This is the pattern of the salvation. Suffering, then glory. It’s like that phrase from the Reformation city of Geneva, where John Calvin was.

It’s chiseled into the Reformation wall, and you’ll have to excuse my Latin:

post tenebras lux, “After darkness, light”.

For the Reformers, for us as a Reformed Church, this phrase about is hope after hardship. This is the joy of Reformed theology, a pastoral theology that is deeply grounded in the grit of suffering.

Anyone can welcome by having the right skillset, but welcoming actually gets real when the Lord has us welcome those who have hurt us. This is what is before us in Genesis 45 – 47.

A lot of heartaches in this life that are hard to treat are those of fractures in families, ruptures in relationships. The kind of heartaches that happen inside due to irreconcilable differences, or at their worst, unrepentant sin we show toward others.

Providence often works in that quiet querying, eerie silence. But the God who rules dreams, prisons, kings, and famines…
is the same God who rules your life.

Judah starts recovering his humanity in repentance and we see him mature to be more like the man he needs to be, like Jesus eventually.

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face." ~ William Cowper

Providence through People with Problems (Genesis 37:1-11)

As we finish this series today, here is the cliffhanger question for you. Will you just quietly walk away like Esau? Or will you, with all your life, worship Jesus Christ?

Now is your opportunity to turn toward Jesus, and not miss out on coming home to that better country, that heavenly home with Christ.

With eyes to see that God is with me. by anxious prayers to Him who hears me, as we wrestle with the One who humbles me.

In our fallen world, what happens when we meet not simply conflict in relationships – but we start to recognise abusive relationships?

Jacob seeks the same love story of old, and operates by the same old formula….boy meets girl, girl beautiful, boy moves heavy things in front of girl, boy gets girl.

But his heart doesn't get what he craves.

God does not come to us by grace, for us to set the conditions.

He is the Lord God, and we are sinners who get to repent, to respond to the grace of God, and turn to him with our sin…and not our conditions.

How may we respond to the sovereign grace of God?

“Do you believe that God is with you, in whatever mess you’re in? Do you believe that God has been with you the whole time? Then, drink from that well, and be refreshed in this life where we never feel quite at home, and yet - know, believe, that we are never alone.”

The lives of Esau and Jacob, even from before they were born, show us much about God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Genesis 25 also has much for parents and teens, that we would find comfort and be joyful recipients of God’s grace.

What is God doing my life, especially when everything doest seem to be going according to plan? What about his plans? In this sermon we look deep into the providence of God, and delight in Him.

As Abraham buries his dear wife, we see what promises he was look forward to that were far better than a patch of ground on this old earth.