Genesis 44: A Father’s Love

“So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.” -Genesis 44:30-31

When Joseph confronted his brother Judah about the theft of his silver cup, Judah ultimately appealed to the love of his father. He claimed that if Benjamin didn’t come home, Jacob would die from sorrow. Why? His “life is closely bound up with the boy’s life.”

This touched me personally. I am the father of a son named Benjamin. If something happened to him before I died, I would probably feel the same way. I don’t know if I could continue on. The very name Benjamin means “son of my right hand.” He is a little extension of me. I love him dearly.

Yet my love for my son and even Jacob’s love for his son Benjamin are transcended by the great love of our heavenly Father. He displayed his great love in creating us, in sustaining us, and most notably, through offering his own Son to die for us. He gave up the “son of his right hand” to show his love. There is nothing greater for a father than his love for his child. Our only response is to worship and thank him for all he has done.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.