On Promise (Gen 12-36) | The Sandhurst Podcast

Alrighty.

Welcome to the Sandhurst Beyond Sunday podcast.

We want to help the Saints think biblically about God, life, and culture so that our faith goes Beyond Sunday.

That's what we're trying to do.

And special guest today, the one, the only, Israel Markle.

Welcome.

Well, I thank you.

Happy to be here.

So we we go back a ways.

A long ways.

What are we fifteen years?

Somewhere in there.

So you went you were at CIU when I was at CIU.

You were like two years ahead of me.

Yeah.

I think the first time well, the first time I met you was when we were stayed at your house cycling across the country.

You were still in high school.

And then uh RA stuff on both campus.

Yeah, so actually tell us briefly what you did there, because that's just cool.

The the bike trip.

So my brother-in-law had the idea, was not my brother-in-law at the time, and he was like, what if we just cycled from Florida to Maine and stayed with alumni with school?

Bicycle.

Bicycled from Florida to Maine.

100 miles.

Yeah, yeah.

And he actually ran up missing out on these details here.

He actually ended up bowing out because he wanted to save up for a ring.

And uh me and four other guys kind of took the idea and ran with it.

And so for two summers, we just cycled, you know, 50 to 100 miles a day and stayed with alumni and shot videos of stories.

It was a good time.

And the goal was to promote CIU.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was a one more tour.

So we were talking about reaching one more student and uh hearing the story of one more alumni and sharing the love of Jesus with one more person was the idea.

I thought the idea was that if you get one person to like uh come to CIU, it paid for the tour.

We did joke about that.

That's not what we put on the shirts.

We paid one of you to pay for our tour.

Right.

And from marketing's mind, yes, we needed one student, and it would pay off the five of us cycling in the country for a couple summers.

But these sort of conversations, you're right.

I mean, started from dorm rooms to seminary housing to both our apartments to now both our houses.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So most of our time in college, we mostly just saw each other playing frisbee.

Right.

Like only on the field.

Or darts sometimes.

Or yeah, playing darts.

Yeah.

And then we I we moved to Habitat 2000.

Yep.

And then you guys, where were you?

We were a year behind you.

We moved into uh the Glen on Southboro.

Okay, so this was 2013 for us.

2013, 2014.

And uh we didn't have much to do other than play darts.

So if anybody wants to challenge us in darts, I'm I'm gonna make an official challenge right here.

We're a little out of our game now, but um back in the day.

We were good.

We were pretty good.

For a while, I feel like every Monday we would play frisbee.

Our wives were doing a Bible study, and we would just I don't know how you guys feel about food, but we'd skip everything but meat and just do frisbee, meat, and darts.

And that was our Mondays for a few years.

Speaking of meat, we went hunting.

We did.

And we did.

You smoked a coyote.

I smoked a coyote, you smoked a deer.

Smoked a deer.

It's a good day.

There we go.

It's a good day.

All right.

Uh well, I'm excited to have you because the um, you know, in some ways the podcast is intended to be what we have been doing organically for the last 15-ish years, and that is just sitting with our Bibles talking about what we've been reading or what is being taught on Sundays, and um, and doing it in a way that is both biblical in terms of like trying to understand what is the passage saying, what is God saying, and then applicational, trying to go, okay, what does this actually mean for um people who are going through hard times or people in general, and what does this mean for us as dads and um husbands and men and Christians?

So I'm excited.

Um, we both took the class Progress of Redemption, and um, I mentioned on Sunday uh that I was talking to some friends before the sermon about like, all right, if we're gonna do Genesis 12 to 50, what are some things that if we don't talk about that, uh we missed it?

And you're listeners, all those ideas he discarded like, we don't need those.

Those are my ideas.

He was like, well, you gotta talk about Jacob's ladder.

It's like, nah.

What were some other things that we said?

Jacob's ladder.

I feel like you need to talk about Abraham walking through the sacrifice.

Oh, yeah, Genesis 15.

Yeah, didn't do that.

He needed to talk about wrestling with God.

Jacob wrestling with the limp.

The limp, the holy limp.

Yeah, Jacob.

Um so yeah, those were three of the big ones.

They're like, man, if you're gonna do Abraham Isaac and Jacob, you need these.

Nope, nope, nope.

No, you don't.

All right, so let's let's just go back through the story.

Um, anytime we're talking about the Bible, it's good to have our Bibles and to like actually got a mini one there.

Oh, I told you, I'm still looking for my good one.

Describe your Bible so if anybody can Okay, so if you guys come across a leather-bound Bible with like a long leather cord around it and a German euro in the center, it's mine.

So I got a big study Bible that stays at home to read in the morning, and then I got this little baby for like funerals and weddings, and I can't find my goodness.

The good one.

All right.

You have three, each with its own purpose.

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

That's good.

Okay, so let's recap the story.

Um when it when we were taking progress of redemption, they uh they kind of summarized the these three biographies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob uh in this sort of way.

Um They got married.

No, no, no, so it was they got a wife, they got a promise, they got a baby, and then they died.

So here's Abraham's story.

He got a wife, he got a promise, he got a baby, and then he died.

Here's Isaac's story.

He got a wife, he got a promise, he got a baby, and then he died.

And here's Jacob's story.

He got a wife, he got a promise, he got a bunch of babies.

A bunch of babies.

I guess Jacob's he got a couple wives, he got um a promise, he got a bunch of babies, 12 boys at least, and then he died.

So this is this is the summary of the biographies.

Let's just kind of uh flesh out some some highlights from each one.

So um Genesis 12 is when Abraham comes on the scene, God makes this promise, people, land, nation blessing, and um he's 75 years old when he gets the promise.

25 years go by before the promise is fulfilled uh uh in terms of having a child.

And then um in the meantime, some significant things happen.

You mentioned um the the cutting of the animals in two.

Explain that.

Yeah.

So when God makes his promise to Abraham, he sets up what was a traditional, I'm gonna try to absorb some uh academic prowess from sitting in Adam's chair, and remember how this worked in the ancient world.

Uh Osmosis will kick in.

Um, but in the ancient world, when a vassal was making a promise to a greater um master, the master would cut open some animals, put them on either side, and then the servant would walk through and say, Okay, if I don't keep my end of the bargain, basically you can make me like these animals.

You need to chop me up, I take it.

Um so you're literally and I've heard, I haven't verified this, but I've heard this that this happens sometimes in weddings where where these animals they'd be cut into, like you just said, so you have this trench where this all the blood and guts goes through it, and and you're making a covenant.

Um and you're saying, if I don't keep my covenant, I'm asking, I'm giving you permission right now.

Make me like one of these.

Yes.

And there was a bit of a hierarchy too, so that the lesser would walk through to give some validity to the greater.

Like, I recognize you're better than me, but what I can do is give you my undivided devotion and a promise that I'm gonna come through.

And what makes it so good with the promise with Abraham is that God is obviously the greater, and Abraham is the vassal or the lesser in this covenant promise.

And when it comes time for, because Abraham's still the one to chop up the animals.

He chops them up, he lays it out.

This would not have been an unusual scene.

But when he chops up the animals, God puts Abraham to sleep and he walks through, you got the whole fire pot, but he walks through the animals.

Um, he in the spirit saying, Okay, I'm gonna change the rules of the way this covenant works.

Where usually, if the lesser doesn't come through for the greater, the greater gets to chop up the lesser.

I'm putting you to sleep.

I'm gonna make all the conditions, I'm gonna promise you everything good.

And if you fail to meet the conditions, I walk through.

And I'll be the one to take the heat.

And we see that in Jesus.

And that's what it's so beautiful looking forward to what Christ does, because he says, I'll make the promises, and yet when you don't deliver, I'll be the one to make the sacrifice to make it work.

Yep.

And that's a point worth beating the table for.

Beat that table.

All right.

So um, yep, God, God makes this covenant.

He passes through essentially saying, If I don't, if I don't keep my covenant, then make me like one of these.

I I ask to take the penalty, take the heat.

Now, obviously, God is going to do what he says.

Um, let me let me add one little layer that you hinted at.

It came up in the teaching team meeting, and um, everyone disagreed with me.

So I just need to throw that out here.

But this is this is this has some CIU.

Um, so the the covenant uh has the God's side of it, what he says he's gonna do.

I will, I will, I will, I will.

I'm gonna make you people and nation blessing.

And then Abraham's side of the covenant.

What is Abraham's side of the covenant?

Well, you go to Genesis 17, verse 1, and Abraham's side of the covenant, God says, is to walk before me and be blameless.

Genesis 17:1

Now, God passes through for both of them.

In other words, saying, Abraham, I'm gonna give you people and nation blessing.

If I don't, I'll take the heat, I'll take the penalty, make me like one of these, I ask to die horrible death.

And Abraham also, if you don't walk before me and be blameless, then guess what?

I ask to take the heat, the penalty, make me like one of these, I ask to die horrible death if you don't keep your side of the covenant.

Yeah.

And so that's exactly what happens.

God keeps his side of the covenant, Abraham doesn't keep his side of the covenant, and so God sends his son Jesus to be the fulfillment of Genesis 15.

And if I can just add one little layer to it, again, the the teaching team.

I was on the I was about to say, I don't remember this discussion.

You were not here this day, um, but I needed you because uh I was I was a loner here.

They were they were telling me that I'm just they weren't quite seeing it.

But here's the extra theory on top of that.

That um in Revelation 19, when it says um uh where's it the the robe dipped in blood?

Uh oh there it is in verse 13.

I'll start verse 12.

This is talking about Jesus' second coming, and it says, His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diems, and he has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself.

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

The the theory or the the the guess is that the the robe dipped in blood is the robe that God was metaphorically putting on, or not not figuratively, but that God had on when he passed through the the animals in Genesis 15 saying, This is this is that that's that's so it was Jesus passing through going, I'm gonna I'm gonna take the heat if you don't keep your side of the covenant, and um, that's the robe dipped in blood.

I don't know about that.

The point is, as we're going through these biographies, I want to see that uh to if we think that Jesus just kind of showed up on the scene in the New Testament, then we're missing uh what what God is doing throughout the story of God.

So uh Genesis 15 highlights Jesus.

Um Abraham has Isaac, um, and then uh we get another picture of Jesus in Genesis 22.

Um, walks through some of the things that uh significant with Abraham offering Isaac and just kind of tell us that story.

Yeah, yeah.

One location is crazy.

The location was basically the same between where Christ was crucified, and if I remember right, um one of you guys know it better, by all means correct me.

But uh from when we were there, that where Abraham went to offer up Isaac uh was roughly where Jesus was offered up by the Father on the cross.

Yeah, crucified.

Yeah, just a beautiful picture.

But uh he finally gets the Son of the Promise, which he's been waiting for, um and he loves him.

And then God asks probably the only thing that an old man who's already received the promise of God doesn't want God to ask, and he asks for his son.

Um and Abraham, we find out later in Hebrews, I believe, Abraham acted in faith, saying, Okay, I'm gonna take him up to offer him, but who knows?

God is able to resurrect.

What's the exact line he quotes there in Hebrews?

Yeah.

Uh Lloyd's.

You keep talking about, I'll I'll read it.

Yeah, find it.

But so he takes him up and uh prepares, gets all the way to raising the knife when uh a voice calls out to him and tells him not to, and provides a lamb instead of Isaac being sacrificed.

Uh and again we see this picture of Jesus coming to where um man, we were the ones who deserve to be killed, and yet God provides blood and promise.

And he provides blood and they killed a ram and were able to sacrifice that instead, and Isaac is alive.

Um and kudos to Abraham and sometimes it doesn't make sense.

Um God's promises and what God asks of us seem to conflict.

And if we're talking about faith beyond Sunday, I think that's something we can all get into or what God said he will do and what he tells us to do, don't always make good logical sense.

And Abraham finds himself in this spot, and yet he acts in faith, and God is better at us at working out the logical details to make it work.

I I want to I want to chase that a little bit, but first let me read what you were referring to.

It's from Hebrews 11, um, verse 17.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, exactly what we were talking about from Genesis twenty-two, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son.

That sounds like John 3 16.

It was he it was he to whom it was said, in Isaac's your descendants shall be called.

He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

In other words, uh a a type of savior, type of Christ figure.

Yeah, adobration to Christ.

Yep.

Yep.

So okay, so um you're talking about a faith beyond Sunday in terms of God asking us to do things that don't always make logical sense.

Um you have any examples that come to mind for uh what that would look like or sound like in real life?

Uh other than like being asked to sacrifice your child on an altar.

Yeah, something a little more practical.

Which God does not He did that once.

Right.

That is not um uh I mean it could be something as it wouldn't be small if you were in this situation, but being a man of integrity at work when um the bosses or the environment want you to do something that isn't good, and yet God says he'll provide that he'll help you, and yet he also calls you to do what might be countercultural to your business or your environment.

Um I think in marriage it can come up where uh we're called to love selflessly, and um sometimes there's a big there's a pity party that can sometimes go on.

Well, well, what about me?

Like why are you what about me?

What's gonna and yet God is faithful to always uh come through on his end of his promises when we are faithful to obey.

Um and it doesn't mean it's always gonna look the way we want it to, uh, but but it will never contradict his promise.

I think sometimes, like in Isaac, there are times where I believe God wants to see us raise the knife to where we can say, okay, I love this thing, whether it be um a spouse or a job or a ministry or a child, um, but be able to raise the knife too, but God, I do love you more.

Yeah.

Which we're not saying kill anything or anyone.

No, I slipped to the metaphorical thing.

There's a metaphorical raising of the knife that says, God, my devotion is first to you and then to the good gifts and responsibilities you've given me.

Yeah.

Um, there's some other things that come to my mind for me that I think can just tug at us and go, This doesn't make sense to do that.

Um, to offer forgiveness when uh there is no sorrow on the on the part of the person who wronged us.

Um that feels like letting them off the hook.

That feels cheap.

It feels in some ways it feels wrong.

Um the giving thanks in all things um is can feel illogical.

It it it just doesn't feel right.

And and actually both of those things are going to be things that I think we're gonna come back to in the story of Joseph when we get there.

Um but I think to to to tie this back to okay, what is what is God doing here?

Well, in Genesis 22, when he's offering Isaac, there's I guess a couple things.

One, he's testing Abraham, that's what it says.

Um and then there's also this picture of Jesus uh that the the ram stands in Isaac's place.

And in and is la I don't know that any of these things that feel extremely illogical can make much sense outside of looking at Jesus and looking at the cross.

Um for for Abraham it was the the ram, but um if I just go to like but why?

Why forgive?

Why give thanks?

And I just don't know that we can get much ground um in terms of a why without looking looking back at the cross and seeing that at the cross this is this is where um the great paradox happened of um maybe it's not a paradox, it's just a um I don't know what word to put on it, um a a collision.

It's a collision of love and justice where um out of out of unspeakable evil comes this immeasurable good.

And um and if it can happen, if if God did that there, then I can trust him to do it in my life even when I can't see it.

So um so let's so so that's that's Abraham.

Um we've got these different pictures of Jesus in Abraham's life from the the cutting of the animals in Genesis 15 to offering Isaac in Genesis 22, and now we've got Isaac um trying to think if there's anything to really highlight there other than man, all these guys were pretty dysfunctional.

Yeah, they were.

They were.

He uh he's got Isaac and his wife Rebecca have two sons, Jacob and Esau.

Um, God says before they were born that the older is gonna serve the younger, and so Esau's older, and so this this promise actually goes from Abraham to Isaac, um, then to the younger son, Jacob.

Jacob is a scheming snake.

Um you just read his story, and I hope this came through.

I I hope we're doing the readings.

Uh the readings were so daggum good for me.

And I said it on Sunday.

Not it's not that every time I read my Bible, I'm like, wow, so good.

But this time it was.

This time it was.

And um, and part of what was just so um compelling to me is these these guys are just so they're just terrible.

Um J Jacob is terrible, but I know that in that, you know, he's not just terrible, he's he's they're just a mixed bag.

I that's why I use that language on Sunday.

Because the the mixed bag um does get at well all of our Old Testament and New Testament characters, um, and all of humanity, really.

Again, I'm a big fan of the fact that the heart of God and the heart of man don't change, so it's easy to look into the Old Testament and see a very sinful man that is in need of saving and a God who pursues him, you know.

Yeah.

Okay, it's a this is in Genesis 32.

Yep.

I want to read it and get some of your thoughts on what you've often called the holy limp.

Um so in Genesis 32, Jacob has already received the promise of the people and nation blessing, and he's had some good moments, he's had some a lot of deceitful moments.

And then in Genesis 32, 24 it says, Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh, so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

So we got wrestling all night, and then this pr this person who, I mean, scripture calls him this man touches his thigh.

And it goes, yeah.

Socket comes out of place.

So clearly, uh, one is better at wrestling than the other.

Um, verse 26.

Then he said, Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.

But he, this is Jacob, says, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

Okay, I love that line.

Mm-hmm.

Verse 27.

So he said to him, What's your name?

And he said, Jacob.

He said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel.

For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.

Then Jacob asked him and said, Please tell me your name.

But he said, Why is it that you ask my name?

And he blessed him there.

So Jacob names the place Peniel, for he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.

All right.

Uh so you so good.

Yeah.

Tell tell me what what do you like about that?

And um tell us about the holy limp.

Yeah.

Um and the holy limp turn specifically, I think I took that from um a book called Ragamuffin Gospel.

Uh oh, really?

Yeah.

Brendan Manning?

Yeah.

I read that book, but I have no recollection of that.

I think he was the first one that used that term, then I I appreciated it.

Um but the first the story, then we'll go to the holy limp.

But one of the things we see in Jacob's story constantly is uh he is a con.

Like he he's gonna be a trickster, he's gonna con, he's going to maneuver his way to getting what he wants with the minimal amount of effort and the maximum amount of payoff.

And that is just the way he is.

Um but as you see God remove him from where he is and take him because he's on the run from Esau and he spent several years doing that.

Um when he comes to this point of wrestling with the man, um, I mean, a lot of people believe that's a Christophany, that he was wrestling with Jesus.

What's a Christophany?

Um, a appearance of Jesus um in a non-material bodily form before the New Testament.

Yep.

Yep.

So so some of those Christophanies that that we see in scripture that were like, uh we think that's Jesus that would be like the fourth man in the fire with Shadrach.

Exactly.

You're our fourth man in the fire.

Yeah, yeah.

And and often and uh or the the um the angel that came before Joshua um in Joshua, I forget what chapter it is.

Um, but the one of the reasons that we would look at these and say, we think that's a Christophany, is oftentimes people will fall before him on their face.

And usually when it's an angel, the angel will say, Don't do that.

Yeah, get up.

Yeah.

But uh, there's some times when this presence is like, no, that that's that's right where you should be.

Yeah, a lot of angels will be like, Don't worship me.

Yeah.

And the angel of the Lord.

There's also that definite article.

The definite article, the angel.

So that's Christophany.

Anyway, I interrupted you there.

Um, but you you get this scene where now, right before he starts wrestling, or right before he has to confront Esau, you know, this is prior to that.

Um, he runs into this person and they wrestle all night.

Exhausting.

I mean, I've got two brothers, you've got a bunch of brothers.

Wrestling is exhausting.

You give wrestling 10 minutes, yeah, and you're just a sweaty mess.

And he wrestles uh this man, Jesus, all night long and holds on to him.

And I think you see the shift in who Jacob is uh from being someone who is going to avoid the confrontation, avoid the consequence, and trick his way into getting what he wants, with as he encounters Jesus in the form of this man, sticks to his guns and wrestles him all night long and asks him to bless him.

But while he's blessed, it does come at a cost.

And the cost is that touches that hip, blesses him, but also makes him give way, hips out of socket.

And even at the end of uh Jacob's life, there's a reference to him worshiping on his staff, right?

Or his cane.

And so a lot of people believe he never walked normally again.

Yeah.

Um, but it was that his encounter with Jesus and the process of going from the very flawed mixed bag that he was into from Jacob to Israel, the man who wrestles with God and prevails, um it had a cost and it was painful, and yet it turned him into the man that God wanted him to be.

And so when I use the term the holy limp, I think that uh naturally, as humans, but especially in our culture, we're drawn to alphas, we're drawn to people who don't show a lot of weakness that are proud and strong and skilled at what they do.

Um and yet you see this tendency in when God works with people, and when people really encounter God, um often it comes with pain or loss or hardship that get woven into their stories.

And when that happens, it creates a holy limp of humility that changes not only the way I see myself and the way I see God, but also the way I see other people.

Um so yeah.

Yeah, so and and you are right that we are drawn to the brave hearts, you know, the uh the Maximus Decimus Merdius, you know, some of our favorite movies.

Exactly.

The the the highly competent, effective leaders.

And um and it's not that that is bad at all.

It is um but but I think you're you're right to point out that when there is a a humility and a um sort of a an unassuming nature that that accompanies somebody who's really uh wrestled with God.

Yeah.

Um and and just walks walks differently because of it.

So yeah.

And I think faithfulness that can appear sometimes in faithfulness in the hardship, because even those strong men, I mean, you look back at what fueled them not to digress into media or history too much, but you get Maximus and the loss of his son and his wife, and then you go to Braveheart and he loses his wife, and then you go to the Patriot and he loses his sons.

And so you see this uh combination of trying to be faithful in the midst of wrestling and loss to something bigger than yourself.

Yeah.

And there's this narrative arc in those stories, and it's the narrative arc we see uh that we've been called to in Jesus, and that we pick up our cross daily, and that um well the burden is light because he's walking with us and he's got you know his uh help me.

What verse am I trying to quote right now?

Um anyway, the the fact that he is bearing our burdens, his burden is light, is because he's there with us.

Yes, we're gonna be late in the but it's not because there isn't really hard things that we have to go through.

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, so faith beyond Sunday.

Um if if you feel like you're wrestling with God um because of something he isn't doing that you wish he would do, or because he seems to be doing something that you wish he would not do, um be of good cheer, as they say.

Um because I th it is I mean Jacob's story is it's in the wrestling that God it's it's in the wrestling, it's in the valley, it's in the pit, that God does his most refining work to to give us the holy limp that that changes us because of who he is, that is ultimately better.

It's ultimately better.

And so if you're wrestling with God, that's that's a good sign that as unpleasant as that is, God's probably working on you.

No, no, no, no, probably.

He is.

He is working on you.

He is certainly, emphatically, by the promise of God in Romans 8 28, working.

Um and and and I quoted it on Sunday, but it is worth quoting the the two verses together, Romans 8, 28 and 29, that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

And here's he's about to say, what is that good thing that God works out?

He predestined to become conformed into the image of his son, so that he might, he Jesus might be the firstborn or like the the high the of highest significance of many brethren.

Okay.

So so the good thing that God is working either in the wrestling or in the pit or in in the valley, whatever you want to call it, this is where God works to conform us into the image of Jesus, so that Jesus might get first place preeminence, supremacy from Colossians 1 in our lives.

And that is better.

That is better than going through life than um and and not having that's better than just kind of sailing smoothly through life without hardship.

Yes, and it makes the hardship maybe not easier in its in actually going through it, but it does when we change our perspective and we get that it's better.

We we shift from a victim mentality to recognizing that God is doing something and doing something good, and the suffering's not for anything.

It it reminds me of um Victor Frankel was a psychologist that wound up getting in um the prison camps and he wrote a book called Man's Search for Mexico.

In World War II.

Yeah, in World War II.

And he has this line that sticks with me.

He goes, Man can deal with any what if he has a good enough why.

Um and that I think applies here and it applies to us, and when we know why we're going through some of the things we're going through.

And maybe it's not even the specifics.

I might not know why that person was allowed to die, or why you might have to wrestle with that sickness, or why this thing fell apart.

But knowing that God is working and that he has a higher purpose uh is a good enough why to deal with the what.

Yeah.

And so man, there's so many things here that uh really that we're touching on that really find it's um that they get evidenced even more in the life of Joseph.

Yes, we can keep moving.

So uh let me just reference the life of Joseph, and then there are a few things from the Bible reading that just uh that I would love to kind of flesh out too.

But the story of Joseph is um he's the 11th son of Jacob.

He's the first son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, and so he's the favorite.

And because he's the favorite, the other brother's like, we hate you.

And so they um they decide to kill him, but Reuben's like, nah, don't.

And um, they ended up uh selling him into slavery instead of killing him.

In slavery, um, the Lord is with Joseph, and he gets the favor of Potiphar, and um, and he's so successful in his job as a slave that Potiphar's like, I'm not gonna concern myself with anything in my life except for one thing, and that's what's the next meal?

That is literally.

Um, but then Joseph is falsely accused of trying to sexually assault Potiphar's wife, and so he gets thrown into prison.

But the Lord is with Joseph, and um and he has the favor of the the jail guards, and he becomes successful in prison, so that what happened as a slave now happens as a prisoner.

He's basically running the prison as a prisoner.

He meets a guy who can get him out, and that guy who could get him out forgets about him for two years.

Two so we don't know what we know that this period from slavery to getting out of prison is 13 years.

Because he he goes in as a 17-year-old.

Yeah.

He comes out as a 30-year-old.

Okay.

Um, and we also know that he was forgotten in prison for two years.

When he finally gets out, um, he comes up with this plan by God's revealing uh to be able to, over seven years of plenty, get Egypt and really that portion of the world ready for what will be seven years of famine.

Um, during those seven years of famine, Joseph's brothers who sold him come to him to get food.

They just don't know it's him.

And it's just this fascinating.

I hope people read their this because the reading again was just so good.

Um, they they go to see him uh to get food.

They don't know it's Joseph.

Joseph is dressed differently, he's speaking a different language, and they're like, oh man, um some things happen where they start kind of a little bit of a karma sort of thing, is what they're they're we don't believe in karma, karma's not biblical, but they're like, oh, this bad stuff is happening because of what we did to Joseph.

And they're talking about it too to each other, and Joseph is listening, and they don't know that Joseph can understand them because they're using an interpreter, but Joseph's just listening the whole time.

And then he goes and weeps.

Long and then long story short, um, he sends them on a little bit of a wild goose chase to then ultimately say, Hey, I'm Joseph.

I'm your brother.

And what you meant for evil, God meant for good.

Okay.

Um, in order to preserve life, which was not just preserving their lives, but preserving God's promise because the blessing of Abraham was going to come through the family of Abraham, which means the family of Abraham cannot die in the Old Testament.

And starvation's a real deal in that setting.

Like real deal.

His foresight, well, really, God providing it for him, but his foresight saved Egypt and Israel in a time where it just would have gotten real bad.

Okay.

So who sent Joseph to Egypt?

That's the question.

And there are two correct answers.

God and his brothers.

God and his brothers.

Yeah.

Well, that's kind of confusing.

And I would even add a third one because we we skipped over the whole dream and I get it, we don't have a lot of time.

But the whole dream that yes, you all bow to me, he's a bit of a punk.

He is.

When you lord over all your brothers, that they're all gonna bow to you and be subservient to you.

Uh I'd say he has a little bit of responsibility in that relationship.

They probably already hated him because of the wife dynamic.

Um, but I don't think he was doing himself any favors by just being a punk.

Yeah, there's some some things you just don't share your dream, dummy.

You're just asking for it.

So you're saying Joseph had some a small part to play.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

So Joseph had a role, but ultimately it was his brothers who did the role.

Sold him.

Yep.

And uh so Joseph's brother sold him, and yet God sent him.

Those seem to not play nicely together because one was done out of evil intent.

We it was done out of hatred, it was done out of jealousy, it was done with uh lies, okay.

Um in terms of like, you know, we'll we'll take his robe, we'll we'll tear it up, put some goat blood on it, and say, Dad, he died.

Um one was done with that, and then that that's his brother's, but the in the other side, God did it not out of hate, but out of out of good, out of fulfillment of promise, out of faithfulness.

And so so which is it?

And and the reason I think that that tension is really helpful is because in some ways, in terms of our responsibility, it doesn't really matter what the source is.

So so to put it in real life, um the the floods in Nepal.

Is that a natural disaster or is that divine judgment?

On one hand, I'd say it could be both.

I say it could be both because uh yes, it was a natural disaster, and yes, God is working his purposes, but then you also get that uh story of Jesus in the New Testament where it's like, hey, this tower fell down, whose sin was it because of?

Yeah.

And whether you had a not a natural disaster, but you had a tragedy, and Jesus, the people were like, Well, somebody had to sin because that's why it happened, and Jesus is like, No, that's not necessarily it.

Um Yeah, and just to throw one more story in there with the with a blind man that everybody's going, him or his father.

It was a hint, yeah.

Who sinned here?

This clearly, this can't be just a natural tragedy.

This has to be divine judgment.

So two examples of this in the life of Jesus, where they they're they're asking the same question.

Yeah.

But you've been on a reading plan too.

I mean, before starting this one, um, now you've done McShane and I'm on another one right now.

But what we also see in the prophets on the other side um is God speaking very clearly.

This nation is my instrument in judgment.

So it might seem like political or natural disaster or whatever it might be.

God is working his purposes.

I wish I could remember the other half of uh, man, Adam, come through the chair, man.

Uh you know Adam's metaphor, the bat.

That's what it I think it goes back to.

The efficient cause and instrumental cause.

And I think it's it's that that you have the instrumental cause, which was the brothers.

Um, but it was the first one that I couldn't remember.

What's the name of the other cause?

Efficient cause.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um so yes.

Yeah, well, and so this really helps me because whether it's the floods in Nepal or um, you know, we used when I was in youth ministry, I would always get sick before our retreat.

I remember that.

And I was like, is this daggum just natural?

Like I'm stressed and so my immune is whatever, I'm low, and so now I'm getting sick.

Or is it spiritual?

Uh what is who's the source?

And um, when you look at the the examples we just gave, but specifically Joseph, you don't have to know the source to know how to move forward.

Yes.

That and that's that's what I want to be able to highlight.

That I don't need to, I don't need to put my detective hat on.

Who's behind this?

Who's behind this sickness?

Uh my cold here.

Is that is that I'm not sleeping enough, or is this God, or is this Satan?

Like, is this a demon?

I don't need to be able to, I don't need to put my detective hat on to identify the source to be able to know, okay, what do I need to do next?

And Joseph's life, we don't know at what point he was able to see, oh, this whole time I thought it was my brother's, but it was actually God.

We don't know when that connected for him.

Um, but we do see him always taking the next step in a way that is honoring to God, regardless of who might have been behind it.

And that that is part of why I think it it was really significant for me to see was it his brothers or was it his God?

Or was it God?

Either way, either way, it that it didn't change what Joseph's sort of marching orders were in terms of um faithfulness to God in whatever season he was, and it didn't change the fact that God was going to use it for good.

Yes, and we have that Romans 8 28 promise.

So um, I just would want to free us up here for a faith that goes beyond Sunday, to not feel like we gotta put the detective hat on for what's the source?

Why why, why, why?

Um to know, okay, what what what is it gonna look like now to look for me to walk in faithfulness and love and obedience to God by the power of his spirit for the praise of his glory, and um to trust, like with a deep conviction, God intends to use this to conform me into the image of Jesus, and that's better.

Yes.

And I I would even, man, that was really good.

I'd even add to your point on um on the other side of it, not only is it not necessary to put on the detective hat, the detective hat won't take you anywhere good.

Uh and what I mean by that is if I put myself, man, Joseph in prison for 13 years, this is a villain origin story.

You get somebody wronged, put in prison, and has 13 years to brood.

And when they brood, then they're given almost unlimited power.

Yeah.

And that is a villain origin story.

It is, and and it's the kind of village and orange story that then we're like, oh, you know, they are that way because I feel for them.

It makes sense.

You know, put me in a prison for 13 years.

I the detective the detective hat is gonna go three ways.

It's either going to go, God, why did you do this to me?

And now I'm questioning God's goodness, or it's going to go, it was somebody else's fault.

It's Potiphar's wife's fault.

It's my brother's fault.

They shouldn't have done this to me.

I'm going to kill them.

I'm going to kill them.

That's that's the moment in the movie.

I'm either going to run away from God because it was his fault or turn my back on him, or I'm going to kill everybody because it was their fault.

Or I am going to blame it on me and say, oh, this was all my fault.

And even if I do that, then I am hamstringing my ability to be used by God as an instrument to where if he'd had that mentality for 13 years, I don't think you get the Joseph at 30 leading Egypt.

Um, but he stays away from the detective hat.

He doesn't blame God, he doesn't blame his brothers, he doesn't blame himself, but he says something bigger is going on here, and I believe that God is working this for the good.

Um and so you get somebody who still has compassion and understanding and confidence in God, even after 13 years of uh.

Yeah.

I've heard um before that God's sovereignty is like a Hebrew word.

Have you heard this?

No.

It's best it it you need to read it backwards for it to make sense.

Like it's only in the rearview mirror that God's sovereignty you go like, oh.

I see what God was doing.

And um so only understood when read backwards.

Yeah.

Um you just don't understand the story until the end.

And the the reality of life is we're in the present, not at the end.

Yeah.

And um and so we don't need a a detective hat.

We need um we need scripture and we we need the word of God, we need the spirit of God, we need the people of God to be able to walk in obedience to what he has for us today.

And this is what is so good about the life of Joseph, which finds its all its fulfillment in Jesus, who was you know sold for silver by his own brethren and betrayed, and um and then one other thing they want to get to later, but um uh any any other thoughts on I'm just trying to go, okay.

What what are we talking about right now?

We're talking about um when when the hard things are happening, instead of asking, instead of trying to get to the bottom of who's who's responsible for this?

Is it me, is it God, is it someone else, is it some sort of dark spiritual dark forces, which we both acknowledge are realities.

Um we're just saying that ultimately it's not helpful to try to put on my detective hat to find out who's responsible.

What is helpful and good is to be able to see um what is my role in terms of faithfulness and what is God doing in it, and we know what he's doing.

That is not in question.

How it's gonna specifically work out, I don't know.

And if I'm ever gonna see the the good result of Christ-likeness, I'm not sure that I'm just not sure specifically.

Um, but I can trust that he is.

Yeah.

So but actually before we uh depart there, I I can imagine um if I'm just kind of listening to this conversation, I'm like, okay, I see it in Joseph's life.

Um are there any other stories that you that that come to mind that go, okay, it made no sense in the moment, but God worked it for good.

Are you thinking Old Testament, New T New Testament?

I'm thinking Old Testament, New Testament, or real life.

History present.

Yeah.

I think uh Well I think the diaspora is one, meaning when persecution got so high on the early church, first they lose Jesus and now they're finally getting some momentum, and then persecution ramps up and everything is blamed on them and they get scattered all over the earth.

And it's like, man, if you're in the middle of that and you got a young family and you're just building a community, that sounds awful.

And yet, God, that's how we got the church out there.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll be there in maybe I don't know how many weeks.

Six, six, seven, seven weeks.

Yeah.

Uh let me give another personal example.

I talked about kind of sickness.

Um the sickness before the retreats was I didn't need to try to put on my detective hat.

Who's responsible?

I did need to go.

I think I think God, you're helping me learn to depend on you here.

Okay.

And that's good.

Uh I remember one time we this is this is kind of a silly example, but um, it is what it is.

We used to breed German shepherds.

Yep.

And uh loved it, love, love the breed.

And um one litter got really sick.

And okay, so it's not evil.

Um and this is not on the level of like hardship of many people, but it's an example that comes to mind.

The the litter got really sick, and that that that pulls out your heart strings when you see a bunch of uh sick puppies.

Yeah.

Um, there's there's like that element, there's the there's the financial element, there's like the business element, and um, and I remember saying to Sweet D as we're just trying to figure it out, going, okay, I don't know why, but I do actually believe that God intends to use this to make us look more like Jesus.

And I would rather I remember saying this, um, I would rather look more like a Jesus than have a bunch of healthy puppies.

I really would.

That is better to me.

So that's that's an example of in just kind of like I'm not trying to say that's the deepest, darkest, hardest thing, um, but where where this kind of um confidence and God's sovereignty helped me in um in a time that was unpleasant, in an unpleasant time.

I'll give one more example of something that stands out to me when I was um this is super, super just like uh not not worthy to be called a valley, okay?

But when I was in college and this stuff was kind of brewing in me, I had a little Ford Ranger and uh the windshield wipers were terrible.

And they would go, they go, and it would just it would make me so mad.

And um, and I remember thinking, you know what?

God, I think you can even use these windshield wipers, uh, and as annoying as they are, to actually conform me into the image of your son.

So, God, thank you for my windshield wipers.

And as all the times they're going uh to go, Lord, you help me more look more like you.

And so now, 15 years later, I'm talking about my windshield wipers and how my windshield wipers um uh drew out of me prayers and um just kind of planting little seeds of confidence in God uh that he can use all things from windshield wipers to to sick puppies to conforming to his image.

And and because and if that is good and I believe it is, and better, and I believe it is, then I actually have a legitimate reason for saying thank you in the midst of it.

Thank you for these windshield wipers, thank you in the midst of it, thank you for these sick puppies, thank you in the midst of it.

So and knowing not and knowing that we don't know what the full uh benefits will be coming out of it.

Like like you said, I don't know how this is going to praise God, but it'll help me have a little bit more faith right now.

I mean, I think of some historical examples of like um Horatio Spafford, who wrote it as well.

It's like, man, if I lose my wife and my daughters, and yes, it I realize that um Jesus is enough and it can be well with my soul.

Uh that seems like such a small compensation for going through something so hard.

And then you look at the global impact over the last couple hundred years of how much, you know, how much benefit that song is at, not just to him and realizing it as well with his soul, but offering that to everyone else or the life of C.S.

Lewis with an avoidant father and a mother who dies early and gets sent to a bunch of abusive boarding schools, and like that's rough.

And yet those are the environments in which bred one of the greatest minds for the Christian faith and making an argument for why faith is true.

And so I'm sure when you're in it, it doesn't seem worth it.

And yet God is constantly bringing worth it out of what seems to be doing nothing.

Yeah.

And to just kind of play devil's advocate a little bit there, um, you might be able to say, well, it's sure there's some stories where you know there's some sort of great fruit that came out of this heartache, you know, C.S.

Lewis, Hiroshow, or however you say his name, Stafford, the guy who wrote it as well.

Yeah.

Um in some cases it's true, but in most of the cases it's not.

So what would you say there?

I would well, what do I say to you or what would I say to them?

What what would I say about on the one hand, I would say um that it is drawing that person into the image of Christ.

And that if it is even if nobody else sees it, if it brings a young orphan boy like Lewis to the faith, to Jesus, then that was worth it.

If for Horatio G.

Spafford to really for it to be well with his soul, to lose his wife and his daughters, it was worth it.

Even if there was no ripple effect, no impact.

Um, and then on the flip side, what I might say in an academic setting where people's feelings aren't on the line, is that check the what you're in your faith for.

Because if the highest value of my faith is my own good, and I think that's where it always starts.

That's one of the beautiful things about the gospel, if you ask me, is that it plays to our selfish nature.

I don't want to go to hell, and I would like to have a better life than a worse life.

This is the starting ground for faith.

And I seriously doubt anyone when they say they came to Jesus with noble intentions.

No, you didn't.

You came to Jesus as a sinner, lost, spirit worked, but you came for a selfish reason.

But as we mature, we see, and God opens our eyes a little bit wider to what he's doing.

Man, being conformed into the image of Jesus is so worth it.

And bringing glory to his name, we are most satisfied when he is most glorified.

That doesn't always happen on the easy road.

It rarely happens on the easy road.

And I'd say it was worth it.

Um, and I say that with a little bit of trepidation and humility because I don't want that stuff.

Right.

I want my kids, I want my wife.

I'm thankful I had a good family.

And so I'm not like bring on the pain, because that's another version of Christianity I think people do.

Like it's all going to be miserable, and then we'll get to heaven.

That's not the Christian life.

But there's also another segment of Christianity that is very, very self-serving, and there's no categories in their faith for the hard stuff.

I to make a ridiculous metaphor, macaroni and cheese.

All right.

Stick with you, stick with me.

Stick with me.

Um in working with young adults and high schoolers like you have, like sometimes get to the end of their high school or their college and just be having conversations.

There's like my my faith feels cheap.

It just doesn't feel very real.

And the reason I bring up macaroni and cheese is like I feed my kids easy Mac all the time.

You probably do too.

It's like noodles, drop them, milk, butter.

Because it's so good.

It's so well, no, that's actually the opposite of where I'm going.

Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Um it's so bad.

No, no, no.

It's not bad.

But it's it's cheap and it's easy and it's fast.

But you know what?

I think it tastes easy cheap.

Maybe that's our metrics.

My my metrics for good.

It's cheap, it's easy, and it's fast.

Like yes.

But on the other hand, if you've no, you're good.

If if you've ever had like, I mean, we're in the south, grandma's mac and cheese, which my family's from up north, so that's not a thing for me.

Or if the Langs ever made you like pasta.

The thing is, is that it is night and day.

They might have the same name, but they are nothing alike.

And the biggest difference is that one takes a lot longer, is a lot harder to make, and costs a lot more.

And yet the result is so much different.

And I think sometimes when talking to people and they feel like their faith uh is cheap or they've outgrown it, well, like, of course, because you never gave a category for what is hard or costly or for the process to take a long time.

Um and so looking at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, yes, God was with them.

The promise was there, but their lives were hard.

It was not an easy Mac faith.

Um, and so I what I would say to that person who says, Well, I'm gonna call your bluff because I don't think what I'm going through is worth it.

Um I'd say check your faith.

Because if your faith the ultimate goal of your faith is your comfort, um, and for your life to look the way you want it to look, I'm not sure you have the same faith that Christ is offering.

Because yes, there is comfort there and there is peace and there is joy, but there is not easy.

Yeah, it makes me think of what Hal talked about in communion, that um that we are do this in remembrance of him.

And that the the the point of the gospel is not so much what I have to receive from God, it is to receive God and um to know him and Philippians three, the fellowship of suffering state of me.

Well, all that Philippians three stuff.

Um all right, so a faith that goes beyond Sunday.

Um in terms of uh looking at Genesis 12 to 50, we see God's promise and we see him be extremely slow about that promise.

You know, Abraham waits 25 years for Isaac.

Isaac doesn't have um uh Jacob and Esau until he's 60.

Um and this this promise is just really slow to come about.

Joseph is 13 years in prison.

God is seems to be very slow here and working in ways that don't make a lot of sense here.

And yet, looking in the rearview mirror, we see God was working.

And so the faith that goes beyond Sunday is an encouragement to um seeing the patriarchs, seeing their fulfillment in Jesus as then legitimate reason to be able to look at the difficult things in our life right now and on a day-to-day basis and go, Lord, I don't see what you're doing specifically.

I know you intend to use it to make me more like you.

I believe that's better.

So thank you.

This is where I think this all leads us.

So thank you.

So thank you.

So thank you.

And so if you're listening right now, um I the the the exhortation for me, for for all of us, we all have that thing that we're going, this is the thing uh that is just kind of grinding up my soul and say, Lord, I don't like it.

I believe you're using it to make me more like you.

I believe that's better.

So thank you.

Um dang.

There's some other things from the life of Joseph uh that I loved, but I don't think we have time to talk about it.

It's kind of like on on Sunday when it was time to uh dismiss church at like 1124.

I was supposed to be done, and I was like, no, let's start talking about Joseph.

It's like let's get the other half of my outline.

Speaking of which, for your type A's out there, I think you had two blanks that didn't get mentioned.

Okay, yeah.

That's that's gonna happen.

Okay, I was gonna say the type A's should just not grab a paper.

Like you should not or see me after uh one of those two, but yeah, I'm just that's that's not gonna happen.

Well, I didn't even talk about everything, so that's true.

Can I bring up one more thing that I thought really good that you said on Sunday that I think is worth fleshing out a little bit?

Yep, yep, yep.

Um Grace on a leash.

Yeah, Grace on a leash.

Uh too far.

Too far.

You you mentioned that in the way Joseph dealt with uh his own brothers and how often we want to be able to leash Grace.

I want to extend it this far, but somebody like Joseph's brothers don't get it.

That's too far for the leash, so kill them all.

Um do you have any other thoughts on that or to grow that out, or what's the relationship between our response to hard things and uh getting grace off the leash?

Because we see it in Joseph's life.

He was in it, it was hard, and yet somehow he went through all of those hard things and had a unleashed grace.

Um, how do we get there?

Dang.

I'm always asking the question.

It's not receiving uh Hey, the here's the thing.

If you don't know this about me, if you ask me a question, it takes me about five minutes to think of it.

Um, to think of an answer.

I'm not like Adam and Izzy.

Don't judge him on the face he gives while he's thinking too, because it's not a nice one.

He'll be angry at you.

So he'll say, change your face.

Um okay.

Well, I do have some thoughts, but they're not very crisp and clean.

Do you have thoughts?

I mean, I'm gonna formulate them as you talk.

The the reason that I gave as much time as I did to uh reading through the birth order of Jacob's sons is because when I was reading, that was the point of me where I just disliked Jacob the most.

I disliked all that that he's allowing this to happen.

I I just it it just it just made me um disgusted.

Like I don't like him.

I don't like that this guy is the one who bears who God chooses to really bear his name, still to this day, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Israel.

Yeah.

I don't like I didn't like it.

Um, and I didn't like that uh God would make such a great promise to him.

And so I was like, um, well, this really is highlighting God's got God giving somebody, this in this case, a promise, that they clearly don't deserve.

And it's not that they, well, they don't, you know, they're not perfect.

That's the way we like to say, I'm not perfect.

No, not only is he not perfect, he's just like uh, he's gonna what is what is he's just bad.

He's just bad.

He's just bad.

I don't like that he got grace.

And um and then that's when I started to think, I wonder if if every everything that I've ever said, thought, or done got put in a book for people to read.

I wonder how many people would be like, I don't like that he got grace.

And so, and so that helped me see the downstream effect of grace when it really starts to invade the deep cracks in the secrets, the downstream effect of that is humility.

And and a downstream effect of humility is when I is as I begin to offer that the things I've received, namely grace.

Yeah.

So if I receive grace in a way that, man, it has uh it's not a cheap grace, it's really invaded but cracks.

Uh, the outcome of that is humility.

The outcome of that is um I'm I freely have received, freely I've given, and and so instead of when I have the opportunity to kind of sit in the seat of judgment and somebody be like, man, man, and just judge them, I can actually with with a heart of humility um extend grace and go, I don't know what I don't know.

And um, and I'm not gonna try to be uh um critical about them.

I don't need to do that.

And so that I think there's some other steps that I need to kind of flesh out there, but um I have received grace that doesn't have a leash, and I don't want to put a gr uh a leash on that grace to other people.

Joseph didn't, God doesn't.

Why should I?

What are your thoughts?

You go.

Well, it reminds me of uh the two debtors that Jesus talks about.

And that's the I think the biggest example where it's like, look, this guy was forgiven an enormous debt, something he never could have paid off, and then he went and grabbed a guy by the scruff of his jacket and threatens him because he owes him a few pennies.

Um, and that's such a ridiculous story when you think about it and be like, what a loser.

And yet I can put myself in that situation and be like, I am quick to grab people over what I think it's important after being forgiven so much.

Um and I think it's particularly damning being wired with a little bit more of a critical mindset um where it's easy for me to judge people and size people up.

Um and that just takes a lot of pride.

Size people up, yes.

That that language makes sense to me.

Yeah, yeah.

And you'd learn so much more about the I don't know if you have ever seen or been around people who are just like constantly negative.

Some people just suck the joy and positivity out of a room because they'll find something to complain about.

Um and that's not saying it isn't easy to sometimes slip into that place in certain contexts.

Uh, but you learn more about that person than anything else.

The person who's constantly complaining about the food and the environment and the service or this activity or this person.

Do you know what I haven't learned a lot about?

The actual quality of that food or that person or that service.

What I've learned a lot about is about that one person.

So connect that back to grace and humility.

For the person who is constantly judging, I don't think they have a good handle on what they've been forgiven of.

Yep.

Because real recognition of how you've been forgiven will produce a humility instead of a judging pride.

Yep.

And so it goes back to the boxes.

I got a complaining problem.

I need to stop complaining.

That's the action.

Well, actually, there's a step in between.

I got a complaining problem.

I got a critical spirit problem.

I've got a victimhood um problem.

I've got a uh a self-loathing problem.

Uh, we don't just need to jump to actions.

Uh we need to jump to what has God done for me and and who am I because of Jesus?

And then that grace, the outcome of that grace is humility.

The outcome of that humility is a um not a critical spirit, but a gracious, kind, fruit of the spirit type person.

Yeah.

Um, dude, thanks for being here.

The Joseph's story is so good.

If you didn't read it, I highly encourage it.

The Lord was with him.

And um, sort of final comment on all this is w one last reference to Jesus that when when Joseph was in the The prison, the Lord was with him, and it says it four times.

And the thing about the cross is that was not true for Jesus on the cross.

That for the first time in history you could have said, uh the and the Father and Jesus were one, but they were all in perfect unity.

But when Jesus was on the cross, um, God turned his back on Jesus and and he was forsaken by God.

And he was forsaken by God so that for those whom God would then adopt and choose to be his own, we would never be forsaken.

And it can be said for us the Lord was with Izzy, the Lord was with Will in the moment, all the time, working for our good, and that good is Christ-likeness, and that is better, and so I have reason for gratitude.

Just don't want to miss how the story of God in Genesis exalts Jesus in a way that gives reason for gratitude.

Amen.

Um say thank you to the Lord and um and join us as we keep reading in the story of God.

We got the book of Exodus this week.

So I got the the chart here by this coming Sunday, Exodus one through three, Exodus 12, Exodus 16, Exodus 19 to 20, Exodus 33, and Numbers 14.

Um, you can find all that on the front page of the website.

We also got cards around the church.

But what we're gonna see is uh we're gonna see if God chose Israel, what did he choose Israel for?

We say Israel's the ch the chosen people of God.

Israel's God's chosen people.

What are they chosen for?

Yeah, uh we're gonna see that and we're gonna see what is the purpose of the law.

Uh we're gonna see them come right up to the land that God had promised them, you know, and the people land, nation blessing, uh, and what happens there.

Uh let's let's see it all and um hope that we come to a more accurate, elevated view of who God is, intimacy with him, trust in him that gives us reason, um, legitimate reason to say thank you.

So um don't forget about Fallback Sunday and invite your one.

And um, when it comes to our ones, we give ourselves to daily prayer for them.

And so I want to close with an abridged version of our prayer for our ones.

All right, let's pray.

Um, Father, you are worthy of worship from every tongue, tribe, people, nation.

You are desiring that none should perish, but all would come to repentance.

But right now, our ones are dead in their trespasses and sins.

They're by nature children of wrath.

They're separate from Christ, strangers to the covenants of promise, and having no hope without without God in the world.

We pray for them, asking that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened, that they would know the hope of your calling, the riches of your inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of your power towards those who believe.

How can they call on him whom they have not believed and how can they believe without a preacher?

Here we are, send us in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, speaking not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in a demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that their faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

We know that out of the overflow of our hearts, our mouth speaks.

So help us to love you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and let us be known by our love.

God, incline your ear and hear, for we do not present supplication before you on account of our own merit, but on account of your great compassion.

In the name of Jesus we pray.

Actually, not yet, I want to say thank you.

And believe that you are not absent, that you are with us, and that you intend to use it to bring about Christ-likeness, and that's better.

May you give us the grace to be able to, like Abraham, just believe and bring nothing to the table in our belief except deadness and need.

And then put confidence in you.

So we give you thanks and help us to do it by the power of your spirit.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Alright, you're up next week.

Yep.

Alright, Adam, we miss you.

Have a great time.

See ya.