Latest / Reformed Thinking / Edom’s Chiefs, God’s Providence, and the Distinction of Covenant Promise (Genesis 36:40–43)

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Edom’s Chiefs, God’s Providence, and the Distinction of Covenant Promise (Genesis 36:40–43) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. So we're doing a deep dive today
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into the theological weight of the scriptures, and I want you,
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the listener, to start by just picturing something for a
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second. Let's set the scene.
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Yeah, imagine you are wandering through this like scorching,
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completely unforgiving desert. Just brutal heat.
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Right. And you are eating the same
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rations every single day. You sleep in a flimsy tent that
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rattles every time the wind blows, and while your entire
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existence just feels completely unstable, yes, totally
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vulnerable. Now imagine looking across the
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horizon and knowing that you're a stranged, ruthless brother.
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The one who you know threw away his family inheritance for a
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bowl of Stew is currently living in a massive fortified mountain
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fortress. Oh man.
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He is operating as a billionaire warlord right, commanding
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armies, ruling a settled, thriving nation.
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And that brutal contrast was the daily reality for the ancient
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Israelites. He really was.
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They were wandering in the wilderness, holding on to
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nothing but a promise from God, while staring at the undeniable
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earthly success of their relatives, the Edomites.
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That image really just captures the sheer emotional and
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spiritual friction of the text we are looking at today.
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It is a lot of friction. It is we are pulling our
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material from historical and theological commentaries that
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analyze Genesis chapter 36, specifically looking at verses
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40 through 43. Which I mean, on the surface,
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this text looks like a dry administrative Ledger of ancient
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Edomite chiefs. Yeah, most modern readers treat
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this chapter like like the terms and conditions of a software
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update. Yes.
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Oh, that is a great way to put it.
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You. Know what I mean?
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They just scroll past the list of names, Timna, Alva, Jeffith,
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just looking for the accept button so they can get back to
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the narrative action. So they can get to Joseph and
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his coat of many colors right? They just want the plot.
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And I am completely guilty of that.
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I mean, when reading the Bible there is this massive temptation
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to only look for immediate, accessible inspiration.
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We want the quick take away. We do.
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We want the text to function like an engineering manual.
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We want to bring a specific problem to the book, find the
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corresponding verse and just get a clear binary solution.
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A5 step plan for your life. Yeah, or we want a miracle, a
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direct command or a comforting promise.
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And when we hit a genealogical record or a tribal summary, the
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inspirational tone seems to just vanish.
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The text becomes murky. Well, we crave visible emotional
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returns on our reading investment.
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We really do. But skipping these genealogies
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means missing the baseline theological premise of the
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entire book of Genesis. Which is what?
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Well, the Bible is not a collection of abstract religious
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ideas floating in the clouds. It is a meticulous, gritty
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record of God's sovereign work in actual history, right?
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Among real family. Yes, and in literal geographic
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locations. We are leaning into Reformed
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theology today. And one of the core tenets of
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that tradition is that God rules not just over his elect, the
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covenant line of Jacob, but over all nations, all.
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Borders all historical developments.
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Spot on, and this specific genealogical list of Esau's line
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demonstrates that staggering reality.
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The immediate tension in the text is just undeniable though.
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I mean, why does the Bible spend an entire chapter culminating in
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these final verses, painstakingly listing the
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political achievements of Esau's line and.
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Their territorial expansion. Right.
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And the aristocratic titles. This is a man who explicitly
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despised his birthright. He traded it for soup.
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He was passed over by the Covenant, yet here he is, the
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father of an established, thriving nation.
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And meanwhile, Jacob's Line, the line of the promised seed, is
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living out of temporary tents. It is a jarning contrast.
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It is why does the non elect line seem to get the visible
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Kingdom first? Well, the author of Genesis is
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forcing you to confront that specific question.
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The text deliberately sets up a collision between how God
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distributes earthly success and how He distributes saving grace.
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I love that phrasing. A collision, Yeah.
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And to. Grasp the weight of this.
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We need to look at the geographical and historical
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context of where Esau's descendants actually settled.
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OK, let's look at that. Where do they go?
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They moved into Mount Cyr. Now this was a rugged, highly
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defensible mountainous territory located South and southeast of
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the Dead Sea. So not a flat vulnerable plane,
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no. Not at all.
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Yeah. It was a land characterized by
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red sandstone and steep ravines. It was a natural fortress.
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Wow. And by the time we arrive at the
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end of Genesis 36, Esau's descendants are no longer just a
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loose collection of wandering nomads.
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Right, they have established themselves.
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Yeah, they have achieved a mature sociopolitical state with
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highly organized leadership. So let's talk about that
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leadership structure. The English translations of this
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text often use the word chief or Duke to describe these leaders.
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Yeah. The Dukes of Edom.
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Right. And when I hear the word Duke, I
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picture like a 19th century aristocrat sipping tea on a
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massive country estate. Maybe wearing a monocle or
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something? Right.
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Or maybe just a benign local politician.
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But our sources suggest the original Hebrew paints a much
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more violent picture. Oh, absolutely.
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The English word Duke is a translation artifact from the
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Latin Vulgate, which used the word Dux, meaning a leader.
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But the Hebrew term used by Moses is aleph, and analyzing
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the root of that word totally shatters the image of a peaceful
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aristocrat. What does the root mean?
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Aleph is derived from the word aleph, which signifies 1000.
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We're talking about a commander of 1000 men.
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So these are not civil servants organizing trash collection.
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Not even close. The political system in Edom was
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an aristocratic tribal oligarchy.
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That is a mouthful. I know, but basically these
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chiefs were regional warlords. They were men of blood and iron,
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who seized the earth by their own hands.
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Man, so they were ruthless. Totally.
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They consolidated their authority through military
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might, tactical alliances and sheer tribal dominance.
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So when Moses lists the 11 and chiefs of Edom, categorizing
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them by their names, their clans and their specific regions, he
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is describing men who had standing armies.
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Standing armies, hard borders and absolute territorial control
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over the strategic heights of Mount Seir.
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OK, so picture this dynamic playing out in a modern context.
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Go for it. You grew up in the same house
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with a sibling under the same parents, but your paths
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completely diverged, right? Your sibling decides to build a
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corporate empire. They cut corners.
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They practice ruthless, pragmatic autism and almost
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overnight, they become a billionaire.
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They get everything they want. Yeah, they have spice scrapers
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bearing their name, A private security force, undeniable
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global influence. And you?
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Meanwhile, you are living out of a suitcase.
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You are waiting for an inheritance from your father
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that you cannot yet see. You have a promise, but your
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sibling has a massive, verifiable possession.
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That is the exact psychological and spiritual tension Jacob's
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descendants felt when looking across the desert at Edom.
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Just sitting there in the dust, staring at the skyscrapers.
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That is a highly effective way to frame it, to really feel the
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impact of that tension. Consider the original audience
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who received this text from Moses.
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The Israelites in the wilderness.
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Yes, they were a nation of Wanderers, literally sitting in
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the scorching sands, possessing nothing but a covenant promise
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from Jehovah. They had no land of their own.
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No stone fortresses, no settled political state.
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They were completely vulnerable. They are eating mana, dwelling
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in fabric tents and staring at the horizon every single day.
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And in the middle of that vulnerability, Moses hands them
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this detailed administrative Ledger of their neighbors.
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Established glory. It is almost like salt in the
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wound. It could feel that way, yeah,
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because the Edomites were not a distant abstract empire like the
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Egyptians or the Assyrians. They were family.
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They were kin according to the flesh.
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Edom was their brother nation. Which makes the comparison so
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much harder to swallow. It does.
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Seeing the descendants of Esau, the brother who traded away the
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promises of God, thriving in fortified cities would easily
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breed massive envy among the Israelites.
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Because the natural human reaction when you're sitting in
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the dust is to ask why the wicked have the possession while
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the righteous are subjected to wandering.
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Why do they get the good stuff now?
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Yeah, this reveals A crucial pastoral element in the writing
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of Genesis, doesn't it? Moses is not just giving the
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Israelites a history lesson about foreign geopolitics.
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No, he is directly confronting their envy.
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He is addressing their internal assumptions about what divine
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favor actually looks like. The wilderness generation needed
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to understand the political and social realities that formed the
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backdrop of the surrounding nations, but far beyond that,
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they needed to learn something vital.
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What is? That that outward prosperity,
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however real and intimidating it might look, is not the same
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thing as redemptive favor. That is a huge distinction.
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God was establishing a stark visual aid here Edoms glory was
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immediate, earthly, and secured by the sword and.
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Israeli. Glory.
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Glory was delayed, eternal, and secured by the covenant.
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OK, so if this historical envy was a deliberate contrast
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designed by the author, we really need to look at the
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literary brilliance of how Genesis actually operates.
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It is a master class in narrative structure.
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Because Moses places this list of warlords at a very specific
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juncture in the narrative. Right.
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The structural mechanics of Genesis are astonishing.
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The book repeatedly utilizes a specific literary mechanism,
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which is it continually narrows its focus.
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It starts with a wide lens, looking at all of humanity to
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the fall. Right, Adam and Eve.
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Then it narrows to the line of Seth.
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After the flood, it looks at the nations, then narrows
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specifically to Shem. OK, I see where this is going.
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From Shem it narrows to Abraham, from Abraham the lens tightens
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to Isaac, and from Isaac it focuses entirely on Jacob.
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It functions like a massive funnel, constantly stripping
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away the outer layers to follow the specific seed of the
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promise. To tighten that lens, the author
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uses a structural concept called bounding.
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Bounding. What does that mean in a
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literary sense? Bounding A genealogical line
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means bringing it to a formal, mature historical conclusion.
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OK, this clears the stage so the redemptive narrative can proceed
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without any ambiguity. Genesis does this earlier with
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Ishmael. Right, Abraham's other son.
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Yes, the text does not ignore Ishmael.
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He gives a full account of his descendants, acknowledges his
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place in history, and then formally bounds his line.
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It closes the book on him. Yes, once Ishmael's Ledger is
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closed, the narrative centers entirely on Isaac.
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In chapter 36 is doing that exact same thing for Esau.
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It is closing the books on his lineage.
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Moses gives a full, detailed chapter to Esau's descendants,
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their interrelations, their commanders, and their
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territorial development. He honors the historical reality
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of Esau's line, right. But once that accounting is
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complete, Esau's line is no longer allowed to compete for
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the narrative center. It has been recorded, bounded
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and concluded. Which clears the path for the
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rest of the book to be exclusively about Jacob and his
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sons. You got it.
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This leads to one of the most striking textual juxtapositions
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in the entire Old Testament. We have to look at the
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transition between the end of Chapter 36 and the beginning of
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Chapter 37. It is brilliant.
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Genesis 36 verse 43 states that the chiefs of Edom were in the
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land of their possession. The Hebrew word there is asusa.
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Asusa. Yeah, and that word implies a
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firm, settled grip on a territory.
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It means holding the deed, pouring the concrete and
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planting the flag. It is permanent, right?
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At the very next verse, Genesis 37, verse one states that Jacob
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lived in the land of his father's sojournings, the.
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Contrast is so sharp. The Hebrew word there is
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megarim, which means a temporary dwelling.
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It is the equivalent of living in a roadside motel.
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Moses places the Achusa of Esau right up against the Megarim of
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Jacob. It is structurally engineered to
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be a glaring contrast. He wants you to feel the
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difference. The author is making it crystal
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clear that Esau had his possession right now in the
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present visible world, while the heir of the covenant promise
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remained A wanderer holding onto a future hope.
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Wait, I'm struggling with the implications of this a bit.
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What is stripping you up? If Moses goes out of his way to
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record these specific names, Duke Timna, Duke Alva, Duke
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Japheth, along with their clans and regions, does that mean God
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values their administrative order?
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That is a fair question. I mean, does the Bible honor
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their worldly success by writing it down, or is the text doing
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something far more subversive here?
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It is entirely subversive. When you look at the Hebrew
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syntax in this specific section, it is composed almost entirely
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of nominal verbalist clauses. Verbalist clauses, so there is
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no action. None.
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It reads like a cold, static Ledger.
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Moses presents the commanders as established facts of history,
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yet he places them within the genre of a genealogical summary
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to quietly signal that their lives are just a vapor.
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Just names on a page. The text acknowledges their
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worldly consolidation, but it strips that consolidation of any
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redemptive warmth. It is a list of men who built
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kingdoms in the dust. They built their castles, but
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the text treats them like entries on a tax document.
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That is a perfect way to describe.
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It it is a Ledger of the dead. By deliberately contrasting
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Edom's massive, verifiable possession with Jacob's fragile
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wandering, the text forces us into a deep discussion about how
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God operates behind the scenes of history.
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It really does. We're moving right into the
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mechanics of reformed theology, specifically looking at
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Providence and election. And to process the rise of Edom
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properly, we have to look through the theological lens
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provided by the Westminster Confession, specifically Chapter
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3. Which deals with what?
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It deals with God's eternal decrees.
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The historical reality of Edom forces us to reckon with the
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doctrine of absolute sovereignty.
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OK, unpack that for the listener.
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God did not simply step back, fold his arms, and passively
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allow Edom to arise as some sort of geopolitical accident.
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He wasn't just watching them figure it out on their own from
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a distance. Not at all.
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He actively governed their boundaries, their commanders and
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their social structure. Wow, so he is intimately
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involved even in the non elect line?
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Yes, Edom's existence is a manifestation of God's common
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grace and his faithfulness to secondary promises.
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We need to define common grace clearly here because it is a big
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concept. It is common.
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Grace is the unmerited favor God shows to all people, regardless
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of whether they are part of the covenant.
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It is the rain falling on the just and the unjust.
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Precisely, it is the provision of order, civilization and
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earthly resources. Shrothermore remember that God
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told Rebecca years earlier that two nations were in her womb.
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Oh, right before Jacob and Esau were even.
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Born exactly. I mean yes that is spot on.
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The rise of Edom is God actively fulfilling his word regarding
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the non elect line. Let me try an analogy here to
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see if I'm grasping this. I love your analogies.
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I sometimes picture God's sovereignty like a complex
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geopolitical simulation, or maybe a master novelist writing
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an epic. OK, let's go with the novelist.
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A weak view of sovereignty assumes the author is only
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paying attention to the heroes managing their dialogue and
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their character arcs, while the villains and background
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characters just sort of act on their own volition.
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Like they're improvising. Yeah, improvising.
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But reformed theology insists that the author of history
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painstakingly dictates the motivations, the exact
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boundaries, and the specific rise and fall of every single
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opposing force as well. Yes, every single one.
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The Warlords of Edom were hitting their exact marks on
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God's historical timeline. That captures the dynamic
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perfectly and the theological take away is just vital here.
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What is the take away for the listener?
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A nation or even an individual may achieve massive structural
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success, undeniable wealth, and visible stability without
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carrying any hope of redemption. Because earthly status is never
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a reliable indicator of God's saving favor.
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Never. But humans are incredibly prone
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to equate visible strength with divine approval.
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We assume if someone has a massive bank account, perfect
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health and political leverage, God must be smiling on them.
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We do we look at the Dukes of Edom and think they must be
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blessed. But the rise of Edom teaches A
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robust, unyielding doctrine of Providence.
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That the Lord governs all families of the earth.
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Yes, though not all stand in the same covenant relation.
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To him, Esau's Lion attained real, terrifying greatness in a
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temporal sense, but the redemptive purpose of God did
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not run through their lineage. Hold on, I need to push back on
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this a little bit. Bring it on.
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If God is actively ordaining the success of these ruthless
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aristocratic warlords, if he is the one setting their boundaries
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and handing them the land of their possession, doesn't that
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just lead us to complete fatalism?
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What do you mean? How do we look at the world and
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not conclude that ruthless pragmatism, violence and
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military might are all that actually matter?
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I mean, why shouldn't we just emulate the Edomites if they are
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the ones getting the fortresses? That is the temptation, but you
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avoid fatalism by looking back at the concept of bounding we
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discussed earlier. OK, remind me how that applies
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here? The text bounds their success.
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Their glory is immediate, but it is strictly temporary.
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God's Providence over non covenant lines is always
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subordinate to His larger saving design.
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So they serve a purpose in the bigger picture.
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Yes, Eden was given a territory, but their entire historical
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existence was meant to serve as a backdrop and a foil for the
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redemptive story of Israel. Their pragmatic success was real
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in the moment, but it was a historical dead end.
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They received their inheritance in full in the dust of Mount
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Sier, but they had absolutely no share in the Eternal City.
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They cashed out all their chips at the first table.
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They absolutely did. Fatalism says the warlords win
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because power is the only reality in the universe.
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And reformed theology says. Reformed theology says the
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warlords are granted temporary boundaries by a sovereign God
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who's actively using their fleeting empires to refine his
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Pilgrim people and to prepare the stage for the true king.
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Yeah, that is a huge perspective shift.
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That means this historical enmity between the two lines,
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the line of the warlord and the line of the Pilgrim, does not
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end in the 36th chapter of Genesis.
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Not even close. This tension traces a direct,
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bloody path through history, carrying us all the way to the
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New Testament. We are looking at the
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Christological fulfillment of the text here, the true King
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versus the earthly warlords. And to trace that historical
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path, we have to go all the way back to Genesis 315.
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The initial promise in the garden.
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Right. The promise of enmity between
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the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
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The conflict between Jacob and Esau is a historical outworking
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of that ancient hostility. How so?
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Esau represents the natural man. He is the archetype of the human
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desire to build a Kingdom without a cross, to seek a crown
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through human effort, military might, and pragmatism rather
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than through divine grace. And that enmity spilled right
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out of the Old Testament. One of the most gripping
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historical connections from our sources brings this conflict
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right to the doorstep of the Gospels.
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You are talking about the Edomians.
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Yes, we have to talk about the Edomians.
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The Idomians are the direct historical descendants of the
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Edomites. By the time of the New
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Testament, following centuries of conflict, they've been
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politically incorporated into the broader landscape of Judea.
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But they kept their identity. Their ancestral lineage remained
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distinct. Yes, and the most famous you do
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mean in history is King Herod the Great.
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King Herod, the man who sat on the throne in Jerusalem when
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Jesus was born. Yes, Herod the Great was an
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Edumian, a descendant of Esau, representing the line of Edom.
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It all connects. He occupied a stolen throne,
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ruling over the defendants of Jacob through political
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maneuvering with Rome and sheer brutality.
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He built massive fortresses, didn't he?
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Huge ones, including the Herodium.
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He even expanded the Jewish Temple to solidify his Achusa,
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his earthly possession. And then the magi show up,
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right? When the Magi arrived looking
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for the newborn king of the Jews, Herod's reaction was the
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ultimate manifestation of this ancient boiling enmity.
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He attempted to slaughter the infant Jesus, the true seed of
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Jacob. So we have the descendant of
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Duke Timda and Duke Alva, an earthly warlord, holding onto
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his temporary possession through bloodshed and paranoia, trying
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to annihilate the promised seed of the Covenant.
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It is Genesis 36 playing out in the streets of Bethlehem.
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It is the brutal climax of the conflict, and it highlights the
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absolute necessity of Christ's offices as prophet, priest and
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king. Think about the stark contrast
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between the two models of authority.
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The commanders of EM exercised a temporary regional authority
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secured by the sword. By military might and tribal
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alliances. But Christ, the true King,
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arrives as a suffering servant. He is the ultimate wanderer.
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As he said, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
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He lived off the mega room, the sojourning perfectly.
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Yet he exercises an eternal cosmic authority, secured not by
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shedding the blood of others, but by the willing sacrifice of
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his own blood. The warlords take life to build
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their possession. The true king gives his life to
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secure an internal inheritance for his people.
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It demands a total re evaluation of what actual lasting authority
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looks like. We also cannot ignore the
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prophetic vision of how this all ends.
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The prophets made it abundantly clear that Edom's temporary
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possession would face final, unyielding justice.
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Where do we see that? In Isaiah 63, there is a
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staggering depiction of the mushiya returning in glory.
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And where is he returning from? Edom.
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The prophet depicts him marching from Edom, specifically from the
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city of Basra, with his garment stained red from treading the
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winepress of God's wrath. That is an incredibly visceral
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image. Isaiah uses Edom as the ultimate
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symbol of all earthly strength that opposes the Gospel.
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The prophecy reveals that every worldly Kingdom built on pride.
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Every modern Duke who rejects the covenant of grace will face
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divine judgement. The warlords get their day in
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the sun, but the King of Kings secures eternity.
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Well said. But seeing Christ as the true
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king rather than an earthly warlord demands a radical shift
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in how you, the listener, and the entire covenant community
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operate today. We have to bring this into the
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present. We cannot just leave this
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discussion buried in the ancient sands of Mount or the marble
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courts of King Herod. We need to pull this forward
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into the application for the Covenant community.
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How do we actually live this out on a Tuesday morning?
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The primary application drawn from our sources is a complete,
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uncompromising rejection of worldly pragmatism.
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We had to translate these ancient realities into the way
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we live, work, and worship right now.
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Because the temptation to act like Edom is everywhere.
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The Edomites built their nation using the pragmatic tools of the
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world military alliances, travel, consolidation and
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territorial aggression. They measure their success by
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highly visible metrics. And the church today is
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incredibly susceptible to that exact same temptation.
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I mean, we love metrics. The sources specifically call
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out modern ecclesiastical trends that mimic the Dukes of Edom,
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notably the seeker sensitive model of church growth.
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OK, unpack that. How is the seeker sensitive
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model like the Dukes of Edom? This model often adopts secular
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corporate structures, aggressive marketing, pragmatism and
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consumer driven metrics to build what is essentially a religious
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possession. They want the Echusa.
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Yes, it values immediate, visible success, large crowds,
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sprawling campuses and massive budgets over the slow,
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unglamorous, often invisible work of making disciples.
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It is treating the church like an Edomite dukedom.
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We point to the Ledger and say, look at our attendance numbers,
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look at our square footage, look at our cultural influence.
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But the text calls the Church to maintain a strict
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distinctiveness. A holy assembly cannot be built
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using the tools of worldly warlords.
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What should we be using instead? The Covenant community must rely
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entirely on what Reformed theology calls the ordinary
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means of grace. Let's define the ordinary means
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of grace for a second. You mean the simple,
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unimpressive tools God gave the church?
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Like the reading of the Word preaching baptism in the Lord's
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Supper, right? Yes, they are called ordinary
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because they do not look spectacular to the outside
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world. They don't draw a stadium crowd.
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They look like a pastor speaking behind a pulpit.
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Water in a font and bread and wine on the table.
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They lack the flash of a laser like show or the imposing
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strength of a stone fortress. But that is the point.
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Exactly. I mean, that is spot on.
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We are called to be a Pilgrim people, content to dwell in
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tents and rely on those ordinary means rather than compromising
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our theology to build an impressive corporate fortress.
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Here's a direct challenge for you, the listener, based on this
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text. Are you measuring your own life
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success by the rapid acquisition of status, wealth and visible
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stability? Are you looking at the modern
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Dukes of industry, the billionaires cutting corners and
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feeling a deep sense of envy? Or are you content to walk the
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Pilgrim path, holding on to a promise that you cannot yet
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physically see? That is the dividing line of the
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human heart, and it brings us to a beautiful reformed concept
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known as the third use of the law.
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I know the reformers talked about the law having three
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distinct uses. Walk us through those 3
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categories so we can really understand the third one.
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In Reformed theology, the law of God functions in three specific
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ways. The first use is the civil use,
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which restrains societal evil through the threat of
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punishment. Like speed limits.
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Yeah, basic societal order. The second use is the
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pedagogical use. It acts as a mirror showing us
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our sin, breaking our pride, and driving us to Christ for
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salvation. It shows us we need a savior,
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right? But the third use is
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specifically for the believer. It provides the rule and guide
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for a life of grateful obedience.
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So how does that connect to what we are talking about today?
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The believer's motivation for holy living is not to earn a
26:03
title, or to become an earthly chief, or to build a personal
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empire to prove our worth. We aren't obeying God to get a
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promotion in this life or to secure a bigger house.
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Our obedience flows entirely from gratitude for sovereign
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grace. We have already been given the
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ultimate inheritance in Christ. And because our standing is
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totally secure, we are free to live holy lives in the middle of
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a crooked, pragmatic generation without needing to compete with
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the warlords of the world. We don't need to envy the wicked
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because we know their possession, no matter how
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impressive it looks, is fading. But the reality is when we see
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the wicked thriving, we panic. We try to insulate ourselves.
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We build false refuges. We really do.
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If the economy gets shaky or the culture turns hostile toward our
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faith, we try to build our own little Edom.
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We stockpile material security, we chase political leverage, and
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we try to create an impenetrable bubble so we don't have to feel
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the vulnerability of living in a tent.
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We crave the Achusa, the settled possession, because wandering
27:01
feels dangerous. But the text demands we
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dismantle those idols. The story of Esau's line is a
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blaring warning that material security is a complete illusion
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if it is not tethered to the covenant of grace.
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We have to find our security solely in the character of God.
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That is the ultimate comfort of Providence.
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The God who sovereignly set the boundaries of Edom is the same
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God who ordains the specific steps of his people.
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He knows exactly what he's doing in the timeline of history.
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He knows why the wicked prosper for a brief season, and he knows
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why his people are called to wait in the wilderness.
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We can rest in his timing, knowing that the inheritance
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kept in heaven for us is imperishable, undefiled and
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unfading. To wrap up this deep dive, we
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have seen that the dusty, seemingly administrative Ledger
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of Edomite Dukes in Genesis 36 is actually a striking,
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brilliant witness to God's absolute sovereignty.
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It is so much more than a list of names.
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It draws a massive unyielding line in the sand between an
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earthly possession that fades into the dirt and a heavenly
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inheritance that lasts forever. It is a massive comfort to a
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Pilgrim people. I want to leave you, the
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listener, with a final thought to ponder as you walk away from
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this material. What is that?
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The names of those Edomite chiefs, Duke Timna, Duke Alva,
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Duke Knaz, were once whispered with genuine fear and reverence
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across the high mountains of Seer.
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They were the Titans of their. Dead.
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They had standing armies, they had immense wealth, and they had
28:29
absolute territorial authority. But today they rest in silent
28:33
graves, their earthly empires entirely vanished, buried in the
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dust of history. It is sobering.
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If the greatest secular achievements backed by military
28:42
might and endless resources and in total silence, what temporary
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empire in your own life are you currently building that you need
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to abandon for the sake of the Eternal City?