- Joined
- May 27, 2023
- Messages
- 8,157
- Reaction score
- 7,829
- Points
- 175
- Faith
- Christian/Reformed
- Country
- US
- Politics
- conservative
The full quote is from Gen 50:20 "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive."
We have in that passage the Doctrine of Concurrence in Reformed theology, that is active in God's Providence (His sovereign governing of all things). At its core, without investigating all the details, "concurrence says that two or more parties can act in the same event and produce a given outcome without all parties having the same intent" (R.C. Sproul).
This passage in its immediate application is to the bringing in of Jacob and the rest of his descendants, to Egypt, where God had established another son of Jacob, Joseph, in a high position of authority and power and wisdom, so that when he brought a famine on the land where Jacob and his brothers and their families resided, he would feed them.
However there was a much farther reach and purpose of that concurrence than just the feeding of a people. This is what I will deal with here. It ties the entire Bible together as one historical story with a singularity of purpose, and a greater understanding of the relationship between the OT and the NT; most specifically the relationship of the covenant of law with Israel (Jacob's descendants) and what theologically is known and the Covenant of Grace, the New Covenant. Personally I do not care for the designation CoG as there is nothing that is from God that is not grace. So to me, it is the CoG only in the sense as it is contrasted with Law, and that superficially imo since works of the Law never saved anyone and that was not the purpose the Law was serving, in and of itself. It also tends mentally, if not actually, to divide redemption into two parts and two peoples.
Before we begin we must establish a foundation that pertains to how to read and interpret the Bible. If the Bible in its entirety of the word of God, then of course it will be consistent in all its parts and various forms of genre. And since that is the case, then everything that came before something else (I.e the Covenant of Law with Jacob's descendants); everything that came before that must have something to do with that. Nothing that comes before is separated from what comes after. And this is true of our passage in Gen 50:20.
What came before?
It is in this Seed of promise that all that came before, and all that follows can be traced. It is the Seed that is being preserved through all the judgments and blessings, and through the kings of Israel, for it is a King who comes from the royal line of Judah, a priest forever, both sacrifice and mediator of the New Covenant, who crushes the head of the serpent. Who fulfills the covenant with Abraham in both its aspects, Law and promise.
So back to Gen 50:20.
Even though the immediate application was to feeding his brothers, prior to this God had told Abraham that he would not personally inherit the land, his descendants would. He told him they would go into captivity as slaves in Egypt for four hundred years, and would be rescued and brought into the land after that time. Joseph going into captivity in Egypt, being raised up to a position of prominence, put in charge and given the necessary wisdom, and having revealed to him the coming famine, stored up provision, his brothers and eventually all of the descendants of Jacob, coming to him because of the famine, were all serving the purpose of the captivity and slavery of Jacobs descendants for four hundred years.
And the slavery in and of itself, was evil intent, and yet it paved the way for God to reveal himself personally to Israel and eventually to the whole world, as the one true God who makes Covenant with people and is Creator and Sovereign over that creation. And to demonstrate that sovereignty and all power by bringing them out by his own hand from slavery and into the land that was promised. And for us on this side of the incarnation and resurrection, we look at that great Exodus as the forerunner and guarantee of our own rescue by Christ from our bondage in sin. We see the type that leads to the true. In the true, in Christ the Redeemer, we are not merely rescued from one earthly land and brought into another. We are taken out of one kingdom, a kingdom of darkness, and adopted into another----the kingdom of the Son.
We have in that passage the Doctrine of Concurrence in Reformed theology, that is active in God's Providence (His sovereign governing of all things). At its core, without investigating all the details, "concurrence says that two or more parties can act in the same event and produce a given outcome without all parties having the same intent" (R.C. Sproul).
This passage in its immediate application is to the bringing in of Jacob and the rest of his descendants, to Egypt, where God had established another son of Jacob, Joseph, in a high position of authority and power and wisdom, so that when he brought a famine on the land where Jacob and his brothers and their families resided, he would feed them.
However there was a much farther reach and purpose of that concurrence than just the feeding of a people. This is what I will deal with here. It ties the entire Bible together as one historical story with a singularity of purpose, and a greater understanding of the relationship between the OT and the NT; most specifically the relationship of the covenant of law with Israel (Jacob's descendants) and what theologically is known and the Covenant of Grace, the New Covenant. Personally I do not care for the designation CoG as there is nothing that is from God that is not grace. So to me, it is the CoG only in the sense as it is contrasted with Law, and that superficially imo since works of the Law never saved anyone and that was not the purpose the Law was serving, in and of itself. It also tends mentally, if not actually, to divide redemption into two parts and two peoples.
Before we begin we must establish a foundation that pertains to how to read and interpret the Bible. If the Bible in its entirety of the word of God, then of course it will be consistent in all its parts and various forms of genre. And since that is the case, then everything that came before something else (I.e the Covenant of Law with Jacob's descendants); everything that came before that must have something to do with that. Nothing that comes before is separated from what comes after. And this is true of our passage in Gen 50:20.
What came before?
- Creation and the fall.
- A curse on the serpent combined with a promise to destroy him with the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15).
- A curse on mankind and the land
- Then through the book of Gen leading to Gen 50:20 we have various events all connected to the above.
- That lead to Abraham and the two aspects of that covenant made by God with Abraham, One concerning the land and the other concerning faith counted as righteousness.
It is in this Seed of promise that all that came before, and all that follows can be traced. It is the Seed that is being preserved through all the judgments and blessings, and through the kings of Israel, for it is a King who comes from the royal line of Judah, a priest forever, both sacrifice and mediator of the New Covenant, who crushes the head of the serpent. Who fulfills the covenant with Abraham in both its aspects, Law and promise.
So back to Gen 50:20.
Even though the immediate application was to feeding his brothers, prior to this God had told Abraham that he would not personally inherit the land, his descendants would. He told him they would go into captivity as slaves in Egypt for four hundred years, and would be rescued and brought into the land after that time. Joseph going into captivity in Egypt, being raised up to a position of prominence, put in charge and given the necessary wisdom, and having revealed to him the coming famine, stored up provision, his brothers and eventually all of the descendants of Jacob, coming to him because of the famine, were all serving the purpose of the captivity and slavery of Jacobs descendants for four hundred years.
And the slavery in and of itself, was evil intent, and yet it paved the way for God to reveal himself personally to Israel and eventually to the whole world, as the one true God who makes Covenant with people and is Creator and Sovereign over that creation. And to demonstrate that sovereignty and all power by bringing them out by his own hand from slavery and into the land that was promised. And for us on this side of the incarnation and resurrection, we look at that great Exodus as the forerunner and guarantee of our own rescue by Christ from our bondage in sin. We see the type that leads to the true. In the true, in Christ the Redeemer, we are not merely rescued from one earthly land and brought into another. We are taken out of one kingdom, a kingdom of darkness, and adopted into another----the kingdom of the Son.
