Gadfly's Muse

Revelation 13: A Beastly Sight Indeed!

Image: "Desolation", 2021, roadside view, vicinity of Red Rock Lake, Lima, MT

Revelation 13:1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

Revelation 13:4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

Revelation 13:7–8 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Revelation 13:11–12 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

Revelation 13:17–18 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

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If anything should set us back on our heels and make us consider the Lord saying: "I told you so", it is the beasts in this chapter when properly understood.

Here we have the "spirit of the Anti-Christ" manifested in its full, demonic, spiritual, reality.  

There are two beasts with the first being the powerful incarnation of human government organized and dedicated to the task of proving to the world that it, not Jesus Christ, is humanity's true messiah.  The second beast is the first beast's henchman, its "prophet", whose purpose is to proclaim the "gospel" of the first beast's messianic reality and to call people to worship that beast and not the true Christ.  We can think of it as the "propaganda arm" of the first beast and its number is "666" which is the number of man. (vs. 18)  Here we see man-centered religion, false humanism, that points us away from the truth of God and His Christ and substitutes a false hope and a false "salvation" centered on man's autonomous claim to exercising world dominion through godless government.

The first beast clearly and consciously presents itself in terms that the Revelation uses to describe Christ.  Like Jesus, it wears "crowns" of rule over the earth. (cf. vs. 1 & Rev. 19:12)  It claims to have been "mortally wounded" and yet lives, imply resurrection from the dead. (cf. vs. 3 & rev. 2:8).  It was given to him to have "authority... over every tribe, tongue, and nation", clearly a worldwide dominion that is reserved for Christ alone. (cf. vs. 7 & Rev. 5:9).  

In every particular, the first beast demands to be viewed as the true Messiah, the true "christ" for human beings.  We may see the entire claim to a resurrection from the dead as the way that, though Jesus dealt the fatal blow to Satan and his empire in His earthly life, yet God, in His providence, has allowed human governments to "rise up from the ashes" throughout history (the sea - vs. 1) to again claim, in their various forms, that they are to be worshiped rather than Christ.

The second beast is Satan's answer to the true Church of Jesus Christ.  Here we have the false prophets and priests of human-based religion serving their "master", the first beast, and, behind him, the dragon who gives him power and authority. (vs. 2)  Like Christ Himself, this second beast calls for disciples of the first beast to receive a mark on their "right hand or on their forehead", thus distinguishing them as its "elect" and heirs of its promised "blessings."  

This second beast is the powerful collaboration of society-wide intellectuals, Christ-denying religious figures, and political forces that proclaim that "grace" and "peace" come through man's progress in self-government, technical achievements, and philosophy.  Here we have the "apologists" that preach a brand of "freedom" that is really a cloak for slavery.  The power of the first beast is enormous.  It controls the economy and the power of money to buy allegiance.  It legislates immorality and calls "evil good."  At every point, this second beast preys on ignorance and superstition.  Only by true "wisdom" (vs. 18) can the people of God offset its teaching and call people to worship the one true Christ and to join with the elect from every nation in not succumbing to the false prophet's teachings.

Who can view our nation and our world today and not see these beasts at work among us?  The solemn truth is that their great power is the instrument through which the dragon's rage is directed toward Christ and His people.  We should note, with honest apprehension, that God tells us that those who do not worship the beast "to be killed." (vs. 15)  It is not a pleasant prospect but it makes sense as we see the open denunciation of Christian teaching laying the foundation for even more outright persecution.

But, we must never despair, the Revelation teaches us that Christ will have victory over every resurrection of the beast and that His people, sustained by His Holy Spirit, will indeed see that victory and rejoice.  Here is "the patience and the faith of the saints." (vs. 10)

 

 

Hebrews 3: But We Have Today!

Image: "Tidal Bore", 2013, Vicinity of St. Johns, Newfoundland, Ca 

Hebrews 3:5–6  And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Hebrews 3:7–8  Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,

Hebrews 3:12–14 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,

Hebrews 3:18–19  And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

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The Bay of Fundy has the largest tidal variation in the world.  Boats moored to a dock will ride easily abreast it at high tide only to rest on the ground at low tide.  Not only that but the tide will have receded as much as a quarter of a mile from the dock.  And when it comes in it arrives with a rush.  

This tidal variation creates an interesting phenomenon called a "tidal bore."  Rivers that normally flow to the sea during low tide will have a reverse flow as the incoming tide races toward its zenith.  In the image above you see the incoming tide crashing against the flowing river as the reverse flow begins.  

There's a tidal "rhythm" in history also.  God does something wonderful and for a period history "flows" in a healthy and beneficial manner for the people of God.  Then sin begins to "come back."  During this phase, even the people of God can crash against God's purposes and even reverse course.  God lets this go for a while and then He fixes it.  He brings judgment or does another great work and the cycle begins again.

The ebb and flow of human events are registered in belief vs unbelief.  

In this chapter, the writer speaks to this phenomenon.  God has done something wonderful!  He has provided us with an "Apostle and High Priest", Christ Jesus, "who was faithful" in all things. (vs. 1,2)  Thus God is reversing the "flow" of "belief/unbelief" again, only this time in a superlative manner.  The writer draws a contrast with a previous era when God did something similar, the time of Moses, and draws a parallel and contrast between now and then.  God's sending of Jesus is so much more wonderful than His work with Moses.  Moses was a "house steward" in God's kingdom, the most important "servant" in the household, but a "servant" never-the-less.  This time God has sent His Son who is the Heir of God's House.  The House and all in it are His possession.  Thus Moses was not even remotely in the same league as Jesus. (vs. 5-6)

But, we are warned, the ebb and flow have not been eliminated.  Even as happened in the day of Moses, as spectacular as God's works were then, man's sin "crashed into" the witness of God's works.  Unbelief is beaten down for a moment but then begins to reassert itself.  The writer is here concerned to tell us that we must not only be aware of this tidal shift but we must consciously and diligently guard against it.  We will prove to be the "house" of God if we "hold fast... firm to the end."

The crucially important teaching here is that the reverse flow of sin, pushing against the great works of God, is inevitable but so is the corollary.  God will again act, at some point, to reassert Himself over and against man's sin.  This is also inevitable.  It is as predictable as the Fundy Bay tides themselves.

So, this period of time we are in, called "today" in this chapter, must be understood very clearly.  Christians must see the parallel between our time and Moses' time.  Then, God's people "hardened" their hearts and as a result, virtually their entire generation died in the desert of ignominy. They did not "believe."  They went "astray in their heart". (vs. 10)  You see, unbelief is a lifestyle... it is a flow of human events.  It is not a matter of philosophical agreement with certain propositional truths, it is belief registered in action, in willing, heart-felt obedience to a living God who owns the "House" which we are.

If the people of God, of all the world's people, fail to grasp the seriousness of this truth then unbelief will enter in, and, like the rest of the world, they will run head-on into the coming "correction" God will bring.  However, this next "correction" will not begin another cycle as it did with Moses.  There can be no greater "correction" given to the flow of history than that which God sent in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God.

We must accept the fact that if we evidence unbelief we also will die in the desert.  This life is "today" and it is the only "day" we will get to register lives of faith.  It is left for us, once to die, and then face judgment.  Beyond this next "correction" the doors to "eternal rest" will be opened wide.  The restless rivers of human discontent will be stilled.  We must "partake of Christ" through faith and then "hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." (vs. 14)

We are not standing on the banks of the river watching this tidal bore, as was I when I took this image.  We are the waves crashing and pounding below.  There is nothing more important in our lives than to grasp this truth and ensure that we are the waves of belief in the picture... otherwise our peril is assured.

 

 

Ephesians 1: To The Praise of His Glory

Image: "In Praise", 2020, Severna Park, Md

Ephesians 1:4–6 ... just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:11–12  In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:13–14  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:17–18  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge called the Letter to the Ephesians "the divinest composition of man."  Some may quibble at the superlative but few can deny that the letter ranks near the top if not at the peak.  I personally hold it to be my favorite "short" book in Scripture and Ch. 1 as pretty much my favorite chapter in the Bible.  I cannot read this chapter without melting into a spirit of adoration and praise.  It may very well be that chapter from which I have preached most often.  

The teachings here are so deep and rich a book would be required to develop them adequately.  But even a superficial scan readily grasps the main points.  (1) What confronts us, in all of our deepest concerns, is an absolutely sovereign God whose name is to be blessed forever through the lips of His creation, (2) This blessed God and Father has, in His turn, blessed us, in the most unimaginable ways.  He chose us to stand before Him "holy and without blame" as the recipients of His love, and (3) all of God's works in blessing us are directed toward the highest good of all creation, His own glory.

His choosing and predestining us, before the creation of the world, was to bring about "the praise of the glory of His grace." (vs. 6)

His sending of His Son into the world, bringing about the fulfillment of time, was such that He "might gather together in one all things in Christ."  This amazing idea points to an ultimate unification when all the contrary and competing ideas, goals, actions, and distinctions which constitute the chaos of diversity in our world, will be settled.  All will be understood in terms of its eternal place in God's wisdom and all "evil" as well as "good" will be understood as having worked together for God's ultimate purpose.  At the heart of this unification will be those who "trusted in Christ."  For they are the down-payment, the first installment of this unification.  In them, at least in part, the distinctions that divide have been put away and the common motive prompting their every effort is to show forth "praise of His glory". (vs. 12)

This is further amplified by the witness of the corporate body, the Church of Jesus Christ, which shows forth the marks of being "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." (vs. 13)  These are they who have heard and responded to the gospel of salvation and believed.  As such, they possess the guarantee of "our inheritance", the "redemption of the purchased possession", and therefore will be preserved unto that time of redemption which in joyous concert, this entire body of saints, will sing "to the praise of His glory." (vs. 14)

Do you see the pattern here?  It's plain as day.  Our lives are not a product of chance.  From all eternity we have been the subject of God's intense focus and care.  We have been set aside to the most exalted privilege any mortal, fallen human being can attain, or even aspire to attain.  We are reserved for God Himself unto the end that in us He shall be glorified!  Angels and Demons alike will be (and are) astonished at our witness and testimony.  Here I do not speak so much of our conscious testimony, though that is included.  Rather it is our individual and corporate history that bears witness to our All Sovereign, All Gracious, All-Merciful God. 

He is beyond words.  No human voice can adequately utter His praise, but some have been set aside to do it to the best of their ability.  That which will glorify God as He has purposed to be glorified is not their words or voices, but their very fact!  They are the testimony.  Through God's gracious gift of His Son, they have been purified, redeemed, established, and glorified.  

There they stand, His family, with Jesus as their Brother in their midst, an irrefutable witness to the glory of His grace.

Magnificent, isn't it?

 

 

 

Galatians 4: The Fulness of Time...

Image: "Separated", 2021, Severna Park, Md

Galatians 4:4–7  But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Galatians 4:28–31  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so, it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

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Certainly, Galatians 4 is not the easiest understood chapter in the Scriptures.  It is not obscure throughout.  Actually, its main point is clearly stated.  The challenge is Paul's arguments establishing that point.  Most particularly, the well-known allegory where Paul, surprisingly, equates then modern Jerusalem to Mt. Sinai as a symbol of a covenant of "bondage", is somewhat perplexing.  It's not so much the actual metaphor per se.  Paul clearly says what it means.  The intriguing question is "how did he get that from the Scriptures?" 

Certainly, Paul's allegorical analysis is unique.  The other allegories in Scripture are usually given as parables.  Paul here says that a tremendously important aspect of Israel's history was an allegory.  There is a spiritual relationship between Jacob's sons Ishmael, born of the slave woman Hagar, and Isaac, his "legitimate" son, and heir born to Sarah, as members of two covenants.  Those two covenants are "works of the law", symbolized by Mt. Sinai and the eternal, heavenly covenant established in heaven.  Jerusalem, to Paul, represented all those Jews who were enemies of the gospel and thus he equates them to Hagar, a woman in bondage.  But the Church of Jesus Christ, into which the Gentile Galatians have been incorporated (vs 28), is compromised of the "children of promise."  Hence they are metaphorically equated to Isaac even as their "Mother" is the spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem.

If we embrace the outlines of this analysis, we can begin to understand just how earth-shaking an insight it was.  Paul, in his days as a Rabbinical student and zealot, would have never, ever, accepted such an interpretation of Israel's history.  What it obviously implied was that Israel's "day" as the centerpiece of history was over.  Done.  Completed!  God was now working with a "new" Israel, the true sons of Abraham, through whom His power was being displayed and His further purposes in history would be accomplished.  This was a dramatic insight.  

Paul doesn't hedge any aspect of this teaching.  He agrees entirely that in the advent of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, "time" had been "fulfilled." (vs. 4)  Let your mind dwell on that for a moment.  The clear implication is that prior to the "Christ event", all of history and most importantly, all of Israel's history, was directed toward preparation.  Israel had been most highly blessed and favored.  They had been as precious children, placed under a stern but righteous guardian and tutor (vs. 2) who would prepare them for their ultimate purpose.  That purpose was to be the metaphorical "woman" (cf. Rev. 12:13 fulfilled in Mary) through whom God's Son was to be born into the world.  The "law" was that tutor because it taught them clearly that God required holiness in His people.  But they were not holy.  It taught them that their only hope was that a "sacrifice" was provided by which the guilt of their sins would be lifted from them.  It taught them that only in this way could they hope to be accepted as legitimate sons of the Most-High.

But rather than understanding this spiritualized metaphor as being the "Mother" of the Christ, and the Law as their guide to understanding Him when He arrived, they focused on the Law itself as the means by which they attained covenant sonship.  Thus, Jesus of Nazareth was rejected even though He clearly met all the teachings of the Law and the Prophets as being the Son they were to produce.  They did not see that once He arrived, their time of preparation was at an end.  It was through Him, and Him alone, that their bondage to the law was broken.  It was through Him that any person was to be counted as a son to God, and if a son, then an heir of His Kingdom. (vs. 7)

With that in mind, we can now understand the earthquake that happened in Christ.  "Time" was fulfilled.  Not all of "time" because we are now in a different "Time".  There will be another "fullness of time" when this present age has accomplished its purpose.  This second time is to be characterized by the New Israel awaiting its own conclusion.  When the Church of Jesus Christ, as the New Israel, has brought His Gospel to the whole earth and the harvest in which it is working has brought in the fullness of fruit, then there will be another "Day" which will again be ushered in by Jesus again coming into His creation in bodily form.  

It is critically important here that we see we are living out a metaphor also, even as did ancient Israel.  We must see ourselves in this allegory also.  We now possess God as our Father, the Son in our hearts, and are authorized and empowered to call out "Abba, Father" in worship and supplication.  This is the status ancient Israel had under the law and the temple.  Now it is our turn.

This should fill us with a holy zeal.  We must learn from our ancient brothers and sisters and avoid their errors.  We must treasure the hope we have in our Spiritual Jerusalem, eternal in the Heavens, prepared for the day when it will come down from heaven and be established on earth.

This is not only our hope, it is our guaranteed inheritance.  "... we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free." (vs. 31)

 

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel 25 & 26: A Glowing Memory

Image:  "Golden Glow", 2020, Severna Park, Md

Ezekiel 25:17 I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them.” ’ ”

Ezekiel 26:14 14 I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 26:20–21  then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living. 21 I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”

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The great ancient civilizations hold a certain fascination for me.  I love reading about their culture, military organization and tactics, politics, cities, and, well, their history as a whole.  At the top of the heap, of course, is Rome who bestrides ancient history like the colossus it was.  But the "lesser" civilizations, though world powers in their time, also are deeply interesting.  I think a study of history readily leads one to see that each had their own "personality".  Even when nations generally had the same ethnic foundation (e.g. Greece & Macedonia, Assyria & Babylon) something transpired to make them different.  

So, if we "go" with the idea of a nation having a certain "personality", we begin to approach the Biblical idea of "national angels."  In Revelations 1-3, the churches of Asia Minor are represented as having "angels" before Christ.  I think these "angels" are the spiritual essences of each church (in this case).  In Daniel, the angel Michael appears to be the "prince" overseeing the Jews.  

If such is the case we might think of God exercising judgment on the "angels" of the nations mentioned in these chapters.  In chapter 25 there is a litany of judgment against Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia.  God deals with each of them somewhat differently, and I would propose, according to their "personality."  Edom is singled out to be destroyed by "My people Israel", and unlike the judgment on the other three, it is not specifically stated that "they shall know that I am the LORD..."  Edom was related to Israel through their common ancestor Jacob.  As "kinfolk", Edom's treachery toward Israel was particularly egregious.  

Another special case is Tyre, the subject of all chapter 26.  Tyre was another fascinating culture.  Its main city, Tyre proper, was on an island in the Mediterranean a relatively short distance from the mainland.  It was (and is) one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.  It literally was a rock in the ocean and when Ezekiel states that it will only be good for drying nets, he is most likely referring to it being brought back to its origins when local fishermen started living there in relative safety from the terrors of the mainland.  It became a tremendous maritime power.  It is credited with giving the name "Europe" to the larger continent.  From Tyre a people arose, called Phoenicians, who, ultimately founded Carthage. 

Here was wealth, power, and glory in the ancient world.  Tyre, by virtue of controlling the sea, was able to maintain its autonomy even against the great powers of Egypt and Assyria.  One can think of it as being somewhat like Elizabethan England, an island with its own ways, its own gods, and a somewhat smug, superior, dismissive view toward all the other nations.

God, through Ezekiel, said that was all going to change.  God says that Tyre will be totally destroyed... it will never be rebuilt (26:14).  The arrogance of the Phoenician people will fall.  Their great trading network will not save them.  Their island location will not prove inviolable.   God says "I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again." (26:21)

It took Alexander the Great, somewhere in the 300 bc era to accomplish this feat.  Hundreds of years after Ezekiel recorded this prophecy, Alexander built a causeway from the beach out to the island-city.  That causeway essentially solidified over time and is now dry land.  The ancient site of Tyre is no longer an island but is just one sub-division in the modern city.

"Wait a minute", you might say, "if God destroyed the city, never to be built again, why is there a modern Tyre?" 

That's where that "angel" thing comes into play in my opinion.  The "personality" / "angel" of ancient Tyre was literally wiped out.  Alexander's rage at the Tyronians was so great (they held out so long) that he massacred the people, raped their possessions, and essentially the great "light" of Tyre was annihilated.  Never again would she be anything other than a subordinate, though sometimes prosperous, vassal city under other great powers.  The island city was rebuilt ashore (mostly I think for logistics reasons... there was no water or wood or stuff like that on the island... it had to be supplied from the mainland.)  Today, Tyre stands as being a site of archeological interest and an abiding historical study for people like me.  

But as far as God is concerned, the judgment was rendered and the "lamp" and the "angel" of ancient Tyre was no more.

God speaks of "angels" and "lamps" for peoples and there is no reason to not think, that our nation and the Christian Church within our nation, have their own "angel" and "lamp" before God now.  There is a distinct "personality" associated with these things.  As a people and as Christ's Church we need to be attentive to the example of Tyre and those of the seven churches in Revelations.  God is not Someone to disregard.  May He show mercy and give us more time to repent.  May He, through His Holy Spirit, so bring about repentance so that Tyre's fate does not happen again to us.

 

 

 

Jeremiah 52: Epilogue of Shame

Image: "Moody Marsh", 2016, Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge, De

Jeremiah 52:28–30 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.j

Jeremiah 52:31–32  Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. 32 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

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And so the Biblical history of national Israel/Judah fizzles out.  As a people, their story continued.  The relatively few people in exile in Babylon will come trooping home.  The "lost" tribes of Northern Israel retained some ignominous presence in the area bordering Galilee.  In the New Testament, they are called Samaritans.  Jerusalem would be rebuilt and have a tumultuous history right down to the birth of Jesus.  After Cyrus restores the people to Palestine and gives the region some degree of regional self-government, there would come Alexander the Great and with him the Greek language and culture.  

After Alexander died, his empire was divided into four parts and Judah was part of the Seleucid division.  Around 150 BC the massive infusion of Greek culture and influence had so degraded the Israelite heritage that a revolt was staged under the Maccabees, a group of rebel warriors who wanted to reclaim the Jewish heritage.  They set up the Hasmonean dynasty, ruled by members of the Maccabean family, which was subordinate to the Seleucids but allowed a fair amount of autonomy.  It was during this period that several new sects were formed inside Judaism.  Prominent among them were the Pharisees and the Essenes.  The Pharisees, in particular, were convinced that only when Israel returned to strict observance of the Mosaic law that God would bring them out of a form of "exile."  They looked for the restoration of Israel and its ascent to prominence as a light to the world and an example of righteousness as it would enjoy the special protection and blessing of its Covenant God.

Thus, as Jeremiah's written text sputters to a close we see Babylon undertaking its rape of Jerusalem in stages.  There were several incursions accompanied by the looting of the temple and the removal of more people to Babylon.  The sordid story of Zedekiah ends with the horror of watching his sons die before his eyes and then having those eyes ripped out of his skull.  He spends the rest of his days rotting in a dungeon... a just punishment for a treasonous fool.  The story of Jehoiachin is a bit surprising.  The king who followed Nebuchadnezzar brings him out of the dungeon, provides him a measure of comfort and clothing, and allows him to eat at the king's table for the rest of his life.  No doubt he was a victory prize that the king showed off to visiting ambassadors to reinforce the glory of his power... but, at that point, I imagine Jehoiachin wasn't complaining too much.  There was also the witness of blind Zedekiah to remind him of the fragile favor he was being shown.

And thus the era ends.  

The Glory of David/Solomon is only a memory.  For centuries the people of God would be left in relative revelational darkness.  All kinds of speculation would arise about when and if God would send a Messiah.  Many eschatological, fanciful writings would be promulgated and a sense of urgency/imminence would pervade the people, especially the poor.  Rome would arise and build roads that God would use, along with the Greek language introduced by Alexander, to spread the Good News that Israel's Messiah had indeed come in due season.

The people of God were reduced to a pitiful shell of their former self.  They were powerless, strife-ridden, and held in contempt by their more powerful neighbors.  But their God was not powerless and they were not forgotten.

We should leave Jeremiah with this image in our minds.  We should see Judah lying desolate, Jerusalem in ruins, and the people as lost sheep without a shepherd.  This picture will define the scenario in which the Son of God would be provided.  He came to heal wounds, call His sheep, and claim His throne in Jerusalem.  Another sad image will be painted then as the very ones He came to save and to restore, refuse Him on His terms and rebellious reject the Wisdom of God which He embodied.

For that egregious sin, Jerusalem would again be destroyed and the Jewish people themselves rejected as the Covenant people of God.  The New Israel would be made up of sinners saved by grace, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female.  This New People would be the Church of Jesus Christ and the gates of Hell itself will not withstand the war they wage on its dominion.

 

 

 

 

2 Chronicles 10 & 11: The Great Divorce (Apologies to C. S. Lewis)

Image: Light & Darkness, 2019, Severna Park, Md

2 Chronicles 10:16 Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:  “What share have we in David?  We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.  Every man to your tents, O Israel! Now see to your own house, O David!” So all Israel departed to their tents.

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C. S. Lewis' thought provoking book, The Great Divorce, teaches that there is a large difference between the "truth" of our existence in this world and the way we "understand" it.  People, in their willful sinfulness, live in a delusion, they are "divorced" from the truth... the truth about themselves, the truth about what is real and the truth about what they and the world can be.  People live in a grey "town" of ordinary life that is actually a stage or level of Hell itself.  The journey to heaven is undertaken in the spirit and by the spirit, in a manner similar to Christian in The Pilgrim's Progress, and as the journey continues the spirit becomes more and more flesh.  The journey actually takes place in the "real world" where light has shown what that world truly is.  Lewis scholars will probably take issue with my paraphrase of the story but let's go with it as it is.

In these two chapters of 2 Chronicles we read of the "Great Divorce" between Israel (Samaria, the Northern Kingdom) and Judah (the Southern Kingdom).  We are given few details of the events leading up to this schism, indeed the authors expect us to know many things which were written elsewhere (e.g. ch. 10, vs. 15 with its reference to 1 Kings 11:29-39).  The authors, like Detective Joe Friday ("Dragnet") are interested in "the facts, ma'am, just the facts."  They want the readers to understand the historical event that ruptured Israel into two kingdoms though the sordid details of Rehoboam's and Jeroboam's roles are left out.

What is emphasized in these chapters is that this "divorce" was from God.  God had determined to rip the fabric of Israel into two parts, the larger share going to Jeroboam and the lesser share, though more beloved of God, to remain with Rehoboam. (cf. 10:15 & 11:4).  "This thing is from Me," God declares and therefore we and the first readers are to shut our mouths and be silent before Him.  The people of God are His people and He can do with them as He pleases but He never does so in an arbitrary manner... there is meaning and purpose to His actions.  We remain silent because of His august sovereignty but also because we, through faith, understand that what ever He is doing is right and just.  It is not always easy... but it always the right thing to do.

Like Lewis' main premise then we must step back from the "grey world" of the physical events themselves and see these things with our spiritual eyes... as they really are.  We must look at the truth of this "great divorce."

What God is doing is revealing to us that both Israel and Judah were ripped apart because of sin.  The sin in Rehoboam's heart lead him to arrogantly reject the good advice of his elders and impetuously alienate the majority of his subjects.  Like a domineering husband he did not love his wife as Christ loved the church.  He sought to abuse her and humiliate her.  He, in effect, drove her out of his house.

The sin in Jeroboam's heart lead him to rebel against Rehoboam.  His pride and ambition completely obscured his spiritual vision.  There was no seeking after God and no desire to submit to God's ways.  Like a lustful wife (cf. the story of Hosea and Gomer, Hosea 1) his heart was inflamed with lust for idolatrous worship and gods who would indulge his passions.  He would go down in history as the king who lead Israel astray.  Jeroboam thus became the unfaithful wife who ran after other lovers and gave herself in prostitution to demonic gods.

God hates divorce (Mal. 2:16) but He sometimes ordains / decrees it.  He hates idolatry and evil perversions even more.

So, what we see here is God bringing about divorce in His People.  Judah remains relatively, and only relatively, faithful though her kings vary a great deal in faithfulness.  God remains the offended Party and it is against Him that the true insult is registered.  This is the overview that our spiritual eyes reveal to us as we look at these events.  God has put His "wife" (Israel) away because of her adultery.

But there is more.  We see Lewis' insight into "hell on earth" before us also.  We see both nations to some extent but particularly the Northern Kingdom being immersed in darkness and cut off from the light of truth.  Israel, in particular, "thought themselves wise but became fools."  They pursued power and amassed wealth but then these very things took possession of their souls and drove them into misery.  Hell is being given over to sin and to experience its consequences.  The people of Israel would be constantly in agony, either internally or at the hands of foreign powers.  There would be little relief.  The Word of God would come to them through the mouths of prophets, but as we read in the Revelation given to John, they would not repent.  They loved the darkness more than the light.

This is the great divide between the "real" world and that "world" as perceived by those who are dominated by the flesh.  They cannot see their own peril nor can they conceive of a better world than that which they inhabit, and yet, their world is the one they choose.  

God brought judgment on His people in the division of the kingdoms in these chapters.  One day He will bring judgment on this world again and he will begin with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17-18).  As long as we can call today "today", we must earnestly seek God's grace to give us eyes to see and ears to hear so that we may repent and be saved.

 

1 Chronicles 5-9: Following Their Steps

Image: Footsteps, 2019, Severna Park, Md

1 Chronicles 9:1 (NKJV) 9 So all Israel was recorded by genealogies, and indeed, they were inscribed in the book of the kings of Israel. But Judah was carried away captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

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So what we have in 1 Chron. 1-9 is a series of snapshots of Israelite history bringing out important background information prior to getting down to the main narrative starting in chapter 10.  We should notice that the last section of ch. 9, vs. 35-44, deals with King Saul's lineage.  Chapter 10 will give us a snapshot of his reign.

These "snap-shots" essentially lay out a pathway in the snow if we allow the image above to set the metaphor.  They give us just enough info to let us know how "we got from there to here."  Buried within the seemingly interminable details of who begot whom and what common lands belonged to which tribes, we find fascinating historical tidbits that connect us with the very real people who populated those times.  In 7:21 we are told that the "men of Gath who were born in that land" killed the sons of Ephraim who dwelt there.  Ephraim was hard hit by this event and was visited by his "brethren" as comforters.  We find ourselves suddenly drawn into the story as we imagine the all to real grief which consumed our ancient brother.  Then in chapter 8 we read that the descendants of Benjamin "drove out the inhabitants of Gath." (vs. 13)  Again a sense of satisfaction comes over us as we see loose ends tied up and grief avenged.

We also are given glimpses of the ordinary religious lives of the people in chapter 6 as we read not only of the genealogies of Levi but also some comments about their duties.  A rich vista opens up before us.  We see that the temple service employed large numbers of dedicated servants.  There were gate keepers who traced their lineage back to those days in the wilderness when their fathers guarded the entrance to the camp.  Their distinguished heritage went back to Phinehas (9:20, cf. Numbers 25:6-13) who had won high honor for his zeal for the Lord's righteousness.  These guarded the treasury and the chambers of the Temple and they lived right in the temple precincts.  They opened the temple every morning (9:27).  In our mind's eye we can picture them, arising from their beds in their turn and going through the morning ceremonies of opening the temple as the priest start the morning sacrifices.  Like the military units that guard the tomb of the unknown soldier, I imagine these men displayed high dignity and solemnity as they went about their ritual duties... duties which, in the event of trouble, would have aroused passionate and loyal physical response.

We also are amazed at the numbers of Levites who were dedicated to music.  We are invited to imagine what kind of glorious sounds they would have rendered.  I have no doubt that the style of music would have been so distant from the lyrical and melodic forms that we have now that it would require some getting used to.  We are reminded of "Heman, the singer" (6:33) and we wonder what quality so distinguished his singing that this designation is passed down through the ages.  We see Asaph mentioned and we remember his contributions to the Psalms.  These verses speak of musicians and that includes all those who played instruments.  There must have been daily practices and perhaps worship presentations as the priests went about their daily worship rituals.  These Levites were "appointed to every kind of service of the tabernacle of the house of God" (6:48) and the sheer number of those so designated fills us with wonder.  The ordinary Israelites, especially in Jerusalem, whether just visiting on pilgrimage or residing there, must have been constantly conditioned by events at the temple.  The sound of its worship would have rang out over the relatively small city as the bells of Big Ben cover the city of London.  There was so much good built into God's design and appointment of His people... only their complacency and boredom with it all could explain how they turned away to other gods.

There are other interesting observations open to us.  We wonder why the family of Naphtali gets only one verse (7:13).  Why, we think, do we not read of their mighty men of valor?  What were their accomplishments?  The writers evidently viewed the tribe as essentially insignificant.  What a sad picture.  How many churches rise up and pass from the scene with no more impact on their communities than did Naphtali?  It's something to ponder.

But the overview of history draws to its end in chapter 9.  When we step back and look at it, in the big picture, what we gain from this entire section (chapters 1-9) is that the history of Israel was a multi-dimensional, complex, interwoven and organic whole.  We see "steps in the snow" as the individual accounts all show us facets of specific points in history.  We know that these genealogies do not constitute a complete listing of every one who was born to the various "fathers" who are listed.  Some sons are not mentioned (e.g. Cain) and others just passed over.  But each person, in all of the different accounts, lived and breathed at the same time as their corresponding brother or sister from other tribes were born and did their "thing."  Thus, if we merge the listings along a time line, we see "steps", or "foot-prints", that occupy its space and then the next step is there beyond it.  

The ancient reader was being encouraged to see that there was order and purpose behind the history of his people.  There were steps that lead "from there to here."  These steps each had their own colorful character, their own tragedies and their own mountain tops of victory, but they were not just isolated eons.  They were all tied together by the All-Mighty hand of God who was directing the steps of His people to the ends for which they were born, lived, laughed, loved, fell, were raised up or punished and lived a life much as do we (except for technological differences).

1 Chronicles 1-9 reminds us that we are walking on a well defined pathway also... the next step may not be clear to us but it is to our God and that which lies behind us, including the history of 1 Chronicles, is there for our exhortation and edification.

 

Judges 7-8: The Victory is the Lord's

Image: Eternal Victory, 2017, Severna Park, Md

Judges 7:7–8 (NKJV) ⁷ Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” ⁸ So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

Judges 8:12 (NKJV) ¹² When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army.

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 (NKJV) ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The old hymn "Victory in Jesus" is very special to me.  It was sung at the first service of our church plant and became our theme song.  Every first Sunday in March is our anniversary service and though the church has changed in some ways since 1991 yet still that hymn is sung gladly and with true thanksgiving at the close of the service.

Certainly the Scriptures are concerned with "victory!"  From beginning to end they speak of the spiritual warfare that constitutes the subject matter of all human history.  Historians seldom write their books and papers organized around this principle.  Virtually all of them, to some degree or another, are concerned with the "progress of history", looking at the developing nations and events as sequentially and humanistically advancing from lesser to greater.  Most histories are entirely man-centered, pragmatic and technologically centered.  What is lost in these is the true reality that has governed the history of man ever since Adam sinned in Eden. 

There is a battle raging around us.  God declared this in Genesis 3 when he clearly stated that "enmity would exist" between the sons of the serpent and the offspring of the woman.  "Enmity" is unrelenting antagonism, ceaseless resentment and murderous motivations.  History is the outward manifestation of this on-going battle. 

Can anyone deny the ruthless and bloody nature of secular human history?  Has there been any "just" governments that did not, to a greater or lesser extent, use power abusively, if not at first then in time?  Has not both prosperity and rank poverty both served to bring out the worst in human nature for the majority of those experiencing either one? 

No, history is the continuing outworking of the shifting theaters of a constant war and this war is a central tenet of the Scriptural story.

We have to understand this in order to appreciate Gideon in context.  The history of Israel in Judges is explicitly the story of the ebb and flow of warfare.  Behind each "side" in this war stands the spiritual forces that constitute their 'strength.'  The victories that Gideon wins are vindication of the God of Israel as being the One, Ultimate Power in the universe.  The proclamation of Judges is that this Ultimate Power will have Ultimate Victory though it shall involve many battles and prolonged warfare.

When the Lord Christ came into the world He preached victory.  He preached that God was in the world reconciling men to Himself and that when He was raised up He would gather men from all the nations to Himself.  He said that any man that came to Him, came because God hauled him to Jesus and that "on the last day" He, Christ, would raise that man up.... in victory.

This is the victory that Paul celebrated in the passage above.  There is a sense that the victory has already been won in that the resurrection of Christ established Him as preeminent in all things.  Thus He has won!  His victory, like Gideon's, was the victory of all His Israel.  He did it decisively, as did Gideon, through the way of human weakness.  He defeated death by dying.  The weakness of His body, like the mere 300 men of Gideon's army, proved conclusively that the battle is the Lord's.

The great covenant plan of God, His eternal counsel, expressed in His Covenant of Redemption was to do it just this way.  To exalt Himself in the eyes of all creation by delivering His people from the battle by leading them through the battle.  The way of victory is through deadly struggle.

This view of history is sadly lacking in our day and time.  Our young people are infatuated with the "now" and they see this "now" often only in terms of how their prosperity has been handed to them.  They need to see that prosperity, like all good gifts, are to be enjoyed but it also must be understood in terms of being a battle.  If it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven then we must see prosperity as often being employed as a weapon against us.

Victory!  That should be our goal and motivation.  There will time enough for resting when the war is over. 

Deuteronomy 25-27: From There To Here, History - It's Who We Are

Image: From There To Here, 2009, Vicinity of Harper's Ferry, Va.

Deuteronomy 26:5–10 (NKJV) ⁵ And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. ⁸ So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. ⁹ He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; ¹⁰ and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’  “Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God.

The famous passage reprinted above should stop us in our tracks and require us to reassess a lot of things that previously we may have just taken for granted.

What God requires of His people in these verses is that the individual Israelite and the people as a whole should ground themselves in a definite history.  God wanted them, in each of their subsequent generations, to say with a sincere heart that the "Egyptians mistreated US, afflicted US, etc."  Certainly after decades and even centuries it would have been hard for young Israelites to self-identify with their forefathers in this: difficult yes - but not impossible.  Not only was it not impossible, it was highly to be desired.  God wanted His people to center their own self-awareness firmly in a historical context, to see themselves as individuals and a people, who have traveled or been brought, "from there to here."

The farther removed a person is from their historical context the more hazy it becomes.  The past can seem shrouded with fog, blurry, indistinct.  It is the duty of a family, a church, a culture to combat this.  History must be kept alive and nowhere is this more important than in our Christian faith. As with the ancient Israelites, modern Christians should view the events of the Old Testament and the New as "their" history.  The Acts of the Apostles does not have a conclusion.  The written text just ends with the cliff hanger image of Paul in a Roman prison.  This is intentional.  The history of the New Testament Church, which is the subject of the book of Acts, is still being written.

If we really take hold of this then we will understand more fully what Paul meant when he said: "know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." (Gal. 1:7).  Through the wisdom of God which has opened up membership in God's covenant community by the instrument of "faith", all people today who have the "faith of Abraham" (Gal. 3:6) are thereby united into one world encompassing family.  We are the descendants of Abraham and the fulfillment of God's promise to him that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

God's Visible Church is like a powerful locomotive thundering across the tracks of time.  It is going "somewhere", a particular destination that is our certain hope, the "hope of Israel" (Acts 28:20), but it has also come from "somewhere", a particular history that encompasses the tracks that stretch out behind the train.

Now this becomes highly important to us because it is this historical perspective which must essentially define us as individual Christians and corporately in our Churches.  Certainly there will be, along our individual tracks, a certain history that is tied to our geographic and cultural heritage.  We all come from specific parents, grand-parents and historical context.  We cannot ignore how those things have influenced us.  But what we must recognize is that in the light of Christ and God's work in history, we must see all other influences on us as potential threats.  Paul, upon his conversion, had to go and rethink every thing he ever took for granted.  He had to sift through his previous thoughts and heritage and seek to preserve that which was 'true' but had to excise huge chunks of that heritage as having been false.

Paul became a new man with a new heritage in that experience.  Much of the doctrine of being "born again" consists in this same thing.  When Paul speaks of a "new creation" he is speaking of a "new" social grouping, the NT people of God, who now are to be viewed as a separate people, distinct from all other races, with their own cultural distinctives and most importantly, their own historical awareness.

The ancient Israelite was to affirm that "My father was a Syrian" along with all the rest and then he was to live in such a manner as to honor that heritage.  Certainly Christians are to affirm that "My Father is the Lord God Almighty, who has arranged all things in space and time, to bring me to this place where I can claim Him and all of the events of space and time, as my family heritage."  In doing so, like the ancient Israelite, this should move us to worship... to express gratitude for what our God has done... in all things but most especially in the salvation wrought by Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God.

How different it would be if the modern Christian church, in the United States of America, would embrace this self-consciousness.  We are the people of God who have not only a future with God but a history with Him.  Everything that has happened to us, is happening to us and will happen to us, must be understood through that lens.