Fat Al

“Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.”  ~Genesis 44:33

I invite you to a Scottish neighborhood in 2001, back in the days when neighborhood children would hang out together when not in school, playing Hide-and-Seek or British Bulldogs. Our neighborhood on the outskirts of Glasgow, sadly, was plagued by a terrorizing teenage bully — a monster of a kid named Fat Al. Everyone was afraid of him! And for good reason — he was mean, and he would ride around the neighborhood on his bicycle, seeking someone to devour.

One day Fat Al decided to pick on my seven-year-old brother Davey, even throwing him to the ground. I wasn’t there that day, but I heard my older brother Jonny happened to see it from across the field and ran the full length of the field before doing what all good big brothers do — pounding any older boy who would dare pick on his wee brother, even if it meant taking a beating in the process.

There’s something about the protective love of an older brother! I think of Judah in Genesis 44. His little brother Benjamin was to be taken into Egyptian slavery. But Judah stepped in to rescue his little brother. With self-sacrificing love, he offered to lay down his freedom, his future, his own life, if only Benjamin would be set free (v. 33). Why was Judah willing to make such a sacrifice? Two reasons. First, because he loved his father Jacob (v. 30-34). In his speech — the longest speech in Genesis — Judah mentions his father 15 times. Judah knew his father would be heartbroken if they returned without Benjamin, and so he offered his own life for the sake of his father. Second, because he loved his little brother. “Please let [me] remain instead of the boy” (v. 33). It was a brother’s love (which would echo throughout history as the arms of the tribe of Judah would wrap around the tribe of Benjamin, even after the other ten tribes had crumbled away).  

We have a big brother. Jesus is our brother (Rom. 8:29, Heb. 2:11). Have you ever thought of your relationship to Jesus in that dimension? And, like Judah, He came and pleaded for me (John 17:24). And then, in Gethsemane, my big brother was bound so that I would be set free.

Why did He do it? First, because He loved His Father. As Judah prioritized Jacob over his own freedom, as Judah was willing to enter the chains, misery, and suffering of a foreign land to redeem him whom his father loved, so Jesus gave everything out of love for His Father (John 12:28). Second, because He loved His brothers and sisters. From eternity, in the Covenant of Redemption, out of love for you, Christian, He offered His life as a pledge for your safety (Gen. 43:9). Out of love for you, He wouldn’t go home without you. He wouldn’t leave you in a foreign land. He wouldn’t leave you in the chains of sin and death. He loved you enough not to go back to His Father without you. The protective love of an older brother. What a big brother!

Rev. Rob Dykes, Pastor of Preaching & Congregational Care