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Engaging the Journey

Engaging the Journey – Latest Draft (18-12-14)

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Cover photo:

The Journey of the Magi

Artist:Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni) (Italian, Siena or Cortona ca. 1400–1450 Siena)

Date:ca. 1433–35

Medium:Tempera and gold on wood

Dimensions:8 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (21.6 x 29.8 cm)

Classification:Paintings

Credit Line:Maitland F. Griggs Collection, Bequest of Maitland F. Griggs, 1943

Accession Number:43.98.1


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The Table of Contents is tentative and will be adjusted as the chapters are written

Psalm 84:5-7 ............................................................................................................................................... viii

Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... ix

Section 1 - Prelaunching the Church ............................................................................................................ 1

Chapter 1 - Made for a purpose ................................................................................................................ 2

Anticipating the Journey ........................................................................................................................ 2

The Story-Teller God ............................................................................................................................. 3

The Intended Destination ....................................................................................................................... 4

The In-between Time ............................................................................................................................. 5

Big story – Arc of history ........................................................................................................................ 5

Sample Script ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Chapter 2 -Setting the stage: The Creator, His Creation and His stewards ............................................. 8

The God who Created............................................................................................................................ 8

The Paradoxes of the Living God ....................................................................................................... 8

Dynamic Tension ............................................................................................................................ 9

Transcendent and Immanent ........................................................................................................ 10

Timeless and in Time.................................................................................................................... 11

Sovereign and Servant ................................................................................................................. 12

Merciful and Just ........................................................................................................................... 12

Creative and Orderly..................................................................................................................... 14

The one God who is a Community ............................................................................................... 14

The Good and Overflowing God ...................................................................................................... 15

Goodness, Generosity and Shalom.............................................................................................. 15

Trustworthy and Faithful ............................................................................................................... 16

Self-sacrificing and Forgiving ....................................................................................................... 16

God the temple maker ......................................................................................................................... 16

Goodness and the Laws ...................................................................................................................... 17

Natural Laws .................................................................................................................................... 17

Moral Laws ....................................................................................................................................... 17

The image-bearers and their intended future ...................................................................................... 18

Transcendent and Immanent ........................................................................................................... 18

Made for Sovereignty and Service ................................................................................................... 19

Merciful and Just .............................................................................................................................. 20

Creative and Orderly ........................................................................................................................ 20

Community ....................................................................................................................................... 20

Goodness, generosity and shalom ................................................................................................... 21

Trustworthy and Faithful ................................................................................................................... 21

Self-Sacrificing and Forgiving .......................................................................................................... 22

Continued creation and the intended future ..................................................................................... 22


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Chapter 3 - Upsetting the stage: deforming the intended direction for creation...................................... 24

Confronting our freedom ...................................................................................................................... 24

Scope and direction of sin’s consequences ........................................................................................ 25

Hope in the brokenness ....................................................................................................................... 25

God has a plan to restore creation ...................................................................................................... 26

Turning from shalom ............................................................................................................................ 27

Rampant evil .................................................................................................................................... 27

Tower of Babel ................................................................................................................................. 28

Chapter 4 – A Nation of priests: foretaste of the kingdom ...................................................................... 29

God working through broken individuals and communities ................................................................. 29

Patriarchs ............................................................................................................................................. 30

Abraham ........................................................................................................................................... 30

Isaac ................................................................................................................................................. 31

Jacob ................................................................................................................................................ 31

Joseph .............................................................................................................................................. 32

Visible Nation ....................................................................................................................................... 33

Captivity ............................................................................................................................................ 33

Exodus ............................................................................................................................................. 34

The Tabernacle and the law ......................................................................................................... 35

Community Worship ..................................................................................................................... 36

Settlement ........................................................................................................................................ 37

Judges .............................................................................................................................................. 38

Kings and kingdoms ......................................................................................................................... 39

Rejecting God as King .................................................................................................................. 39

Saul ............................................................................................................................................... 40

David ............................................................................................................................................. 40

Solomon ........................................................................................................................................ 41

The Divided Kingdom ................................................................................................................... 42

The Prophets ................................................................................................................................ 42

The strange story of the ark and the tabernacle ........................................................................... 43

Diaspora ........................................................................................................................................... 45

Return ............................................................................................................................................... 46

Songs and reflections of the heart ....................................................................................................... 46

Silence and waiting .............................................................................................................................. 47

Section 2 – Ignition: Revealing the Kingdom and The Painful Breaking of Sin .......................................... 49

Chapter 5 – The kingdom enters – hope revealed, unleashing shalom .................................................. 50

Signs and shadows of the kingdom ..................................................................................................... 50

Looking for Messiah ............................................................................................................................. 52

The Messiah comes ............................................................................................................................. 54


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Inaugurating the ministry ..................................................................................................................... 55

The kingdom arrives ............................................................................................................................ 56

Chapter 6 – Culture wars ........................................................................................................................ 61

Intertestament Overview ...................................................................................................................... 61

Jewish and other sects in the Time of Jesus ....................................................................................... 62

Essenes ............................................................................................................................................ 62

Gentiles ............................................................................................................................................ 63

Herodians ......................................................................................................................................... 63

Lost Sheep of Israel ......................................................................................................................... 63

Pharisees ......................................................................................................................................... 64

Sadducees ....................................................................................................................................... 65

Samaritans ....................................................................................................................................... 65

Sanhedrin ......................................................................................................................................... 66

Scribes ............................................................................................................................................. 66

Zealots .............................................................................................................................................. 66

Cultural Issues: .................................................................................................................................... 67

Progressives vs. conservatives ........................................................................................................ 67

Effects of wealth and power ............................................................................................................. 67

Apocalypticism ................................................................................................................................. 67

For or against the secular culture ..................................................................................................... 67

Communal, ascetic lifestyle .............................................................................................................. 68

Legalism ........................................................................................................................................... 68

Originalism vs. Living interpretation ................................................................................................. 68

Taxation and Representation ........................................................................................................... 68

Chapters to be written

Chapter 7 - Paradise and the Resurrection

Chapter 8 – The Wait continues

Chapter 9 - Mission and occupation

Section 3 - Launching the Church: Apostles and the Early Church

Chapter 10 - Empowerment of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 11 - Telling the story: God’s work in the past and the present and future He has prepared for us

Chapter 12 - Discerning God’s will: prayer and disagreements

Chapter 13 - Letters of encouragement and warning

Section 4 – Launched: In Flight through the In-between

Chapter 14 - The Potpourri Church: Looking at the diversity

Distinctives:

The Problem:

Orthodoxy and heresy:

Chapter 15 – Distinctives: The defining questions that cause disagreements

Questions about the church


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Questions about grace and righteousness

Questions about knowing God

Questions about the relationship of the church to the world

Questions about sacraments

Questions about the Bible

Questions about God

Questions about sovereignty

Questions about authority and leadership

Questions about the kingdom

Questions about worship

Chapter 16 - The Family Tree: Denominations and their distinctives

Chapter 17 - The Timeline

Time of preparation

Apostolic Age and the early church

Church gains power

Middle Ages

Reformation

Missionary Age

Section 5 - Our time and place, moving forward

Chapter 18 - Recognizing what shapes us

Shaped by love [Smith, You are what you love]

Loving ourselves

Loving our family

Loving our community and culture

Shaped by liturgy and discipline

Recognizing the liturgies we live in

Counter-cultural liturgies

Benedictine practices - listening, stability, change, balance

Dealing with sin

Recognizing sin and it’s affects

Lament

Mercy, Justice and Reconciliation

Shaped by beauty

Art - concrete expressions, metaphors help us see prophetically,

Music

Shaped by technology

Chapter 19 - Knowing who we are and who we are meant to be

The time and place we are called to

Accepting ourselves - our bodies, our SHAPE

Pointing the community to Kingdom

Called to rejoice, herald the inbreaking of the kingdom [Wolters, Creation Regained]

Chapter 20 - Learning to Live and Rest in God: Anticipating shalom

Learning to wait while anticipating the resurrection and renewal of all things

Learning to be a child of God, asking for help

Sabbath practices

Spiritual disciplines

Lamenting

Bibliography

Notes:

Questions to Ask


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Psalm 84:5-7

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.


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Andrew Krasnoyarsk

Pixabay

Preface

This book is about a story of people on the move. From the beginning of mankind, we find a discontentment, a wanting of something better. Sometimes it’s wanting to be like God or even to be God. Sometimes it’s following God or following something else. Sometimes it’s us trying to find God or him finding us. We are often restless and discontent and wanting something better.

We are easily distracted.

Our history reveals a people more often moving away from God than towards him so that God is more often pursuing us than the other way around.

I am reminded of a time where I was working the midnight shift at a convenience store. It was a warm summer night and the door was open, so it was not unexpected to see a moth fly in the door. Normally, moths are attracted to light sources, but this time the moth was attracted to the white top of a garbage container. The moth was distracted by the light reflected off the garbage container. I think that describes a lot of human behavior, we get distracted by the pretty garbage.

Starting in 2017, I participated in a 9-month (12 if you include the pre-class summer reading) journey in theology made possible by the Brooklyn Fellows, a class offered by Resurrection Brooklyn, Brooklyn NY. The course was designed to provide a theological framework of our faith and to discuss how God has already worked in our lives and the possibilities of how God can continue to work in our lives individually and in community. Below is an excerpt from their application:

Brooklyn Fellows is an intensive 9-month discipleship program now in its sixth year. The program exists so that participants can grow in their understanding of the good news that Jesus Christ is renewing all things. Through group


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discussions, readings and practicing the spiritual disciplines, Fellows explore the implications of this good news as it relates to individuals, relationships and culture. By the end of Fellows, the hope is that participants will find new freedom and boldness to serve the Church and to engage every aspect of culture.

As intensive as the course was, it left me restless. I needed to fill in some gaps. Of course there were some gaps because the breadth of the material left no time to dive in deeper, it was just an introductory course. What I am trying to do in this book is fill in some of the gaps by investigating the journey of how we got here. I wanted to look at the questions: “What is the background of our current practices (orthopraxy) and how do they relate to our beliefs (orthodoxy)?” “What is the biblical basis of what we are doing now compared to earlier practices of the church?”

There was another issue as well. Our reading assignments amounted to more than 4000 pages and was challenging for most people who are also working full-time and who have family and other responsibilities. So how can this material be introduced in a more manageable package so that more people can access it?

Part of the course included exploring who we are so that we can best figure out how to apply what we are learning to our own lives. The tool we used was the Enneagram. The Enneagram that I took identified me as an “Investigator” and this book should prove to be an appropriate response to the class. Disclaimer: The reflections of this book represent my current thinking and some of the contents of this book may not reflect formal Reformed theological understandings.

Special thanks to Marc Choi who led the class and my fellow students who gave their time and attention to all the necessary reading and gave their input and questions.


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Section 1 - Prelaunching the Church


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Chapter 1 - Made for a purpose

Figure 1. Artist Jan Pietersz Saenredam after Abraham Bloemaert Artist Info Dutch, 1565 - 1607 Title Adam and Eve before the Tree of Knowledge Dated 1604 Medium engraving on laid paper Classification Print Dimensions plate: 27.5 x 19.9 cm (10 13/16 x 7 13/16 in.) sheet: 29.4 x 22.4 cm (119/16 x 8 13/16 in.) Credit Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund Accession No. 1994.50.2 Digitization Rapid Capture Image Use Open Access

Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering (brooding1) over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:26-28 God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures.” So God created humans to be like himself; he made men and women. God gave them his blessing and said: Have a lot of children! Fill the earth with people and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the earth.

Anticipating the Journey

You look at the news and wonder where things are headed to. Sometimes you look at your life and wonder the same thing. Where is God? What’s His plan for the world - for the church - for you? Then you pick up the Bible and read the stories and wonder how they all fit together. Then you look at the church - well, churches, there are so many of them - and wonder why it’s so complicated and messy and wonder if anybody’s got it right. And then what about me, my story, my mess? How do I fit into it all that?

Well it is complicated - and the very first hint of how complicated it is starts with the first sentence in the Bible (more on that later), but God has been working through and has been intervening in the lives of many people through the years. It’s through those stories that we can at least begin to understand what the Big Story (the story that helps

1 “Genesis 1:2,” Biblehub, <biblehub.com/genesis/1-2.htm>, Date of access 22 Aug 2018

http://biblehub.com/genesis/1-2.htm


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us make sense of the world) is, and our story is. As we begin to explore those stories we can discover that:

• we don’t have to figure everything out by ourselves,

• the stories (the Big Story and ours) are not over yet, they are in process, and

• we’re invited to join in that process, that journey, and participate with the God of the universe in bringing His story and our story to the end that He has already planned out - or we can just be a spectator and wonder what’s going on.

The fun in the journey comes from realizing that while we don’t have everything figured out, He does. Furthermore, while we can actively participate in the journey, the results are not dependent on us but on Him, who is working through us. As much as we may mess things up, He is able to redeem all our messes and bring us to the destination He has chosen, ultimately restoring us and the rest of creation, making us all into what He had intended from the beginning.

Among all the creatures that God created, we are uniquely made, even if we are not the center of the universe as some people may have thought at one time. Through the pursuit of science, we now have instruments that make it very clear that we are not physically at the center of everything, not that we can prove anyway. We are only specks on a small planet spinning around a star in an apparently random solar system in an apparently random galaxy in a universe we cannot even see the edges of. Although we don’t know where the center is, the universe seems to have been created with us in mind.2 The properties of the universe, the physical constants, the atomic structures, were all created such that it would support our existence. Interestingly, although we are creatures made of the stuff of the universe, not only can we can study and reflect on the properties of that stuff, we can also study and reflect on, and even reflect, the one who created us.

The Story-Teller God

It is frustrating though, to try to figure out who this Creator is. There is so much of the creation itself that we don’t understand, it “makes sense” that we would not be able to entirely understand the one who created it. So in what seems to be a deliberate pattern, the Creator doesn’t try to explain Himself, rather He does things and then tells us who He is and what He does, such as:

• The creation of the world and His response to it

• the first people He created and the messes they made and how He responded,

• the family he chose to give His laws to, the messes they made, and how He responded

And then, when God came to us in human flesh as Jesus, a man from Nazareth, his basic teaching was in the form of stories. It’s within those stories and through those stories, the stories of God’s interactions with people and the stories told by Jesus, that children as well as adults can intuitively grasp the character of the Creator.3

2 Slezak, Michael. “The human universe: Was the cosmos made for us?” New Scientist, 29 April 2015. www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630190-400-the-human-universe-was-the-cosmos-made-for-us, Accessed 5 May 2018 3 Cp. Matt 13:10-17 Parables were also designed to conceal the truth from those that God whose hearts have become dull

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630190-400-the-human-universe-was-the-cosmos-made-for-us


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The Intended Destination

God created the universe for his glory4 and, within that, humans were created to experience the true joy of living, to bear the fruit of His nature, to reflect His presence. We are designed to be image-bearers of God himself, stewards of the creation He inserted us into while reflecting the very character of God. God’s initial reaction to creating us was, “It was very good.” His intent was that we would fill and take care of the earth, all the while reflecting His character to each other and to His creation.

In the beginning, heaven and earth were joined at the Garden of Eden. It was a place where the Creator could have communion with his image-bearers and walk in the garden with them5. The garden was the perfect place for the image-bearers to develop and being working to the intended future of filling the earth and ruling over it as co-regents with God6.

He gave us unimaginable delight and freedom, but that very freedom He gave us was joined to a responsibility, a responsibility that was wrongly used and caused immense far-reaching damage - damage we could not possibly undo.7 Our pride-laden rebellion damaged the relationships between each other, between us and God, between us and the world and even between heaven and earth; but God had a plan from the beginning, a plan which is now underway, to ultimately restore what was lost and undo that damage8 and bring us to our intended destination – of an earth filled with and ruled by image-bearers and where heaven and earth are rejoined so that the image-bearers can walk with God once again9.

Ultimately, we will be freed from the bondages of sin and death and all the relationships that are now damaged will be restored. In fact, in a time-line that we cannot fully grasp, God waited from the beginnings of mankind until 2000 years ago to defeat the power of sin and death and begin the process of restoring His kingdom on earth. Then He told us that someday, he will complete that process and he will return again in the fullness of his glory and fully restore all things at that time.

Our hope looks at the resurrection of Jesus as a harbinger of the resurrection that awaits all those of us who will be united with Him in our own transformed bodies in the new heavens and the new earth.10 Furthermore, our hope doesn’t ask for us to simply wait for that time when the Kingdom of God is fully restored, but that we can be part of

4 “The creation of the world seems to have been especially for this end, that the eternal Son of God might obtain a spouse towards whom he might fully exercise the infinite benevolence of his nature, and to whom he might, as it were, open and pour forth all that immense fountain of condescension, love, and grace that was in his heart, and that in this way God might be glorified. ” Edwards, Jonathan, “Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume Two”, SERMON II. THE CHURCH’S MARRIAGE TO HER SONS, AND TO HER GOD. Ed. John E. Smith, Yale University Press, 2009 5 Genesis 3:8 6 Genesis 1:28 7 Romans 8:19-22. The whole universe is groaning, waiting for to be restored 8 “Pursuing God, Heaven and Earth,” The Bible Project, www.pursuegod.org/biblical-themes-an-animated-explanation-of-heaven-earth/> Date of access 22 Aug 2018 9 “Jesus’ own teaching during his brief public career simply reinforced the Jewish picture. He redefined a lot of ideas that were current at the time – notably, of course, kingdom of God itself, explain in many coded parables and symbolic actions that God’s sovereign, saving rule was now breaking in, even though it didn’t look like what his contemporaries had imagined and wanted.” Wright, N.T. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (p. 18). Harpers Collins, Kindle edition 10 Wright, N.T. Surprised by Hope, Harper Collins, 2008 pp4-5, 18; Rev 21-22

http://www.pursuegod.org/biblical-themes-an-animated-explanation-of-heaven-earth/%3e

http://www.pursuegod.org/biblical-themes-an-animated-explanation-of-heaven-earth/%3e


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God’s plan to bring the Kingdom of God into our broken world, and therefore bringing hope to the rest of the world.

The In-between Time

In the meantime, we do not know when that will be, and we find ourselves in the middle, in-between those two times, between the beginning of the restoration of God’s kingdom on earth and the time when it will be fully accomplished. In this in-between time, sometimes we see some signs of God’s restoration - and sometimes we can’t – and it’s hard to figure out what God is doing, especially when there are times that He seems to be absent. In those times, we need to call upon our faith to hold onto the hope that God is still working out His plans. We need to recall all the times that we did see Him at work, and then we also need to remember that getting to the end of the plans that He intends for us may require some pain on our part just as it required pain on His part as well. But in our case, as it was with His, the pain will be overwhelmed with the glory that will be revealed.

Our ultimate destination is not a mere returning to the way we started out11, but to the full flourishing of our potential, where God will establish a kingdom of image-bearers released to display God’s character and reflect His glory.12 With that in mind, we can not only wait and hope. We can participate with God in bringing His kingdom to earth and bringing a taste of shalom into a broken world that desperately needs it, knowing that the taste of shalom that God allows us to help bring to the world is just a foretaste of the fullness of the shalom that awaits us in the fully restored earth.

The purpose of this book will be to take a grand overview of the Big Story, looking at highlights of that story through the history of the Bible and the history of the church and our current situation so that we can see where we fit in and how we can engage in the journey that God has entered us into and more fully and consciously participate with Him in bringing His kingdom into this world. There will be numerous Biblical references throughout this book and it is recommended to read those as you proceed because they will provide the Biblical bases (orthodoxy) to the practices (orthopraxy) in how we should live out our faith.

Big story – Arc of history

The following sketch lays out the overview of what the Big Story is that we are living in. As we go through the rest of the chapters, we will be filling in the details about the different parts of the story, but this will give you a sense of where we are going. The sketch is based on the “Big Story” created by James Chuong13 and was further implemented in an app produced by Intervarsity.14

The sample script shown below the sketch gives an idea about how to work your way through sketch

11 Revelations 28:1-3; 22:1-5 12 Wright, N.T. Surprised by Hope, Harper Collins, 2008

13 Chuong, James. “The Big Story, YouTube, 11 Sept 2007, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCVcSiUUMhY> accessed 22 Aug 2018 14 “Big Story – Gospel Presentation Tool” Intervarsity. <https://store.intervarsity.org/big-story-gospel-presentation-tool.html> accessed 22 Aug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCVcSiUUMhY

https://store.intervarsity.org/big-story-gospel-presentation-tool.html


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NOTE: When presenting this to someone else, first draw the 5 circles as shown and then gradually fill in the extra sketch-work and the titles as you talk your way through the story. As indicated in the sample script below, start with the second circle, then return to the first, second, third, fifth and then the fourth circle.

Figure 2.

Sample Script

DAMAGED. (starting at the second circle) I think that we can look at the world and agree that the world is messed up. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Most of us see injustice and harm that’s done – the wars, crime, poverty, pollution, etc. - and we ache for better world (draw in squiggled lines on circles). Interestingly, just as hunger points to the existence of food, thirst points to the existence of water, the ache we feel about the world points to better world – that did or will exist. The Christian world view is that not only was there once a better world but that the currently broken world will be restored some day.

GOOD. God designed world for good. We took care of it and it took care of us. We were designed to love and serve each other and flourish in human communities. God took care of us and we blessed him back. Genesis 1:18-31

DAMAGED. However, we decided that we would run things our own way, chased after our own needs instead of the needs of others or for the planet (draw arrows and the line between people). The consequence was that we damaged the planet and the relationship between ourselves and between us and God. Isaiah 53:6; Romans 6:23; Isaiah 59:2; Galatians 5:19-20; Romans 1:21-22; Romans 3:23

REDEEMED. The good news is that God loved us too much to leave us that way, so 2000 years ago God sent Jesus (draw in cross and squiggle lines) who taught us a better way to live and then, by his death and resurrection made it possible to restore our relationships with each other and with him and with the planet. By his death and resurrection, he redeemed everything – our relationship with him, with each other and with the planet. John 3:16; Philippians 2:6-7; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 2:8; Romans 3:25-26


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RESTORED. But he wasn’t going to complete everything right then. He let us know that He was going to leave us for a while, that he would return someday and at that point would transform us and all of creation (draw in people and the alpha and omega). At that time, He will fully remove all evil from us and from the world and we will then dwell with him, each other and the world in peace. It’s only something we can do. We don’t have the power ourselves to heal everything ourselves. Revelation 21-22

INBETWEEN. In the meantime, though, we are in an in-between time (draw in squiggle lines and people), a waiting time, the time between his first coming when he started this revolution and his second coming when he will fully restore his kingdom. During this time, although he left us with things still broken we can join the revolution he started. We can join Him in the healing process that He has begun. This is possible because, although he left us as a physical individual, he did leave behind his Spirit (draw symbol for Holy Spirit (bird)) which we can receive His power, the power to bring healing to our relationships with Him, with each other and with the planet. He invites us to receive that power by accepting the forgiveness He offers and accepting his rule for our lives. Acts 3:6-7; Matthew 5:14-16; John 20:21-22; Micah 6:8; Luke 4:18-19; Philippians 2:3-4; 1 John 4:10-11; Romans 5:110-11; Mark 1:17; Mark 2:14; John 3:17-18; Galatians 2:20-21; Romans 10:9; 1 John 1:9 Acts 10:43; Acts 1:8; Matthew 5:14-16

WHERE ARE YOU?

1 – You think the world is fine. But how do you reconcile that with the suffering in the world?

2 – Are you overwhelmed by the evil in the world or in your heart?

3 – You have some understanding of what Jesus did. Would you like to become a follower of Jesus and engage in his mission to heal the world with his community and with the help of the Holy Spirit?

4 – Are you involved in Jesus’ community and engaged in his mission to bring healing into the worlds?


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Chapter 2 -Setting the stage: The Creator, His Creation and His stewards

The God who Created

The Paradoxes of the Living God

Figure 3.

Public Domain, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Parable of the Sower, from The Story of Christ

Series/Portfolio: The Story of Christ

Artist: Georg Pencz (German, Wroclaw ca. 1500–

1550 Leipzig)

Date: 1534–35

Medium: Engraving

Dimensions: Sheet: 1 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (3.8 × 5.7 cm)

Classification: Prints

Credit Line: Bequest of Grace M. Pugh, 1985

Accession Number: 1986.1180.114

Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

What can we tell about an artist when we look at a work of art that the artist created? What can we find from the skill in using materials, the subject matter, the emotional content the values? Sometimes we can figure out more than other times, but if the life and times of the artist are revealed then we might be able to appreciate the artwork more15. So, as we begin to explore what we can know about the Creator we can look both at his artwork, the creation, and what he has revealed to us.

So, let us begin by looking at the living things God created. Sometimes, we think we can look around us and figure out what is living and what is not; but when look at the spectrum of living things, especially through the eyes of the scientists who specialize in it, it becomes more difficult to try to come up with a definition. In fact, one organization catalogued over 100 of them16 … and none of them satisfy everybody. What does that say about the one who created those living things? If we get so confused about what was created, it is likely that we will get confused about the Creator.

As we look at how the Creator has revealed himself, one of the conclusions we can draw is that the Creator is full of paradoxes: characteristics that seem to oppose each other. So, for us to understand the Creator in terms of those paradoxes, we must hold those qualities in tension with each other. Sometimes we might not totally understand how these characteristics can all be true together, but that is what we should expect. If we cannot fully comprehend the creation, why should we think that we can fully comprehend the creator. We should also consider that if we ever think that we totally understand the Creator of the universe then we probably are not understanding things

15 Lamber, Audra. “Why Storytelling is crucial for Artists”, Artrepeneur, 26 July 2017, <mag.orangenius.com/storytelling-for-artists/> accessed 22 Aug 2018 16 Gabbatus, Josh, “There are over 100 definitions for ‘life’ and all are wrong” BBC, 2 Jan 2017, < www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170101-there-are-over-100-definitions-for-life-and-all-are-wrong> accessed 22 Aug 2018

https://mag.orangenius.com/storytelling-for-artists/

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170101-there-are-over-100-definitions-for-life-and-all-are-wrong


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correctly – we are probably creating a god in our own image rather than the other way around.

This inability to totally understand God forces us to make speculations as we try to find a way to reason things about God. We do have to be careful though, for we will create all sorts of arguments with each other if we insist on certain speculations as the defined truth of God. It is true that God has revealed himself to us but, most of the time, in the Bible where we look to see how God has revealed himself to us, we are simply told about what is or about how God has interacted with people. There are many things about which we are not given explanations. It might be that if we study those revelations of God that we can draw some conclusions, but we need to be careful about making dogma out of something that we truly don’t understand. Unfortunately, we will see in future chapters that various theologians and congregations have sometimes split up over some of those issues which no one can fully understand.

Dynamic Tension

Zechariah 7:9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.

While these paradoxes regarding God have seemed to create tensions between different people who have tried to nail down which particular way to resolve various paradoxes, I submit that it may be more productive to simply accept the tensions between paradoxical attributes rather than nail down an understanding to a particular point. I give the following example we find in biological systems.

In biological life, it seems that there are no simple formulas, no simple rules. Although, on the one hand, there are underlying precisely defined processes like the laws of chemistry and physics, on the other hand, there are overlying complex and variable biological processes that are adaptable to circumstances around them. Even more, living organisms by themselves are noted by intricately balanced but unstable processes that, if the balance between processes fails, there is a most certain death. One of the standard definitions of life is that living things must maintain themselves away from equilibrium while at the same time maintaining internal order and organization17. If you examine the processes within living organisms, you will see that the internal structures seem to be stable. Yet, in fact, matter and energy are constantly flowing through them and the materials within the internal structures are being constantly refreshed. More remarkably, all of this activity is sustained by an array of complex sets of interdependent processes where one set of processes feeds off the by-products of other processes and visa-versa. All this activity is delicate in one sense, if some processes fail at one point the result can be death. In another sense, the processes are flexible, allowing an organism to live in a wide variety of circumstances (environments).

You can see this complexity on another level with the interactions of bone and muscle. In a given skeletal muscle, some fibers are attached to one bone in one direction and some fibers are attached to a bone in another direction. As the fibers within a muscle pull against one another the bones they are attached to move. Exactly which way the bones move is determined by the creature that controls the muscles, as the creature

17 Capra, Fritjof, “The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding off Living Systems” c.1996 Anchor Books


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interacts with the environment and is determining what direction to go or what task to do. While it seems at one level that in a given muscle the fibers are working against one another and seem to work opposite to one another, they are in fact on a larger scale working with each other to accomplish particular tasks.

All of this seems to reflect what we see in spiritual life. On one level, the attributes we see in the living God, His holiness, grace, etc. never change although they are constantly interacting with each circumstance. As circumstances change, although it may seem that God’s response may change, it is not because God has changed, only that God’s dynamic response to different circumstances, whether globally or locally, has changed.

So as we consider this, it may seem that some of God’s characteristics conflict with each other or are pulling against one another. For instance, how is God’s perfect desire for justice able to be reconciled with God’s grace? Or how is it that He can be the Lord of all and able to also be the Servant of all? In fact, God is interacting with the world, determining what He wants to do and then coordinating His attributes to do what He desires. For example, although God’s authority and servant-hood seem to be in tension with one another, He is coordinating them to deal with our individual circumstances. At some point He sees the need to demonstrate more authority and at other times, more servant-hood.

I call this interaction, Dynamic Tension; a process controlled by a person or an organism in which the attributes which seem to be pulling in different directions but are in fact working in concert with one another to accomplish particular goals.

We are blessed to have both creation itself and also God’s revelation available to us as we try to try to learn about the Creator18. Fortunately, it is to our blessing that we don’t have to know everything about God for us to know or understand him – otherwise there would be no hope. That still leaves us with paradoxes about God for us to examine and we will start exploring some of those paradoxes now.

Transcendent and Immanent

Gen 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth …

Isaiah 4:22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell

Philippians 2:6 Christ, “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Genesis tells us there was a time when the universe, the heavens and the earth, began to exist. Before that moment of time, they did not exist – but before that beginning there was God and God created the universe. From that starting point, we can see the transcendent nature of God. He was not part of the universe (as pantheism claims) but he is apart from the universe. No matter what happens in the universe or to the universe, those things do not affect God who is separate from all that. Fortunately, we are not simply left with a God who is unreachably “out there” and are therefore left to fend for ourselves (as Deism believes); but in the chapters ahead we will examine many

18 Willems, Kurt, ”Augustine, Evolution and Two Books”, The Pangea Blog, 25 Aug 2010, <www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2010/08/25/augustine-evolution-and-two-books/>, accessed 22 Aug 2018

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2010/08/25/augustine-evolution-and-two-books/


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of the ways God has inserted himself into the middle of creation and even address how God is involved in ways we can’t even imagine.

This paradox of God’s transcendence and imminence has sometimes bewildered many who try to examine it through sheer logic19, but as we unwrap the significance of this paradox, we discover many interesting attributes of God. Here are a few:

• Regarding God’s Transcendence o God’s existence apart from creation, and apart from the brokenness of the world is

described as his holiness. This holiness is so profound that mortal, sinful people (as we all are) could not stand to be his presence20.

o God’s omnipotence is seen in his ability to not only create the universe, but in his ability to sustain it.21

o God’s omniscience is seen in his knowledge about the hairs on our head22, our everyday actions23 and even in our destiny24

o God is present everywhere25

• Regarding God’s Immanence o Although God is apart from the universe, He is the one who holds the universe together26

o God is present throughout the earth and available to all who call for him and even to

those who are not calling for him27 Timeless and in Time

Psalm 102:25-27 In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

Closely related to the paradox of how God is both transcendent and immanent is how God is both timeless and in time. Many scholars in philosophy and science have trouble difficulty trying to resolve questions such as: How can God even have both attributes? Did God create time or is God himself confined by time? Is time static such that the past, present and future all exist simultaneously and that is how God see them or is time dynamic such that the future does not yet exist – and is therefore God does not yet know it?28

It is not practical to try to summarize all the arguments with all their nuances here. For our purposes, we will not try to resolve the many difficult theological/philosophical issues but, as Psalm 102 does, accept the finite mortality of our life on earth and the fact that God exists outside of that.29

19 Muehlenbert, Bill, “On God’s Immanence and Transcendence, Culture Watch, 5 Aug 2013 <billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/05/on-gods-immanence-and-transcendence/> accessed 22 Aug 2018; Sproul, R.C. “Denying God’s Transendence” Ligonier Ministries, <www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/denying-gods-transcendence/> accessed 22 Aug 2018; “God is Transcendent,” Knowing Jesus, <bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God-Is-Transcendent> accessed 22 Aug 2018 20 Isaiah 6:1-5 21 Hebrews 1:3 22 Matthew 10:30 23 Psalm 139:2-3 24 Romans 8:29 25 Jeremiah 23:23-24 26 Colossians 1:17 27 Acts 17:27; Psalm 139:7-12; Psalm 145:18 28 “Is God Temporal or Timeless,” Closer to Truth, <www.closertotruth.com/series/god-temporal-or-timeless> accessed 22 Aug 2018 29 For more discussion on this difficult topic see: McKnight, Scott, ”Is God Timeless” Patheos, Jesus Creed, 23 Feb 2013, www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/02/23/is-god-timeless/, accessed 22 Aug 2018; Craig, William Lane. “God, Time and Eternity” Reasonable Faith, <www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/divine-eternity/god-time-and-eternity/> accessed 22 Aug 2018; Ganssle, Gregory E. Review of “The End of the Timeless God by RT Mullins,” The Gospel Coalition, <themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/review/the-end-of-the-timeless-god> accessed 22 Aug 2018

https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/05/on-gods-immanence-and-transcendence/

https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/05/on-gods-immanence-and-transcendence/

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/denying-gods-transcendence/

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God-Is-Transcendent

http://www.closertotruth.com/series/god-temporal-or-timeless

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/02/23/is-god-timeless/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/02/23/is-god-timeless/

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/divine-eternity/god-time-and-eternity/

http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/review/the-end-of-the-timeless-god


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Sovereign and Servant

Philippians 2:5-8 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

There is a contemporary name for this juxtaposition of attributes: servant leadership. In this case, the one who is the creator and sustainer of all things does not wield that power in a self-centered way but uses that power to serve the needs of the very beings he created – even though they defied his authority and it cost him much anguish.

When the Creator decided to make creatures in his image, creatures that had the ability to love (and therefore the ability to choose to not love), he imbued these creatures with the ability to make independent decisions. Doing that required releasing some control and then providing enough space be given so that those creatures would be free to make choices.

Then, when those creatures violated that love, incurring an awful penalty, the Creator did not just mete out the penalty, but with compassion, and at great cost to himself, put in place a plan that would restore his relationship with his image-bearers. This costly plan would highlight an attribute that already had been revealed, the attribute of servanthood in which Creator acts on behalf of his creatures.

Not to be overlooked, the ability to create and sustain the universe needs tremendous knowledge and wisdom30 as does the ability to create creatures in his image and then to be able to guide them in the midst of their missteps and varied circumstances. Were God to simply control each and every action in the universe, that would be difficult enough, but although God has things happen directly through his sovereign will, there are actions which he desires, but he gives us the option to obey or not (his will of command31). We cannot even begin to understand the vast knowledge and wisdom that God needs32. In fact, wisdom is so pervasive not only in creation but as part of the many ways God interacts with us that it is metaphorically portrayed to us in Proverbs as a person33.

Merciful and Just

2 Samuel 24:14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

Psalm 86:5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Revelation 19:15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

There is a common misunderstanding of how God is seen in the Old Testament vs. how God is seen in the New Testament. The perceived contrast has caused reactions such as thinking that they are two different Gods or ignoring the Old Testament while

“God is Infinite Bible Verses” All About God” <www.allaboutgod.com/god-is-infinite-bible-verses-faq.htm> accessed 22 Aug 2018 30 Proverbs 3:19; Job 12:13 31 Piper, John, “What is the Will of God and How Do We Know It” Desiring God, 22 Aug 2004, <www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it> accessed 22 Aug 2018 32 Romans 11:33-35; Isaiah 55:9 33 Proverbs 1: 20-23.

https://www.allaboutgod.com/god-is-infinite-bible-verses-faq.htm

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it


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focusing exclusively on the New Testament. It is easy to see how this misperception happens while looking cursorily at the Bible, but this misperception can be resolved by looking more carefully into the text.

God’s love, mercy and grace can be seen in the Old Testament right near the beginning. There is grace in the placing the image of God on creatures that did nothing to earn it. There is mercy in the judgements meted onto Adam and Eve after their sin and grace in the provision of covering for their nakedness. While we could look at more particular instances of mercy and grace in the Old Testament, let’s just consider the meanings of the Hebrew words that have been translated as “mercy.”34 One Hebrew word, “racham” can also be translated as compassion and another “chesed” can be translated as steadfast loyalty and is seen as God’s steadfast compassion and loyalty to Israel even after repeated rejections from them.

But even beyond mercy and grace, God’s compares his love with his chosen people with the love of a husband to a wife. This Hebrew word that God often used for love, “ahavah,” refers to a giving type of love, which indeed was the way God showed his love to his chosen ones; even though time after time his people rejected him, God patiently worked through it all giving us a chance to see ourselves as we really are and the chance to put our trust in his unfailing love. Wrath and justice in the New Testament can be seen in God’s strong desire to eliminate sin and in his zeal, even jealousy, about the welfare of his chosen ones. In both the Old and New Testaments, God is clear about his desire for justice and righteousness. God expresses his very clearly that he is angry when we try to cover-up our lack of justice with religious exercises or pretentiousness.

God’s response to injustice is his wrath. Although God’s wrath has been long covered by his patience and his desire that all people would come to him, his wrath will eventually be revealed when he comes back to earth to fully restore his kingdom on earth35. While he cautions us to allow him to carry out vengeance, that does not mean we should not be concerned by the injustice that we see. The Greek term “dikaiosuné” which is usually translated as “righteousness” can also be translated as “justice.36” Jesus exemplified justice throughout his ministry and he encourages us to practice justice as well37.

God’s response to injustice that we most often see is patience and mercy – and we all need the kindness of God so that we can respond with repentance and receive forgiveness. However, God will eventually administer justice and respond with wrath38.

34 Schmalz, Matthew. “What is the true meaning of mercy?” The Conversation, College of the Holy Cross, 8 Feb 2017, <theconversation.com/what-is-the-true-meaning-of-mercy-72461> accessed 22 Aug 2018 35 2 Peter 3:9; Romans 9:22-24. 36 Foster, Robert L. ”Understandings of Justice in the New Testament,” Society of Biblical Literature <www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/TBv2i5_Fosterjustice.pdf’ accessed 22 Aug 2018; Grimsrud, Ted. “Justice in the New Testament” Peace Theology, peacetheology.net/2012/03/01/justice-in-the-new-testament/> accessed 22 Aug 2018 37 Matthew 5:6 Matthew 6:33 Douay-Rheims Bible uses “justice” where most versions use “righteousness” 38 Romans 1:18; Revelation 19:15

http://theconversation.com/what-is-the-true-meaning-of-mercy-72461

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/TBv2i5_Fosterjustice.pdf

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/TBv2i5_Fosterjustice.pdf

https://peacetheology.net/2012/03/01/justice-in-the-new-testament/


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Creative and Orderly

Isaiah 45:7-11 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’” Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: “Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

God’s creativity can be seen in the extremely diverse types of plants and animals: differences in colors and shapes; digesting food; moving and observing to name a few. The creativity we see is awesome. From out of nothingness, from no previous model, God created a whole system of particles and energy fields that interact with each other to form the building blocks of subatomic particles which are used to form atoms, which are used to form molecules of all sorts of complexity, which are then used to form stars and planets and, at least on one planet, were used to create living things like plants and animals in all their complexity and then those living things were used to create communities (ecosystems) that allowed living things to thrive and flourish

Yet, within the overwhelming creativity displayed and within all the diversity of living things there is an order that is controlled by a set of ordered processes, some of which we call scientific (natural) laws. Christians, like Rene Descartes, pursued these laws as an extension of God’s moral laws in the universe, which then led to the development of modern science39.

The one God who is a Community

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

It is sometimes said that a picture is worth a thousand words as it would take many words to describe the colors, shapes and expressions detailed in the picture. But sometimes, it can also be said that a word is worth a thousand pictures, as it is possible that one word in one document can be referenced to many other situations where it is used. For example, the first sentence in the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Now let’s consider the word “God.” In the Hebrew language that was used in the original writing of the first part of the Bible, that word is “Elohim.” The curious thing is that “Elohim” is a plural noun which could be translated as “gods” while the verb “created” (“bara” in Hebrew) is singular40. This combination of “Elohim” with a singular verb happens throughout the Old Testament part of the Bible and in all those cases, “elohim” is translated as the singular noun, “God”. So what’s the story with this?

On the one hand, the Bible is very strident in insisting that there is only one God. One of the central doctrines taught to the Jews is, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one41,” which in the time frame that the Bible was written in, strongly contrasted with the other cultures with multiple gods. On the other hand, the Bible in both the Old and New

39 Harrison, Peter, “Christianity and the rise of western science” ABC Religion and Ethics, 8 May 2012, <www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/08/3498202.htm> accessed 22 Aug 2018 40 “Elohim” Strong’s Concordance, Biblehub < biblehub.com/hebrew/430.htm> accessed 22 Aug 2018 41 Deuteronomy 6:3

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/08/3498202.htm

https://biblehub.com/hebrew/430.htm


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Testaments, talks about God as Father and also God as Son and also God as Holy Spirit. This phenomenon shows up even as we look at Genesis 1, where we can see that God created and that the Spirit hovering over the water. We continue to see this concept of one God, but three persons referred to as God develop throughout scripture, both in the Old Testament as the New Testament.42 So how do we make sense out of the insistence on there being one God while also revealing that there are multiple personalities associated with “God.” This is certainly a tough question that has created problems in the church (more on that later) and is but one thing among many that God seems to have revealed to us without explaining it.

The Good and Overflowing God

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

God created a good universe that reflected his character43. Into that universe he created creatures that reflected his character44. When his image-bearers rebelled, they and the world they inhabited suffered the consequences but then his image-bearers were relentlessly pursued with the intent of restoring not only them but all of creation as well to the good condition that he intended45.

Within the story of creation and the relentless pursuit that followed, God’s character is revealed as he pours himself out even to the point of taking on the form of a man and the giving of himself to humility and suffering of being tortured to death on a cross. Even though all of creation is now marred by the rebellion, it is possible to examine the character of God as it is revealed in this outpouring of himself into his creation and his image-bearers.

Goodness, Generosity and Shalom

Psalms 69:16 Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

Revisiting Genesis 1:1, we see God creating … everything in the heavens and the earth. The rest of that passage shows the orderliness in how the creation happened. We see that as God creates each set of creatures or things that God declares them to be good. Then after God creates humans, he declares “it was very good.” We will see later in Genesis that things got messed up, but at this point the core of everything in the universe, everything was good and beautiful and working as it should. Certainly, as we look around us now, it would be hard to say that everything is working as it should, but at the beginning, everything was good.

That goodness was further amplified when, despite the rebellion of his image-bearers, God tirelessly invited them to come back to him even though they would continue rebelling over and over again. The generous invitation and re-invitation would be highlighted by the parable Jesus told which has been commonly called the “Prodigal

42 Stewart, Don. “Is the Doctrine of the Trinity Found in the Old Testament?” Blue Letter Bible, <www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_330.cfm> accessed 22 Aug 2018 43 Romans 1:20 44 Genesis 1:26-27. 45 Romans 8:18-23

http://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_330.cfm


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Son” (Luke 15:11-32) in reference to the wastefully spending son but could equally called the “Prodigal God”46 in reference to the extravagant giving of God.

These continuous and generous offers from God are meant to draw us to himself so that he could restore to us the good and generous life that God has intended from the beginning, life free from suffering and pain, life full of joy and peace, wholeness and health, contentment and completeness47, which is all captured by the Hebrew word, shalom.48

Trustworthy and Faithful

Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

God has continued to offer us lives of goodness, generosity and shalom despite our continued waywardness. Our opportunity to experience the faithfulness of God comes as we hold to his promises, and even when we fail to hold to his promises49. Scripture is full of passages of God’s commitment to faithfulness despite the lack of our own50 and those examples are helpful for us to hold onto as we experience our own trials and difficulties in life.

Self-sacrificing and Forgiving

Acts 2:36-38 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart,and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

God’s faithfulness to us is sealed in the love he showed to us by the ultimate sacrifice he made on our behalf. His commitment of love towards us could not be made any more clearly than through the excruciating death he suffered when he allowed us to put him on the cross in order that he should bear the penalties of our sins. And it is through His suffering and dying that he can offer us forgiveness for the sins we have committed51.

God the temple maker

There has been much debate about how to interpret the creation account. There have been various attempts to understand that account as physical processes that occurred over a shorter or longer periods because in our current cultural context we default to thinking of creation in physical, scientific terms. In John Walton’s book, “The Lost Word of Adam and Eve,” it is revealed that in ancient near east cultures, that the Genesis account would not have been interpreted in terms of physical processes but rather have

46 Keller, Timothy, The Prodigal God, Riverhead Books 2008, www.timothykeller.com/books/the-prodigal-god 47 ‘Meaning of the word “Shalom,”’ The Refiners Fire, www.therefinersfire.org/meaning_of_shalom.htm, accessed 22 Aug 2018; “Word search: Shalom,” Blue Letter Bible,< www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=shalom&t=HNV#s=s_primary_0_5> accessed 22 Aug 2018 48 The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. We call it peace, but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight — a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Plantinga Jr., Cornelius. Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (p. 10). Eerdmans Publishing Co - A. Kindle Edition. 49 Hebrews 10:23 50 “How Can I Trust in the Faithfulness of God,” Got Questions, <www.gotquestions.org/faithfulness-of-God.html> accessed 22 Aug 2018 51 Hebrews 10:11-18.

http://www.timothykeller.com/books/the-prodigal-god

https://www.therefinersfire.org/meaning_of_shalom.htm

http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=shalom&t=HNV#s=s_primary_0_5

http://www.gotquestions.org/faithfulness-of-God.html


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been viewed as a story about the dedication of a temple where the universe and the world were inaugurated as a sacred space, a place where God would dwell with his people. On the seventh day, God rested from the inauguration which was now complete and would now be able to start living into that space52.

In the second creation account, in Genesis 2, the focus is now on the humans God created and how they were to function in that sacred space where the Garden of Eden is the center. Genesis 2 is also the where God’s name, “Yahweh,” begins to be used. Genesis 1 introduces the God of the universe whereas Genesis 2 introduces the God who has a personal relationship with the people he created and so he now uses a name. [There will be more discussion on that name in “Hope in the Brokenness” (p 25)]. Later on in scripture we will see how God’s temple, his sacred space, will be located now just in a physical place, but in the bodies of all of those who call on his name53.

Goodness and the Laws

Natural Laws

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Amid all the creativity displayed in the universe we see there is an order to it all, that there is an overall structure to the universe. It’s the kind of order that inspired Christians in the past to develop a field that we now call science.54 It’s within science that we examine orderly processes at work that we call the natural laws. These laws describe how all physical things behave: there is a force that pulls objects together that we call gravity, a force that causes objects with a positive charge to be attracted to objects with a negative charge that we call an electric force, etc. There is no disobeying these natural laws. If you think that you can try to violate them, for instance, standing on the top of a table and then jumping off and assuming you will not be subject to gravity but rather float without falling to the floor, you’d be wrong. You can’t violate gravity. You can try to set up circumstances that will cause other forces to come into play - such as airplanes do when they use aerodynamic forces that counteract gravity - but you simply can’t violate gravity, for there will be consequences if you try.

Moral Laws

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned

By observing natural laws, we can ascertain some aspects of the character of God. The order of the universe reveals a God of order. The creativity of the universe reveals a God of creativity. The natural laws that govern how things are supposed to behave reveals a God who expects things to behave, and that violations are not tolerated. But when image-bearers were brought into the world there was a new level of complexity added to this physical model constrained by natural, physical laws.

52 Walton, John. “The Lost World of Adam and Eve” Proposition 3. Genesis 1 is an account of functional origins not material origins pp. 35-45 53 I Corinthians 6: 19-20 54 Armstrong, David, “Christianity Crucial to the origin of science,” Patheos, 18 Oct 2015, <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2015/10/christianity-crucial-to-the-origin-of-science.html>, accessed 22 Aug 2018

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On the one hand, we image-bearers are physical creatures and are therefore subject to the natural laws, but on the other hand we image-bearers were created to reflect God’s transcendence and were even given dominion over the creation into which God had placed us. With that capacity we image-bearers were given the freedom to choose between good and evil. This freedom could not be given without some risk, because in order for image-bearers to be able to reflect God’s character of being good and choosing to do good there must be the possibility for the image-bearers to be able to choose to not be good.

And just as there are natural, physical laws that govern how physical things behave with consequences for trying to violate those laws, God has also imposed spiritual, moral laws to govern how the image-bearers ought to behave in the good universe He created with consequences for violating those moral laws.

The image-bearers and their intended future

John 15:8-11 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

As much as we can understand the character of God, we can comprehend what he has intended for those creatures that made in his image. Those image-bearing creatures are not gods or duplicates of God, but they are imbued with character of the God that made them. In this chapter we will specify some of the general ways in which God intends for us to reflect his image then, in later chapter, expound on those characteristics in more detail.

It was into this good universe that God prepared beforehand that God created creatures to bear his image. Good creatures – actually very good creatures - bearing his very good image, were placed into a world that was good. These very good image-bearers, these people, were given the task of taking care of the good creation that God blessed them with – and God declared it to be very good. The image-bearing creatures were created in the complex image of God – the one God who was a community within Himself, the God who was immensely creative, the God who was generous and loving beyond imagination, the God who is sovereign over the universe, the God who is above all things.

Transcendent and Immanent

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

God has placed each one of us in a particular time and place55 and within that time and place and people he has plans for us56. Each of us has a particular mind and body with which we need to discern God’s calling for us in our time and place. Sometimes we can discern what particular things we are called to but very often we can discern what general plans he has for us; such plans are revealed in many places in scripture.

55 Psalm 139:16; Acts 17:24-28’ 56 1 Corinthians 12: 1-31; Jeremiah 29:11


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And though we are called to particular times, places and people, there are ways in which God’s transcendent character spills over onto us. The mark of his transcendence is even placed in each of our hearts57. The expressions of transcendence are impossible to avoid in our day and age: we were not born with the ability to fly but we can fly to the moon, we were not born to live under water but we are able to spend months at a time under water even at incredible depths, we were not born to run like a cheetah but we don’t even think about climbing into a vehicle and going more than 60 miles an hour for hours at a time, we can create works of art that show places we have never been, we can use the resources of the earth to generate more power than we can imagine … and the list goes on.

With our gift of transcendence, God has shown that he has set us aside as his representatives, “to be holy as he is holy”58. We are not to merely live as earthly creatures but as creatures who represent the living God.

Made for Sovereignty and Service

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Matthew 23:11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.

God is the master of all creation, yet he has given to us the responsibility to take care of the earth59. It is out of that mastery that we have managed to use the resources of the earth to create all the technological advances that we have; unfortunately, in many cases we have abused our abilities; abusing not just the resources of the earth but abusing each other.

In our sinfulness we typically appeal to our call to sovereignty while forgetting our call to service. This very issue Jesus took care to remind us of on many occasions 60. If we mistreat the earth that we are placed in or mistreat others we dishonor the one in whose image we are made and even the others of whom God has also placed his image. In fact, it is out of our call to sovereignty and service that we are called to love, to willingly give of ourselves to the service of others as God gave of himself to us.

There was a danger in God creating image-bearers: to make creatures that were lovers – just as He was a lover – meant giving these image-bearers the freedom to not love – for the ability to decide to love means being able to decide otherwise, to decide to not love. To allow creatures that were the capstone of creation the option to not love and therefore to break their relationship with their Creator, risked an awful catastrophe, a catastrophe that could affect the entirety of creation itself. The good creation, all of it, would become not so good61.

And so it was, creation was prepared for God’s image-bearers, then those creatures were created in the image of the loving God with instructions to be stewards of the world God had made. Everything was good, and the first couple had had free access to the provisions in garden prepared for them. Only one restriction was placed before them, a

57 Ecclesiastes 3:11 58 Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9. 59 Genesis 1:26-28” 60 Matthew 4:10; Matthew 23:11 61 Romans 8:28


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restriction not meant to deprive them of anything good but meant to provide the opportunity to test their love, their obedience to the one who created them.

We all now know that those creatures failed their test and we daily experience the consequences of that failure. We also daily experience our incapacity to restore holiness on our own efforts, to love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and to love or to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Merciful and Just

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Flowing out of our call to sovereignty and service is our call to mercy and justice. But just like the servant in the parable of the unmerciful servant62 we can forget the mercies shown to us when we are dealing with each other. There is much that makes us yearn for justice in a world filled with cruelty, but we need to remember that as God acted on his own demands of justice, he yet found a way to bestow great mercy on us. In our own search for justice we should remember the last phrase of Micah 6:863, “to walk humbly with our God.”

Creative and Orderly

Exodus 35:31-38 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all

craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

Our creativity erupts early on in our life as our desire to play and is shown, of course, in the desire of parents to play with their children. Then there is no doubt about how uniquely creative we are in the way we express ourselves, not only in all the various art forms we use but in the ways we can solve all sorts of problems – even to the creative ways we try to cover up our sins. No other creature can come close to expressing creativity the way we can.

Our ability to create – and even detect – order is also unmatched. Our ability to detect order is evident in the way we can detect patterns in sight or sound. The sense of order is evident in our ability to recognize the faces and even the voices of our mothers or fathers as infants. Our sense of order is then seen as we grow in our ability to recognize the patterns of letters and sounds and to recognize and respond to language – even languages. Our sense of order becomes more evident in our ability to create order out of many abstract concepts such as math, science, philosophy and many other areas.

Community

Matt 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him,[c] and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

We are created in the image of the self-sufficient one who is a community in himself: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although each one of us is individually made in that image, it is clear from the beginning that we were not made to be self-sufficient; we not only

62 Matthew 18:21-35 63 Micah 6:8

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need to have a relationship with the God but also with each other. God allowed the first man to see that he needed another human before God presented with a woman to be his ‘ezer kegnedo. In Hebrew, ‘ezer is usually translated as “helper” and is most often used to describe God helping his people64; kegnedo is usually translated as “in front of” or “opposite” or “parallel to”.

Later on in scripture we see that we are called to be a nation of priests65 and a body where all the different parts have a purpose as they work together66. We are called not just to a restored relationship with the one who made us but are called together as a people to serve each other and to serve the world around us.

Goodness, generosity and shalom

2 Corinthians 9:6-8 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in

every good work.

Goodness, generosity and peace all fit together. We begin with the premise that we are representatives67 of the Prince of Peace68. Scripture is full of encouragement for us to live in peace69 because it is through peace that much else flows, including goodness and generosity. Goodness flows out of the shalom which is concerned with our overall well-being and in necessarily linked to justice, mercy and humility70 - and we are not to be content with helping God to usher the minimal amounts of justice, mercy and humility into the world but the kind of shalom, goodness, peace, mercy and justice that stem from the overflowing way that God has brought all of those to us71.

Trustworthy and Faithful

Luke 16:11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

We can’t seem to avoid broken promises; whether it’s the one’s others make to us or that we make to others. We usually expect broken promises from some people because we know they lack sincerity. Then sometimes we experience broken promises because things happen beyond our control, or circumstances change, or sometimes priorities are changed. Yet, in the midst of all that, we are called as God’s ambassadors to reflect his faithfulness to us. We are called to faithfulness in truth-telling72, in love73, in doing

64 “ezer” Blue Letter Bible, Strong’s concordance, < www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=h5828,> accessed 22 Aug 2018; “Neged” Bible Hub <biblehub.com/hebrew/5048.htm> accessed 22 Aug 2018 65 Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9 66 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 67 2 Corinthians 5:20 68 Isaiah 9:6 69 Isaiah 32:17; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Romans 12:18; Ephesians 6:15; Hebrews 12:14 d 70 Micah 6:8; Philippians 2:1-5 71 1 Timothy 6:17-19 72 Proverbs 12:22. 73 Proverbs 27:6; Matthew 23:23.

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good74, in prayer75, in doing the work of the Lord76, in entrusting other faithful believers to be faithful in sharing the gospel77, and even just to confirm our calling78.

Self-Sacrificing and Forgiving

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Our life in God does not begin with anything we have done but rather with the sacrifice made by Christ Jesus, the perfect sacrifice that was made on our behalf to reconcile us to God. Then when by baptism we join him in his death, we can also be united with him in his resurrection79. It is that resurrection power that enables us to present ourselves as living sacrifices, to worship him by continually dying to our sins80 and offering ourselves to the service of God and to others81. And just as the mercies of God flow into our lives, so those mercies should flow over into the mercy we extend to others on God’s behalf, just as Paul shows us by “appealing” to us instead of “commanding” us.

Continued creation and the intended future

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Although these image-bearers had close, unhindered, intimate contact with their Creator, there was enough space given them to think freely, as if they were not being watched all the time. It was in this space that they – and we – were given the responsibility of being stewards over all the earth and over all other creatures82. We were given the assignment to fill all the earth, discover its possibilities and care for the world in the same way that God would care for the world83. Just as God continues to create more living things and sustaining all that he has created, we can join him in sustaining and creating those things entrusted to our care84.

Studies of Ancient Near East cultures have found that the creation account could be looked at as an inauguration account of a temple, where, in the creation of the universe,

74 Proverbs 14:22. 75 Colossians 4:2. 76 1 Corinthians 15:58. 77 2 Timothy 2:2 78 1 Timothy 6:11-14 . 79 Romans 6: 4-5 80 Piper, John, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice” Desiring God, 13 June 2004,< www.desiringgod.org/messages/present-your-bodies-as-a-living-sacrifice-to-god> accessed 22 Aug 2018 ; Wayne, Luke. “What does it mean to be a living sacrifice?” Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry 31 Aug 2016, <carm.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-living-sacrifice> accessed 22 Aug 2018; Gidley, James S. “A Living Sacrifice,” Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 30 May 2001, <opc.org/cce/livingsacrifice.html> accessed 22 Aug 2018 81 1 Peter 2:10-12. 82 Genesis 1:26:28 83 Crouch, Andy.”What is the Cultural Mandate,” The Village Church, 6 Jan 2017 <www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/talks/what-is-the-cultural-mandate> accessed 22 Aug 2018 84 There are two ways in which God imposes his law on the cosmos, two ways in which his will is done on earth as in heaven. He does it either directly, without mediation, or indirectly, through the involvement of human responsibility. Just as a human sovereign does certain things himself, but gives orders to his subordinates for other things, so with God himself. He put the planets in their orbits, bits, makes the seasons come and go at the proper time, makes seeds grow and animals reproduce, but entrusts to mankind the tasks of making tools, doing justice, producing art, and pursuing scholarship. In other words, God's rule of law is immediate in the nonhuman realm but mediate in culture and society. In the human realm men and women become coworkers with God; as creatures made in God's image they too have a kind of lordship over the earth, are God's viceroys in creation. Albert M. Wolters. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Kindle Locations 203-208). Kindle Edition.

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/present-your-bodies-as-a-living-sacrifice-to-god

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God was creating a place for him to reside and take control and we would join him as co-regents85. The seventh day, the sabbath, God had finished the dedication of the “temple” but it was not a time where he ceased to do everything. Rather, it was the time where the “home” was now ready for God, and for us as co-regents, to begin the settling into our “home” and doing the things that our home was designed for. Jesus in John 5:1-7 clarified this idea where he explained, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

The work that we were designed to do was more than just tending the garden. In Genesis 2:1586, we were given a mandate to “work” and “take care of” the garden God had created87. These tasks, again looked at in light of Ancient Near East culture, were more of a priestly nature88, taking care of this temple where we reside with God. We were to take care of this place which was designed to be a “very good” place for us to flourish in, creating whatever structures we needed to “increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.” This task, this mandate, meant that we would eventually go beyond the capacity of gardening and instead create cities, ultimately creating cities89.

The God intended to create a place of flourishing where he and we could work in an environment of shalom continuing the process of creation that would lead us not just to a bigger garden but to city, a flourishing civilization as pictured in Revelation 21 and 2290. By the seventh day, God had finished the dedication of the sacred space in which he and his image-bearers would live. We, God and his image-bearers and would now begin to “live into” that dedicated space and use that space in the way it was intended.

Living into this sacred space would entail us taking part with God in his continual acts of creating and sustaining the universe. When Eve gave birth to Cain, the recognized that “I’ve created a man with Yahweh.”91

85 Walton, John H. “In Genesis 1, God Orders the Cosmos as Sacred Space” The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 86 Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 2:15. 87 The verbs ʿbd and šmr (NIV: “work” and “take care of”) are terms most frequently encountered in discussions of human service to God rather than descriptions of agricultural tasks. Walton, John H.. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (p. 105). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 88 then it is likely that the tasks given to Adam are of a priestly nature: caring for sacred space.3 In ancient thinking, caring for sacred space was a way of upholding creation. Walton, John H. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (p. 106). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 89 Revelations 21 and 22 90 Busenitz, Nathan. “The New Jerusalem”, Cripplegate, 8 April 2017 <http://thecripplegate.com/the-new-jerusalem-2/> accessed 22 Aug 2018 91 Friedman, Richard Elliot, Commentary on the Torah, Location 6942 of 37412, Harper Collins, 2003

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Chapter 3 - Upsetting the stage: deforming the intended direction for creation

Figure 4. Jan il Vecchio Bruegel Landscape of Paradise and the Loading of the Animals in Noah. Jan Brueghel painting that is in the public domain because of its age Jan Brueghel Free-images.com

Confronting our freedom

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say … ?

To be creatures designed in the image of the transcendent creative, loving God, we needed a kind of independence so that we could choose to love – or not love – and to be free to imagine and create wildly new and different things as proper for God’s image-bearing creatures. We were free to do this in a place where everything was very good and designed so that we could flourish. However, that very freedom which gave image bearers the possibilities of independent thoughts, also gave those image-bearers the opportunity to also confront temptation.

While the image-bearers were given the opportunity to meet with God and to walk with him in a specially designed garden, they were also allowed the opportunity for questions. They could even question the motives of the God who made them:

• Was something good being withheld from them?

• Were they being deprived of some power?

• What would be available to them if they violated the restriction?

• Would they actually die?

• What special knowledge were they being deprived of – particularly this

knowledge of good and evil?

• Everything they had encountered had been good, why would their thinking about

violating this one restriction not be good?

• Was the Creator so good anyway?”


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Scope and direction of sin’s consequences

Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

And so it happened. The one thing that could create the ultimate catastrophe did happen. The good Creator who only intended good things allowed his image-bearers to give into their temptation to put their own authority above His and violate the one restriction placed before them. The violation by the stewards of His creation broke everything: the relationship between themselves, the relation between them and Him, the relation between them and creation. All of creation was affected and is even now waiting for things to be made right again92.

Everything in creation had been designed to be good, to reflect the good character of the good God. Creation was designed to be a place where God and his image-bearers could keep on creating good things and bring increasing glory to God. But now, although the ultimate structure of creation was still good, it was headed in the wrong direction93. The broken universe would now cause things to move away from God’s glory.

The brokenness started with the decision that would be repeated again and again, to replace God with something else. In this case, replacing God with themselves (they thought they knew better than God) and replacing a tree as the source of knowledge instead of God as the source of knowledge.

Hope in the brokenness

Psalm 4:1,8 Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer…In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Everything was broken and separated from God. Spiritual death, the impaired relation between God and His image-bearers was immediate and would be mirrored by physical death caused by separation of the people who would no longer have access to the Tree of Life94. This was a great tragedy that could not be undone, not by the image bearers. But as we look around us, we can see that, despite the tragedy around us, things aren’t totally bad. Even though evil is very evident around us, there is still some goodness that is evident. It is in that observation that we can glimpse the possibility of hope.

God had ordained the penalty of death to be the consequence of turning away from him95. And although, sin resulted in spiritual death, the immediate separation God’s image-bearers from God, nevertheless, the people did not die physically right away. Instead, what God did do was to apply discipline to his image-bearers. He also gave a

92 Romans 8:19-22 93 “Anything in creation can be directed either toward ward or away from God - that is, directed either in obedience or disobedience to his law. This double direction applies not only to individual human beings but also to such cultural phenomena as technology, art, and scholarship, to such societal institutions as labor unions, schools, and corporations. and to such human functions as emotionality, sexuality, and rationality. To the degree that these realities fail to live up to God's creational design for them, they are misdirected, abnormal, distorted. To the degree that they still conform to God's design, they are in the grip of a countervailing force that curbs or counteracts the distortion. Direction therefore fore always involves two tendencies moving either for or against God.” Albert M. Wolters. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Kindle Locations 685-689). Kindle Edition. 94 Gen 3:23 95 Gen 2:16-17


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hint of the solution to the problem created by sin, the first of many other hints that were to come96.

There was also evidence for hope in the continued creation by God, as he continued to create new living things, plants and animals, and to sustain the universe he created97. Related to that hope, was that the mandate given to the image-bearers was still in force, although there would now be suffering involved in the fulfillment of the mandate.

There was also hope hidden in God’s very name. The name given to us, given to Moses, in Genesis 2 is “Yahweh” (in Hebrew, יהוה). In the ancient Hebrew the characters would have looked a little different and each character would represent an object or action98. In Hebrew, the characters are read from right to left. The first character (י) represents a hand or arm and could also represent work or worship. The character (ה) represents a man with arms raised and could also represent displaying or revealing something. The (ו) character represents a nail or tent peg and could also represent fastening something together. So, embedded in the name יהוה is the message hand revealed nail revealed – a foretelling of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

In the beginning, we were eager to grasp for ourselves wisdom and the knowledge of good and evil on our own terms. What we didn’t plan on the consequences that would follow and that sometimes God gives us what we think we want even though it would bring us the suffering that God was trying to steer us from. It’s a continuing pattern we see from the beginning until now, that it is not always a good thing when we get what we think we want.

God has a plan to restore creation

Gal 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Not evident at the beginning was that the penalty of physical death was also going to be the means of rescue by which the Creator would not only ultimately redeem His image-bearing creatures from the awful fate destiny that seemed to lie before them but would also redeem creation itself from decay and death. The plan that the Creator had in mind from before the creation would start to slowly unfold in ways that would sometimes be baffling and confusing and on a timetable that is beyond our comprehension. Over time though God would gradually reveal his plans in how he intends to restore our relation to him, to end our pain and suffering, and to overcome the evil that seems to pervade everything.

God started to reveal hints of the solution to the broken creation right at the beginning as He was disciplining His image-bearers. The initial clue which was given in the curse given to the serpent99, must have been a cryptic comment to His newly-broken image-bearers, but for us, who have the privilege of looking back, we can see a reference to the death and suffering of the character revealed in the Old Testament as the 96 Genesis 3:14-15 97 Hebrews 1:3 98 Benner, Jeff A. “Hebrew Alphabet Chart” Ancient Hebrew Research Center <www.ancient-hebrew.org/alphabet_chart.html> accessed 26 Aug 2018; Blitz, Mark, Ancient Hebrew Picture Language at the Time of Moses” Youtube, Maranatha Chapel TV <www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvGlAccRB4> accessed 26 August 2018 99 Genesis 3:15

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Messiah100. So starting from the beginning of the broken creation, the Creator started to reveal more and more clues about the plans He had to restore His creation – back to what He had intended from the beginning101. This gradual revelation was, and still is, a painfully slow time of waiting as we suffer the consequences of broken relations and a broken creation.

Fortunately, as we wait in our broken universe, God’s grace has continued to intervene throughout history so that things are not as bad as they could possibly be102. Moreover, God still invites us to take part with him in the continued creation of the universe, bringing healing, health and hope in the midst of the brokenness of the world103, a task that will continue until God fully restores his kingdom. Until that time though, we can take heart in the continued acts of common grace104 that God continues bestow on us: God has not abandoned us but continues to sustain the world so that things are bad but not as bad as they could be105; God continues to bless the world with the gifts that he gives through us, gifts that we can share with one another106; God still desires that we continue to work with him107.

Turning from shalom

Psalm 53:3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Despite the hope we may hold onto, we still need to face a world that is broken by sin. As we wait for the restoration of creation, we find ourselves continually turning from God and rather towards bringing further destruction into God’s good creation. We seem to be bent on turning from shalom and towards pain and despair. The history of the world is filled with the flourishing of evil and injustice. The consequence of choosing to go our own way has put us on a path where we continue to separate ourselves from the source of goodness and shalom. Indeed, we find ourselves on a path of destruction despite God’s continual provision for us as he continuously and unrelenting pursues us and pousr out his limitless grace. And so it is that we find ourselves in a world where good and evil abound, where the good things God created are corrupted continuing to turn ua away from God108.

Rampant evil

Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

100 Isaiah 53 101 Ephesians 1:11-12; Jeremiah 29:11; Isaiah 1:26; Matthew 17:11; Acts 3:21 102 Hebrews 1:3 103 Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:9 104 Sproul, R.C. “A Loving Provision” Ligonier Ministries, <www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/loving-provision/> accessed 22 Aug 2018; Welchel, Hugh. “What’s the Point of Common Grace?” The Institute of Faith, Works and Economics, 21 Apr 2014, <tifwe.org/common-grace/>, accessed 22 Aug 2018 105 Genesis 50:20 106 1 Corinthians 12 107 Luke 19:11-27 108 Anything in creation can be directed either toward ward or away from God - that is, directed either in obedience or disobedience to his law. This double direction applies not only to individual human beings but also to such cultural phenomena as technology, art, and scholarship, to such societal institutions as labor unions, schools, and corporations. and to such human functions as emotionality, sexuality, and rationality. To the degree that these realities fail to live up to God's creational design for them, they are misdirected, abnormal, distorted. To the degree that they still conform to God's design, they are in the grip of a countervailing force that curbs or counteracts the distortion. Direction therefore fore always involves two tendencies moving either for or against God. Albert M. Wolters. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Kindle Locations 685-689). Kindle Edition.

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/loving-provision/

https://tifwe.org/common-grace/


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So that we can know what terrible direction we are headed without that intervening grace, God initially allowed his image-bearers to live long life-spans109. The long life-spans that seemed to postpone the penalty for sin such a long time delayed the penalty of physical death so that the image-bearers behaved as if there were no consequences for their God-defiant behavior. The result was rampant unrestrained evil that infected nearly everyone, causing God to destroy all but one family110. Sadly, even with that severe penalty, it would not be long before our God-defiant behavior would threaten to be our undoing again, but God would continue intervening with grace as He would gradually work out His plan to restore us to Himself beginning with the rainbow as a sign of hope.

Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

The defiance of the image-bearers would emerge again when, thinking themselves to be wiser than God, they refused to spread out over the earth as God had commanded and then proceeded to build a tower as a monument to themselves. God’s response was very measured. By causing them to speak different languages so that they could no longer communicate with each other, the image-bearers would no longer be able to come together to complete the tower, rather they were now forced to divide into 70 different groups and spread out across the earth as God had intended111. This breakup would lead to the creation of different nations - and eventually lead to God’s working out His solution to our predicament by the calling out of one man through whom God would begin His work of restoration112.

109 Genesis 5 110 Genesis 6 111 Genesis 11:1-8 112 Genesis 12:1-3


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Chapter 4 – A Nation of priests: foretaste of the kingdom

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

God working through broken individuals and communities

Although the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe is capable of simply doing things by a show of great power and irresistible force,113 he usually chooses to work through His image-bearers114. He can work through individuals or groups; although even when he works through groups it’s typically through individuals within those groups115. Most surprising is that even though all his image-bearers have flaws, God has still chosen to do His work within those flaws116. Despite our persistent failures, not only does God patiently empower us to fulfill the responsibility of stewardship of Creation that He gave us from the beginning, but He also empowers us to participate in His work of restoring the universe117.

113 Philippians 3:20-21; Spurgeon, C.H. “The Power of Christ Illustrated by the Resurrection 19 January 1871” Biblehub < biblehub.com/library/spurgeon/spurgeons_sermons_volume_17_1871/the_power_of_christ_illustrated.htm> accessed 27 August 2018 114 Welchel, Hugh, “Three Key Passages Concerning Stewardship in the Bible” The Institute of Faith, Works & Economics 19 Oct

2016< tifwe.org/stewardship-in-the-bible > accessed 27 Aug 2018 115 Cole, Stephen J. “Lesson 51: How God Uses Ordinary People (Genesis 26:1-35)” Bible.org 29 Aug 2013 <https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-51-how-god-uses-ordinary-people-genesis-261-35 > accessed 15 Sept 2018 116 Wilson, Jarrid, “GOD USES FLAWED PEOPLE TO SHARE HOPE TO A FLAWED WORLD” jarridwilson.com 16 Mar 2014 <http://jarridwilson.com/god-uses-flawed-people-to-share-hope-to-a-flawed-world/> accessed 15 Sept 2018 117 Isaiah 49:8; 58:12; Jeremiah 59:19; Acts 3:21

https://biblehub.com/library/spurgeon/spurgeons_sermons_volume_17_1871/the_power_of_christ_illustrated.htm

https://tifwe.org/stewardship-in-the-bible/

https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-51-how-god-uses-ordinary-people-genesis-261-35

http://jarridwilson.com/god-uses-flawed-people-to-share-hope-to-a-flawed-world/


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Patriarchs

Abraham

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Covenant of Faith. Sometime after the scattering of nations, from the line of Shem and Noah, God called a man name Abram to leave his country in the Euphrates River Valley and go to a land “I will show you.” As he does, God promises not only to bless Abram and his descendants but to bless the entire world though Abram118. Despite his occasional failures,119 Abram (later named Abraham) is noted for his faith120 because he believed God and showed this by being obedient in following God’s instructions even when it they didn’t make sense121.

When God called Abram to journey to another land, we don’t know what earlier experience Abram or his family or any other citizens of Ur or Haran may have had with God. Was there any experience at all? If not, then with what confidence did Abram have that he was following God when he took that journey to the Promised Land122? Then after Abram arrived in the Promised Land, what further questions may Abram have had when he experienced a deep drought in that same land, such that he needed to take a brief trip to Egypt?

After Yahweh told Abraham, that he would make a great nation from him, 123 Abraham initially expressed his faith in his obedience when he took that journey to the Promised land. Again, when Yahweh showed him the stars and told him that his descendants would be as numerous as those stars, Abram believed, and Yahweh credited that to him as righteousness124. When Yahweh reiterated the promise again, Yahweh changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Additionally, Yahweh commanded that Abraham and his descendants would need to go through the rite of circumcision as a sign of their faith125.

Hospitality. One day, while Abraham was sitting in the entrance to his tent at Mamre, he saw three visitors approaching and offered them water to wash their feet and then went to much effort to offer them something to eat and drink126. As we read this description of Abraham’s greeting his visitors, it may sound extravagant to us, but would have been normal for the culture of the time. The normal custom was to regard that visitors as those who have been sent by God127.

Pleading to God. We don’t know the moment that Abraham recognized that one of the visitors was Yahweh, but it apparently happened by the time the visitors talked about Sodom and Gomorrah, which they were going to destroy. Concerned about his nephew

118 Genesis 12:1 119 Genesis 12:10-20; 16:1-5; 20:1-13 120 Romans 4:9; Hebrews 11:17 121 Genesis 12:4-9; 17:1-12; 22:1-18 122 Although the term “promised land” is not used directly as the place of where Abram and his descendants were called to settle down in, there are several references to the “land that is promised you.” Genesis 24:7; 28:15; 50:24, etc. 123 Gen 12:1-3 124 Gen 15:1-6 125 Gen 17:1-14 126 Gen 18:1-8 127 Wight, Fred H. Manners and Customs of Bible Lands (Kindle Locations 866-867). Unknown. Kindle Edition.


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Lot, who was living down there, Abraham made a plea to save the city if there were righteous people living in the city. At first Abraham asked what if there were 50 righteous people living there, would they still destroy everyone there128. When Yahweh said no, then Abraham asked, what about if there were 45 or 30 or 20 righteous people there. Each time, Yahweh said that he would not wipe out everybody if there were only that many righteous people there. As it turned out, both Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed after Lot and his daughters were given the chance to escape.

Isaac

Genesis 25:21 And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Ordinary believers. God told Abraham told that a great nation would come out of him and Sarah. Yet, this did not look promising when the only son born to Abraham and Sarah was Isaac who was not even born until Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90129. No wonder that Isaac was given a name that means "laughter130." The Biblical record for life of Isaac is fairly unremarkable. God had blessed Isaac with wealth, however, the most notable events in his life were 1) failing just as his father Abraham had done in fearing that king Abimelech might kill him to get his wife so he claimed that his wife was his sister131 and 2) when he was preparing to die, he got fooled by Jacob into giving Jacob the primary blessing instead of his older twin brother, Esau132. Blessed, fallible, unremarkable, yet still used by Yahweh to accomplish Yahweh’s will.

Jacob

Genesis 25:23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”

Slow and steady. The man who Yahweh would say would be the “father of many nations” had only one son born very late in his life and that son, Isaac, would have only twins. Esau and Jacob were born late in Isaac’s life, so the “father of many nations” would die only seeing two grandchildren.

Deceit instead of faith. The biblical description of either Jacob or his twin brother Esau is not flattering. Esau is the older twin brother, but for a pot of porridge Esau was willing to give up his birthright133. To seal the deal, Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, would conspire to deceive Isaac: They would take advantage if Isaac’s blindness and manage to have primary blessing, the blessing meant for Esau, to be given to Jacob instead. It so happened that when Isaac’s wife, Rebekah was pregnant with the twins that Yahweh had her that “the older would serve the younger134,” so it is curious that Rebekah had chosen to use deceit to accomplish that goal.

128 Gen 18:16-33 129 Gen 17:17; 21:5 130 Gen 21:1-7 131 Gen 26:1-11 132 Gen 27:1-29 133 Gen 25:29-34 134 Gen 25:23


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Superseding normal order. The case of Jacob and Esau is not the only example where Yahweh would choose to upset the common order of things. In this case, it was side-stepping the normal primogeniture and instead having the older sibling serving the other sibling. It other times it would be stronger serving the weaker, the sons being displaced by someone outside the family. This pattern of displacing the normal order of primogeniture and inheritance is repeated later in Samuel following Eli instead of his sons Hophni and Phineas135 and in David following Saul instead of his son Jonathan136. And in all these cases, we see God preparing someone new to lead while he arranges to end another’s leadership.

Nation of wrestlers. After the deception of Isaac, Jacob’s life would continue to reflect Jacob’s deceitful character137. Yet, despite that character flaw, God would continue to bless Jacob with success just as he had blessed Abraham and Isaac138. Jacob’s deceit with Isaac and Esau forced him to leave home and visit his uncle Laban for many years139. God saw fit to engage with Jacob on both the journey to and from home140. On the journey away, Yahweh shared with Jacob the promise he made with Abraham and with Isaac, that “all the people on earth would be blessed through you.” On the journey home, Jacob now has 2 wives and 2 concubines, 13 children and a great wealth in flocks, herds, and servants141. On that trip home, Jacob finds himself in a wrestling match with a man that Jacob learns was God142. During that struggle, Jacob was forced to confess his character by admitting that his name means “deceiver,” but then was given a new name, Israel (which means “wrestles with God”). Wrestling with God would become a hallmark of Israel’s descendants and is evident throughout the Old Testament143.

Joseph

Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Discipline and character development. Of Jacob’s 12 sons, Joseph was the most notable. Between being treated as Israel’s favorite son and then having a sense of self-importance, he created a sense of jealousy among his brothers144. So, on one occasion while out tending flocks on one opportune occasion his jealous brothers sold him off to someone traveling to Egypt where he was enslaved when he was sold to a captain of the Pharaoh’s guard145. While he was a slave to the captain, Yahweh caused Joseph to prosper in whatever he took care of, inspiring the captain to trust everything to Joseph. However, an unjust charge by the captain’s wife caused Joseph to be imprisoned146.

135 1 Samuel 3-4 136 1 Samuel 15-16 137 Genesis 31:25-45 138 Genesis 28:3-4 139 Genesis 27:42-45 140 Genesis 28:10-22; 32:22-32 141 Genesis 35:22-26; 30:21; 32:1-5 142 “A Wrestling People” Ligonier Ministries <ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/wrestling-people/ > accessed 27Aug 2018 143 Although there are many examples of people questioning God, the Psalms contain many examples. 144 Genesis 37:1-11 145 Genesis 37:28-36 146 Genesis 39:1-20


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Bloom where you are. While in prison, Yahweh continued to cause Joseph to prosper, also inspiring the warden to entrust many things to Joseph147. A couple of the prisoners had dreams to which Yahweh gave Joseph the interpretations. The predictions Joseph revealed to the prisoners did come true148. Sometime later, when the Pharaoh had dreams that he wanted to have interpreted, he was informed about Joseph. Through the help of Yahweh, Joseph was able to interpret those dreams149. This led to Joseph being put in second-in-command to the Pharaoh through which he was able to oversee the harvesting and storage of grain in preparation of a coming 7-year drought.

Dream come true. The drought extended up to the Promised Land, Canaan, where Israel was living. This gave the opportunity for Joseph to invite Israel and all the rest of the family to come to Egypt where Joseph could see they were supported150. Joseph was able to see that while his brothers had intended to harm him, Yahweh was able to use for the good151. In fact, this provided the setting that Yahweh had revealed to Abraham in a troubling dream, that “your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own152.” For a moment, Egypt seemed to be promising, but it wasn’t the final destination. It wasn’t the promised land and dark times lay ahead before they would arrive there.

Visible Nation

Captivity

Exodus 1:7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

Strange interlude. After Joseph and the Pharaoh who knew him died, the growing nation of Israel became enslaved in the land of Egypt as it was foretold to Abraham153. There are various questions that surrounded the captivity of Israel in Egypt:

• When there was a drought, why didn’t Yahweh provide for the Israelites in

Canaan instead of having them go to Egypt?

• If they needed to be in Egypt, why did they need to be enslaved instead of just

living there as guests?

We know that Yahweh told Abraham that a great nation would come from him and that they would be given the land of Canaan to live in. But why the side-trip into Egypt and why the slavery? The reason given to Abraham was that “the sin of the Amorites was not yet reached its full measure154.”

Process in important. When we examine scripture, we can see that the reason given to Abraham for being in Egypt fits a more general pattern. Often, God seems to get things done through normal processes, whether they be physical, psychological,

147 Genesis 39:21-23 148 Genesis 40 149 Genesis 41 150 Genesis 42-46 151 Genesis 50:15-21 152 Genesis 15:12-21 153 Exodus 1:1-22 154 Genesis 15:12-21


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sociological etc. Living things, plants, and animals, grow through specific physical processes. The great flood in Noah’s time occurred after evil gradually, through normal psychological and sociological processes which then reached a particular threshold. The emerging story of the chosen people of God starting slowly with Abraham and Isaac and then becoming a complete nation leading into the future, indicates God waiting for various processes to occur over time.

Fullness of time. Scripture reveals that God does interject miraculous events from time to time, but mostly he lets things happen through normal everyday processes155. One of the processes that Yahweh waited for was for the sins of the Amorites to get to their “full measure.” Although the Bible does not specifically mention it, there may have been other developments that God was waiting to happen such as the development of the Israelite community and the consequent interaction of the Israelite community with the Egyptian community during the Israelite captivity. By allowing events to gradually unfold, there came a point where God was able to orchestrate a dramatic release of the Israelite community. This event would serve as a foreshadowing of another event, the spiritual release of all peoples from slavery to sin.

Exodus

Exodus 3:7-8 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Fullness of time. In the fullness of time156, Yahweh would arrange for the enslaved Israelites to be released from Egypt. Yahweh called Moses to bring the Israelite community back to Canaan. We could talk both about the miraculous processes the Yahweh used concerning Moses157, but we could also talk about the natural processes Yahweh allowed to happen to Moses to prepare Moses to lead the people out of Egypt158.

Miracles and death. Miracles abounded. There were the 10 plagues159, the wealth given by the Egyptians before they left160, the pillars of cloud and fire161, the parting of the sea162, the mountain enshrouded in a cloud where Yahweh talked with Moses and delivered the Commandments and other rules163, manna and quail falling from the sky164, springs of water in the desert165. Despite seeing all those miracles, Israel wasn’t ready to have Yahweh lead them into the Promised Land to face the obstacles there166 and so God had them wander in the wilderness for 40 years while all the adults died. So many deaths that must have happened, but scripture barely mentions them. Here we

155 Natural, physical processes are so well fixed and so well understood that they have become known as scientific laws. 156 See also Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:10 157 Exodus 7-11 158 Exodus 2-4 159 Exodus 7-11 160 Exodus 12:31-36 161 Exodus 13:21-22 162 Exodus 13:17-22 163 Exodus 19 164 Exodus 16 165 Exodus 17:1-7 166 Numbers 13-14


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will see, not for the last time, that seeing miracles not only did not change hearts but that our hearts seem predisposed to turn away from God167.

Discipline and judgement. The hearts of the Egyptians were predisposed to turn from God, so much so, that it took the 10th plague, the killing of all the first-born children in Egypt, to convince the Egyptians to let the people of Israel go. Even then, they would soon have second thoughts and chased the people of Israel to the sea, where God allowed the people of Israel to cross on dry land but then covered the Egyptian army with water. Interestingly, this would not be the last time that a nation used to discipline the people of Israel would then be punished in return168.

The Tabernacle and the law

Exodus 25: 8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

The Tabernacle, shadow of something greater. During the time in the wilderness, the Israelites were instructed to build a tabernacle that would serve as the point of presence for Yahweh in the community169. God would be seen at once as both an unapproachable and transcendent God170 and a personal, immanent God living among his people171, and a shadow of a deeper reality172.

Art and artists. The instructions are quite detailed. The materials used to build the tabernacle were gifts given to the Israelites as they left Egypt173. Those materials were then freely shared to be used as materials used to construct the tabernacle. God dedicated the workmen for building the various parts of the tabernacle, filling them with his Spirit and then giving the skills and abilities they needed174. God gave everything needed for the construction of the tabernacle. Between the detailed instructions, the materials given and the skills of the craftsmen, the tabernacle would be a beautiful work of art. Although the Israelites were told not to make graven images to worship as idols175, that obviously did not mean that they couldn’t create works of art, even works that would be used to enable worship.

Law and Love. The amount of killing carried out in the tabernacle to fulfill the necessary sacrifices would give a constant, grisly reminder of the cost of our sin. There were sacrifices to be made for many occasions: burnt (or ascension) offerings, sin offering, guilt offerings and others176. There was much blood-letting from the many animals sacrificed on the altar; a constant reminder of the cost of our sins.

In addition to the rules of the tabernacle, God also gave other rules that covered other areas of life. Most of us are familiar with the moral code we know as the 10 Commandments, but there were many other laws that covered other situations as well.

167 Exodus 32 168 For Egypt; Genesis 15:13-14. Later on, also Babylon, Assyria and other nations 169 Exodus 25-27; Numbers 2 170 The Holy of Holies could only be accessed once a year and only by the high priest. 171 The presence of God was indicated by the pillar of fire by night and smoke by day where the people could see it. Also, Moses was able to have face-to-face contact with God. 172 Hebrews 8:5-6; 10:1-18 173 Exodus 35:4-9 174 Exodus 31; 35:32-34:7 175 Exodus 20:4-6 176 Leviticus 1-7


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Of the 613 rules that can be found177, they can all be summarized in the commands: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; Love your neighbor as yourself178. Whether in the 10 commandments or in the 613 mitzvot, all the rules are predicated on love, thankfulness and pleasing one another. All the instructions point to practical ways for us to love God and one another179.

Community Worship

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise

Sacrifice and death. God also gave detailed instructions about how and when to conduct the rituals surrounding the tabernacle. Burnt offerings180 had been offered before the tabernacle was built181 but now there were additional offerings to be made182. In the case of all the offerings, something had to die, usually animals. The cost of sin was death and it takes death to restore one’s relation with God.

Holiness. Added to this, the animals presented for sacrifice for the burnt offerings needed to be pure and without blemish or defect. The clear message from all of this is that God is not a part of creation but is apart from it, our sin has created a barrier between us from him, and it will take death to remove that barrier.

Worship, a community affair. Worship at the tabernacle was a community event. No one could do this by themselves. Different people were assigned to different tasks, which not only included direct involvement in worship but also in the care of the tabernacle and it’s furnishings. Even one’s individual sins required the use of priest to handle the sacrifice. Before the tabernacle, offerings could be made by anyone, but with the tabernacle, only designated priests could perform the sacrificial offerings. This continues the pattern of representing the holiness of God in creation. God’s image-bearing creatures are set aside from all other creatures; Sinful humans are separated from the Garden of Eden; Noah and his family are set aside in the ark from all other people; Abraham is set aside from all other people to usher in the blessing of all people; Moses is set apart from the other Israelites to see God face-to-face; the Levites are the tribe set apart from the other tribes to manage the care of the tabernacle; the priests are set apart from the other Levites to carry out the rituals in the tabernacle; the Sabbath from all the other days to remind us of God’s provision, in particular his provision for rest – and the list goes on.

177 Judaism 101, “List of the 613 Commandments” Jewfaq.org <http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm> accessed 15 Sept 2018 178 Deuteronomy 4:29; 6:5; Leviticus 19:18 179 Isaacs, Ronald H. “Rabbinic Reasons for the Mitzvot” myjewishlearning.com <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rabbinic-reasons-for-the-mitzvot/ > accessed 19 Sept 2018; “Love and the Hebrew language” Messianic Jewish Bible Society <https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/love-and-the-hebrew-language/> accessed 19 Sept 2018; Levinson, John D. “The Shema and the Commandment to Love Godin it’s ancient context” thetorah.com <https://thetorah.com/the-shema-and-the-commandment-to-love-god-in-its-ancient-contexts/> accessed 19 Sept 2018 180 Burnt offerings are sometimes called whole offerings (because none of the offering is put aside for eating) or ascent offerings 181 Genesis 4:4; Genesis 8:20 182 Genesis 36-39; Tam, Stephen, “The Five Offerings in the Old Testament” Moses Tabernacle 2003-2018<www3.telus.net/public/kstam/en/tabernacle/details/offerings.htm> accessed 29 Aug 2018; Bible.org 2018 <bible.org/seriespage/2-law-burnt-offerings-leviticus-11-17> accessed 29 Aug 2018

http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rabbinic-reasons-for-the-mitzvot/

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rabbinic-reasons-for-the-mitzvot/

https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/love-and-the-hebrew-language/

https://thetorah.com/the-shema-and-the-commandment-to-love-god-in-its-ancient-contexts/

https://thetorah.com/the-shema-and-the-commandment-to-love-god-in-its-ancient-contexts/


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Settlement

Joshua 5:13-14 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”

When the people of Israel first approached the Promised Land, 12 spies were sent out to scout out the land. Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies that did not bring back a report of discouragement causing all the people of Israel to rebel against God as they forgot all the miracles of God’s provision in their flight from Egypt. This resulted in God subjecting the people of Israel to wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. All the adults except for Joshua and Caleb, were subject to die in the wilderness before the people of Israel would enter the promised land183.

Courage and memory. It was therefore Joshua who was chosen to lead the people into the Promised Land at the end of the 40 years184. As before, the nation of Israel would still meet other people already living in the land, so Israel would need to fight for the land. Taking the land would not be easy. Before Joshua led his people into the land, God repeatedly said to Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage … do not be terrified or discouraged185.” Then as a refresher, God also performed miracles as the people entered the land, causing the Jordan River to cease flowing which allowed the people to cross on dry land – repeating the miracle of the parting of the sea as they fled Egypt186.

Provision of God. Before Israel even left Egypt, the people were given gold and other wealth that was not theirs, the water from miraculously made springs and the manna that fill from the sky was not theirs. Now the homes and fields that God would them capture were the provision of God as well187.

Cooperating with God. This time, God was going to require their involvement. It would start with the way they crossed the Jordan River where the people carrying the ark needed to get their feet wet in the river before it would stop flowing. And since this time, the river would now be the boundary of their new land, the people were instructed to set up a monument of 12 stones to be a reminder God’s provision188. The next miracle which came soon after was the crumbling of the walls of Jericho which occurred after seven days of marching around the city189. That miracle would be followed by others as the people of Israel continued to capture the cities190.

Full measure. According to the message that Yahweh shared with Abraham, the entry of Israel into the Promised Land meant that the sin of the Amorites had now reached its full measure. As with the time of Noah, that full measure would now end in the destruction of the inhabitants of the land, this time by the people of Israel. The danger to Israel would be, that if the current inhabitants of the land with their idolatries and

183 Numbers 13 184 Deuteronomy 31:1-8 185 Joshua 1:1-9 186 Joshua 3-4 187 Deuteronomy 6:10-11 188 Joshua 4 189 Joshua 6 190 Joshua 10:1-15


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atrocities were allowed to live among the people of Israel, the people of Israel would be tempted to also turn from God191.

So beginning at Jericho, the people of Israel to instructed to “totally destroy192” the inhabitants of the city. This instruction would be repeated other times as well. The problem that would appear is that Israel did not always follow these instructions and the consequent result was that Israel would continuously get drawn into the idolatries of the current inhabitants.

Promise to serve. Before Joshua died, he challenged the people to serve Yahweh and the people responded that they would choose to serve Yahweh. Joshua replied that they could not serve Yahweh, the God who is so holy, yet the people responded that they would. Joshua then said that they were “witnesses against themselves193.” They would be.

Judges

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Cycle of sin. After Joshua died, Israel entered a period where God would raise up leaders among the people as needed. It was also a period described as a time where everyone did what was right in his own eyes194. Israel would constantly become ensnared in following the idol worship of the people of the other nations around them195. To discipline his people, God would allow Israel to be given into the hands of those nations until they cried for mercy. God would raise up a leader to successfully fight off the oppressors and things would be all right for a while, but it would only be a matter of time where they would fall away from Yahweh and the cycle of rescue, of falling away, of oppression would repeatedly happen.

Wanting presence of God.As a sign of the failure to correctly name their problem, there came a time when Israel had to fight the Philistines, a nation that was exceedingly difficult to fight. After being routed in one battle, Israel thought that the solution would be to take the ark with them into battle, thinking that the presence of God would be with the ark196. What they didn’t do, however, was to consult with God. Not only did Israel lose again, Israel also lost the ark to the Philistines.

Comfortable idols. The mistake that Israel made was a mistake as old as Adam and Eve. We would rather have a God that we can handle rather that one we are accountable to. Want wisdom? Don’t wait for God, just eat from the tree. Want to win a battle? Don’t wait for God to lead you, take God (as the ark) with you. One of the judges, Gideon, would make an ephod that would become an idol for Israel197. One of the priests in the period of the judges, Micah, would make an ephod that would become

191 Numbers 33:55-56; Deuteronomy 12:2-3, 29-32 192 Josha 6:17. Also Lyon, William L. “Between History and Theology: The Problem of H9 Erem in Modern Evangelical Biblical Scholarship” Florida State University, dissertation Spring 2003 <fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:169187/datastream/PDF/view> accessed 30 Aug 2018 193 Joshua 23-24 194 Judges 21:15 195 Judges 2:11-13 196 1 Samuel 4 197 1 Judges 8

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an idol198. Idols may not have the power of God, but they don’t make uncomfortable demands either.

Behind the scenes: Raising leaders. One theme that runs through the time of the judges was that Yahweh raised up all kinds of people to be leaders: some seemed to have innate leadership skills and others didn’t; some had good moral character, some didn’t. But while the nation of Israel struggled and failed to follow God, we find that God was always quietly working the background through individuals.

Behind the scenes: Prayer warriors. One of those individuals was a woman named Hannah. In a common theme, Hannah struggled to become pregnant and, in that struggle, she leaned on God199. One day, she was praying at the tabernacle where Eli was serving as priest. Eli saw her and asks God to grant Hannah her wish. In gratefulness, after Hannah gave birth to Samuel, she commited him to serve at the tabernacle with Eli200. Little did Eli know at the time that God would raise up Samuel to be a priest in place of his sons. When Eli’s sons had become corrupt and unfit to serve as priests, God worked with Hannah’s fervent worship to raise up Samuel and eventually called Samuel to replace Eli as priest201.

Behind the scenes: Preparing for Messiah. During the time of the judges. God would use drought to cause Naomi to move to Moab. One of her sons would marry a woman named Ruth. When Naomi’s husband and son are tragically killed, Naomi moved back home where Ruth faithfully followed her and helped Naomi to survive. During this time, Ruth met and married Boaz and ended up becoming one of the ancestors of Jesus202.

Kings and kingdoms

Rejecting God as King

Psalm 81:12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.

Looking through their own eyes. Ever since the time of Adam and Eve, we have had a problem of thinking that we know better than God. After Israel started to settle into the Promised Land, that same problem appeared again with the diagnoses, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes203.” It was that problem that caused the cycle of God disciplining Israel by allowing them to be dominated by one of the nations, the people then crying for help, God raising up a leader who overcomes the dominating nation, then once Israel is freed up, they turn from Yahweh and the cycle repeats204.

Getting what we want instead of what we need. Eventually, Israel figured that they thought they knew what the problem was … that they needed a king like everyone else205. It seemed that Samuel had the same kind of problem with his sons as Eli had with his. So, the people rebelled against God and asked the prophet Samuel to ask God to give them a king. Samuel knew that their diagnosis was wrong, and Yahweh told 198 Judges 17-18 199 1 Samuel 1. See also, Sarah (Genesis 16-18) Rebekah (genesis 25:19-26) Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25) 200 1 Samuel 1-2 201 1 Samuel 2 202 Ruth 1-4 203 Judges 21:25 204 Judges 2 205 1 Samuel 8:1-5


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Samuel that the real problem was that they’ve rejected Yahweh as king but that he would grant their wish anyway. They’ll got a king … like everyone else. One of the lessons from this event is that we need to be careful; in our rebellion, God may condemn us to what we want.

Saul

1 Samuel 9:2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.

Rejecting God. In this case, God gives Israel a king in the mold of other kings. In physical appearance, King Saul was a tall, handsome son of a powerful man206, but spiritually, Saul would continue the national habit of “doing what was right in his own sight.” In fact, there were times when Saul is talking to Samuel that he refers to “Yahweh your God207,” a phrase that King Jeroboam would also use later. Also, instead of leaning on God for victory, Saul would also resort to making foolish, rash vows instead.

Rejecting Saul. Saul barely began his 40-year ministry as king before Samuel had to inform him that God had rejected him as king208. Although that rejection happened early in his career, God did not replace him until sometime later. Saul would have to endure the knowledge that God had rejected him for the rest of his career as king. That may have been a factor in him becoming more unstable as time went on.Yet, despite his rejection by God he did have some success in conducting war against the enemy, but it wasn’t enough.

David

1 Samuel 26:11 The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.”

In-between time and testing the heart. Meanwhile, God had selected David, someone who was after God’s own heart209, to be the next king. However, David’s reign did not begin until many years later. This meant there was going to be a long and difficult in-between time of testing:

• Saul heart continued to be tested as he was rejected by God but it would be a long time before the end of his reign. In the meanwhile, he had his duties to perform.

• David had been anointed to be the next king, but it would be many years before it happened. In the midst of much conflict David had to trust God and do what he thought he needed to do. On the one hand, David didn’t test God by unnecessarily putting himself in harm’s way, rather he looked to God for wisdom and acted accordingly. On the other hand, when David had opportunities to kill King Saul, he refused to do so and instead waited for God to act.

Waiting for God. God has shown himself to be of great patience, willing to endure pain while waiting until the right time to do his work. This is the area where we typically fail:

206 1 Samuel 18:23-24 207 Genesis 27:20 – Jacob uses this before his wrestling match with God; 1 Samuel 15:15; 1 Kings 13:6 208 1 Samuel 13:1-14 209 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22


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Adam and Eve could not wait for God to give them knowledge so they grabbed for it; Abraham and Sarah could not wait for God to give them a son through Sarah and so they used Hagar; Jacob could not wait for his inheritance and he and Rebekah had to trick Isaac; Moses could not wait for God to provide water by just speaking to the rock and so he had to strike it. In contrast, to be obedient, David was willing to wait for God to replace Saul and did not take advantage of the opportunities he had to kill him210.

Repentance. There were a couple of instances where David committed sin but, unlike Saul before him, David responded to Yahweh’s rebuke with repentance. The most egregious sin David committed was to have an affair with the wife of one of his soldiers and then, when he failed to cover it up, he arranged for that soldier to be killed on the front lines. When confronted about the sin by the prophet, Nathan, David did repent and confess his sin211.

Friendship. In this difficult period, David would form the best friendship he ever had with Saul’s son Jonathan212. Jonathan recognized that his own father Saul was rejected as king, but instead of jealously trying to hold onto what he could not have, he accepted David as the heir to the throne. In fact, Jonathan was crucial to David’s survival213.

The war King. In due time, Saul did die, and David then became king, although it would be in phases214. Initially there was a civil war as people that were loyal to Saul did not pledge loyalty to David but to another king. As in many conflicts, in addition to the overt conflict, there was much subterfuge and political intrigue as well which would have consequences later. Then, even after uniting the kingdom, David had to lead Israel through constant warfare as he expanded the kingdom. So even though David was called and anointed to be king, that did mean that there was a clear path to becoming king and it did not mean that there would be no conflicts once he became king. It also did not mean that David would be perfect.

Messy family life. David did have many wives and concubines, but unlike Solomon, the king who reigned after him, David’s polygamy had not led him to worshiping other gods. The Bible doesn’t condemn David for his polygamy, but it seemed to exasperate a weakness in David. David’s inability to discipline his sons resulted in rape by one son, a murder by another son to avenge the rape and an attempt by another son to dethrone David215. This all meant that the path to succession to David’s throne would not be straightforward, but in the end, David selected his son Solomon to succeed him.

Solomon

1 Kings 11:4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Wisdom wasn’t enough. Solomon had a great start. David gave him materials with which he could start building the temple216. Solomon’s heart was humble enough to ask

210 1 Samuel 24:1-7; 26:1-12 211 2 Samuel 12:1-14 212 1 Samuel 18:1-3 213 1 Samuel 18-20 214 2 Samuel 2-5 215 2 Samuel 13:1-21 Amnon rapes half-sister Tamar but David takes no action. 2 Samuel 13:23-29 Tamar’s brother Absalom murders Amnon because David took no action. 2 Samuel 15:7-23 Absalom rebels against David and claims to be king 216 2 Samuel 7


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for wisdom above all things217. For that God blessed Solomon not only with great wisdom but with great wealth besides. The one weakness in all this provision was the wealth of wives and concubines. It turned out that Solomon loved his wives, who came from other cultures, more than Yahweh, so that he not only tolerated their idol worship but took part in that idol worship as well218. One thing that Solomon ignored despite his great wisdom, was the warning for kings not to accumulate great wealth and many wives219. One early sign of his failure may have occurred during his prayer of dedication for the new temple when, despite the use of wealth from donations or taxes and despite the slave labor and labor from other countries, he still said, “the temple I built220.”

The Divided Kingdom

1 Kings 11:11-13 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”

The kingdom flames out. Solomon’s divided heart ended up dividing the kingdom. When Solomon’s son Rehoboam succeeded him on the throne, Rehoboam foolishly followed the advice to increase taxes221, causing a revolt. Yahweh, who knows all things, had already selected Jeroboam to lead the revolt222. The result was that 10 tribes (the Northern kingdom, commonly called Israel) followed Jeroboam, leaving only 2 tribes (the Southern kingdom, commonly called Judah) to follow Rehoboam. With only a few exceptions, most of the kings in the divided kingdom participated in idolatry and the associated practices of the surrounding communities, earning God’s wrath. These two kingdoms would also be in continual conflict with each other until each came to an ignominious end.

The Prophets

Jeremiah 2:28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

Messengers of a greater power. During the entire time when Israel had kings, it also had prophets. Some prophets like and Elijah and Elisha did not leave any writings, but sixteen prophets did223. The prophets were a constant reminder that God was acting in ways that transcended the earthly kingdom. Sometimes the prophets were there to encourage and sometimes challenge the kings: The prophet Samuel was used to anoint Saul as king224, then later let Saul know that God had rejected him225. Samuel was also used to anoint David as king226. Later, the prophet Nathan was used to let David know that God was aware of David’s sin with Bathsheba227.

217 1 Kings 3:1-15 218 I Kings 11:1-13 219 Deuteronomy 17:14-17 220 I Kings 8:27 221 I Kings 12:1-4 222 I Kings 11:26-40 223 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi 224 1 Samuel 9-10 225 1 Samuel 13:8-14 226 1 Samuel 16 227 2 Samuel 12


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Challenging unfaithfulness. Sometimes the prophet’s warnings would be not just for the kings but for everyone in the kingdom. The messages from the prophets often mixed the foretelling of the consequences for rejecting God with the hope that God will someday make things right228. The most common offense cited by the prophets was the lack of justice229 and the uselessness of the ritual sacrifices if justice was ignored230. There were also diatribes against, false prophets231 and making idols. The most common metaphor used to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and his commands was prostitution232, even to the point where one prophet, Hosea, was told to marry a prostitute to be a visible reminder for Israel233.

Lament and anger. God’s response through the prophets was to lament. There is even one entire book lamenting what happened to Israel234. The lamenting would include calls for Israel to repent and turn back to God. The pleas for repentance would then be followed by God’s anger and God’s promise to root out235, pull down236 and destroy Israel or any other nation around Israel that was involved in sin237. Sometimes God used other nations to discipline Israel but that was usually followed with threats to those same nations for their own behavior238.

Future hope. But in the end was God’s promise to restore his kingdom and bless all those who repent. One prophet was even sent to a Gentile nation to call them to repent or be destroyed239. When they did repent, God held back his punishment – although history tells us that they would go back to their old ways and they would then be destroyed.

The strange story of the ark and the tabernacle

1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

Ark leaves tabernacle. After Israel entered the Promised Land, the tabernacle and all its furnishings were originally placed in Gilgal240. After the land was settled the tabernacle was then set up in Shiloh241 where it stayed for 200 years. During the time of Samuel, Samuel’s sons, without consulting God, removed the ark from the tabernacle to take it into battle with the Philistines who not only won the battle but took the ark with them. The Philistines found that although Yahweh did not see fit to help Israel win the battle, Yahweh did create issues with the Philistines. The Philistines responded by

228 Amos 9:1-11 229 Deuteronomy 16:18-20 230 Jeremiah 13:10 231 Jeremiah 5:31; 28:1-17 232 Ezra 16 233 Hosea 1:2 234 Lamentations 235 Micah 5:14 236 Isaiah 22:19 237 For instance, Isaiah 13, Prophecy against Babylon 238 Genesis 15:12-15 239 Jonah 240 Joshua 4-5 – Although the tabernacle is not specifically mentioned, Gilgal seems to be the place where Israel settled until the land was divided and is where Passover was celebrated. In Joshua 9, Gilgal is where the Gibeonites come to make a treaty with Israel. 241 Joshua 18:1


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moving the ark a couple of times, but the problems did not disappear and so the ark was sent back to Israel.

Ark on the road. The ark initially ended up in Beth Shemesh, but after 70 people died after looking in the ark, the people of Beth Shemesh sent the ark to Kiriath Jearim where it stayed for 20 years. The Bible is not explicit about when it happened, but sometime during the reign of King Saul, the tabernacle, sans the ark, was moved to Nob242 and then to Gibeon243.

The ark and holiness. After David established the capital in Jerusalem, King David set up his own tabernacle and then moved the ark there. In moving the ark, David had to learn a lesson. He first tried to have the ark carried in a cart, but when the ark started to slip out of the cart, the people died who touched the ark in order to prevent it from slipping out. So the ark ended up in Obed-Edom’s house for a while. Hophni and Phineas learned the hard way that you don’t necessarily take the presence of God when you take the ark, but David learned the hard way that you can’t ignore the presence of God when you take the ark. David was successful in moving the ark to Jerusalem after he had the ark moved according to the instructions God had given Moses.

The temple. Finally, during the time of Solomon, the temple was built to replace the tabernacle and all the furnishings except the ark itself244 were built by a foreigner from Tyre named Hiram245. The original furnishings of the tabernacle were probably put into storage in the temple. Although the temple was much more grandiose than the tabernacle, Solomon recognized that it still could not hold God. Solomon’s temple was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians246.

Two kinds of worship. The interesting thing with this history is that during the time of King David all the rituals of Moses were carried out at the tabernacle in Gibeon247 where there was no ark and no presence of God, while the ark itself, with the presence of God, was in Jerusalem where there was a service of joy, dancing and singing instead of the ritual sacrifices248. Also, the ark was no longer concealed in the Holy of Holies where there was limited access, it was now in a place where everyone could access it.

Rebuilding the tabernacle of David. This brings us to the prophet Amos who prophesies that God will destroy most of Israel, except for a remnant, and that David’s tabernacle will be restored – not the one at Gibeon, not the temple Solomon built, but David’s tabernacle249. This is the scripture quoted in Acts 15 where it is determined that Amos was referring to Gentiles now being accepted into the kingdom of God250. The tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon were restricted to the nation of Israel,

242 1 Samuel 21-22 243 1 Chronicles 21:29; 2 Chronicles 1:13 244 I Kings 6-8 245 1 Kings 7:13-51 246 “Reconstructing the Destruction of the Tabernacle at Shiloh” Jewish Bible Quarterly, January – March 2016 <http://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/jbq-past-issues/2016/441-january-march-2016/reconstructing-destruction-tabernacle-shiloh/> accessed 19 Sept 2016 247 1 Chronicles 6:32 248 1 Chronicles 6:31-32 249 Amos 9:11-15 250 Acts 25:1-21

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but God was now going to make himself available to the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Diaspora

2 Chronicles 36:15-16 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Judgement unfolds. The covenant God made with Israel had the proviso “if you follow my commands251.” When Israel continually demonstrated its inability to do that, God’s judgement followed. The nation of Israel would suffer the consequences. The first sign of the consequences manifested itself in the splitting of Israel into two kingdoms.

Scattered and lost. The northern kingdom of Israel would be the first to collapse with the invasion of the Assyrians whose policy was to scatter the captured inhabitants throughout their empire and replace them with Assyrians. These northern tribes seem to have been totally assimilated into the Assyrian empire and would not be heard from again in history252.

Exile. It was the Babylonians who would conquer the southern kingdom of Judah. The best and the brightest of Judah would be taken captive to the capital of Babylonia for “retraining” so that they could contribute to the Babylonian society. It was at this point that the remnants of the nation of Israel would now be referred to Jews. It was from this point on that, despite the return of some of the Jews to their homeland, most Jews would now be living outside their homeland253.

Preserving culture.It was also during this exile that the Jews, as they would now be called, had to become more deliberate if they were going to preserve their culture. It was during this time that the Jews would begin to collect all their writings in order to begin to determine what would be their scripture. They had the writings of Moses, but they had to determine what else should be included254.

Worship in exileIt was also during this time that they focused more seriously on worshipping Yahweh. Before this time, the biblical and archeological records indicate that Israel had a habit of adopting the worship of any idols of the culture they were in contact with255. But now they had to preserve their culture while living amid a dominant foreign culture. Although the origins are a little obscure, because temple worship was no longer available, synagogues as a permanent institution developed during the exile256.

251 I Kings 6:12

252 2 Kings 17 253 2 Kings 25 254 Waltke, Bruce. “How We Got Our Old Testament” Christianity Today, Christian History <https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-43/how-we-got-our-old-testament.html> accessed 15 Sep 2018 255 Gayle, Damien. “How idolatry continued in the Kingdom of Judah:Israeli dig uncovers temple and icons dating back to Old Testament era” Dailymail.com 27 Dec 2012 <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253695/How-idolatry-continued-Kingdom-Judah-Israeli-dig-uncovers-temple-icons-dating-Old-Testament-era.html> accessed 15 Sept 2018 256 Bacher, Wilhelm and Dembitz, Lewis N. “Synagogue” Jewish Encyclopedia <http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14160-synagogue > accessed 15 Sept 2018

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-43/how-we-got-our-old-testament.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253695/How-idolatry-continued-Kingdom-Judah-Israeli-dig-uncovers-temple-icons-dating-Old-Testament-era.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253695/How-idolatry-continued-Kingdom-Judah-Israeli-dig-uncovers-temple-icons-dating-Old-Testament-era.html

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14160-synagogue

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Return

2 Chronicles 36:23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”

Empires come and go. Assyria scattered the Northern Kingdom then Assyria the Babylonians overran Assyria. The Babylonians captured Jerusalem and took the prominent citizens into exile. After the 70 yeas in captivity prescribed by God had passed, then the Persians overran Babylonia.

Rebuilding. When Persia captured Babylon, it allowed the Jews to return to their homeland257. The first batch of returnees went back with Zerubabbel to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple258. A second batch would go back to Jerusalem with Ezra who confronted the Jews about their failure to keep separate from the nations around them. A while later, Nehemiah would go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls259. And yet, with all the returnees, the majority of the Jews chose to remain in Babylonia – and even today, most Jews live outside the Promised Land260.

Reminders: God’s provision. In another reminder of God’s provision, in all the returns to Jerusalem, the rulers of the Persian empire strongly supported the returns of the Jews who were given what they needed. God even provided prophets to encourage the Jews261.

Reminders: Giving out of thankfulness. In a reminder of the times when contributions were needed to build the tabernacle, those who did choose to return to the Promised Land with Zerubbabel willingly contributed from the provisions given to them by the Persians to the rebuilding of the temple262.

Reminders: Being called out. In a reminder of their own abilities to follow Yahweh, when the Jews first returned to the Promised Land they ended up once more intermarrying with the non-Jews and practicing their idol worship. So, when Ezra came to Jerusalem, he had to lead the Jews to repentance and to put away their foreign wives263.

Last words. Then, in the end, God would send one last prophet, Malachi, who had words of condemnation of Israel for all the sins committed and of the promise to restore everything because that is what he promised264.

Songs and reflections of the heart

Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Praise. As creatures made in the image of the Creator, it is self-evident that we cannot avoid creating. We are also creatures that are born to worship, as even our popular

257 Ezra 1 258 Ezra 2

259 Nehemiah 1-2 260 “Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World (1882 - Present)” Jewish Virtual Library <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world> accessed 15 Sept 2018 261 Haggai, Zechariah 262 Ezra 2:68-69 263 Ezra 9-10 264 Malachai 1:6-14; 2:10-16; 3:6-9; 4:6

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culture makes very evident. When we put those together we get a work like the Psalms265, a book of poetry which was set to music. The psalms are a collection of praise songs written by various people. They are songs that reflect the thoughts of those people experiencing life with all its emotions in a broken world.

Poetry. In addition to musical notations, several psalms have notations indicating the events which inspired the writing of those psalms. Some of the psalms have notations indicating the kind of occasion that the psalms are used for. As poetry, the psalms use various poetic devices such as parallelism, acrostics, and figures of speech266.

Honest reflections. The Psalms express various themes such as the character of God, the experience of people, the worship of God, lament, petitions for help, confession of sin, praise and thanksgiving, expressions of wisdom. The emotions expressed in the Psalms are sometimes very raw with feelings of abandonment, questions of God’s provision, hatred, and vengeance. Yet all these expressions are included in this book of Praise Songs. The inclusion of the full range of human expression is an acknowledgement of the reality of the human experience and an affirmation of being honest with God about our feelings while placing all of that in the context of a just and merciful God who is worthy of praise.

Other poetry. The Psalms are not the only place where poetry can be found in the Old Testament. There is poetry that can also be found in various portions of other books of the Bible. There is even one book of the Bible that is entirely a poem/song, The Song of Solomon (aka Song of Songs) which is a positive and passionate expression of marital love.

Wisdom. In addition to the expressions of wisdom that are found in the Psalms, there are other places where expressions of wisdom are found. The pair of books, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, show the benefits of and limits of wisdom. Solomon was the author of Ecclesiastes and was the primary author of Proverbs. In 1 Kings 3-4, Solomon requests and is granted much wisdom to rule the nation of Israel. That wisdom is reflected in Proverbs as a collection of rules to live a good life. On the other hand, Ecclesiastes reflects the limits of wisdom in finding the meaning of life.

Silence and waiting

Psalm 62:1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

After the time of Nehemiah and Malachi, there were no more explicit words of prophecy from Yahweh until the coming of Jesus. And in this time of silence from God, there was much turmoil.

• The Greek Empire would overtake the Persian Empire and therefore Israel.

265 The Hebrew name of the book is Tehillim, which means praise songs. 266 Cole, Steven J. “Psalms An Overview: God’s Inspired Hymnbook” Bible.org <https://bible.org/seriespage/psalms-overview-god%E2%80%99s-inspired-hymnbook> accessed 15 Sept 2018; Nally, Joseph R. “Overview of the Book of Psalms” Reformed Answers, Third Millenium <http://reformedanswers.org/answer.asp/file/41791> accessed 15 Sept 2018

https://bible.org/seriespage/psalms-overview-god%E2%80%99s-inspired-hymnbook

https://bible.org/seriespage/psalms-overview-god%E2%80%99s-inspired-hymnbook

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• When the Greeks desecrated the temple, there was a revolt led by a Jewish

family, the Hasmoneans, who successfully overthrew the Greeks. Hanukah is a

celebration of the miracle that took place in the temple267.

• The Roman Empire would overtake the Greek Empire and the Hasmonean

kingdom in Israel. Despite the Romans taking over, the Greek language and

culture became part of the infrastructure of the Roman Empire.

• The exact origins are unknown, but some of the Jews would adopt the Greek

culture, becoming Hellenized. The aristocratic leaders of these Hellenized Jews

would become the Sadducees. In opposition to the corruption of Judaism brought

in by the Sadducees, a group known as the Pharisees arose. These two groups

were still active when Jesus broke into history268.

In the midst of God’s apparent silence, all this activity indicates that God is still working. Several times in the Old Testament, God pointed out that, despite everything else going on, there was still a remnant of people that he was still working with269. No matter what the situation is, no matter how good or how bad things seem to be, God is always working on his plans and he is always preparing for the next step.

267 Ross, Lesli Koppelman, “The Hasmonean Dynasty” myjewishlearning.org <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-hasmonean-dynasty/> accessed 29 Sept 2018 268 Kellu”m, Scott L. Kostenberger, Andreas J. Quaries, Charles L. ”The Origins of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” B&H Academic Blog 9 August 2016 <https://www.bhacademicblog.com/origins-of-the-pharisees-and-sadducees/> accessed 19 August 2018 269 Genesis 45:7; 2 Kings 19:30

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-hasmonean-dynasty/

https://www.bhacademicblog.com/origins-of-the-pharisees-and-sadducees/


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Section 2 – Ignition: Revealing the Kingdom

and The Painful Breaking of Sin


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Chapter 5 – The kingdom enters – hope revealed, unleashing shalom

Ariyandhamma

Pixabay

Jesus Christ, Statue, Children, Catholic, Virginia

Public domain

Signs and shadows of the kingdom

Hebrews 8:5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

The Garden to the City. In the beginning, God created a good earth. Within that good earth, Yahweh created a special place, the Garden of Eden, where he could meet and live with the creatures he made that bore his image. The Garden was a place where the heaven and earth overlapped, a place where the goodness of Yahweh overflowed, a place of shalom, a place where his image-bearers were intended to thrive and develop as co-creators with Yahweh, ultimately creating a civilization to the glory of God270. It was expected that God’s kingdom was to cover all the earth along with his image-bearers.

Rebellion and violence. However, the image-bearers put Yahweh’s authority to the side and rebelled against him. The rebellion disrupted the union of the Yahweh’s kingdom with his creatures and all of creation was put into disorder271. Human space and Yahweh’s space were separated272 and all of creation was damaged, including not only in the relations between Yahweh and his image-bearers but between the image-

270 Perhaps the most fitting symbol of the development of creation from the primordial past to the eschatological future is the fact that the Bible begins with a garden and ends with a city - a city filled with "the glory and the honor of the nations." Albert M. Wolters. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Kindle Locations 581-583). Kindle Edition. 271 Romans 8:20-22 272 The Two Spaces In the Bible, the themes of heaven and earth can be thought of as heaven being God’s space and the earth being the human space. There are images presented that try to help us understand these two spaces, which although they are different, are not always separate. It may be helpful to think of them as different dimensions that overlap. In the Garden of Eden, the two spaces totally overlapped, and God and man dwelt together. Humans were to be partners with God and were to live and build this beautiful garden with God. Unfortunately, they decided to do things their own way rather than God’s. The story of the Bible is about how at one time, heaven and earth were totally united and how God is once again going to bring them back together. “Heaven and Earth” The Bible Project < https://thebibleproject.com/explore/heaven-earth/> accessed 4 Oct 2018

https://thebibleproject.com/explore/heaven-earth/


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bearers themselves. The image-bearers found themselves in an increasingly vicious cycle of violence and corruption which was so thorough that God needed to restart his project and caused a great flood273. Fortunately, out of his deep love for his rebellious image-bearers, Yahweh had a solution in mind, a plan to reunite heaven and earth, extending his kingdom over all the earth274.

The tabernacle and temple. Yahweh set processes in place that led to Abraham and Sarah, continued through to the other patriarchs, and then continued with the nation of Israel. Under Moses’ leadership, another overlapping of heaven and earth was created within the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle275. In particular, the mercy seat on the ark was where God’s presence would be276. However, this time, because of their separation from Yahweh, people did not have the same unencumbered access to Yahweh as they had in the garden of Eden. This time the access was tightly limited between Yahweh and the high priest277. But the tabernacle, its rituals and all the commands of God were designed to be a shadow of things in heaven and a shadow of the things that were coming278. Yahweh’s relationship with his image-bearers would be restored and all of earth would be joined with Yahweh’s kingdom in heaven as was intended from the beginning279.

Rejecting God as King. In the meanwhile, in those shadows of the coming kingdom, Yahweh worked within the nation of Israel, his chosen people, to gradually reveal signs of his intended restoration. Within those shadows, the people of Israel could see the futility of their own efforts to reconcile with Yahweh despite their denial of the reality of Joshua’s words, “You are not able to serve Yahweh280.” Within those shadows, the nation of Israel would rebel against the kingship of Yahweh, rejecting his reign and insisting on creating their own kingdom, like “all the other nations.”

Prophets of warning and hope. The nation was reminded time after time that the law was good, but they were not, that their continual animal sacrifices were never a permanent solution to reconciling with Yahweh, that they needed a redeemer281. Prophets were raised up to warn the people of the consequences of their continual rebellion, but they also delivered messages of hope that, despite their rebellion, God would restore his people to himself282.

273 Genesis 6:5-7 274 Revelation 21-22 275 The Temple, God’s Presence on Earth. In the Old Testament, the temple became the place where people could experience God’s presence. It was the place where heaven and earth overlap. The temple was decorated and designed to make people feel like they were going back to the garden. The Holy of Holies, in the center of the temple, was where God’s presence dwelt. The problem is that God’s space is perfect, pure, just and holy and the earth’s space is full of sin and corruption. This problem was resolved through the sacrifice of animals. The idea is that the animal absorbed the sin of the people and died in their place, creating a clean space., “Heaven and Earth” The Bible Project <https://thebibleproject.com/explore/heaven-earth/> accessed 4 Oct 2018 276 Exodus 25:17-29 277 Leviticus 16 278 Hebrews 8:5; 10:1 279 Hebrews 10:5-10; Revelation 21:1-4 280 Joshua 24:19 281 Psalm 119:39; Romans 7:7-24 282 Psalm 53:6



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Promised judgement: exile. Then the promised judgement for their rebellion came: Most of the nation was lost to history as ten tribes of Israel were scattered through the Assyrian empire283; the temple was destroyed; a remnant of the remaining tribes was sent into exile in Babylon284. If there was any hope that the ritual sacrifices at the temple could reconcile the people with Yahweh, now even that possibility was taken away. The restoration of their own kingdom seemed to be in doubt, never mind the kingdom of Yahweh.

Promised judgement: return. However, the exile was promised to be temporary285. After 70 years, the exiled nation had the opportunity to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple286. Once the temple was rebuilt it was now possible for the temple worship to continue and even for their government to be restarted, although it would be under the auspices of a foreign nation. Yet in all that happened, one thing had not changed; the hearts of the image-bearers had not changed287. There was still a need for a redeemer288. Yahweh left clues through the prophets and the writings of his people about what to look for – but after Malachi, the last prophet of Yahweh would speak through, and there would be a wait of 400 years.

Looking for Messiah

Matthew 2:2 … “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Looking for faith. During all the messy history, Yahweh was working to bring his plan into fruition. His end goal was to create a new heaven and a new earth but there were things that needed to happen first, including the removal of the power of sin over his people. His solution was to lay aside some of his power and enter history as a human, not only so that he could identify with his image-bearers but so that we would be challenged to choose his authority as a matter of faith – not a blind faith, but a faith based upon recognizing God’s work289.

Clues and expectations. In the writings of Hebrew scripture there were clues, prophecies about a Redeemer that Yahweh would provide, a Redeemer that would be anointed by God, a Messiah, who would rescue people from sin and restore their relationship with Yahweh. In the following chart (see Prophecy Chart) you can see some of the many prophecies given about the Anointed One (Messiah) which created an air of expectation. It’s easier for us who are looking back to see how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. However, when he arrived, there were differing expectations about how those prophecies would be fulfilled.

283 2 Kings 17:6 284 2 Chronicles 36:17-24 285 Jeremiah 29:10 286 Ezra 1-2 287 Jeremiah 31:31-39 288 Isaiah 43 289 1 John 5:1-13


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Prophecy Chart

Prophecies of Jesus Old Testament Scripture New Testament Fulfillment

The Birth

come according to a timetable Daniel 9:24-27 Matthew 24:15-16; Mark 13:14-15;

Gal 4:4

be born of a woman. Genesis 3:15 Matthew 1:20; Galatians 4:4

be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-6

be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 1:22-23; Luke 1:26-31

Descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Genesis 12:3; 22:18; 17:19; 21:12

Numbers 24:17

Matthew 1:1,2; Romans 9:5; Luke

3:34;

come from the tribe of Judah. Genesis 49:10 Luke 3:33; Hebrews 7:14

be heir to King David's throne. 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 9:7 Luke 1:32-33; Romans 1:3

spend a season in Egypt. Hosea 11:1 Matthew 2:14-15

be called a Nazarene. Isaiah 11:1 Matthew 2:23

bring light to Galilee. Isaiah 9:1-2 Matthew 4:13-16

massacre of children would happen Jeremiah 31:15 Matthew 2:16-18

The Ministry

A messenger would prepare the way Isaiah 40:3-5 Luke 3:3-6

be rejected by his own people. Psalm 69:8; Isaiah 53:3 John 1:11; John 7:5

be a prophet. Deuteronomy 18:15 Acts 3:20-22

be declared the Son of God. Psalm 2:1-12 Matthew 3:16-17; Mark 1:11

Called himself the Son of Man Daniel 7:13-14 Matthew 9:6; 12:13:41

speak in parables. Psalm 78:2-4; Isaiah 6:9-10 Matthew 13:10-15, 34-35

be sent to heal the brokenhearted. Isaiah 61:1-2 Luke 4:17-21

be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm 110:4 Hebrews 5:5-6

be praised by little children. Psalm 8:2 Matthew 21:16

come riding on a donkey Zecheriah 9:9 Matthew 21:1-7

The Crucifixion

be rejected cornerstone Psalm 118:22-24 Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10-11

Suffering servant Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Matthew :1617; 20:28; 26:28; 27:59-

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be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver which would be

used to buy a potter’s field

Psalm 41:9; Zechariah 11:12-13 Luke 22:47-48; Matthew 26:14-16

Matthew 27:9-10

be falsely accused. Psalm 35:11 Mark 14:57-58

be silent before his accusers. Isaiah 53:7 Mark 15:4-5

Be a willing sacrifice Genesisa 22:1-18 John 3:16; Heb 11:17-19

be spat upon and struck. Isaiah 50:6 Matthew 26:67

be hated without cause. Psalm 35:19; Psalm 69:4 John 15:24-25

be crucified with criminals. Isaiah 53:12 Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27-28

be given vinegar to drink. Psalm 69:21 Matthew 27:34; John 19:28-30

hands and feet would be pierced. Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10 John 20:25-27

be mocked and ridiculed. Psalm 22:7-8 Luke 23:35

Soldiers would gamble for his garments. Psalm 22:18 Luke 23:34; Matthew 27:35-36

bones would not be broken. Exodus 12:46; Psalm 34:20 John 19:33-36

be forsaken by God. Psalm 22:1 Matthew 27:46

pray for his enemies. Psalm 109:4 Luke 23:34

Side would be pierced Zechariah 12:10; Psalm 22:1-31 John 19:34

be buried with the rich. Isaiah 53:9 Matthew 27:57-60

The Resurrection

be resurrected from the dead. Psalm 16:18-11; Psalm 49:15 Matthew 28:2-7; Acts 2:22-32

ascend to heaven. Psalm 24:7-10 Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51

be seated at God's right hand. Psalm 68:18; Psalm 110:1 Mark 16:19; Matthew 22:44

be a sacrifice for sin. Isaiah 53:5-12 Romans 5:6-8

bring in new covenant Jeremiah 31:31 Matthew 26:2, Mark 14:24; Hebrews

8:6-13


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What kind of Messiah? Some things never change. One thousand years previously the Israelites thought that their problem was that they didn’t have a king “like everybody else290” Once again, many now still thought that their problems were due to government and that what they needed was the kind of Messiah that would throw out the Roman government291. There were some other controversies swirling around but those controversies will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. Nevertheless, people were looking for a Messiah.

The Messiah comes

Luke 2: 29-32 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss[d] your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Personal, not political. When Jesus was born, Israel was a client province of the Roman Empire; far removed from their condition as an independent kingdom of David or Solomon. The current ruler, King Herod the Great, was installed by the Romans as the secular ruler of Israel while the Sanhedrin oversaw religious laws. That was the political situation. Most people thought that the Messiah would come and resolve their political problem and make the Romans go away. The real problem though, is that our main problem is not political, it’s personal, deeply personal. Jesus’ main solution then is personal and the way he arrived in the world was designed to address our personal problem.

John the baptizer. The precursor to Jesus coming was John the Baptist. John was born six months earlier than Jesus was to a couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. Like the couples Abraham and Sarah and Elkanah and Hannah before them, they were normally considered to be too elderly to have children. When Zechariah was told by the angel, Gabriel, about the coming birth of his son (who would be named John), Zechariah had trouble believing the message. The resulting discipline given to Zechariah was being unable to speak. This discipline was used to convince Zechariah and others about the miraculous nature of John’s birth292. John was sent in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare Israel for the ministry of Jesus. John’s preaching/baptizing ministry began before Jesus started his and continued until Herod the tetrarch arrested him293.

Joseph and Mary. Jesus was born to an apparently ordinary, non-descript couple, Joseph294 and Mary295. There was nothing outside the ordinary about Mary except that, unlike Zechariah, she believed and accepted the words of the angel, Gabriel, and the miracle was to come upon her. Joseph was only an ordinary tekton296 (stone mason or carpenter), but he also accepted the words of the angel and received Mary as his wife. The responsibility that this humble couple, Mary and Joseph, accepted was full of unknowns for this was no ordinary boy that they were supposed to raise. The unknown

290 1 Samuel 8:5 291 John 6:15. “John 6:15” Bible Study Tools <https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/john-6-15.html> accessed 4 Oct 2018 292 Luke 1:5-25 293 Luke 3:19-20 294 Matthew 1:18-25; 13:15 295 Luke 1:26-56 296 Galatty, Robby, “Was Jesus a Carpenter or a Stonemason?” The Christian Post 29 Apr 2017 <https://www.christianpost.com/news/jesus-carpenter-or-stonemason-181531/> accessed 4 Oct 2018

https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/john-6-15.html

https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/john-6-15.html

https://www.christianpost.com/news/jesus-carpenter-or-stonemason-181531/


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hardships they would endure included a trip from Galilee to Bethlehem while Mary was heavily pregnant, giving birth in a stable rather than a home297, and then a trip to Egypt where they stayed for an extended period298 while the life of Jesus was in danger from Herod. But outside those events, Mary and Joseph seemed to have ordinary lives as shown by the reaction they had when Jesus was accidentally left behind in Jerusalem299.

Simeon and Anna. Mary and Joseph did meet a couple of people that were ready for Jesus. When Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple to be dedicated, there were two people, Simeon and Anna that were waiting for the birth of the Messiah300.

Expectant Magi and the non-expectant king. Some people east of Jerusalem were also waiting for the Messiah. Perhaps because they were aware of the writings of Daniel, Magi had hearts that were open to God and invested time and money to travel to Jerusalem looking for this newborn “king of the Jews.” However, when they arrived in Jerusalem, no one there was ready for this news. While the chief priests and teachers of the law could belatedly figure out that the birth was supposed to happen in Bethlehem, they obviously had not been looking for the Messiah. Then Herod, who was threatened by what he thought was a rival king, could not accept the perceived rivalry for the throne and put out an order kill innocent babies to eliminate the potential rival301.

Immanuel. When we look past the angelic announcements of Jesus’ birth and the visit by the magi, there is a human ordinariness of Jesus humble birth experience in a stable and then his life on earth growing up. That ordinariness belied the incomprehensible idea that the one who created the universe could inhabit a human embryo then go through normal biological growth processes to become a human boy and then an adult. These are things we must accept by faith. Having accepted that, it is that reality that allows us to see how the Creator of the universe could identify closely with us as he could have real human experiences of hunger302, thirst303, tiredness, etc.

Inaugurating the ministry

Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

The Kingdom is near again. There was a common message that John preached and that Jesus preached after John was arrested, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near304.” The kingdom of heaven once overlapped the earth within the Garden of Eden and then again on the mercy seat within the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle (see footnotes 6? and 7?). That time we had limited access because of our sin. Before the temple was built to replace the tabernacle, there was a period during David’s reign when the ark was not kept in Moses’ tabernacle but in Jerusalem where everyone had access. When the temple was built, the ark was placed inside the Holy of Holies once

297 Luke 2:1-7 298 Matthew 2:13-18 299 Luke 2:41-51 300 Luke 2:22-40 301 Matthew 2:1-12 302 Matthew 21:18 303 John 4:4-7 304 Matthew 3:1-2; 4:12-17;


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again, and again, only the high priest had could have access. But now the kingdom of heaven was present within Jesus305, and as with David’s tabernacle, everyone would have access again.

Baptism, Anointing Temptation. Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated when John baptized Jesus. When Jesus submitted to the baptism in order to “fulfill all righteousness,” Jesus testified that John’s baptism by water was ordained from heaven. The Spirit then affirmed Jesus ministry by coming down and anointing Jesus306. The baptism was at once followed by the Spirit leading Jesus to the desert where Jesus fasted for 40 days and then submitted to being tempted by the devil. Like David, Jesus responded to the temptations by waiting for the Father. In the first temptation, Jesus waited for the Father to feed him instead of trying to satisfy his need without finding the will of God. In the second temptation, Jesus trusted God but not testing God by foolishly putting himself in danger. In the third temptation, Jesus refused to worship and serve anybody but Yahweh. In all these cases, Jesus confirmed scripture as the word of God by using scripture to refute the devil.

The kingdom arrives

Luke 4:32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

Kingdom in a person. When Jesus broke into history, we no longer see the kingdom of God overlapping the earth in a place as in the Garden of Eden or the Holy of Holies. This time the kingdom of God has entered by a person. Yahweh was now present in the world in the person of Jesus307 who was anointed with the power of the Spirit308. His goal is to by that same Spirit entering our lives to invade the earth with his kingdom309.

Kingdom power and authority. Even though that power was evident in the teachings alone310 that power was testified to by the demonstration of healings and casting out of spirits that not only Jesus did311 but his disciples as well312. Although, even some Gentiles recognized that power and authority in Jesus313 some the chief priests and elders did not want to recognize it themselves314. Just before he ascended to heaven, when Jesus commissioned his disciples to carry on his work, he made it clear that he was doing so because he held all authority in heaven and earth315. Then, in the end after all the enemies have Christ have met their final defeat, when Jesus sits on the throne with the Father, Jesus will hand over all the kingdom to the Father316.

305 Jesus, the Lamb of God In the gospel of John, we see that God became human in Jesus and made his dwelling among us. The Bible Project <https://thebibleproject.com/explore/heaven-earth/> accessed 4 Oct 2018 306 “Mathew 3:13” Bible Hub <https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/3-13.htm> accessed 4 Oct 2018 307 John 14:9 308 Luke 4:14; Acts 10:38 309 “God’s kingdom” in the preaching of Jesus refers not to postmortem destiny, not to our escape from this world into another one, but to God’s sovereign rule coming “on earth as it is in heaven.” Wright, N.T.. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (p 19.). Harper Collins. Kindle Edition 310 Luke 4:32 311 Luke 4:33-36; Matthew 9:6 312 Luke 9:1-6; John 17:2 313 Luke 7:1-10 314 Luke 5:21; 6:6-7; 7:29-30, 39, 49 and others 315 Matthew 28:18 316 1 Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 11:15


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Kingdom questions. When they did ask Jesus about the source of his authority, Jesus challenged back them with a question about where they thought the baptism of John, “Was it from heaven or earth317?” That was only one of many times when Jesus would answer questions with questions318. Jesus’ questions were not to gather information for himself but for other reasons. Very often Jesus used question to answer questions to force the questioners deal with the most important issue, their own hearts and motivations319. Often the questions being asked cover-up the actual reasons that the questions are being asked. Jesus even sometimes asked if people really wanted to be healed; we know that sometimes people don’t like change or to take up new responsibilities.

Kingdom parables. Jesus taught the crowds about the values of the kingdom and the attitude of those in the kingdom by using parables. Many things about the kingdom were quite different from conventional values – they sometimes seemed to be upside-down320. Parables used everyday metaphors and examples that could be understood by those whose hearts are open321. However, those whose hearts are not open cannot understand the parables322. [This is like the testimony of those who look at creation: those whose hearts are open can look at creation and see the handiwork of God, but others, whose hearts are not open will not see the handiwork of God – yet no one will have excuse323.]

Inheriting the Kingdom. The beatitudes are not a parable but rather describe the type of people who are in the kingdom of heaven (first and last beatitudes) and the blessings that they shall obtain324. The poor in spirit are those who see themselves powerless, helpless in themselves and unworthy regarding Yahweh325; they know that they may be loved by God, but they are broken and not worthy of that love. Those who mourn can be those who mourn for their sin, for loss, injustice, etc326. The meek are those who trust in the Lord are will wait for the Lord even in the face of opposition327. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are those who want justice as much as they do food and

317 Matthew 21:23-27 318 Zondervan, “173 Questions Jesus Asked” <http://rivwarehouse.com/resources/messages/underthecushions/173questionsjesusasked.pdf> accessed 4 Oct 2018 319 Arch, David “Ask Questions Like the Master Teacher” Christianity Today <https://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/churchhomeleadership/040602.htm>l accessed 4 Oct 2018 320 <https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/pnt/pnt06.cfm> 321 Blue Letter Bible “Our Lord’s Parables” <http://www.dailywordofgodgroup.com/why-jesus-taught-in-parables.htm> accessed 4 Oct 2018; Edersheim, Alfred. “Why did Jesus teach in Parables?” Christianity Today <https://www.christianity.com/jesus/life-of-jesus/parables/why-did-jesus-teach-in-parables.html> accessed 4 Oct 2018 322 Matthew 13:11-17 323 Romans 1:18-21 324 Matthew 5:1-12; Piper, John. “The Beatutudes and the Gospel of the Kingdom” Desiring God 26 Jan 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-beatitudes-and-the-gospel-of-the-kingdom accessed 4 Oct 2018; Kauffman, Richrd A. “Blessed are those who mourn” Christianity Today 17 July 2007 <https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/22.50.htm>l accessed 4 Oct 2018 325 Piper, John. “Blessed are the Poo in Spirit who Mourn” Desiring God 2 February 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit-who-mourn>accessed 4 Oct 2018 326 Bible Hub “Matthew 5:3” <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit-who-mourn accessed 4 Oct 2018 327 Piper, John “Blessed are the meek” Desiring God 9 Feb 1989 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-meek> accessed 4 Oct 2018

http://rivwarehouse.com/resources/messages/underthecushions/173questionsjesusasked.pdf

https://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/churchhomeleadership/040602.html

https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/pnt/pnt06.cfm

http://www.dailywordofgodgroup.com/why-jesus-taught-in-parables.htm

https://www.christianity.com/jesus/life-of-jesus/parables/why-did-jesus-teach-in-parables.html

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-beatitudes-and-the-gospel-of-the-kingdom

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/22.50.html

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https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit-who-mourn

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-meek

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are willing to take action for it328. The merciful are those who respond to the mercy shown them by God by showing mercy to those who need it329. The pure in heart are those who stay away from deceit and want the glory of God330. The peacemakers are those who pray for and pursue peace even for those who persecute you331. Those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are those who are persecuted because of their pursuit of righteousness but not because they were not merciful or not poor in spirit332. The beatitudes show the rewards, the blessings, for all those types of people: they shall be rewarded with the kingdom of heaven and comfort and mercy where there is shalom (peace, wholeness, and well-being).

Kingdom for children. No one enters the kingdom of God by their own merit, it is strictly only by family ties. Children only. Only those who are born-again333, that is born into the family of God are eligible to inherit the kingdom of God. The beatitudes describe the kind of children that one should find in the kingdom334. Jesus reinforces this again when answering the question about who is greatest in the kingdom of God. Furthermore, Jesus cautions the adults in this world that not only should they become like children but that they should not cause problems for the children in this world335 and, in fact, Jesus specifically welcomes children336.

Kingdom mission.

When Jesus began his ministry, he quoted from the book of Isaiah to declare how he had come to fulfill that prophecy337. Then there were many times throughout his ministry when he declared the reason he had come.

• Find the lost. Left to our own resources, we cannot correct our relationship to

Yahweh; we cannot find our way back to a good relationship with him. We are

lost to sin and unable to find our way back to Yahweh, the good shepherd338.

• Restore relationships. Jesus can give us the gift of faith and repentance and

the gift of His Spirit and restore our relationship to him339 and to each other340. He

wants us to know that the only way to restore our relationships is to go through

him341.

328 Piper, John “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” Desiring God 16 Feb 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-those-who-hunger-and-thirst-for-righteousness> accessed 4 Oct 2018 329 Piper, John, “Blessed are the Merciful” Desiring God 23 Feb 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-merciful> accessed 4 Oct 2018 330 Piper, John, “Blessed are the Pure in Heart” Desiring God 2 Mar 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart> accessed 4 Oct 2018 331 Piper, John, “Blessed are the Peacemakers” Desiring God 9 Mar 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-peacemakers> accessed 4 Oct 2018 332 Piper, John, “Blessed are the Persecuted” Desiring God 16 Mar 1986 <https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-persecuted> accessed 4 Oct 2018 333 John 3:1-8 334 Matthew 5:1-12 335 Matthew 18:1-9 336 Matthew 19:13-14 337 Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19; Matthew 10:8 338 John 10:11-18; Matt 2:10 339 Luke 19:10 340 Matthew 5:24 341 John 14:6

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-those-who-hunger-and-thirst-for-righteousness

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-merciful

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-peacemakers

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-persecuted


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• Restore shalom. Jesus came to make us whole, to experience shalom.

Physical healings of various sorts, even leprosy and blindness were often

accompanied by offering forgiveness for sin342 or admonitions to turn away from

sin343. Demons can cause some sicknesses and he can free us from these as

well344.

• Resurrection. Jesus resurrected the dead to life345 in anticipation of not only his

own resurrection but ours as well346. His desire was not only that we would live,

but live abundant lives347.

• Riches of the kingdom. There is good news for the poor in money and the poor

in spirit; the good news is that Jesus cares for the poor and they have access to

the riches of the kingdom of God348.

• Freedom from oppression. Besides being incarcerated in prison, there are

many other things that oppress people: a few are demons, wealth and power,

tradition, drugs and alcohol, pornography; Jesus can meet us all amid those

bondages and provide hope and healing349.

• Restore sight to the blind. Jesus can supply sight for those who are physically

or spiritually blind350. Jesus came to open our spiritual eyes so that we can see

the truth about ourselves, our world and about him351.

• Freedom from sin. The year of the Lord’s favor refers back to the Year of

Jubilee when debts were cancelled and slaves were set free, and refers forward

to the time when debts for sin will be cancelled and those in bondage to sin will

be set free352.

• Righteousness and Justice. Jesus came to help those who knew they had no

righteousness in themselves to accept his righteousness which he fulfilled on our

behalf353.

• Mercy. Jesus offers us his mercy and he wants that those who received his

mercy to likewise go show mercy to others354.

• Comfort. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one or other types of loss, Jesus offers

his comfort.

Kingdom expands. Jesus did not travel far. He spent most of the time in the area around Jerusalem and around Galilee. His focus was on teaching and serving the Jews. However, there were a few occasions when Jesus did interact with the Gentiles, and

342 Matthew 9:6 343 John 5:14 344 Matthew 8:28-34 345 John 11:1-54 346 John 2:22 347 John 10:10 348 Isaiah 61:1; James 2:5; Matthew 6:2 349 Isaiah 61:1 350 John 9:27-31 351 Luke 6:31-42; John 12:44-46 352 Isaiah 61:2 353 Matthew 3:15; 5:2 354 Matthew 9:13


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those occasions showed that the Gentiles were capable of great faith. There was a case of a centurion who recognized the authority that Jesus had. The centurion did not ask Jesus to come to his household to heal his child, but rather asked Jesus to heal his daughter from wherever Jesus was355. In another case, Jesus had gone to Tyre, and there a Syrophoenician woman who, knowing Jesus ministered mainly to the Jews, still asked for Jesus to cure her daughter with the humble attitude that “even dogs eat the children’s crumbs356.”

355 Matthew 8:5-13 356 Matthew 7:24-30


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Chapter 6 – Culture wars

[NOTE: This chapter will most likely to be subject to change when future chapters on modern day parallels are written.]

Intertestament Overview

In order to understand the cultural climate during the time of Jesus and to understand the various groups that Jesus interacted with, such as the Pharisees and Sadducees, we need to look at the history of what happened between the Old and the New Testaments.

The history of the Old Testament ends with:

• ASSYRIAN EMPIRE: The Northern 10 tribes were conquered by the Assyrians

(722BC). Most of the Northern tribes were scattered throughout the Assyrian

empire never to be heard from again in history, but some of the poorest were left

behind. The Assyrians then brought in some of their own tribes to rule the area

and to dilute the culture of the conquered tribes which happened when the

remaining Israelites intermarried with the Assyrians.

• BABYLONIAN EMPIRE: The Babylonian Empire then overtook the Assyrian

empire and then conquered the Southern 2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin, and, in a

couple of waves, took the best and brightest of those tribes into captivity in

605BC357 and then in 586BC358. It was at this time that the Israelites, now

predominately from the tribe of Judah, were called Jews.

• PERSIAN EMPIRE: In 537BC359, the Persian empire then overtook the

Babylonian empire and allowed the exiled Jews to return. After being settled in

for many years, most of the Jews decided to stay in Babylonia but some did

return. Since that time, the majority of Jews have lived outside their homeland.

o Many of the returning Jews intermarried with the Samaritans and others.

For the Jews, the Samaritans who had intermarried with the Assyrians

were not considered to be Jews.

o The temple, now called the second temple, was rebuilt between 586-

515BC. The second temple was not built in a grand a fashion as the

temple Solomon built. Neither did the Glory of the Lord enter the second

temple as it did in the Tabernacle or in Solomon’s temple.

o In 430BC Nehemiah and Malachi were the last books written for the

Hebrew scriptures.

There was more clashing of empires between then and when Jesus came.

• GREEK EMPIRE: The Greeks, under Alexander the Great, start their empire

building in 336BC, capturing Israel in 332BC. Alexander tried to export Greek

language and culture (known as Hellenism) onto conquered territories. When

357 Daniel 1 358 2 Kings 25 359 Ezra 1


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Alexander died in 323BC the Greek empire was split up under 4 of his generals.

Israel is caught in a tug-of-war between 2 of the generals:

o PTOLEMAIC EMPIRE: Ptolemy in Egypt first ruled over the Jews in

308BC. The Ptolemaic kings, in an effort to build up their library in Egypt,

commissioned a translation of the Hebrew texts (including Hebrew

scriptures) in Greek– this translation, done around 250BC is known as the

Septuagint360.

o SELUCID EMPIRE: In 195BC, Seleucus ruled over Israel. When the

Seleucids ruled over the Jews, they began a campaign to force Hellenism

onto the Jews and consequently trying to eliminate the Jewish culture.

This eventually escalated onto desecrating the Jewish temple and then

trying to force the Jewish leaders to participate by slaughtering pigs on the

altar.

• HASMONEAN KINGDOM: This caused a rebellion in 166BC begun by

Mattathias the Hasmonean when he killed the Jew who was going to perform the

sacrifice and then killed the official directing the sacrifice. Mattathias then fled

into the wilderness with his family and began a rebellion which was, in 142BC

ultimately successful in overcoming the Seleucids and establishing an

independent Jewish kingdom.

• ROMAN EMPIRE: General Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63BC. The Roman

Empire continued to use Greek as the international language but did allow local

cultures to persist as long as they did not oppose Roman rule.

o The Hasmoneans were originally allowed to rule under the protection of

Rome

o The Hasmonean dynasty was ended when King Herod (the Great) was

installed in 40BC who began many building projects including the

rebuilding of the Temple, which began to be built in 18BC and was not

completed until after the reign of Herod the Great until AD63

Jewish and other sects in the Time of Jesus

By the time Jesus entered history, several different types of groups had emerged among the Jews. Since it is usually the victors that write and preserve their own version of history, there tends not to be much material about non-victor groups that survives for us to look at. Even though there is not a lot of detailed historical evidence to document just how these different groups emerged, we can examine the types of responses each group had to the changes occurring around them. Many of the responses within the Jewish sects will be seen again when, later on, we look into the development of Christian sects.

Essenes

360 https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/ryan-reeves/what-is-the-septuagint/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/ryan-reeves/what-is-the-septuagint/


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The origin of the Essenes is somewhat mysterious and were largely unknown until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes were a sect that isolated themselves in the desert and maintained minimal contact with outsiders. They are possibly an offshoot of the “Hasideans,” the pious ones, mentioned in 1 Maccabees. They considered the temple and its practices to be corrupted and then considered themselves to be the ‘chosen ones’ who would be saved at the end times. They lived communally and celibately and had a 3-year probationary process before accepting new members. There are unproven speculations that John the Baptist and Jesus were affiliated with the Essenes.

Although there is no direct evidence of Jesus interacting with the Essenes, the criticisms that Jesus raised against the Pharisees were similar to the criticisms that the Essenes had. Later on, as we examine the practices of the early church, we will also see parallels to the Essenes. Jesus’ followers and the Essenes anticipated an eschatological restoration of Israel, and both groups also believed in the necessity of national purification.

Gentiles

Matthew 4:15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles

The term refers to anyone who is not Jewish. When we think of Jesus’ interactions with the Gentiles, we primarily think of their role during Jesus’ trial and execution, but there were a couple of instances of Gentile displaying great faith. Jesus had high praise for the faith of a Roman centurion when the centurion trusted the Jesus to heal his servant while Jesus was still a distance away. In another case, a Canaanite woman persisted in seeking Jesus’ healing for her demon oppressed daughter361. Even though Jesus’ reminded her of his mission to ‘the lost sheep of Israel’ she still pressed the issue by insisting that even dogs eat the crumbs from the master’s table362. This was in addition to all the Gentiles who came along with all the Jews to also listen to him and to be healed363.

Herodians

Mark 3:6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill

Jesus.

The Herodians were a political party, likely associated with the Sadducees in their support of King Herod. However, they were known to have joined forces with the Pharisees in trying to entrap Jesus364.

Lost Sheep of Israel

Matthew 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

361 Matt 8:5-13 362 Matt 15:21-28 363 Luke 6:17-19 364 Mark 3:6; 12:13; 8:15

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+3:6&version=NIV


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In the Old Testament, the term ‘lost sheep’ initially referred to all of Israel. After the division of the kingdom, the term ‘lost sheep’ referred to the northern tribes of Israel. In the New Testament, Jesus uses the term, ‘lost sheep of Israel,’ to distinguish the people to whom his ministry would focus on. When Jesus used the term ‘lost sheep of Israel’ it is to specify that Jesus only intended, at that time, to serve the Jews in Israel, not to the Gentiles, not to the Samaritans and not to Jews that are in other countries.

Jesus’ ministry focused his efforts on the ‘lost sheep of Israel.’ These people were the ones who knew they needed help, needed rescuing from their situation. They were aware of their need for healing, wholeness and love. They were the sinners, tax-collectors, harlots, and backslidden365. They found in Jesus one who loved them and did not reject them when acknowledged their needs.

Pharisees

Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Pharisees developed out of the scribes who were copying the writings of Moses and in doing so were concerned with knowledge of the law, as well the writing of the prophets who came after Moses and the traditions of elders (rabbis). They were also concerned with how to interpret the law to make applicable to everyday life and there were many teachers of the law who wrote commentaries on the law, and the Pharisees also studied these commentaries. The people identified as rabbis came from this group.

The Pharisees became more identified with the everyday people as opposed to the Sadducees who were identified with the wealthy ruling class. It is not known exactly when the Pharisees were identified as a group but may have happened as their opposition to the teachings of the Sadducees developed.

Jesus had a lot of interactions with the Pharisees, most of what is recorded in scripture is confrontational, but the dynamics were more nuanced and could be misunderstood. By the times of Jesus, there were two main schools rabbinic thought: the rigorist school of thought, led by Shammai the Elder, was rigorist in insisting on getting every detail right, particularly in the area of cleanliness, and was beyond the possibility of normal Jews to live out; the humanist school of thought, led by Hillel, was more intent on getting the spirit of the law right and was therefore within the realm of normal Jews366. Another nuance had to do with the normal culture of conflict within Judaism (after all, ‘Israel’ means ‘wrestles with God’). It would have been normal for the scribes and Pharisees to question this new teacher, Jesus, and ‘test his knowledge to see if knew what he was talking about’367. The question would be about the intention of ‘testing’ Jesus; was the testing done so as to gain understanding or was the testing done to try to discredit Jesus. We shouldn’t forget the time that some Pharisees warned Jesus about Herod’s plot to kill him368.

365 Matthew 9:13 366 Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews. Harper Perennial.1987 (p 127) 367 http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201501/201501_020_jesus_and_pharisees.cfm 368 Luke 13:31

http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201501/201501_020_jesus_and_pharisees.cfm


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Sadducees

Mark 12:18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.

The Sadducees were priests who based their legitimacy on their descendance to Zadok, a priest who lived at the time of King David369. It was the Zadokite line of priests that emigrated back to Jerusalem when Persians allowed the Israelites to return from captivity370. They were intent on holding onto their power which came through the ministry of the temple. Similar to the Samaritans, the Sadducees regard only the writings of Moses to be scripture and they interpreted them very literally.

The corrupting influence of power caused them to cooperate with the Greeks when Israel became a client kingdom of the Greek empire. Although Pharisees were also on the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees became the prominent group controlling the Sanhedrin notably during the Greek and Roman occupation

Because the Sadducees only included the books of Moses in the scripture, they did not develop any beliefs in the resurrection, which caused conflicts with the Pharisees both with Jesus and the Pharisees. The interactions that are recorded are all confrontational. There is an obvious tension between Jesus and the Sadducees. Jesus came to undergo death and resurrection and to eliminate the need for continual temple sacrifices, but the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection and their status was dependent on the continuation of the temple sacrifices. In contrast to the poor and needy ‘lost sheep of Israel,’ the Sadducees were the rich upper class. The Sadducees disappear from history upon the destruction of the temple by the Romans in AD70.

Samaritans

John 4:22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

The Samaritans did not become identified as a distinct group in the Northern Kingdom until the Assyrians exiled most of Northern Kingdom and the identity of the 10 northern tribes disappeared. Considered to be impure, the Samaritans were rejected as foreigners by the Jews returning from captivity in Babylon.

In response to being rejected by the main body of the Jews, around 400BC the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim near Shechem, the place where the tabernacle was placed after Israel entered the Promised Land. The Samaritans consider only the Torah, the 5 books of Moses, to be scripture, rejecting the writings and prophets that the Pharisees incorporated into their scripture.

The Jews rejected the Samaritans because they were impure, they had intermarried with new-Jewish peoples. This isolated the Samaritans who wanted to cling to the teachings of Moses but then consequently rejecting the further developments in the writings of the Jews and then developing their own customs, even claiming that their priests were the true descendants of the Levitical priesthood. Because of their close-knit

369 2 Samuel 8:15-18 370 Ezra 7


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community and their isolation, there is still a small community of Samaritans in existence today worshipping on Mt Gerizim.

Although Jesus specified that he was sent ‘only to the lost sheep of Israel,’ he did interact a few times with others, Samaritans and Gentiles.

Samaritans and Jews normally avoided each other as they looked down on each other. When Jesus sent out the 12 apostles on an outreach mission, he specifically told them to avoid the Jews and Gentiles (Matt 10:15). Near the end of his earthly ministry as headed from Galilee, through Samaria to Jerusalem, Samaritans rebuffed his messengers (Luke 9:51-55). And yet on one trip from Jerusalem to Galilee he had an encounter with a Samaritan woman who was trying to draw water in the middle of the day and ended up spending two days in town (John 4:1-43). Another time the barrier also seemed to disappear when Jesus healed 10 lepers and only the Samaritan leper came back to thank Jesus (Luke 17:11-19). Then, although it was just in the form of a parable about loving neighbors, Jesus chose to show that it was a Samaritan who demonstrated love of neighbor (Luke 10:25-37).

Sanhedrin

Matthew 26:59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.

The Sanhedrin served as a court for the Jewish nation. The beginnings can be traced to the 70 leaders the Moses selected to help him lead the Israelites. This council eventually developed into Great Sanhedrin who ruled over the all Jews with the Lesser Sanhedrin, councils of 23 judges, who ruled over the individual towns. The last Sanhedrin met in AD358 when it was dissolved by the Byzantine emperor. There have been various attempts to restart it since the 1530’s but they have not been successful.

Scribes

Jeremiah 8:8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?

The scribes were trained in writing legal documents, deeds and copying scriptures and they sometimes acted as interpreters and teachers of the Law. Sometimes they were referred to lawyers. Although at times they opposed Jesus371 there were times when they were neutral372, or even praised by Jesus373.

Zealots

Luke 6:15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot,

The Zealots were also known as Galileans because of the region in which they were concentrated and, also the founder of the group was Judas the Galilean. The Zealots were a messianic group and would only identify God as king, they would not accept any

371 Mark 11:27 372 Matt 13:52 373 Mark 12:28-34


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foreign rulers, in this particular case, the Romans374. Idealogically, the zealots agreed on many points with the Pharisees, except for their refusal to accept foreign rulers. The more militant faction of the Zealots was known as the Sicarii (daggers) because of their use of assassination375.

One of Jesus’ twelve disciples was identified as Simon the Zealot. As a Zealot, Simon would have been looking for a ruler who would come from God that would displace the Romans. Since Jesus’ message was about the Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven), that would have been attractive to Simon.

Cultural Issues:

The Jewish culture in Israel had no less diversity than we do today376. In this chapter we have identified various cultural groups in Israel with their basic distinctives but, in addition to the diversity of viewpoints held within each of the groups, there were many people who likely could identify with more than one group. Listed below are some of the cultural issues that were present then and are still present today.

Progressives vs. conservatives

The progressives (globalists) are identified with the cities and the conservatives (nationalists) with the rural areas: The first century cities in Israel were more strongly identified with the Hellenistic culture of the empire while the rural areas were more identified with the national Jewish culture.

Effects of wealth and power

The Sadduccees377 were more identified with the rich and the politically powerful. The Pharisees were more identified with the lower and middle class and thus were more popular.

Apocalypticism

The Essenes378 were waiting for the Messiah to come and wipe out secular governments. Contrasted to the zealots, and some of the Pharisees, who were trying to push out the Romans and put a new government in place.

For or against the secular culture

The Sadducees were trying to blend in with the culture of the empire while the Pharisees were trying to hold fast to the rules specified by Moses379.

374 Maros, Juan and Gutierrez, Bejarano. Yaron Publishing 2018. The Judaisms of Jesus’ Followers: An Introduction to Early Christianity in its Jewish Context. Location 863-913 375 https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/sicarii-jewish-daggermen-thirst-roman-blood-008179 376 The Judaisms of Jesus’ Followers: An introduction to Early Christianity in its Jewish Context, Copyright © 2018 by Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez. Yaron Publisher. Kindle Edition. Locations: 187, 741, 1914, 2560 377 The World of Jesus: First Century Judaism in Crisis, John Riches, Cambridge University Press 1990 pp.59-60 378 History of the Jews, Paul Johnson, Harper Perennial, 1987 p.123 379 The Judaisms of Jesus’ Followers: An introduction to Early Christianity in its Jewish Context, Copyright © 2018 by Juan Marcos

Bejarano Gutierrez. Yaron Publisher. Kindle Edition. Locations: 738, 929

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/sicarii-jewish-daggermen-thirst-roman-blood-008179


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Communal, ascetic lifestyle

The Essenes had established a strong, isolated community where all the property was held in common380.

Legalism

The Torah was heart of all the Jewish traditions381. The Pharisees were most dogmatic about adhering to it, using the oral law to provide much of the detail on how go live out the law on a day-to-day basis. The desire was so strong that many Pharisees even kept apart even from other Jews in order to avoid contamination. The Essenes lived in isolated communities because they were even more concerned about getting contaminated.

Originalism vs. Living interpretation

In contrast to the Pharisees, both the Essenes and the Sadducees rejected the oral law382, instead insisting that only that the books written by Moses were valid.

Taxation and Representation

The government in Rome set up a taxation system like all other governments in those days, the burden imposed by the taxes on the people was not a consideration. Furthermore, tax collection that was done on behalf of the Roman government was handled by people that were often unscrupulous. When challenged about whether to pay those taxes, Jesus did not directly challenge the right of the government to collect taxes, but he did leave a tension about giving to God what belongs to him – which would include all of what we have383.

The temple tax was established by Moses as a way of paying for the upkeep of the Tabernacle and then the Temple384. When challenged to pay the taxes by representatives of the temple385, Jesus had a conversation with Peter which implied, that as children of God, they did not need to pay the taxes. Yet, so as not to cause offense, Jesus arranged to pay the taxes for Peter and himself anyway.

380 Gutierrez, Juan Marcos Bejarano, Forgotten Origins: The Lost Jewish History of Jesus and Early Christianity, 2017. Location 2343 381 The Judaisms of Jesus’ Followers: An introduction to Early Christianity in its Jewish Context, Copyright © 2018 by Juan Marcos

Bejarano Gutierrez. Yaron Publisher. Kindle Edition. Locations: 366 382 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2056/jewish/The-Oral-Law.htm 383 Matthew 22:15-22 384 https://opentheword.org/2016/09/16/why-did-jesus-pay-the-temple-tax/ 385 Matthew 17:24-27

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2056/jewish/The-Oral-Law.htm

https://opentheword.org/2016/09/16/why-did-jesus-pay-the-temple-tax/

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