Latest / Reformed Thinking / From Promise to People: God’s Work from Abraham to Moses | Jonathan Edwards

Transcript

From Promise to People: God’s Work from Abraham to Moses | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the deep dive where we breakdown
0:03
complex historical and theological sources into
0:06
essential, actionable knowledge. Today we're undertaking A
0:09
fascinating study of theological history, and we're drawing upon
0:13
the really rigorous framework laid out by Jonathan Edwards in
0:16
his examination of the work of redemption.
0:18
Right. We are looking at a specific
0:20
crucial era that, you know, it's often overshadowed by the larger
0:23
movements of the Bible. That's right.
0:26
Our source material focuses on that pivotal 2000 years that
0:29
bridges the great figures of the Old Testament.
0:32
We're talking about the era from the calling of Abraham up to the
0:34
time of Moses. It might seem like a quiet,
0:37
almost domestic period, you know, focus on just 4
0:40
generations, but Edwards reveals that this was perhaps the most
0:43
crucial preparatory phase for the entire national and
0:47
theological structure of Israel. Precisely the mission of this
0:50
deep dive is to understand how God proactively advanced his
0:53
saving work during this long kind of quiet period.
0:57
We'll see how He upheld the true religion against really
1:00
overwhelming odds. And how he physically separated
1:03
and prepared the nation that would bear the Messiah.
1:05
Yes, and fundamentally laid the essential groundwork for Christ
1:09
arrival. Edwards outlines 9 distinct ways
1:11
the work of redemption move forward in these years for you,
1:15
the listener. The take away here is clarity.
1:17
It's an understanding of how God not only established the
1:20
structure of the church as a separate entity, but also
1:22
confirmed His saving promise, the covenant of grace, in
1:26
increasingly specific and graphic ways.
1:30
We begin our exploration with the drastic measures God took
1:33
just to keep the true faith from, well, from vanishing off
1:37
the face of the earth. OK.
1:38
Let's unpack this by looking at the world Abraham was called out
1:42
of. When God first intervened in
1:44
Abraham's life, the spiritual atmosphere was contraddity.
1:48
It was catastrophic. I think we often forget that the
1:50
state of the post flood world had reverted almost entirely to
1:53
apostasy, right? Idolatries were rampant.
1:56
It was threatening to smother the single candle of true faith
1:59
that had been passed down through the line of Shem.
2:01
So this wasn't just, you know, a bit of creeping paganism.
2:04
This was systemic failure. Our sources suggest that without
2:08
divine intervention, the true knowledge of God would have been
2:11
completely extinct within a generation or two.
2:14
Oh, absolutely. And that context really explains
2:16
the absolute necessity of God's call.
2:18
It does, and we must pinpoint the geographical and Cultural
2:22
Center of this apostasy. Abraham was called out of ER of
2:27
the Chaldees, the country around Babel, which is the historical
2:31
and religious seat of idolatry. Babel as in the Tower of Babel.
2:34
The very same This is where the descendants of Noah after the
2:38
flood attempted to establish a centralized anti God Kingdom
2:43
symbolized by that tower. So, Irv, the Chaldees wasn't
2:46
just a wicked place, it was the original chief seat of idol
2:49
worship from which this spiritual infection spread
2:51
globally. It's no wonder Scripture speaks
2:53
so strongly against that land. Indeed, the prophet Jeremiah,
2:57
referencing this region long after Abraham, calls Taldea the
3:00
land of graven images, and he notes that the people are mad
3:04
upon their idols. This detail clarifies the
3:07
extreme nature of the environment Abraham was removed
3:10
from. It was the source, not just the
3:11
symptom, of worldwide spiritual corruption.
3:15
So God calls Abraham out of this epicenter, but what I find
3:18
really fascinating in Edwards analysis is the recognition that
3:21
God chose an entirely new method of preservation compared to what
3:26
he had done before. This is a key distinction that
3:28
shows the progression of redemptive history.
3:30
If we look at the period before the flood, the strategy God used
3:34
was well, it was integration followed by destruction.
3:39
The true church, the sons of God, intermingled with the
3:41
wicked world, and the result of that was total corruption.
3:44
So the solution was the catastrophic destruction of the
3:47
entire world, saving only the Church in the Ark.
3:50
But now here we are again. The world is corrupt again, but
3:53
God doesn't repeat the flood. He makes a strategic shift in
3:56
how he deals with sin and preservation.
3:59
The method shifts from universal, immediate judgment to
4:02
physical and legal separation. God instructs Abraham to leave
4:06
his country, his kindred and his father's house, and settle in a
4:10
far distant land, Canaan. And this is the subtle but vital
4:14
detail. Right it is.
4:16
When Abraham arrived, God did not give him a permanent settled
4:19
inheritance. He gave him no possession.
4:22
No, not so much as to set his foot on.
4:25
He's a sojourner, a stranger. He lived in tents.
4:28
That lack of permanent connection, that chosen
4:30
vulnerability, that seems to be the very mechanism of
4:33
separation. It creates an immediate, visible
4:36
wall. Abraham's posterity would be
4:38
strangers living distinct from the Canaanites who are becoming
4:41
rapidly wicked. This ensured that the true faith
4:45
would be upheld by a people legally and geographically
4:48
separate from the overwhelming flood of heathenism.
4:51
It was a strategy of insulation really, rather than
4:53
annihilation. And this act of physical
4:56
separation has these massive theological ramifications.
4:59
It positions Abraham as the new starting point for the visible
5:02
church. Absolutely, Edwards argues.
5:05
The calling of Abraham is the laying of a new foundation for
5:07
the visible church. He's establishing it in a much
5:10
more distinct, formal and regular state than ever before.
5:14
It's why Abraham is consistently represented in the New Testament
5:17
as the father of all who believe.
5:18
He becomes the root from which everything else grows.
5:21
He is the route from which the entire visible church grows as a
5:25
tree, fundamentally distinct from all other plants and
5:28
nations. This is vital because this route
5:31
later produced the Redeemer Christ, who is repeatedly called
5:34
the branch of righteousness. So the separation isn't just
5:38
about protection, it's about preparation.
5:40
You can't have the covenant, the types, and the specific
5:43
prophecies without a dedicated vessel this distinct tree.
5:47
Correct. This distinct national structure
5:50
initiated Abraham's calling, was necessary to receive the types
5:54
and prophecies of Christ, to commit the divine oracles to a
5:57
specific group, and crucially, so that when the time was right,
6:01
the Son of God could be born of this specific separated nation,
6:05
shining the light of the gospel to the rest of the world.
6:07
The whole structure of election and sovereign grace is visible
6:10
in this first separation. OK, now that the foundation is
6:13
laid and the Holy Seat is separated, the second great way
6:16
the work of redemption advanced was through the expansion and
6:19
more importantly, the sealing of the Covenant of Grace itself.
6:22
Separation was just a prerequisite.
6:24
This is where the theological light dramatically increases.
6:27
We have had two prior solemn confirmations of the saving
6:31
promise. The first was to Adam.
6:33
The second was to Noah. Edward sees the Abrahamic
6:37
Covenant as the third edition, progressively clearer and marked
6:41
by repeated divine oaths. So what did Abraham learn about
6:45
the Redeemer that Adam and Noah didn't possess?
6:48
How did the light intensify here?
6:49
Well, the promise became profoundly particular to Adam.
6:53
The promise was simply the seed of the woman.
6:55
Right, very general. Very general.
6:57
To Noah it was about general preservation, but to Abraham it
7:00
was revealed first that Christ would be specifically of his
7:03
seed. This narrowed the focus from all
7:06
humanity down to 1 patriarchs line.
7:08
And crucially, at the same time, the scope of salvation was
7:12
simultaneously expanded. Yes, the calling of the Gentiles
7:15
was made much clearer than ever before.
7:17
The promise was not just for Abraham's descendants, but that
7:19
all the families of the earth should be blessed in him.
7:22
The universality of the gospel that Christ is for the whole
7:24
world is enshrined right here in the promise to Abraham, and it's
7:28
repeated multiple times to ensure its absolute certainty.
7:31
This also appears to be the moment the actual condition of
7:35
is brought into sharp focus. Edwards argues that the covenant
7:38
of grace is defined by its great condition.
7:42
Faith. That is the pivotal doctrinal
7:45
moment in Genesis chapter 15. After Abraham's promised a
7:49
multitude of descendants, the narrative states Abraham
7:53
believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
7:56
A statement cited extensively by Paul.
7:59
Right. It shows that salvation has
8:00
always been by grace through faith, even long before the law
8:04
of Moses. Abraham becomes the paradigm.
8:06
He is declared righteous based on trust in God's saving
8:09
promise. This is why he is called the
8:11
father of believers. Precisely, it is essential for
8:14
the doctrine of redemption that the condition of saving faith be
8:17
explicitly displayed prior to the giving of the Law.
8:20
Abraham's justification confirms that God's method of saving
8:23
people has always been singular and rooted in belief, not works.
8:27
But the covenant wasn't just spoken.
8:29
It was sealed with multiple dramatic pledges.
8:32
Let's start with the institutional seal that
8:34
physically marked his descendants, circumcision.
8:37
Circumcision was instituted as the seal of the covenant of
8:40
grace in Genesis 17. The Apostle Paul later analyzes
8:44
it, arguing it was a seal of the righteousness of faith.
8:47
So what it did was confirm that the spiritual benefits, the
8:50
righteousness counted by faith, belong to Abraham and his
8:53
posterity. So beyond that spiritual sign,
8:56
how did circumcision function as a physical instrument of
8:59
preservation and separation, as Edward sees it?
9:02
It served as the primary physical wall.
9:05
It was a defining right that immediately made Abraham's
9:08
descendants, the Israelites, distinct from every other nation
9:12
on earth. It was a continuous generational
9:14
reminder that they belong to the covenant defining the perimeter
9:18
of the church until Christ, the substance of the covenant,
9:20
arrived. Let's move from the personal
9:22
seal to something more spectacular, almost
9:24
geopolitical. Abraham's victory over Chader
9:27
Lomer and the allied kings. Why does Edwards treat this
9:30
military skirmish as such a profound prophetic moment?
9:33
Because of the scale of the threat trader, Lomer was no
9:36
local bandit. He appears to be a major
9:39
imperial figure reigning from Elam, hundreds of miles away.
9:42
Historians often connect his empire to the early Assyrian or
9:45
Babylonian power structure, possibly originating from the
9:48
line of Nimrod at Babel. The original anti God power for
9:52
this seemingly massive imperial force which ruled Canaan to be
9:56
utterly subdued by Abraham and a small band of three and 18
10:00
trained household servants. Well, it's purely miraculous.
10:04
So it's not just a victory, it's a defeat of the world's
10:06
organized anti church authority. Exactly.
10:09
God gave Abraham this victory as a tangible pledge and earnest of
10:13
the eventual greater victory that Christ, the ultimate seed,
10:16
would obtain over all the anti Christian nations of the earth,
10:19
over sin, and over spiritual enemies.
10:22
Isaiah later refers to this triumph as foreshadowing the
10:25
Church's ultimate conquest. It's a guarantee written in
10:27
blood and battle. And then immediately following
10:30
this military triumph, we get the mysterious confirmation from
10:33
Melchizedek. This figure is so central to
10:35
later theology it he just appears so fleetingly here.
10:38
Melchizedek is a king of Salem, the King of Peace, and a priest
10:42
of the Most High God. Edwards highlights him as a
10:45
preeminent type of Christ because he combines the kingly
10:48
and priestly offices outside of the future Levitical system.
10:52
I see this shows that the original true priesthood
10:55
predates and supersedes Aaron's lineage, proving the covenant
10:59
was never meant to be confined to 1 earthly temporary system.
11:03
And what about the bread and wine?
11:05
He offered. What's the significance there?
11:07
Melchizedek met Abraham with bread and wine, which Edwards
11:10
argues signifies the spiritual blessings of the covenant of
11:13
grace. Since Abraham had already
11:15
received the seal of entrance circumcision, which corresponds
11:18
to baptism, he was now given the blessing equivalent to the
11:21
Lord's Supper, confirming the covenant right in the moment of
11:24
his victory. This connects Abraham's
11:26
successful battle back to God's grace, not his own strength.
11:30
The promises continue to be confirmed in more abstract,
11:33
symbolic ways too, like the vision described in Genesis 15
11:36
with the sacrifice and the passing symbols.
11:39
That sequence is critical. It is dense with redemptive
11:42
meaning. It lays out the precise pattern
11:45
of Christ's work. Abraham prepared the sacrifice
11:48
and fell into a deep sleep as he watched 2 symbols pass between
11:51
the divided pieces of the animal.
11:53
First came the smoking furnace. The smoking furnace, symbolizing
11:57
darkness, distress and fire, represented the intense
12:00
sufferings of Christ, His humiliation, agony and death.
12:05
But what followed the furnace is the entire message of hope.
12:08
The burning lamp. The burning lamp, shining with
12:11
clear bright light, passed through second.
12:14
This signified the glorious exaltation that would follow
12:17
Christ's sufferings, His resurrection, ascension, and
12:19
ultimate reign. This vision confirmed the entire
12:22
sequence. Humiliation must perceive glory,
12:25
and the glory is secured by the suffering.
12:28
The entire plan of atonement was revealed symbolically to
12:30
Abraham. And perhaps the most personal
12:32
and difficult pledge Abraham received concerned Isaac, his
12:35
miraculous birth in old age, followed by the command for his
12:38
near sacrifice. The birth itself confirmed the
12:41
specific line through which the Messiah would come, reinforcing
12:44
Abraham's faith. But the sparing of Isaac on
12:47
Mount Moriah is the most visual, tangible type of the
12:51
resurrection. I understand it's a type of
12:53
Christ's sacrifice, but why specifically the resurrection?
12:57
Because Abraham acted on the belief that God was able to
13:00
raise Isaac even from the dead, as the book of Hebrews confirms,
13:04
when Isaac was laid upon the altar, Abraham reckoned him as
13:07
good as dead. When God provided the substitute
13:09
ram, Isaac was returned to Abraham, representing the
13:12
deliverance of Christ from the grave.
13:14
This event served as such a powerful personal confirmation
13:17
of the promise that God renewed the covenant on that specific
13:20
mountain at that precise moment. It was a guarantee of ultimate
13:23
life through apparent death. So with all these accumulating
13:27
confirmations, seals, types, visions, what was the ultimate
13:31
spiritual condition of Abraham? How much did he really
13:33
understand? The light was sufficient for
13:35
true saving understanding. The sources confirm that Abraham
13:40
had a distinct saving view of the Redeemer and the future
13:43
works that would be accomplished.
13:45
We know this because Christ Himself declared in John chapter
13:49
8. Your father Abraham rejoiced to
13:51
see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
13:54
The era of general promise was over.
13:56
This was the era of detailed, assured hope.
14:00
We're going to move now to the third advancement, which deals
14:02
with physical rather than spiritual preservation.
14:05
After sealing the covenant, God had to ensure the physical line,
14:09
the holy seed, wasn't simply exterminated by the wicked world
14:12
they were separated from. Yes, and this preservation of
14:15
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was it was precarious.
14:18
They were the very vessels carrying the promise, the route
14:21
from which Christ would proceed. Yet they were few in number,
14:24
strangers dwelling in a land whose inhabitants were extremely
14:27
wicked, even if, as Scripture says, their iniquity was not yet
14:30
full. And their very presence must
14:32
have been a condemnation of the surrounding culture.
14:34
It was a constant source of spiritual friction.
14:37
The ancient enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed
14:39
of the serpent was made manifest when you have men like Lot
14:43
vexing his righteous soul and preaching righteousness in
14:45
Sodom, they naturally provoked hostility.
14:48
As strangers, they were vulnerable to outrage and
14:50
violence, as Lot experienced before Sodom's destruction.
14:53
Yet Psalm One O 5 beautifully summarizes their protection.
14:58
It says God suffered no man to do them wrong and reproved kings
15:01
for their sakes. This wasn't just passive safety,
15:04
it was active, targeted divine intervention.
15:07
Indeed, we see this preserving mercy in really high stakes
15:12
situations. Think about the crisis caused by
15:14
Simeon and Levi's bloody revenge against the Shacamites.
15:17
That act of violence should have triggered A retaliatory war that
15:20
would have wiped out Jacob's small family entirely.
15:23
They were militarily powerless against the surrounding tribes.
15:26
But the Scripture says the terror of God was placed upon
15:29
the surrounding cities. This is a remarkable instance of
15:32
sovereign grace acting through sheer dread.
15:34
The surrounding people, who had every reason and opportunity to
15:37
pursue and destroy Jacob's family, were struck with a
15:41
supernatural, paralyzing fear. The terror of God was upon the
15:45
cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue
15:47
after the sons of Jacob. The survival of the messianic
15:51
line hinged entirely on this singular act of divine
15:54
psychological intervention. We see similar intervention
15:57
protecting Jacob from his own kinsmen who sought to harm him.
16:00
Yes, Laban, pursuing Jacob in a rage, was stopped by a divine
16:04
rebuke, commanded not to speak to Jacob, either good or bad,
16:07
and perhaps most dramatically, before the confrontation with
16:10
Esau, who was approaching with a small army intending violence,
16:13
Jacob wrestled with Christ, a pennual.
16:15
And after that encounter. After that encounter, God
16:18
miraculously turned Esau's heart from murderous intent to tender
16:21
reconciliation. This fragile route, holding the
16:24
future of redemption was preserved by a series of
16:27
supernatural acts against military, familial and tribal
16:30
threats. The survival of the church was
16:32
like keeping the ark afloat in the middle of a storm.
16:35
It was only by the hand of God. This leads us directly to the
16:39
4th advancement, the the awesome destruction of Sodom and
16:42
Gomorrah. How did this calamity advance
16:45
redemption? It promoted the great design in
16:48
two distinct but related ways. The first is immediate and
16:51
practical. It acted as a powerful deterrent
16:54
to the neighbors of the patriarchs.
16:56
The destruction occurred immediately after the grievous
16:58
abuse of Lot and the angels who were sheltered under his roof.
17:01
Exactly this public, highly visible judgment by fire and
17:05
brimstone struck massive dread into the minds of the other
17:08
inhabitants of Canaan. It was a very clear lesson.
17:11
Abuse these holy strangers and you risk incurring a similar
17:14
instant and terrifying judgement.
17:17
This memory, this fear, reinforced the terror of God
17:19
that later protected Jacob's family.
17:21
So the destruction was part of the divine preservation
17:24
mechanism. But the second way is
17:26
theological, dealing with the economy of salvation itself.
17:29
It provides dramatic exhibition of the terrors of God's law.
17:33
Right. The work of redemption requires
17:35
that humanity be sensible of their guilt and their need for
17:38
mercy. The law must act as a
17:40
schoolmaster to drive men to Christ.
17:43
Since the clarity of hell in the future state was less defined
17:46
before the coming of the gospel, God often used external, awful
17:50
physical manifestations of His wrath against sin to teach this
17:54
lesson. The memory of the flood was
17:55
fading. Humanity needed a renewed fresh
17:59
warning. They did.
18:01
The destruction of Sodom served to renew the display of God's
18:04
wrath against ungodliness in a most terrifying manner.
18:07
Edward specifically points out that this destruction by fire
18:10
and brimstone was the liveliest image of hell that had ever been
18:14
witnessed on Earth up to that point.
18:16
This makes sense of the Apostle Jude's reference to them is
18:18
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
18:21
It wasn't just a historical event, it was a visible
18:23
illustration of the eternal reality.
18:25
It displays the absolute severity of God's wrath against
18:28
sin, illustrating the infinite debt owed under the Law.
18:32
This deep awareness of the curse of the Law is absolutely
18:36
necessary to highlight the necessity and the incredible
18:39
value of redeeming mercy. Thus, judgement in this case
18:43
paradoxically advanced the work of redemption by preparing the
18:46
human heart for the gospel. As the Church was preserved and
18:50
the terror of the law was established, the covenant
18:52
continued to be refined, which leads us to the 5th advancement,
18:57
the continuous, specific renewal of the covenant of grace through
19:00
Isaac and Jacob. The promise which began with
19:03
Abraham had to be narrowed to ensure the purity of the
19:06
Messianic lineage. God renewed the promise to
19:08
Isaac, confirming that the oath sworn to Abraham would be
19:11
fulfilled. In his seed who would multiply
19:13
greatly, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
19:16
blessed. And that selection immediately
19:19
excludes Ishmael. Immediately.
19:21
And then the covenant narrows again, excluding Esau and
19:23
focusing entirely on Jacob, who is Israel.
19:26
Jacob receives the promises first through his father Isaac's
19:28
prophetic blessing. But then he receives personal
19:31
direct confirmation. Yes.
19:33
At Bethel, fleeing Esau, he saw the vision of the latter
19:36
reaching from earth to heaven, a powerful type of Christ, the
19:41
only mediator and means of communication between God and
19:44
humanity. The covenant was renewed right
19:47
there. And Jacob rested on a stone,
19:50
which our sources suggest is another powerful type of the
19:52
Redeemer. That stone was later anointed
19:54
with oil, confirming its symbolic nature as the anointed
19:58
stone of Israel, representing Christ, who is the only true
20:01
altar and the foundation stone of the church.
20:04
The covenant renewal here confirmed that Jacob's seed
20:06
would spread everywhere, guaranteeing the widespread
20:09
blessing of the Gospel. But Jacob needed further
20:12
personal assurance before facing his enraged brother.
20:15
That leads us to Pennwell. Pennwell is where Jacob wrestled
20:18
with Christ himself, who appeared in a pre Incarnate
20:21
physical form. The act of wrestling and
20:23
prevailing was not a test of physical strength, but a
20:26
spiritual confirmation of the covenant certainty.
20:29
By wrestling with the divine, Jacob received a powerful,
20:31
intimate assurance of God's presence and faithfulness, which
20:34
was essential for him to face his imminent crisis with Esau.
20:37
This brings us to the 6th Advancement, a massive
20:40
historical event that serves as a powerful type of Christ's
20:44
work. God preserving the family from
20:47
famine by sending Joseph to Egypt.
20:49
This was a pivotal moment of Providence.
20:52
A devastating famine threatened to starve out the entire nascent
20:55
nation. God orchestrated events, the
20:58
hatred and jealousy of Joseph's brothers to send Joseph ahead
21:02
into Egypt to provide for the entire family.
21:04
As Joseph himself recognized, God meant it unto good to save
21:08
much people alive. And Edward stresses that
21:11
Joseph's life is not just a story of preservation, but a
21:14
striking detail, detailed prefigurement or type of Christ
21:17
saving work. The parallels are they're too
21:20
numerous to ignore. Joseph, a kinsman and a brother,
21:23
save the House of Israel from perishing by famine.
21:25
Christ, our kinsman, saves the spiritual Israel from eternal
21:28
spiritual famine. Joseph was a brother who was
21:31
hated, sold, and almost killed. Christ is the one whom we,
21:34
through our sin, hate, sell, and ultimately slay.
21:37
And the pattern of humiliation leading to exultation is
21:40
perfectly mirrored. Joseph endured deep humiliation,
21:44
being betrayed, sold into servitude, falsely accused and
21:48
cast into a dungeon which acts as a powerful parallel to Christ
21:52
appearing in the form of a servant and ascending into the
21:54
grave. But his subsequent exaltation
21:57
follows precisely. It does.
21:59
He is raised to Pharaoh's right hand as the deputy ruler,
22:02
reigning over the entire Kingdom and dispensing life food to his
22:05
estranged brethren. And, crucially, he dispenses
22:08
life to the very ones who had hated and sold him.
22:11
Which is the core message of redemption.
22:13
Christ, exalted to the right hand of God as Prince and
22:16
Savior, dispenses the gifts of the Spirit and eternal life to
22:19
those who were His enemies and who betrayed Him.
22:22
Joseph's story provides a historical, practical guarantee
22:25
that the sequence of redemption, suffering leading to sovereign
22:28
rule, and the salvation of enemies is God's determined
22:31
pattern. This pattern is then focused
22:33
further in the 7th advancement, the ultimate narrowing of the
22:37
promise through Jacob's dying blessing of his sons.
22:40
The pedigree of the Redeemer is narrowed for the third time, 1st
22:43
to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, and now out of the 12
22:47
sons, the Messiah is confined to the posterity of Judah.
22:51
This is the origin of Christ's title, the Lion of the Tribe of
22:54
Judah. Jacob's blessing paints Judah as
22:57
a warrior and a leader. Judah thou art he whom thy
23:01
brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of
23:03
thine enemies. But the blessing adds A crucial
23:06
detail concerning the timing of Christ's coming.
23:09
This is one of the most specific prophetic statements given up to
23:11
this time. Genesis 49.9 Stasis.
23:15
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
23:18
between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the
23:21
gathering of the people be. The presence of governmental
23:24
judicial authority within the tribe of Judah must endure
23:27
continuously until the Messiah Shiloh arrives.
23:31
What exactly does the term Shiloh convey in this context?
23:33
Shiloh is generally interpreted as the one who brings peace or
23:36
rest, or perhaps he to whom it belongs, the rightful ruler.
23:40
The revolutionary aspect here, however, is the geopolitical
23:42
clock. A geopolitical clock.
23:44
I like that. The prophecy links the coming of
23:46
the Redeemer to a very specific, diminishing political reality.
23:51
When the tribal and national authority of Judah starts to
23:53
dissolve, when the right of the tribe to execute its own
23:57
governance departs, that is the signal that the great king
24:00
Shiloh is about to arrive. And that same promise concerning
24:04
Shiloh also clarifies the Gentile calling even further
24:07
than before. Yes, the phrase unto Him shall
24:10
the gathering of the people be is a crystal clear statement
24:13
that the nations, the Gentiles, will be drawn to him.
24:17
The light of the Gospel, which started as a vague spark to
24:19
Adam, is now shining brightly, focusing the messianic line, and
24:23
defining the political and spiritual context of his Advent
24:27
thousands of years in advance. We're now moving into the final
24:30
stage of this era, what we're calling the Egyptian Crucible,
24:32
which covers the 8th and 9th advancements.
24:35
The families in Egypt, they're safe from famine, but now
24:38
they're facing existential threats of a different order.
24:40
In the eighth point, the power of Egypt becomes systematically
24:43
engaged not just in oppression, but in the calculated
24:46
destruction of the holy seed. The Israelites living in Goshen
24:50
fell under Pharaoh's complete authority.
24:53
And Pharaoh's campaign was meticulously structured for
24:56
genocide. It was first he attempted to
24:59
weaken them through hard, debilitating bondage, hoping to
25:02
curb their reproduction and morale.
25:05
When that failed and they multiplied even faster, he
25:07
escalated to an absolute effort to extirpate their race entirely
25:11
by commanding the midwives to drown every male child born to
25:15
the Hebrews. And if the males were destroyed,
25:17
the nation would effectively vanish within a generation and
25:20
the promised lineage of Judah would be obliterated.
25:23
The vulnerability was total, yet the outcome was the reverse of
25:26
Pharaoh's intent. That is the miraculous element.
25:29
Edwards used this as a profound demonstration of God's sovereign
25:33
control over the powers of tyranny.
25:35
Not only were the Israelites preserved despite comprehensive
25:38
efforts to annihilate them, but they multiplied exceedingly.
25:42
The very attempts to destroy them resulted in a massive
25:45
demographic explosion, ensuring they would leave Egypt as a
25:48
distinct numerous nation rather than a handful of extended
25:51
family members. So the physical seed was
25:54
preserved, even amplified. But the 9th advancement
25:57
addresses a threat that Edwards considered arguably more
26:00
catastrophic, the spiritual peril they faced while in Egypt.
26:04
The church was always most vulnerable when it was
26:06
surrounded by pervasive paganism.
26:08
Without proper spiritual defenses.
26:10
Being long among the Egyptians, serving as slaves for centuries,
26:13
they lost many of the advantages of the true religion.
26:16
They had no public worship, no centralized teaching, and,
26:19
critically, no written word to anchor their faith.
26:21
And the inevitable result of being surrounded by Egyptian
26:23
heathenism. The sources, specifically the
26:26
Book of Ezekiel, indicate that the greater part of Israel
26:29
borrowed heavily from Egyptian idolatry.
26:31
They fell away to the worship of the idols of Egypt.
26:34
The theological framework was dissolving under the weight of
26:37
foreign superstition. And this represents the third
26:39
time the visible church was almost swallowed up by the
26:42
world's wickedness. It parallels the crisis before
26:45
the flood and the crisis before Abraham's call.
26:49
It demonstrates the constant, terrifying fragility of the
26:52
visible church when left to its own devices amidst rampant sin.
26:56
The true faith does not persist. Naturally.
26:59
It requires sovereign preservation.
27:01
So how is the true Church preserved in this total
27:04
darkness? It was preserved like the ark in
27:05
the flood, only by God's determined will.
27:08
While the Mass is adopted, idolatry, the true religion, was
27:11
still upheld by a faithful remnant.
27:13
We know, for example, of the faith of Moses, parents who
27:16
defied faith, Pharaoh, and the faith of Moses himself as
27:18
recorded in Hebrews 11. God kept the small, invisible
27:22
core of faithful people alive, ensuring that the true faith
27:25
persisted and that the prophetic line was maintained until the
27:28
time of deliverance by Moses arrived.
27:30
So this entire 2000 years span, from Abraham to the edge of the
27:33
Exodus culminates not just in the creation of a nation, but in
27:37
the successful preservation of the true faith through repeated
27:40
physical and spiritual crises. The entire period served to
27:44
establish the foundational structure of the Church as a
27:47
separate designated nation carrying the promises, preparing
27:51
them to receive the law, the specific ordinances, and the
27:55
even clearer typological teachings that would follow
27:58
under Moses. OK.
27:59
Let's try to bring this all together.
28:00
To synthesize the work of redemption during the Abrahamic
28:03
age, got a strategy was marked by decisive action, the active
28:07
separation of the seed from the corrupt world, the ceiling and
28:11
confirmation of the covenant with extreme clarity focused on
28:14
faith and the preparation of humanity through the
28:17
simultaneous administration of sovereign mercy and preserving
28:20
the few and the stark terror of the law in judging the many.
28:24
The light of the Gospel shone progressively brighter, moving
28:27
from a general concept to a specific, located and timed hope
28:31
for the Messiah. And looking at this through the
28:33
lens of Reformed theology, what is most striking is the clear
28:37
demonstration of God's absolute sovereignty in preserving his
28:41
elect church. Even when that visible church
28:44
seemed corrupted, outnumbered, and physically exposed in Canaan
28:48
or spiritually lost in Egypt, God upheld the faithful remnant.
28:52
And he did it through means, whether through the terror of
28:55
fear or the miracle of multiplication that had nothing
28:58
to do with human purity or strength.
29:00
This historical period is a vivid depiction of sovereign
29:03
election and grace in action. A fitting final reflection
29:06
builds directly on the certainty of that sovereign scheduling we
29:09
discussed earlier. Consider the implications of
29:12
Jacob's prophecy that the scepter shall not depart from
29:15
Judah until Shiloh come. That statement was made
29:18
thousands of years before the 1st century.
29:20
Think about the level of divine foreknowledge and control
29:22
required to ensure that the political and jurisdictional
29:25
conditions of one specific tribe, that they would retain
29:27
some form of self governance but not ultimate kingship, would be
29:31
precisely met, just as the Messiah was to be born.
29:34
It places a political clock on history thousands of years in
29:37
advance. It does.
29:39
What does this breathtaking certainty reveal to you about
29:42
the absolute reliability of God's revealed Word and the
29:45
precision with which His redemptive plan unfolds across
29:48
all of history? That's something to carry with
29:50
you until our next deep dive.