looking for the dog that ran away is easy until a few hours pass and you still have no idea where he is. Telling your father that you’ll guarantee the safe return of his youngest son with your own life is easy until you have to do it.

But Judah does it. After promising to give up everything to bring Benjamin home safely, Judah doesn’t hesitate to be a man of his word. He begs this supposed Egyptian to judge him guilty in the place of Benjamin. Set the guilty free. Condemn the innocent. It’s a beautiful move that harkens back to the sacrifice of the ram in the place of his grandfather Isaac, and that also prefigures the sacrifice that his offspring Jesus, the Son of God who will lay down His own life in order to bring the condemned, guilty sinners of this world back into the arms of God.

And so, there you have it. Who is Jesus Christ? He is a man of His word, a man who keeps his promises. When He took on human flesh and swore to bring about the plan of salvation, He didn’t offer up empty words that He hoped He wouldn’t need to keep. He knew He would. And when the time came, He did exactly that. He prayed with bloody sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane, received the strength to pick up His cross, and He carried it to Calvary. He poured out the blood that forgave your sins. He drank the wrath that you had earned. In His dying breath, He dissolved the chains of sins around your hands and feet. In His resurrection, He opened the doors of heaven to you. And in the waters of your baptism, He led you home, into the kingdom, into the arms of the Father who had been waiting with tears to receive you. The promise is fulfilled. Your Lord has kept His word. Be at peace. You are home.