Cited in sermons
Rashi
3 sermons · All people cited
Genesis 43
Genesis 43 records the second journey of Jacob's sons to Egypt, where they encounter Joseph—still unrecognized—under circumstances shaped by divine providence at every turn. The chapter divides into two movements: the difficult negotiation between Jacob and his sons over sending Benjamin (vv. 1–14), and the brothers' arrival, their audience with Joseph's steward, and a shared meal in which Benjamin receives a fivefold portion (vv. 15–34). Throughout, the Joseph narrative presses a single theological conviction: God's sovereign providence overrules human wickedness and frailty to preserve the covenant seed and advance the line that will ultimately produce Messiah. Readers are called to trace the hand of God through the ordinary contingencies of famine, family conflict, and political exaltation as a pattern for understanding His governance of all things.
Genesis 12:10-20
Genesis 12:10–20 records the first major moral failure of Abram after receiving the Abrahamic covenant promises: fearing Pharaoh more than God, he deceives the Egyptians by presenting Sarai as his sister, thereby jeopardizing both the seed promise and his wife's honor. The passage exposes the weakness of the patriarch — the father of the faithful walking by pragmatism rather than faith — while demonstrating that the fulfillment of God's covenant promises rests on divine faithfulness, not human faithfulness. The account also foreshadows the later Exodus narrative, as famine, Egyptian affliction, divine plagues, and departure with wealth prefigure Israel's bondage and deliverance. The take-home message is neither license nor despair, but confidence: God's promises are yea and amen in Christ, irrespective of the feebleness of those to whom they are given.
Judges 18
Judges 18 records the Danite tribe's theft of Micah's idols and Levitical priest, their conquest of Laish, and the establishment of a counterfeit cultic center at Dan — a cultic center that stood in direct defiance of the legitimate house of God at Shiloh. The chapter is the second half of a two-chapter unit (Judges 17–18) exposing the religious apostasy that had spread from a single household through the Levitical priesthood to an entire tribe of Israel, all within a generation of Joshua's death. The recurring refrain — 'there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes' — frames the narrative as an indictment of autonomous, self-directed worship. The sermon presses the application that God's people are bound to worship according to divine prescription rather than personal preference, and that departing from God's commanded means of worship is never a neutral act.