Sold

View daily reading plan: Genesis 37.25-28

As the brothers, apart from Reuben who was absent, casually “sat down to eat bread” (Gen 37.25), “they lifted up their eyes” and what they saw raised the possibility of financial gain; the approaching merchantmen were perceived as a means of disposing of Joseph profitably without staining their hands with his blood. These traders were going from Gilead east of the River Jordan down to the land of Egypt.
 
It was Judah who struck on the idea of selling Joseph (Gen 37.26-27). The New Testament equivalent of his name is Judas, and it was Judas Iscariot who conspired to sell the Lord Jesus. The betrayal was prophesied in Psalm 41.9, and the price of the bargain predicted by Zechariah (Zech 11.12-13). Thirty pieces of silver was the compensation price for a servant who was gored by a bull (Ex 21.32). The false values of men are exposed in the fact that they would pay only the price of a slave for the Creator of the universe!
 
Christ is still being sold by the multitudes. Like Judas some prefer wealth to Christ; like Pilate there are those who prefer friendship to Caesar; like the Jewish leaders, others prefer status. An English poet has said, “Ponder my soul the question, Shall He be sold by thee?”
 

Sunday, 4 February, 2024