Judah.

THE QUESTION

Joseph’s brothers threw him into a cistern and were ready to leave him for dead. Then a caravan came by, and one brother spoke up: why kill him when we could sell him? Which brother made the deal?

A) Reuben

B) Simeon

C) Judah  ✓

D) Levi

A closer look

Reuben usually gets the credit here, and he did try. When the brothers plotted to kill Joseph, Reuben talked them into throwing him into a cistern instead, planning to come back and rescue him (Genesis 37:21-22). But while Reuben was away, a caravan of Ishmaelites came through, and Judah saw an opportunity.

“What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?” he asked. “Come, let’s sell him” (Genesis 37:26-27). The brothers agreed, and Joseph was pulled out of the cistern and sold for twenty shekels of silver (Genesis 37:28). That sale was the start of everything that followed: Egypt, prison, Pharaoh’s palace, and a famine Joseph was placed exactly where he needed to be to see his family through.

And here’s the part worth remembering. Years later, when Joseph tested his brothers, it was Judah who stepped forward and offered to stay in Egypt as a slave so his youngest brother Benjamin could go home free (Genesis 44:33). The brother who sold one brother offered himself for another. God wasn’t only working in Joseph’s life all those years. He was working in Judah’s too.

See you tomorrow for a new verse, prayer, and trivia. Have a blessed Wednesday. ♡