Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Pit, the Price, and Providence (Genesis 37:25–28)

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The Pit, the Price, and Providence (Genesis 37:25–28) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. We are really thrilled you are
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  joining us for today's deep dive into the source material.
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  Yeah, thanks for having me. This is going to be a heavy one.
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  It really is because, you know, usually when we talk about a
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  violent crime, there is this built in expectation of chaos.
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  Right, like shouting or panic. Yeah, like if you picture a
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  crime scene in your mind, you probably imagine a sudden loss
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  of control, maybe a burst of uncontrollable rage.
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  People acting in a frenzy, right?
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  Adrenaline spiking all over the place.
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  Spot on. Making rash decisions in the
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  heat of the moment. But then you step into the world
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  of ancient biblical history, specifically Genesis chapter 37.
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  And that expectation is completely upended.
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  It is entirely upended. We are looking at a scene that
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  is the absolute definition of cold blooded calculated malice.
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  The text we are examining today brings us to a moment where
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  human depravity and divine sovereignty just collide, and
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  they collide in a way that is incredibly jarring.
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  Yeah, jarring is a good word for it.
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  We are looking at the historical account of Joseph of being sold
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  into slavery by his own brothers, and we are
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  specifically focusing on verses 25 through 28.
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  The theological analysis on this passage reveals that this is not
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  a story about a crime of passion, it is a story about a
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  terrifyingly methodical transaction.
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  And the hook here, the detail that just absolutely stops you
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  in your tracks, is the contrast in verse 25.
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  It is chilling. We have to set the stage for
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  you. The brothers have just ambushed
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  a 17 year old boy and this is their own flesh and blood.
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  Their own brother, yeah. They strip him of his coat, that
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  famous coat given to him by their father Jacob.
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  They throw him into a dry, dark pit out in the wilderness.
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  And then the text gives us this unbelievable sentence.
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  Then they sat down to eat a meal.
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  I mean, think about that. They throw their brother in a
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  hole, dust off their hands and break out the hummus and pita
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  bread. That single sentence might be
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  one of the most chilling statements in all of ancient
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  literature. Then they sat down to eat bread.
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  It is wild. You really have to picture the
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  physical reality of a cistern in the ancient new E to get the
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  full picture. OK, paint that picture for us.
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  What does it look like? So these were pits dugout of
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  solid rock. They were designed to catch and
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  hold rainwater for shepherds and travelers passing through.
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  So they aren't just dirt holes in the ground.
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  Right, solid rock walls, and they were typically shaped like
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  a bottle, like a bell. With a narrow opening at the
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  top. Precisely A narrow opening at
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  the top that widened out at the bottom, which made it
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  practically impossible to climb out without a rope.
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  Wow. OK, so he is completely trapped.
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  He is. And because this particular
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  cistern was empty of water, it acted as a giant acoustic echo
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  chamber. Oh man.
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  Yeah, the walls of solid rock would bounce every sound
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  straight up through that narrow opening.
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  Later in the book of Genesis, in chapter 42, the brothers
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  actually admit that they heard Joseph pleading for his life.
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  So they heard everything. They saw the distress of his
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  soul, as the text says so. As they are passing food to one
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  another, satisfying their physical hunger, the cries of
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  their younger brother are echoing up from the ground right
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  next to them. I was trying to think of an
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  analogy for how unnatural that is.
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  It is hard to find. One, it is like sitting on a
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  park bench leisurely eating a sandwich while a car alarm is
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  blaring right next to you, except the alarm is a human
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  being begging for mercy. That is a staggering image.
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  The psychological leap here is what baffles me.
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  How do human beings reach this level of emotional detachment?
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  How do you chew your food while your brother is screaming for
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  his father? It is dark.
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  I look at this and wonder if there is some kind of
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  sociopathic disconnect happening here.
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  Well, the theological analysis points us straight to the
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  doctrine of total depravity to answer that that question,
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  right? This scene shatters a lot of
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  modern therapeutic myths about human nature.
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  Like what? Well, today there is a strong
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  cultural inclination to claim that mankind is basically good,
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  sure that people do bad things only because they are
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  misunderstood or, you know, they lack education, or they had a
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  poor environment. We hear that all the time.
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  But look at the subjects of this narrative.
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  These men are the patriarchs of Israel.
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  They have been raised in the Covenant household.
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  They have the promises of God passed down from Abraham and
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  Isaac. Yes, they have every spiritual
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  advantage, and yet their actions reveal an infection that has
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  corrupted their minds, their wills and their affections.
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  They're not confused victims of circumstance at all.
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  Not at all. They are entirely hostile.
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  And we are looking at something that has been festering for a
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  long time too. The analysis talks about the
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  anatomy of envy. That is a key phrase.
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  Because you don't just wake up 1 morning stretch and decide to
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  throw your brother down a hole. Right, there has to be a boiling
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  point. Exactly.
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  Spot on. The text actually walks us
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  through a very specific progression of how envy operates
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  in the human heart. It does not remain static.
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  Envy is never a harmless internal irritation.
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  The text shows us how envy matures.
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  It begins earlier in the narrative as internal
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  resentment. Over the coat.
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  Jacobs blatant favoritism, yes. Giving him that unique coat.
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  And Joseph also had those prophetic dreams indicating his
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  brothers would bow down to him. Which didn't help things.
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  No, not at all. So the brothers internalized
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  this resentment. The first stage of envy is
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  simply harboring A grudge against the object of your envy.
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  You resent the blessing that someone else has received.
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  You let it live in your head rent free, and then you start
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  interpreting everything that person does through a lens of
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  suspicion and annoyance. Yeah, if Joseph asks how the
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  sheep are doing, they assume he is spying on them for their
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  father, Right? That internal bitterness
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  inevitably moves to the second stage.
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  Isolation. Isolation.
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  OK, unpack that. Envy demands that you separate
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  the target from their support system.
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  When Joseph comes to check on them at Dothan, they see him
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  from afar and can spare against. Him.
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  They separate him from his father's protection.
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  Right. They need him alone, because
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  envy cannot enact its full malice in the light of day,
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  under the watchful eye of authority.
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  Isolation is the bridge between internal hatred and physical
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  action. And that makes the third stage
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  almost inevitable, doesn't it? The normalization of violence.
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  Yes. Once you have isolated the
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  person, you stop viewing them as a human being and start viewing
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  them as an obstacle. They strip him and throw him in
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  the pit. And by the time they sit down to
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  eat, their conscience is completely numbed.
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  Entirely numbed the. Outrage against their own kin
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  has been replaced by this sickening practical acceptance.
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  They have made peace with their own wickedness.
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  The envy grows until another person's agony becomes nothing
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  more than background noise to your own lunch.
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  Wow. They feel they have secured
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  their comfort. They have silenced the dreamer,
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  but their false sense of control is interrupted by a very
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  specific geographic reality. Right, they look up from their
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  meal. And they see a caravan.
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  The historical and geographic details here are so fascinating
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  to me. The brothers are shepherding
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  near Dothan, and Dothan is about 60 miles north of Hebron, where
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  their father Jacob is currently living.
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  Setting up camp in Dothan is not random at all.
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  No, the Valley of Dothan sits directly on a major
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  international trade artery known as the Via Maris, the Way of the
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  Sea. Yes, this is like setting up
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  your picnic blanket right on the shoulder of a major Interstate
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  highway. The Via Maris connected the
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  empires of Mesopotamia and Syria in the north to the massive
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  economic markets of Egypt in the South.
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  So it is a huge thoroughfare. Dothan was a natural geographic
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  funnel for international caravans.
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  Because of the terrain, merchants traveling from regions
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  like Gilead to Egypt had to pass through this specific valley.
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  So when the brothers look up and see an Ishmaelite and Midianite
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  caravan coming from Gilead carrying gum, balm and myrrh
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  down to Egypt, they're looking at the ancient world's
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  commercial engine rolling right past their camp.
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  They are. I am looking at this from a
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  logistical standpoint. I have to ask about the timing.
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  Was this just terrible luck for Joseph?
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  It looks like it doesn't. It I mean, a random caravan just
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  happens to pass by at the exact moment he's thrown into a pit.
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  From a purely secular historical perspective, you would write
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  this off as a bizarre coincidence.
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  If we look at this strictly from a human perspective, it
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  absolutely looks like a coincidence, but the theological
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  lens applied to this passage brings something else into
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  focus. Divine Providence.
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  Yes, God is entirely silent in these verses.
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  His name is not mentioned. There is no burning Bush, no
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  voice from heaven, no Angel appearing with a flaming sword
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  to halt the transaction. Nothing slashy.
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  Nothing flashy, yet God is operating through ordinary
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  mundane means like geography, international trade routes and
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  the demand for luxury goods in Egypt.
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  And the spices mentioned, gum, balm and myrrh.
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  These were high value items in the ancient world.
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  They were not hauling cheap grain.
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  No, these were luxury commodities.
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  Gilead was famous for these aromatic goods, which were
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  destined for the funerary, medical and cosmetic industries
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  in Egypt. Like the embalming process?
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  Right. The embalming process in Egypt
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  required massive quantities of these specific resins.
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  The arrival of this specific caravan carrying these specific
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  goods to this specific destination at the very moment
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  the brothers are debating Joseph's fate, that is a massive
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  display of divine timing. It is staggering.
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  God is not a passive observer of this lunch.
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  He is sovereignly orchestrating the movement of the covenant
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  seed toward Egypt. The brothers think they're just
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  taking advantage of a passing opportunity to get rid of a
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  problem, but they're stepping right into a divine decree.
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  They are. Let's talk about the details of
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  that passing opportunity. There is a piece of historical
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  apologetics here regarding the price they agreed upon.
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  The 20 shekels. They sold Joseph for 20 shekels
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  of silver. I know there's been a lot of
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  academic debate over the years about the historical reliability
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  of the Book of Genesis. Why does that specific #20
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  shekels matter so much to historians?
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  That detail carries immense historical weight.
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  For a long time, critical scholars argued that the Genesis
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  narratives were invented much later in history.
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  Like during the Babylonian exile.
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  Yes, perhaps during the Babylonian exile in the 6th
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  century BC by Jewish writers trying to create a mythical back
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  story for their nation. But the price tag challenges
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  that. The price of 20 shekels destroys
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  that argument. Extra biblical records from the
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  Middle Bronze Age, which is the era of the patriarchs, such as
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  the Code of Hammurabi and various administrative tablets
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  excavated from the ancient city of Mari, show that the standard
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  average price for a young male slave at that time was precisely
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  20 shekels of silver. So it matches the absolute
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  economic reality of the era it claims to describe.
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  It does. A writer making this up
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  centuries later would not have known the historical market
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  value of a slave from 1000 years prior.
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  No they wouldn't. Human economy, experience,
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  inflation, and the ancient slave trade was no exception.
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  By the time of Moses in the Exodus, centuries later, the
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  price of a slave had gone up to 30 shekels.
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  Oh wow. And by the time of the Neo
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  Assyrian Empire, it was 50 or 60 Shekel.
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  That is quite the job. So if a later writer living in
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  the Persian or Hellimistic period had invented this story,
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  they would have used the inflated price of their own day.
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  The inclusion of the 20 shekels proves the text is a faithful
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  historical record from the Middle Bronze Age.
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  That is such a great piece of evidence.
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  It roots the text in absolute historical reality, but it also
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  highlights the raw financial reduction of a human being.
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  Yes it does. They looked at their own
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  brother, assessed his physical condition, and calculated his
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  market value. Which brings us to the architect
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  of this transaction, Judah. Judah.
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  In verses 26 and 27, Judah steps up with a new plan.
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  He says, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his
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  blood? Come, let us sell him to the
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  Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our
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  brother, our own flesh. Judah's intervention is often
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  misread as an act of mercy. Right at first glance, a casual
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  reader might think he is the voice of reason.
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  He is stopping the outright murder of the boy.
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  But a closer analysis warns against a flattering reading of
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  Judah here. He's not motivated by
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  compassion. Reading his proposal, Judah
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  sounds like a modern corporate manager trying to optimize a bad
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  situation. That is a great way to put it.
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  Oh look at Judah, suddenly worried about HR compliance
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  while selling his brother. It's like he's doing damage
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  control. He realizes that murder yields 0
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  financial return and carries a high risk of discovery.
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  So he pivots. He secures a financial return on
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  an unwanted asset while simultaneously avoiding the
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  technical liability of outright murder.
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  Judah's speech is a window into the commercial logic of sin.
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  He is not governed by repentance.
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  The controlling question for him is not what is righteous.
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  His controlling question is what is advantageous.
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  The linguistic analysis of the specific Hebrew word he uses for
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  profit reveals his true motives. The word is betsa.
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  Let's breakdown how that word functions in the original
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  language. I want to understand why
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  choosing that specific word changes the tone of his
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  proposal. The word betsa appears 23 times
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  in the Hebrew Bible, and it never refers to an honest day's
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  wage or a legitimate business transaction.
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  Never. Never.
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  A class of Scriptures. Betsa signifies unjust gain,
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  plunder, covetousness, or money acquired through violence and
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  deceit. Wow.
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  When a corrupt judge takes a bribe, that is betsa.
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  When a thief steals goods, that is betsa.
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  By choosing this specific word, the text exposes Judah's heart.
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  He is monetizing his malice. He is literally asking the group
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  how can we make this hatred pay off?
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  Exactly. That is spot on.
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  The hypocrisy of his statement is so thick you could cut it
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  with a knife. He says, Let not our hand be
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  upon him, for He is our brother, our own flesh.
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  He appeals to family loyalty in the very same breath that he
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  proposes human trafficking. It is wild.
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  He uses the language of brotherly love to facilitate the
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  destruction of his brother. It is the ultimate pragmatic
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  evasion. Judah is saying we can get what
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  we want, Joseph's permanent removal, without getting blood
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  on our hands directly. This exposes a very dangerous
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  reality about how fallen human beings operate.
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  It does. We measure decisions by gain
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  rather than righteousness. Judah dresses up his treachery
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  in the language of prudence and family piety.
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  He asks the brothers to embrace a lesser evil, which is a
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  massive deception. Because lesser violence is still
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  violence when it proceeds from hatred.
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  Right. And people do this all the time.
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  Today. We trick ourselves into thinking
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  that if we avoid the absolute worst case scenario, then
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  whatever alternative we choose must be acceptable.
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  You tell yourself, well I didn't actually steal the money, I just
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  fudged the expense report. So I'm basically an honest
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  person. Sin masks itself as wisdom,
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  yeah. Judah is presenting a business
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  solution to a spiritual problem. And the group's response shows
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  how persuasive this pragmatic logic is, the text notes.
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  His brothers listen to him. They bought it.
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  One brother articulates the profitable route, and the shared
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  wickedness of the group finds a stable, actionable shape.
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  They agree to the dark logic. So we move from the planning
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  phase into the physical execution.
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  Verse 28 describes the actual transaction.
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  I found the grammatical analysis of the Hebrew text here to be
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  fascinating. The grammar is incredible.
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  The grammar actually mirrors their cold calculation.
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  The exegetical structure of verse 28 uses a rapid succession
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  of verbs known in Hebrew grammar as the Washington consecutive.
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  OK, what does that mean in practice?
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  In ancient Hebrew narrative, stringing verbs together in this
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  specific way indicates a sequential, almost mechanical
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  progression of events. So it moves fast.
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  The action moves forward without pause, the text reads.
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  They sat, they raised, they saw, they drew, they sold.
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  I am trying to visualize how that mechanical sequence changes
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  our perception of the event. Oh so.
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  When you read that staccato rhythm, they sat, they raised,
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  they saw, they drew the soul. Does it feel like a chaotic
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  struggle or does it feel like a clinical business deal?
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  In my head, I always pictured a massive fight.
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  Most people do. Joseph kicking and screaming,
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  dust flying everywhere. A lot of shouting as they drag
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  him out of the pit. But the grammar suggests A
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  terrifying lack of hesitation. There is no recorded debate
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  after the decision is made. There is no pause for
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  conscience, no emotional commentary interrupting the
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  action. It reads clinically.
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  They draw him up, they price him, they sell him.
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  The rapid succession of verbs shows that Joseph is reduced to
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  a commodity. He is an exchangeable asset with
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  a 20 shekel price tag. They assess him entirely by his
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  financial return. He is no longer a person to
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  them. He is inventory.
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  They're moving products. Beyond the clinical nature of
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  the verbs, there is a distinct shift in agency that happens
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  right in the middle of this verse.
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  Oh, I miss that. What happens?
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  At the beginning of the passage, the brothers are the active
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  subjects. They sit, they look, they talk,
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  they draw him out. But by the end of the verse the
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  text says and they took Joseph to Egypt.
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  OK. The pronoun they at the end of
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  the sentence refers to the Midianite traitors.
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  So the brothers are no longer the ones driving the action.
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  Right. The brothers think they are
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  managing a problem. They think they are the masters
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  of this transaction, but they are actually losing control.
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  They are handing their covenant brother, the Bearer of the
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  Promises, over to the Gentile world.
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  They think they are disposing of an issue, but they are handing
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  themselves over to a chain of events that only God can manage.
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  From this point forward, the moment the silver touches their
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  palms, the Midianites take over the narrative.
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  That loss of control sets up a massive narrative arc for the
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  rest of the book. It really does.
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  To graft the gravity of this scene, we have to zoom out.
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  We have to look at the whole book of Genesis and the role of
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  the master storyteller. You cannot read this passage in
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  isolation. The book of Genesis is
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  structured around a series of generations, or to leadeth in
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  Hebrew. To leadeth.
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  Yes, this specific narrative serves as the bridge from the
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  patriarchs living in Canaan to the nation of Israel's later
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  existence in Egypt. But I noticed something strange
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  about the spotlight here. Judah is singled out as the
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  architect of this treason. He's the one who initiates the
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  sale. He is.
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  But if you know the rest of the biblical story, the tribe of
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  Judah becomes the royal line. King David comes from the tribe
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  of Judah. Jesus comes from the line of
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  Judah. Yes.
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  From a public relations standpoint, why shine such a
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  harsh light on the guy who is supposed to be the founding
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  father of the royal family? This feels like terrible PR for
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  the royal line. The author is a magnificent
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  character arc and establishing a core theological premise.
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  OK, let's unpack that. You have to contrast Genesis
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  Charter 37 with Genesis Charter 44.
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  Here, in chapter 37, Judah looks at his father's favorite son and
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  sees a business transaction. Right.
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  He trades his brother for silver to save himself the trouble of
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  dealing with him. But decades later, in Chapter
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  44, a severe famine forces the same brothers down to Egypt.
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  They stand before Joseph, who is now the second most powerful man
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  in the world, though they do not recognize him.
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  And the life of their youngest brother, Benjamin, is on the
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  line. Benjamin has now become the new
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  favorite son of their father, Jacob.
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  The brothers are right back in the exact same dynamic that
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  caused the envy in the first place.
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  The exact same dynamic. In that high pressure moment,
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  does Judah trade Benjamin to save his own skin?
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  No. No, he doesn't.
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  A transformed Judah steps forward and offers his own life
• 19:41
  as a substitute. He begs the Egyptian ruler to
• 19:44
  let him take the punishment so Benjamin can go.
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  Free The man who sold a brother in Chapter 37 offers dye for a
• 19:51
  brother in chapter 44. The contrast is unbelievable.
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  God uses the blackest, most shameful moment in Judah's life
• 19:58
  as the starting point to shape him into a man who understands
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  substitutionary sacrifice. He learns what it means to lay
• 20:05
  down his life for his kin. The literary structure insists
• 20:09
  that God works through the sins of the patriarchs to bring them
• 20:12
  to a place of repentance. Yes it does.
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  Consider how this would have impacted the original audience.
• 20:18
  Imagine being an Israelite sitting in the wilderness at the
• 20:21
  base of Mount Sinai, listening to Moses recite this history.
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  Your tribal identity is tied to these men.
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  You are standing under a banner that carries the name of Judah
• 20:30
  or Reuben or Simeon. And you are hearing out loud in
• 20:34
  front of the whole camp that the founding fathers of your nation
• 20:37
  sold their own brother to a passing caravan for cash.
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  That would completely shatter any illusion you had about your
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  nation's inherent goodness. You cannot brag about your
• 20:46
  pedigree when your pedigree is human trafficking.
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  It strips away any notion of national righteousness.
• 20:51
  The covenant is not preserved because the patriarchs were
• 20:54
  wholly unified or deserving. Not at all.
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  The covenant is preserved solely because God is unflinchingly
• 21:00
  faithful to His own promises. God rescues this family despite
• 21:04
  their treacherous, covetous hearts.
• 21:07
  The Israelites in the wilderness needed to understand that their
• 21:09
  existence as a nation was an act of pure grace.
• 21:12
  The theological analysis pushes us to read the text redemptive
• 21:17
  historically. The events in Genesis do not
• 21:19
  just stay in Genesis. No, Joseph functions as a
• 21:22
  typological shadow of Jesus Christ.
• 21:25
  All of Scripture unfolds within a unified history of redemption.
• 21:29
  The broad pattern present in Joseph's life unmistakably
• 21:33
  contributes to a biblical trajectory that finds its
• 21:36
  fullness in Christ. It is like a narrative echo.
• 21:38
  A narrative echo I like. That the events in Joseph's life
• 21:41
  strike a chord in the Book of Genesis that rings out centuries
• 21:44
  later in the New Testament. The parallels are stark when you
• 21:47
  lay them side by side. Let's trace those connections
• 21:49
  first. Both Joseph and Jesus are the
• 21:51
  uniquely beloved sons of their fathers.
• 21:54
  Jacob's special love for Joseph triggers the brothers jealousy
• 21:57
  in the Gospels. The Father's public declaration
• 22:00
  of Jesus at his baptism, this is my beloved Son, triggers
• 22:04
  opposition from the religious leaders of Israel.
• 22:07
  The beloved status becomes the very point of offense.
• 22:10
  The brothers hate Joseph because the Father loves him.
• 22:13
  The Pharisees hate Jesus because he claims unique intimacy with
• 22:16
  the Father. Second, both are rejected by
• 22:18
  their own people. Joseph is cast out by his
• 22:21
  brothers. The Gospel of John states that
• 22:24
  Jesus came to his own and his own received him, not third.
• 22:28
  Both are stripped of their garments and cast into a pit or
• 22:31
  a grave. The visual of Joseph being
• 22:33
  thrown into a dry, dark hole in the earth anticipates the burial
• 22:37
  of Christ in the tomb. And the transaction itself is
• 22:39
  perfectly mirrored. Joseph is sold for silver.
• 22:42
  Jesus is sold for silver. Look at who proposes the sale.
• 22:45
  Joseph is sold for 20 pieces of silver by a man named Judah in
• 22:49
  the New Testament. Jesus is betrayed for 30 pieces
• 22:52
  of silver by a man named Judas. Like Judah and Judas.
• 22:55
  Judah and Judas are the exact same name. 1 is simply the
• 22:57
  Hebrew translation and the other is the Greek equivalent.
• 23:00
  That is incredible. Both men are motivated by Betsa.
• 23:04
  By unjust gain, they monetize their rejection of God's
• 23:07
  appointed deliverer. The echoes just keep stacking
• 23:10
  up. Both are handed over to
• 23:12
  Gentiles. The brothers hand Joseph over to
• 23:14
  the Ishmaelites and Midianites. And the Jewish leaders hand
• 23:16
  Jesus over to the Romans. Both are hidden from their
• 23:19
  brothers for a long season, Joseph is in Egypt, Christ
• 23:23
  descends to heaven, and both are exalted through massive
• 23:27
  suffering to become the saviors of the world.
• 23:30
  Joseph preserves the known world and his family from physical
• 23:34
  famine. Christ saves his people from
• 23:36
  eternal judgement. The pattern proves that the
• 23:39
  betrayal of God's deliverer is not an accident.
• 23:41
  It is the plan. The betrayal is the very
• 23:44
  mechanism God uses for salvation.
• 23:46
  We do need to exercise some theological restraint here,
• 23:49
  though. We're not saying Joseph is a
• 23:51
  perfect one to one equivalent to Jesus.
• 23:53
  We don't want to stretch the analogy until it breaks.
• 23:56
  We must maintain proper distinctions.
• 23:58
  Joseph is a flawed, sinful man. He has his own moments of pride
• 24:01
  and manipulation later in the story.
• 24:03
  Furthermore, the deliverance he provides in Egypt is temporal.
• 24:07
  He gave them grain, but people eventually grew hungry again and
• 24:10
  people eventually died, right? Christ is the sinless God, man.
• 24:14
  The salvation he secures is eternal.
• 24:17
  Joseph is a type A shadow. The shadow resembles the object
• 24:21
  casting it, but the shadow is not the object itself.
• 24:25
  But the shadow is cast by the same divine author.
• 24:28
  If God can orchestrate the physical salvation of the world
• 24:31
  through such dark, calculated treachery in Genesis, how does
• 24:35
  that apply to us today? That is the big question.
• 24:38
  This brings us to the pastoral application of the text.
• 24:41
  How do we take ancient history and apply it to a listener
• 24:44
  driving to work or washing dishes?
• 24:46
  The analysis moves us from the theological heights down into
• 24:50
  the reality of everyday life. We have to apply the concepts of
• 24:53
  divine decree and the distinction between law and
• 24:56
  gospel to our current circumstances.
• 24:58
  I want to ask a very practical question that I think a lot of
• 25:00
  listeners might have. Imagine someone listening right
• 25:02
  now feels like they are currently stuck in a pit of
• 25:06
  their own. Maybe they have faced A brutal
• 25:08
  betrayal by a family member, or they have been fired unjustly,
• 25:12
  or they're walking through an intense season of physical
• 25:14
  suffering. How is it comforting to tell
• 25:17
  that person that God orchestrated their situation?
• 25:21
  Wouldn't it be easier and maybe feel kinder to say that God just
• 25:24
  permitted the evil, but he really did not want it to
• 25:27
  happen? The concept of God merely
• 25:29
  permitting evil might sound softer to modern years, but it
• 25:32
  offers absolutely 0 comfort to the soul languishing in the pit.
• 25:37
  Why does permitting fail to comfort?
• 25:40
  It seems like it gets God off the hook for the bad stuff.
• 25:42
  Because if God only permits evil, then the evil is random.
• 25:46
  It means the suffering has no inherent purpose.
• 25:49
  It means someone's malice slipped past God's preferred
• 25:52
  plan and now God is scrambling to fix a mess he did not intend.
• 25:56
  True comfort comes from knowing that God governs all events for
• 25:59
  his glory and for the believers good.
• 26:01
  We look ahead to Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 where Joseph looks
• 26:05
  at the same brothers and says you meant evil against me, but
• 26:08
  God meant it for good. Notice the phrasing there.
• 26:11
  He does not say you meant evil and God figured out a way to
• 26:14
  salvage it. He says God meant it.
• 26:17
  The evil intention of the brothers and the good intention
• 26:19
  of God are attached to the exact same event.
• 26:22
  God is not a passive observer, wringing his hands over human
• 26:25
  choices. No, He governs the malice of men
• 26:28
  to achieve a holy end. The betrayal, the pit, the
• 26:32
  arrival of the caravan. These were not outside of God's
• 26:35
  control. They were the precise
• 26:37
  instruments he used to position Joseph in Egypt to save
• 26:40
  thousands of lives from starvation.
• 26:42
  So the comfort for the listener in the pit is this.
• 26:46
  Your suffering is not random. You are in the hands of a
• 26:48
  sovereign king who uses even the malice of others to shape you
• 26:52
  and prepare greater deliverance. That shifts the perspective
• 26:55
  entirely. It means the pit is not a sign
• 26:57
  of God's absence. It is the theater of His
• 26:59
  Providence. Absolutely.
• 27:01
  We also get some very sharp practical takeaways from this
• 27:04
  text regarding how we examine our own hearts.
• 27:07
  The first warning is to repent of private envy before it
• 27:10
  matures. Because we often excuse envy as
• 27:13
  a private emotion, something that happens internally and does
• 27:15
  not hurt anyone. Yes.
• 27:17
  You scroll through social media, you see someone's new house or
• 27:20
  promotion and you feel that twinge of resentment.
• 27:23
  You think it is harmless? But the text shows us that envy
• 27:26
  is an aggressive sin. It resents the blessing of
• 27:29
  another and seeks to diminish them.
• 27:31
  We have to address it through repentance before it calcifies
• 27:33
  into cruelty. The second take away addresses
• 27:36
  Judah's logic. We have to reject profit
• 27:39
  centered morality. We cannot evaluate decisions
• 27:41
  solely by efficiency, financial gain, or damage control.
• 27:45
  We cannot ask what is advantageous before we ask what
• 27:48
  honors God. That is a hard standard to live
• 27:51
  by in today's world. It is, but when we value humans
• 27:54
  as commodities, or view people merely as rungs on a corporate
• 27:58
  ladder, or treat relationships purely as networking
• 28:01
  opportunities for our own advancement, we are
• 28:03
  participating in the sin of dothem.
• 28:06
  That leads right into the third warning.
• 28:08
  Beware of using right religious language while acting without
• 28:11
  love. Judah called Joseph our brother,
• 28:14
  our own flesh, while actively selling him into slavery.
• 28:18
  We can say all right theological words, we can profess unity in
• 28:21
  our churches, we can quote scripture.
• 28:23
  But if our actions are loveless, self-serving and manipulative,
• 28:27
  our Orthodox vocabulary is just a mask for hypocrisy.
• 28:31
  The final practical take away is a massive paradigm shift.
• 28:35
  We have to avoid the trap of thinking that being in God's
• 28:38
  will means avoiding the pit. Say more about that.
• 28:41
  Joseph had he dreams from God. He had the favor of his earthly
• 28:44
  father. He was entirely in the center of
• 28:47
  God's redemptive plan, and that plan required him to be
• 28:50
  stripped, thrown in a hole, and sold to foreigners.
• 28:53
  That is a staggering reality to sit with.
• 28:55
  The presence of suffering does not equal the absence of God's
• 28:58
  favor. Sometimes being exactly where
• 29:01
  God wants you means being in the darkest place imaginable.
• 29:04
  It is a heavy thought, but a true one.
• 29:06
  We have covered an immense amount of ground today.
• 29:08
  We have looked at the chilling detachment of the brothers
• 29:10
  eating their lunch over an echoing cistern.
• 29:13
  We've traced the geography of the Villameris and the economic
• 29:16
  reality of the 20 shekels of silver in the Middle Bronze Age.
• 29:19
  We have analyzed the terrifying pragmatism of Judah's corporate
• 29:23
  manager routine and the clinical grammar of the Hebrew text
• 29:27
  during the sale. And we have seen how this
• 29:29
  ancient betrayal maps onto the greatest event in human history,
• 29:33
  pointing us directly to the substitutionary work of Christ.
• 29:36
  The text forces us to hold 2 realities together, the full,
• 29:40
  unmitigated responsibility of human beings for their wicked
• 29:44
  actions and the absolute unsearchable sovereignty of God
• 29:48
  over every detail of history. It really does.
• 29:51
  As we wrap up this deep dive into the source material, I want
• 29:54
  to leave you with one final provocative reflection.
• 29:57
  Consider the silver used in this transaction.
• 30:00
  The 20 pieces of silver. The brothers counted out those
• 30:02
  coins, believing that they were purchasing their freedom from
• 30:05
  Joseph. They thought that Silver bought
• 30:07
  them a future without his prophetic dreams, a future where
• 30:10
  they were in control of their own destiny.
• 30:12
  But in the grand economy of God's sovereign Providence,
• 30:15
  those 20 pieces of silver were the currency God used to
• 30:19
  purchase their future physical salvation from famine.
• 30:22
  The silver that sent Joseph into slavery was the silver that
• 30:26
  positioned him to feed them when they were starving to death
• 30:29
  decades later. The very tools of human treason
• 30:32
  are the instruments of divine rescue.
• 30:34
  It sets the stage for the ultimate realization of this
• 30:37
  pattern. The blood of Christ shed through
• 30:39
  human treason, is the instrument of divine rescue that purchases
• 30:43
  eternal life for sinners. Thank you for joining us on
• 30:46
  Reformed Thinking. We encourage you to reflect on
• 30:48
  the unseen hand guiding your own circumstances, knowing that the
• 30:51
  God who rules the pit in the caravan is the same God working
• 30:55
  all things for your good.