Genesis 44:18-34 NKJV
18 Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’
24 “So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; 28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since. 29 But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’
30 “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, 31 it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ 33 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. 34 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?”
In this passage an example of very earnest prayer is described in the case of Judah — who, along with continually acknowledging the majesty and power of Joseph throughout his plea, he presses forth under the impulse of need and steps up and prays from the heart. He does not make it without many tears and sobs. Judah is overcome by such grief and sorrow that that there is nothing but wretchedness and despair in his heart.
Luther writes on this section: “Thus when fortune smiles we think of the majesty and glory of God, upon whom we are calling, and of our own unworthiness; and we fear His power. Then, therefore, our prayer is not strong and ardent. But when we are involved in danger and trial, then no heed is paid to the sublimity of God. We say” “Lord God, help me! Help, dear God! Now may God help! Have mercy in heaven!” SO extreme necessity makes men bold and confident; they break through and conquer. But the Word must be the foundation of prayer on which faith relies. Faith believes in God and approaches Him with confidence in the Mediator, Jesus Christ.” (LW AE 7, 37, CPH)
Judah prayed sincerely and devoutly; his thoughts, words, and actions all agreed with one another, and it brings Joseph’s heart to be opened. The Lord obviously desires that our prayers be fervent and devout, not cold and lukewarm. As His Word proclaims: “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him earnest.” (Psalm 145:18) Along with: “The prayer of a righteous man avails much when it is in earnest.” (James 5:16) And we Christians are only righteous as we are accounted such through faith alone in Christ’s fully atoning merits alone!
Let us pray: O Lord, keep Your household, the Church, in continual godliness that through Your protection she may be free from all adversities and devoutly given to serve You in good works; though Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.