Wrestling with Providence

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 42:29-43:14

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Well this morning, I'm hoping my voice will make it through, we're hoping to not only complete chapter 42 but also make some headway into chapter 43.
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Where we left off, Joseph was giving his brother terms in order for them to retrieve
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Benjamin, come back to Egypt and release Simeon, and adding insult to injury.
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On their way back, as they're feeding donkeys by the campfire, one of them finds money in his sack, the very money they had brought in order to buy the grain, and they all were greatly afraid, and now the pressure is on.
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Will they return not only as accused spies but perhaps accused thieves as well?
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They did not know, as we'll come to know next week, that such kindness was meant by Joseph to lead them to repentance.
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For now, where we left them off, all they could do was stutter, what is this that God has done to us?
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They relate their circumstances to God's providence and they're afraid.
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They understand something of the guilt of their past, their evil acts now are illuminated to their conscience, as we saw last week, and they rightly understand that God is at work in their midst,
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God is at work in all the events that have unfolded since they arrived in Egypt. And so they're wrestling with the providence of God, and that's our focus this morning.
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Wrestling with the providence of God. The whole narrative is now shifting away from Egypt back to Canaan, back to the household of Jacob, and we're seeing how the same grace that's been operative in the life of Joseph has very visibly and evidently been an operative grace in the lives of Joseph's brothers.
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And we'll see Jacob, the patriarch of the family, wrestling with the providence of God.
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So as we work through these verses, I hope we'll have time to draw some application from them. Of course, that's always the challenge.
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Well, first, we see the brothers report to Jacob. They went to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, told him all that had happened to them, saying, the man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, didn't forget that, and took us for spies of the country.
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But we said to him, we're honest men. We are not spies. We're twelve brothers, sons of our father.
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One is no more. And the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, by this
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I will know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take food for the famine of your households and be gone.
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And bring your youngest brother to me, so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men.
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And I will grant your brother to you, and you may trade in the land. Well, we read in verse 29, the brothers come to Jacob, and they tell him all that had happened to them.
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This is already a big change from the way these brothers worked twenty years prior.
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The last time they had approached their father coming from a distant land with a brother missing, they very callously took a bloody robe and thrust it in front of his face, showing absolutely no remorse for what they had done to Joseph.
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And they didn't even show any concern for how that might affect Jacob. They could have given the old man a heart attack when they did that.
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They were unconcerned. Their bitterness toward Joseph was also a bitterness toward the father that showed such favoritism toward Joseph.
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But here notice the change. Not only do they come to Jacob, speaking truthfully to Jacob, I think they also show a concern for how this difficult news might affect
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Jacob. They don't mention that Simeon is bound in the Egyptian supermax. They actually glide over the detail of his imprisonment, and they simply say, the
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Lord of the land told us, leave one of your brothers here with me. That's as much as they say. It's as though they're trying to soften the impact of what has taken place out of concern for the frailty of their father.
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And notice how they couple it immediately with, he also said, take food for the famine of your households.
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So they're saying, he's very generous, so Simeon's in good hands. And then they make it sound like the whole point was so that we can trade in the land.
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That's why he wants us to go back, rather than if we go back and we don't have Benjamin, he's going to execute us all.
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That's what Joseph said. Do this that you may live, and not die. And so they're presenting it as though Simeon is an honored guest, and I can't read this as a deliberate attempt to mislead their father, so much as to try to soften the devastation of this news.
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As these men are being softened by the providence of God, we see that they no longer are callous in the way they interact with their father.
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And the same softening providence in their lives, I hope, is a softening providence in Simeon as he's behind bars in Egypt.
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Perhaps this newfound honesty and integrity that is being worked into their lives and relationships is building some confidence in them.
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Maybe as they're reporting these things to their father, they're building up their resolve to immediately take
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Benjamin and march back down toward Egypt. But then, almost as a curveball, or what we might call
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Murphy's Law, right, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong, verse 35, as soon as they emptied their sacks, each man's bundle of money was in his sack, and their father saw the bundles, and they were all afraid.
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So if any confidence of their integrity has been rising to the surface, now they see, oh no, we're all going to look like thieves.
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And so all of them shrivel into fear, and this fear becomes contagious to their father.
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Notice verse 36, Jacob reacts to this report. He says to them, you have bereaved me.
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Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.
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Well Jacob doesn't take this news very well. Jacob doesn't take the pile of silver at their feet very well.
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And you wonder if the brothers who have been so aware and sensitive to their guilt felt something of the sting when
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Jacob said, you have bereaved me, Joseph is no more. He was simply making a list of all the grievances in his life.
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Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, you want to take Benjamin from me. But I wonder if the brothers couldn't help but wince when he said, you have bereaved me,
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Joseph is no more. Ironically, his blame is on the right target.
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Notice how the grief of losing Joseph has remained. It's been 20 years, and when he hears of this news,
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Joseph still comes first in his heart. Joseph is no more. Still foremost in his mind, coming before Simeon, even before Benjamin.
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And he's so overcome with despair that he basically writes Simeon off.
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Simeon is with the Lord of the land. Simeon is no more. He essentially writes Simeon off as if I'll never see him again.
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Simeon's gone. Simeon's dead. The logic of it is something like this. Every time
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I send a son to you, he does not come back. I sent Joseph to you, he did not come back.
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I sent Simeon with you, he did not come back. And you want to take Benjamin? The aged patriarch is throwing his hands up in a doubt -filled tantrum, saying all these things are against me.
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And it appears that Jacob has forgotten God's promise.
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Jacob has forgotten God's revelation. When he returned to Bethel in Genesis 35, verse 11, and the
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Lord came to him and said, I am God Almighty, be fruitful, multiply, a nation, a company of nations will proceed from you.
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Kings will come from your body. But all that seems so upside down now.
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The whole land is desolate. His own household and the households of his sons, they're all starving.
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Simeon's away from Egypt. Benjamin is the key to their survival. It seems that rather than being fruitful and multiplying and living in the land in blessed abundance, everything is upside down.
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He's not being blessed. It's just the opposite. He's now losing his sons. He's not being made fruitful.
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He's losing his sons one by one. And so he desperately clings to Benjamin. He is clinging, refusing to let
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Benjamin go with them. He is clinging, refusing to let go. Does that sound familiar for Jacob?
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Clinging, refusing to let go? The patriarch who once said,
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I will not let you go, Lord, until you bless me, now says essentially I will not let him go because you have cursed me.
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Now what is Jacob doing? He's wrestling with providence.
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Perhaps it has become very hard for this man to trust God's providential control, especially when he returns to the vivid memory of having that bloody robe in front of his face.
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It was easier to trust God when he returned to Bethel and he felt like he came through the trial and God had protected him and secured him and now he was in the land and he built an altar and thought it's downhill from here.
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Maybe it was easier to trust God's providence then, but then he lost his beloved
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Rachel and he had to bury her, and then he lost his beloved
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Joseph, never to see him again. Everything seems so hopeless and now it's very difficult for this man to wrestle with the providence of God.
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Jacob appears to have forgotten God's revelation. What a contrast with Joseph.
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Do you remember what we've been saying for several weeks now? Joseph lives by faith in what
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God has revealed to him. Joseph is walking not by sight, but by faith in God's revelation and that's how he rolls down the roller coaster of very difficult providences.
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What a contrast between Jacob and Joseph, where Jacob is failing to trust
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God and to walk by faith and he's almost willfully forgotten the revelation of God, Joseph consistently remembered
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God's revelation. We began with it when his brothers came before him as Zapnotpaneia, and it says he remembered the dreams.
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Like father, not like son, Joseph responded to the seemingly hopeless situations in his life with faith, whereas Jacob looks at this relatively hopeless situation and he's filled with doubtful fear.
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And in his grief and his despair, he takes it for granted that Joseph is gone. Now that much is reasonable.
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But now, Simeon who's alive, he says, Simeon's gone. And then he assumes if Benjamin goes,
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Benjamin's as good as gone. And then he cries out, all these things are against me. Because it never seems darker to Jacob.
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But the reality of the narrative, as we know, is every single one of these things is instead for him, not against him.
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For his blessing, for the promise of God, for God's promised blessing upon him.
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All the things that he says are against him are actually for him. Is that something that the
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Christian can understand? That the most difficult providences in our lives, that we can cry out and say, this is against me.
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There's a coming resolution when we will be forced to say, by the awe of the reality of understanding what
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God has done, all this was for me. All this was for me. Reuben sees the dread of his father.
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And again, because grace is beginning to work into the lives of these brothers, rather than being callous or indifferent,
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Reuben wants to jump in. Reuben wants to alleviate that pain and that suffering.
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Again, we see the sensitivity, God turning the heart of the son toward his father.
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Unfortunately, Reuben makes a very rash offer. Verse 37, Reuben spoke to his father saying, kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you.
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Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you.
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For his brother is dead and he is left alone. Reuben makes this rash offer.
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Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is almost unthinkable.
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Kill my two sons? Kill your grandsons? That's his solution to this predicament?
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Reuben is certainly sincere. Reuben is certainly sincerely foolish, if not sinful, for making this kind of offer.
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But at the same time, just appreciate the evidence of grace we see, even in this foolish plea.
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The man who had once attempted a coup of the family, remember it was Reuben who went in to lay with Jacob's concubine, and that was not because it was a romantic interest so much as it was a power move.
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He wanted to say, I can now be the head of the family, let's marginalize dear old Pop, because I'm going to be calling the shots from here on out.
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His leadership has not been effective. Well that Reuben, that Reuben is now the one that says, take my sons if I don't bring your beloved son back to you.
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He's willing to put his own children on the line for the sake of Jacob's concern.
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He absorbs almost the insult of Jacob pretending that Reuben is not his son, or that Benjamin does not have these other brothers.
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He acts as though it's a family of three. My son shall not go down with you. His brother is dead.
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He's left alone. Reuben is saying, what am I to you? What are my sons to you?
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But he ignores that insult. And he offers, he tries to make a foolish sacrifice, but he tries to make a sacrifice.
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And that's an evidence of grace. It's a profound evidence of a changed man. It's an emphatic way of trying to compel
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Jacob. Please let Benjamin go. Look, I'm putting my own life, my own heritage, my own sons on the line.
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If I can put my sons on the line, can't you put your son on the line? But Jacob does not budge an inch.
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Jacob is still playing favorites. Both of Reuben's sons,
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Reuben himself, all the other boys, none of them are comparable to the beloved Benjamin.
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As far as he knows, all that he has left of Rachel. And so he says, if any calamity befalls him on the way you go, you would bring my gray hair down to the grave with sorrow.
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No thought for Simeon. No thought for his remaining sons.
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No thought for their households. He clings to Benjamin and refuses to let go.
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He's wrestling with the providence of God. The limping patriarch, who had once been humbled by God, refuses to humble himself.
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And instead he pins his hope on next year's harvest. Let's just get through this year. At least we have some food from Egypt.
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Maybe next year will look better. Simeon's a goner, but at least I have Benjamin.
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But then we see in v. 1 of chapter 43, the crisis presses on.
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We read now, the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought from Egypt that their father said to them, go back, buy us a little food.
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The narrative jumps ahead, perhaps from this to the next harvest season where there really was no harvest.
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It's a disjunctive clause in Hebrew, so we're not told how much time, just that there was a passage of time.
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And it came to pass. Apparently there had been just enough grain for Jacob and his sons and their families to survive through that harvest cycle.
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But then they eventually ate up all their supply, and when the next harvest came, it was not helping.
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Jacob knows that Egyptian grain is needed if his family is going to survive, and so he comes to his sons and he says, go back, buy us a little food.
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Even here, we see that he's not walking in faith. Even here, his planning falls radically short.
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Two years of devastating famine, and he says, take this very treacherous and dangerous trip all the way down to Egypt just to buy a little food.
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Just get us through one more little stage in this trial. He's not thinking long term. He's not thinking of what
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God might be doing. In other words, he's ignorant to the reality of the situation.
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A little food will not stretch across the remaining years of famine. But crises have a way of turning our attention to the immediate need rather than the long -term cost.
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Jacob, of course, is hoping there is some way, any way, to get grain without having to release
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Benjamin. And again, just to show you the dysfunction, he's more concerned right now about getting food from Egypt than getting simeon from Egypt.
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No love lost, but God has desired reconciliation.
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God has desired to bring about reconciliation for salvation, for this family, for the church to be preserved, for the messianic line of the seed.
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And so he allows the pressure of this famine to provoke Jacob. Remember, Jacob is
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Israel, one who strives with God. And as he wrestles with this providence, we're reminded that God sovereignly leads
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His people in this way. He allows days of trouble so that we become captive to His will.
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We're wanting to do our own thing in our own way, and when God has a different plan and different purpose for our lives,
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He allows a day of trouble to come. So this famine presses on, and now Jacob is running out of options.
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He is being forced to come to this decision that he does not want to make. How does that translate into our lives and our walks?
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Well, often God will bring a spiritual famine, if you can put it that way, until we relent and we follow
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His will, and He leads us to spiritual food. Not on our terms, but on His terms.
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You can picture Jacob praying hard for this famine to break.
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I do not want to let Benjamin go. I will not let him go. And so what does he do?
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He resorts to prayer. I'd say fasting and prayer, but everybody's fasting in a time of famine.
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And he's begging God, send rain, send rain, send rain.
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Give crops, give crops, give crops. He's pleading the promises of God. He's reminding himself of the covenant of God.
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He's got perhaps the right thinking and the right heart in prayer, and he's consistent, he's persistent. But the prayers aren't being answered, are the prayers even being heard?
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Why have you cast me aside? Because what I put my hand upon you will not relent.
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Look at the providence of the situation. You have a son whom you have no concern for, he's trapped in Egypt.
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You have brothers that are all imploring, even putting their own sons on the line, that you might release Benjamin.
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All of the circumstances and all that I've put before you say, my hand is upon Benjamin, you must let him go.
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And I will not hear prayers that accord to your will, I will only hear prayers that accord to my will.
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Father, let thy will be done. Benjamin is the one subject you get to sense.
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He will not hear, he doesn't even bring it up. Go back to Egypt and buy us some food. Judah says, not so fast.
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If it was that easy, we would have done it. Judah reasons with Jacob, and again, just notice the tenderness here.
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There was once animosity and rebellion in this family, this cold indifference in the way they treated each other, almost a violence.
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And look at what grace is beginning to do in the way that they communicate. Look at how
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Judah patiently, in a very ingratiating way, begins to reason with his aged father.
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Judah spoke to him saying, the man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
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If you send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, you will not see my face unless your brother is with you.
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The man said more than that. The man said, you'll die if you don't bring your brother with you.
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Reuben had tried to sacrificially reason with Jacob, but Jacob, in his wrestling with providence, would not let
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Benjamin go. Now Judah steps forward, and Judah tries to reason with his father
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Jacob, as Jacob's wrestling with the providence of God. And Judah reminds
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Jacob of the facts, he reminds him of the situation. Jacob is the head of the family,
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Jacob is the patriarch. He has authority that he wants to exercise in the midst of this crisis.
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So he comes in as the head of the family and he says, sons, go down to Egypt and buy food.
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He has the authority to direct them in that way. But then Judah comes in and very graciously reminds him, there's one who has greater authority than you.
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The man in Egypt that you would send us to, he has greater authority than you. He has authority in all the land, and you may command us to go, but we will not be bringing back food, because he has authority over the food, and he made his terms crystal clear.
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If you will not send him, we will not go down. If you want to eat and live, you must let go of Benjamin.
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Judah puts the decision back in front of Jacob, back where it's always been, though Jacob has ignored it and tried to negotiate with it, and tried to get past it entirely.
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Notice also this word play. You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.
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It's repeated again. You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.
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We're reminded it's sort of an idiom, to see my face means to have an audience with me. If you go to see a royal official, to go and see their face means you can go before them and have an audience, and that's all that really
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Judah implies. We're not going to be able to go before him unless Benjamin is with us, but this idiom is so clever because we're reminded that until Benjamin comes,
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Joseph will not reveal his true face, reveal his true identity. Judah has taken the initiative,
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Judah has put himself on the line, and Jacob reacts. Verse 6,
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Israel said, why did you deal so wrongfully with me as to tell the man whether you still had another brother?
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Jacob ignores the facts, the reality of the situation, and he just again responds with a doubt -filled tantrum.
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Now he just wants to go back in time and argue from the past about things that cannot change. Jacob feels the weight of this dilemma.
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He knows a decision has to be made. Judah's right, he's put the terms before him. He's wrestling with providence, and as people are wont to do, when they wrestle with providence, he lashes out.
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This is true to experience, isn't it? We lash out, we're unreasonable as we're wrestling with providence.
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Why did you deal so wrongfully with me? In the Hebrew, literally, it could be translated, why did you bring evil upon me?
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The thoughts of Jacob's heart now begin to erupt out of his mouth. He's been allowing this bitterness to creep into him.
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We're starving because of what they did to me, not because of what I'm refusing to do for them.
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Misreading the providence of God. He begins to blame them, hold them accountable, make them guilty.
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He doesn't want to budge. He will not let go. But the brothers now, again, they come, again, look it, they all now come almost as a group to implore
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Jacob. Verse 7, they said, the man asked us pointedly about ourselves, and our families saying, is your father still alive?
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They must have given this answer a hundred times. Every time Jacob lashed out, they just patiently reminded him of the facts.
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And they do it again. The man pointedly asked, is your father still alive? Have you another brother?
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And we told him, according to these words, how could we possibly have known? He would say, bring your brother down.
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And the brothers are very wise. They don't allow Jacob to distort the reality. They're dealing honestly.
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They're dealing honestly. They don't resort to lashing back. An acid tongue does not meet an acid tongue.
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They very graciously sort of ignore his insults, his accusations, and they just return to the reality of the situation.
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This is the first time we discover that Joseph had pointedly asked, is your father still alive?
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Remember when his son was born, and he named his son and said, you, Lord, you have caused me to forget my father's house.
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You so blessed me. What happened in Canaan 20 years ago? Not even a thought to me.
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But as soon as he sees his brothers, he says, is your father still alive? Is my father still alive?
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We can see the heartache, the yearning on his part. He must have been waiting day by day by day by day for his brothers to return with Benjamin.
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This is the backdrop for the whole crisis before them. Is your brother still alive?
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Benjamin must come with you. Is my father still alive? And then perhaps the most significant part at this point in chapter 43,
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Judah again steps forward. Verse 8, Judah said to Israel, his father, send the lad with me.
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We will arise and go that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.
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Once again, notice Judah's reminding his father of the facts. We've been saying how at this stretch of the narrative that the
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Joseph cycle within Genesis, there's this unique intersection with wisdom literature.
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So that the themes of wisdom literature begin to become evident in the narrative of Joseph.
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We see the same thing with Daniel, which makes sense as we said, Daniel is very similar to the narrative of Joseph and that makes sense in terms of the biblical theology.
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But here you have this intersection with wisdom literature and one of the major themes of wisdom literature is what is the way that leads to life and what is the way that leads to death?
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How does one live that they may find life? And how does one live that they enter into death?
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And so we see this just as Joseph had brought them before him, this wise man filled with the spirit of God, and he put an existential fork in the road before them.
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Do this and live. If you don't do this, you will not live, you will die. Now Judah himself puts that same existential fork before his father
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Jacob. There is a situation before them all, with life on the one side and death on the other.
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Send Benjamin with me, we will arise and go, that we may live and not die. That's wisdom.
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In the face of Jacob's fierce and disastrous favoritism, Judah reminds him that life is not only for him and for Benjamin, but it's also for us and our little ones.
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There's more at stake here, Dad, than Benjamin. What about my sons and daughters?
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What about my household? What about all of us? Is Benjamin worth dozens and dozens of lives?
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In other words, Judah wants to put this point right before Jacob. You're willing to risk the life of one, that you may save the lives of so many?
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You and us and all of our little ones, are you not willing to lay down the life of one?
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If you are laying down the life of one, to risk that, that you may actually bring about salvation for the many?
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And if that doesn't get across to him, Judah takes the next step. Judah risks his own life, so that he can be the one that saves the lives of the rest.
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Verse 9, I myself will be a surety for him, my hand you shall require of him.
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If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, let me bear the blame forever. Now what does that mean?
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We're not told. It's a carte blanche. It's a blank check. Father, you put
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Benjamin in my hands, and if I don't bring him back to you, do what you will with me. Disinherit me, exile me, execute me.
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I'll bear the blame forever, alive or dead. He puts himself on the line, his posterity on the line, his future hope on the line.
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In other words, Judah was willing to accept whatever penalty Jacob wished to inflict on him, to take revenge upon him.
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And this is not an empty offer. When we get there in chapter 44, we're going to see he does the same thing before his brother.
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He puts his life on the line. He lays his life down. This has become a consistent pattern in this man's life.
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Judah has been so changed by the grace of God that where it's needed, he steps in and he lays his life down as a sacrifice that others might receive salvation, that others might be blessed.
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Judah's faith is evident here, and his faith is evident not only in his humble self -sacrifice, but also in his confidence.
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He really has faith that this is part of God's sovereign plan. Verse 10, if we had not lingered, notice again the grace.
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If we had not lingered, why are they lingering? If you had not lingered, Jacob, but he includes himself in this.
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Listen, whoever's fault it is, if we had all not lingered, we could have been back now.
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Maybe even twice by now with more food. We could have gone down twice. And so Judah's faith is evident not only in self -sacrifice, but he knows
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God would not only allow them to go down, but God would bring them back. What a contrast now.
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We talked about the contrast between Jacob and his son Joseph. Look at the contrast between Jacob and his son
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Judah, where Jacob has a selfish concern for himself and Benjamin, and a very weak faith, and he lashes out, and he's completely rash and ignorant to the reality of the crisis.
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We see in Judah a grace and a patience, self -sacrifice and a confidence in God's plan.
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Jacob, we see that contrast, and I think finally Jacob sees that contrast as well.
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And so Jacob relents. Verse 11, and their father
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Israel said to them, if it must be so, must have been music to their ears.
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What's this? He's moving? He's relenting?
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He's repenting? He's turning around? He's changing his mind? Their father finally, perhaps exposed by the contrast with his own son
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Judah says, if it must be so, do this. Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts, almonds.
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Take double money in your hand, take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sack. Perhaps it was an oversight.
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Take your brother, Olson. Arise, go back to the man.
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He finally relents. They must have been slack -jawed to hear him say, take your brother.
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Take your brother. He's prodded by this stunning example of grace in the life of Judah, and because of that he springs into the action he should have taken long before.
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He commands that an elaborate gift be gathered together, and this would have been customary. Whenever you went before one of higher stature, especially one of imperial stature, you would want some sort of elaborate gift.
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We're reminded that this tactic worked pretty well for old Jake the Snake back in Genesis 33. He sent wave after wave after wave of very elaborate gifts to his brother
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Esau, and it seemed to smooth things over quite well. Unfortunately, they're in a time of famine, so he can't send waves of camels and donkeys and cows and goats.
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He actually has to send nuts and a little bit of honey, whatever they can scrape out of the corners of the cupboards, basically.
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And for this stage of the story, the grace of God at work in this household really comes full circle with verse 14.
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Jacob, who from the moment he heard the news, has been wrestling with the providence of God, refusing to let
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Benjamin let go. Not only does he relent, he finally takes his focus off of himself and puts it where it belongs, on God.
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May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother and Benjamin.
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If I am bereaved, I am bereaved. So now,
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Jacob, this faith that's been in quick -dry cement throughout the beginning of this famine, it's beginning to pump and beat and break through the crust, and now his faith being prodded and provoked and held up by Judah's self -sacrifice, now it begins to burst onto the scene.
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And the Jacob we knew that returned from Bethel, the altar -building Jacob, finally he turns to the
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Lord and he invokes the covenantal name of God. May God Almighty give you mercy.
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No more selfish despair. No more tantrums or wild accusations.
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No more, all these things are against me, but now a submissive, may God have mercy.
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May God Almighty have mercy. And look at this declaration.
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He says, may he have mercy to release your other brother and Benjamin.
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Finally, Simeon is in view. He's been missing all along. He hasn't been a concern for Jacob. But now that Jacob is beginning to turn his heart to the
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Lord, the Lord turns his heart toward his family. Benjamin now comes after Simeon.
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May he have mercy to release Simeon and Benjamin as well. Look at his declaration.
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If I'm bereaved, I am bereaved. It was rather distressing to me to find so many commentaries and so many expositions of this particular passage where they claim, oh, this is
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Jacob, faithless, doubtful Jacob. And even though there's some good signs of faith, look at this fatalism.
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If I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved. He's throwing his hands up. He's just saying, what can
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I do? Who knows how this is going to turn out. And I'm sorry. I think if you've been tracking with the way we've been reading, it's impossible to look at verse 14 that way.
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You're essentially taking half of the verse and twisting it over against the other half. This is an actual turning point in Jacob's life sparked by the self -sacrifice, which is a real turning point in Judah's life.
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And we're going to see that again in chapter 44, that Judah now becomes foremost and it's his willingness to lay down his life that affects change that would have been unseen.
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And so no wonder as we move forward, Judah receives this exaltation. It's from his loins, his line, that the
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Messiah will come, the royal lion of Judah, because it's his self -sacrifice that brings about real change.
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So I have to agree with John Gill here. Jacob said this, if I'm bereaved,
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I'm bereaved, not utterly despairing of their return, but expressing his patient submission to the divine will.
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Jacob certainly is resolving himself to the reality, I might lose
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Benjamin and Simeon and all of my sons. This man in Egypt might have a design to take all of these sons away.
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And then what? What of Genesis 35? What will God do then?
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I'm elderly, I'm bereaved, what will God do? Well, if I'm bereaved,
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I'm bereaved. My grandfather trusted in God. And when it seemed hopeless and he was as old as I am,
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God answered and moved and blessed and made him fruitful. If I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved. You see, we're meant to look at this exclamation as Jacob relenting, not relenting toward futile despair, but relenting as casting himself on God's mercy.
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May God have mercy. Ultimately, there's two ways to say, if I'm bereaved,
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I'm bereaved. One way is to say it fatalistically, in other words, just like this.
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If I'm bereaved, what can I do about it? The world is a cold, cruel place, ultimately meaningless.
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I could rage, I could take measures to try to prevent this, but everything will be lost eventually anyway.
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So if I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved. Well, that's one way to say it, but that's not the way
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Jacob is saying it. The other way to say it is this, resolute dependence.
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If I'm bereaved, then God has willed it.
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I'll read an excerpt from a different letter, but reading some of Rutherford's letters, a frequent correspondence he had with Lady Kenmore, who he often wrote lengthy letters to and there's one letter where he reported the news of the passing of his wife.
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He spoke very briefly about the illness that had overcome her and that she had died.
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And the immediate sentence he put after that, it was a very long flowing sentence, and she died. And then this, the
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Lord has done it. The Lord has done it. Resolute dependence.
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If I am bereaved, then God has willed it. And I'm trusting in him. Oh, God, help me to trust in you.
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You show mercy as God Almighty, so show me just how
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Almighty you are, and show me just how merciful you are, but either way, give me the grace to submit to you.
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If I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved. Jacob has been wrestling.
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He's a pro wrestler by now. Much of his life has been spent wrestling with God. He's been wrestling with God's providence, and as he wrestles with God's providence here, he prevails.
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Just as he did the first time, he prevails. But here he prevails by submission.
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As professional fights today, there's technically a victory by submission, right? If you do judo or something like that.
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He prevails by submission. If you want to win the wrestling match with God's providence, the only way to win is by submission.
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Notice that he invokes this covenantal name of God. God Almighty, El Shaddai.
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That was what God revealed to Abraham in Genesis 17, verse 1.
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And Jacob knows that God is Almighty not only in Canaan, but even in Egypt. And he can say, may
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God Almighty so move in this man's heart in Egypt that he restores everything back here to Canaan.
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Not only is God revealed to Abraham in Genesis 17 as El Shaddai, but to Jacob himself.
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We already read Genesis 35, 11, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply.
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And so no wonder Jacob takes that name from that pledge and said, you told me to be fruitful and multiply and see,
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I'm sending all my sons to Egypt, so be merciful to me. Remember your promise,
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El Shaddai. God, you promised me seed in the land and in your providence, you have now called me to send all of my seed out of the land.
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Be merciful to me. He is utterly dependent upon God's mercy and he knows it, but he knows that it is the mercy of an
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Almighty God, a covenantal God. If anything, this is Jacob's, I believe, help my unbelief moment.
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So we've seen the brothers wrestle with the providence of God. What is this that God is doing to us?
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And that providence begins to work grace into their lives and we see that grace evidently in the way they regard their father and the way they interact and patiently move him toward this crisis in his life.
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And then we've been watching Jacob wrestle with providence between chapter 42 and 43. And we've seen how that providence has so moved in his life and situation that grace has again sort of resurrected his faith in the
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Lord and his heart toward his family. And we're reminded that we too as believers must wrestle with God's providence.
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So how do we wrestle with God's providence? What principles can we draw from what we've just read?
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Well, I'd like to suggest three things to avoid as you wrestle with God's providence and three ways to think as you wrestle with God's providence.
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Three things to avoid and three ways to think. First, avoid blame.
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Avoid blame. Remember when Jacob said, you have bereaved me. Jacob blames his sons,
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Jacob blames Egypt, Jacob blames the man in Egypt, Jacob blames everything, and veiled within that murmur, within that protest, within that rebellious blame shift,
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Jacob is ultimately blaming God. Charles Simeon, speaking of a man who knew difficult providence very well, if you've never heard of Charles Simeon, incredible entrance into ministry where he basically came in, devoted his life to ministering to a people that would often lock him out of the church.
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I'm very thankful. I know we have locked doors after a certain time on Sunday. I'm thankful I've never come to a locked door.
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But as he sought to preach the evangelical faith in England, the factions that were looking to modernize and move away from that old puritanical gospel, they began to want to oust him and be rid of him so they would not show up or they would lock him out of the pulpit, lock him out of the church.
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And he put up with and began to just preach and preach and preach until these people were converted and finally when there was some success and substance to his ministry, and he had this plan, oh, this is taking a toll, but I'm relatively healthy now,
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I'll preach for the next 15 years, and when I turn 60, I'll have my, what he called the
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Sabbath night of my ministry. I'll no longer preach, I'll be able to retire and use the last bit of my health.
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So that was his plan and his prayer. And then God gave him 15 years of plague after plague after plague, and he almost never had a year with good health.
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And he finally got to the end of that and immediately God took it all away. He was 60 and God had taken all of that away.
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Now you might think, thank you, Lord, I endured and now you've blessed me and I can finally retire in peace, but that's not how he read
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Providence. He understood, Lord, if I've gotten to this point and you've removed these afflictions from my health, you must strengthen me, you must mean to strengthen me that I may continue to endure.
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And he kept on preaching for decades after. Well, anyways,
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Charles Simeon says, Jacob meant to complain of his afflictions, which was in fact to complain of God who had appointed his afflictions.
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Here's one convicting to New Englanders, William Law, the Puritan said, when you complain about the weather, you rebel against the
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God who provided the weather. Sorry. When you complain and blame and lash out against anything, you are ultimately in a veiled way complaining about the circumstances
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God has seen fit to introduce you to. Remember that Jacob is called
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Israel. And Jacob, like Israel, is a complainer. Israel in the wilderness is known as grumbling and murmuring and complaining against every twist in God's providential, even fatherly provision.
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And so when we begin to start looking elsewhere because of the difficulties we're facing, the crisis around us, we begin to blame and to vent, to complain and lash out.
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We need to be struck as Jacob needed to be struck. Are you in a veiled way actually blaming
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God? Are you in a sense saying, I don't deserve this.
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This shouldn't happen to someone like me. This can't happen to me. This can't happen now. I've never done anything to deserve this.
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Well, if you want to wrestle with God's providence or right, you must avoid blame. Jacob is essentially saying to God what he says to his sons.
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Why have you dealt so wrongfully with me? Actually, in Hebrew, it's so emphatic.
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Me is the first word. The reflexive pronoun begins the whole sentence. Me, you have it in the
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King James translation. Me, ye have bereaved.
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We essentially blame God when we complain and blame shift about the difficulties that we're wrestling with.
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So avoid blame. Secondly, avoid self -pity. Avoid self -pity.
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Remember when Jacob cried out, all these things are against me. And very closely tied to blame and complaining and murmuring is self -pity.
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In fact, you can't do one without the other. You can't blame without self -pity. You can't self -pity without blame. Jacob is full of self -pity.
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Rather than standing by faith, looking for why has God allowed this? What is his ultimate purpose?
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What is he trying to show me? How is he examining me? How do I need to turn to him again? Rather than examining himself, he reacts against everyone else.
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He's full of self -pity rather than full of faith. And as we said, he appears to have forgotten
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God's promise. And that's like us. We forget God's promise. And so there's a need to keep
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God at the center of our concern, especially as we wrestle with providence. When Jesus was in the
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Garden of Gethsemane, he kept his eyes fixed upon his father. It was God first as he wrestled with the unfolding providence of the dread before him.
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And so if we're to wrestle with providence in the right way, we must avoid self -pity. Self -pity is a horrific form of unbelief.
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Spurgeon said, our best things are reckoned by unbelief to be our worst.
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God sends his mercies to us in blackened envelopes, and we sit down crying over their dismal covering.
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We don't actually open the letter to read the heavenly news within it. No summer days contribute much to the healthy growth of our souls.
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It's those sharp wintry nights which are so trying to us. When we fear that we are being destroyed and our inner life is at the moment being, at that very moment being effectually preserved.
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If we read things are right, rather than in self -pity, we would understand all things are for us.
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Difficult to do, isn't it? Psalm 31,
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David says, I said in my haste, I rushed into analyzing the situation. I said in my haste,
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I'm cut off before your eyes. Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my cries.
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Oh, love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful. Do you see what David is connecting there?
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In the very situation that I immediately rushed to, I didn't think about, didn't pray about, wasn't stepping out in faith,
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I just looked and reacted out of self -pity, and I cried out, I'm cut off before your eyes.
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But you heard those cries, and you were actually preserving me. That's the conclusion he comes to.
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The very things we think are against us are for us. Do you see how wicked self -pity is?
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It prevents us from seeing that. Third, if you would wrestle aright with God's providence, avoid foolish negotiations.
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Reuben says, kill my two sons, reminds me of Sarah, who tried to negotiate with the difficult providence of her barrenness by grabbing
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Hagar and putting her before Abraham. We have to be very careful that the pressure of the crisis, the pain of the trial, doesn't lead us to make rash, foolish, even sinful maneuvers around the difficulty.
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And that's what we see with Reuben. Kill my two sons, murder your grandsons, isn't that a great solution?
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Spurgeon says, some Spurgeon quotes are just so, I mean they're all glorious, but this is probably my favorite, just this first part.
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The unbelieving generally do stupid things. Isn't that great? Can we get business cards with that on it?
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The unbelieving generally do stupid things. We conclude that God is against us, by the way, we're in that, when we are, so we're talking about those out there, he immediately says we, when we are unbelieving, when we are blaming and self -pitying and then foolishly negotiating, we conclude that God is against us and then we act in such a way as to bring troubles upon ourselves that otherwise would never have come.
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Sarah, exactly. If she hadn't taken it upon herself to negotiate with that difficult providence, rather than submitting to it, she would have never brought the heartache of Hagar and Ishmael into her home.
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So how can we think? Avoid blame, avoid self -pity, avoid foolish, even sinful negotiations.
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But as we wrestle with God's providence, there's ways we must positively act, positively think.
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We need to renew our minds and first, we need to think sacrificially. Think sacrificially.
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Judas said, if I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, let me bear the blame forever.
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That's thinking sacrificially in the midst of the crisis. Well, what can we do?
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The old man, he's stubborn. Stubborn as they come. Stubborn as a needle is straight. And we're never going to bend him.
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So, it is what it is. Maybe we'll have to resort to stealing. Maybe we'll have to start raiding our
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Canaanite. You know, we've got a few pistachios and almonds to go around. What does
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Judah do? How does Judah wrestle with the providence? He thinks sacrificially. What can
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I do? What can I lay down? What might God use?
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How might He use me to answer this difficulty, to answer this situation, to be a blessing and a relief to others?
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You notice that the way that God used Judah was to actually bless that self -sacrifice and turn
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Jacob's heart. So that Jacob could say, if I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved. And he finally comes around.
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But he's made willing because of Judah's willingness. And so often when we face difficult providence, when we're thinking sacrificially, we'll see
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God bless our desires in the same way. A humbling of the self, a willingness to make sacrifice, that is how you begin to prevail wrestling with difficult providence.
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Humbling of yourself. Willingness to make sacrifice. Judah does what
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Jacob failed to do. He would not humble himself. He was arrogant and defiant.
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He wasn't brought to limp yet. He was not willing to lay things down. When a difficult providence comes in your life, you examine yourself and you say,
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Lord, what would you have me lay down? What would you have me let go of?
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What have I been clinging to, Lord? And your hand is upon it. And this providence will remain difficult until I let it go.
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Think sacrificially. We see it further in the way Jacob gives instructions.
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Take the best fruit of the land. Carry it down to him. Balm, honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts, almonds.
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Take double money. As we said, these presents to an Egyptian viceroy are not very extravagant, but this is essentially like the widow's mites.
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They're in a time of famine. Jacob has been refusing to budge, and even he's forced to say, Go down to Egypt. We're starving.
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We're going to die if you don't go. But with that sense of sacrifice, they gather up the best of what they have, whether that could be traded because of its value or just consumed as they hit dire straits and some began to pass out or tie knots around their stomachs like Haitian women did during times of great famine.
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And so like the widow's mites, this is a costly sacrifice.
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Jacob doesn't say, Well, it is what it is. Take them and go. At least I have all these.
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He just says, Well, just take what's left. Take the best of what we have and go. He's thinking sacrificially.
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That's the way to think. I remember a preacher telling me about when he was a student and began his ministry, and I think one of the things that he helped with was sort of diaconal duty, and he would help collect and count and distribute the funds from the church, and every now and then, they'd get these blank envelopes.
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And he would always have a bank account that was week to week, and he sort of made it a practice to think very diligently about how he could tithe and,
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All right, I've got $5 left, and I can get a cheeseburger, and I get paid Tuesday.
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He had to do all these calculations about what can I tithe. He was always relatively embarrassed about the proportion of what he would give to the
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Lord. But there'd be these blank envelopes that would come in, and they'd have random amounts of money in them, and there was no telling whence they came.
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And then he found out it was actually the minister in the congregation, when he would come to a very difficult point in his finances, rather than what this man would do, rather than clinging on to it and saying,
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Okay, I'll give 10 % of what I have left. He would just put it all in an envelope and trust God. Thinking sacrificially.
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All right, it's essentially, here's the pistachios and the almonds and the honey. It's all we got left. Take it with you.
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Thinking sacrificially. Secondly, thinking charitably.
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We need to think charitably. That's a little bit different than sacrificially. To think sacrificially thinks of how you can lay down, how you can let go, how you can give away.
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Thinking charitably is actually causing you to think the best of the situation, the best of people around you.
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So it's the very opposite of blaming, of venting and murmuring and complaining. You're thinking charitably. So what had caused the brothers to fear going back to Egypt, how are we going to go back with this money?
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Look at how Jacob thinks charitably. Take double money in your hand. Perhaps it was an oversight.
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Perhaps it was an oversight. That's charitably thinking. And it must have relieved some of the fear of his sons.
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When you're wrestling with providence, you're almost led to be cynical and bitter and resentful.
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Remember the cry? All these things are against me. But when you're wrestling rightly and you're avoiding blame and you're thinking sacrificially, you also think, well, perhaps.
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Perhaps, you know, that man did send all of you but one back. He didn't have to do that.
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And he sent all of you back with food and he even gave you supplies for the journey. You know, the more I think about this charitably,
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I think we have good reason to expect that he's a man of integrity. I think perhaps this was just an oversight and he will understand.
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So take double and go back. If Jacob had looked at the circumstances differently, he could have judged them charitably in that way and it would have been a very different outcome.
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So think charitably. And then third and most important, think beseechingly.
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Think beseechingly. Got to use that word. Kenny used it in his prayer. I was tickled when he said it.
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Think beseechingly. To beseech is to implore.
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It's to ask intently, resolutely, to seek something out.
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Think beseechingly. And that's what Jacob does when he says, May God Almighty give you mercy.
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He's wrestling with the providence of this. If I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved. And he turns to the
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Lord and he beseeches the Lord. May God Almighty show you mercy. And it's not hard to picture that as his sons departed, that became his daily prayer, his hourly prayer.
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God, show them mercy. God, protect them. Wherever they are right now at this moment,
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Lord, whatever they're facing, encourage them. Strengthen them, Lord. Be merciful to them. He would have prayed this over and over and over until they all returned.
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You know that you're wrestling with providence rightly when you're led to pray in a beseeching way.
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You know that you're not wrestling with providence rightly if you're distant from praying to God, if you're distant from seeking
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His face. This is perhaps the most obvious litmus test of how we're wrestling with difficult providences in our lives.
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Do we gravitate towards prayer or do we move away from prayer? Are we beseeching the
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Lord or are we guessing and blaming and venting and complaining? Are we self -pitying and lashing out?
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How are we reacting to difficult providence? Well, as we come to a conclusion,
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I think these six aspects of wrestling can be seen from the text itself between chapters 42 and 43.
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But the conclusion, the final point I'd like to put before us really takes us beyond this particular passage to the whole story arc, to the very conclusion.
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As we wrestle with providence, as we avoid blame and self -pity and foolish negotiation, as we think sacrificially and charitably and beseechingly, we must look beyond the wrestling of the day and the pain of the moment and the fatigue and exhaustion of the season.
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We must look beyond that to our great hope and our great hope, just as it was for Joseph, just as it is for Jacob.
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Our great hope is in what God has revealed to us. Paul says we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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Not only that, we glory in tribulation because tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character.
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Hope and hope does not disappoint. Sometimes providence disappoints.
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Sometimes unexpected turns in our walks and the seasons of our lives, sometimes griefs and losses and relational breakdowns disappoint.
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But hope never disappoints. And as we wrestle with God's providence, we look for a hope beyond what we're wrestling with.
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When we think of Jacob, who had cried out, all these things are against me, finally being led to let go of Benjamin and watch as his whole heritage begins their caravan travel down to Egypt.
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We're reminded that the day comes when those same sons come back and they say, you now, come with us.
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And that Jacob will finally see the beloved son. And all the confusion, the pain of wrestling with God's providence would immediately give way to joy, unknown, unspeakable.
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We're reminded that the day comes when Jacob finally not only sees, but dwells with the beloved son whom he thought had died and was now literally resurrected before him.
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Joseph is alive and now he dwells with him in Goshen in the land of abundance and refuge.
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And how instantaneously, every dark night of fear, every painful, dreadful moment, the weariness of the days, the soul exhaustion of wrestling with a very thorny and difficult providence are instantaneously overwhelmed with unspeakable peace.
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And then, the tear -filled acknowledgment of God's goodness and wisdom.
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The joy of embracing a son He thought was dead. His beloved son. His now resurrected son.
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He must have had to find little corners to run off and cry to, just like Joseph had to run off and cry when he saw his brothers before him as changed men.
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And in those cries, he must have said, God, when I prayed, be merciful to me, I never imagined
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You'd be this merciful. How wicked could I have been to say these things are against me.
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Only You, only You, God, could have brought such resolution that every single one of these pains has been for me.
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When Jacob finally dwells with the beloved son, all the pain of the difficult providence is instantly taken away.
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Brothers and sisters, when we finally see and dwell with the beloved son who has been resurrected before us in a land overflowing with goodness and abundance and refuge, we will finally perceive even by the reflection of his scarred wounds, we will finally perceive, like Jacob in his old age, that the hardest wrestling of providences in our lives was only
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God's way of securing us to His presence forever. Samuel Rutherford, writing to Lady Kenmore, essentially says the same thing.
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We may indeed think, cannot God bring us to heaven with ease? Well, who doubts that He can?
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But in His infinite wisdom, He decrees the contrary. Now, we cannot see a reason for it, but He has just the reason.
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We never with our eyes saw our own soul, but we have a soul. We see many rivers. We know not the first spring or the original fountain, yet they have a beginning.
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Madam, when ye are come to the other side of the water and have set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back to the waters into your wearisome journey, you shall see in that clear glass of endless glory nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, and there you shall be forced to say, if God had done anything otherwise with me than He has done,
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I would never have come to enjoy this crown of glory. You see, our hope of glory does not disappoint.
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We have an even more glorious conclusion than Jacob. We see all the merciful designs of God developed in the wisdom of His providence, perfectly displaying the glory of the risen
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Son, our Lord Jesus. And until that day, His unfolding providences teach us to trust and obey
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Him, to walk by faith, not by sight. But as we do that, we walk in the hope of glory.
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So, as we said at the beginning of this service, be of good courage. And He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the
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Lord. Let's pray. Father, we're reminded there are some in this room this morning,
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Lord, some known, perhaps some unknown, who have encountered and are wrestling with very difficult providence in their lives.
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But it's Your providence. And so, Lord, we confess that it is
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You who has authority, You who has control, and it is You who gives mercy.
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We pray that You would give mercy. Help us to avoid ways we should not wrestle and to think wisely about ways that we should and let all of it be done with view to our great hope.
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Let not our hearts be weakened, cast down in despair or disappointed, but give us the hope of glory that does not disappoint.
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Give us courage, Lord, and uphold our hearts. For those,
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Lord, who are strangers to Your grace, who want to see Your hand in their lives, but have never come to the cross, have never dealt with the
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Lord Jesus, have never turned, let them see that they're as defiant as Jacob. Let them like Judah instead be moved to lay themselves down, to bow beneath You, Lord, in repentance and in faith.
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You may change them. These things we ask in Your Son's name. Amen.