Judah Makes Way For Provision

Honestly, when I re-read this account of Joseph being sold to traders by His brothers, I became sad. I was recently reminded that Judah means PRAISE. So it was fresh in my mind. So imagine me reading that the one who came up with the great plan to sell His brother into slavery was PRAISE himself/itself. When the story is retold in sermons, sometimes Judah is made out to be like he saved Joseph from being killed. But come on, couldn't Judah have gone a step further and said-- (A) Let's not kill him and (B) Let's squash this jealousy we have with our baby brother and send him back to our Father. Instead, Judah still got rid of His brother.
So I rolled this in my head trying to bridge the huge gap between JUDAH being PRAISE and PRAISE being what sold Joseph into a life of slavery, imprisonment, loneliness. And then it hit me... If Judah had not done this, then years later when the famine struck the land, Joseph would not be in place to offer his family the provision needed to survive. Alright, alright-- so maybe it's obvious to someone else.. But to me a light bulb went off. My PRAISE makes way for my provision. Literally. It's not some fru-fru wishful thinking, positive thinking new age mumbo jumbo. The hard evidence is in Genesis 37... PRAISE lines things up! It puts people, situations, resource on track to be where we need it and the right time. That is AWSOMENESS and AMAZINGNESS all balled up into one.
Father, right now I SEND UP JUDAH FIRST... My praise proceeds before my provision comes. My praise makes way for my provision to come. I praise you GOD! I PRIASE YOU! Thank you God for making a way. Thank you for setting things up years in advance! Thank you for being so big and loving me so much and taking care of me and my family. I love you LORD. I love LORD! I will SEND UP JUDAH... I will SEND UP PRAISE first thing in the morning as my way of acknowledging your greatness and thoughtfulness and mercy and kindness. AHHHHHH, God I wish I was eloquent to correctly articulate what is in my heart towards you, because of you. You just have to make do with this sinner saved by your beautiful grace. Thank you Jesus. Amen!

Created almost 2 years ago