Latest / Reformed Thinking / Providence Disguised in Power: Joseph His Brothers and the Hidden Mercy of God (Genesis 42:6-7)

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Providence Disguised in Power: Joseph His Brothers and the Hidden Mercy of God (Genesis 42:6-7) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. Today we are taking a hefty
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stack of sources, so theological commentaries, ancient Near
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Eastern historical records, and writings from the Puritan
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Richard Sibs, and we're going to look at a pretty terrifying
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scenario. Oh.
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It is the worst. Yeah, think about this for a
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second. Imagine you think you committed
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the perfect crime. You got rid of a massive
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problem, You covered your tracks, you kept your mouth shut
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for 20 solid years and you think you were totally in the clear.
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You think it is over? Right, But then you are forced
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out of town on this mundane errand to buy groceries, only to
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realize the absolute dictator staring you down from the throne
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is the very person you sold into slavery.
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Yeah, that is without a doubt the worst family reunion in
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human history. Oh, for sure.
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It is the absolute definition of a divine reckoning.
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I mean, we are looking at Genesis chapter 40, 2 versus
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6:00 and 7:00 today, which details a scenario where a
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buried secret is forcibly dragged into the light.
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And it is wild how we assume time acts like a thick blanket.
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You made a terrible, wicked decision.
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You cover it up, the years roll by and the sheer volume of days
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and months seems to smother the guilt out.
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Right, you just go back to managing your flocks.
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You look your grieving father in the eye across the dinner table.
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You build a routine around the silence.
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Exactly. I mean, you build a life on top
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of it. That routine feels safe.
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But then you step into the framework of divine Providence,
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and that thick blanket is pulled back completely.
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So in this deep dive, we're going to look closely at how the
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sovereign decree of God operates behind the scenes of human
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history. Yeah, we are going to see how
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God brings guilty consciences out of hiding through what can
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look to the naked eye like an absolute disaster.
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Which is highly relatable for anyone.
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I mean for you listening, dealing with the secret you
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thought was dead and buried, only to have circumstances RIP
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it wide open. Right.
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And to grasp the gravity of this, we really need to look at
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the setup. A massive catastrophic famine
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has hit the entire Mediterranean basin.
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And we really need to establish the brutal historical reality of
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the ancient Near East here to grasp the sheer desperation of
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this moment. Because we are talking about the
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Bronze Age. Yeah.
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So when we hear the word famine in our modern context, we might
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think of, you know, a temporary supply chain hiccup.
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Or maybe inflation driving up grocery prices?
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Right. But in the patriarchal era, an
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Agricultural Society was entirely dependent on seasonal
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rains. Famine was an existential
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threat. It meant the total annihilation
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of your family line. And the sources note that even
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today, over 300 million people face acute food insecurity
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globally, which really strips away the veneer of modern
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self-sufficiency it. Really does.
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But in the ancient world, when the rains failed year after
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year, entire civilizations collapsed.
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So the Canaanite economy was just entirely reliant on the
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climate. The brothers are literally
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starving. They're pushed to the brink of
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death. But there was one massive
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exception on the map Egypt. Right.
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Egypt was nourished by the Nile River, which provided a reliable
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annual inundation. But this specific survival was
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not just geographic luck. No, they had a plan.
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They had executed a massive centralized 7 year grain
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hoarding operation under the direction of Joseph.
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They built these massive silo complexes.
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Yeah, they instituted A draconian tax to stockpile
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surplus wheat and barley during the seven years of plenty.
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Think about the logistics of that for a second.
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I mean, imagine a total global supply chain collapse today, OK,
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the distribution centers are barren.
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The trucks have stopped running. The fields are dead.
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Now imagine only one single corporation holds the keys to
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all the remaining warehouses on Earth.
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That is the level of absolute control Egypt possessed over the
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known world. They were the sole superpower.
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Holding a total monopoly on human life in the region.
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That is an incredibly accurate parallel, honestly.
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Yeah, Egypt wielded unassailable economic and political
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dominance, and the brothers representing the chosen covenant
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family of Abraham are on the brink of starvation.
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The promised seed. Right, the line from which the
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Messiah is prophesied to come is facing the literal possibility
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of dying out in the drought. So they are forced to travel
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down to Egypt to buy grain. And they are completely unaware
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that this physical crisis is an orchestrated divine summons.
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They think they are managing an agricultural disaster.
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But God is using a geopolitical catastrophe to deal with their
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spiritual bankruptcy. Wait, I have to push back here
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because this brings up a massive tension.
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OK, go ahead. When we look at catastrophic
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events like a massive drought covering the entire
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Mediterranean basin that kills thousands of people, how do we
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distinguish between natural disasters?
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You know, just random meteorological shifts and
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calculated divine Providence. That is a fair question.
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I mean are you suggesting God starved nations just to get 10
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specific guys to walk into a specific room?
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Well, according to the theological framework we are
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working from today, we do not draw a harsh line between
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natural events and divine orchestration.
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OK, the Westminster Confession articulates this brilliantly.
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God governs all creatures, actions, and things from the
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greatest even to the least. From the greatest to the least.
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Right, so the text shows that no circumstance operates outside of
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his holy will. The famine was not a random
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meteorological event. It was a divine instrument.
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Yes, the God of Scripture uses shifting weather patterns,
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economic monopolies, and severe physical deprivation to bring
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his decrees to pass. It is staggering to think about
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the scale of that. God uses the collapse of
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international agriculture to execute his redemptive plan for
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one specific family. It really is The brothers are
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just trying to find bread to survive.
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They're following their their empty stomachs, but God is
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utilizing their physical hunger to set up a courtroom scene for
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their hidden sins. It shatters our small localized
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views of how Providence operates.
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We tend to think of Providence in terms of, you know, finding a
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good parking spot. Right.
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Or getting a promotion at work. Yeah, but here the Lord shuts up
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the heavens over the entire Near East.
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He alters the global economy. He brings the surrounding
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nations to their knees, all to force 10 shepherds from Canaan
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to take a specific trek to the Nile Delta.
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So these ten brothers take that trek, they walk into this
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administrative center in Egypt, and we hit the literary hinge of
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the entire narrative, spanning from Genesis 37 all the way to
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chapter 50. Moses structures this historical
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record with incredible intention.
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Chapters 37 through 50 form a cohesive narrative.
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And this specific passage, Genesis 42.6 to 7 is the
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climactic pivot point. It is in chapter 37 we saw these
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same brothers violently mocking their younger siblings dreams.
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They hated him for his prophetic visions.
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They stripped him of his coat, they threw him in a pit, sat
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down to eat lunch while he screamed for mercy and
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essentially said, well, let us see what becomes of his dreams
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now. And now, 2 decades later, they
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are brought to fulfill those very dreams.
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They walk into Egypt and the text says Joseph was the
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governor over the land. Right?
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But we need to look at the original Hebrew syntax there,
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because the English translations can soften the reality of his
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authority. They definitely soften it.
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The Hebrew text declares Joseph was the shallot over the land
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Shallot. Yeah.
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The term shallot denotes a dictator or an absolute
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autocrat. It signifies a master whose word
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is uncontested law. Wow.
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In the extra biblical usage of the ancient Near East, this
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points to a sovereign who holds the absolute ability to grant
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life or or execute judgement on a whim.
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Right, so they are not just walking into a local DMV to get
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food stamps. No, definitely not.
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They are standing in front of an absolute dictator who can
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execute them for looking at him wrong.
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Joseph is the vizier, second only to Pharaoh.
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The syntax places him at the absolute zenith of human
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authority. So they walk in, they see this
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terrifying shallot, and what do they do?
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The text says they bowed down before him with their faces to
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the earth. The Hebrew verb used here is
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shasha, and Moses uses a very specific form of that word, the
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hishtophel stem. OK, what does that mean
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practically? It means this is not just a
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casual nod of respect or a polite curtsy.
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It means to prostate oneself entirely, touching the nose and
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face to the dirt. It is a posture of absolute
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terrifying submission. And total vulnerability, yeah.
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Here is the shocker for anyone reading this narrative closely.
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That is the precise verb used 20 years prior in Genesis 37.
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Yes, when the teenage Joseph described his prophetic dreams,
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the sheaves of grain bowing down, the sun, moon and stars
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bowing down, Moses used that exact same verb, sheka.
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And the brothers hated him for that word.
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They plotted to murder him over that word, and now they're
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performing it with their own bodies.
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They intended to bury Joseph and his dreams forever in the dirt
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of Canaan. But instead, their wicked
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actions were the very vehicle God used to elevate him.
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Right, they provided the transportation to Egypt when
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they sold him to the Midianite traders.
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It makes me think of playing against a master chess player.
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Oh, that is a good analogy. Imagine you are up against
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someone incredibly aggressive. They're making all these
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hostile, violent moves trying to take your pieces thinking they
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are winning the board. But the master chess player is
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not just reacting. No, he is actually using the
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opponent's own aggressive moves to force them into an
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inescapable checkmate. The brothers thought they were
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making a victorious move by selling Joseph, but God used
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their wicked action to set up this very moment.
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That captures the dynamic perfectly, but we need to
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clarify their internal state at this moment when they were
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bowing down with their faces in the dirt.
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This is not an act of repentance.
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They did not suddenly realize their sin and fall down in
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sorrow before the Lord. Not at all.
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They are completely oblivious. They bowed because their
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stomachs were empty. They had absolutely no other
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choice for survival. They thought they were simply
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following the protocol of petitioners before a terrifying
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Egyptian bureaucrat. It was an unwitting submission,
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and that exposes the utter futility of rebelling against
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God's plans. The world often assumes that
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wicked actions can successfully thwart the plans of God.
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We think human autonomy can derail the divine blueprint.
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But here we see that God brings His enemies into subjection with
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absolute precision. Even in their rebellion, they
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are utilized to fulfill the divine decree.
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They are face down in the dirt, acting out the prophecy they
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tried to kill. Which brings us to the irony of
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recognition. Yes, let us.
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Look at the concept of the sleeping lion of conscience.
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The sources quote the great preacher Charles Haddon
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Spurgeon. A fantastic quote.
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Yeah, he said. That guilty conscience is a
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sleeping lion that God can awaken with the slightest rustle
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of His Providence. A sleeping lion looks harmless.
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It is quiet. You can tiptoe around it for
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years, go about your daily business and pretend it is not
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dangerous. The brothers managed their guilt
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by suppressing it. They deceived their father
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Jacob, presenting him with a blood soaked coat, and then they
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lived with that lie for two decades.
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Think about the psychological burden of those 20 years.
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Every time Jacob wept for Joseph, they had to sit there
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and watch. It must have been agonizing.
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Every time they passed a pit in the wilderness, every time they
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saw a caravan of traitors, the memory must have flashed in
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their minds. But sinners deceive themselves
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into thinking that passing time weakens moral responsibility.
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We think, oh, if I do not get caught in the first five years,
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the statute of limitations has expired, I am in the clear.
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But God's justice does not operate on a human statute of
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limitations. No, it does not.
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The conscience may sleep through a process of intense
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compartmentalization, but it does not die unless it is
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completely hardened by final judgement.
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So true. The Lord arranged a specific day
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where these men would stand directly before the brother they
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wronged. And the text highlights an
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incredible imbalance of knowledge in verse 7, using a
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brilliant Hebrew morphology around the root word neckar.
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Right. Moses places two different stems
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of the same root side by side in the narrative.
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First we have Wayakuram. Yes, the he Phil Stem.
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Which indicates clear active identification.
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Joseph saw them and he recognized them clearly.
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He knows who they are, what they did, the specific roles each
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brother played in his betrayal, and the entire history they
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share. Then Moses uses the same real
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word again right next to it. Wei Yitnacker.
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Wei Yitnacker. Yeah, this is the hip pale stem,
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which is reflexive. It means he deliberately
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disguised himself where he made himself a stranger to them.
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He recognized them, but he made himself unrecognized, right?
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It is like standing in an interrogation room looking at a
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one way mirror. You are the suspect sitting in
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the metal chair. You look at the glass and you
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only see your own reflection, or maybe the faint outline of a
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stranger, but the person on the other side of the glass sees
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every single bead of sweat on your forehead.
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Exactly. They have your entire file.
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They know every detail of who you are and everything you have
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done. That earthly confrontation is a
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direct mirror of divine omniscience.
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The brothers feel anonymous. They think they're just faces in
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a massive crowd of famine refugees begging for grain.
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But the hidden center always stands before a God who sees
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right through the disguise of time and silence.
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The terror of omniscience is staggering.
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Joseph possesses all the facts. He knows the dreams.
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He knows the betrayal. He knows their identities.
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And they know nothing. Yeah, they are completely in the
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dark. And when Joseph looks at them,
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the past violently rushes into the present.
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We might expect a highly emotional breakdown here.
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A tearful reunion. Yeah, Hollywood would script
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this with sweeping music, a big group hug and immediate
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reconciliation, but instead we get this shocking response from
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Joseph. The text says he spoke roughly
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to them. The Hebrew word is kashat.
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It implies fierce, unyielding harshness.
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He assumes a posture of severe distance.
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He accuses them of being spy who have come to see the nakedness
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of the land. It is an aggressive, hostile
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interrogation designed to put them incredibly off balance.
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Completely off balance. I want to challenge this action
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from Joseph, actually, because in our modern culture, a culture
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that heavily prizes emotional comfort, immediate resolution,
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and, you know, moving on from conflict, this looks like
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vindictive revenge. They can see how people would
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read it that way. If someone wrongs you terribly
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and 20 years later you get the upper hand and treat them with
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aggressive harshness, we call that petty retaliation.
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How is this not just Joseph abusing his unchecked authority
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to get even? Well, if we read this without
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understanding the nature of true repentance, it certainly looks
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like malice. But this is a calculated
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redemptive severity. Redemptive severity.
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Yes, Joseph is acting as a wise physician of the soul.
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A physician knows that if a patient has a deeply infected
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necrotic wound, you cannot just put a bandage over it, give them
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a painkiller and tell them everything is fine.
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No, you have to take a scalpel and cut it open.
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You have to aggressively clean out the infection and that
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process is excruciating. Joseph knows that cheap,
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immediate grace would leave their deeply rooted sin
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completely untouched. Peace without truth is just a
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covered wound. Right.
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If he just revealed himself immediately and said hey guys,
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water under the bridge, let us eat, they would have never been
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forced to confront the wickedness of what they did.
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They would have remained men capable of murdering their own
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own brother. He needs to test them.
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He needs to see if they are the same men who sold him 20 years
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ago. Will they abandoned their
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youngest brother Benjamin the way they abandoned him?
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This narrative aggressively confronts the modern tagmatic
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philosophy we see today. We want quick emotional
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resolution. We refuse to deal with the
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conscience. We confuse Christian forgiveness
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with the immediate removal of all consequences and boundaries.
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The biblical mercy does not flatter the impenitent.
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It wounds in order to heal. And that brings up a massive
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concept from the sources regarding the doctrine of
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affliction. The Puritan writer Richard Sibbs
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wrote about the bruised Reed, explaining that God often
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bruises people to heal them. Yeah, he uses the concept of the
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heavy plow of the wall. Yes, the heavy plow.
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I was reading through the source material from SIBBS and he
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brings up this concept and honestly at first glance it
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sounds incredibly brutal. Why would a physician of the
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soul use an iron plow on someone?
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Think about a farmer preparing a field for planting.
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If the ground is hard packed down and fallow, throwing seed
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on it does absolutely no good. The.
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Seed just sits on the hard surface and the birds eat it.
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Exactly. The farmer has to take a heavy,
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sharp iron plow and violently RIP the ground open.
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It looks destructive. It looks hostile to the soil.
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But that rough treatment breaks up the fallow ground of the
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heart so the gospel can actually take root and grow.
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So Joseph's harshness, quashot speech, his accusation of
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espionage is the plow. He is bringing the crushing
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weight of the law to bear upon their consciences, so that the
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guilt of their sin cannot be denied or ignored any longer.
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He is forcing them into a corner where their own guilt will hunt
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them down. And we see this principle apply
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universally when Providence frowns.
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When circumstances are incredibly difficult, Faith has
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to look behind the mask of circumstance.
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We often think hardship means God is angry or absent.
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We view life through a secular lens and just see the loss.
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But through the lens of Providence, hardship is often
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God breaking down our self-sufficiency.
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He is starving our pride to prepare the heart for true
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grace. It is a severe mercy.
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God strips away our health, our finances, or our comfortable
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routines. He brings us into a famine to
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force us to rely entirely upon His grace.
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To fully grasp the weight of this, we have to think about who
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originally heard this story. Genesis was not written in a
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vacuum, right? Moses wrote this historical
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account for a specific audience, the Israelites, who are
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wandering in the Sinai wilderness after the exodus from
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Egypt. If the brothers felt this
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crushing weight of a guilty conscience, imagine being the
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original audience reading this text for the first time.
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Yeah, you are an Israelite. You are currently starving in a
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barren desert. You are dealing with your own
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version of physical deprivation, and Moses hands you this story.
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And that group was highly prone to grumbling.
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They struggled constantly with idolatry.
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They doubted God's goodness whenever they lacked water or
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food in the desert. They kept saying they wanted to
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give up and go back to Egypt. Moses uses this account to issue
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a Stark reality check. Be sure your sin will find you.
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Out because the brothers in the story represent the patriarchs
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of the 12 tribes. These are their revered
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ancestors. The original audience needed to
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learn that God's justice never slumbers.
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They could not hide their rebellion, their secret golden
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calves, their quiet grumbling from the all seeing eye of
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Yahweh. The guilt of the brothers caught
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up to them after 20 years. Moses is showing the wilderness
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generation that geographical distance and passing decades do
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not cancel out divine justice. But it was not just a terrifying
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warning, it was also meant to be an immense comfort in the
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darkness. They're in a harsh, unforgiving
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desert. By hearing how God used a
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devastating regional catastrophe in the past to exalt a Hebrew
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slave and preserve the entire Messianic line, it was meant to
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shatter their current doubts. It proved that God is perfectly
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capable of sustaining his people in a barren wasteland.
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If God could feed their ancestors by putting the brother
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they betrayed on the throne of the most powerful empire on
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earth, He can certainly provide water from a rock and manna from
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the sky in Sinai. Yes, Moses wanted them to
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recognize that the same God who masterfully brought the guilty
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brothers to their knees in Egypt was currently reigning over
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their encampment in the desert. But this brings up a massive
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theological debate. The sources highlight a nuanced
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tension here regarding human will.
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Oh, the tension is definitely there.
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We have the brothers acting out of their own free agency, doing
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wicked things, throwing Joseph in a pit, ignoring his cries.
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But we also have God decreeing this entire situation.
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I have to stop you here because it sounds like a massive
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contradiction. If God orchestrated this famine
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and arranged for them to sell Joseph to bring them all to
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Egypt, are they not just puppets?
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That is the core objection. How can they be held guilty if
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God used their actions to save the covenant family?
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That is the objection to the doctrine of compatibilism.
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But compatibilism teaches that divine sovereignty and human
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responsibility are not mutually exclusive.
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They run parallel. OK, break that down.
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The brothers acted freely according to their wicked
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natures. God did not force them to hate
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Joseph. He did not inject malice into
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their hearts. They acted exactly as they
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desire to act, yes. They sold him because they
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wanted to sell him. So they are fully responsible
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for the moral weight of their choices.
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Completely responsible, but at the same time God
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compatibilistically governed their actions to bring about
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salvation. He foreordained whatsoever comes
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to pass, yet without becoming the author of sin or doing
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violence to the will of the creatures.
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That is spot on. He used their free wicked
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choices as the exact instruments to position Joseph in Egypt.
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The brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
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This destroys two major misconceptions modern people
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hold. First, it destroys the illusion
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of unchecked human autonomy. Oh, we love to think we are the
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absolute masters of our destiny, acting independently of any
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higher authority. We think our choices dictate the
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universe. And second, it destroys A
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paralyzing fear of a chaotic, unguided universe.
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Because if you believe the world is just random atoms colliding,
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then a massive famine is just a meaningless tragedy.
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A betrayal by your family is just senseless pain.
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But if God is sovereign even over the wicked actions of men
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and the failures of the climate, then the believer can have
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unshakable confidence that every ounce of suffering is being
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utilized for a massive redemptive purpose.
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As we read this narrative, it becomes clear that it does not
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simply relate ancient history, it anticipates a much larger
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reality. We have to read this through a
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redemptive lens. We must look at the
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Christological shadow of this text.
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Yes, and without falling into unchecked or artificial
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allegorizing, we can clearly see the typological patterns the
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Holy Spirit has established. Joseph stands as one of the most
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vivid types of Christ in the entire Old Testament.
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The parallels are striking and firmly rooted in the text.
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Let us trace those parallels. Just as Joseph was the beloved
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Son of his Father, sent to check on the welfare of his brethren,
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yet utterly rejected by them, so too was the Lord Jesus Christ
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despised and rejected by His own people.
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Joseph was stripped of his coat, sold for 20 pieces of silver,
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the price of a slave, and handed over to gentiles in Egypt.
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Jesus Christ was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, handed over to
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the Roman authorities, stripped of his garments and crucified.
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But the pattern does not end in the pit or the tomb.
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Right. The pattern reaches its
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crescendo in massive exaltation. Joseph was raised from a
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forgotten dark dungeon to the right hand of Pharaoh.
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He became the supreme ruler, the Shallot, and the sole dispenser
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of the Bread of Life for the known starving world.
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And Christ was raised from the dead, exalted to the right hand
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of the Father, and given all authority in heaven and on
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earth. He is the true dispenser of the
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bread of life. The typological correspondence
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is textually warranted in Genesis 42.
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The rejected one has become the ruler before whom the guilty
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must bow. That anticipates the reality
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outlined in Philippians, that at the name of Jesus every knee
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will bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those
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under the earth. The sources also offer a
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specific dispensational perspective on this prophetic
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foreshadowing, specifically regarding the two advents of
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Christ. Looking at the distinction
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between the 1st and 2nd coming provides A fascinating angle.
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During the first Advent, when Jesus came to national Israel,
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they did not recognize Him as the Savior.
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His true identity was veiled to them.
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He appeared as a stranger, much like Joseph appeared as an
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unrecognizable Egyptian stranger to his brothers in verse 7.
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So if that first meeting where they do not recognize him
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represents the first Advent, what does this massive force
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return do to the famine point toward prophetically?
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Well, from this perspective, it foreshadows a future
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eschatological reality. The brothers were forced by the
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Great Famine, a period of intense tribulation, to come
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back to Joseph. OK, in the future, during a time
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of unprecedented global distress often referred to as Jacob's
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trouble, national Israel will be subjected to severe dealings.
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And that severe dealing, that intense pressure, forces them to
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look for the savior. They previously rejected it.
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Forces them to look upon the one they pierced.
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The prophet Zechariah speaks to this in Zechariah 12.10,
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prophesying that the Lord will pour out a spirit of grace and
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supplication, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for
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an only son in true recognition. The.
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Brothers bowing down to the unrecognized Joseph prefigures
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the day when Israel will finally recognize the brother they
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rejected. It is a stunning picture.
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That brings us to the application for you, the
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listener, because while the geopolitical history, the
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psychological terror, and the prophetic typology are
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fascinating to study, this text makes a direct, unyielding
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demand on our lives today. The physical need for grain in
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Egypt is just a shadow of the spiritual need for a savior.
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The brothers needed food for their dying bodies, but far more
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desperately, they needed forgiveness for their condemned
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souls. And understanding that requires
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us to cast aside the modern psychological paradigms that
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treat guilt as a toxic emotion to be simply therapized away.
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We live in a culture that treats guilt like a common cold.
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It is viewed as a disease. You just need the right
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medication, the right self-care routine, or the right
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affirmation to eliminate. We are constantly told do not
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feel bad about yourself. You are perfect the way you are.
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Forgive yourself. Biblical theology teaches
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something entirely different. Guilt is not a disease, it is a
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divine alarm clock. Yes, it is a manifestation of
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the law written on the human heart, intended to wake you up
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out of your spiritual slumber and drive you to repentance.
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If you try to silence your guilt with constant distractions,
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substance abuse, or false psychological comforts, you are
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ignoring the severe mercy of God.
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You cannot just move on from sin.
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Time does not heal moral failure.
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You have to bring it into the light.
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The brothers had to approach the true ruler of the land.
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And how did they come? They came completely empty
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handed. Well, they brought sacks of
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money with them, but in the end their money was completely
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useless for purchasing true reconciliation.
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The grain was given and the money was returned to their
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sacks. They had to abandon their
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excuses. They had to be stripped of their
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self righteousness and their pride.
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And that is how we must approach Christ.
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You cannot bring your resume of good deeds to the throne.
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You cannot hide behind your religious performance, your
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church attendance, or your moral comparisons to other people.
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You have to come spiritually bankrupt, empty handed to
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receive the true bread of life. The world says preserve your
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image at all costs. Hide your failures.
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But Christ says, come to me, confess, and live.
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He is the shallot. He knows every secret, every
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evasion, every buried sin better than we know ourselves.
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He sees through the one way mirror.
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But the one who knows us completely, the one who holds
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absolute authority to execute judgment, is also the one who
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saves us completely when we bow and true submission.
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Amen to that. We have covered massive ground
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in this deep dive. We started by looking at the
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sheer physical desperation of a region wide famine, a
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catastrophe governed entirely by the unsearchable decree of God.
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We saw the unwitting submission of 10 guilty men bowing face
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down in the dirt, perfectly fulfilling a 20 year old
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prophecy they tried to murder in a pit.
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We observed the terrifying imbalance of knowledge, the
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exposure of hidden sin before the all seeing eye of a
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disguised ruler. And we looked at the necessity
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of severe mercy, the rough speech and harsh testing
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required to break the fallow ground of the conscience so that
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true, lasting reconciliation could take root.
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It is a massive narrative with implications for every single
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one of us. But as we wrap up, I want to
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leave you with a final searching thought.
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OK, we have spent this entire time looking at the guilt of the
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brothers and the severe mercy they experienced.
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But think about Joseph for a second.
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Think about the intense restraint required to enact this
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plan. Yeah, he had to wait a long
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time. He had to wait 20 years.
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He spent years rotting in a dungeon, falsely accused,
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knowing his family was out there in Canaan.
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He had to trust the slow, agonizing timing of Providence
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before he could finally reveal himself and see the redemption
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of his family. That takes immense faith.
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So are you willing to wait 2 decades for God to vindicate
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your suffering? When you're in the pit or in the
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dungeon, or facing a famine that seems entirely senseless, can
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you trust that the master chess player is utilizing every single
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hostile move against you to orchestrate a massive redemptive
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victory? That is a tough question to sit
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with. Something to Mull over as you
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look at the hardships in your own life.
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Thank you for joining this deep dive on reformed thinking.
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We will catch you next time.