WM 348: On what basis can we say authoritatively that the TR is THE Confessional Text?

 

JTR

The Vision (11.21.25): And God spake unto Israel

 

Image: Autumn evening skies, North Garden, Virginia, November 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 46.

“And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I” (Genesis 46:2).

Genesis 45 presented a great climax in the life of Joseph, as he finally made himself known to his brothers and was reconciled with them.

The story does not, however, end there. Genesis 46 follows with the account of how Joseph’s father Jacob [Israel] made his journey to Egypt.

God had been at work providentially to preserve the line of Abraham, and in bringing Jacob [Israel] and his household to Egypt, God is further working out his providential plan. That plan will include hardship for this elect nation, as they will be placed in bondage in Egypt. Yet it will also include God’s mighty work of deliverance in the Exodus under Moses.

Jacob did not know all that was ahead. He simply listened and obeyed the command of God.

As we look back at the opening verses to this chapter (46:1-7), we can see how Jacob and his household might stand as figures for every believer and for all the people of God, his church, collectively.

Jacob was called to leave his homeland and go to Egypt. We too have been summoned to answer the call of God upon our lives. We have been called to leave all behind and follow Christ wherever he leads (Luke 9:23).

Jacob worshipped God (see v. 1 “and [Jacob] and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.”). We are called to give worship, to offer spiritual sacrifices, the fruit of our lips, to the one true God of the Bible.

God has spoken to us in this age, not in visions, but by his Word written (v. 2: “And God spake unto Israel…”). We are to receive his Word and take it into our lives.

He gives us his perfect love which casts out fear (v. 3: “fear not…”).

He gives us his promises that we will be a great nation, the spiritual seed of Abraham (v. 3: “for I will make of thee a great nation”).

He promises to go with us into every circumstance and to bring us out again, to be all our comfort and hope in life and death (v. 4: “I will do down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again…).

Moses records Jacob’s response to this call: “And Jacob rose up…” (v. 5). He took with him “all he had” (v. 1) and followed. This included “all his seed” (vv. 6, 7). He entrusted not only himself but all his family to the Lord.

May we learn from men like Jacob in Holy Scripture how we are to obey when the Lord calls upon us.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 350: Reflections on a 1-STAR REVIEW of The Authority of the Septuagint

 

Notes from this episode:

Dr. Greg Lanier made an x post back on Nov. 2, 2025, just a few days after his co-edited book (with William Ross) titled The Authority of the Septuagint was officially released at the end of October. In this post, Lanier was bemoaning the fact that the first amazon review posted for the book was a 1-star evaluation by a reviewer complaining about the book’s misrepresentation of the Confessional Bibliology (CB) position. Lanier despaired, “At this rate we'll be at negative infinity stars before long.”

The 1-star reviewer had focused on a footnote in the opening pages of the book’s introduction as an illustration of how the CB position was misrepresented in the Lanier/Ross book. The reviewer pointed out that in this opening footnote the editors lump in the CB position with writers and works with whom actual CB advocates have no association. Furthermore, the editors also failed in this footnote to offer any citations of actual works from CB advocates. Rather than offering a fair and objective presentation of the CB position, the footnote seems to offer a dismissive “guilt by association” smear.

Indeed, there is only one chapter in the Lanier/Ross book that is not either a positive presentation of scholarly research or a positive advocacy presentation concerning usage of the LXX (for the latter see Roman Catholic scholar James B. Prothro’s article “A Roman Catholic Approach”).  That one out-of-place chapter is the excursus by Mark Ward on “The Septuagint and Confessional Bibliology.” Far from being a sympathetic advocate of the CB position (as Prothro is for the RCC position) Ward has been a persistent and termagant critic of CB who has often misrepresented our position (including by repeatedly suggesting we hold to KJVO or are “cousins” to KJVO—though this is a position we have repudiated). On a recent podcast Lanier defended the decision to invite Ward rather than an actual advocate of the CB position to contribute to the book, because, he suggested, no one holding to the CB position was capable of writing an academic essay presenting the CB viewpoint with sufficient scholarly rigor.

What Lanier might not have picked up on relating to the 1-star review was the irony which was likely intended by the reviewer. Here is some of the background to this story that Lainer might have missed:

Back in 2022 the 1-star reviewer and I co-edited a book titled Why I Preach from the Received Text. This book consists of 25 short articles written by various confessionally Reformed church officers (Presbyterian, Baptist, and Independent) who have advocated for retrieval of the traditional Protestant text of Holy Scripture in the life of confessional churches.

In the Introduction to Why I Preach from the Received Text, we (the editors) made plain that though all the contributors had great respect for the King James Version and the overwhelming majority of us (though not all) made nearly exclusive use of it in our public ministries, we were not advocating a KJVO position. In fact, we wrote the following in that introduction:

The reader should not, however, be confused about this book’s primary focus. Critics of the traditional text, in fact, often confuse our position, whether intentionally or unintentionally, with “King James Version-Onlyism,” a position which is inconsistent with WCF and 2LBCF 1:8. We did not ask our authors to address, “Why I Preach from the King James Version,” but “Why I Preach from the Received Text.” The primary purpose of this book is a defense of the traditional original Hebrew and Greek text of the Bible (p. 17).

Our book was officially released on Friday, July 22, 2022. Just 48 hours later and although he had no advance copy of the book, on July 24, 2022, Mark Ward posted a caustic review of this 276-page book to his personal blog and “plastered” it to several other online sites including amazon and goodreads, where he also gave it a very low review rating.

Ward’s review consisted of over 3,700 words, meaning it was much longer than any of the 25 individual chapters in our book, which were limited to c. 2,500 words each. In Ward’s review the term “KJV” appears 93 times. Based on Ward’s review one might think that the primary purpose of Why I Preach from the Received Text was to promote the readability of the KJV, rather than retrieval of the traditional Protestant text of Holy Scripture. The bulk of the “review” came under a section titled “KJV Readability” and included 8 subpoints each of which has the words “KJV” or “KJV Readability” in its title. There was even more. Ward intentionally misrepresented and demonized one of our authors such that it created problems for him in his church and presbytery.

Ward ended his “review” with these words, “…I cannot recommend this book, and I am dismayed that the tiny Confessional Bibliology movement has gathered enough strength to publish it. I pray that its days will be few.”

Perhaps Lanier and Ross were unaware of the animus that Ward had expressed against the CB position. Maybe this will help them understand why we were dismayed and disappointed when they accepted Ward’s gracious “offer” to contribute this excursus on CB to their book. It came from a man who has literally prayed an imprecatory prayer that the days of the CB movement would be few. Thankfully, the Lord has not been pleased to answer the petitioner’s prayer in the way that he hoped.

Sadly, Ward’s article in the book continues the misrepresentation of our position. He once again makes the claim that the CB position is the “fraternal twin” of KJVO. Here are just a few of the other problems with Ward’s review of 2024 Reformation Bible Society Conference in his excursus: He chooses only to review three of our four plenary lecturers in our conference and then critiques our conference for not covering the topic (apologetics) addressed in the plenary lecture which he omitted to review. He claims that our 2024 conference on the LXX represented a distinct shift or turn in emphasis for CB by focusing on the OT, though we have from the beginning had a whole Bible (OT and NT) emphasis and concern (see the quote shared above from our 2022 book). He states that CB holds that there are singular extant  “perfect manuscript copies” of the Bible. We do not.

The sad thing is that when Myrto Theocharous offers her synthesis of our position in the book she does not actually interact with our position but with Mark Ward’s distortion of it. In reality we are simply contending for the retrieval of what Levi Berntson calls in his article “the old view” of the Protestant orthodox fathers. Sadly one will not encounter this in Ward’s review but only a straw man of our position.

Finally, let me encourage Dr. Lanier. The first review was 1-star but I’m sure this will eventually level out. After Ward posted his low review of our book, the next dozen or so were 5-star reviews and readers have continued to find it useful. Perhaps the same will happen with their book.

JTR

WM 347: KEACH on the DIVINE AUTHORITY of the Holy Scriptures: Part 2 of 17: ANTIQUITY

 

JTR

WM 346: Book Interview: Peter Van Kleeck, Jr., The 30 Best Arguments Against KJVO* (*Answered)

 

JTR

WM 344: KEACH on the DIVIINE AUTHORITY of the Holy Scriptures: Part 1 of 17: CONTENTS

 

JTR

Lectures on the Nicene Creed & Confessing the Faith @ Westminster Baptist Church, London (11.8.25)

 

 

These are my three lectures at the conference. All conference messages can be found here.

JTR

WM 345: Book Interview: Fraser Jones, Meet the Puritans, Second Edition

JTR

The Vision (10.31.25): How shall we clear ourselves?

 

Image: Fall path, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 44.

And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants (Genesis 44:16a).

Genesis 44 continues the ongoing record of how the Lord worked out reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers.

Here are at least two things we might consider in this chapter as practical applications:

First, we might consider that reconciliation, both vertical and horizontal, often takes a slow and circuitous route.

It might stretch over a long time, even over many years, before all things are resolved.

Are there men with whom we need to be reconciled, especially ones who share with us a like precious faith in Christ?

How might the Lord be working even now to overcome sinful resentments, hurts, and ill feelings to bring about a glorious reconciliation?

Might we join in praying and even working toward such ends?

Second, we can meditate on what I have called the “evangelical” statements shot through this chapter.

Consider v. 4: “Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?”

Has God done good to you and you have answered with evil?

Has some fellow man, or fellow believer, done good to us, and we have answered with evil?

If we have been confronted with some unresolved and festering sin in our lives, might we answer with the realization that Judah did when he said in v. 16: “What shall we say…?” “What shall we speak?” And especially, “how shall we clear ourselves?”

Have we thought, as did Joseph’s brothers, that we could hide or harbor in our hearts sinful thoughts and deeds which God did not know about? Joseph’s brothers did.

This is a theme that appears in several Psalms.

In Psalm 10:11 we read that the wicked man “said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.”

Likewise in Psalm 94:7 it says that the “workers of iniquity” (v. 4) say, “the LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.”

Would we confess as Judah does in v. 16, “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.”?

A.W. Pink said of this passage, “There could be no communion of heart until full confession of guilt had been made. And this is the goal God has in view” (Gleanings in Genesis, 404).

Once we come to such a realization will we then say to the Lord Jesus Christ as Judah did to Joseph in v. 18: “Oh my Lord… let not thine anger burn against thy servant.”?

The man whose conscience has been awakened to his own sinful life and his own guilty conscience apart from Christ realizes that he cannot clear himself. His only hope is to look to Christ and live.

We hear evangelical echoes of that theme even in this OT account of Joseph. May the Lord use and apply these words to us, by the power if his Spirit, even today.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 343: Book Interview: John Hooper, It is Written: A Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of Scripture

 

Find book info (including ordering info) here.

JTR

WM 342: "SHOCKING" Analysis: Lanier, "Grumpy Protestants," and the Authority of the LXX

 

JTR

The Vision (10.24.25): And God Almighty give you mercy

 

Image: Fall Morning Scene, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 43.

And God Almighty give you mercy… (Genesis 43:14).

Perhaps the greatest theme in the record of Joseph (Genesis chapters 37—50) is providence, but a key subtheme is reconciliation, both vertical (men with their God) and, especially, horizontal (among men).

Four straight chapters are devoted to this theme in its account of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers (Genesis 42-43-44-45), and it even reappears in the final chapter, as the brothers fear Joseph’s retribution when their father dies (see 50:20).

Genesis 42 ended with a cliffhanger. There is a terrible famine. Simeon is being held hostage. Jacob refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt.

Genesis 43 continues and advances the record of holy history relaying how Jacob/Israel finally relented in the face of terrible famine to send his precious son Benjamin with his remaining sons to Egypt. He did so with a prayer for them, “And God Almighty [El Shaddai] give you mercy before the man….” (43:14a).

Israel continues in v. 14b, offering up his resignation to the circumstances: “If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Sometimes men today say, “It’s going to be what it’s going to be.” This sounds like the Doris Day song “Whatever will be, will be” from the classic Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. It’s hard to discern whether this is a sentiment which Moses commends as a godly response or whether it is a sign of Jacob’s spiritual weakness. No matter, all things are indeed in the Lord’s hands.

Maybe some hearing this today may think they are in a similar situation. If so, we are called to offer up our circumstances to the just judgements of an all-wise God and pray for his mercy for all involved.

God heard Israel’s prayer. When the brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph welcomed them to his home (43:17). His steward washed their feet (43:24). And Joseph spread a table and “set on bread” for them (43:31-32).

Joseph might be seen again as a type for Christ. We can reasonably see in Joseph’s gracious reception of his brothers what the Lord does for every believer. He meets our prayer for mercy with mercy. He welcomes us into his household, ministers to us, and spreads a table before us.

May God Almighty give us mercy.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 341: Article: Father, Forgive Them: The Case for the Authenticity of Luke 23:34a

 

Read the article here on my academia.edu page.

JTR

WM 340: Analysis: Are "THEOLOGICAL JUDGEMENTS IRRELEVANT" for establishing the TEXT of Holy Scripture?

 

JTR

The Vision (10.17.25): What is this that God hath done unto us?

 

Image: Nandina, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 42.

And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us? (Genesis 42:28).

Genesis 42 introduces yet another spiritual theme that is present in the Joseph record of Genesis. This is the theme of repentance and even reconciliation. It involves reconciliation on the horizontal level, especially centered on Joseph’s relationship with the brothers, but also upon the vertical level between all these men and the Lord.

Joseph meets his brothers when they come to Egypt, but they do not recognize him. He overhears his brothers acknowledging their sin again the brother they sold into slavery (Joseph himself!) and connecting it to their chastisement: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother… therefore is this distress come upon us” (Gen 42:21).

Though Joseph might have done his brothers great harm, he sends them home with food and money in their sacks. God is working reconciliation.

What spiritual applications might we draw from Genesis 42?

First, we can look at the brothers, and by looking at them we are looking in a mirror.

We have sinned against God. We might think we can hide and obfuscate this, but one day our sin will find us out (Num 32:23), if not in this world, then before the judgement seat of Christ at the end of the ages.

We are not “true men” (Gen 42:11). We have broken God’s law, including bearing false witness, and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

The Lord in his mercy makes this known to us. We know we are “verily guilty” and deserving of God’s wrath and punishment, and so we have anguish of soul.

Even as believers we can backslide. And when the Father lovingly brings corrective chastisement, we might ask, as did the brothers of Joseph, “What is this that God hath done unto us?” If we are not feeling it now, we likely will one day.

Might we see this as the Lord preparing us for reconciliation with men, and, most importantly, with God himself?

Second, we can look at Joseph as a type or anticipation of Christ.

Joseph suffered on account of his brethren. Christ suffered on account of our sin, but he still works to do us good.

Joseph gave liberally to his brothers. Christ supplies us with an outrageous generosity.

Joseph fed his brethren. Christ taught that we should love and even feed our enemies (Matt 5:44; Rom 12:20).

No payment can ever be made for the salvation that comes from Christ. It is a free gift, so the money is always left, as it were, at the mouth of the sack.

Salvation by grace is a one-way transaction. We do nothing to deserve it. He does everything to provide it. Thus, we exclaim, What is this that God hath done unto us!

If Joseph acted in a generous and forgiving way toward his brethren, how much more has Christ done for us!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

New Book from Bible League Trust: It is Written: A Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of Scripture

The book It Is Written: A Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of Scripture, published in the UK by Bible League Trust, is now available in the US (including amazon).

I contributed two of the 23 main articles in the book:

Chapter 12: A Defence of the Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20. Chapter 13: A Defence of the "Three Heavenly Witnesses."

Look here for endorsements, and ordering info.

Table of Contents:

JTR

WM 339: How much actual SECOND CENTURY evidence is there for "RECONSTRUCTING" the GREEK NT?

 

JTR

The Vision (10.10.25): A man in whom the Spirit of God is

 

Image: The Saqqara relief showing famine scene on the causeway of the Pyramid of Unas, Egypt,

c. 2500 B.C.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 41.

And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? (Genesis 41:38).

Perhaps the key doctrinal term in the narrative of Joseph is providence. God was at work in the life of Joseph to bring about greater and wider purposes than even Joseph was aware. God was providing for Joseph and through him for the people of Israel and, indeed, for all men. He was preparing the way for the Messiah. In time of grievous famine, Joseph would preserve the nations, including his own family, including the brothers who had betrayed him, including unrighteous Judah, who had suggested he be sold into slavery (Gen 37:2-27). But who came from Judah in the fullness of time? The Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ve suggested the theme verse of Genesis chapters 37—50 might be Joseph’s words to his brothers in Genesis 50:10, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

The New Testament equivalent to that verse is Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The Lord allowed Joseph to undergo the most outrageous misfortunes and suffer the cruelest injustices, but all the while God was working out his plan of salvation, first heralded in Genesis 3:15. Joseph has a role in that plan.

In Genesis 41 we see the tide dramatically turn in Joseph’s life. He goes from the prison to the king’s palace. The Lord can sovereignly reverse a man’s condition and circumstances in a matter of mere moments. That’s what happens when we are saved. We go from sinners to saints, from orphans to co-heirs with Christ.

What Joseph’s brothers could not see (having been blinded by their own sin) in Joseph, even the pagan king of Egypt saw: That Joseph was a man in whom the Spirit of God was.

God is still at work all around us. As an old saying goes, “We cannot always trace His hand, but we can trust His heart.” Our lives are sometimes like a pebble cast into a pond. We never see where the ripples end. But if we are men and women who have been filled with the Spirit of God, we trust that he has worked in us, he is working in us, and he will work in us in ways that are greater than we could ever ask or imagine.

We entrust all things into his hands. Even our lives.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 338: Analysis: Michael J. Kruger on the "Core Purpose" of Modern Textual Criticism

 

JTR

WM 337: What is TRUE Apostolic Succession?

JTR

The Vision (10.3.25): Forgotten by Men

 

Image: Knockout rose, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 40.

“Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (Genesis 40:23).

What if your birthday came and not a single person remembered you? You got no gifts, no cards, no texts.

What if you got sick and went into the hospital and got no visitors, no calls from friends, no consolation, no offers of help?

It can indeed be very disappointing to be forgotten by men.

There were men in the Bible who sometimes felt this way. Righteous Job, for example, in the midst of his suffering, lamented, “My kinfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me” (Job 19:14).

Worse yet, some men sense that they have been forgotten by God himself. Psalm 13 begins with the lament, “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hid thy face from me?” (v. 1).

In Genesis 40 we read how Joseph was cast into prison after being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. He had been sold into slavery by his own brothers at age 17 (Genesis 37:2). The next chapter begins two years later when Joseph was 30 (cf. Genesis 41:1, 46). This means in Genesis 40 he was 28 years old and had been in slavery or prison for 11 years (since he was 17)!

Genesis 40 records how two servants of the king of Egypt were also in the prison with Joseph: the butler and the baker. They each had dreams, and Joseph accurately interpreted both, asking the men, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (v. 8). Just as Joseph had predicted by their dreams, the king ordered the butler restored to his position and the baker put to death. Joseph had asked the butler, “Think on me when it shall be well with thee…” (v. 14), but the chapter ends, “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (v. 23).

Joseph was forgotten by men.

One commentator observed: “It is difficult to fathom, but nowhere in the text does it say that Joseph became discouraged or was in despair” (Currid, Genesis, 2:249).

He had been 11 years a slave and prisoner and would wait two more years forgotten by men, but he did not despair.

Joseph becomes a model for the believer who perseveres in the faith even in the face of the severest of trials. The LORD was with him (see Genesis 39:2-3, 21, 23). We too must continue to trust and to persevere in the Lord. He will not forget us, and He will not forget our works of service to Him. So the apostle wrote, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name” (Hebrews 6:10).

The believer might be forgotten by men, but he will never be forgotten by God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Online Books by David N. Samuel

David N. Samuel (b. 1930) was the first Presiding Bishop of the Church of England (Continuing) from 1995-2001. I recently read an excerpt from his book Pope or Gospel? on the WM 337: What is TRUE Apostolic Succession? podcast.

I noted on X that I appreciated his writing and that his books did not seem to be in print and were difficult to find. A friend then tracked down these titles available online:

Pope or Gospel? The Crisis of Faith in the Protestant Churches (1982).

A Mirror to the Nation (1999).

Without Excuse: A Vindication of the Argument from Design (2004).

Still looking for:

The Church in Crisis (2004).

Feel free to share any other online resources (or access to print resources) in the comments, and I'll add to the post.

JTR

WM 336: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on "this great modern craze for new translations of the Scriptures"

 

JTR

WM 334: Conversation: PREACHING & TEXT

 

JTR

WM 333: "PERFECT SCRIPTURE only reserved for the next life?": The Critic Critiqued Continued

 

JTR

The Vision (9.26.25): And the LORD was with Joseph

 

Image: Scene from morning walk, North Garden, Virginia, September 26, 2025.

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 39.

And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian (Genesis 39:2).

Notice the three statements in v. 2:

First: “And the LORD was with Joseph.” This key statement is repeated no less than four times in this chapter, twice in the beginning (vv. 2, 3) and twice at the end (vv. 21, 23). Some have called this the Emmanuel Principle. Paul summed this up in Romans 8:31 when he asked, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Second: “and he was a prosperous man.” Last we heard of Joseph in Genesis 37 he had been stripped of his coat of many colors, cast into a pit, most likely naked, and sold into slavery. He had no clothes, no money, no possessions, no family (they had sold him!), and yet Moses says, “and he was a prosperous man.” This is before he rose to the top. He was a prosperous man when he was a naked slave at the bottom of a waterless pit. The man who has Christ in his heart is never a poor man, but he is a prosperous man. This statement is not about the outer but the inner man.

Third: “and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.” Later, Moses will say, “and he served him” (v. 4). Joseph had respect for those in a sphere of authority over him. He was not anti-authoritarian. He trusted in the providence of God. The LORD was with him, and, in the end, the evil done to him would be turned to good (see Genesis 50:20, perhaps the theme verse of the entire Joseph narrative).

As the LORD was with Joseph, so he is always with his elect.

The Dutch Christian Corrie Ten Boom who suffered in a concentration camp in WW2 wrote, “There is no pit so deep enough, that He is not deeper still” (as cited by J. Currid, Genesis 2:232).

In describing the birth of our Lord, Matthew cites Isaiah 7:14 to say of Christ, “and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). In Hebrews 13:5 the Lord says to his saints by his apostle, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Whether we stand at the pinnacle of power or on the floor of the prison, we who believe in Christ know it to be true. He is with us, and that is always enough.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 335: ERIKA KIRK, "Father, forgive them," & the TENACITY of LUKE 23:34a

 

JTR

The Vision (9.19.25): Can anything good come out of unrighteous Judah? (Genesis 38)

Image: Fall tomatoes ripening in the window, North Garden, Virginia, September 2025.

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 38.

“And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I…” (Genesis 38:26).

Genesis 37 ended in v. 36 with the note that Joseph was sold as a slave into the house of Potiphar. The Joseph narrative will continue in Genesis 39:1. But what is in-between Genesis 37 and Genesis 39? Genesis 38.

This chapter is not about Joseph. In fact, Joseph’s name is not even mentioned. Some of the old rationalistic scholars of the modern era even went so far as to say, wrongly, that this chapter had been forcibly inserted into the account of Joseph narrative, sort of like trying to ram a square peg into a round hole, denying the unity and integrity and preservation of Holy Scripture.

Genesis 38 is about Joseph’s brother Judah (cf. 37:26-27). So what are we to make of it? What spiritual lessons do we find? It really is a sordid story. It is an R-rated story. Judah does almost everything wrong:

He chooses ungodly companions (vv. 1, 12).

He does not choose a godly wife (v. 2).

He burns with lust (v. 2, 15-16).

He raises two elder sons who are so wicked that God strikes them down (vv. 7-10).

He does not provide for his son’s widow Tamar (v. 11, 14).

He makes promises to her that he either never had any intention of keeping or simply refused to keep (v. 11).

He seeks out a woman whom he thinks is a harlot (but is really Tamar in disguise) (vv. 15-16).

Driven by impetuous lustful desires, he offers up precious tokens (v. 18).

He commits fornication with a woman he thinks is a prostitute (v. 18).

He is a hypocrite, who orders the death penalty for his daughter in law, but takes no accountability for himself (v. 24).

He only seems to express remorse when he is exposed (v. 26).

The label over this entire chapter could be simply, “total depravity.”

The only sliver of light appears when Judah at least acknowledges that Tamar’s righteousness exceeded his own (v. 26). This foreshadows the fact that later when he and his bothers are confronted with what they did to their brother Joseph, they will feel shame and remorse. Relating to Joseph, it also sets up a foil with what happens next to Joseph in Potiphar’s house in Genesis 39. Whereas Judah ran headlong into fornication, Joseph will flee from it (39:18).

Still, we ask: How could anything good come from unrighteous Judah?

As in Genesis 37, God is also seemingly absent from this chapter, his name never being mentioned. He is there, however, as an unmentioned presence working out his will, and pulling it out of even twisted and ungodly circumstances.

Tamar had twin sons of Judah, Pharez (or Phares) and Zarah (vv. 27-30).  To get the significance of this we need to turn to the genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. Matthew 1:3 (in the line of Joseph, Christ’s legal father) lists Phares “of Tamar” in the family tree of our Lord. Luke 3:33 also lists Phares in the line of Mary, his natural mother.

From this line, in the fulness of time, would come the Lord Jesus Christ. As one has put it, God very often strikes straight licks from crooked sticks. From unrighteous Judah came Christ, the standard of righteousness. God is working out his plan of salvation in Christ, in the midst of a fallen world, and this plan cannot be thwarted by the unrighteousness of men!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.12.25): Joseph & the Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 37)

 

Image: Cobwebs by round bales. North Garden, Virginia. September 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 37:

Genesis 37 begins the inspired narrative of the life of Joseph, an account which extends through Genesis 50. It tells us how his envious brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. What do we draw from this inspired account?

We are reminded that there is a sovereign God who is working out his perfect and all-wise will in all the providential circumstances of this life, including in the face of evil, in grief and pain and loss.

It is noteworthy that the name of God nowhere explicitly appears in this chapter. He is not always named, but He is always there.

And we see something in this lesser story, shadows and hints, of a greater story, if we compare Joseph with the Lord Jesus Christ:

Joseph was the beloved son of his father Jacob (Genesis 37:3).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father from all eternity, made flesh in the fullness of time (John 1:14, 18; Galatians 4:4).

Joseph was given special revelation by God, as a dreamer (37:5-11, 19).

Christ is the prophet, priest, and king, who spoke the Word of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, over and again, “Ye have heard it said….but I say unto you…”

Joseph was hated of the brothers he was sent to deliver from the death of famine (37:4).

John said of Christ, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10). Christ himself said in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Joseph came seeking his brethren to do them good on behalf of their father (37:13).

John 3:16 says, “God so love the world that he gave [sent] his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christ told in Mark 12 the parable of the vineyard owner whose husbandmen abused his servants sent to them, till finally he sent his own dear son, and they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).

Joseph was stripped of his coat and cast into a waterless pit (37:23).

Christ was stripped of his clothing for which the soldiers cast lots; he was crucified, and then placed in a tomb.

Joseph was sold by his brother for 20 pieces of silver (37:28).

Christ was betrayed by Judas one of the twelve, a friend like a dear brother, for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).

Joseph’s coat was dipped in the blood of a kid of a goat (37:31).

Christ shed his own blood on the cross, and He gave himself a ransom for many.

Jacob mourned and wept at the loss of his son, though he did not know Joseph still lived (37:34-35).

The disciples wept and mourned at the death of Christ, not knowing, at first, that he would, as he said, be gloriously raised on the third day.

Our Lord was under the power of death for three days. For 36 terrible hours. 12 hours Friday evening. 24 hours from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. And for six more hours from midnight Saturday till the early morning on the first day of the week. But then he was gloriously raised just as he said, and death was swallowed up in victory.

One of the great themes throughout this Joseph account will be summed up when Joseph meets those brothers years later in Genesis 50:20, and he says to them, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.” That is the Old Testament equivalent to Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Joseph was a great man with a great story, and he had a great role in God’s plan of salvation. But Christ is a greater man than Joseph, with a greater story. He is the Savior of all men. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 332: Discussion: TYNDALE: The Costly Legacy of Faithful Bible Translations

 

Tyndale Film website.

JTR