Jesus did everything for the Father, inside the Father’s love. Jesus’ abode was in the Father’s love, keeping His commandments.
Jesus has asked us to do the same, to abide in His love and keep His commandments. His commandment is to love one another as He has loved us. This is impossible as a command, unless we abide in His love, and then, in His love we can do all things.
Last Wednesday, during our Prayer Watch, the Lord came to me in such a strong way regarding the change in Judah, that resulted not in his love for his brother, but for his father, Jacob. Judah had masterminded the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites, who then took Joseph as a slave and sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah. Judah had been complicit in the cover up with his nine brothers, that left his father, Jacob’s heart broken in grief refusing to be comforted. But what had been done, had been done. The deed had been done; there was no going back.
Now, twenty-three years later, Judah does the unthinkable. He explains the pain that Benjamin, being kept as a slave, will have on his father. It will be his death, bringing his father, Jacob, in sorrow to the grave. Judah, having promised his father that he would return Benjamin, now asks Joseph to accept him as the substitute. “Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?” Genesis 44:33, 34
As I wept in prayer over this change of heart, not to his brother Benjamin, but for his father’s sake, I felt the love that we are to have for Jesus’ sake. There are things I cannot do; I am not willing to do, or want to do, that I hide under my own rationale, reasoning, and self-righteousness. But for my Father’s sake, for Jesus’ sake, when I understand the pain I cause, I can too—be numbered with the transgressor, for Jesus’ sake.
There was much more in this encounter which I shared on Sunday. If you would like to watch or listen, please click here.
I will share more about the fellowship with the Father and the Son on Wednesday night.
