Latest / Reformed Thinking / Famine, Surety, and Sovereign Mercy (Genesis 43:1-10)

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Famine, Surety, and Sovereign Mercy (Genesis 43:1-10) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So I want you to imagine
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something for a second. Imagine being backed into a
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corner where your survival, like the actual survival of everyone
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you care about, requires handing over the one thing you love most
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in the world. Wow, yeah, that is a terrifying
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thought. It is right.
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I mean, think about the psychological torment of that
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kind of decision. Every exit is blocked.
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Every resource you had is just. Gone.
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The walls are closing in. Exactly.
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I mean that is spot on. The only way to survive requires
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giving up the one thing you are most desperate to protect.
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So what do you do in that scenario?
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Because that is the actual historical reality we are
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looking at today. We are taking a deep dive into
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two theological essays unpacking Genesis 43 verses one through
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10. And it is a stunning passage of
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Scripture. I mean, when people read this
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section of the Bible, it is very easy to reduce it to, you know,
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just a historical domestic dispute over some grain.
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Right, like a fight over groceries.
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Yeah, you picture a family that's hungry, they need food,
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and they have an argument about the logistics of getting it.
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But when we look at the broader context of what is actually
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happening, we see a stunning display of divine Providence.
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It is way bigger than a food shortage.
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Massively bigger. This is not just bad weather.
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This is a sovereign God actively pushing a desperate family to
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the absolute brink. Wow.
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He is proving the absolute necessity of a mediator and a
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substitutionary pledge when human autonomy totally fails.
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OK, let's untack this because we have to start with the crushing
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weight of the situation. Verse one opens with this
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chilling phrase. The famine was severe in the
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land. Yeah.
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And the essays we are looking at point out that this is not, you
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know, some random meteorological event.
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God is the one who shut the heavens, right?
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This is an intentional decree from the Almighty.
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Precisely to grasp the terror of this moment, you really have to
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look at the historical realities of the ancient Near East.
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The Patriarchs were living in the Levant, in the land of
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Canaan. Which was completely different
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from where they ended up. Totally different.
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That specific geographical region was entirely dependent on
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seasonal rainfall. I mean, they needed the early
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rains in the autumn to soften the ground for plowing, and they
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needed the latter rains in the spring to mature the crops.
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If those rains did not come, agriculture failed immediately.
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There was no backup plan. That is terrifying.
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It is the grass withered, the livestock died, trade stopped
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and the land just fell into catastrophic, life threatening
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drought. I was reading about how scary
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that reliance on rain was for people in the Bronze Age.
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You spend months looking at a cloudless sky, knowing your
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entire existence hangs on weather patterns you cannot
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control at all. Yeah, you are totally helpless.
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But Egypt was entirely different.
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Completely different function as the bread basket of the ancient
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world because they did not rely on the unpredictable seasonal
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rains of Canaan. Because of the river.
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Right, they have the Nile River. The Nile had this predictable
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massive annual flooding. They called it the inundation.
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The river would swell, flood the banks and deposit nutrient dense
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silt across the fields. And they engineered vast
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irrigation canals to trap that water.
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So they were not staring at the sky, begging for rain.
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No, not at all. Because of that reliable system,
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Egypt could engage in large scale grain storage.
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They could produce massive surpluses year after year.
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Which makes the setup here so fascinating, because God
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orchestrates A famine so absolute, so pervasive across
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the entire region that the only place left with any food is
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Egypt. Yeah, the one place they
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probably did not want to go, right?
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God is systematically forcing this specific family, His
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covenant family, to pack up their bags and look toward a
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foreign super for power, for survival.
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And we should look at the specific Hebrew word the author
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uses to describe this famine. The word is caved.
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Caved. OK.
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In our English Bibles it translates to severe, but the
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root of the word conveys A literal heaviness.
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Like physical weight. Yes, it applied a crushing
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physical burden. Think about the physical
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sensation of carrying a load on your back that your knees simply
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cannot support. Wow, that is intense.
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That is the word chosen here. God engineered this famine to
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rest with an unbearable, suffocating weight upon Jacob's
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household. So that brings up a really
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pointed question for you, the listener, to think about.
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Why does God use such extreme, painful measures against his own
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covenant people? It seems counterintuitive,
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doesn't? It totally these are the people
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of the promise. He told Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
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that he would bless them. Why bankrupt them to the point
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of literal starvation? Well, he systematically
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bankrupts Jacob's earthly reserves to strip away his
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self-reliance. Think about Jacob's life up to
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this point. Right, he was always scheming.
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Yeah, he was a man who spent decades accumulating wealth
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through his own cunning and effort.
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I mean, he had massive herds of livestock, he had servants, he
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had property, he had silver. He's a very wealthy man by
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ancient standard. Very wealthy, but in the face of
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this severe, crushing famine, all of his accumulated wealth
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could not produce a single grain of wheat.
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None of it mattered, not one bit.
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The Providence of God created a scenario where Jacob's fleshly
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autonomy was entirely useless. It makes me think of an analogy.
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Trusting in human autonomy during a time of divine judgment
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is like trying to bail out a sinking battleship with a
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plastic teacup. That is a great visual.
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You can scoop as fast as you want, you can put all your sweat
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and effort into it, but the water is still rushing through
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the hull. Earthly resources always fail
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when you are facing spiritual starvation.
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That is a very fitting image. Yeah.
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Jacob's wealth, his strategies, his lifetime of clever
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manipulation. That was his teacup.
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And it was doing nothing against the ocean.
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Right. The ocean of God's severe
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Providence was flooding his ship.
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God removes the possibility of self deliverance.
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He takes away every alternative so that the family is forced to
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look to the one place he is prepared for them.
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But Jacob resists. I mean, when we look at verse 2,
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after they have eaten all the grain from their first trip to
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Egypt, Jacob issues a very telling command.
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He does, he says to his sons, go again, buy us a little food.
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Notice the phrasing there. He wants the benefits of Egypt
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without facing the harsh conditions attached to them.
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Yeah, he says. Buy us a little food.
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Completely ignoring the massive legal requirement hanging over
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their heads. Right, like it is just a quick
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run to the market. He is pretending the mediators
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demand does not exist. From their first trip down to
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Egypt in Genesis 42, the brothers knew the ruler of
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Egypt, who, unknown to them, is their brother Joseph.
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Which is such a crazy plot twist on its own.
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It really is. But Joseph, acting typologically
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as the sovereign who holds the bread of life, issued a non
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negotiable ultimatum. He laid down the.
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Law, they told him flat out, You cannot see my face without
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bringing your youngest brother, Benjamin.
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I have to. Push back here for a second
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though, isn't Jacob just being a good, protective father?
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How so? Well, look at his trauma.
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He believes he already lost Joseph, his favorite son, to
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wild animals. Keeping Benjamin, the only other
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son of his deceased wife Rachel, safe at home seems like basic
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rational caution. If I were in his shoes, I would
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lock my youngest kid in his room and throw away the key.
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On a purely human level, that reaction makes total sense.
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I mean, any parent would feel that way.
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What is fascinating here is that the text reveals something far
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more problematic than mere parental caution.
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Jacob's hesitation is actually fear masquerading his prudence.
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Oh, that is a huge distinction. It is when the brothers remind
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him of the Egyptian rulers demand.
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Jacob complaints. Bitterly, he asks them why did
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you deal so I'll with me? That specific phrasing exposes a
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heart governed by inward focused grief and unbelief.
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Why did you do this to me? It is entirely self-centered.
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Exactly. Oh wait, I mean that is spot on.
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He is not thinking about the starvation of his grandchildren
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or the preservation of the covenant line.
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He is wrapped up in his own perceived victimhood.
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Absolutely. He views the entire providential
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crisis through the narrow lens of his own personal affliction.
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Instead of trusting in God's provision or recognizing the
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reality of the situation, he clings to his idol.
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And Benjamin is that idol. Benjamin is his idol of safety.
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Jacob refuses to submit to the reality of the sovereign's terms
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because he believes he can orchestrate a better outcome by
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maintaining control. He wants the provision without
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surrender, he wants the life saving grain.
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But he refuses to give up his idol.
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Yeah, he wants to dictate the terms of his own rescue.
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And the authors of these essays make a vital connection here
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about the cost of evasion. Jacob's posture exposes a human
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tendency in all of us. Oh, we all do this.
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We really do. We want reconciliation with God
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without the pain of confession. We want grace without yielding
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our idols right. We want God to fix our massive
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problems on our own terms without us having to bow the
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knee. We want a Savior who
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accommodates our preferences, but the sovereign's demands are
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non negotiable. They do not bend.
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No, they don't. And Jacob's delay is not making
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his family any safer. The food is gone.
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His refusal to yield is actively endangering the entire Covenant
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household. Because everyone is starving
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while he stalls. Right.
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He is stalled in this paralyzing fear, hoping the unyielding
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legal standard of the Egyptian ruler will somehow just
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evaporate. But it won't.
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So we have a total deadlock. The father refuses to send the
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son. The Egyptian ruler refuses to
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give food without the son, and the family is starving to death.
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Someone has to break this deadlock.
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And if we look back at the literary context from the
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previous chapter, Genesis 42, Reuben tried to be the hero.
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Oh, Reuben. Yeah, Reuben, the first born,
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stepped up to convince Jacob to let Benjamin go.
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And Reuben's attempt was a catastrophic failure of
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leadership. It really was.
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It is almost comical how bad his pitches.
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Reuben offers this grotesque guarantee.
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He tells Jacob, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to
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thee. It is just wild.
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He literally offers to let Jacob murder his own grandchildren if
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Reuben fails to bring Benjamin back.
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What kind of person thinks that is a persuasive argument?
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I mean, from a legal and analytical standpoint, Reuben's
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proposal is carnal, absurd, and legally void.
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Totally void. Think about the logic.
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If Reuben loses Benjamin, Jacob is devastated.
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How does slaughtering 2 more of Jacob's descendants fix the
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grief of losing Benjamin it makes.
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It so much worse, right? It offers zero actual assurance.
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It is a theatrical, fleshly gesture that accomplishes
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absolutely nothing to solve the underlying crisis.
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Not to mention it is a blatant violation of biblical law.
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Yes, Deuteronomy 24.16 prohibits putting children to death for
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the sins or failures of their fathers.
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So he is offering a sin to fix a problem.
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He is offering an illegal, immoral pledge is the perfect
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picture of how earthly saviors and pragmatic fixes always fall
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short. Because they rely on human
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logic. Exactly.
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I mean, that is it. Reuben represents human attempts
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to negotiate with divine demands using our own flawed, corrupt
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systems of justice. It is like offering your
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neighbor's car as collateral for your mortgage.
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That is a brilliant way to put it.
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It is not yours to destroy, and the bank does not want it
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anyway. Jacob rightfully rejects
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Reuben's nonsense. He ignores him, as he should,
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but the famine is still severe. The grain is gone, the children
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are getting weaker. So we see Judah emerge.
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Judah steps into the gap. Yeah, Judah steps up to bridge
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the massive gap between this starving family in Canaan and
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the unyielding ruler in Egypt. And Judah's approach is entirely
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different from Reuben's. How so?
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Well, Judah frames the absolute impossibility of Jacob's
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request. Using strict, unbending logical
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conditions, he establishes the syntax of truth.
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He. Does not coddle his father's
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irrational fear. Not at all.
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He loves his father enough to tell him the cold hard truth.
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Judah says in essence, if you send him, we go down and get
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food. If you do not send him, we do
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not go down. So simple, but so heavy.
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Judah submits to reality. He refuses to pretend that
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Jacob's vague command to buy a little food can be obeyed.
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As stated, he forces Jacob to look at the unmovable wall in
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front of. Them OK, here's where it gets
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really interesting. Judah does not just state the
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grim facts, he offers a substitutionary solution.
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Yes, the turning. Point right in verse 9 we hit
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the climax of the text. Judah makes a legally binding
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declaration. He tells Jacob I will be surety
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for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
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him. That single sentence carries
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monumental theological weight. It is huge.
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We have to examine the Hebrew verb used there, which is Arab.
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This is not a casual promise. This is not Judas saying, hey
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dad, I'll keep a really close eye on it, my promise.
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This is not an offer to babysit. Far from it.
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The verb Arab appears around 14 times in the Old Testament, and
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it specifically relates to commercial or legal pledging.
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Like putting down collateral. Yes, when we look at extra
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biblical ancient Near Eastern documents, things like the Code
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of Hammurabi or the Newtzee texts, we see that a surety
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assumes actual financial, physical, and judicial
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liabilities for someone else. Let me clarify this with a
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modern comparison for you listening.
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Imagine someone owes a massive unpayable debt.
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OK, they have defaulted and the penalty is severe.
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Maybe prison, maybe worse. Stepping in as a surety means
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you sign a Brandon contract stating that if the original
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debtor defaults, you volunteer to take the full legal penalty
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upon yourself. You take the hit.
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Right. Your assets, your freedom, your
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very life are on the line. That's right.
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In the ancient world, if the original debtor defaulted, the
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surety was punished in their place.
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That often meant the surety would be stripped of their
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property, sold into harsh slavery, or even executed.
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It was a literal transfer of liability, yes.
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Judy is making a legally structured declaration of
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substitution. He is saying count Benjamin's
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failure as my failure. Punish me in his place.
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I was reading the grammatical breakdown of this verse in the
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source material, and the Hebrew syntax is incredibly striking.
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The structure uses the independent pronoun enoki, which
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translates to I, but it is placed before the verb for
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maximum emphasis. So he is really underlining his
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own involvement. Right.
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Judah's declaring I myself will be the surety.
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It is a bold, unilateral acceptance of responsibility.
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And he doesn't stop there. No.
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Then he uses the verb bakash, which translates to require or
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demand. By saying of my hand shalt thou
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require him. He accepts enduring blame.
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The blame rests entirely on him. Yes, the word bequash is often
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used in context, acknowledging that blood is demanded for a
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life. So he is putting his own life on
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the chopping block. He takes full sacrificial
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responsibility for his brother. And then he follows up that
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pledge with a sharp rebuke to his father, which I find
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fascinating. He points out the devastating
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cost of stalling. Judah tells Jacob if we had not
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delayed, we would now have returned twice.
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That is a piercing observation. It really hits hard.
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Delayed obedience is a form of disobedience, and it only
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intensifies the crisis. Jacob's fear wasted precious
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time. The clock was ticking.
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And the family did not become any safer while Jacob stalled.
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In fact, the starvation grew worse, their physical bodies
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grew weaker, and their brother Simeon remained rotting in an
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Egyptian prison cell. Because they left him behind on
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the first trip as collateral. Exactly.
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I mean, right, He was just sitting there in chains while
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Jacob rustled with his fears. It is a stark reminder that
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indefinite caution is not wisdom.
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Sometimes counting the cost is just an excuse to postpone
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obedience to God. Very true.
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So Judah makes this massive pledge.
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He puts himself in the crosshairs of his father's
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potential wrath and the Egyptian rulers judgment.
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But why is this specific detail so crucial to the biblical
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narrative? We have to ask how the original
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audience would have understood this text.
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The people Moses was writing to. Right.
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The original hearers were the Israelites wandering in the
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wilderness under the leadership of Moses.
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Moses recorded this history for them.
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And they were not exactly a brave bunch.
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Not at all. Those Israelites in the desert
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were incredibly prone to fear, to grumbling against God, and to
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wanting to run back to the false security of Egypt.
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They were acting just like Jacob, terrified of the unknown
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and clinging to what they could control.
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Yes, they were constantly paralyzed by fear masquerading
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as prudence. Let's go back to Egypt.
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At least we had leeks and onions.
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Right. They preferred slavery with food
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over freedom with uncertainty. So Moses recorded this narrative
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to humble them, to show them the foolishness of resisting God's
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severe Providence. But there is a secondary reason
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too, right? A vital reason this text
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demonstrates precisely why the Davidic line and eventually the
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royal scepter would run through the tribe of Judah.
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Not ribbon, the first born, right?
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Reuben disqualified himself morally by sleeping with his
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father's concubine and practically by offering foolish,
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ungodly solutions like killing his own sons.
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So God elevates Judah, Yes. Why?
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Because God honors the one willing to act as a sacrificial
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substitute for His brethren. Judah, despite his own deeply
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flawed history, which we see earlier with Tamar, steps into
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the role of a responsible representative.
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That is a huge turning point. This moment shapes the entire
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tribal future of Israel. The kingly line will come from
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the one who offered himself as a surety.
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Which brings us to the theological apex of this entire
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discussion. How does this ancient
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agricultural crisis, this family drama over a grain shortage in
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the Bronze Age, point directly to the Gospel?
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This raised an important question for the early church as
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well. The connection is found in the
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concept of the guarantor. The guarantor.
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If we look at Hebrews Chapter 7, verse 22, the writer of Hebrews
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identifies Jesus using the Greek equivalent of the surety
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concept. Wow, OK.
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The word is aegwells. The text calls Jesus the surety
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of better covenant. So Judah is a shadow, a
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prototype of what is to come. Judah is the shadow, Christ is
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the substance. Let's trace the parallels
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because they are striking. Let's hear them.
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Judah stepped forward in the midst of a deadly famine, and
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said, I will be sure T for him of my hand shalt thou require
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him. He anticipated the wrath of his
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Father if he failed right before the foundation of the world.
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God the Son stepped forward in the eternal counsel of the
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Trinity and effectively said to the Father, I will be the surety
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for your elect. People require their unpayable
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debt from my hand. That is an incredible parallel.
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The theological depth there is staggering.
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It really is. But the essays we reviewed are
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careful to contrast the shadow with the substance because they
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are not identical. Right, the substance is far
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greater. Judah offered to bear potential
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blame before an earthly father and a human ruler in Egypt.
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But Christ, Christ actually became sin. 2nd Corinthians 5.21
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tells us He became sin for us. He satisfied the terrifying
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justice of the holy God. Furthermore, Judah risk failure.
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I mean, he made a noble, courageous pledge, but he was
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just a flawed human being. He had no control over the
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outcome. None.
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He could not control the famine, He could not control the
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Egyptian rulers mind. He could not guarantee the
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outcome by his own sovereign will.
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He was just rolling the dice hoping it worked out.
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Christ, on the other hand, infallibly accomplished
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redemption. Yes, He did not bear possible
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blame. He bore the actual, real guilt
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of His people on the cross. He successfully, perfectly
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secured their safe passage. So Judah says I will try to
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bring him back. Jesus says I will lose none of
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those the Father has given me, and I will raise them up on the
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last day. Spot on.
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The shadow trembles, but the substance reigns supreme.
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I love that the human inability exposed in Genesis 43 finds its
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total answer in Christ. Think about Benjamin in all of
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this. Yeah, he doesn't even speak in
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this scene. Benjamin was helpless.
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He could not negotiate with Joseph.
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He could not secure his own grain.
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He was a mute participant in this scene, entirely dependent
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on Judah's pledge to save his life.
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That is such a good picture of us.
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In the exact same way, we are entirely bankrupt.
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We face a severe famine of divine justice.
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We cannot approach the sovereign of the universe on our own
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merit. Because our righteous deeds are
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filthy rags. Yes, we need a mediator willing
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to take our legal liability. So what does this all mean for
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us today? We have to bring this ancient
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text into our current reality. Application is crucial here.
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Right. Reading through this research
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challenges us to ask a very difficult question.
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What Benjamin are you clutching right now?
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Every person has an idol of safety or autonomy that they
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refuse to surrender to God. It could be anything.
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It might be your wealth, your your intellect, your reputation,
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your career trajectory, or even your control over your family's
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future. We hold on to them so tightly,
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we. Cling to these things firmly
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believing they will preserve us when the famine hits.
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We are terrified of what will happen if we unclench our fists
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and let God dictate the terms. But the severe Providence of God
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will orchestrate circumstances to forcibly pry your fingers off
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those idols. Which hurts.
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It hurts a lot. The text we are studying
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vigorously attack the prosperity gospel right here.
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Oh, this is a huge point. The prosperity gospel fails
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completely when faced with the Genesis 43.
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Why? Because covenant blessing in
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this passage travels straight through starvation, danger, and
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severe agonizing distress. The prosperity teachers would
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say God just wants Jacob to have an abundant harvest right there
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in Canaan. Just speak it into existence.
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Right. No struggle, no pain, just
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immediate financial breakthrough.
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Just claim the grain and it will appear in your barn.
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But that is false. God prioritizes our holiness
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over our immediate physical comfort.
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He is more concerned with our character.
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Yes, he uses the severe famine to break Jacob's pride to
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confront the hidden, unconfessed sins of the brothers regarding
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what they did to Joseph decades earlier.
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Because they still had that guilt hanging over them.
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They did, and he uses the famine to force the entire family into
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a posture of absolute reliance on a mediator.
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It also completely dismantles seeker sensitive pragmatism,
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which I think is fascinating also.
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Well, this is the modern church mindset that tries to negotiate
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God's strict terms, trying to soften the blow of the law to
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make the gospel more appealing to the culture.
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Oh yeah, but the text shows us that the sovereign's demands are
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entirely non negotiable. Joseph said You shall not see my
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face unless your brother is with you.
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God demands perfect, flawless righteousness.
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No. Exception.
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He does not negotiate with sinners.
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You cannot come to the Father except through the Son.
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Pragmatism tries to find a back door, right?
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Like a clever marketing strategy to get the grain without
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submitting to the ruler's absolute decree.
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But there is no back door to the Kingdom of heaven.
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So if that is how it applies to our salvation, how does this
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text apply to modern leadership? What does this mean for the way
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we operate in our homes, our businesses, and our local
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congregations? It speaks volumes about biblical
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headship. True leaders, whether they are
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husbands, fathers or elders in a church, do not act like Reuben.
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Right offering theatrical but practically useless solutions
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that cost them nothing. And they do not act like Jacob,
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shifting blame, throwing pity parties and complaining about
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their circumstances. Why did you deal?
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So I'll with me. True leaders do not do that.
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True leaders look at the crisis, step forward into the firing
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line and say require it of my hand.
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They take sacrificial responsibility for those under
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their care. They really do.
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They do not hide behind busyness or hobbies while their
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households starve spiritually. They tell the hard truth, they
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face reality, and they bear the burden of the consequences.
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And yet, even as the text challenges our false security
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and our passive leadership, it offers immense comfort for the
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weary believer. How so?
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Because honestly, this passage feels incredibly heavy.
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I mean, the famine is severe, the demands are strict, the
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stakes are life and death. Where is the comfort in all of
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this? The comfort lies in
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understanding the end of the story from the perspective of
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God's hidden Providence. OK, unpack that.
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Jacob is terrified. He feels bereaved, cornered and
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victimized, but God is not against him.
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He is for him. Joseph is alive.
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Provision is already waiting in Egypt.
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The path of extreme anguish is actually the very path God
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designed for their total restoration.
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The hidden Providence of God is infinitely wiser than our
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visible calculations, yes. We look at Romans 8.32, which
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proves that the God who did not spare his own Son, but delivered
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him up for us all, will also freely give us all things.
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That is such a good verse to bring in here.
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The same sovereign hand that sends the heavy trials, the
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severe famines and the crushing circumstances into our lives has
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already provided the grain of life.
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Because Christ completely satisfied the Father's demands.
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So you are freed from the paralyzing panic that gripped
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Jacob. You do not have to live in
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terror of the future because your surety has already secured
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your standing. You can trust the severe mercy
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of God. Amen.
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Let's summarize the ground we have covered today.
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We started with a starving family in Canaan, desperately
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clinging to a false sense of autonomy in the face of a
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crushing, divinely ordained famine.
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A heavy, heavy burden. We saw a traumatized father
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refusing to yield his idol of safety.
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We saw the absolute failure of pragmatic, fleshly solutions
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offered by Reuben. And then the turning point.
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Right. Finally, we witnessed the severe
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mercy of God that forces a deadlock requiring total
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reliance on a willing substitutionary pledge from
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Judah A. Legal pledge that points
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directly to the ultimate guarantor, Jesus Christ.
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Who took our total liability? He.
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Fully satisfied the Sovereign's righteous demands and infallibly
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secured our safe passage into the presence of God.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you with one final
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provocative thought to Mull over on your own throughout this
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entire agonizing ordeal. While Jacob delayed, while Ruben
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made foolish offers, while they dragged their feet for weeks or
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maybe even months, refusing to surrender Benjamin, think about
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Simeon. Simeon.
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Simeon was left sitting in an Egyptian prison cell the entire
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time. Consider how often your own
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stalling, your own stubborn refusal to surrender your idols
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of control to the true surety, inflicts pain and distress on
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those around you. That is a hard truth.
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You wait and wait for a painless path, a comfortable path God
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never promised to give you. And all the while your delay
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carries a heavy cost for your family and your community.
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Surrender the illusion of control and trust the surety.
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Thanks for listening.