Latest / Reformed Thinking / Providence, Conscience, and Mercy (Genesis 42:18-25)

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Providence, Conscience, and Mercy (Genesis 42:18-25) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. I want you to imagine a divine
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watchman placed right inside your chest, just silently
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recording your every misdeed and like just waiting for the
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perfect moment to testify against you.
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That is a terrifying thought, honestly.
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Right. But the 17th century writer
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Richard Sibs, he actually called it the soul spy, you know, the
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human conscience. And today we are taking a deep
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dive into a specific set of sources examining Genesis 42,
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verses 18 through 25. And this concept of the
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conscience is well, it's at the absolute center of it all.
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Yeah, it really drives the entire narrative we're looking
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at. Because in our modern society,
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we try to treat a guilty conscience like, like a medical
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anomaly. We medicate it or we distract
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ourselves from it with constant noise, or we try to, you know,
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therapeutically rationalize it away.
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Yeah. Just slap a label on it.
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Spot on. We tell each other to just
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forgive ourselves and move on, as if we somehow have the
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authority to pardon our own crimes.
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Right? But the sources we are looking
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at today present a very different reality.
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They argue that a guilty conscience is an objective
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theological reality before a holy God.
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You cannot simply bury it. It does not work that way.
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No, you really can't, and we are going to look at a historical
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moment where that reality just crashes down on 10 men in the
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most terrifying way possible. It is a staggering contrast to
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how the world operates today. Yeah.
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I mean, we are conditioned to think that time heals all
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wounds, right? Including the guilt of
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unconfessed sin. Sure.
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Like, oh, it happened a long time ago, so it's fine, yeah.
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Decades might pass, your circumstances might shift
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entirely. You might move to a new city,
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build a whole new life, and you might think you have buried the
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memory of a severe transgression, like under the
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floorboards of your mind. Out of sight, out of mind.
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Right, but the sovereign God of Providence orchestrates events
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to bring those buried sins into the blazing light of His
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Holiness. That is the theological bedrock
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of the passage we are analyzing today.
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And we are looking at a moment that has been, what, 20 years in
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the making? Yes, 2 decades, 10 men are
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standing before the Egyptian Prime Minister.
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They are terrified, they are desperate, and they are
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completely unaware that this harsh governor standing in front
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of them is the brother they betrayed.
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The one they threw into a pit. The very one threw them in a pit
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and sold them into slavery 20 years prior.
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Wow. So our goal for you listening
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today is to analyze how God uses severe circumstances to awaken a
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dead end conscience. We want to look at the mechanics
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of how Providence breaks a person's pride to prepare them
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to receive a grace they did not earn.
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Which is a massive paradigm. Shift It really is.
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But to really grasp the weight of this encounter, we need to
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understand the stakes, because if we just jump straight into
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the dialogue between Joseph and his brothers, we miss the like
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the cosmic scale of what is actually happening here.
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We miss the entire background, yeah.
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We are not just talking about a family reunion gone wrong.
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So can you set the historical stage for us?
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Why are these ten men forced into Egypt in the 1st place and
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what is hanging in the balance? We have to firmly anchor this
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scene in its historical and redemptive setting.
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So we are in the patriarchal period, long before Israel
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became a nation at Sinai. And right from the start, the
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sources are clear. We must categorically reject
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liberal higher critical theories like the JEDP documentary
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hypothesis. OK, wait, let's pause there.
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J EE DP for anyone listening who isn't familiar with that
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acronym. What is that hypothesis
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claiming? Sure.
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So for those unfamiliar, that hypothesis essentially claims
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these narratives are just post exilic myths.
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It argues that centuries later different authors and they label
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them Yaoist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and Priestly.
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Which is where you get JEDP patched together various tribal
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legends. So they are saying it's
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basically just political fiction.
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Right. To justify their political
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relationships at the time. And the scholars who push that
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theory, Well, they do so because they reject the possibility of
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predictive prophecy, or they reject accurate early
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centralized writing. Which is wild because it totally
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undermines the text. It does, but the historical data
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we have aligns perfectly with the biblical text.
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This is factual history. The events occurred precisely as
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recorded during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.
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OK, so there is actual archaeological backing for.
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This Oh absolutely. The archaeological evidence
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regarding the Egyptian administrative state, the
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specific role of viziers, and the centralized grain storage,
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all of it validates the biblical account.
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That is fascinating. It is so.
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The immediate crisis driving the narrative here is a severe multi
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year famine that has devastated the ancient Near East.
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It stretches all the way from the Fertile Crescent down
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through Canaan and into the Nile River Valley.
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And in the ancient world, a famine of that magnitude is
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basically a death sentence, right?
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It was an absolute existential crisis.
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Who had mass starvation, the complete collapse of entire
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households, and you know, the extinction of bloodlines.
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Egypt however, had a centralized Nile fed agricultural system and
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under Joseph's administration they had stored immense
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quantities of grain during the previous years of plenty.
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So Jacob is forced to send his sons down to Egypt to buy food
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simply to survive. I am trying to wrap my head
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around the geography in the timeline here, because if a
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famine hits Canaan, surely they could just migrate north, right?
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Or find some local solution. But no, they're forced to go
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directly into the heart of the most powerful Pagan empire on.
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Earth. They had no other option.
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And this is where the theological stakes become
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massive for me, because this is not just about a family running
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out of groceries. We are talking about the
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Abrahamic covenant here. Yes, that is the core of it.
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Because God made unilateral, untraditional promises to
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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Genesis 1215 and 17.
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He promised them a land, a seed, and a blessing to the nations
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right, and most critically, the promise seed.
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The Messiah who would crush the serpent's head, going all the
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way back to Genesis 3.15, was prophesied to come through this
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specific family line. Specifically through the tribe
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of Judah. Right.
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So if these 70 people starve to death in the Canaanite famine,
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the covenant age dies out, The promise of a savior fails.
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That is the crux of the tension right there.
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God is utilizing the grain storehouses of a Pagan nation to
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execute a massive act of redemptive preservation.
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It is mind blowing when you zoom out like that.
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It really is because if they do not get that grain, there is no
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tribe of Judah, there is no King David, and there is no Jesus of
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Nazareth. I am thinking of an analogy to
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visualize this for the listener. It is like imagine placing the
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only known cure for a global disease in a really fragile
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glass vial, and then just tossing that vial directly into
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a hurricane. That is a great way to picture.
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It because God is taking the fragile lineage of the Messiah
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and throwing it into the geopolitical chaos of a global
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famine. But here is the part that I find
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so challenging. Why would God use a Pagan
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stronghold like Egypt? That is the big question.
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Right. This is a place famous for false
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gods, occultic practices, and massive military might.
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Why use that specific environment to protect the
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chosen family? It seems counterintuitive to
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send the holy seed into the center of idolatry.
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That tension you are noticing is deliberate, and it highlights a
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critical aspect of how God operates.
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When the Hebrew brothers stand before the Egyptian vizier, the
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original audience would feel the terror of God's chosen people
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standing trial before the absolute might of the world
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system. Like they are totally out of
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their element. Completely, but this reveals how
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divine Providence utilizes natural disasters and
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geopolitical shifts to execute divine decrees.
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God is absolutely sovereign over history.
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Even the messy parts of history. Especially those parts he
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utilizes the sinful actions of men, the catastrophic failures
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of nature, and the rise of Pagan empires to secure shorters his
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decreed ends. All without ever becoming the
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author of sin himself. He is proving that his
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sovereignty extends over Pharaohs, prisons, roads,
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markets, famines. Right.
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He is never confined to the visible borders of the Promised
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Land. Egypt's massive administrative
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state, its granaries and its wealth were all built up by
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God's Providence specifically to act as a temporary incubator for
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the nation of Israel. So the Pagan empire is
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unwittingly financing the survival of the Messiah's
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bloodline. Spot on.
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They're completely trapped by design.
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So the geopolitical landscape has forced them into the one
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place they cannot escape. But the famine only gets them in
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the door, so to speak. It forces them into the throne
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room. Yes, it is just the setup.
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The other half of the equation is how the Egyptian governor,
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their brother Joseph in disguise, actually springs the
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trap once they're standing in front of him.
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And this brings us to the literary structure of the text,
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which the sources highlight as brilliant.
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It is structurally fascinating. The design of Genesis is built
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upon the concept of toledoth, which translates to generations
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or the account of So. The final major section of
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Genesis focuses on the toledoth of Jacob, which heavily features
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Joseph, and the author deliberately designs the
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narrative in chapter 42 to mirror chapter 37.
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Oh wow, so there is a direct parallel.
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You have to look at the psychological mechanics of what
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is happening 20 years earlier in Chapter 37.
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The brothers were fueled by murderous envy over Joseph's
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prophetic dreams. Right, the dreams where they bow
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down to him. Exactly.
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Or rather, spot on. So they stripped him of his
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tunic. They threw him in a pit.
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They ignored his agonizing pleas for mercy.
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It's. Just chilling.
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It is horrific. They callously sat down to eat a
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meal while he suffered, and then they sold him to foreign traders
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for pieces of silver. Now fast over to chapter 42.
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They are physically bowing down to him, their faces to the
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earth. They are fulfilling the very
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dreams they've violently tried to stop.
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Yes, the irony is just staggering.
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Man's rebellion is the specific instrument God uses to establish
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His will. They tried to destroy the dream,
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and their attempt to destroy it was the very vehicle that
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brought it to pass. It is divine judo in a way.
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That's a great phrase for it. But when Joseph recognizes them,
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he does not just, you know, drop the disguise, reveal himself and
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throw a feast. No, not at all.
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He acts harshly. He accuses them of espionage,
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claiming they are spies looking for the vulnerabilities of the
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land. And then he throws them all into
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an Egyptian prison for three days.
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To a casual reader, this looks like petty vengeance.
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It does look like that, doesn't? It he has the upper hand, he has
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the power of life and death and he is making them sweat.
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It looks like vengeance on the surface, but the sources
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clarified is the exact opposite. Joseph is not acting out of a
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petty desire for payback. So what is he doing?
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He is meticulously reconstructing the precise
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environment of their original sin.
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He is plunging them into the same helpless, terrifying
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vulnerability that they forced upon him 20 years ago.
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Wow. He literally places them in a
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pit the Egyptian prison, just as they placed him in a pit in
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Dothan. It's a carefully calibrated
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test. He needs to know who they are
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now. Right.
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He needs to know what kind of men they are.
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Have they changed? Will they still sell out a
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brother to save their own skin? It feels like a perfectly
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designed escape room where the only way out is absolute
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honesty. They are trapped in a physical
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and psychological pressure cooker.
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And they have 0 leverage. None.
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They have no money that means anything to this governor, they
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have no diplomatic leverage, and they are entirely at his mercy.
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And after three days in that literal pit, Joseph issues a
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chilling command that pivots the entire narrative.
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Let's look at what actually happens in verse 18.
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Yeah, lead us through that. The first major movement of the
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text begins with Joseph giving them terms.
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He comes to them on the third day and says, do this and live,
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for I fear God. He demands that one brother
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remain brown in the prison while the rest take grain back to
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their starving households in Canaan.
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But they must return with their youngest brother, Benjamin, to
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verify their story and prove they are not spies.
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That phrase, I fear God, is so striking in this setting.
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Like just think about a massive Egyptian ruler making a
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theological statement like that to a bunch of nomadic shepherds.
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It is the theological hinge of the entire scene, and the Hebrew
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syntax here is crucial to grasp. Oh I love the syntax stuff.
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Unpack that for us. The phrase in Hebrew is ET
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hilohim ani yader. In normal Hebrew narrative
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prose, the verb typically comes first, OK, but here the direct
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object, the true God, is placed emphatically at the front of the
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sentence. So he is putting a massive
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spotlight on who it is he fears. Yes, Joseph is not just saying I
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am a religious guy, he is declaring it is the God whom I
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fear. He uses the absolute term
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Elohim. Wow.
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In an ancient context where Egyptian Pharaohs claim deity
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for themselves and attributed their might to Pagan gods like
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Raw or Osiris, this statement would strike the Hebrew brothers
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like lightning. Wait, I have to stop you there.
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Let's think about this from the brothers perspective for a
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second. Sure, if a foreign absolute
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dictator suddenly tells me don't worry, I fear God, that does not
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immediately make me trust him. That makes sense, right?
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Historically, dictators claiming divine mandate is terrifying.
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It usually sounds like a justification for holy war or
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unchecked tyranny. Why on earth would this
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statement comfort the brothers or make him more trustworthy in
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their eyes? That is a fairpoint, but here is
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the difference. Authority unhinged from divine
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accountability always becomes tyranny.
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You were right that people have abused divine claims, but in
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this specific context, the fear of God means reverence,
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submission to a holy standard. OK, so it is a restraint on his
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power. Precisely.
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Joseph's power in Egypt is massive, but his authority is
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restrained by reverence. His justice is tethered to a
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holy standard, not to the whims of a pharaoh or his own personal
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vindictiveness. So he's basically saying I am
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not going to act like a typical tyrant.
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Right. The fear of God teaches a man
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that he is never ultimate, even when others are entirely under
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his command. He is telling them I answer to a
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higher court. And that completely shifts the
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dynamic for the brothers. It does.
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When Joseph says he fears God, the brothers realize they're no
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longer dealing with earthly diplomacy.
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They cannot use bribery. They cannot manipulate him with
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smooth talking. They are suddenly dealing with
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the court of Heaven. Yes, the absolute unbending
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standard of divine justice has just entered the room.
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That realization that they are dealing with divine justice acts
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as a massive psychological break for them.
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It shatters their defenses. And this leads directly into the
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next verses, where the narrative shifts from this external
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political dialogue into a highly private internal conversation
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among the brothers. It is a phenomenal shift in the
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text. And you listening to this right
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now, you might have something you buried a decade ago.
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You think because your circumstances change, the debt
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is cancelled. But look at how Providence works
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here. Yes, in verses 21 and 22, the
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fortress of their heart and hearts finally shatters.
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They say to one another, Truly we are guilty concerning our
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brother. Notice how they bypass the
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immediate false accusation of espionage completely.
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They do not even address it among themselves.
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They do not say this is so unfair, we are not spies.
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Instead, they zero in on their true historical guilt.
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They directly link their current suffering in an Egyptian prison
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to their cruelty toward Joseph. 20 years ago, the Outward
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Distress performed an inward surgery.
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That is a great way to frame it, and the lexical analysis the
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sources provide for this confession is fascinating
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because it is not just a casual apology.
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No it is not a modern I'm sorry you felt hurt by my actions kind
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of non apology. Not at all.
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The confession begins with the Hebrew particle, a ball, which
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is a word of sudden, forceful realization.
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Like a light bulb going off. More like a sudden blow.
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It is like saying alas or truly. It marks the total collapse of
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their self deception. The illusion is gone.
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Wow. Then they use the root word
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asium for guilt. Now this is critical.
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In the levitical system, Asium is a technical term for
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incurring a debt of guilt that requires a specific trespass
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offering. So this is legal terminology.
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Yes, they are not just feeling sad or regretful.
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They are acknowledging objective legal culpability before God.
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They are stating we owe a massive moral debt.
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They realize they owe a debt and they get incredibly specific
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about what they did. They do not hide behind vague
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generalities. They recall the Zara, the Deep
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anguish and distress of Joseph's soul.
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Yes, they remember his pleading using the word hitchineno, which
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denotes intense repeated begging for grace.
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So they literally heard him begging over and over.
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For 20 years, they've tried to silence the echo of that begging
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in their minds. They ignored his distress then,
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and now distress has found them. It is the law of retaliation,
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right? The Lex Taliones.
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Precisely, the punishment fits the crime.
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Ruben then adds to the terror by saying now comes the reckoning
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for his blood. He uses the word durash, which
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means to demand an accounting or an investigation.
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Durash. In biblical law, God is the one
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who requires blood. Reuben is realizing the supreme
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judge has opened the books, read the charges and is now demanding
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payment. Think about a time you tried to
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bury a mistake. I mean, you compile years of
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normal life. On top of it.
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You can build a career, have a family and create a whole new
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identity. You can convince yourself it
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never happened. Right, but the conscience is an
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internal witness that refuses to stay buried.
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When the pressure hits, that buried thing comes rushing to
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the surface. It is such a sharp contrast to
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modern therapeutic excuse making.
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Absolutely true Conviction names the specific sin honestly.
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It does not blame society or emotional conditioning or family
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dynamics. No, it says I'm legally
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culpable. I heard the begging, I ignored
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the distress, and now the reckoning is here.
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That honesty, that painful extraction of the truth, is spot
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on. What Providence was
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orchestrating God used the fannin, the journey across the
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desert, the false accusation of being spies, and the dark,
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terrifying prison to create a. Mirror.
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A mirror they could not look away from.
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Right. The text is showing us the
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anatomy of an awakened conscience.
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God has cornered them so completely that they have
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nowhere left to look but inward. Now here is where the tension
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hits a breaking point. The brothers think they're
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having a private moment of despair.
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They think they're totally alone in this, yeah.
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They are speaking to each other in Hebrew, pouring out their
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guilt, assuming this Egyptian ruler has no idea what they're
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saying. They think they are safe in
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their native tongue. But he understands every single
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word. Verse 23 provides A crucial
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explanation that resolves the dramatic irony for the reader.
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An interpreter, A Melitz, stood between them.
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Wait, so they had a translator this whole?
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Time Yes. An official court translator,
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Joseph had intentionally used an intermediary to keep up the
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charade. The brothers assumed their
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secrets were safe, but the hidden past is not hidden at
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all. Because Joseph is standing right
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there. Yes, and Joseph's knowledge
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mirrors the greater truth that God hears.
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All confessions, all excuses, and all concealed conversations,
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every whispered admission of guilt reaches the throne.
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And Jessica's reaction to hearing this confession is
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deeply emotional. The text says he turned away and
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wept. It is such a sudden shift from
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the harsh commanding governor to a broken hearted brother.
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The Hebrew grammar here paints A vivid picture.
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The author uses a wah consecutive verb weyuk.
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Weyuk what does it mean for the structure?
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For the listener who does not read Hebrew, think of this
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grammatical form. Acting almost like a cinematic
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cut in a movie, it sequences the action in a tight, unbroken
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chain. So it's immediate.
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Yes, the confession happens. And immediately, logically,
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flowing from that confession is the weeping.
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And this is not a silent, stoic tear rolling down his cheek.
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No, the word way epic denotes audible sobbing.
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The man holding the authority of life and death over the known
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world has to turn his face to the wall to hide the violent
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breaking of his own heart. That is heavy, but here's my
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question though. If he loves them enough to
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audibly sob over their confession, why doesn't he just
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drop the ACT right then and there?
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It is a valid question. I mean, why not reveal his
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identity, tell them they are forgiven, and throw a feast?
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It seems almost cruel to hear them confess, weep in secret,
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and then turn back around and keep up the terrifying facade.
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Because reconciliation without truth is shallow.
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This is the paradox of severe discipline paired with weeping
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compassion. OK, unpack that paradox for.
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Us. Joseph is wounding them in order
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to heal them. Let's look at the psychology of
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the brothers. Yes, they confess their guilt
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regarding Joseph, but there's another brother, Benjamin.
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Benjamin, the other son of Rachel, the new favorite.
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Oh right, the dynamic is still there.
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Exactly. If Joseph reveals himself before
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they fully face their guilt and prove how they will treat
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Benjamin, the family rot remains.
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So the core issue wouldn't actually be resolved.
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Right. He has to test whether they will
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sacrifice Benjamin the way they sacrificed him to save their own
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skins. His severity is an instrument of
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mercy, meticulously calibrated to produce genuine, lasting
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repentance. So love is not always softness.
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No, the wound of conviction is painful, but it is cleaner than
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the infection of hidden sin. That is a phenomenal point.
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The wound is cleaner than the infection.
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So after weeping in secret, Joseph washes his face,
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suppresses his emotions, returns, and binds Simeon right
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before their eyes. He just locks him up right in
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front of. Them Simeon is taken as a
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hostage, further ratcheting up the pressure.
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He is the collateral to ensure they bring Benjamin back.
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But then Joseph issues an order to his servants that is utterly
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baffling. It really is a massive pivot.
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It is a complete pivot from the we just witnessed.
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What does verse 25 tell us? Verse 25 outlines A stunning
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display of sovereign provision. Joseph commands his servants to
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do 3 distinct things. OK, let's hear them.
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First, fill their receptacles with grain.
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Second, secretly return every man's money into his sack.
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The word used is ulahashiv to cause to return or restore
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ulahashiv. OK.
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And third, give them provisions for the road back to Canaan.
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It almost feels like trying to buy a house with Monopoly money.
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Right. Monopoly money.
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Yeah, like you walk in, hand over your fake cash expecting to
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be laughed out of the room, but the owner not only gives you the
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house for free, he also fully stocks your fridge for the next
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year. That analogy is spot on.
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The brothers were trying to buy their physical salvation with
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silver. And let's not miss the irony
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here. The silver.
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It is the same currency they used to sell Joseph into slavery
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20 years prior. They're trying to purchase life
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with the currency of betrayal. Oh man, the currency of
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betrayal. And Joseph completely rejects
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their attempt to pay. He will not accept their silver.
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The symbolism there is immense. It is Joseph refuses their
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payment because the Bread of Life cannot be purchased.
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It must be received as a gift. Notice the verbs in this verse.
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Fill return give. Yes, they denote unilateral,
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unprompted action by the ruler. The brothers are entirely
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passive recipients in this transaction.
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They contributed nothing. Absolutely nothing to their
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physical rescue except the sin that made them desperate and the
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empty sacks that needed filling. It is a pure display of
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unmerited grace, and what is so fascinating is that this grace
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precedes their full understanding of what is even
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happening. Right, they do not understand it
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at all. Yet they leave Egypt terrified.
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When they open their sacks on the road and find their money,
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they do not rejoice, they panic. They think God is punishing them
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further. Yes, setting them up for a theft
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charge they do not yet realize it is an act of overwhelming
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kindness. Precisely this mechanical
23:45
breakdown of Genesis 42 reveals A blueprint for how God
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interacts with humanity on a grander scale.
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It really does. It moves through a specific
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sequence from the absolute demand of the law to the
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crushing conviction of the conscience, to the free,
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unmerited provision of the gospel.
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That brings us to the final analytical section our sources
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provide. The writers step back to look at
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this entire narrative through a Christological lens.
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Which is vital to understanding the book of Genesis.
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But we need to be careful here, right?
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We are strictly avoiding arbitrary allegory.
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Yes, very strictly. We're not saying like every sack
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of grain represents a specific Bible verse or every piece of
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silver represents a specific sin.
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That gets ridiculous. It does, and it distracts from
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the actual text. But we are leaning into clear
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biblical typology, looking at how the structural patterns of
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the Old Testament point forward. Right.
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Joseph stands as one of the most extensive types of Jesus in the
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entire Old Testament. The parallels are not
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accidental. They're designed by the
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sovereign architect of history. Walk us through those parallels.
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Look at the pattern established in the text.
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Joseph is the beloved son of the Father.
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He is rejected by his own brethren.
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He is stripped of his garments. He is sold for pieces of silver.
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He descends into the pit of suffering.
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He is falsely accused. The similarities are undeniable.
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And then he is exalted to the right hand of supreme authority,
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becoming the sole dispenser of the bread of life to a starving
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world. The brothers have to go to the
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very one they pierced in order to find salvation.
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And the theological dynamic between the brothers and Joseph
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maps perfectly onto the dynamic between the law and the Gospel.
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It is a perfect map when Joseph acts harshly, accuses them of
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being spies, and demands Benjamin he is functioning like
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the law. Because the law brings the
25:34
knowledge of sin. Yes, it is a harsh taskmaster
25:38
that shuts every mouth, strips away every excuse and brings the
25:41
Sinner to the end of himself. The law does not save, it
25:44
exposes the guilt. But then comes the gospel.
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Right when Joseph, weeks in secret, fills their sacks with
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grain and returns their silver, he is functioning as the gospel.
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It is the free, unearned imputation of righteousness and
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life. Because the brothers could not
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merit their salvation. No, it was provided freely by
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the mediator. I want to make this very
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practical for you listening right now.
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If God uses severe circumstances to wake us up, how do we
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interpret our own hardships? That is the big practical take
26:12
away. How do we avoid falling into the
26:14
trap of thinking every flat tire, every financial loss or
26:19
every illness is a direct punishment for a specific sin we
26:23
committed? It is easy to look at the
26:25
brothers and say, well, they deserved it, but how does this
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apply to the everyday believer facing a famine of their own?
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That is a crucial distinction to make.
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The sources referenced the Puritan writer John Flavelle,
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who spoke beautifully about tracing the rainbow through the
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rain. Tracing the rainbow through the
26:42
rain. I like that.
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We must not fall into the air of Job's friends assuming every
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affliction corresponds to a specific personal sin.
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That is bad theology. Right, it turns God into some
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kind of karma machine. Exactly.
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Or rather, yes it does. For the believer, hardships are
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not punitive blows from an angry deity demanding payment.
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The payment has already been made.
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So what are they? Rather, hardships are fatherly
27:05
chastening. God uses the immense pressures
27:08
of life to purge remaining corruption, to test and
27:12
strengthen faith, and to draw the person closer to the table
27:15
of grace. So the goal is restoration, not
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destruction. Always, even when Providence
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seems to speak roughly. Even when the circumstances feel
27:24
like a harsh Egyptian governor, the heart of God is weeping with
27:27
compassion toward his elect. The goal of conviction is never
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endless despair. It is always restored
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fellowship. So we have covered massive
27:35
ground. Today.
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We looked at the inescapable reality of the conscience, that
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internal spy that refuses to be silenced by time or distance.
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We really dug into how Providence uses our environment
27:45
to corner. Us.
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Yeah, we examine the righteous standard of a holy God who will
27:49
not allow hidden sin to remain hidden, but orchestrates the
27:52
entire geopolitical landscape to bring us to the end of
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ourselves. And we saw the shocking,
27:57
unearned provision of a weeping mediator.
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A mediator who fills our empty sacks with the bread of life
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when we have absolutely nothing left to offer.
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We saw how true conviction requires naming the sin
28:09
honestly, recognizing that grace cannot be bought with our filthy
28:13
currency. The Monopoly money, as you call
28:15
it. Right, the Monopoly money.
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Before we wrap up this deep dive on reformed thinking, I want to
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leave you with a specific lingering concept to investigate
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on your own. Something for them to Mull over.
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Yes. Consider the present distress or
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the famine in your own life right now.
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Look at the pressure points. What if the circumstances making
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you feel completely trapped, terrified and helpless are not
28:38
signs of God's absence? That is a staggering thought.
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What if they are not signs of his hatred?
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What if they are the highly specific severe mercy of a
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hidden brother raking your pride so you have no choice but to
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accept his free grain? I love that.
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Think about that. Thank you for joining us and
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keep seeking truth in the sources.