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The Sovereign Hand Over Human Malice (Genesis 45:4-15) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, usually when we talk
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  about a medical diagnosis, there is this expectation of absolute
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  precision, right? Yeah.
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  Like it feels like engineering. You break your arm, you go to
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  the hospital, the doctor puts you in front of an X-ray machine
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  and it prints out that stark black and white film.
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  Yes. And the doctor just points to
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  that jagged white line on the screen and says, there it is.
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  That is the problem. It is completely binary.
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  I mean it is objective. Broken or not broken, it is
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  clean and you know it makes sense to our modern minds.
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  Yeah, and it is highly comforting.
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  We like things to be visible. We like to be able to categorize
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  our problems, isolate the variables, and just apply a
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  straightforward mechanical fix. But then you step into the world
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  of human malice, personal suffering and divine Providence,
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  and suddenly that X-ray machine is completely useless.
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  Oh, absolutely. You cannot just point to a clear
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  line and say here is where human sin ends and here is where God's
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  sovereign will begin. You just cannot do it.
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  So we're looking at a theological landscape today that
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  is often misunderstood but absolutely vital for your
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  sanity. Our mission for today's Deep
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  Dive is to understand the staggering reality of how God's
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  meticulous Providence interacts with sheer human malice.
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  And we are pulling from 2 rigorously detailed theological
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  commentaries today. They both examine Genesis
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  chapter 45, verses 4 through 15. Right, which is the specific
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  moment Joseph reveals himself to his brothers in Egypt.
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  And I want to speak directly to you, the listener, right from
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  the start. This is not an archaic history
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  lesson about ancient Middle Eastern agricultural policy.
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  Not at all. We are examining A radically
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  different lens for viewing your own life, this ancient text.
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  It dictates the way you view your personal suffering, the way
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  you extend forgiveness to those who have wronged you, and the
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  way you interpret history itself.
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  OK, let's unpack this. Let us set the scene.
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  Yeah, let us look at the room. We are in the Egyptian palace.
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  It is the dramatic climax of the entire narrative, spanning
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  multiple chapters, and the tension in this room is
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  completely suffocating. It really is a terrifying
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  moment. Picture the brothers standing
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  there. They are in the presence of the
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  vizier, the second in command of the greatest empire on the
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  planet, right? Egypt at this time is
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  unparalleled in its wealth and military might.
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  And these brothers, they are desperate, starving peasants
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  from Canaan. Yeah.
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  They are entirely at His mercy. And they are completely unaware
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  that this supreme ruler, you know, dressed in fine linen,
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  wearing the gold chain of Pharaoh, speaking through an
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  Egyptian interpreter, is the very brother they violently
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  betrayed. The one they stripped and threw
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  into a pit over 2 decades prior. Right, The historical context
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  here is heavy. Guilt does not have an
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  expiration date. They traded his life for 20
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  pieces of silver. And they ignored his cries for
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  mercy while they sat down and literally ate a meal next to
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  that pit. Yes, and then they went home and
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  lied straight to the face of their grieving father Jacob for
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  over 20 years. And now you know the curtain is
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  pulled back, they find out he's alive, and he holds their
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  literal lives in his hands. It is a terrifying realization
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  for them. Modern secular psychology would
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  argue that severe trauma permanently defines a person.
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  So the expectation, culturally speaking, is that Joseph has
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  every right to be consumed by bitterness.
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  Oh, absolutely. He should be anticipating swift,
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  brutal retaliation. The brothers themselves are
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  expecting retributive justice for their malice.
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  They know what they did. Imagine standing before a
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  supreme judge whom you had once tried to assassinate.
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  You were expecting the heavy gavel to fall, but instead the
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  judge steps down from the bench and embraces you.
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  Right. Because Joseph's first full
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  sentence to them, the moment the room is clear to the Egyptian
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  guards, is an invitation. He says come near to me.
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  He invites them into nearness. He does, but it is vital to
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  point out the time alone does not atone for sin.
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  The brothers are not innocent just because 22 years have
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  passed. What's fascinating here is how
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  Joseph handles that reality. He does not offer shallow
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  optimism. He does not minimize their
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  wickedness just to make the room feel less awkward, No.
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  He doesn't sweep it away. Not at all.
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  He names the sin clearly. He says I'm your brother Joseph,
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  whom you sold into Egypt. He does not whitewash their
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  guilt. That is such a crucial point.
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  It is before the healing balm of grace can be applied.
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  The deadly reality of sin must be fully exposed.
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  But we also have to look at the literary attention leading up to
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  this specific moment, because Joseph did not just immediately
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  forgive them the first time they walked into Egypt to buy grain.
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  Right, he put them through an absolute psychological ringer.
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  He really did. He put them through a rigorous
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  series of psychological and spiritual tests.
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  And like when they first arrived.
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  Yes. When they first arrived, he
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  accused them of being foreign spies.
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  He threw them in prison for three days.
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  He then bound Simeon before their eyes and kept him as a
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  hostage, demanding they return to Canaan and bring their
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  youngest brother Benjamin back to Egypt and.
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  When they finally did bring Benjamin, Joseph planted his own
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  personal silver cup in Benjamin's sack of grain to
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  frame the boy for theft. He recreated the very same
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  scenario from 20 years ago. The brothers had another chance
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  to abandon a favored son of Jacob and save their own skins.
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  Right, because Benjamin was the only other son of Rachel,
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  Joseph's mother. He was the new favorite.
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  Joseph's was testing them to see if they were still the same
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  murderous, jealous men who sold them.
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  Precisely. And what happens?
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  Judah, the very brother who originally proposed selling
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  Joseph into slavery for profit in Genesis 37, steps forward.
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  He steps up. In Genesis 44, Judah delivers
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  one of the most agonizing, beautiful speeches in all of
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  ancient literature. Judah offers himself as a penal
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  substitute for Benjamin. That is just incredible.
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  He begs the Egyptian ruler to let the boy go home to his
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  father and offers to become a slave in Egypt for the rest of
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  his life to bear the punishment so his brother can go free.
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  So these tests were absolutely necessary to prove a genuine
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  spirit wrought change in their hearts.
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  Yes, once Joseph sees that sacrificial, substitutionary
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  love from Judah, he can no longer restrain himself.
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  The suspense breaks with loud tears.
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  The text says he wept so loudly that the Egyptians outside the
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  room heard him. So we see the incredible
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  personal family dynamic resolving in this opulent throne
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  room. But let's zoom out for a second.
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  The scene in that room is incredibly intimate, but outside
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  those palace doors, the entire known world is starving to
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  death. Yes, they are.
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  This brings us to the massive geopolitical sandbox of the
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  ancient Near East. This is not a localized dry
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  spell in Canaan, it is a catastrophic multi year global
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  famine. The scope of this famine cannot
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  be overstated. In the ancient world, A7 year
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  famine was an apocalyptic event, right?
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  We are talking about the total collapse of sail infrastructure,
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  mass migration and widespread death.
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  And Egypt was the undisputed bread basket of the ancient.
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  World because of the Nile. Yes, the reason for this lies in
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  their geography. Egypt relied on the Nile River,
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  which provided predictable annual inundation.
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  The river would flood its banks every year, depositing nutrient
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  dense silt, creating a robust, highly predictable agricultural
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  infrastructure. Right, while surrounding nations
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  like Canaan relied entirely on seasonal rainfall.
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  And they were therefore entirely devastated when the rain
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  stopped. But Egypt had the capacity and
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  under Joseph's leadership, the administrative foresight to
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  store massive amounts of grain during the seven Years of
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  plenty. So the brothers traveling to
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  Egypt was a matter of basic survival.
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  Their crops had failed. Their livestock were likely
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  dying. They have money, but you cannot
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  eat silver. You.
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  Really cannot. But our source texts bring up a
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  massive covenantal necessity. Here I have to ask, why did God
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  orchestrate this massive migration of Jacob's family out
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  of Canaan? They were promised the land of
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  Canaan. Why move them to Egypt?
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  The commentaries point out that if Jacob's family had stayed in
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  Canaan during this famine, they face 2 distinct dangers that
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  threaten the entire redemptive plan of God.
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  OK, what is the first one? The first, obviously, is
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  physical starvation. The Messianic line, the
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  descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob could have literally
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  died out in the famine. That makes sense.
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  And the second. The second danger is much more
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  insidious. It is spiritual assimilation.
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  They were already living among the Pagan Canaanites and
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  beginning to adopt their ways. Oh, right.
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  We see this clearly in Genesis chapter 38, right after Joseph
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  is sold. The text pauses to tell us about
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  Judah's disastrous moral failures, intermarrying with
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  Canaanites and adopting their corrupt practices.
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  That is a huge problem. It is this practice directly
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  threatened to pollute the promised messianic line.
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  They needed to be separated. They needed a protective
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  barrier. Wait, I struggle with this.
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  Yeah. Was moving them to Egypt just a
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  pragmatic survival tactic to get grain, or is there a bigger
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  theological design at play? Because it seems like they're
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  just reacting to the weather. It is entirely theological.
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  The weather is simply the instrument.
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  By relocating the 70 members of Jacob's household to the
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  specific region of Goshen in Egypt, God sovereignly placed
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  them in a cultural incubator. A cultural.
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  Incubator. I like that.
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  The source material notes a specific, fascinating cultural
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  dynamic. The Egyptians openly despised
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  shepherds. Really.
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  Yes, to an Egyptian, tending sheep was an abomination.
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  Because the Israelites were shepherds by trade, they were
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  naturally and heavily socially segregated in the land of
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  Goshen. So they were kept apart.
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  This providential segregation guaranteed they could multiply
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  into a vast nation over the next 400 years without mixing their
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  bloodlines or their religion with their Pagan neighbors.
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  The Egyptians would not intermarry with them because
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  they found them culturally repulsive.
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  Wow, so God was meticulously managing the macro economy of
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  the world's greatest empire just to preserve a tiny, vulnerable
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  family of 70 people? Yes, he was.
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  This demonstrates emphatically that all secular human history
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  operates strictly under God's redemption of history.
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  God dictates the weather patterns, the atmospheric
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  pressure causing the rains to fail, the agricultural harvests,
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  and the rise and fall of absolute monarchs, all to
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  fulfill His specific promises to Abraham.
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  It is breathtaking when you look at the scale of it.
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  That is staggering. The macro level control of
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  international weather systems and the micro level preservation
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  of one family are governed by the exact same sovereign.
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  Absolutely. So we see God using this famine
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  as a geopolitical cattle prod to move His people into the
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  incubator of Egypt. But let's zoom back into that
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  throne room. Let's do it.
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  Joseph knows this macro level theology, but how does he
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  actually explain it to his brothers who are currently
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  sweating bullets and expecting to be executed?
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  That is the big question. Let's look at the specific
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  Hebrew words He chooses. This brings us to the grammar of
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  sovereignty. Joseph says whom you sold into
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  Egypt, but immediately follows that with for God sent me before
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  you to preserve life. The Hebrew text provides A
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  breathtaking juxtaposition. Here the verb used when Joseph
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  says you sold is Makar. Makar.
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  Yes, it is an active verb. It places the responsibility,
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  the malice, and the guilt squarely on the shoulders of the
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  brothers. The text does not alleviate
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  their guilt. They acted entirely out of their
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  own volition, driven by jealousy, hatred, and greed.
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  But then, in the very same breath, Joseph uses the verb
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  shalak, meaning to send when Speaking of God's action.
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  God sent me. Here's where it gets really
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  interesting. It's like an author writing a
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  novel. Oh, that is a good way to put it
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  the. Characters within the story make
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  real, accountable choices, driven by their own motives,
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  their own jealousies, and their own desires.
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  Yeah, when the villain in a book does something evil, the villain
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  is acting according to his own character, but the author of the
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  novel is entirely sovereign over how the whole script unfolds to
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  reach the final chapter, right? The characters are truly making
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  choices, but the author is writing the overarching story.
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  If we connect this to the bigger picture, we are looking at the
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  theological concept of compatibilism.
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  Compatibilism. This is a crucial doctrine.
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  Human beings act freely and culpably, meaning they are fully
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  responsible for their malice. Yet God mysteriously and
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  perfectly ordains those very acts for a redemptive end.
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  It is a lot to wrap your mind around.
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  Look at the negative positive contrast Joseph uses in verse 8.
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  He says, so it was not you who sent me here, but God, right?
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  Syntactically, he places God as the active ultimate subject,
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  forcefully negating the brothers as the primary cause.
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  God is the primary, highest cause of Joseph being in Egypt.
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  The brothers are the secondary instrumental cause.
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  Their evil actions were the specific mechanism God utilized
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  without God himself ever being the author of sin.
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  OK, but let me push back on this because I know a lot of
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  listeners will hear this and raise a red flag.
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  Sure, it is a difficult concept. If God is the one who ultimately
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  sent Joseph, and the brothers are just these secondary
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  instrumental causes, how is it just for God to hold them
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  accountable? Right.
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  My secular friends would hear this and say God entrap them.
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  They would say if God wrote the script, the brothers are just
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  puppets. You can't punish A puppet.
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  Yeah. How do our source texts defend
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  God's justice here against that kind of skepticism?
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  That is the most common objection to compatibilism.
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  The sources handle this by distinguishing between the
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  motive of the actors and the design of God.
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  The motive versus the design. Yes, the brothers were not
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  trying to fulfill God's prophecy when they threw Joseph in the
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  pit. They were trying to murder him.
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  Their intention was pure evil. Yeah, they hated him.
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  God's intention in that exact same event was pure salvation.
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  It was to position Joseph to save the known world from
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  starvation. So the intentions are completely
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  different. Exactly.
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  God did not put the evil in their hearts.
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  Their hearts were already thoroughly corrupt.
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  God simply withdrew His restraining grace and directed
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  their pre-existing malice to accomplish a holy outcome.
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  They are punished for their wicked intentions.
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  God is praised for His saving intentions.
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  That is a massive distinction, and the commentaries we are
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  analyzing forcefully contrast this biblical reality against
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  several alternative views that try to solve this tension by
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  diminishing God's absolute control.
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  Yes they do. For instance, they reject
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  Armenianism. Yes, Armenian theology suggests
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  that God, God merely looks down the corridor of time, sees what
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  humans will freely choose to do, and then reacts to make the best
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  of a bad situation. It paints God as a cosmic chess
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  player reacting to our moves. But this text shatters that God
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  did not just react to the brothers selling Joseph.
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  God actively sent Joseph. The sending was the primary
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  action. The sources also reject open
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  theism. Yes, this is the idea that God
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  does not actually know the future free choices of humans
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  and therefore he takes risks. But let's break down the
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  mechanics of why that fails here.
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  Open theism argues God doesn't know the future free choices of
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  men. But look at Joseph's timeline.
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  God had to know the famine was coming decades later and he had
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  to know the brothers free malicious choice to sell Joseph
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  would be the exact vehicle to get him to Egypt in time to rise
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  to the political ranks and prepare the grain silos.
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  It is all perfectly timed. The text mathematically breaks
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  open theism. If God didn't know their free
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  choices, the entire preservation of the messianic line was left
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  up to blind chance. Absolutely.
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  And the commentaries take a very firm stance against the
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  prosperity gospel as well. They do.
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  The source texts vigorously reject the ideology which
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  falsely claims that God's favor guarantees a life free of
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  hardships, sickness and poverty. Just look at Joseph.
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  Right. Joseph was highly favored by
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  God. He was given prophetic dreams.
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  Yet that specific divine favor led him directly into human
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  trafficking, slavery in a foreign land, false accusations
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  of sexual assault by Potiphar's wife, and years rotting in a
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  subterranean dungeon. That is a rough resume.
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  It really is. God's meticulous Providence does
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  not guarantee your earthly comfort.
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  It guarantees His holy purposes will be accomplished in you.
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  God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, but the liberty of second
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  causes like human choices is established, not taken away.
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  You know, this towering theology isn't just an academic exercise
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  to debate in a seminary classroom.
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  It actually dictates how you treat people who have wronged
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  you on a Tuesday afternoon. Very true.
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  It moves us from high doctrine to the anatomy of true
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  reconciliation because in verses 9 through 15, Joseph doesn't
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  just offer theological comfort to his terrified brothers.
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  He provides concrete logistical care.
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  He issues a rapid flurry of urgent commands.
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  He tells them to hurry, to go up to their father Jacob and
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  Canaan, and to bring him down to Egypt.
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  He doesn't waste any time. He promises them the fertile
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  land of Goshen. He explicitly promises to
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  provide for them during the remaining five years of the
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  famine so they do not become impoverished.
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  He says I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of
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  famine to come. Grace in the biblical sense
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  takes a highly logistical, practical form.
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  It is not ethereal. Not at all.
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  It involves wagons, grain, land and physical protection.
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  It is not just an abstract feeling of goodwill.
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  I know in my own life, my default setting when someone
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  wrongs me is just sweep the broken glass under the rug and
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  pretend the betrayal never happened.
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  Yeah, that is very common. It feels easier to just keep the
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  peace. Contrast that biblical
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  forgiveness with modern secular therapy language.
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  Today, people often want forgiveness without confession
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  or reconciliation without truth. We want to skip the awkward
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  part. We really do, but the text
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  demands truthful nearness. Grace does not mean amnesia.
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  Joseph exposes the sin fully before applying the healing balm
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  of grace. He says who you sold he.
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  Points right at it. So what does this all mean for
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  you, the listener? Think of it this way.
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  Forgiveness isn't sweeping the broken glass under the rug where
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  someone will inevitably step on it later and bleed out.
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  Forgiveness is sweeping the broken glass into the dustpan in
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  the broad daylight. You acknowledge the damage.
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  You look at the sharp edges together.
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  You agree that it is broken and then you deal with it properly
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  and throw it away. That truthful acknowledgement is
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  what breaks the curse of hidden sin.
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  One of the sources points out that hidden sin works like a
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  fever in the bones. A fever in the bones.
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  Think about the psychological toll on these brothers.
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  They had been silenced by their guilt for over 2 decades. 20
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  years of keeping that secret. Every time they looked at their
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  father Jacob, they knew they had caused his inconsolable grief.
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  Their mouths were shut by shame. But notice the specific detail
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  at the end of this passage. In verse 15, it says, And he
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  kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.
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  After that, his brothers talked with them.
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  He finally talked. The text makes a point to tell
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  us they finally talked. Grace produces truthful
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  conversation. Sin produces silence, deception,
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  and distance. That's so good.
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  The alienation created by their malice has been overcome by
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  grace, resulting in restored communion.
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  And Joseph's robust theology, knowing that God was the supreme
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  author of his circumstances, completely freed him from the
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  poisonous bondage of revenge it. Freed him entirely.
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  He saw the sovereign hand of God in his suffering, which meant he
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  didn't have to destroy his brothers to find justice.
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  He entrusted the pen to God. If Joseph believed his brothers
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  were the sole office of his destiny, he would have executed
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  them on the spot. But because he believed God was
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  the highest author, he could afford to be merciful.
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  And while Joseph is a stunning, breathtaking example of grace,
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  the text relentlessly points forward to an even greater
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  reality. OK, where is it pointing?
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  The commentaries point out that this isn't just neat literary
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  coincidence. As we examine redemptive
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  history, we must recognize the highest fulfillment.
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  Joseph stands as one of the clearest types of Jesus Christ
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  in the entire Old Testament. Typology is God's way of
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  teaching His people the shape of salvation before the Savior
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  actually arrives on the stage of history.
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  It is a pattern. Yes, he is conditioning the
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  Israelites to recognize that salvation comes through a
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  suffering, betrayed servant who is exalted to the right hand of
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  the king. Let's trace those typological
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  parallels, because they are staggering.
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  Once you see them, you cannot Unsee them.
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  Go ahead. Both Joseph and Jesus were the
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  specially beloved sons of their Father.
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  Both were sent by their Father from the place of comfort to
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  seek the welfare of their brothers.
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  Yes, both were hated without cause by their own brethren.
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  Both were violently stripped of their garments by those who make
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  them. The parallels go even further
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  into the darker and more glorious aspects of the
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  narrative. Joseph was sold by his brother
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  Judah for 20 pieces of silver. Jesus Christ was betrayed by
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  Judas, which is literally the Greek translation for the Hebrew
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  name Judah for 30 pieces of silver.
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  That is wild. Joseph was cast into a waterless
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  dark pit in the wilderness, which is a clear biblical symbol
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  for the grave. Christ was crucified, died, and
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  was laid in a stone tomb. And the exaltation is just as
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  perfectly mirrored. Joseph was raised from the
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  dungeon and exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh, right?
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  Pharaoh gave him his signet ring, clothed him in fine linen,
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  and gave him absolute authority to save a starving world with
• 21:31
  physical bread. Every knee had to bow to Joseph.
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  And Christ was raised from the dead and exalted to the right
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  hand of God the Father. He was given all authority in
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  heaven and on earth to save humanity, offering not just
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  physical sustenance, but offering Himself as the true
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  bread of life. This raises an important
• 21:48
  question regarding how we view the cross itself.
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  The Cross of Christ was not an emergency backup plan formulated
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  after humanity ruined God's original design.
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  It was not a plan. B.
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  It was not a reaction to humanity spinning out of
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  control. Just as God meticulously
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  ordained the pit of Joseph to bring about the salvation of the
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  known world, God meticulously ordained the cross of Christ to
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  bring about the salvation of His people.
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  The source material quotes Acts chapter 4, verses 27 and 28,
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  which declares that Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles,
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  and the peoples of Israel gathered together to do whatever
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  God's hand and plan had predestined to take place.
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  They all played a part. Lawless men acted wickedly,
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  entirely out of their own corrupt free will, crucifying
• 22:34
  the Lord of glory. Yet through those very malicious
• 22:37
  actions, they accomplished the definite saving plan and
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  foreknowledge of God. That completely crushes
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  moralism, yes. It does.
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  A moralistic reading of this Genesis text just says be a nice
• 22:48
  person, forgive your siblings when they steal your toys.
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  Try to be a good guy like Joseph, right?
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  Which is just self help. But that is utterly insufficient
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  and completely, completely misses the weight of the text.
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  The lesson isn't that you are Joseph in the story.
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  You are not the innocent, pure sufferer dispensing grace.
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  No, you are not. The lesson is that you are the
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  guilty brothers. Let that sink in.
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  You are standing before the blinding judgement seat of the
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  exalted Lord of the universe. You are entirely undone.
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  You have 0 defense. You are completely deserving of
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  death for your rebellion against Him and the exalted Lord of
• 23:22
  Glory. Jesus Christ, look down at you
• 23:24
  and says come to me. He brings you near.
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  He brings you near by his blood. He doesn't just pardon you, He
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  invites you to the table. The brothers could not heal
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  themselves by self improvement, they could not work off their
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  debt. They were summoned by the one
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  who held all authority and who extended unmerited grace.
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  Right? The source material also points
• 23:44
  out that this narrative provides a theological framework that
• 23:47
  rejects modern ideologies focused on endless grievance.
• 23:51
  How sound? The authors argue that texts
• 23:54
  like this categorically reject frameworks that demand perpetual
• 23:57
  cycles of reparation and endless apologies without resolution.
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  OK, I see. True reconciliation is found
• 24:04
  solely in the sovereign grace of God that forgives the most
• 24:07
  heinous of sins. It requires an honest
• 24:09
  confrontation with human depravity, followed by a
• 24:12
  radical, unnatural forgiveness that mirrors Christ forgiving
• 24:16
  his executioners. Which brings us to the massive
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  stakes of this deep dive. For you, the listener, you must
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  rigorously apply the doctrine of God's meticulous sovereignty
• 24:26
  directly to your own personal suffering.
• 24:28
  It is highly practical. We all face unjust actions,
• 24:31
  betrayals and deep wounds. Someone may have slandered you,
• 24:34
  stolen from you, or abandoned you.
• 24:37
  When you are mistreated, do not give way to the soul destroying
• 24:40
  sin of bitterness. Bitterness will ruin you.
• 24:42
  Do not assume your pain is meaningless, or that God is
• 24:44
  simply watching helplessly from afar, wishing He can intervene
• 24:48
  but unable to stop human free will.
• 24:51
  Look at the purposeful hand of God.
• 24:53
  The Sovereign Lord uses the Heavy Anvil of Affliction to
• 24:56
  forge you. He really does.
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  The narrative of Joseph proves mathematically that God can take
• 25:01
  real wickedness, preserve human responsibility so that the
• 25:04
  perpetrators are truly accountable, and yet bend the
• 25:07
  entire matter towards saving mercy for His people.
• 25:09
  Before we conclude, consider a thought regarding the original
• 25:13
  audience who first heard Moses teach this text.
• 25:16
  Oh, that is a great point. Think about the Israelites.
• 25:19
  The original Israelites were wandering in a harsh, terrifying
• 25:23
  wilderness after the Exodus. Whenever they faced a lack of
• 25:26
  water or a lack of food, they immediately accused God of
• 25:30
  abandonment. Right, they complained
• 25:32
  constantly. They assumed human difficulty
• 25:35
  equated to divine Alice. They would cry out, did you
• 25:37
  bring us out here to kill us? Yeah.
• 25:39
  They totally failed to realize that God was currently leading
• 25:43
  them, protecting them and testing them, just as he had.
• 25:46
  Florida State LED their ancestors into the incubator of
• 25:50
  Egypt to preserve them during the famine.
• 25:52
  They missed the whole point. They interpreted their
• 25:54
  circumstances through the lens of fear instead of through the
• 25:57
  lens of God's character. Think about your own life right
• 26:00
  now. Are you looking at a current
• 26:02
  hardship? You know a literal dungeon or
• 26:04
  desert bays in your life right now?
• 26:06
  It is a hard place to be. Are you faithlessly concluding
• 26:09
  you have been abandoned because the situation looks bleak?
• 26:13
  Are you looking at the jagged white line on the X-ray of your
• 26:15
  life and assuming the story is over?
• 26:18
  Yeah. What if the specific
• 26:20
  circumstances causing you the most anxiety today, the very
• 26:23
  things keeping you awake at night, are the precise,
• 26:26
  meticulously designed instruments God is using to
• 26:29
  position you for your own preservation?
• 26:31
  That changes everything. What if the author is writing a
• 26:34
  better final charter than you could ever comprehend?
• 26:38
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the text.
• 26:40
  We will see you next time.