Joseph arranged to set up Benjamin with a silver cup in his sack. After the brothers left they chased them down and said whoever had the silver cup would die. Benjamin had the cup. When they arrived at Joseph’s house Judah took the lead and said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” Joseph responded that only the man who was found with the cup will be his servant, but the rest can go back to their father. Judah told Joseph of his brother, and how dearly his father loves him, and that to not return Benjamin to their father would kill Jacob/Israel. He told him what Jacob said to him, “You know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, ‘Surely he has been torn to pieces,’ and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.” He explained that Jacob’s life is bound up with Benjamin’s life, and that he will die and he will descend to Sheol. Judah described how he had pledged himself for the safety of Benjamin to Jacob by saying, “If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.” Then he asked Joseph to take him and let Benjamin go back with the brothers to Jacob, because he couldn’t go back to his father if Benjamin was not with him. He explained, “I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”
Judah offers up himself as a substitute, again. He exhibits a trust that this is all happening according to God’s providence (vs. 16). This time the consequences would likely mean suffering in Egyptian bondage for the rest of his life. He has gone from selling Joseph into slavery to being one who is willing to become a slave so that his brother, Benjamin, would be set free (vs. 32-34). Not only did Judah offer himself as a pledge to Jacob if Benjamin should be lost (43:8-10), but now here, Judah offers himself as a substitute to Joseph for Benjamin’s release (44:32-34). He follows through with his pledge to Jacob. Again, Judah is a typological arrow pointing directly at Jesus Christ. Substitution. In Christ we have an advocate. Even if we could advocate for ourselves we would be wholly insufficient. Christ went out and gave up Himself for us.