Genesis 43:1-44:34
I’m not sure why Judah was so willing to offer himself up as a substitute for Benjamin. Maybe he was only too happy to escape his ‘interesting’ family situation after the Tamar episode? Whatever the reason, and joking aside I think it was a genuine act of self-sacrifice, we see here a hint being dropped about how God will save his people in the future. All throughout the Old Testament we see act after act and word after word that pre-figures the future redemptive activity of Jesus; people offering themselves up in the stead of others; the imprisonment of one to pay for the sins of many. These are reassuring signposts along the journey through these stories. They point us to the fact that God has never changed; his intentions have always remained the same. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, revealing, through his people, his commitment to both justice and mercy. And his inexplicable penchant for self-sacrifice.
Matthew 15:10-39
Jesus was a prophet to Israel, coming to call God’s people out of their bankrupt submission to the now-redundant temple worship. He had come to make straight the crooked path of Israel, to put them back on the road to fulfilling the Abrahamic promise “I will bless you and every nation will be blessed through you”. (We see this “first Israel and then the world” strategy clearly being played out in Acts). Jesus knew it was essential to his mission that Israelites accepted him as an authentic (or the authentic) Jewish prophet and followed his call to transformation, even if that would only really happen once he had died and risen again. So, when a Canaanite woman approaches him, Jesus knows he is in danger of undermining his identity as a prophet of Israel. He cannot be seen to, and nor would he want to, undercut the special place that Israel has in the purposes of God. Jesus therefore clearly demonstrates to her and his listeners that what he has brought is Yahweh’s bread of heaven for the children of his promise, not some magical power to be dished out willy-nilly to whoever would desire it. When the Canaanite woman affirms her position as a dog beneath the master’s table she shows she has real, saving faith - that she understands Jesus is the prophet of God who is coming to continue and fulfill what Yahweh has been doing through and for Israel. Her faith then acts as a gateway for the incomparably great power of Jesus to come into the life of her family and bring healing to her daughter.
Psalm 13:1-6
It’s often so easy to see the hard things in life and to spot our disappointments with how things are going. This is a biblical activity and not to do it would run against the grain of the biblical witness. But it is only part of life and, crucially, should always be subsumed and overcome with the great and glorious knowledge that in spite of the hard stuff God is full of unfailing love and goodness and can be absolutely trusted to bring things to our salvation. We are neither happy clappy nor doom and gloom but a bit of both, mixed together into a deep joyful, realistic faith.
