Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Pilgrim’s Portion: Sovereign Providence, Worldly Envy, and the Shadow of the Cross (Genesis 26:12-17)

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The Pilgrim’s Portion: Sovereign Providence, Worldly Envy, and the Shadow of the Cross (Genesis 26:12-17) · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking, that is. That is the name of the podcast.
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Welcome back to another Deep dive.
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We are. We're back at the table today
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and we've got a stack of documents here that honestly,
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just looking at the prep notes, it feels a little bit heavy.
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Yeah, it is heavy. I mean, we're dealing with
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theological essays, some some older sermon manuscripts, and of
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course the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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It's a lot of paper. It's a ton of paper.
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But it's the kind of heavy that anchors you.
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You know, it's not burdensome at all.
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It's just very substantial. And frankly, given that the
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topic we're tackling today, we need that substance.
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We really can't just skim the surface on this one.
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No, I agree. We need to dig into it.
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So the headline today is a story that most people most people
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think they already know. If you grew up in Sunday school,
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or even if you just have a passing familiarity with the Old
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Testament, you have probably heard this one right The.
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The Genesis 26 narrative, Yeah. Genesis 26, specifically verses
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12 through 17, it involves Isaac, it involves A famine, and
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it involves some pretty intense disputes over water rights.
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And usually the take away people get from that text is something
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very moralistic, right? It becomes a lesson about being
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a nice neighbor. Or maybe it's framed as a lesson
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on conflict resolution, like, hey, don't fight, just be the
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bigger person and move on. Be the bigger person.
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Yeah, that is the standard reading.
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But we are looking at this through a very specific lens
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today. Reformed theology and a
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redemptive historical approach. And the sources are arguing that
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this is absolutely not just a story about being a polite
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neighbor. No, not at all.
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It's actually a story about a massive theological paradox.
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It's a very jarring paradox when you really look at it.
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You have this intersection of divine sovereignty, God being
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completely in charge of every single atom in the universe,
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crashing head first into human envy and sabotage and just raw
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political hostility. And that is the mission for this
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deep dive. We want to figure out, based on
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these sources, how do you maintain what the authors call
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Pilgrim faith when the world is actively, strategically trying
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to push you out? Because looking at the text
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we're covering today, it feels incredibly modern.
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It really does. I mean, you have economic
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crises, you have essentially what we would call cancel
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culture today, and you have political expulsion.
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It is almost startlingly relevant.
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You see the exact same dynamics of envy and power plays in
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Genesis 26 that you would see in a modern corporate boardroom or
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on social media or in local politics.
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But before we get to the conflict itself, we really have
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to understand the pressure cooker that these characters are
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living in. Let's set the scene, then.
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Genesis 26. The text starts with a pretty
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grim reality. Yeah, there was a famine in the
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land. And the text actually adds A
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qualifier, it says besides the former famine that was in the
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days of Abraham. So this is not a new problem for
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this family. This is a recurring nightmare.
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It is, and we need to pause there because I think in the
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modern West, you know, we hear the word famine and we just
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think. We think inflation.
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Inflation, We think, oh, the price of eggs went up at the
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grocery store, or maybe we can't get the specific brand of
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sourdough bread we like. Supply chain issues.
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That's what we call a famine. Exactly.
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But in the ancient Near East, in a totally agrarian society, a
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famine is an existential threat. It means the death rate is
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skyrocketing around you. It means you are watching your
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livestock, which, by the way, is not just your food.
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It's your bank account. It's your retirement.
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It's your legacy. You are watching those animals
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turn into skeletons and literally drop dead.
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It creates a psychology of absolute, terrifying scarcity.
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So everyone is in survival mode. Everyone, your neighbors are not
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your friends right now. They are direct competitors for
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the last scrap of resources and usually the biblical narrative.
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When a famine hits the Negev region, what do the patriarchs
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do? What did Abraham?
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Do it went to Egypt. Went straight to Egypt.
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And why? Because Egypt has the Nile
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River. It's the only place with a
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reliable irrigation that doesn't depend on rainfall.
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It represents security going to Egypt.
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It represents walking by sight, not by faith.
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And Isaac is packing his bags. He is ready to go.
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But God stops him. God intervenes, He says.
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Do not go down to Egypt, dwell in the land of which I shall
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tell you so. Isaac is stuck in Gerard, the
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ground is hard as a rock, the dust is blowing everywhere, and
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everyone around him is hoarding whatever they have left.
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And that is where our story actually picks up, right in
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verse 12. So we are in Gerard.
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It is a total Dust Bowl and verse 12 tells us Isaac does
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something that on paper looks completely insane it.
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Looks like pure madness. The text says Isaac sowed in
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that land. Now, I'm not a farmer by any
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stretch, but I know enough about basic gardening to know that if
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the ground is parched and there is literally no rain in the
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forecast, planting seeds is basically throwing away good
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food. It's actually worse than that.
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In a famine, your seed corn is your absolute last reserve of
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food. You have a very stark choice.
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You can grind up that grain, eat it, and survive for another
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month, or you can bury it in the dirt and hope it grows.
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If it doesn't rain, you didn't just waste your physical effort,
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you starved your family. You took the food right out of
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your kids mouths and threw it in the dirt.
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Spot on. So why does he do it?
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Is he just panicking? Is he trying anything to see
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what sticks? The sources described this
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specific action as settled obedience.
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That is a key phrase to hold on to as you listen to this.
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Isaac is not acting out of panic, and he is not acting out
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of presumption either. He is acting on the direct
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command of God to stay in the land.
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It's a refusal of two extremes that we so often fall into.
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What are those extremes? Let's unpack that.
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Well, on one side you have fatalism.
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That's the attitude of well, God is sovereign.
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There's a massive famine. I guess we'll just sit here in
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the dust and die unless God drops manner from the sky.
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The classic Let go and let God approach.
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Right. It's totally passive.
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It disguises laziness as piety. But the other extreme is pride.
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I am a master farmer. I can outsmart this drought.
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I can irrigate my way out of this.
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Isaac does neither of those things.
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He uses the means available to him.
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He works. He plows, He sows the seed, but
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he does it in a context that requires total absolute
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dependence on God for the outcome.
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And the result is shocking. I mean, I looked at the numbers
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in the prep notes here. He reaped in the same year a
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hundredfold. A hundredfold.
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Put that in context for me is that is that just good?
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Is it great? Is it miraculous?
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In the ancient world, a standard really good harvest like where
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everything goes perfectly right, there's plenty of rain, no
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pests, no blight that might yield thirtyfold, maybe 60 fold
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if you're having an absolute banner year.
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OK. So 30 is a solid year. 30 is
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very solid. Jesus even uses those exact
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numbers in the parable of the sower, right?
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3060 a hundred a hundredfold is the theoretical maximum.
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It is the bumper crop to end all bumper crops, but Isaac gets
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this massive yield during a famine.
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Which is agriculturally impossible.
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Technically, yes. The soil condition shouldn't
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support it. The hydrology shouldn't support
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it. So the text is forcing us to ask
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the obvious question. Where did this come from?
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Did Isaac have some sort of secret fertilizer?
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Did he find a hidden underground aquifer that nobody else knew
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about? And the narrator gives us the
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answer immediately. He does the Hebrew clause.
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There is way. Barakihu Yahweh and the Lord
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blessed him. It's so interesting that the
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text puts that right next to the harvest.
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It doesn't say Isaac was a genius agriculturalist.
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It says he reaped and the Lord blessed him.
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It is drawing a Direct Line between the labor and the
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outcome, and this is where we have to get a little
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theological, because the Westminster Confession of Faith
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has a lot to say about this specific dynamic.
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This is chapter 5 right on Providence.
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Yes, specifically Section 3 of chapter 5.
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I actually have the text of the confession right here.
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It says God in his ordinary Providence make it use of means,
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yet is free to work without, above and against them at his
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pleasure. OK, bring that down for us.
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Maketh use of means. What does that look like
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practically? Means are secondary causes.
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The sun, the rain, the nitrogen in the soil, the literal sweat
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on Isaac's brow. God usually works through those
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things. Doesn't usually snap his fingers
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and just make bread magically appear on your table.
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He makes wheat DRO, which you then have to harvest and grind
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and bake. So Isaac had to sow.
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If he hadn't sowed the seed, he wouldn't have reaped anything.
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That's the whole point. God use the means of Isaac's
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physical labor, but the confession also says God is
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completely free to work above those means.
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In this specific case, the means the dry soil and the lack of
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rain were totally insufficient to produce the result, which was
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A1 hundredfold crop. God supercharged the secondary
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causes. It's like, OK, imagine you are
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pushing a car that is completely out of gas.
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You are pushing and that is a means you're providing force,
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but suddenly the car accelerates to 60 mph while you are barely
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even touching the back bumper. That is a fantastic analogy.
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You are still pushing, sure, but the momentum is clearly coming
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from somewhere else entirely. God wanted it to be undeniably
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clear to Isaac, and crucially to the Philistines who were
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watching, that this wealth was not just dumb luck.
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It was not just brilliant agronomy, it was the direct
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blessing of Yahweh. And that leads us to a really
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difficult question that I think we absolutely have to address
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here because as I'm listening to this, and I'm sure as you are
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listening to this, you're during Isaac obeyed.
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Isaac sowed A literal seed and God made him incredibly rich.
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I know exactly where you're going with this.
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It sounds identical to the 2:00 AM televangelist pitch.
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Sow your seed of faith, send in your money, and God will give
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you a private jet. Does this text support the
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prosperity gospel? That is the massive elephant in
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the room, and the sources are emphatic on this.
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Absolutely not. If you read this as a formula.
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Obedience equals financial wealth.
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You are completely misreading the genre of the text and the
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theology of the covenant. So why did God make him rich
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then? If it's not a formula for
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everyone? Why not just give Isaac enough
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to survive the famine? Why the hundredfold?
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Because of the covenant, we have to look at the redemptive
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historical context here. God had made a very specific
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promise to Abraham that his seed for the capital S would bless
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all the nations of the earth. That seed is, in the end, Jesus
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Christ. So the lineage has to survive no
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matter what. The lineage has to survive.
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If Isaac dies of starvation in the dust of Gerar, the promise
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fails. If Isaac is just a poor
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struggling refugee barely scraping by, his family likely
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gets completely absorbed into the local Philistine culture and
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the distinct set apart people of God just disappear into history.
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The wealth was not given for Isaac's personal luxury.
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It was a Fortress A. Fortress.
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Yes, a fortress. It established him as a
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distinct, powerful, independent entity that could not simply be
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swallowed up by the surrounding Pagan culture.
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The wealth was a shield to protect the messianic line.
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That is a huge distinction to make.
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The wealth was about preserving the line of the Messiah, not
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about Isaac getting to live a comfortable, lavish lifestyle.
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That's it, and our notes mention a dispensational distinction
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here, which is helpful even if you don't hold to strict
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dispensationalism. The core principle holds water.
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In the Old Testament, God's blessings were very often
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physical and territorial because the people of God were a
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physical, geopolitical nation holding a physical piece of
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land. And what about in the New
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Testament? In the New Testament, the church
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is a spiritual body spread across all nations.
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Our promises are far better, but they are different in nature.
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We are promised every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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According to Ephesians, we're not promised at a hundredfold
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return on our four O 1K or our stock portfolio.
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In fact, doesn't Jesus promise the exact opposite regarding
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physical safety and comfort? He certainly does.
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In Mark chapter 10, he says we will receive a hundredfold
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mothers and brothers and sisters.
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But then he adds with persecutions.
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There it is, the fine print with persecutions.
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And that is actually the perfect bridge to where this biblical
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story goes next. Because Isaac gets the blessing,
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he gets the massive 1 hundredfold return and you would
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logically think the neighbors would be happy for him.
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You would think they would come over and say, hey Isaac, that is
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amazing. Please teach us your farming
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techniques so we don't starve. But that is not what happens at
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all, no. The blessing doesn't bring
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peace, it brings a sword. This takes us right into section
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two of our discussion, the provocation of envy.
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We are looking at verse 14. Now he had possessions of flocks
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and herds and many servants, so the Philistines envied him.
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We really need to slow down and unpack that specific word
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envied, because in modern English we use that word pretty
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loosely. Oh, all the time.
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I envy your hair. I envy your vacation photos on
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Instagram. Right, right.
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We just mean I wish I had what you have.
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It's very mild, but the Hebrew term here is kana, and quanah is
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visceral. It implies a burning.
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It is a zealous, consuming rage. So it's not just.
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Man, I wish I had sheep like Isaac.
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No, it is I am deeply grieved and angry that Isaac has sheep.
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Envy is not just wanting the good thing, it is sorrow at
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another person's good. It is the twisted feeling that
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their success somehow actively diminishes you.
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That is a terrifying definition. Grief at another person's good.
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It is the anatomy of a sick soul, and our sources connect
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this directly to the doctrine of total depravity, which the
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Westminster Confession Chapter 6 talks about at length.
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How does total depravity explain that kind of envy?
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Well, the unregenerate heart, the human heart that has not
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been changed by God's grace, is fundamentally turned in on
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itself. It views itself as the absolute
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center of its own universe. So when it sees God's grace
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pouring out on someone else, it does not say, wow, look at God's
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kindness, let's praise him. It says, why them?
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Why not me? They are stealing my spotlight
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and making me look bad. It's a 0 sum game to them.
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If you are winning in life, I must be losing.
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That is the dark logic of envy. And notice this.
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The Philistines cannot strike God.
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God is completely out of their reach.
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They can't punch the sky. So what do they do?
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They strike the person who is receiving God's blessing.
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This really blows up a myth that I think is super prevalent in a
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lot of churches today. The whole seeker sensitive idea.
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Absolutely does the idea. Is basically, if we are just
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nice enough to everyone and successful enough and excellent
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enough in our secular work, the world will look at us and say,
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hey, those Christians are really cool.
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We want what they have. It's a pragmatic delusion.
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The source material argues the exact opposite here.
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Visible blessing often exposes the darkness of the world.
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It acts like a mirror. A mirror.
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How so? Yes, when Isaac prospered in the
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middle of a drought, it showed the Philistines their own lack.
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It showed them their own famine and their own inability to save
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themselves. And people hate mirrors that
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show them their flaws. So it provoked intense
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hostility, not curiosity. It's so ironic, isn't it?
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Isaac was a good neighbor. He wasn't stealing their sheep,
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he wasn't attacking their towns. He was just was just farming and
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succeeding at it. He was hated because of the
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blessing, not in spite of it, and that is a really hard pill
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to swallow for modern Christians who desperately want to be liked
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by the culture. We think if I just do everything
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right, my secular coworkers will love me, this text says.
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Maybe. Or maybe your integrity and your
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blessing will make them feel judged and they will turn on
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you. So the envy starts as an
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internal feeling, but as you said, kunai is a burning rage.
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It doesn't stay in the heart for long.
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It moves to the hands. It always does.
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Envy never stays internal. It demands action.
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It demands destruction. That brings us to Section 3.
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Sabotage is economic warfare. Verse 15 tells us exactly what
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the Philistines did. Now the Philistines had stopped
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and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants
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had dug in the days of Abraham. This is an act of incredible
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malice, and to really grasp it you have to understand what a
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well represents in this specific geographical context.
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Explain the significance for us. Because today if someone shuts
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off my water at the house, it's super annoying, but I can just
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go buy a plastic bottle at the grocery store, right?
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But in an arid agrarian society like the Negev, water is life,
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period. It is not a luxury.
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Without a well, your flocks die within days.
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Your crops wither immediately. Your family is at severe risk of
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death. Digging a well back then was a
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massive, massive capital investment.
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It took months of grueling labor.
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You had to dig through solid limestone and rock by hand
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without any modern machinery. So feeling a working well is
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basically an act of violence. It is total scorched earth
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tactics, but think about the sheer irrationality of it.
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This is what really gets me. The Philistines didn't steal the
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wells. They didn't just take them over
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and use the water. No, a rational greedy actor
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would say, hey Isaac, get out of here.
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We have the swords. We are taking this.
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Well, thanks for the free water. But they didn't do that.
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They filled them with dirt. That makes absolutely no sense.
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They are destroying a life saving resource that they could
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have used themselves during a famine.
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That is the insanity of envy. They would rather destroy a
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resource for everyone then let the blessed man use it.
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They would rather both of us die of thirst than sit there and
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watch you drink. That is spite on a whole other
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level. If I can't have it, nobody can.
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It is the ultimate expression of the depraved heart.
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Destruction is preferable to your success.
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But there is a deeper layer here too, right?
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The text specifically mentions these were Abraham's wells.
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Yes, this is an attack on history.
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By stopping up the wells dug by Abraham, they are trying to
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erase the memory of the covenant itself.
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A well was a claim to the land. It was essentially a title deed
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in that culture. Like planting a flag.
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Exactly. If you wipe out the wells, you
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wipe out the physical proof that Abraham was ever there.
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You are trying to suffocate the future of the chosen line by
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entirely erasing their past. That feels incredibly relevant
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to today. It's an attempt to rewrite
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history to exclude God's people. It is, and if we bring this into
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the modern day, which we need to do, we need to connect this to
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you as you listen. What does stopping wells look
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like right now in our culture? Yeah, because most of us aren't
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out digging holes in the backyard.
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But I think about the modern workplace.
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You are doing a good job. You are highly ethical.
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You are hitting all your numbers and suddenly, for no clear
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reason at all, you get blocked. Someone mysteriously forgets to
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invite you to the crucial meeting.
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Someone starts spreading A rumor that subtly questions your
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competence. Slander is a direct form of
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filling a well with Earth. It muddies the water so no one
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can drink from your reputation anymore or think about
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canceling. It is an attempt to completely
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stop the flow of a person's contribution to society to
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unperson them. And bureaucratic blocking too,
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you know, oh, we lost your application.
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Oh, that permit is going to take another six months for no
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apparent reason. The source material gives us a
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very strong warning here. Do not be surprised when the
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wells of your career or your ministry are stopped up by envy.
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It isn't necessarily because you messed up or sinned, it might be
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precisely because you are being blessed and someone hates it.
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So the sabotage happens. Isaac's guys are probably
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stressed out of their minds. They are covered in dirt, they
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are thirsty. And then comes the official
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knock on the door. This is Section 4, The politics
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of expulsion. Enter Abimelech, the local king.
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Verse 16 Abimelech says to Isaac, Go away from us, for you
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are much mightier than we. Notice the rhetoric here.
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It is very polished. It is very diplomatic.
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It's not we hate your guts. Get out.
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No, It's framed as national security.
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It's public policy. He dresses up his raw envy as a
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safety concern. Isaac, look, it's not personal,
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but you are just too big. You are destabilizing the whole
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region. For the good of the community,
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for the public peace, you need to leave.
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The world is really, really good at framing its hostility as
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prudence. It is.
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We see this all the time. Religious liberty often gets
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curtailed not because the state outright says we hate God, but
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because they say we need to ensure safety, or we need to
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ensure equality, or we need to prevent hate speech.
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The result is always the same. The faithful are pushed to the
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Mumsons, but the language used is always bureaucratic, is
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always about maintaining community standards.
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Let's look at that phrase mightier than we.
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What was the actual source of Isaac's might?
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Because he didn't have a standing army.
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He didn't have Chariots or tanks.
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No, he was a wealthy nomad. His might was the evident,
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undeniable presence of God. That way, Barack, you, Yahweh,
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the Lord blessing him, have become tangible and that is
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utterly terrifying to the world. Why though?
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Why is blessing scary? You would think they would want
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to be near it to get some of the runoff.
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Because the world fundamentally fears what it cannot control and
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what it cannot explain. Abimelech looks at Isaac and
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says, I can't calculate your success on a spreadsheet.
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I can't control your God, therefore you are a wild
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variable I need to remove from my Kingdom.
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They want to level. Down.
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That's it. If we get rid of the anomaly,
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the believer, we can go back to our normal, highly manageable
21:00
lives where we feel like we are in control.
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Restoring their full sense of control is a top priority.
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They want a predictable world, even if it is a famine struck
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starving world. So Isaac is standing there.
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He has been sabotaged. His expensive wells are filled
21:15
with dirt. Now he is being officially
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evicted by the government. This is the moment of truth.
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What does he do? This is the pivot point of the
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whole text. This is where the rubber meets
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the road for the Christian life. Section 5.
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The Pilgrims response #17 says so.
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Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Girar.
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We have to talk about what he didn't do here.
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He didn't fight. He didn't fight, he didn't sue,
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he didn't rally his servants. And remember, the text says he
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had a great household. He probably had enough able
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bodied men to put up a serious fight.
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He didn't start an insurgency. And he didn't grasp.
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He didn't cling to the dirt and say this is my absolute right.
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I have property rights. Right.
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And this is where we have to be very careful in our analysis.
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Is this weakness? Is Isaac just being a doormat?
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Because that is exactly what it looks like to the modern eye.
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We want to say stand up for your rights, Isaac.
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Don't let these corrupt politicians push you around.
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The perspective of the sources, the deep theological
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perspective, defines this as Pilgrim faith.
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This is meekness, not weakness. Weakness is immense power under
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strict control. Why does he leave though?
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Why surrender the ground he rightfully cultivated?
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Because he held the physical land with an open hand, he
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trusted the promise or God more than the immediate possession.
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He knew that his ultimate well-being was not tied to that
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specific plot of dirt in Girar. It was tied to the God who
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created the dirt. So the logic is, if God has
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promised to bless me, I don't need to sin to secure that
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blessing. That is the pure logic of faith.
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If God says I will be with you, then I don't need to burn down
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Abimelech's palace to stay in Abimelech's backyard.
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I can move to the valley and God will still be with me there.
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This connects directly to the third use of the law in reformed
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theology, doesn't it? It does for those listening who
22:59
might not know the term. The third use of the law is the
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idea that God's moral law guides the believers gratitude and
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daily obedience. It teaches us restraint.
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It teaches us that we do not return evil for evil.
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Isaac is modeling a supernatural constraint that says I will not
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adopt the wicked tactics of the Philistines in order to defeat
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the Philistines. That is heavy.
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I will not become like my enemy to defeat my enemy.
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And practically, it meant physically packing up and moving
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to the Valley of Gerar. Note the geography there.
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A valley. This is a step down.
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It is far less prime real estate.
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It is displacement. But the source material
23:36
emphasizes that sometimes God leads his people through
23:39
displacement. Yes, we almost always think God
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leads by opening favorable doors.
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Oh look, a huge promotion. God is definitely leading me.
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But sometimes God leads by slamming a door shut and pushing
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you out into a cold hallway. Or a dusty valley.
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Or a valley. The source makes a really
23:56
beautiful point here. Peace is very often purchased by
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walking away from a fight you easily could have won in order
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to trust God to make room for you elsewhere.
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Isaac probably could have won the physical fight, but he chose
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to trust God to provide in the next location.
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That requires a level of trust that is.
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Well, it's supernatural. It's incredibly easy to say in a
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comfortable studio. It is brutally hard to do when
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it is your actual job or your hard earned reputation on the
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line. It is entirely impossible
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without the inward working in the Holy Spirit.
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It goes against every single fiber of our flesh that wants to
24:30
scream. This is mine.
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I earned this. But Isaac knew he was a Pilgrim.
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He knew Gerar wasn't his final home.
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Now we have been tracking Isaac pretty closely, but in reformed
24:39
thinking, we always want to pull back and see how the Old
24:42
Testament whispers the name of the new.
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We want to see the bigger redemptive picture.
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We always look for the trajectory.
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Section 6. The Christological trajectory.
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How is Isaac a type of Christ here?
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A type in biblical theology is a foreshadowing, a real historical
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person or event that establishes a pattern that Jesus Christ
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ultimately fulfills. And the parallels here in
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Genesis 26 are stunning. Walk us through them.
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First, Isaac is the beloved son and the sole heir of the
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promise. Jesus is the true beloved Son.
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Second, Isaac was envied. And why?
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Not for doing evil, not for sinning, but for the sheer favor
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of God resting upon Him. That sounds exactly like John
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15.25. They hated me without a cause.
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Jesus was envied by the Pharisees.
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Pilate even recognized it. The Gospels explicitly say he
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knew that for envy they had delivered him.
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The religious leader saw the massive crowds.
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They saw the undeniable miracles.
25:36
They saw the blessing of God. And they felt that exact same
25:38
quanta, that same burning, destructive rage.
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And then you have the expulsion, Isaac is told by the leaders.
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Go away from us. And Jesus was cast out.
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This is the ultimate exclusion. Hebrews 13 tells us that Jesus
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suffered outside the gate. He was taken outside the walls
25:54
of Jerusalem, expelled from the city of God's own people to be
25:57
crucified. Their religious leaders were
25:59
essentially acting as spiritual philistines.
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They absolutely were. They tried to stock up the
26:03
living water. They thought if they could just
26:05
kill this Jesus, bury him in the earth.
26:08
Just like filling a well with heavy dirt, they could suffocate
26:11
the movement entirely. They could erase the covenant.
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But you cannot stop the well of God.
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No, the resurrection is the ultimate reopening of the well.
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The stone was rolled away and the life came rushing back out,
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deeper and wider than it ever was before.
26:26
They pushed Jesus to the ultimate valley, the valley of
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the shadow of death, and God met him there and totally vindicated
26:32
him. Man, that completely changes how
26:34
you read Genesis 26. It is not just an ancient story
26:37
about a farmer dealing with bad neighbors.
26:40
It is a brilliant preview of the Gospel itself.
26:43
It is the exact shape of redemption.
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Blessing followed by envy, followed by rejection,
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culminating in vindication is the pattern of the Cross.
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And this brings us right to the believers union with Christ,
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because if we are in Christ, this is our story too.
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That is the hard truth we have to face.
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We share in His pattern. If we are united to Him by
27:03
faith, we are blessed by the Father of seasons.
27:06
One says we have every spiritual blessing, but because we are
27:09
blessed, we are going to be resented by the world.
27:12
But the good news is we are completely secure in the
27:15
inheritance. So what does this all mean for
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us today? Let's land the plane with some
27:19
real application for you. Listening right now, Section 7.
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We have to start internally, we have to check our own hearts
27:26
first before we look at the world.
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The source material is pretty direct here.
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It asks A pointed question. Do you have envy inside the
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church? It is the great unspoken sin in
27:35
our congregations. Do you stop the wells of other
27:40
Christians when you see a ministry down the street growing
27:43
rapidly while yours is shrinking?
27:44
Do you genuinely rejoice? Or do you immediately start
27:48
critiquing their theology to justify your own jealousy?
27:51
Ouch. I am just being discerning.
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We say that a lot. Right, I am just concerned about
27:56
their theological depth when really in your heart you are
28:00
grieving their good. The sources call us to serious
28:04
repentance here. Envy is hatred of grace.
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If we hate the fact that God is gracious to someone else, we
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don't understand grace at all. That is a heavy check, but a
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necessary one. Now what about the external
28:17
response? How do we handle it when we are
28:19
the ones being pushed out by the world?
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When you lose the job over your convictions.
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When the friend group totally ghosts you.
28:26
When the culture looks at you and says your views are no
28:29
longer welcome in polite society.
28:30
The advice from the text is clear.
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Do not mirror the world's tactics.
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Do not grasp. Do not become bitter.
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Do not start a vicious smear campaign against the boss who
28:40
fired you. Trust that if you were pushed
28:42
out into the valley, God is still there waiting for you.
28:44
Rejection by the world often confirms you are actually on the
28:47
right path. That is a massive paradigm
28:49
shift. We usually think rejection means
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we took a wrong turn somewhere. Pilgrim Faith says no, I am
28:54
walking the exact path of Jesus. He was rejected.
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I am in very good company. And finally, there is a
29:00
beautiful connection to the table to communion.
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The sources call it the visible word.
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We are pilgrims. We are living in the wilderness
29:08
right now. We've been pushed out of the
29:10
city of Man. But out here in the wilderness,
29:12
the king sets a table for us. He feeds us.
29:15
He feeds us the immense assurance of communion.
29:18
Is that no human hand, no modern Philistine, no Abimelech, no
29:24
government, no enemy can ever stop the flow of God's grace to
29:27
His elect. They can stop the physical wells
29:30
of dirt and water, but they cannot stop the well of living
29:34
water. That is incredibly encouraging
29:36
to remember. It is the only thing that keeps
29:38
you going when the pressure is on.
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So as we wrap up, we have moved from famine to blessing, from
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blessing to envy, from envy to expulsion, and finally to trust.
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It is a complete movement from fear to faith.
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I want to leave you with this final provocative thought from
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our sources. It is something I know I'm going
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to be thinking about all week. What is it?
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You can be right and still choose to walk away.
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Just because you have the might to fight doesn't mean you have
30:02
the mandate to fight. Your security is not in the land
30:05
of Gerar. It is not in your current job,
30:08
your house, your social reputation.
30:11
Your security is in the Lord of the Covenant.
30:13
Amen to that. And sometimes walking away is
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the strongest, most faithful thing you can possibly do,
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because it boldly declares to the world that you have a
30:21
treasure they cannot touch. That is it for this deep dive.
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Thanks for listening to Reform Thinking.
30:27
We will catch you next time. Keep digging those wells.