THE HEBREW SANCTUARY---1
After God gave Moses the Ten Commandments in Exodus 25.8, He says--
Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.
With these few words God tells Israel He wants to be with them. The plan of the tabernacle was a simplified version of the heavenly kingdom. Its' purpose was to reveal that Jesus of Nazareth is our high priest, our mediator, our sacrifice. As He was Lord of heaven, so He is high priest on earth.
The tabernacle will enable us to be with God in four stages:
Sacrifice for sins
Declaration of cleanness through the Brazen Altar, Laver, and Menorah
Daily Offices of the priests through the Veil and Ark
Judgment and Blessing in the Holy of Holies.
First, the Sacrifice for sins.
All of this took place outside the tabernacle.
The sinner brings the sacrifice to the tabernacle east door to cover sins. The sinner places his hands on the animal's head, making his confession. Then he slays the animal, collecting the animal's blood.
The Brazen Altar
At this point the priest takes certain portions of the animal to the Brazen Altar to be consumed by flames. The altar was acacia wood covered by bronze. The wood symbolized humanity, the brass symbolized suffering. When the animal was burned, this means Jesus protects the sinner from the fires of God, as they go on the animal. The altar was square, with four horns at the corners. According to Psalm 118.27 the animal pieces were tied to the horns, with the blood poured out below. Leviticus 9.24 says the fire came down from heaven.
The Laver
Before the priest burns the animal pieces he must come to this Laver to wash. This was a basin of water, made from the mirrors of the women. The priest washes his hands and feet, symbolizing baptism, the mirrors represent our sins, cleansing our souls and receiving righteousness. If the priest does not cleanse himself enough, he is struck dead, Exodus 30.21. This is because to reject the righteousness of Christ means the sinner and the priest die in their sins.
With this done properly, the sinner and the priest are clean before God.
Second, Declaration of Cleansing
Now we are just inside the tabernacle. This rectangular area is the Holy Place. We have the Table of Showbread, the Golden Candelabra, and the Golden Altar of Incense.
The Candelabra or Menorah used pure olive oil. The priest trimmed and refilled it. The wick was made of old priestly garments. It was always lit. It represents Jesus, the light of the world, John 1.9
The Table of Showbread was a small table made of acacia wood, covered in gold. It had 12 loaves of unleavened bread, representing Jesus, the bread of life, John 6.35 and the 12 tribes of Israel. Wine was also kept on the Table, so the Lord's Supper was present.
The Altar of Incense was before the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies inside. On it was a brass pot with coals from the Brazen Altar. A special blend of incense was burned here, which filled the tabernacle with a sweet cloud. This cloud obscured the glory of God over the Holy of Holies, preserving the high priest's life on the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16.13.
The Menorah is always lit, the Table always shows bread and wine, and the altar always shows the incense and the cloud. This is the eternal nature of cleansing from sin, once declared it is always so.
NEXT WEEK--THE DAILY OFFICES OF THE PRIESTS
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
MESSIAH--2
In the Middle Ages the Jewish rabbi Moses Maimonides wrote the guidelines of who the messiah would be for Israel. Usually 18 OT verses are used to apply proof to his text: Some of them are:
The messiah will restore justice, Isaiah 1.26
The messiah becomes king so the nations look to him for guidance, Isaiah 2.4.
The world will worship the God if Israel, Isaiah 2.11-17.
He will descend from David, Isaiah 1.11.
The Spirit of the Lord will be upon him, Isaiah 11.2.
Evil and tyranny cannot stand before Him, Isaiah 11.4.
Knowledge of God fills the earth, Isaiah 11.9.
He will attract people from other cultures, Isaiah 11.10.
All Jews will return to Israel, Isaiah 11.12.
Death is swallowed up, Isaiah 25.8.
All Jewish people will have joy and peace, Isaiah 51.11.
He will be a messenger of peace, Isaiah 52.7.
Nations will recognize the wrong they did Israel, Isaiah 52.13--53.5
The world will turn to Israel, Zechariah 8.23.
War is destroyed, Ezekiel 39.9.
These are the particular points Maimonides emphasized. According to these texts, the messiah is a future king from the line of David who will be anointed and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic age. He will rebuild the temple, reinstitute the Sanhedrin and animal sacrifices. All Jews will return to Israel. And the messiah will lead the Jewish people in what one website calls, 'full Torah observance.' Modern Jewish commentators say the messiah will be born of human parents, he will have no supernatural qualities, he will not be God.
While many of the OT passages Jewish and Christian scholars use concerning the messiah are the same, the different interpretations remain apart.
Jesus said--I am the Father are one, John 10.30. He said--I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father but through Me, John 14.6. Jesus created the way to the Father--by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, Hebrews 10.20. The Jews of His day believed they already had a connection to God.
Jewish scholars say Jesus did not rebuild the temple, institute animal sacrifices or install strict Torah observance. They say there was no prophet, that all Jews must return to Israel. Some Jewish scholars say Jesus was not a prophet, did not descend from David, that He did not lead Jews in Torah observance.
Christian scholars say Jesus ended the sacrifices as He was the last sacrifice, the Lamb of God, John 1.36. The Holy Spirit at Pentecost has made every believing soul the temple of God, 1 Peter 2.5, 6. Jesus said in Matthew 11.9 that John was a prophet and that the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. In John 4.19 the Samaritan woman at the well says--Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. In Matt. 21.11 the people say Jesus is a prophet.
But really these are secondary matters which might not change a person's mind. The significant issue is whether Jesus is God and whether Jews will return to full Torah observance.
Jesus said He was God, He came to fulfill the Law, that the Law will not pass away until all is accomplished, Matt. 5.18. What is to be accomplished? He said---All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you; and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age, Matt. 28.18-20.
In the Middle Ages the Jewish rabbi Moses Maimonides wrote the guidelines of who the messiah would be for Israel. Usually 18 OT verses are used to apply proof to his text: Some of them are:
The messiah will restore justice, Isaiah 1.26
The messiah becomes king so the nations look to him for guidance, Isaiah 2.4.
The world will worship the God if Israel, Isaiah 2.11-17.
He will descend from David, Isaiah 1.11.
The Spirit of the Lord will be upon him, Isaiah 11.2.
Evil and tyranny cannot stand before Him, Isaiah 11.4.
Knowledge of God fills the earth, Isaiah 11.9.
He will attract people from other cultures, Isaiah 11.10.
All Jews will return to Israel, Isaiah 11.12.
Death is swallowed up, Isaiah 25.8.
All Jewish people will have joy and peace, Isaiah 51.11.
He will be a messenger of peace, Isaiah 52.7.
Nations will recognize the wrong they did Israel, Isaiah 52.13--53.5
The world will turn to Israel, Zechariah 8.23.
War is destroyed, Ezekiel 39.9.
These are the particular points Maimonides emphasized. According to these texts, the messiah is a future king from the line of David who will be anointed and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic age. He will rebuild the temple, reinstitute the Sanhedrin and animal sacrifices. All Jews will return to Israel. And the messiah will lead the Jewish people in what one website calls, 'full Torah observance.' Modern Jewish commentators say the messiah will be born of human parents, he will have no supernatural qualities, he will not be God.
While many of the OT passages Jewish and Christian scholars use concerning the messiah are the same, the different interpretations remain apart.
Jesus said--I am the Father are one, John 10.30. He said--I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father but through Me, John 14.6. Jesus created the way to the Father--by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, Hebrews 10.20. The Jews of His day believed they already had a connection to God.
Jewish scholars say Jesus did not rebuild the temple, institute animal sacrifices or install strict Torah observance. They say there was no prophet, that all Jews must return to Israel. Some Jewish scholars say Jesus was not a prophet, did not descend from David, that He did not lead Jews in Torah observance.
Christian scholars say Jesus ended the sacrifices as He was the last sacrifice, the Lamb of God, John 1.36. The Holy Spirit at Pentecost has made every believing soul the temple of God, 1 Peter 2.5, 6. Jesus said in Matthew 11.9 that John was a prophet and that the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. In John 4.19 the Samaritan woman at the well says--Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. In Matt. 21.11 the people say Jesus is a prophet.
But really these are secondary matters which might not change a person's mind. The significant issue is whether Jesus is God and whether Jews will return to full Torah observance.
Jesus said He was God, He came to fulfill the Law, that the Law will not pass away until all is accomplished, Matt. 5.18. What is to be accomplished? He said---All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you; and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age, Matt. 28.18-20.
Friday, November 9, 2012
JESUS THE MESSIAH--1
Several times in the gospels Jesus of Nazareth is called, Son of David. The Jews knew that was the preliminary form of the title, messiah, because the sign of the messiah is that he would take the throne of David. Some Jews accepted Jesus as the messiah, many did not.
A blind man in Luke 18.39 is told Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. The blind man immediately calls Him, Son of David. How did he know Jesus was the Son of David?
Joseph, the husband of Mary, descended from David through Solomon, Matt. 1.6. In fact, an angel calls Joseph--son of David, in Matt. 1.20. Six more times in the gospel of Matthew Jesus is called or known as the Son of David, the one who will take the throne of David.--
Matt. 9.27, 12.23, 15.22, 21.9, 21.15, 22.42.
But calling Jesus the son of David was not true biologically since Joseph was not His true father. So why was Jesus called the Son of David?
The identity of the messiah was a well-known theme but not a specific one. In Psalm 2.6 the psalmist of this song says--
I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.
In 2.12 he says--
Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry
and you perish in the way,
for His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.
Here we see the psalmist, who is not named, say the messiah is the Son, His wrath will be kindled, and those who take refuge in Him are blessed.
The messiah is the one who fulfills the covenant with God by which the works of the devil are ended, ushering in a reign of peace and prosperity for Israel under God. This path of the messiah from Genesis 3 through the OT is shown by Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the prophets.
So the messiah--
must be born a man to be the seed of Eve, Gen. 3.
will be a preacher of righteousness like Noah, Gen. 6.7.
will be a man of faith like Abraham, through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed, Gen. 12.
will come through Judah as Jacob announced, Gen. 49.
will suffer in order to be exalted like Joseph, Gen. 37-48.
will be a prophet and savior like Moses, Exodus 2-16.
This is the wider application of the messiah through the OT to Israel. But there is in the OT a closer portrait of the messiah--
the psalms say he will be Son and King, Psalm 2.
Isaiah says he will be born of a virgin, 7.14, son of David, 9.1, the branch who will bring redemption and blessing, ch. 11, and the bringer of joy, 61.1.
Micah said the messiah will shepherd his people, Micah 5.1.
Amos said the messiah will be for all peoples, Amos 9.11.
Jeremiah said the messiah will be the king of righteousness, Jer. 23.5.
Now the NT writers know of these prophecies and fulfillments. Matthew says Jesus was born of Abrahamic and Davidic lineage, Matt. 1.2-16. Luke says the same thing in Luke 2.4-15. John the Baptist refers to the saving role of Jesus in John 1.29 when he calls Him, the Lamb of God. Matthew says Jesus will bring judgment as well as life, Matt. 3.1-12. Luke 1.51-55 says the same thing, that Jesus will bring down the rulers and bless Israel. Luke and John say Jesus was anointed as messiah at His baptism, Luke 4.16-22, John 4.24-25.
Then, what does all this mean?
For us it means the role of messiah was a royal one, taking the throne of David and more than that. The messiah takes a priestly role in Hebrews 10.19-22--
Since therefore brethren we have confident to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near...
He takes a kingly role so that the Magi say when Jesus is born in Matt. 2.2--
where is He who is born King of the Jews...
and Pilate wrote when Jesus died on the cross--
Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews, John 19.19.
And He takes the role of a prophet, as the crowd said in Matt. 21.11--
This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee..
All of this is to inaugurate the kingdom of God. That kingdom came then and through the church as the body of Christ the same kingdom is here now. Praise the Lord.
Several times in the gospels Jesus of Nazareth is called, Son of David. The Jews knew that was the preliminary form of the title, messiah, because the sign of the messiah is that he would take the throne of David. Some Jews accepted Jesus as the messiah, many did not.
A blind man in Luke 18.39 is told Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. The blind man immediately calls Him, Son of David. How did he know Jesus was the Son of David?
Joseph, the husband of Mary, descended from David through Solomon, Matt. 1.6. In fact, an angel calls Joseph--son of David, in Matt. 1.20. Six more times in the gospel of Matthew Jesus is called or known as the Son of David, the one who will take the throne of David.--
Matt. 9.27, 12.23, 15.22, 21.9, 21.15, 22.42.
But calling Jesus the son of David was not true biologically since Joseph was not His true father. So why was Jesus called the Son of David?
The identity of the messiah was a well-known theme but not a specific one. In Psalm 2.6 the psalmist of this song says--
I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.
In 2.12 he says--
Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry
and you perish in the way,
for His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.
Here we see the psalmist, who is not named, say the messiah is the Son, His wrath will be kindled, and those who take refuge in Him are blessed.
The messiah is the one who fulfills the covenant with God by which the works of the devil are ended, ushering in a reign of peace and prosperity for Israel under God. This path of the messiah from Genesis 3 through the OT is shown by Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the prophets.
So the messiah--
must be born a man to be the seed of Eve, Gen. 3.
will be a preacher of righteousness like Noah, Gen. 6.7.
will be a man of faith like Abraham, through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed, Gen. 12.
will come through Judah as Jacob announced, Gen. 49.
will suffer in order to be exalted like Joseph, Gen. 37-48.
will be a prophet and savior like Moses, Exodus 2-16.
This is the wider application of the messiah through the OT to Israel. But there is in the OT a closer portrait of the messiah--
the psalms say he will be Son and King, Psalm 2.
Isaiah says he will be born of a virgin, 7.14, son of David, 9.1, the branch who will bring redemption and blessing, ch. 11, and the bringer of joy, 61.1.
Micah said the messiah will shepherd his people, Micah 5.1.
Amos said the messiah will be for all peoples, Amos 9.11.
Jeremiah said the messiah will be the king of righteousness, Jer. 23.5.
Now the NT writers know of these prophecies and fulfillments. Matthew says Jesus was born of Abrahamic and Davidic lineage, Matt. 1.2-16. Luke says the same thing in Luke 2.4-15. John the Baptist refers to the saving role of Jesus in John 1.29 when he calls Him, the Lamb of God. Matthew says Jesus will bring judgment as well as life, Matt. 3.1-12. Luke 1.51-55 says the same thing, that Jesus will bring down the rulers and bless Israel. Luke and John say Jesus was anointed as messiah at His baptism, Luke 4.16-22, John 4.24-25.
Then, what does all this mean?
For us it means the role of messiah was a royal one, taking the throne of David and more than that. The messiah takes a priestly role in Hebrews 10.19-22--
Since therefore brethren we have confident to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near...
He takes a kingly role so that the Magi say when Jesus is born in Matt. 2.2--
where is He who is born King of the Jews...
and Pilate wrote when Jesus died on the cross--
Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews, John 19.19.
And He takes the role of a prophet, as the crowd said in Matt. 21.11--
This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee..
All of this is to inaugurate the kingdom of God. That kingdom came then and through the church as the body of Christ the same kingdom is here now. Praise the Lord.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
LORD AND CHRIST
A lady I know says she has trouble with the birth of Christ. Well, so did Herod! But my friend's trouble is with the understanding that the birth of Jesus was as God and as a baby. The poet John Milton called Jesus the 'infant God.' My friend can understand the human side of birth with Mary being pregnant; she can find a way to relate to God as coming to earth, but to put the two together she simply cannot fathom it.
I appreciate how she has come to terms with her own faith and limitations. She is like the woman in John 4, she has told the truth. And I think she represents millions of us who have trouble with Jesus being---both Lord and Christ, Acts 2.36.
Some of us stay on the side of Jesus as a man. We search for the historical Jesus, the man of fingerprints and sweat and sandals. Several attempts have been made in my lifetime to say Jesus never went to the cross, He never died and rose---He just went away with Mary to have a mundane life. This was D.H. Lawrence's The Man Who Died, Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ, the Passover Plot, and the DaVinci Code. All of these say Jesus was not God. Jewish intellectuals have always claimed Jesus was just another rabbi.
Some of us stay on the spiritual side, claiming Jesus was God but not a man. This was an original heresy in the early centuries of the church. Jesus merely seemed to be a man, but like one of the gods in Homer, merely appeared to be human when He never really was.
So now, to believe that Jesus was God and He was human, that has taken the church a few centuries to understand.
We certainly can't wrap our minds around it; but we can believe it. If Jesus were no more than divinity like the Greek gods, the world would have forgotten about Him. He would be off in someone's imagination, someone's memory, but no more. If He were only a man he would be in history books as a failed deliverer, one among many. As a man he might proved some axiom but that wouldn't convince anyone.
Jesus rose from the dead. There are many accounts of the risen Christ by His adversaries among the Romans and the Jews. God doesn't die; humans don't come back to life.
It is beyond us all that He was both Lord and Christ. Today we have no mechanism by which to combine humanity and divinity that compliments our own minds, so we don't believe it. Some of us go toward the divinity side of Jesus by pursuing signs, miracles and wonders, or some form of religion which denies the human. Some of us go toward the human side, saying if we can't prove Jesus was God He must not have been. So several writers have taken it as their task to prove Jesus lived. This can be done, but does it change the heart and soul of a person? Maybe not.
We could look at our century, our own times and see one one side the human rationalists saying if something can't be understood by rational processes, it doesn't exist. I am reminded of one of Shakespeare's lines--
there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
And we can look at our century, our own time and see those who only believe in strange spiritualities which have no ground of being. People who lock themselves in a cell until a wild dream comes through the iron bars, people who have rapturous fits, who don't et for days and abuse their bodies, 1 Timothy 4.3-5.
Only in Jesus Christ do we have someone who is the ground of being and the fulfillment of truth.
So how do we believe this? We do not stand back from Him, trying to hold in one hand His divinity and in the other hand His humanity as if we could balance the two. One does not neutralize the other. But if we ask Him to reveal Himself to us, He will give us all of Himself we can receive.
And we can receive what He will reveal, after all we are made in His image. The positive aspect of this is that we have all eternity to work it out.
A lady I know says she has trouble with the birth of Christ. Well, so did Herod! But my friend's trouble is with the understanding that the birth of Jesus was as God and as a baby. The poet John Milton called Jesus the 'infant God.' My friend can understand the human side of birth with Mary being pregnant; she can find a way to relate to God as coming to earth, but to put the two together she simply cannot fathom it.
I appreciate how she has come to terms with her own faith and limitations. She is like the woman in John 4, she has told the truth. And I think she represents millions of us who have trouble with Jesus being---both Lord and Christ, Acts 2.36.
Some of us stay on the side of Jesus as a man. We search for the historical Jesus, the man of fingerprints and sweat and sandals. Several attempts have been made in my lifetime to say Jesus never went to the cross, He never died and rose---He just went away with Mary to have a mundane life. This was D.H. Lawrence's The Man Who Died, Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ, the Passover Plot, and the DaVinci Code. All of these say Jesus was not God. Jewish intellectuals have always claimed Jesus was just another rabbi.
Some of us stay on the spiritual side, claiming Jesus was God but not a man. This was an original heresy in the early centuries of the church. Jesus merely seemed to be a man, but like one of the gods in Homer, merely appeared to be human when He never really was.
So now, to believe that Jesus was God and He was human, that has taken the church a few centuries to understand.
We certainly can't wrap our minds around it; but we can believe it. If Jesus were no more than divinity like the Greek gods, the world would have forgotten about Him. He would be off in someone's imagination, someone's memory, but no more. If He were only a man he would be in history books as a failed deliverer, one among many. As a man he might proved some axiom but that wouldn't convince anyone.
Jesus rose from the dead. There are many accounts of the risen Christ by His adversaries among the Romans and the Jews. God doesn't die; humans don't come back to life.
It is beyond us all that He was both Lord and Christ. Today we have no mechanism by which to combine humanity and divinity that compliments our own minds, so we don't believe it. Some of us go toward the divinity side of Jesus by pursuing signs, miracles and wonders, or some form of religion which denies the human. Some of us go toward the human side, saying if we can't prove Jesus was God He must not have been. So several writers have taken it as their task to prove Jesus lived. This can be done, but does it change the heart and soul of a person? Maybe not.
We could look at our century, our own times and see one one side the human rationalists saying if something can't be understood by rational processes, it doesn't exist. I am reminded of one of Shakespeare's lines--
there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
And we can look at our century, our own time and see those who only believe in strange spiritualities which have no ground of being. People who lock themselves in a cell until a wild dream comes through the iron bars, people who have rapturous fits, who don't et for days and abuse their bodies, 1 Timothy 4.3-5.
Only in Jesus Christ do we have someone who is the ground of being and the fulfillment of truth.
So how do we believe this? We do not stand back from Him, trying to hold in one hand His divinity and in the other hand His humanity as if we could balance the two. One does not neutralize the other. But if we ask Him to reveal Himself to us, He will give us all of Himself we can receive.
And we can receive what He will reveal, after all we are made in His image. The positive aspect of this is that we have all eternity to work it out.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
ALLEGORY AND TRUTH--2
If allegory is not the right word, what would be?
The passage in the Bible which is most often called an allegory is Genesis 3, the first sin, the first meal. What is so rare about Genesis 3 is that we are fallen people reading about a drama of unfallen souls. We will not experience the Fall ourselves, except to acknowledge that it has happened and we are the result of it. So how could the Fall ever be described in our lapsed language?
What was it like to be the first Adam? What was it like to feel the breath of God in your chest, to exhale the spiritual breath of the God who moved over the face of the waters before any world was? What was it like to feel God's smile on your eyelids, to open them to a blue world above like a girl's eyes and a voice like many rushing waters say, In our image...? Could anything we might imagine be as pure as golden air or sparkling wind or the feel of your own skin curl into the first fingerprint? Or to see the first soft fluttering rise of geese from a pond, or the bright standing of a tree leaning over a bank?
We'll never experience what Adam and Eve did. But we have been given these few, rare words of Genesis. How can we read them if we can in a sense never know them? We can look to other passages in the Bible which may enable us to see sunlight among the trees.
In Genesis 28 Jacob is sent away from his father. He comes to what the Hebrew text calls, the place. That night he puts his head on a stone, laying down to a night's sleep and dream. The dream is of a ladder to heaven, with angels going up and coming down upon it, from heaven to him. At the top of the ladder the Lord stood, saying--I am the Lord... Not only is this the rare time and place before Moses when the Lord says, I am, who He is but this dream reveals to us something out of heaven. It opens up out of the small, specific place where Jacob slept all of heaven and God's throne and God Himself. It is the drama of Genesis 3.
This tells us certain passages in the Bible extend from earth to the glory of heaven. The words are a spiritual drama unlike human dramas. The tragedies of the Greeks bring the audience deeper into the character onstage, to reveal something disturbing about the audience. However, the spiritual dramas of the Bible don't work like that. They do not open a character, they open the curtain of heaven so that we may see God above in our life below.
We can remember Genesis 16, with Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah casts Hagar out of the camp because Ishmael was born before Isaac. Hagar runs to Shur. There an angel comes down upon her, saying Ishmael will be blessed of the Lord, that she should return to Sarah. Hagar then realizes she has seen the Lord--Have I remained alive here after seeing Him? The drama is not that Shur exists but that there Hagar saw the Lord. The drama of that encounter, like that in Genesis 3, rises to prophecy, blessing, destiny. This is the spiritual drama of the Bible. The words are not allegory, they are spiritual drama.
The tabernacle in Exodus 25..8,9 puts it in tangible language. First, the Lord comes down. He says to Moses--let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. He doesn't just come to be with Moses and the priest, but among all the people. Then the Lord says--According to all that I am going to show you...The tabernacle will resemble heaven. The Lord came down so that the tabernacle would 'look up.' Genesis 25.30 says--You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times. The word for presence is 'face.' As Adam took his first breath before the face of God, so in the tabernacle the bread of His presence is before His face.
This is the God who embraces. And this is the spiritual drama of so many passages. They are not only real times and places and things but their inscape, their meaning comes down from God in heaven so that we through them might ascend to His glory.
So, coming back to Genesis 3 we can say these words are a spiritual drama--not untrue but words which give us the manner in which God has chosen to reveal Himself and His creation in which we belong. These words have an ascension upon them which we can receive by faith. As the tabernacle looked up to God and forward to salvation, the words of Genesis 1-3 look up to the Creator who will be our Redeemer. Revelation 19.9 says--These are true words of God.
The words of Genesis 3 are not just true, but livid.
If allegory is not the right word, what would be?
The passage in the Bible which is most often called an allegory is Genesis 3, the first sin, the first meal. What is so rare about Genesis 3 is that we are fallen people reading about a drama of unfallen souls. We will not experience the Fall ourselves, except to acknowledge that it has happened and we are the result of it. So how could the Fall ever be described in our lapsed language?
What was it like to be the first Adam? What was it like to feel the breath of God in your chest, to exhale the spiritual breath of the God who moved over the face of the waters before any world was? What was it like to feel God's smile on your eyelids, to open them to a blue world above like a girl's eyes and a voice like many rushing waters say, In our image...? Could anything we might imagine be as pure as golden air or sparkling wind or the feel of your own skin curl into the first fingerprint? Or to see the first soft fluttering rise of geese from a pond, or the bright standing of a tree leaning over a bank?
We'll never experience what Adam and Eve did. But we have been given these few, rare words of Genesis. How can we read them if we can in a sense never know them? We can look to other passages in the Bible which may enable us to see sunlight among the trees.
In Genesis 28 Jacob is sent away from his father. He comes to what the Hebrew text calls, the place. That night he puts his head on a stone, laying down to a night's sleep and dream. The dream is of a ladder to heaven, with angels going up and coming down upon it, from heaven to him. At the top of the ladder the Lord stood, saying--I am the Lord... Not only is this the rare time and place before Moses when the Lord says, I am, who He is but this dream reveals to us something out of heaven. It opens up out of the small, specific place where Jacob slept all of heaven and God's throne and God Himself. It is the drama of Genesis 3.
This tells us certain passages in the Bible extend from earth to the glory of heaven. The words are a spiritual drama unlike human dramas. The tragedies of the Greeks bring the audience deeper into the character onstage, to reveal something disturbing about the audience. However, the spiritual dramas of the Bible don't work like that. They do not open a character, they open the curtain of heaven so that we may see God above in our life below.
We can remember Genesis 16, with Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah casts Hagar out of the camp because Ishmael was born before Isaac. Hagar runs to Shur. There an angel comes down upon her, saying Ishmael will be blessed of the Lord, that she should return to Sarah. Hagar then realizes she has seen the Lord--Have I remained alive here after seeing Him? The drama is not that Shur exists but that there Hagar saw the Lord. The drama of that encounter, like that in Genesis 3, rises to prophecy, blessing, destiny. This is the spiritual drama of the Bible. The words are not allegory, they are spiritual drama.
The tabernacle in Exodus 25..8,9 puts it in tangible language. First, the Lord comes down. He says to Moses--let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. He doesn't just come to be with Moses and the priest, but among all the people. Then the Lord says--According to all that I am going to show you...The tabernacle will resemble heaven. The Lord came down so that the tabernacle would 'look up.' Genesis 25.30 says--You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times. The word for presence is 'face.' As Adam took his first breath before the face of God, so in the tabernacle the bread of His presence is before His face.
This is the God who embraces. And this is the spiritual drama of so many passages. They are not only real times and places and things but their inscape, their meaning comes down from God in heaven so that we through them might ascend to His glory.
So, coming back to Genesis 3 we can say these words are a spiritual drama--not untrue but words which give us the manner in which God has chosen to reveal Himself and His creation in which we belong. These words have an ascension upon them which we can receive by faith. As the tabernacle looked up to God and forward to salvation, the words of Genesis 1-3 look up to the Creator who will be our Redeemer. Revelation 19.9 says--These are true words of God.
The words of Genesis 3 are not just true, but livid.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
ALLEGORY AND TRUTH--1
An ordained minister said to me, "the Bible is all allegory. The stories may not be historically true but they have truth in them."
I've been thinking about this. If something isn't historically true it won't have any spirituality. If I say I'm a Hollywood agent and I'll make you famous, you aren't going to believe anything I say about God. If I say it's raining outside--and it is--then you might listen to me because I told the truth.
The issue all ancient peoples had to face was, the world is a terrible place in which to live. Life was frightening to the Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews and others. If God did not reveal Himself to them, they only had death in their future. Men died in war, women died in childbirth. Men had the psychological horror of war, women had social destitution. They all knew the abyss is a swallowing throat.
So we created insular psychological structures in which to hide from our own existence. We have built governments, works of literature and religion, science and knowledge to protect us from our own awareness. This is religion but not faith, medieval fables but not history. The quality faith and history have is they are based on the understanding that something must be historically true for it to be spiritually meaningful.
Some religions and philosophies have no reality to them. They are not really believed to the point of the risk of a life. The great writers know that for drama to exist, something has to be lost. The tragedies--Greek, Shakespeare, and others--all are bult on the understanding that something must be lost in order for something better to be gained. But in allegory nothing is lost, so there is no drama.
Jesus says you must lose your life in order to gain it.
The movies of today, with their computerized images, have no drama because nothing is being risked. It is all appearance, not drama. It is the Bible's historical truth that makes it so compelling men and women have died for it. God does not write allegory with some psychological point to it--God writes truth with great spiritual presence through it.
But some people say myth is true. This is like the fellow who said he talks to the clouds. He might do so but I don't believe in anything the clouds are saying. If the ancient Greeks concocted that someone named Sky impregnated Earth, producing drops of blood which became man, none of this has anything to do with God. It doesn't explain anything about us as men and women and it certainly doesn't deal with death. It might have made the ancients feel less horrified by their own existence but it doesn't alleviate that horror.
Still, allegory is symptomatic of our age. We have become multicultural, so we don't want to offend anyone. As long as Jesus was not a real person, we believe no one is offended and everyone can agree with everyone else. But if Jesus really did live, and do miracles, and be resurrected from the dead, then we are compelled to believe that He is God and no other. That will separate us from everyone else, that will expose the emptiness of every other religion.
Ultimately it goes back to whether Jesus is God or just a man. In some centuries He was believed as being no more than a man. In some other centuries He was believed as God, but not a man. The church went to a great deal of trouble in church councils to establish how Jesus was both God and man. But today, in our time we don't believe that.
So each generation must cut their own path back to Biblical times, to see Jesus as truly God and truly man. If we are tempted to allegorize Jesus, we are no more than speaking to ourselves, not listening to God. All religions look to a horizon, an ultimate place from which our own life is to be understood. Allegory does not look to God, it merely refers to the imagination of ourselves, by ourselves. And that is no more convincing to anyone today than the gods were to anyone in the past.
An ordained minister said to me, "the Bible is all allegory. The stories may not be historically true but they have truth in them."
I've been thinking about this. If something isn't historically true it won't have any spirituality. If I say I'm a Hollywood agent and I'll make you famous, you aren't going to believe anything I say about God. If I say it's raining outside--and it is--then you might listen to me because I told the truth.
The issue all ancient peoples had to face was, the world is a terrible place in which to live. Life was frightening to the Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews and others. If God did not reveal Himself to them, they only had death in their future. Men died in war, women died in childbirth. Men had the psychological horror of war, women had social destitution. They all knew the abyss is a swallowing throat.
So we created insular psychological structures in which to hide from our own existence. We have built governments, works of literature and religion, science and knowledge to protect us from our own awareness. This is religion but not faith, medieval fables but not history. The quality faith and history have is they are based on the understanding that something must be historically true for it to be spiritually meaningful.
Some religions and philosophies have no reality to them. They are not really believed to the point of the risk of a life. The great writers know that for drama to exist, something has to be lost. The tragedies--Greek, Shakespeare, and others--all are bult on the understanding that something must be lost in order for something better to be gained. But in allegory nothing is lost, so there is no drama.
Jesus says you must lose your life in order to gain it.
The movies of today, with their computerized images, have no drama because nothing is being risked. It is all appearance, not drama. It is the Bible's historical truth that makes it so compelling men and women have died for it. God does not write allegory with some psychological point to it--God writes truth with great spiritual presence through it.
But some people say myth is true. This is like the fellow who said he talks to the clouds. He might do so but I don't believe in anything the clouds are saying. If the ancient Greeks concocted that someone named Sky impregnated Earth, producing drops of blood which became man, none of this has anything to do with God. It doesn't explain anything about us as men and women and it certainly doesn't deal with death. It might have made the ancients feel less horrified by their own existence but it doesn't alleviate that horror.
Still, allegory is symptomatic of our age. We have become multicultural, so we don't want to offend anyone. As long as Jesus was not a real person, we believe no one is offended and everyone can agree with everyone else. But if Jesus really did live, and do miracles, and be resurrected from the dead, then we are compelled to believe that He is God and no other. That will separate us from everyone else, that will expose the emptiness of every other religion.
Ultimately it goes back to whether Jesus is God or just a man. In some centuries He was believed as being no more than a man. In some other centuries He was believed as God, but not a man. The church went to a great deal of trouble in church councils to establish how Jesus was both God and man. But today, in our time we don't believe that.
So each generation must cut their own path back to Biblical times, to see Jesus as truly God and truly man. If we are tempted to allegorize Jesus, we are no more than speaking to ourselves, not listening to God. All religions look to a horizon, an ultimate place from which our own life is to be understood. Allegory does not look to God, it merely refers to the imagination of ourselves, by ourselves. And that is no more convincing to anyone today than the gods were to anyone in the past.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
WORSHIP--2
Now as to our worship in church. The preparation for worship has a local form as does the end of worship. However, the three deep elements--Word, Presence, Spirit-- do not have a human form. They are the gift of God, God Himself.
First, the preparation. Jesus gives us our preparation in John 12.24-26. He says the soul must humble itself as a grain of mustard seed in the ground; if it dies it bears much fruit. Jesus then gives the interpretation and application. He says--He who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me and where I am, there shall My servant also be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
Then in John 13.3 Jesus washes the feet of His disciples. That separated them from the world, the flesh and the devil, John 13.11. It was what the priest did in Exodus 30.19--For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it (the laver). When the angel of the Lord prevented Abram from sacrificing Isaac, the angel separated Israel from the other nations who practiced human sacrifice. God is not honored by the dead. Romans 12.2 says--present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship.
Then in John 14.3 Jesus gives the disciples the foundation of faith--If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also. This is our hope, this is the assurance of faith, the evidence of things not seen, for which the followers of Christ persevere. If that heavenly place is our destiny and promise, how do we get there? Jesus says He is the way, the truth, the life. We can know this because Jesus brings the Word to believers that they would know He was the One sent from the Father. Our oneness with Jesus, our union with Him is in--where I am you may be also. So Paul says--with Christ, by grace you have been saved and (He) raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2.5.6. Our destiny with Him in heaven is our assurance.
Having said these things to His disciples, Jesus then has the Passover meal with them. This is the sacrament of Matt. 26.26 and Luke 22.15-20.
Then Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in John 16.7--I will send him to you. It is the power of God the Spirit given at Pentecost.
Then, as if to bring the gift of the Spirit to a high point in worship, Jesus says He has manifested the Father's name to the disciples, John 17.6. He says He is coming back to the Father, so He asks the Father to --keep them in Thy name, John 17.11. He gives the disciples His Word, that they may be sanctified in the truth, and not just them but everyone who believes.
Finally, in the power of the Spirit, sanctified by His Word, Jesus sends the disciples out into the world, Matt. 28.19. They are to take nothing but the power they've been given, Matt. 10 and Luke 10.
At this point we can culminate the worship by proceeding out into the world. In John 10.27-30 Jesus summarizes this in a few words--My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish...
Now that's secure.
Now as to our worship in church. The preparation for worship has a local form as does the end of worship. However, the three deep elements--Word, Presence, Spirit-- do not have a human form. They are the gift of God, God Himself.
First, the preparation. Jesus gives us our preparation in John 12.24-26. He says the soul must humble itself as a grain of mustard seed in the ground; if it dies it bears much fruit. Jesus then gives the interpretation and application. He says--He who loves his life loses it and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me and where I am, there shall My servant also be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
Then in John 13.3 Jesus washes the feet of His disciples. That separated them from the world, the flesh and the devil, John 13.11. It was what the priest did in Exodus 30.19--For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it (the laver). When the angel of the Lord prevented Abram from sacrificing Isaac, the angel separated Israel from the other nations who practiced human sacrifice. God is not honored by the dead. Romans 12.2 says--present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship.
Then in John 14.3 Jesus gives the disciples the foundation of faith--If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also. This is our hope, this is the assurance of faith, the evidence of things not seen, for which the followers of Christ persevere. If that heavenly place is our destiny and promise, how do we get there? Jesus says He is the way, the truth, the life. We can know this because Jesus brings the Word to believers that they would know He was the One sent from the Father. Our oneness with Jesus, our union with Him is in--where I am you may be also. So Paul says--with Christ, by grace you have been saved and (He) raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2.5.6. Our destiny with Him in heaven is our assurance.
Having said these things to His disciples, Jesus then has the Passover meal with them. This is the sacrament of Matt. 26.26 and Luke 22.15-20.
Then Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in John 16.7--I will send him to you. It is the power of God the Spirit given at Pentecost.
Then, as if to bring the gift of the Spirit to a high point in worship, Jesus says He has manifested the Father's name to the disciples, John 17.6. He says He is coming back to the Father, so He asks the Father to --keep them in Thy name, John 17.11. He gives the disciples His Word, that they may be sanctified in the truth, and not just them but everyone who believes.
Finally, in the power of the Spirit, sanctified by His Word, Jesus sends the disciples out into the world, Matt. 28.19. They are to take nothing but the power they've been given, Matt. 10 and Luke 10.
At this point we can culminate the worship by proceeding out into the world. In John 10.27-30 Jesus summarizes this in a few words--My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish...
Now that's secure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)