How do you know if someone has really changed? Their change has to be put to the test. Joseph was in a unique position to discern whether his brothers had changed. He knew his younger brother Benjamin was being treated as the favorite, just as he had been. So, he decided to orchestrate a situation to test how his brothers would treat their younger sibling.

After they finished their dinner, Joseph filled the sacks of his brothers with food to sustain them through the famine (v. 2). In Benjamin’s sack, Joseph had his silver cup placed (v. 2). As the brothers began their journey home, Joseph instructed a servant to catch up with them and accuse them of stealing the silver cup. Sure enough, the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack (v. 12). This sets up the most dramatic scene in the story.

Joseph declared that Benjamin must become his slave for the theft, but the rest of the brothers could return home (v. 17). Joseph was placing his brothers in a situation in which they could easily repeat their sinful behavior. Would they leave Benjamin as a slave and ensure their own freedom? Would they view this as another opportunity to punish a favored brother?

Judah gave a long, impassioned speech in which he confessed, “God has uncovered your servants’ guilt” (v. 16). He was speaking not of stealing a cup, of which they were innocent, but of what they had done to Joseph. Judah offered to take Benjamin’s place and be a slave in Egypt in place of Benjamin (v. 33).

Clearly, Judah’s heart had been transformed. He had gone from a man willing to sell his brother into slavery to one who was willing to be sold into slavery to save his brother.

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