Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Hidden Hand: Providence in the Periphery (Genesis 22:20-24)

Transcript

The Hidden Hand: Providence in the Periphery (Genesis 22:20-24) · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to reformed thinking. It is good to be back behind the
0:03
microphone. It is always a pleasure to be
0:05
here. So we have a bit of a challenge,
0:07
I think for us today, a fun one. We are looking at a section of
0:11
Scripture that, if we're all being totally honest with
0:14
ourselves, is the part where most people's eyes just glaze
0:18
over. You know when you're doing one
0:20
of those read the Bible in a year plans and you just you hit
0:23
a list of names you can't pronounce?
0:25
They're the speed bumps of the Old Testament.
0:27
That's what I call them. That's a great way to put it,
0:28
the speed bumps and you just kind of skim over them to get to
0:31
the next bit of the story. Well, today we are parking the
0:35
car right on that speed bump. We're getting out and having a
0:37
look around. We are.
0:38
We're in Genesis chapter 22, specifically verses 20 through
0:43
24. It is the genealogy of Nahor,
0:46
Abraham's brother. And on the surface it sounds,
0:49
well, it sounds very dry. It sounds incredibly dry.
0:52
It has all the narrative excitement of reading a phone
0:54
book from, I don't know, 3000 years ago.
0:57
Yeah. But our whole goal for this deep
1:00
dive is to show that this little list isn't just filler.
1:04
It's not a mistake or just, you know, subscribes notes that got
1:07
left in. Right.
1:08
And if we look at it properly, especially, you know, through
1:11
the lens of reformed theology, this list is, well, it's
1:14
electric. I would go even further.
1:16
I would say that without this specific list of names right
1:20
here, the rest of the book of Genesis basically collapses.
1:23
The whole narrative structure just falls apart.
1:25
OK that is a massive claim. You're saying a handful of
1:29
obscure names, Ooze and Buzz and Kimmel are load bearing walls
1:35
for the rest of the story of the patriarchs?
1:38
I am. I really am.
1:39
Just think about where we are in the text.
1:41
We have literally just come down from the highest peak of drama
1:44
maybe in the entire Old Testament.
1:45
Mount Moriah. Abraham and Isaac on Mount
1:47
Moriah. The binding.
1:49
The knife is raised in the area of the Angel of the Lord,
1:52
shouting from heaven. Abraham, Abraham, the ram caught
1:55
in the thicket. I mean, it is the moment.
1:57
It's all Thunder and lightning and adrenaline and faith stretch
1:59
to its absolute limit. It is.
2:02
And then what happens immediately after verse 19, the
2:05
text just, it shifts gears completely.
2:09
It says after these things and it just hands us a report about
2:13
Abraham's brother. His brother, who was way back in
2:16
the old country. Yeah, back in Mesopotamia,
2:18
having kids and it lists these names.
2:21
UZZ, Buzz, Pill Dash. It's it's a jarring transition.
2:25
It is. It feels like the credits
2:26
starting to roll after a movie, but the movie isn't over yet.
2:29
Or, I don't know, like you're watching this incredibly intense
2:32
action film and it suddenly cuts to a guy looking at a
2:35
spreadsheet. That's a very fair comparison.
2:38
It feels like administrative data, but that's why we have to
2:41
ask the question, why is it here and why right here?
2:44
What is the problem that Abraham is facing at this very second?
2:47
Well, he just got his son back. I'd say he's probably feeling a
2:50
lot of relief for sure. On Mount Moriah, God secured the
2:53
son. Isaac is alive.
2:55
The sacrifice was stopped. The promise is still on.
2:58
But Abraham has a problem he hasn't even voiced yet.
3:00
He probably hasn't even had time to think about it.
3:02
OK, what's that? He has a son, but he doesn't
3:05
have a future for that son. Isaac is a single man.
3:08
He's the son of promise, living in the land of Canaan, but he's
3:10
surrounded by Pagan tribes. So if the promise is that his
3:14
seed will be as numerous as the stars of the heaven, he needs a
3:17
wife. And you know, it's a simple
3:20
biological fact that you can't have a multitude of descendants
3:24
with just one man. It's biology one O 1.
3:26
You need a mother for this future nation.
3:28
You can't just have the father. Precisely so.
3:30
Here's the beauty of it. While Abraham was completely
3:33
focused on the test in Canaan, wondering if he was about to
3:36
lose his only son, God was quietly, almost silently,
3:40
working in Mesopotamia to make sure the line could continue.
3:43
So this genealogy isn't a non sequitur.
3:45
Not at all. It is the answer to the
3:47
question. Abraham was probably too scared
3:49
or too exhausted to even ask. OK, what happens next?
3:53
I really like that setup because that's what we're going to do.
3:55
We're going to look at this transition from the spectacle of
3:59
the mountain down to the steadfastness of this family
4:03
line. We'll look at the common grace
4:05
that's evident in these emerging nations.
4:07
And then the very specific zoom in on Rebecca, which is the
4:10
whole point. Right.
4:11
And then we'll even touch on that messy reality of the
4:14
concubine line at the very end of the list.
4:16
And we'll see how this all fits perfectly into the Westminster
4:18
Confessions understanding at how God actually governs the world.
4:21
It's a case study in Providence. OK, let's get into the text
4:24
itself, Section 1, then the narrative transition.
4:28
We have this phrase right there in verse 20, and it came to pass
4:31
after these things that it was told Abraham.
4:34
I'll just stop right there after these things.
4:36
Yes, in the Hebrew that little phrase is Weihi Akurai
4:42
hadavarim. And it's not just filler, it
4:46
functions like a seam marker in the text.
4:48
Like stitching on a quilt or something.
4:50
Yeah, it stitches the big panels of the story together, and it's
4:52
not the first time we've seen it.
4:54
We saw that exact same phrase back in Genesis 22, verse one,
4:57
where it introduced the test itself.
5:00
After these things, God tested Abraham.
5:02
Oh, that's interesting. So it brackets the entire event.
5:05
It does. Now we see it again here in
5:07
verse 20 introducing the report. So the narrator is very
5:10
deliberately connecting the 2 events.
5:12
He's saying the test is over. Now the continuity begins.
5:16
There's a part of the same divine action.
5:18
And it seems like the timing of this report arriving is
5:21
incredibly specific. I mean, why does it matter that
5:24
this news arrives now and not, say, a year earlier or a year
5:29
later? Oh, the timing is everything.
5:30
It's absolutely critical. Let's play it out.
5:32
Imagine if this news had arrived earlier, say a month before God
5:36
called Abraham to go up the mountain.
5:38
Abraham gets a report from a traveler.
5:40
Hey, your brother Nahor, he's got a huge family back in Haran,
5:43
lots of sons, grandkids probably on the way.
5:46
And then God's command comes. Take your son, your only son,
5:49
Isaac, whom you love, and sacrifice him.
5:51
Abraham might have been tempted tempted to send Isaac away.
5:56
He could have easily said, you know what, Isaac, you look
5:59
tired. Why don't you go on a long
6:00
vacation to visit your Uncle Nahor's house?
6:02
You'll be safe there. It would have created an escape
6:04
hatch. He could have bypassed the test
6:06
entirely, rationalized it even. You would have, but flip it like
6:10
you said. What if the news came five years
6:12
later? Isaac is older.
6:14
He's still single. There are no eligible women from
6:17
their people group around. Then Abraham might have started
6:20
to panic. He might have compromised badly.
6:22
He might have looked around and said, well, the Hittites seem
6:25
like nice people, let's marry him off to a local Canaanite
6:28
woman just to secure some grandchildren.
6:30
Get the promise moving. Which we know from later in
6:32
Genesis would have been a complete disaster for the
6:34
covenant line. A total corruption of the holy
6:37
seed. So you see, the news arrives at
6:40
the precise moment it is needed. God secures the sun's life 1st
6:44
and then immediately moves to secure the sun's line.
6:48
It's one fluid motion. OK, so the timing is perfect.
6:51
Now let's look at the mode of revelation.
6:53
Here the text just says it was told.
6:55
That seems understated. It is.
6:58
The Hebrew verb is hugged. It's a passive causative form, a
7:02
huff, a little stem for those who care about the grammar.
7:04
But what it means is it was reported, or more literally,
7:08
someone caused Abraham to know. Someone and unnamed someone.
7:12
Right now think about who carried this news.
7:14
It was not an Angel descending with a scroll.
7:17
It was not a prophetic dream. Usually in Genesis, when Abraham
7:20
gets important information, it's a big deal.
7:22
It's God appearing in a vision. It's a smoking firepot walking
7:26
between animal carcasses. True, but here here it was
7:30
almost certainly just travellers, merchants on the
7:34
Spice Rd. maybe a caravan passing through Beersheba from
7:37
the east, stopping to water their camels at the well Abraham
7:40
dug. So it's.
7:40
Basically just gossip. Rd.
7:42
News. Ordinary news, and this is a
7:44
massive theological point that we often miss because we're
7:47
looking for fireworks. Abraham is a prophet.
7:49
He's called the Friend of God, but for this absolutely critical
7:53
piece of information, the intelligence that will lead
7:56
directly to the bride of the covenant sun, God uses the most
7:59
ordinary means of communication imaginable.
8:02
That is such a powerful critique of how we often think today.
8:05
You know, in a lot of modern evangelical circles, there's
8:08
this constant craving for the spectacular.
8:10
We want the writing on the wall. We want the audible voice from
8:12
heaven. We do.
8:14
We want the Thunder, and in wanting the Thunder we often
8:17
overlook the whisper. But Reformed theology, which
8:21
relies so heavily on Scripture, teaches the sufficiency of God's
8:25
Providence. And the ordinary means.
8:27
The ordinary means of grace, the Westminster Confession of Faith
8:31
in chapter 5, Section 3 puts it so well.
8:34
It says that God in his ordinary Providence makes use of means.
8:39
He uses things, but he's also free to work without them, or
8:43
above them, or even against them if he wants.
8:45
And here the means were likely a dusty traveler making small
8:48
talk. Hey, did you hear about your
8:50
brother Nahor back in Haran? Boy, is he doing well for
8:53
himself. And Abraham didn't say, well,
8:54
that's interesting, but unless I see a burning Bush confirming
8:57
this report, I'm not going to believe.
8:58
It no, he acts on it. He accepts the report.
9:01
He understands that God governs the world through these ordinary
9:04
channels just as much as he does through the extraordinary ones.
9:08
It's a validation of what we call the ordinary means of
9:10
grace. We don't have to live our lives
9:12
in the state of mystical suspension, always waiting for a
9:15
special sign. That's very comforting.
9:17
It should be God is as present in the clerical whisper of a
9:20
family report as he is in the miraculous intervention on the
9:24
mountain. It means we don't have to
9:26
constantly be looking for the supernatural to know God is at
9:29
work. He's at work in the natural.
9:30
The supernatural God is the God of the natural world he created
9:33
and sustains. OK, so the news comes in through
9:36
ordinary means, and the news itself is this list of names.
9:39
So let's move into that Section 2, the genealogy of Nahor.
9:44
It starts with Behold, Milka, she hath also born children unto
9:48
thy brother Nahor. And then we get the list.
9:50
Ooze and his brother, Buzz, Kimmel, and so on.
9:53
Right. And this list has a very clear
9:55
function. It creates what you might call a
9:57
credible kin network. What do you mean by that?
10:00
Well, Abraham has been largely isolated in Canaan for decades
10:03
now. He's a sojourner, A resin alien.
10:05
But this report tells him that while he has been here living in
10:09
tents, God has been simultaneously multiplying his
10:12
brother's house back in Mesopotamia.
10:14
It's a robust clan now. It's not just Nahor and his
10:17
wife. It's a family with political and
10:19
social weight. It makes his family feel less, I
10:21
don't know, less fragile. Exactly.
10:23
They aren't just this thin imaginary thread of a family far
10:26
away, They're a real power base. And some of these names are
10:30
really fascinating if you dig in.
10:31
You mentioned Oohs or Huz and Buzz.
10:34
Yeah, when I read us and Buzz, my mind immediately goes to some
10:38
kind of children's rhyme. But these are serious names in
10:41
the ancient world, right? Oh, they're geography defining
10:44
games. US is listed as the first born.
10:47
Later on in scripture we find a very famous man named Job who
10:49
lives in the land of US. Job chapter one, verse one right
10:53
at the beginning. Yep.
10:55
And later in the book of Job, we meet this sharp young man named
10:59
Elihu, who is surprisingly wise, and the text calls him a Buzite.
11:04
He's a descendant of Buzz. So there's a clear connection
11:07
being drawn between Abraham's extended family and the wisdom
11:10
traditions of the East. It certainly seems that way, and
11:12
this points us directly to the doctrine of common grace.
11:15
This is the idea that God preserves wisdom and moral order
11:19
and societal flourishing even for people outside of the direct
11:22
covenant line. So just because they weren't the
11:24
chosen line doesn't mean God just abandoned them to chaos.
11:27
Not at all. The people of Oohs and Buzz were
11:30
not the chosen people. That was Isaac's line.
11:33
But God did not leave them in total darkness.
11:35
He gave them gifts. They had wisdom.
11:38
They had social structure. God allows nations to flourish
11:41
for his own purposes. That's common grace.
11:43
But it's not all positive, is it?
11:45
We also see the name Kemul in that list.
11:48
Yes, and the text adds a little note.
11:50
Kemul, the father of Aram, now Aram, is the name that becomes
11:53
associated with the Arameans, or as they are later known, the
11:56
Syrians. Who definitely become a big
11:58
problem for Israel later on, A thorn in their side for
12:01
centuries. A huge problem.
12:03
A persistent enemy. So in this one little list, God
12:06
is drawing the map of the ancient Near East for us.
12:09
He's positioning the nations that will later serve as either
12:13
buffers for his people or in this case, scourges for his
12:16
people. It shows that God is the
12:18
architect of history. He's moving all the pieces on
12:20
the board. He determines the boundaries of
12:22
the nation's. As Paul says in Acts, it all
12:24
goes back to this, and it really highlights that critical
12:27
distinction between common grace and special grace.
12:30
Explain that a bit more. Well, Nahor's line flourishes.
12:33
He has twelve sons in total, 8 by his wife Milka, and four by
12:37
his concubine Ruma. That number 12 just keeps
12:39
popping up in Genesis. Right.
12:41
Ishmael had 12. Princess Jacob will have 12
12:44
sons. It seems to be a number for
12:47
governmental or national completeness.
12:49
It is. It's like world building as you
12:50
said earlier. But here's the key.
12:53
Biological success is not the same thing as covenant election.
12:58
Worldly prosperity is not the same as being part of the
13:02
redemptive line. So you can be successful like
13:05
Ooze. Maybe you're wealthy, maybe
13:07
you're famous in your day, maybe you found a great city.
13:09
But that doesn't mean you are the carrier of the promise.
13:12
Not at all. In fact, the Promise is doing
13:13
the opposite. It's narrowing, not widening.
13:15
It's becoming more and more specific.
13:17
Which brings us perfectly to the next section, what you call the
13:20
narrative Zoom. We're going through this list of
13:22
men ooze, buzz, cheese, Hazzo pill bash, jidlaf, and it has a
13:26
certain rhythm to it, Brother, brother, brother.
13:28
But then in verse 23, the car, to use your metaphor, hits the
13:32
brakes hard. It stops cold.
13:34
The text moves from this horizontal list of eight sons,
13:37
and then it says And Beth, you will begat Rebecca.
13:40
It shifts. It shifts from a wide shot of
13:42
all these brothers to a tight vertical focus on one single
13:45
daughter. This is the pivot.
13:47
This is the whole ball game, the entire genealogy.
13:50
All those other names, they exist primarily to introduce
13:53
this one name, Rebecca. She is the hinge inside the
13:57
hinge of the story. Why is she so central?
14:00
Because without her, the story stops.
14:04
It's a dead end. We have the son Isaac.
14:06
He survived the test. But the seed that was promised
14:09
to Abraham cannot multiply without a mother.
14:11
She's the missing link. She is the missing link in the
14:13
messianic logic. The narrative zooms in on her
14:16
because she is the elect jewel that was hidden in this, you
14:19
know, otherwise unremarkable list of names.
14:22
And her name itself, Rebecca, is there any meaning there that we
14:24
should be aware of? There's some debate among
14:27
scholars as always, but a very strong possibility is that the
14:30
root RBQ has the idea of a noose or to tie firmly.
14:34
A noose that sounds a little bit ominous.
14:36
Well, or think of it in a positive sense.
14:38
Think of captivating or binding. She is the one who will bind the
14:43
family together. Remember, we just saw the
14:45
Binding of Isaac on the altar, the Akita.
14:47
Now we meet the woman who will bind herself to Isaac in
14:50
marriage. She ties the promise of the past
14:53
to the reality of the future. That's a beautiful parallel, and
14:57
it really brings up the doctrine of unconditional elections.
14:59
That's right. Oh, it stares us right in the
15:01
face. Why Rebecca?
15:03
I mean, she's certainly wasn't the only eligible girl in the
15:06
entire East. Nahor's other sons surely had
15:08
daughters. There are plenty of other young
15:10
women in Haran. But God singles her out.
15:13
He. Particularizes her.
15:15
He identifies her by name. Before she's done anything good
15:18
or bad, before Abraham's servant even sets out, she's chosen.
15:22
It's not about her merits. It's about God's sovereign
15:24
choice. And the timing.
15:26
Again, you mentioned this idea of prevenient grace.
15:29
Yes, Grace that goes before. Just think about the timeline
15:32
for a second. While Abraham was holding the
15:34
knife over his son on Mount Moriah, agonizing over the
15:37
apparent death of the promise, Rebecca was already born.
15:40
She was already growing up in her on She was probably, I don't
15:43
know, a little girl running around her father Beth Hill's
15:46
house, completely unaware of the role she was destined to play.
15:50
So the solution already existed before the problem was even
15:54
fully realized by Abraham. He was worried about losing his
15:57
son. He wasn't even thinking about
15:59
who his son would marry. That is it, that's the heart of
16:01
it. Abraham hadn't even started
16:03
praying for a wife for Isaac yet.
16:05
He was just trying to survive the day, Get down the mountain.
16:08
But God in his Providence had already prepared the answer in a
16:12
far country. That is a massive comfort for
16:15
the believer. Today God is working on
16:17
solutions to problems we haven't even faced yet, problems we
16:20
don't even know are coming. It really is.
16:22
I think that's something we all need to hear.
16:24
So often we feel like we're waiting on God to start working
16:26
on our situation, but the truth is, He's been working for years,
16:30
maybe decades, putting pieces into place that we have no idea
16:34
about. Silence is not an activity.
16:37
I like that. That's the lesson of this
16:38
genealogy. God's silence is not his
16:41
inactivity. Now we do have to deal with the
16:43
end of the list. It feels a bit like an appendix.
16:46
We had the big zoom in on Rebecca, which is clearly the
16:49
high point, but then verse 24 adds this other detail about
16:53
Ruma. The concubine, Yeah.
16:54
And his concubine whose name was Ruma.
16:56
She also bare Taba and gum and Tahash and Makah.
17:01
This feels like a bit of a let down after the Rebecca reveal.
17:05
Why is this included? I think for a couple of reasons.
17:08
First is just biblical realism. The Bible never tries to
17:11
sanitize the messy family structures of the ancient world.
17:14
Polygamy and concubines were real things.
17:17
The Bible reports them, doesn't necessarily endorse them as the
17:20
ideal, but it doesn't pretend they didn't exist.
17:22
God governs history as it actually is, not as we wish it
17:25
were. But there's a clear hierarchy
17:27
being established here, right? It's not presenting them as
17:29
equals. Very sharp one.
17:31
The text is incredibly careful to distinguish between Milka the
17:34
wife, and Ruma the concubine. And this is vital.
17:38
The covenant line, the seed of promise, flows through the free
17:41
woman, the legitimate wife. This sounds a lot like the
17:44
parallel with Sarah and Hagar earlier in Genesis.
17:47
It's the exact same pattern. God is a God of order.
17:50
He's a God of distinction. The promise is being protected
17:53
from any kind of dilution or confusion.
17:55
Rebecca comes from the primary legitimate line.
17:59
She's not from a secondary tier. This establishes her pedigree as
18:02
unquestionable. And So what happens to Ruma's
18:04
sons? Tiba Gum, these other guys.
18:08
They pretty much fade into obscurity.
18:10
Biblical historians and archaeologists think they became
18:13
the namesakes of minor Arab tribes in the region, but they
18:16
never play a role in the redemptive story.
18:19
They are recipients of life. That's God's Providence, but
18:22
they're not carriers of the promise.
18:24
That's God's covenant. There's a difference.
18:26
A world of difference. It illustrates that you can have
18:28
life and breath and even worldly success, but still not be part
18:32
of the specific redemptive timeline in the same way.
18:35
The mention of these extra Suns also does something else,
18:38
doesn't it? It shows that Nahor's household
18:40
was a big, complex and probably wealthy clan.
18:43
Yes, and that is a crucial piece of stage setting for the next
18:46
chapter. This isn't just a nuclear family
18:48
living in a small house. This is a powerful clan capable
18:52
of major alliances, capable of showing great hospitality.
18:56
When Abraham's servant shows up in Genesis 24 with 10 camels
19:00
loaded with goods, he needs a place that can host him and all
19:03
his animals and men. The household needs to be
19:05
substantial. It does.
19:07
The mention of Rumah's four sons just adds to this picture of the
19:11
overflow of the household. It makes the world of the text
19:14
feel real, grounded and ready for the events of the next
19:17
chapter. OK, let's talk more about that
19:19
forward link to Genesis 24. We keep mentioning it.
19:22
This genealogy really feels like it sets the stage for that whole
19:26
marriage narrative. It does more than set the stage,
19:28
it acts as a handover. It's the bridge that makes the
19:30
events of Genesis 24 feel like clear Providence, and not just a
19:34
lucky coincidence. Because without this list, when
19:37
Abraham tells his student to go find a wife, it's basically just
19:40
a shot in the dark, a fool's errand.
19:42
It would be without this list, Abraham is just acting on blind
19:46
hope. Go back to my country, to my
19:49
kindred, and see if anyone is still there.
19:52
But with this list, Abraham is acting on solid facts.
19:55
He has intelligence. He knows the kindred exists.
19:58
He knows they're established. He knows they're having
20:00
children. He knows there are women there.
20:03
So his faith isn't what some people call a leap in the dark.
20:07
We really need to get rid of that phrase.
20:09
When we talk about biblical faith, it's almost never a leap
20:12
in the dark. It is trust based on God's
20:14
revealed reality. Abraham acts wisely, sending a
20:18
servant to a specific place with a specific mission because this
20:22
genealogy provided a factual basis for that action.
20:25
Faith acts on what God is revealed to be true.
20:27
It also seems to reject a certain kind of pragmatism, too.
20:30
It absolutely does. Pragmatism says I have a problem
20:32
and I need to fix it, so I'll just do whatever works.
20:35
If Abraham was a pure pragmatist, he would have done
20:37
the politically savvy thing. He would have married Isaac to a
20:40
local Canaanite chieftain's daughter to secure a peace
20:43
treaty and consolidate his power in the land.
20:45
But he doesn't do that. He doesn't because he knows God
20:48
has already provided elsewhere. He doesn't need to compromise.
20:52
He doesn't need to force a solution because the solution is
20:55
already prepared and waiting. He just needs to act in faith to
20:58
go and get it. I want to pivot now to the
21:00
Christological focus. As you know, we're a Christian
21:03
podcast. We read the Old Testament as
21:04
Christian scripture pointing to Jesus.
21:07
So how do we see Christ in a list of frankly obscure names
21:11
like Oohs and Buzz and Rebecca? We have to be careful, of
21:15
course, not to force a clumsy allegory.
21:17
We don't want to say ooze represents the divine nature of
21:20
Christ and buzz represents the human nature.
21:22
That kind of thing is just silly and not helpful.
21:24
But we can and we should look at the typology of the history, the
21:28
patterns that God builds into the story.
21:30
OK, so walk us through that pattern here.
21:32
We begin with Isaac. He has just been offered up on
21:35
the altar and figuratively received back from the dead on
21:38
Mount Moriah. Paul even hints at this in
21:41
Hebrews. So he is a clear type of the
21:44
Son, the beloved son who was offered by his father.
21:47
And a resurrected son, so to speak, requires a bride.
21:50
That's the consistent pattern of Scripture.
21:53
It is not good for the man or the son to be alone, so the
21:57
narrative moves immediately from securing the son to the
22:00
preparation of the bride. Rebecca functions as a type of
22:03
the church. And the Father is the one who
22:05
initiates it all, yes. You have Abraham, the father
22:09
figure in the story, initiating the search.
22:12
He sends his chief servant, who acts as a type of the Holy
22:15
Spirit, to go and retrieve the bride for his son.
22:18
And that servant doesn't go out empty handed.
22:20
No, he goes out with the riches of the Father's house to woo the
22:23
bride. But notice how the doctrine of
22:26
election applies to this picture.
22:28
Just as Rebecca was chosen in a far country before she ever knew
22:31
Isaac, before she had any idea who he was.
22:33
The church was chosen in Christ. Before the foundation of the
22:36
world, as Ephesians 1.4 says, it is a stunning parallel.
22:40
So she is already part of the family in God's mind before she
22:43
even knows the bridegroom exists.
22:46
She belongs to him before they ever meet.
22:48
And then what must she do? The bride must leave her
22:51
father's house. She has to leave the world.
22:54
She knows Nahor's land to be united with the sun.
22:58
It's a perfect picture of conversion.
23:01
We are called to leave our natural state, the world, to be
23:04
united by faith to Christ. And there's a particularity here
23:07
too, which is very important. Very There is only one bride.
23:11
Not all the nations, not the sons, the concubine rumor, not
23:14
the daughters of the Canaanites are the bride.
23:17
The genealogy is exclusive. The focus narrows and narrows
23:20
until it lands on the 1 chosen vessel.
23:23
It's a critique of universalism. Then it.
23:25
Is Christ does not have a harem of different faiths and
23:28
religions. He has one bride, the Church,
23:30
chosen by the Father. So this boring list of names is
23:33
actually sketching out the entire pattern of the gospel.
23:36
It's the structure of redemption and miniature.
23:38
The Father prepares a bride for the Son who was sacrificed and
23:41
raised again. It's all there.
23:42
That's incredible. Now let's bring this down to the
23:45
ground. Let's talk application.
23:46
We've talked about some very high theology.
23:49
What does this mean for the listener who is, you know,
23:53
driving to work right now or doing the dishes well?
23:56
I think the first big idea for us to grab hold of is what I
23:59
call Providence in the periphery.
24:01
OK, what do you mean by that phrase?
24:03
We all tend to think we are the main character in our own story.
24:07
We think God is only working and what we can see right in front
24:10
of our faces in our immediate circumstances.
24:13
But this text shows us that God is the Master Weaver, and He's
24:18
offered working on the backside of the pattern.
24:20
He's working in Mesopotamia while we're stuck in Canaan.
24:23
That's it. He's working in places we can't
24:25
see, orchestrating events we know nothing about.
24:28
So when your life feels like a boring list of names.
24:30
When you feel like you're in a season of waiting.
24:32
When it feels like nothing is happening, and when you feel
24:34
like you're just reading the genealogy of your own life, you
24:37
wake up, you go to work, you come home.
24:39
Repeat. God is active.
24:41
He is preparing things you cannot see.
24:44
It is a total rejection of what you could call main character
24:47
syndrome. I like that God is orchestrating
24:50
things far, far outside our limited field division.
24:54
That is really helpful for anyone struggling with anxiety.
24:57
It's the biblical cure for anxiety.
24:59
Stop trying to manufacture your own outcomes.
25:01
Trust the architect. If God can arrange the birth and
25:04
upbringing of Rebecca hundreds of miles away to answer a prayer
25:08
that Abraham has not even prayed yet, then he can handle your job
25:12
situation. He can handle your family
25:14
dynamic. He can be trusted.
25:16
And Speaking of family, is there a word here specifically for
25:19
parents? I think so.
25:21
Look at Beth Will, Rebecca's father.
25:23
He and his wife Milka, raised their daughter.
25:26
They raised her in such a way that she was ready to go when
25:29
the call came from God. She was a woman of faith in
25:31
action. So there's a value in just
25:35
faithfully raising your children.
25:36
There's immense value in raising children in the faith, preparing
25:39
them to be part of a future covenant household.
25:41
We are preparing the next generation of the church,
25:43
getting them ready for a call we may never see ourselves.
25:46
And for singles, for those who are in that season of waiting
25:49
for a spouse or for any kind of provision.
25:51
I'd go back to that phrase. Silence is not inactivity.
25:55
That should be the banner over this text.
25:57
Just because you do not see the provision, just because the
25:59
report hasn't arrived yet, does not mean the provision doesn't
26:02
exist. God prepares the provision long
26:05
before the need is fully felt. And finally, what about the
26:08
sufficiency of God's Word and all this?
26:10
Yes, we don't need a special mystical voice from heaven.
26:14
For every decision Abraham acted on a credible report, we have
26:18
the ultimate report, the Scriptures.
26:20
It is verifiable, it is true. We don't need to be Mystics.
26:24
We just need to be faithful readers and doers of the report
26:27
God has already sent us in His Word.
26:29
It really does change how you look at the so-called boring
26:31
parts of the Bible. I'm convinced there are no
26:33
boring parts. There are only parts we haven't
26:35
dug deep enough into yet. I love that God of the Shout is
26:39
God of the Whisper. I'm into that Tovajira.
26:42
He provides the sacrifice, and as we see here, he also provides
26:45
the bride. So as we wrap up this deep dive,
26:47
I want to leave our listeners with a final thought to Mull
26:50
over. You mentioned earlier those
26:52
other sons of Nehor, the successful ones, guys like Ooze
26:55
and Buzz. Successful men in their day,
26:57
almost certainly. So probably wealthy leaders of
27:00
powerful clans. Maybe their names were famous in
27:03
their time, but now, all these thousands of years later, they
27:07
are just footnotes in the story of redemption.
27:10
That's all they are, footnotes in the story of Rebecca's
27:12
family, and I think that's the provocative thought for all of
27:16
us. Are we spending our lives
27:18
seeking the success of ooze to be a well regarded footnote in
27:21
history with a lot of stuff? Or are we seeking the union of
27:24
Rebecca to be united by faith with the Sun?
27:27
That is the question. Worldly success or covenantal
27:30
union? I know which one has eternal
27:31
value. Me too.
27:33
Thank you for listening to this deep dive into Genesis 22.
27:36
This has been reformed thinking. We'll see you next time.