Daniels Hope

This is a sermon I delivered on the 28th of November 2012.  

About two and a half years ago I came home from an Alpha evening, and inspired by a conversation with one of the leaders, dusted off my radio, found the AM aerial and tuned into what was a new station for me, radio Rhema.  I caught this strange sounding and rather excited gentleman discussing what he called the most remarkable chapter in the Bible, part of a book containing some of the most validated and accurate prophecy in all scripture.  By the time I had finished listening to that broadcast I was well on my way to changing my view on the nature of the Bible and the existence of God.  For the first time I could start to understand that he worked in peoples lives then and now and inspired the prophets and the authors of ancient scripture.

Fast forward 18 months to this year, where I took a paper on Hebrew Scriptures, one that tried to redefine the authorship of the old testament and the reason for them to be written For the most part it excluded the possibility of prophecy as an explanation, and almost excluded God.  One book was referred to as a random collection of court tales and dramatic  apocalyptic fiction obviously written long after events it described.  It left me at times feeling despairing and hollow.

Yet, both of these views came from renowned scholars and committed Christians, and both of them were describing the book of Daniel.

The book of Daniel, possibly more than any other single book in scripture, divides scholars and Christians into two distinct camps.  It has inspired some of the most extreme Christian sects, and yet still grounded some of the greatest theologians and evangelists in the Church.  If anyone asked me to pick my favourite book of the Bible, it would be Daniel.  It’s influence on me has been fairly constant in the last 3 years and promises to continue on for a lifetime ahead.

So who wrote Daniel, and when? Well that is the beginning of the divisions.  Some scholars, especially those of the 19^th and early 20^th century say it is a very late writing, even the most recent book of the OT, written in the 2nd century BC as inspiration to the faithful undergoing the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes in the times of the Maccabees.   More traditional scholarship, and a re-emergent view today, actually credits it to Daniel writing in the 6^th century BC while he resided in the Courts of several nations at Babylon.   Critics of it being written by Daniel himself point to apparently inaccurate historical facts, most of which  have evaporated during the last 100 years as archaeology validates more and more of what is described.  Those in favour of Daniel point to its accurate descriptions of court life as being something incapable of being written 400 years after the fact.  And while critics say the language employed is too modern for Daniels time, supporters point to new evidence of ancient usages of those very same words.  But the root of the dispute lays deeper than that, and to see why let’s look at the content of Daniel.

It consists of 12 chapters that at first glance seem to be barely related.  The first thing to realise is they are not all chronological, but are grouped by writing style.  The first 6 chapters take the form of narratives about episodes in the courts of Babylon which are tied together by a common character, Daniel.  These are the stories we all know well and are learnt by Sunday school kids and immortalised by Vege Tales, the fiery furnace, the lions den, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the writing on the wall.  These narratives are so well known both in and out of church that some of them have become every day expressions and are ingrained in peoples vocabulary.  You have to wonder just how many people realise they are quoting Daniel in everyday conversation.

The next 6 chapters are a lot less well known and a lot more troublesome for people to come to terms with.  These chapters consist of a series of visions and revelations that Daniel has.  We have the four beasts, the ram and the goat, Daniels prayer and Gabriels visit, and a series of dreams of men and kings.  It is the stuff of nightmares and apocalypse that only finds a parallel in the book of Revelation.   These 2 genres of writing are so different from each other that it makes you wonder what they are doing in the same book, let alone attributed to the same author.  That is until you start to realise the time frame the book encompasses and how the opening chapters describe the devout nature of Daniels character and his abilities of discernment, all of which provide validation to his visions and dreams.  We are not dealing with some eccentric individual but someone who was respected by the leaders of the known world and had a track record of being at the heart of miracles and solving problems.

So who can tell me what language Daniel is written in?  That’s right, it is written in two languages. Half way through Daniel Chapter 2 Verse 4, right in the middle of a sentence, it switches from Hebrew to Aramaic, if you look in your Bibles most of them indicate this.  It continues in Aramaic until the end of chapter 7.  Then it switches back to Hebrew again for the next 5 chapters.  Again it prompts the question, how could this be written by the same author?  Many people say it can’t and that it is just another reason to doubt its clams of originating from Daniels hand.  Yet when you look at it closer you realise that the bits in Hebrew are directed at the Jews in exile, while the bits in Aramaic are directed to the gentiles, a very deliberate means of ensuring the correct audience reads the message meant for them.  For example, the writing on the wall could not be read by those present at the feast, because it was in a form of cyphered Hebrew, hence Daniel could read it when others couldn’t.

But even this is not the root cause of the division by this book prompts, ultimately it is the prophecy contained in Daniel that cause many to reject its ancient origins.  If you start from a position where prophecy is not possible, where God cannot be supernaturally active in our world, then you cannot accept it being written by Daniel as the prophecies within are far too accurate and far too detailed to be written in advance.  Both Nebuchadnezzar’s and Daniels dreams predict the empires that would follow Babylon and the writing on the wall matches the exact events described in the archaeological record.  While at the same time as denying this prophecy this position also writes off the miracles described as fiction.

This position of hiding God could be quite defendable if it wasn’t for one thing. There is more prophecy that could not possibly be written after the fact and we have a bounty of manuscript evidence to prove this.  One example, the one I heard described on radio rhema that night, is a prophecy so astounding that if you accept it the veils of hiddenness people like to place on God are ripped aside and you have no choice but to accept his works in our world.

 If we pick up where today’s reading stops, after Daniels heartfelt prayer acknowledging their sins and recognizing the allotted time of 70 years is about up, a prophecy in its own right from Jeremiah that came true, Daniel receives a vision from Gabriel described in (Da 9:24–25).:

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

What I am going to present, very briefly here, is a view that is not universal, but then what interpretation ever is, but it is one many good Bible scholars accept it and I think it is worth considering.  There are objections to it, and it relies on certain positions being true, none of which we have time to go into, but I find Chuck Misler to generally have good research and full references can be found in his works regarding the 70 weeks of Daniel.

From the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the revealing of the Messiah the King shall be be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, or sixty-nine weeks, which we can interpret as weeks of years, ie one week of years is 7 years.  If we accept that the Bible clearly uses, both in Genesis and in Revelation, a 360 day year, then Sixty-nine weeks of 360-day years equals 173,880 days. We now can get from Ezra and Nehemiah, that they went back to build the Temple in Ezra but got nowhere until Nehemiah was able to obtain the authority to rebuild the city. That authority was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 B.C., a date that can be verified through documentary evidence.  That is the trigger; but when was the Messiah presented as King?

Let’s pull together a few more pieces of the puzzle.

There is a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” And that’s exactly what Jesus did. He never allowed himself to be worshiped as a king except for the one day that he not only allowed it, He arranged it. He had the disciples get a donkey, and He rode from Bethany up over the Mount of Olives down through the Kidron Valley into Jerusalem, deliberately fulfilling Zechariah 9:9.

In Luke 19, in the passage that we call the Triumphal Entry account, the people sang Psalm 118, which is a Psalm proclaiming Him as the Messiah: “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest”. The Pharisees said, “Master, rebuke your disciples.” Why did they say that? Because they recognized that the disciples were proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and King, and felt they were blaspheming! And Jesus declared, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (verse 40). This event (and this is where the assumption takes place, that Jesus was crucified in 32AD), occurred on April 6, A.D. 32,

This turns out, when accounting for certain people playing with calendars and adding and removing days, to be 173,880 days from the decree authorizing the rebuilding of Jerusalem! The Angel Gabriel gave Daniel a prediction of the exact day the Messiah would present Himself as King to Jerusalem.

When Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, Luke 19:41 says, “When he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.” Why? He said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes”. He held Jerusalem accountable to understand that this was the day that was scheduled in God’s plan.

What makes this particularly remarkable is that the Old Testament, including Daniel, was translated into Greek in the third to second century BC.  At least 100 years before Christ was born. This is one of the most astonishing verifications that Jesus Christ really was the Messiah of Israel.

The prophecy continues with some other remarkable claims, and feel free to read these and take from it what you will.  For now let us just think on what this first prophecy means.  If we accept it, we have a clear and precise prophecy for when Jesus would reveal himself as the Messiah.  A prophecy that cannot have been written after the fact, one that makes us stop and say, wait, if that is true, then there is no reason why the rest of the claims in Daniel, claims of prophecy and miracles, cannot be true as well.

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I got to this point in my sermon, or at least in my outline, by Tuesday evening.  I was feeling good and well prepared.  I took a break to go to the airport to pick up my wife and her mum.  My mother in law has had a serious ulcerated infection in her leg for quite a few weeks that would not heal in Samoa, so we finally convinced her to come to NZ to get treatment.

On Tuesday afternoon she was admitted to hospital and on Wednesday morning they performed the first of 3 planned surgery’s to clean the wound.  All was good, the surgeons were happy, she was recovering in the ward and I was thinking of how I would finish my sermon.  At 2:46am Thursday morning the phone rang informing us that she had been transferred to ICU as she had become unresponsive and had extremely low blood pressure.  By 9am we were ringing her family around the world informing them she had suffered a major stroke.

Why am I telling you this, what has it got to do with Daniel?

Well, for the past three days, I have been at Wgtn Hospital, most of the time spent sitting outside the ICU watching the range of human emotions as people deal with the suffering of their loved ones.  What I have noticed most, even within our family and friends is that most turn to the Drs and put their faith in science and modern medicine.  And many are shattered as modern medicine fails to help a loved one. 

Yet there is a small group who you can tell view things differently, who are at peace with what is happening as they understand who is in control.  Like Daniel and his friends their faith is in God and they know that it is Gods hand that guides the Drs, it is Gods will that determines the outcomes. 

You see the greatest treasure in Daniel is not that it is a wonder of prophecy, or a recording of great miracles.  Its greatest treasure is the proud claim that God is there and active in our world, that he works through many different and diverse people to achieve his works.  That even in a world that wanted to hide God from view, to deny his very existence and punish those that worship him, there was still hope, and some of Gods greatest miracles and prophecies came forth.

It is a treasure that is especially precious today, where not only is the secular world we live in actively denying Gods existence, but governments of once Christian nations are persecuting believers who profess their faith and parts of the church itself are denying Gods works.  We live today in a world where the new Nebuchadnezzar is science and great idols are raised up that people turn to rather than God because they fail to see how God can help.  They fail to see because the exclude the possibility.

We have been repeatedly told in the last 2 days by many different Drs that this may be a stroke from which mum does not recover, she has been thrown in the proverbial lions den and while they say they hope she will recover, their hope goes no further than the numbers they see on the machines in front of them.   

Last night we got another phone call, this time from relatives in Samoa who asked that I go and pray over mum, and the room, and the hospital and for the Drs and Nurses, that I deliver my lauga for her as I prepared to deliver mine to you today.  As I nervously drove back into the hospital, frantically trying to recall what it is I am supposed to say.  If you’ve ever heard a Samoan prayer, you would understand why, I thought of my unfinished sermon and realized all I can do is to invite God in and allow him to be present, the rest isn’t anything to do with me.  I also realized how I would end my sermon.

So I stood praying over mum last night, and I watched a woman who 36 hours earlier was completely paralyzed down her right side, reach up with both hands to great her great grandson.  As we openly asked the holy spirit to fill her room, as we welcomed God into that space, you could sense just as Daniel and his friends did, that a miracle may now be possible, that our hope, just like Daniel faced with certain execution if he failed to recall and interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream OUR hope is built upon something stronger than machines and the hands of men, and it is a hope that is not present unless you invite God in and welcome his presence.   It is a hope that Daniels prophecies and miracles testify too across the millennia, a hope as precious and real today as it was 2500 years ago.

Since this sermon was delivered, mum has made a wonderful recovery and has returned home to Samoa, a true testimony to the power of prayer and our Lord.

Faith by Numbers

Numbers, a not so interesting title for a book in the Bible, it sounds like we are about to enter a world of statistics, or calculus, or possibly accounting.  But no, it is the continuation of the story of Israel leaving Egypt and heading towards the land promised to their forefathers. 

We get the name Numbers from the two censuses that occur in the book but the Hebrew name for the book is Bemidbar, meaning “In the Wilderness”, which is taken from the first sentence “The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai” (Nu 1:1), and is probably more appropriate as it describes the time of Israel in the desert for almost 40 years before they entered the Promised Land.  Traditionally it is credited to Moses writing in the final year before he died.  It is also a book that I think points in a number of ways to Jesus.

Numbers can be broken into three main sections. I have heard them described as Preparing to March, On the March, and Completing the March.   But more than just the historical aspect, it’s a story of development; a developing nation, a developing perseverance, and a developing discipleship.  Most if all I see it as a developing faith. 

As a nation Israel had been ripped out of Egypt where they had been at least provided with necessities, and indeed some would have had pretty good lives.  They had endured being pursued by Pharaoh and his army, the being marched across the desert and witnessing some pretty dramatic interventions from God.  But in that time they had also witnessed some of the greatest miracles of history.  Yet they remained a disparate group, more interested in self-preservation and self-comfort and without a true national identity, very probably struggling to understand just what was happening to them.  In a way it is much like what the disciples must have experienced as they were called to follow by Jesus.  From experience as one snatched from a secular and unbelieving world, I can relate to that confusion and doubt as you struggle to make sense of a world around you that suddenly looks and feels very different.

Preparing to March

The first 10 chapters describe the preparations Israel made to prepare themselves to march into Canaan.   They spent 11 months, and 20 days, receiving instructions from the Lord and carrying out those instructions.  The tribes were counted, at the instruction of the Lord, and they are ordered into groups.  They are told where to camp and given specific duties.  The tribe of Levi is singled out for special treatment and specifically given tasks related to the construction and transportation of the tabernacle.  The family of Aaron is appointed as the priests and Aaron himself is ordained as the first High Priest, and he is given words by which God will bless the nation .

Finally they celebrate Passover and at the sounding of silver trumpets they break camp and march on to what they believe will be a land waiting for them to step into.

On the March

I am sure most of you have been on a family road trip.  I remember many of them as a kid, travelling to Taupo for the Christmas holidays.  Mum and Dad in the front, us kids in the back.  It all starts off great, thoughts of the holiday to come, days at the beach, sleeping in, catching fish, messing with my younger cousins.  It lasts maybe an hour, and then the niggles start, then the whining, the complaining and finally attempted mutiny.  Things have not changed in 3500 years really.

No sooner had the Israelites broken camp and started the march, led by the shekinah, the symbol of God’s presence on earth, than they started complaining.  First they grumble and within three days then they start to vocally challenge God on the fringes, not the wisest thing to do when there is a cloud of smoke and fire at the centre of your camp.  But Moses had faith, even though many others didn’t, and he prayed and they were ok for a bit.  A bit like Dad threatening to pull the car over and let everyone out, but mum steps in and keeps the peace, for a while.

Then they start complaining about food “And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.  But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Nu 11:4–6).  And the murmuring grew.  With us it as always a fight over what flavour chippies we would have.  I wanted salt and vinegar, but my sisters liked chicken.   Isn’t it always the way, when things start to get a little difficult, murmuring and complaining starts to grow, and as it grows it eats at people’s faith.  Even Moses was affected, and he complained to God “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, … Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ … If you will treat me like this, kill me at once” (Nu 11:11–15).  

At times, I can so empathise with Moses here, can’t you!  But in his answer, Moses himself demonstrated a lack of faith in God.  His plea is all about him, his troubles and self-pity, and his doubt as to whether God will provide.  There is very little patience or discipleship shown.  But God is our teacher and leads by example, and here He demonstrates amazing patience with Moses and the people of Israel.  He calls 70 elders to help Moses, and places the Spirit on them, an early sign of what will happen in days to come with the disciples of Jesus and to those on the day of Pentecost.  And to quell their complaints, God provides them with quail to eat. 

But the troubles ran deep, and the faith ran a little shallow.  Now Aaron and Miriam challenge their brother Moses and question whether he really was the one appointed by God to lead the Nation.  You know things are bad when the high priest is questioning Gods will.  It is here we see one of only two healings of leprosy in the OT, and both involved sinners being cleansed of their sins.  In the NT we see the only other healings through Jesus healing leprosy in the same manner, through forgiveness of sin.

Then the Nation reaches Kadesh and they spy out the land.  All but two report that Israel has no hope of defeating the occupying tribes and claim that they would be better off returning to Egypt or maybe wandering in the wilderness to die. 

It’s at this point in our family trip that Dad pulls the car over in the middle of the desert road and says, right, everybody hand over the chips and get out of the car!

Have you ever noticed how you sometimes have to be careful not just in what you ask God for, but how you ask, especially when your faith is ebbing. 

First, when they originally complain about wanting meat, they are given more than enough “You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” ’ (Nu 11:19–20).  

Now when they show no faith when asked to enter Canaan, they again are given what they ask for “none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.” (Nu 14:22–23).

You would think they might start to learn, to understand that God can do anything, and He is on their side.  He’s not asking them to do it on their own.  But still they don’t learn.  Both their request for meat and request to not have to go to war are granted, but not in any way they wanted.  So what do they do?  

“When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.” (Nu 14:39–40)

They do not listen, and they go off to battle, out of spite or stubbornness, not faith and obedience.  Doing it in their strength, not Gods, and suffer a heavy defeat.  The moral of the Nation now hits rock bottom.  Yet even at this lowest ebb, God offers then hope that all is not lost for them, that His promise will be fulfilled “When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you” (Nu 15:2). 

So they are led away from Canaan, to spend 38 years camping out as the old generation who lacked faith faded away, and the new generation replaced them.

But old habits died hard and during that time their faith was still weak, their selfish wills still strong.  There were more challenges, open rebellion, more complaining, and even Moses succumbed.  At Meribah, he and Aaron disobey God and instead of acting in faith, they take things into their own hands, an event that cost them a chance to enter the promised land. 

Completing the March

As their time in exile neared an end, the travelled once more towards Canaan, yet when the trip became difficult the complaining began again.  This time snakes were sent to punish those that challenged God.  But something was different, the people of Israel had learned, they recognised where the fault lay and they turned to God and repented “And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.” (Nu 21:7).

And God responded, but probably not how they expected.  God is never predictable and what happened next would not be understood properly for over a thousand years.  He ordered Moses to erect a bronze snake on a pole and place it were anyone could see it.  When someone was bitten they just needed to look at the snake and they would be cured.  This strange and almost glossed over image was, I think, an important turning point in the development of the Israelite nation. 

This action of Gods required two things of those asking his help; it required faith and it required obedience.  It required the person who was bitten to acknowledge their sin and have faith that in this symbol they would be healed.  They had to obey Gods instructions, turn to this symbol, look at it and be healed. 

This is not some metaphorical story added in for an object lesson.  Yes we can look at it that way, and many scholars have.  The snake is a well-recognised symbol of sin and bronze is always associated with fire and purification, think of the pillars and lavers in the Temple.  So symbolically it represents being purified from sin.  Looking at it is representative of putting your faith in God.

Yet it is so much more than that.  God had spent 38 years getting the nation of Israel to recognise who He was, getting them to put their faith in him completely, to turn to Him for strength and not rely on themselves.  Only then could He demonstrate that through their faith and their acknowledgement of His will, that anything was possible.  For years they had walked in the presence of God, daily the manna had rained down and sustained them.  They witnessed miracle after miracle, but they refused to turn to him, possibly too proud, possibly too selfish, possibly afraid to hope.  

But to this symbol of hope they now turned, they raised their eyes and their hearts, acknowledged God and he healed them, not just in body, but in spirit.  And in this the Nations faith and their perseverance had grown to the point where they were prepared to face insurmountable odds to take the land they had been promised, with the confident faith that God would guide them to victory.

But there is more to the story of the bronze serpent.  It reaches far beyond the early days of Israel.  We know more about this object, it survived for centuries.  It is mentioned in 2 Kings, as Hezekiah cleans the Temple “He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” (2 Ki 18:4).

In those days it had become diminished, something to be compared to pagan altars poles.  How had this great symbol of hope fallen so far?  It had become Nehustan, literally a thing of brass.  Once again the nations worship had moved towards idols and their faith had turned inward to themselves instead of towards God and this is what finally led to Israels fall.

We also hear about it again in Johns Gospel, but this time in a very different sense “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life”  (Jn 3:14–15).

And finally the fullness of what happened there in Numbers is revealed.  Moses lifted up the serpent, the symbol of hope and purification of sin, so that anyone who turned to it and acknowledged their sin could be saved and healed.  Over a thousand years later, God lifted up his Son, who literally became sin for us, and who offers us salvation from sin if we just turn to him and put our faith fully in Him.  So now we turn to the cross and look to it like the Israelites did in the wilderness.  It is a symbol of hope and salvation. 

But we have to be careful we don’t turn it into the same thing the Israelites did in the times before Hezekiah, we have to remember not to worship the cross as an idol, but to use it as a way to focus our faith in God, and as a pointer to the real saviour.

Like the people of Israel found, it is a lesson that is difficult to learn, that it is our faith in God that leads to salvation, not the strength of our own efforts.  And while God calls us to do many things, he guarantees us that we never have to do them alone.

Once Israel had figured this out they were able to finally complete their march, a march that took 40 years to complete but would end with them entering the Promised Land.  So sure were they now in victory, their faith in God so firmly intact, that we end Numbers with them deciding how to split up the land they hadn’t even entered yet, and they defined the cities that had yet to be built.

From a nation worried about where their next meal would come from, so short on faith even though the Lord dwelt amongst them, to a nation so empowered by faith in the Lord that they could achieve anything.  It was a long journey, a difficult journey, but a worthwhile journey.  It’s one that all of us are on as well as we develop and grow, as disciples, as followers of Jesus.  It’s like a roller coaster and the more you fight, the more twists and turns are thrown in your way, yet opening your eyes can be terrifying until you realise that you are safely strapped in, wrapped in the arms of the Lord who only wants to bring you peace, a peace that you can only find through faith.

I would like to close today with the blessing that Moses instructed Aaron to pray over the Nation of Israel, it’s a blessing you have heard many times before.  It’s a blessing that God himself instructed Moses to have Aaron say so that God could answer and bless the people:

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Nu 6:24–26)

Amen

Some thoughts from Luis Palau on the Problem of Evil

This is a really good write up on the problem of evil.  I especially like his summary of the four sources of evil:

• From natural disasters 
• Man’s inhumanity to man 
• Our own erroneous actions 
• From the unseen hand of Satan 

http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-problem-of-evil-and-suffering-52769/ 


Thanks to The Poached Egg for finding this one. 

The Temple Within

I am currently working through a course at Koinonia Institute and this is one of my answers to a question relating the Temple to our physical self.  It is a brief overview of the topic covered in much more detail by Nancy Missler.

Whilst the Israelites wandered the wilderness and campaigned to claim the promised land their worship was conducted at the Tabernacle.

Once David had completed his work he wanted to build a permanent home for God in Jerusalem but God would not allow him to as he had the blood of battle on his hands, but he did allow David to make preparations so that his son Solomon could complete the Temple.  God provided David with the exact blueprints for it and laid out what it would be built of and provided the resources for it to be constructed.

Essentially it is based on the plan of the Tabernacle but increased in all elements.  He also added some elements.  A wee porch and a couple of bronze pillars and some storerooms around the outside of the Temple itself.  We'll come back to these shortly.

Now looking at it architecturally all of this is rather glorious, everything has its purpose, to worship God in compliance with the Laws.  Its the spiritual heart of Israel and a symbol for all Jews that they are Gods chosen.  Its also mentioned that its rebuilding as a sign of the coming end of days.  And thats where most people leave it.

But Chuck and Nancy Missler ask us to look a little deeper.  Read the Old Testament through the New and reveal a deeper meaning to this.  Lets start with 1 Cor 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

What is Paul saying here.  How about Eph 2:22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Or even 2 Cor 5:16 For we are the temple of the living God

Could there be something more on this detailed plan given to David, the Temple built not by David but his Son.  So lets look at this plan (borrowing one of Chucks slides here):

So we have the Holy of Holies.  It is the place where the ark of the covenant sat along with the mercy seat, the seat of God.  In our terms it is representing the new spirit of the believer, Gods Spirit within us as we are reborn accepting Jesus as our Savior.

Next is the Holy Place where the man sacrifices and worship were conducted.  It represents our new Heart, brought into being by the entrance of Christ in us.  

Lets check out Eze 36:25-27 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will   cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you.  Sounds convincing so far.

Moving out we come across the Porch.  This is a transition in the Temple from the holy inner area which is incased on gold to the area which deals with sin and contains objects of bronze.  This is representative of the believer living in Gods Will not our own will and the transition from the spiritual to the flesh.  It is the conscious decision of letting God enter and guide our lives and when we listen to the guards at the door, the giant bronze pillars named Jachin and Boaz, we let the light of the new Spirit and new Heart flow out into the world through our flesh.  Did I mention what the guards names mean? Jachin is "in his counsel" and Boaz is "in his strength".

This porch is one of the most important parts of our lives as a Christian.  It is where we make that conscious decision to follow Gods counsel and live in his strength and not our own strength: Prov 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

If we replace Gods will will our will and start making decisions in the conscious mind based on emotion and desire instead of on faith, we close the door on the inner heart and spirit, and the power of sin starts to take hold of our lives.

The Inner Court is the place of dealing with sin.  It is where the sacrifices were made and the priests cleansed themselves before entering the Holy Place.  It is representing our conscious Soul.  The Greek word for soul is 'psyche' which has a two fold root.  It can mean either "it shall have life" or "it shall wax cold".  Interestingly this can represent a Spirit filled life or an empty cold space devoid of love.  The Soul is designed to reflect the inner beauty, to be filled with the life of God emanating from the inner spirit.

The Chambers which are in the outer court are our subconscious, the hidden parts of our Soul.  Interestingly these were used by the Priests to hide their idols and private possessions.  In the same way, it is the place where we hide out darkest secrets.

The Outer Court is our Body.  This is the part of us exposed to the world, the part that is exposed to sin.  It is also the part of us that demonstrates the inner to the world, it should show the light of Gods Spirit shining forth.

So with this understanding we can look at an oft quoted commandment Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  

All your mind, your Spirit that fills you

All your heart, that God has given you

All your soul that reflects the inner you and the decision to live in Gods strength and will

All your strength of your body that carries the other parts through this world and displays the inner love of God to the rest of the world in the way we live.

I have barely scratched the surface of this topic, and Nancy Missler has a series of sermons at The King’s High Way Ministries that cover this in wonderful detail and with great insight and to which I am much indebted for content in this answer.  Once again the connection between the Old and New Testaments, the layered meaning of Gods word and the depth of reward from seeking out the hidden truths leads me to a level of understanding that pushes me forward to seek even more.

The Gospel Genealogies and how God has prepared the way for us

Below is the message I presented at our church on Sunday 23/1/2011.  It was the first time I have given a full talk and presented my perspective in such depth, but feedback has been fairly good.  I am not ordained, merely a lay person with a hunger for Gods word and a desire to explore and share the scriptures with others.

God Bless,

Ross

Introduction

I’m here today because Wayne, and others, have encouraged me to continue exploring my desire to study the Bible in depth and share some of my studies with you. Quite honestly I have been more than a little nervous about how I approach this, and probably so has Wayne. At least last time I got up here, I was given a passage to exegete, this time I was given a little more carte blanch. I literally pondered for weeks on what I could share, but each time I thought of something it didn’t quite feel right. Then I remembered an answer my father in law gave me several years ago when I asked him how he knows what to say in his sermons. He told me that God told him what to say. Now me being more than a little skeptical back then, I just brushed it off as, well, crazy self-justification. But now, well now I know better, so I asked God for help, and waited for it to come. In the mean time, I thought I’d do some blog reading, and listen to some pod-casts, read some books,. Just pass the time while God got back to me.

Well several of those blogs, and books and pod-casts made reference to the genealogies in the Gospels, and the apparent problems of the discrepancies between them. Isn’t this curious I thought, they are all talking about the same thing, now I wonder when Gods going to get back to me.

Oh. Got ya. The Gospel Genealogies.

So, I dug deeper into what was in these blogs and podcasts and books, and in following through these studies, I came to see how the different genealogies demonstrate Gods careful preparation since the beginning of time and the development of his vision for our salvation, and how these discrepancies are not issues of who is right or wrong, but rather a wonderful example of careful planning and forethought, and an absolute necessity for the execution of Gods plan.

Even, up until Thursday I still hadn’t decided quite which verse would fit as a reading, which I must say was very nicely read. All of those names are not the easiest to read.

Well, I listened to a man named Jim Tour talking about studying the Bible and his approach to it, which he learnt from a man named Brother Bakht Singh a great planter of churches in India. And he described how he starts from Genesis 1:1 and reads to Revelation 22:21 straight through, and then starts again, and how he dwells on each passage for as long as God tells him to, and how he reads even the genealogies word by word, name by name. For each word has been put there for us to examine, to learn of Gods vision, to see Gods preparation and to experience his profound love and desire to save us from ourselves.

Now, I am not here to tell you what is right and what is wrong, what each word means exactly or how you are to interpret these mysteries for yourself, that is for you to determine.

What I can do is present for you some of the answers I have found and hopefully inspire you to look a little deeper into the word of God, to discover the revelation of his plan in the scriptures.

As John has recently been encouraging us to prepare ourselves for the year ahead and look for our vision, a key part of that preparation is in reading Gods word, given to us in scripture to explore and understand Gods vision and our purpose, and help lead us in the direction of our own vision.

So lets dig into a little deeper into the Gospel genealogies and explore Gods Vision with the following aims:

• What are the Gospel genealogies
• What are the difficulties with them
• How can we resolve these
• How they reveal Gods vision and preparation

What are the Gospel genealogies

Firstly, what are the Gospel genealogies?

Well there are four Gospels, and three genealogies.

Three you say? Well yes, in addition to the well known verses in Matthew and Luke, there is also one in John.

To understand the third genealogy, and why Mark does not include one, we need to quickly cover off what the Gospels actually are.

The word Gospel in classical literature means the reward given for good tidings. It also indicated the message itself, originally the announcement of victory, but later it was applied to other messages bringing joy.

The use of the plural Gospels to describe the first 4 books of the New Testament is a 2nd century adoption. So in its original meaning, there is one Gospel, the good news that God, in Jesus Christ, has fulfilled his promises to Israel, and that a way of salvation has been opened to all.

What we have in the first 4 books then are 4 different viewpoints of the one Gospel:

• Matthew - Gospel showing Christ as the Messiah
• Mark - Gospel of Christ as a Servant
• Luke - Gospel showing Christ as the Son of Man
• John - Gospel showing Christ as the Son of God

Now, taking these viewpoints into account lets look at the genealogies.

We’ll deal with the easy one first, Mark. Why is there no genealogy? Simply put because Mark is describing the life of Jesus from the perspective of Jesus as a servant, and servants had no need of a genealogy, no blood line to claim and no legal rights to enforce.

Next, we’ll quickly deal with John, because this is not universally recognized as a genealogy, but it makes sense to me, and it is one of the most beautiful pieces of prose in the entire NT:

John 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The first few lines of Johns Gospel are used to establish the preexistence of Christ and his relationship to the Father. While not technically a genealogy as we know them, it does provide the same purpose when we remember that John is focused on the divinity of Christ, and the standard form of genealogy just doesn’t really work in that situation.

Now for the main two.

Lets start with Matthew, the Gospel showing Christ as the Messiah, the Lion of Judah. To establish this claim, Matthew starts at Abraham and works his way through to David, from David to the exile to Babylon and from the exile to Christ, in 14 generation groups, so, you would expect 42 generations in all:

Matt 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

As a side note, this focus on 14 could be related to the name David in Hebrew Gematria being summed from the Hebrew letters Dalet (Gematria 4), Vav (Gematria 6) and Dalet (Gematria 4), giving a total Hebrew Gematria of 14. And we have three groups of 14 in the genealogy because there are three letters in Davids name, when spelt in Hebrew.

Finally we have Luke, the Gospel showing Christ as he Son of Man. So we work our way back from Jesus to David, David to Abraham, and then Abraham to Adam, and finally to God. Quite a journey, but it firmly establishes the blood-line of Christ.

What are the differences between Matthew and Luke?

At first glance, it is fairly obvious that the two genealogies are quite different. Apart from the fact that they go in different directions, they also have vastly different numbers of generations between Jesus and David, and have next to no consistency in names.

Next, when we look at these next to each other, we notice something rather strange, Matthew is David to Jesus through Solomon, as you would expect. But Luke is David to Jesus through another of Davids sons, Nathan.

Another aspect that jumps out are the number of generations between David and Jesus. Matthew outlines 28 generations while Luke lists 42. That makes for some consistently late bloomers in Matthews list.

Also, when comparing Matthews list to the books of Kings and Chronicles we also find 4 documented generations are completely missing! Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, between Joram and Uzziah, and Johoiakim between Josiah and Jeconiah.

Matthew also appears to have a problem with maths, stating there are 42 generations, but only providing 41 names.

While in Luke we have two names that only appear in his list, but nowhere else in the Bible, namely Cainan and Admin.

Do any of these pose problems, and what does it all mean in relation to Gods vision.


How do we reconcile these issues?

To understand these New Testament genealogies, we must refer to the Old Testament along with the nature of the writers, so lets remind ourselves again what the Gospels are about. Mathew is presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the King of Jews, the legal heir to Davids throne. Something only achievable through Solomons line to Joseph, his LEGAL father.

Luke is presenting Jesus as the Son of Man, through physical and continuous decent from Adam.

To reaffirm this, we have to go back to Hebrew words translated as genealogies, ‘toledoth’ which always denotes father/son relationships, always works forward, and is always complete in the Old Testament; and ‘yaghash,’ wherever it appears is used to establish legal rights or obligations; in contrast, it always works backwards tracing an individual’s legal right or duty back to its source. It does not always present a complete physical procession, for its purpose is only to establish a legal connection.

On the other hand, every Greek genealogy we have traces physical descent, always through the male line.

Now again we look at who the Gospels were directed at. Matthew was a Jew, talking to Jews, and generally accepted to have originally written in Aramaic or Hebrew, so it is acceptable to expect Hebrew usage. But of which type is Matthews genealogy. The clue to that is in the Opening line of his book:

Matthew 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Clearly it is establishing legal rights, skipping generations and working backwards, a yaghash.

Luke on the other hand was a physician, Greek trained and out to establish a blood line claim, so he would use the more accepted Greek form of genealogy. Ancient Greek genealogies traced the father’s lineage not the mother’s—but what do you do with the unique virgin-born Jesus? Certainly, Joseph was not his father, so the only logical male name available was that of Jesus’ maternal grandfather, Heli, for he was the last man involved in the genealogical process which led to Jesus. So Heli was the father of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus

We can also revisit the original Greek of Luke for a further clue. The original Greek is without punctuation, so if the parenthesis in v. 24 is moved to read “Jesus (being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph) the son of Heli …” the whole question resolves itself very accurately and logically.

Now the acceptance of Lukes genealogy being that of Mary is by no means universal, but it does extend back to very early in the church and was revived in the fifteenth century by Annius of Viterbo (Dominican Friar) and Martin Luther amongst others, and is popular among Bible scholars to this day. I personally find the evidence and arguments for this theory the most appealing and given that time does not allow me to outline the alternatives, I will present this as my conclusion today.

Now, this is where one of my favorite Chuck Missler quotes comes into play.

“The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed; the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed”.

Adding further credence to Luke reporting Marys genealogy, there is an interesting prophecy in Jeremiah, where it appears to refer to termination of Davids legal line to the throne from Jeconiah onwards.

Jeremiah 22:30 (ESV) Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

This implies a BLOOD LINE curse on Solomons line. I like the way Dr Chuck Missler puts it: “Again I suspect that when God declared this blood curse there must have been a celebration in the councils of Satan…He has committed Himself to producing the Messiah from the family of David, yet there is now a curse on that line. But then I also imagine God turning to the angels saying, watch this one!”

This separation of the genealogies from David resolves the prophecy. With Mary being of Davids blood line through Nathan, the Messiah is from the House of David yet avoids the curse, whilst still claiming the legal claim through Solomons line, through Joseph his adopted and legal father!

Finally, lets quickly run through the omissions and variances, that whilst not directly related to the vision, are actually a key part of Gods planning.

The missing Kings in Matthew are often used to throw doubt on its veracity, but they are in fact adding to its authenticity. 

Jehoiakim’s history provides a clue, for he was placed on David’s throne by Pharaoh Nico (2 Chron 36:4). Now, as Matthew traces Jesus’ legal right to David’s throne, Jehoiakim cannot be included, for he did not come by the throne legally, he was planted onto God’s Davidic throne by a pagan king! With this clue we can now consider the other three kings. Ahaziah was crowned by the people of Jerusalem (2 Chron 22:1), not the populace of the whole country. So this king, too, had defective title to David’s throne, and that means the kings who inherited succession from him likewise had defective title. It is not until Uzziah was installed as king by all the people of Judah (2 Chron 26:1), that proper title to David’s throne was restored. Matthew, then, correctly omits four kings whose defective title would have blemished Jesus’ title, for legal title can never be stronger than that of the one from whom it was acquired.

As for the 42 generations, that is quite easily explained when you review the meaning of Matthews statement as:

• Waiting for the Kingdom, 14 named generations
• The Kingdom operates, 14 named generations
• Waiting for the reestablished Kingdom, 14 named generations

Because Jechoniah was the last operative King and the first waiting King, he ends the second group, and starts the third.

Finally Lukes extra names.

A close study of Genesis, and I do not claim to have completed one. I am quoting Bible scholar Montague Mills and his book Life of Christ for this. A close study, shows Cainan is necessary to the chronology supporting the tower of Babel narrative, and Admin’s name is needed to fulfill Gen 15:16 literally, for, with Admin included, four generations were born in Egypt between Gen 46:12 and the Exodus (Ram, Admin, Amminadab and Nahshon). So Luke 1:4 is literal, the exact truth.

How does this reveal Gods vision

As usual, we have layers of meaning in the word of God. We have the prophecy fulfillment as outlined above showing Gods planning, we have the name of Christ as the culmination of a long line direct from Adam.

But also buried in the genealogy of Luke is the actual vision of God, the end game. And it is straight out of Genesis.

You see the earliest 10 names of Lukes Genealogy are the same names as in Genesis 5, and they all have meaning beyond the transliteration we read in the Bible today.

So, God planned this from the beginning, his vision was our salvation, his plan was detailed from the outset, carefully prepared step by step in advance, and executed flawlessly.

He made promises to present the Messiah from Abrahams line (Gen 12:1-3) of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10) of the house of David (2 Sam 7:12-16). He laid his plan out before all, including those that would have it fail, and they tried to make it fail.

But Gods vision would not be denied, he carefully thought things through, and planned so that all of the prophecies would be fulfilled, but in a manner quite unexpected. He set up false trails through the blood curse, he allowed false Kings to be appointed to divert attention. He encoded his message in the very names of the ancestors of Christ.

And all of this, buried in the Gospel Genealogies, often ignored and skipped over by people as they read Gods word.

I hope and pray that this may show you a new insight into the wonder of the scriptures and the incredible layers of meaning and proof within them. I have a verse, from proverbs that has called out to me on so many levels since I turned to Christ:

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

God has revealed his vision and plan for us all, it is up to us to find it, by reading the scripture, by absorbing it, questioning it. Searching for what God has revealed, his glory, his vision. Our salvation.