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Loving Leviticus - Introduction (Part 1)

Pop quiz Bible students: “People could not live by the Old Testament law because they were sinners and could not obey perfectly.” True or false?

To clarify, let’s say a person is living in the land of Israel during the time of Joshua.  He lies to his neighbor about taking a donkey or whatever.  Does his transgression of the ninth commandment mean that he cannot live according to the law? 

Before you answer, look at Leviticus 6:2-7. 

The answer is (drum roll please) “FALSE.” Successfully living under the Mosaic law did not require a person to be sinless.  God knew that the people would sin and so he made a way of forgiveness, even in the law.

But doesn’t the New Testament talk about the inadequacy of the law?  Lots and lots. The Old Testament law could never establish righteousness (i.e. Gal. 2:21), in the justification sense.  Under that topic, the law's only purpose was to convict of sin (i.e. Rom. 3:20) and teach us that we need Christ (i.e. Gal. 3:24). 

But the Mosaic law was intended to be a code for Israelites to live by.  If they adhered to it – striving to keep its commands and performing the various sacrifices when sin was committed – then God promised them a successful life in the land (Lev. 18:5).  

God told Joshua he had to “observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may go to heaven when you die?”  No no no.  The promised blessing was “that you may prosper wherever you go” (Josh. 1:7) and “you will have good success” (Josh. 1:8).  A successful, prosperous life in the promised land is different that justification.  The former required obedience.  The latter has always only been by faith (i.e. Gen. 15:6). 

So God actually “expected” Israelites to do this stuff.  The word Leviticus automatically reminds us of the Levites” which is fitting since most of the book deals with priestly matters and all the priests were Levites.  I am not a Levitical priest.  Neither are you.  [In my blog on Exodus (read here), I talked about the church’s relationship to Old Testament law.]  But there’s still a lot to learn from this book, especially as we consider the first chapters which talk about sacrifices. 

Life in the Battlefield of First John

“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that our joy may be full.” -  1 John 1:4

Byzantine picture of the apostle
 John teaching a disciple.

Our small, discussion-based Bible study at the chapel (Wednesdays at 7:15 - you are cordially invited) has given me truck loads to think about lately.  We started studying First John a couple weeks ago and so far we've covered a whopping four verses.  Like John in the prologue of his letter, I find myself so full of what I’ve learned that my happiness depends on sharing at least some of it.

The first four verses of First John set the stage for the rest of the epistle.  If we check out mentality during these four verses we miss the setting for everything that happens later and we are highly likely to misinterpret the book.  Reading different commentaries and listening to various sermons on first John has convinced me that when a person goes wrong on a passage, it is because they have lost sight of the theme and purpose of First John.

A common approach to First John is the “tests of life” view.  Warren Wiesbe’s comments are typical of it: “Eternal life, the life that is real, is a gift from God to those who trust His Son as their Saviour.  John wrote his Gospel to tell people how to receive this wonderful life (John 20:21).  He wrote his first letter to tell people how to be sure they have really been born of God (1 John 5:9-13).” 

Watch out! This is a bad approach!  If John wrote his gospel to tell people how to receive life (and he did), then wouldn’t a person know they had eternal life if they did what John told him to do?  There’s a lot of screwy theology behind the tests of life view, but leering behind it all is the assumption that a person could believe in Christ and not know it. 

Exodus Introduction (Part 2)

This is part 2 of an introduction to Exodus. Last time, (find it here) we divided Exodus into three parts - Israel's deliverance from Egypt (1:1-13:16), their descent to Sinai (13:17-18:27) and their dedication to God (19:1-40:38). We looked at the first section at a historical level, a personal level, and a Christological level.  Now we'll go over these same levels in the last two sections.

THEIR DESCENT TO SINAI (13:17-18:27)

The Historical Level

A possible location of Mount Sinai / Horeb

As if Israel’s grand exit from Egypt wasn’t enough, God continues to make it plain that He will care for them as they travel for three months from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai.  Most commentators identify the location of the burning bush at Mount Sinai, which means Moses is taking people along the path that he just took when he came to confront Pharaoh. 

Praise God that the journey we’re on has been trod before and that the path God call us to has been paved by countless other Christians, not to mention our great captain and leader Jesus Christ.  

Israel's journey to Mount Sinai was nonetheless a difficult time of testing.  But at each trial God miraculously saves His people.  These great acts of redemption would have been awesome to have witnessed.

The Personal Level

We can often think that if we were there,
we would be superheroes of the faith.

I can easily think that if I was there and saw those spectacular acts, then all battles with doubt would be won and I would become a superhero of the faith.

Not so.  As you read through this section, remember Paul’s admonition about these events to the Corinthians - “These things were our examples” (1 Cor. 10:6). The Israelites were believers (Ex. 4:31 and 14:31).  They were redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb.  They had seen God work, believed in Him and yet they still struggled.  We are just like them! God provides in some miraculous way and then we quickly forget about it when a new problem comes along.  We question His goodness, His ability, His willingness to protect us in the present.  Allow the Lord to convict of your own shortcomings and doubt and realize that you need a bigger perspective in trials.. 

Chapter 15 provides us with a great illustration of God's purposes in trials.  At Marah Israel complains about the bitter watter.  What did they think?  God had miraculously saved them Egypt, killed their enemies, and then would let the whole plan go to pot because He forgot the water there was bitter?  We read “There He proved them” (15:25).  He was teaching them that “man does not live by bread only but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3). This is really seen at their next stop. “And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and seventy palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters,” (15:27).  God wanted them stop at Marah, right before they could see the twelve wells and seventy palm trees.  Provision is easy for God.  But He has something greater in mind than our comfort – our character. 

The Christological Level

The Gathering of Manna, c. 1460-1470.
It looked nothing likes this.

But there's something even more profound in the way God leads His people.  From these events we read something of God's style.  Everyone has their own style.  If you’ve made it this far in the blog, you probably don’t mind mine.  In fact, if you read enough of my material you would be able to identify if an anonymous work was from the pen of Bruce Henning or not.  When the Lord Jesus steps on the scene, we should think “This style seems strangely familiar.  I’ve seen this guy’s work before.”  God has a way of doing things and much of the way He does things in Exodus is repeated in His great salvific act in Jesus Christ.

Here’s an example.  The people complain that there is no food.  Unasked for, God miraculously and graciously sends down bread to sustain them .  There were no preconditions.  No coaxing.  He saw their need and sent the life giving bread.  All they had to do was go out and get it. 

In Jesus' day, the Jews mixed up the story and said that Moses gave them bread.  The Lord corrected them – “Moses did not give you that bread, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world. . .I am the bread of life.  He that comes to me will never hunger and he that believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:32, 33, 35). 

We were perishing.  Unasked for, God miraculously and graciously sent us His son to provide us with life.  No preconditions.  No coaxing.  All a person has to do was go get it.  The difference is that the manna only lasted one day (twice on Fridays) and so a person had to gather it six times a week.  One “dose” of Jesus Christ, however, and a person has life forever.

THEIR DEDICATION TO GOD (19:1-40:38)

The Historical Level 

After Israel actually gets to Mount Sinai, we enter into the next major division of Exodus.  In fact, it's the next major division of the Pentateuch.  We divide “The law of Moses” (Luke 24:44) into five sections – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  But these five books one big story.  Genesis 1:1-Exodus 18:27 is the first part of the story.  It sets the stage for the central act.  The next section (Exodus 19:1 - Numbers 10:11) is the main unit – God giving the law to His people at Sinai.  Moses (the author, see intro to Genesis for discussion) feared that the nation would forget the Lord and disregard the covenant when he died (see Deut. 31:27-29).  In Genesis 1:1 – Exodus 18:27 Moses stresses

 * who Jehovah is

 * where the nation of Israel comes from

 * what the Lord has done for them.

In this central section (Ex. 19:1 – Numb. 10:11), Moses spells out for them their obligations to God as they live under His rule in His kingdom in the land He gave them.

Is this your nation's flag?

We’re in a much different situation today.  We are not Israel.  We are the new man, the church (Eph. 2:15).  We are not under the law. We are under grace (Rom. 6:14).  America is not a theocracy, nor is it the promised land.  SO, the appearance of a rule in this section does not mean that it is binding on us as believers in this age.

In my long-gone days of teaching, I had several different classes.  I had one set of rules for first hour and another for fifth hour.  Let’s say I wrote each class’ rules on a different poster-board and put them on the wall.  The first hour students would be free to look at the fifth hour poster.  But the rules they found there were not binding on them as such.  What makes a rule obligatory for them is its presence on the first hour poster. 

We could even take this a step farther.  Much of the two posters would be the same.  My personality does not change that drastically from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.  But there would also be differences in the posters because I would have different purposes and expectations for the different classes.  God’s character does not change, so of course we see much repetition in His standards for the church and standards for Israel.  But insofar as the nature and purposes of the church and Israel are different, we can expect to see different commands.    

The Personal Level

Could just anyone waltz into the tabernacle?
Maybe we should rethink some of our signs.

If the commands in this section are not binding as such, what should our attitude be toward them?  We should be interested in them primarily in their reflection of God’s character.  For example, God carefully and precisely instructs Moses how He is to be approached and worshipped.  He is a holy God and we must come to Him on His terms or the result will be disastrous.

We can go to the New Testament for some legitimate application.  God cares about the way we approach Him.  Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).  We have to come through Him for salvation.  Once believers, we must come only through Jesus Christ in worship.  “To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever” (Rom. 16:27).  God will accept nothing else. 

Many a well-intentioned new year’s resolution is broken while going through this section.  Remember, it is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16).  Remember, it communicates much about the character of God.  Pray that God will show more of who He is as you read the Old Testament law. 

The Christological Level

That’s not to say that all the details of the law are needless for us to study.  There is much for the diligent student to learn concerning the coming Messiah.  God has “hidden” truth there for us to unearth and when we do so we finds much about the precious Savior (this at least is how the New Testament writers saw it – see Heb. 8:5, 9:9). 

Some details clearly prefigure Christ and we know that because of the New Testament. 

-        -   The veil speaks of the flesh of Christ (Heb. 10:20).  It was torn that access to God might be opened. 

-        -   The mercy seat speaks of the sacrifice of Christ (Rom. 3:25).  God mercifully communes with His people there. 

Some details very likely prefigure Christ, but are not revealed in the New Testament. 

-          - There is one entrance to the tabernacle.  Jesus is the one way to God (John 14:6). 

-          - The brass altar was necessary to take away sin.  Jesus is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). 

-          -  A person had to be cleansed in the laver before approaching God.  If Christ does not wash us with his constant forgiveness, we can have no part with Him (John 13:8). 

-         -  The tabernacle was all gold on the inside and hearty unattractive seal skin on the outside.  All the beauty of Christ was on the inside (Isaiah 53:2).

Some details remind us of Christ, but we can’t really assign them the place of a “type.”  A type is a God-ordained picture of Christ (see Heb. 8:5 – the Holy Spirit thus showing).  To label a detail as a means we are certain God gave us this detail to foreshadow something later.  The dimensions of the tabernacle, the number and material of the sockets, etc. might remind us of a Christological truth if we have good imaginations.  But that’s different than saying we know the reason God ordained those things in the law. 

We talked about seeing Christ in the journey to Mount Sinai and also seeing Him in the details of the law.  Feel free to comment about shadows of Christ that particularly strike you.  (Okay, that was a blatant hint at one of my favorites)

Exodus Introduction (part 1)

An Emancipation Proclamation

Do you know who this president is?
He's James Buchanan

President James Buchanan inspired no box office hits.  

No luxury car companies are named after him.  

No works of fiction make him a vampire slayer. 

You have to know this one.

Not so with the next president, Abraham Lincoln.  His fame arguably surpasses every other president in our nation’s past.  Imagine living 150 years ago in 1863 and witnessing his Emancipation Proclamation, ending almost 300 years of slavery.  The Gettysburg address still sends chills down my spine, as distant as I am from the situation.  What an incredible moment in our nation’s history!

The Bible tells of the great emancipation of  a nation in slavery for over 300 years.  The book of Exodus records one of the key events in Biblical history by chronicling the nation of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt (1:1-13:16), their descent to Mount Sinai (13:17-18:27), and their dedication to God by the covenant (19:1-40:38).

People have read this great book and drawn strength from it for centuries.  Strike that.  Millennia.  It speaks volumes about the nation of Israel, about our own spiritual battles, and about God’s great Messiah – the Lord Jesus Christ – as He is foreshadowed in the many times God brings salvation.  So as you read through Exodus, keep your eye out for these features.  Read the text:

a.) on a historical level – what God did for Israel

b.) on a personal level – how Israel exhibits your own spiritual weaknesses

c.) on a Christological level –  how  “smaller” acts of salvation foreshadow the greatest act of salvation

DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT (1:1-13:16)

The Historical Level

Hyksos in battle

At the end of Genesis, Joseph’s bones lie in a coffin, waiting in the foreign land of Egypt to return to their rightful place – the land God gave Abraham and his descendants.   Exodus gives us that story.  Between those two books, Israel grows from a large family to a nation and looses their place of privilege when a new Pharaoh, named Hyksos (we know this from sources outside the Bible), subjects them to slavery.  The nation exists where it does not rightfully belong for 400 years.  

But none of this should have been a surprise.  God had warned Abraham that this would happen because He was being patient with the Amorites (see Gen. 15:13-16) before judgment came.  Did Israelites remember this promise?   It seems like some of them were.  Moses thinks God is preparing him to be the long awaited deliverer (Acts 7:25).  I can imagine faithful Israelites “watching the clock” in anticipation of what God would do.  Can you think of the excitement as the time drew near?  Eventually the time was fulfilled.  Right on cue God intervenes.  

The material in the first thirteen chapters of Exodus should be familiar to any Sunday School attendee – 

their oppression as slaves (1)

the birth of Moses and his flight to Midian (2)

the burning bush (3-4)

the command to make bricks without straw (5)

God’s promise of deliverance (6)

Moses’ miracles of the snakes and the ten plagues (7-11)

the Passover (12)

the exodus (13).

But familiarity breeds contempt.  So be careful.  These stories are so well known to many of us and so there’s the temptation to think in a “felt-board world,” as if the stories are made up fairy tales.  But these things actually happened to real people in real history!  If it would have been exciting to witness the Gettysburg address and see the long awaited freedom, how much more exciting would the events of Exodus have been!  As you read through Exodus, remember that this stuff actually happened!

The Personal Level

That’s not to say that there is no application for us personally.  We can easily identify with Moses.  How often do we have dreams for doing something great, even something great for God, and it seems like nothing happens?  How often is there a "detour" in our perfect plan?  Moses had to wait forty years in the desert!  But God was doing a great work in him, making him the meekest man on the earth (Num. 12:3). 

And we can easily sympathize with his reluctance to be used to God when the time does come.  Who doesn’t read the story of the burning bush and think “Oh Moses, what are you thinking?! God’s on your side – you don’t have to be worried about your own inadequacies?”  And then comes the Holy Spirit to us, like Nathan to David, saying “You are the man.”  In Moses we learn it’s about God’s timing, not ours.  And it’s about God’s ability, not ours. 

The Christological Level

Sculpture in U.S.
House of Representatives

He was an Israelite.  He narrowly escaped the wrath of the king.  He lived in Egypt.  He willingly gave up his glory to do God’s will and to identify himself with God’s people.  He was compassionate for his countrymen and wanted their deliverance.  His claims to be deliverer were rejected.  After his rejection, however, his people received him and so God rescued the Israelites.  He was a prophet, speaking as God.  He courageously led the people as a king.  Remind you of anyone? 

In the next post, we'll consider seeing the next two sections (Israel's descent and dedication) at the historical, personal, and Christological level.

Genesis

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” - Psalm 11:3

So it turns out the old ladies were right.   I used to bemoan the use of the same traditional stories taught over and over again in Sunday School to the neglect of unpopular stories.  That was, until I was put in charge of the Sunday School curriculum.  Then I began to see that the theological concepts that I simply take for granted were unknown to many of the attendees.  Where did I learn these foundational concepts?  The Sunday School “canon” of stories that are taught over and over again.  Creation.  Noah.  The Tower of Babel.  Abraham.  Jacob.  Joseph.  These stories should be harped on because they are extremely significant.  In this light, Genesis becomes irreplaceable, for it is filled with stories (and by that I mean narratives, accounts of what actually happened, not fairy tales) that powerfully communicate the ground work for the rest of our beliefs.  Every serious student of the Bible needs to master the book of Genesis.

The Place of Genesis

Its Place in Scripture

The Bible is divided into two parts – the Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament is divided, according the Jewish tradition, into three parts – the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.  The Law (aka the Torah by the Jews or the Pentateuch) is divided into five (hence the prefix penta) sections.  And Genesis is the beginning of it all.  It sets the stage for the great drama of redemption that is to unfold in the rest of revelation.  Take out Genesis and most of the Bible is unintelligible.

Its Place in History

From a student of Scripture's perspective, Genesis is a sturdy rock upon which everything rests.  It should come as no surprise then that from the perspective of the history of studying religion, Genesis is a battleground.  We’ll visit two battle sites where the war has raged – authorship and sources.

Authorship

Julius Wellhausen,
popularizer of  the JEPD theory

Conservative scholarship believes Moses wrote the first five books.  In contrast, liberal scholarship adheres to this thing called the JEPD theory.  This theory says that different authors or groups of authors (each letter represents a different author’s peculiarity) starting in the 800’s B.C. and spanning the next couple hundred years, each wrote their take on the beginning of the world and the beginning of Israel.  The different accounts, according to this theory were then edited and put together to harmonize as much as possible.  Any alleged contradictions in events or in style of writing are attributed to the compiled nature of the book. 

Why do conservatives believe Moses wrote the first five books?  Because that’s what the Bible says.  While Jews and Christians have held for centuries that Moses wrote Genesis, the most important person who held this view was Jesus Christ.   See Mark 12:26, Luke 16:31, and Luke 24:27 and 44 for examples.  Some claim that He was simply accommodating to the beliefs around Him, but the One who is the truth does not accommodate to falsehood.  He accommodated to a Jewish way of life, but never to their error.  For anyone who upholds Him as a reliable source, His testimony solves the issue.  For those who are interested in a conservative response and refutation of the JEPD theory, I suggest the reading Josh McDowell’s treatment of it in his The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

Source

Naturally, who you view as the author of the book will influence where the material comes from.  But if we say that Moses is the author, how did he know about events that took place up to thousands of years before he lived?  The most likely answer is from the Person who was there when the events happened – God.  Remember when Moses would go into the tent of God and his face shone so brightly that he had to put a veil on?  God was talking with Moses as a friend talks with a friend.  (Ex. 38:8-11).  I can easily imagine that the information we read in Genesis came from those spectacular conversations. (By the way, I'm looking forward to having those kinds of conversations in the coming kingdom.  I hope you are too!)

But the book of Genesis is not the only ancient text we have describing the beginnings of the world.  For example, the Bablyonian Text “Enuma Elish” describes the god Marduk’s victory over the sea monster Tiabat and his forming, from her dead body, the heavens and the earth  Afterwards, he executes her henchman consort Qinqu and from his blood and the clay of the earth he forms humanity.  In the Gilgamesh Epic, divine anger leads to global destruction leads to global destruction by means of a flood.  However one human being and his family escape by building an ark on which he brings the animals.  When the flood waters recede, the ark comes to rest on a mountain.  To check whether it is safe to disembark, the flood hero, Utnapishtim releases three birds in succession.  When he leaves the ark, he first offers a sacrifice. 

What should we do with these accounts?  First, we can contrast them with the account in Genesis to gain a better feel for the impact it would have had on the original hearers.  The creation account in Genesis contrasts with “Enuma Elish” and we can suspect that the original readers would have noticed these contrasts.  There were not several gods competing, but one God, who was there in the beginning.  Nothing forced or coerced Him to create.  He simply chose to.  The universe was not made of pre-existent stuff, like an old dead god.  God brought it to being out of nothing. 

A scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh

Second, we can think about how they are similar.  The Gilgamesh Epic sounds strikingly similar to the story of Noah.  Some have pointed out these similarities as an attack against the reliability of Genesis.  And Christians can shake with fear because the arguments sounds esoteric and confusing.  Hold your horses everyone.  What is the argument?  Is it that since there are (at least) two very similar accounts of the world being destroyed by a flood, that means. . .there was no flood?  How would another, independent account discredit the one we already have?  Or is the argument that Moses (or whoever) got his information from the Gilgamesh Epic?  First, notice that’s just one of four possibilities.  It could be that the Gilgamesh Epic came from Genesis.  Or it could be that that there was a “parent document” which gave rise to both stories.  Or, fourthly, there is no literary connection.  But in any of the first three situations, the reliability of Genesis is not lessened.  Moses could have received all of his information directly from God, but didn’t have to.  He admits using sources (Ex. 24:7, Num. 21:14), as do other biblical writers (i.e. Luke 1:1-4).   The doctrine of inspiration only requires that God was supervising the whole process to keep Moses from error. 

All that to say, the stories that convey the foundation theology of Genesis are reliable accounts of actual history.  There is no need to feel intimidated by liberal scholarship.  Trust the Lord and you'll be fine.

                            

The Plan of Genesis

Genesis is like a car racing towards a stop light and then slamming on the breaks.  It covers a lot of terrain very quickly – thousands of years in eleven chapters.  It then slows down its pace when it gets to Abraham in chapter twelve.  It then slows down even more when it approaches its destination by telling in depth the story of Joseph as that sets the stage for why Israel is in slavery in Egypt. 

One way to outline Genesis is by noticing the repeated phrase “This is the generation of. . .”  If we take those as our dividers, the outline looks something like this:

   1.       Intro: The creation of the world (1:1-2:3)             

   2.       The generations of the heavens and of the earth (2:4)

   3.       The generations of Noah (6:9)

   4.       The generations of the sons of Noah (10:1)

   5.       The generations of Shem (11:10)

   6.       The generations of Terah (11:27)

   7.       The generations of Ishmael (25:12)

   8.       The generations of Isaac (25:19)

   9.       The generations of Esau (36:1)

   10.   The generations of Jacob (37:2)

A simpler outline focuses on the beginning of the world and the beginning of Israel.  We have:

   1.       Before Abraham [Primeval History] (1-11)

   2.       Abraham and After [Patriatchal History] (12-50)

The Purpose of Genesis

Look for What is There

The purpose of Genesis is not to satisfy all of our curiosity, so we must be content to focus on what God did choose to tell us.  There is no point in reading between the lines to answer questions like what life was technology like before the flood or what religion was like under the leadership of Melchizedek or where Satan got the idea to rebel against God.  We’ll have to wait to ask the Lord those things in glory. 

Look for God’s Character

The fourth word in Genesis introduces us to its main character and great hero – God.  Remember that Genesis is a foundational book and there is much to be learned about the essential nature of God when reading it.  So as you read through Genesis, ask yourself “What do I learn about who God is from what I’ve read?”  Here are a few I found:

He is Transcendent

The Andromeda Galaxy,
the work of God's fingers

As you read the account of creation, the person of God is immensely impressive.  He stands over creation, completely independent of it.  He is not like Santa Claus, who has power only if people believe in him.  He in no way needs creation.  He was not forced to create – He simply chose to do so for His own glory.  Think of His incredible power in verses like Gen. 1:16 – “He made the stars also.”  It’s half of a sentence, almost thrown in there!  For Him, the creation of billions of galaxies is "the work of his fingers" (Psalm 8:3).  He exists outside of the universe as the all-powerful creator.

He is Immanent

And yet He stands inside the universe as intimately concerned with the well being of every creature.  He is not just the great cosmic designer.  He is personal and is concerned with people’s actions.  He walks with Adam and Eve in the garden.  He gives directions, not suggestions, and watches to see if people will obey. 

He is Just

When His creatures disobey, we see God’s justice in that sin must be punished.  The world is plunged beneath the curse because Adam and Eve’s one act of disobedience.  They are banished from God’s presence because He cannot tolerate imperfection.  The world quickly goes from bad to worse till “every imagination of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).  And so a destruction comes that still has not had its equal – the great worldwide flood, killing millions, if not billions, of men, women, boys and girls.  What a tragedy that this horrific event is so often cutesified and people only remember the toddler's version.  The screaming out of a countless number of dying souls should be a vivid reminder that God's punishment for sin does come in time.   

He is Gracious

But alongside every display of the justice of God, we see His grace as well.  With the fall there’s the God-given sacrifice and promise of a redeemer.  With Cain there’s the mark.  With the flood there’s the ark.  With Sodom and Gomorrah there are the angels to rescue Lot.  And the list goes on.

He is Sovereign

Through all the acts of rebellion, punishment, and offers of grace, nothing catches God by surprise.  As you read through Genesis, it becomes very clear that everything is headed towards his determined end as we see one man called out from the nations, being prepared to be his people.  We can see God’s great sovereignty over the whole world in microcosm with Joseph.  Though injustice after injustice occurs, the dreams God gave Joseph do come true.  In fact, we can say it was through the injustices of man that God accomplished his goal.  Joseph himself grasped God’s sovereignty in those famous words to his brothers – “you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20).

I remember teaching my little sister how to play chess as a child.  I was (and still am!) five years older than her, which is quite a difference when you’re twelve.  I could always get her to put her queen in harm’s way by putting a pawn out.  I remember the excited look on her face as she saw that she could take the pawn.  She would say “you’ve made a mistake now Bruce” as she slid her queen down the board take my insignificant piece.  Now, I didn’t coerce Bethany to more her queen.  I didn’t reach across the board and cheat by moving it against her will.  I set up the board so that she freely did what was in my plan.  And that, in some small way, is what God’s sovereignty is like – never violating our free will, never "reaching across the board" and manipulating our actions, but setting things up so that  His will is accomplished.

The land would not have been saved if Joseph was not in charge of the grain in Egypt.
And that wouldn’t have happened if the cup bearer didn’t remember Joseph.
And that wouldn’t have happened if Joseph wasn’t in prison.
And that wouldn’t have happened if Joseph wasn’t wrongly accused.
And that wouldn’t have happened if Joseph wasn’t sold.
And that wouldn’t have happened if his brothers weren’t angry with him.
And that wouldn’t have happened if God hadn’t given Joseph his dreams! 

Look for Christ

Genesis three is one of the most significant chapters of the Bible because it not only explains the entrance of sin and why we are not in paradise any more, but it gives the first promise of a redeemer, One who will crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15).  Chapter three actually frames the rest of the Bible.  Throughout the rest of Genesis (and also the rest of the Bible for that matter), God will often intervene in creation to provide salvation for mankind.  These are all “mini-salvations” in that they are smaller versions of the great act of salvation predicted in Genesis 3:15.  Just like my little boy’s play farm animals look something like the real deal, so these “mini salvations” bear a resemblance of the great and ultimate and real salvation that will be provided by the Messiah.  So as you read through Genesis, keep your eye out for “pictures of redemption.”  The slain animal, the ark, the offering of Isaac, the betrayal  of Joseph and his rise to glory, are all great portrayals of the redeemer crushing the serpent’s head.  1 Pet. 1:11 says that in the Old Testament, “The Spirit of Christ . . . testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow.”  So as you read Genesis, allow the Spirit of Christ to show you more of who God is and what he has done in giving His Son to crush the enemy and reverse the curse.  

Isaiah

Isaiah, by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel

“No book in the Hebrew Bible can be compared with its sheer grandeur and majesty.”[1]  No Old Testament book presents salvation more clearly. It has been called the fifth gospel.  It has been called the mini-bible.  The prophet who wrote it lived over seven hundred years before Christ.  He started his ministry by seeing the Lord.  The Lord gave him a mission to walk naked in Jerusalem for three years.  We are going to look at one of the most profound and interesting books in the Bible – Isaiah.

The Outline of Isaiah – The Mini Bible

Isaiah’s prophecy, the “mini-Bible,” has sixty six chapters, as our Bibles have sixty six books.  The first thirty nine books of the Bible, the Old Testament, correspond to the first thirty nine chapters of Isaiah, both of which focus on sin and (therefore) judgment.  But Isaiah 40:1 reads “comfort my people” and with those words Isaiah transitions to a new focus.  In the twenty seven chapters that follow, we have a new section, which we may call the “New Testament” portion of Isaiah since it emphasizes the coming messiah and the blessings of God’s salvation.  A simple outline would look something like this:

I.                    Isaiah 1 – 39 Focus on Judgment for Sin à corresponds to the Old Testament

II.                  Isaiah 40 – 66 Focus on the Messiah and Salvation à corresponds to the New Testament

Notice the word “focus.”  The main emphasis in the first section is judgment and the main emphasis on the second is salvation.  But that does not mean that there is no mercy in the first portion or no judgment in the second any more there is no mercy in the Old Testament or no judgment in the New!  We are presented with a savior in the first section (chapters seven, nine and eleven are well known, especially at Christmas time), but that is not the emphasis.  We have judgment in the second section (chapter 63 is a gruesome picture of the Lord executing vengeance), but again, that is not the focus. 

The Authorship of Isaiah – Only One?

This separation has led liberal scholars to divide up Isaiah into two separate authors, the one responsible for the second section being called “Deutero-Isaiah.”  Others scholars add more authors, claiming Isaiah is a collection of many writers.[2]  Oversimplified, their reasoning is this: Whereas the first thirty nine chapters seem to have Israel before the Assyrian captivity in mind, the second section seems to have Israel in the captivity of Babylon in mind.  The second portion deals in such specific terms it must have been written by someone alive at that time.  In response, the story told in chapters 36 to 39 form a break in Isaiah’s prophecy.  They describe how King Hezekiah’s obedience and reform led to a postponement of God’s judgment.  However, at the end of the story we discover that Hezekiah allows people from Babylon to see the secrets of the city.  As a result, Isaiah says that “Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.  And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon (Isaiah 39:6-7).”  This story is a transition, and from then on God uses Isaiah to speak prophetically to the nation for when they are in captivity.  The fact that Isaiah speaks in detail to the nation hundreds of years in advance does, in a sense, demand that someone besides Isaiah wrote those portions.  But it is not a so called “deutero-Isaiah.”  In the words of Isaiah 48 – “The Lord of Hosts is His name!” 

The Theme of Isaiah – The Greatest One of All

One of the best questions you can ask as you read the Bible is “What do I learn about God from what I’ve read?”  Though there are many fascinating things about Israel, angels, Satan, Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, the Millenium, etc. in Isaiah, the greatest subject in this prophecy is God Himself.  We will take Isaiah 45:21b as our theme verse for this book “There is no god beside me, a just God and a savior.”  These three attributes of God are thread all throughout this wonderful prophecy.

The Only God

“Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?  Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’ ” Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me. I have made the earth, And created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded.” Isaiah 45:9-12

In Isaiah we find that it is the LORD alone who is the true God.  He alone is the creator.  Anyone else is an imposter and a false God.  See Isaiah 31:7 for an example of how idols are mocked.  But the creation of the universe is a miracle that neither Israel, nor we, could verify.  That is to say, the LORD (as in Jehovah, the covenant name for the God of Israel) claims to be the creator.  Others, like Baal, Allah (in the sense of the God of the Koran) or the many gods of Native American religions or Mormonism, also claim to be the creators.  We can see easily enough that there must have been a designer, but how can we tell which supposed deity is that designer?  To prove that He is the only God, the LORD not only reveals Himself as the creator of heaven and earth, but also as the controller of history and events.  Time and again in Isaiah the LORD proves that He is the true God by fulfilling prophecy. 

Often when you create a username and password for an internet site, you are asked to give answers to identity questions.  I know well the reason why because I often forget my password.  If you request for the site to give you your password, they ensure that it is the real you and not an imposter by asking you an identity question, something that only you would know.  In Isaiah, God gives the world His identity question – something that only God would know – the future.  This is a sure proof for even a hard headed skeptic.  Notice that this is the Lord’s logic in Isaiah 48:3-8, “I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I knew that you were obstinate, and your neck was an iron sinew, and your brow bronze, even from the beginning I have declared it to you; Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’ “You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’  Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb.” 

As a side note, notice that God is concerned with convincing the stubborn.  As seekers, it is our responsibility to have soft hearts and to “buy the truth and sell it not.”  But as God’s representatives our position is that of Paul, “therefore knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men,”  even if the person is being difficult.  We can remind them that they need to seek for the truth, but that does not let us off the hook.  All too often people shrug out of their God given mandate to persuade others because they make the decision that the other person wouldn’t want to hear it anyone, so why “cast your pearls before swine?” 

But let’s get back to prophecy in Isaiah.  God proves Himself by predicting the future.  This same reasoning occurs frequently throughout Isaiah (see for example 44:24-28, 45:1-6), but at this point I want to bring up one specific occurrence.   In Isaiah 7, King Ahaz (of Judah) is about to be besieged by King Rezin (of Syria) and King Pekah (of Israel).  Through Isaiah, God comforts Ahaz that this will come to nothing and that he shouldn’t be afraid.  To prove Himself, God gives Ahaz a sign – “the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.  For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.  The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father's house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.” (Isaiah 7:14-17)  Many of us are very familiar with this prophecy and know that it is used in reference to our Lord’s birth (see Matt. 1:23).  But clearly this was fulfilled in the days of King Ahaz!  This is an excellent example of what is called “double fulfillment.”  Some prophecies are worded in such a way that the whole thing (or just different parts) are fulfilled at separate times in history.  Keeping this in mind will save you from a good deal of confusion as you read through Isaiah.  For example, we find double fulfillment in chapter 13 (the destruction of the past Babylon and the Tribulation with its destruction of the future Babylon) and chapter 14 (the King of Tyre and Satan).

Because the LORD is the only God, He alone deserves the glory.  Twice we read in Isaiah that the Lord “will not give His glory to another.”  He alone stretched out the heavens.  He alone controls history.  He alone is to be worshipped.  When we get this emphasis in Isaiah, the wording of the New Testament becomes all the more significant.  In Isaiah we read “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.” (Isaiah 45:22-23).  In the New Testament we read “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11)  In Isaiah we read “I am the LORD, and there is no other. . .I – my hands – stretched out he heavens.” (Isaiah 45:5, 12)  In the New Testament we read “by Him [Jesus Christ] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Col. 1:16-17).  In Isaiah we find in the clearest terms that there is only one God.  And in the New Testament we discover that He is Jesus Christ!

The uniqueness of God was so important for the Israelites to remember, especially in light of their attackers.  In the narrative section (chapters 36-39), Sennacherib attacks Judah.  The Rabshekah that he sends is like many who attack the people of God today – he tries to play the religion card and sneak in privily as a false brother, only to show his true colors in the end.  In an effort to get Judah to surrender, he says in 36:7 “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” (how many are like this today, attacking the faith without actually doing their homework!)  He says in verse 10 “Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ” (Not all that glitters is gold – not everyone using the name of the LORD is speaking for Him.  Some say the exact opposite!) Then he shows his true colors in verse 18, “Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ” The uniqueness of God was an important for Isaiah’s audience.  The same lessons are needful for us today.  May we recognize the Rabshekahs of today, who try to lump Jehovah in with the so called gods of other religions.  The LORD will not have it.  “We are in Him who is true and in His Son, Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life.  Keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21) May we be faithful to the only God, “besides Him there is no other.”

The Just God

It stretches the imagination to hear people say as authorities of Christianity that God is mostly about love and not about punishment.  One wonders, have you ever read . . . the Bible?  You certainly won’t get that idea from Isaiah.  For therein  we read in no uncertain terms that God is a just God and always punishes sin.   The message of the seriousness of sin hits us in the very first chapter in these famous words.  We quote it at length so you can get a feel for the heaviness of Isaiah’s tone.   “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city. Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:2-15).  So much for the idea that God is not concerned about sin.

As you read through Isaiah you’ll find that “God is no respecter of persons,” (Acts 10:34). Egypt is held accountable for their sins (chapter 19).  Moab is held accountable for their sin (chapter 15).  Israel is held accountable for their sins (i.e. Isaiah 1:2-15, 10:5-6, 64:6).  God punishes Israel by sending the Assyrians.  And then the Assyrians are held accountable for their sins by the coming Babylonians.  And then the Babylonians are held accountable for their sins by the coming Persians.  And guess what – the Persians are held accountable for their sins. 

The other day at our Kids’ Club, a girl complained to me that someone kicked her in the shin.  I investigated the situation and found out that the kicker was just paying her back for being kicking earlier.  This sort of situation is commonplace to anyone in children’s work or parenting.  So what did I do?  I told the one who complained to me that she got what she deserved and that if you kick people they will want to hurt you in return.  But then of course I had to deal with the other girl and she got in trouble too!  The same thing happens on a larger scale all throughout the world.  Isn’t it good to know that there is someone above it ALL who knows all and is perfectly just!

This quality about God is so fundamental to His nature that when Isaiah is called to his ministry in chapter six, he sees the Lord sitting on His throne and the seraphim worship saying “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  When Isaiah sees Him, his exclamation is the same as Peter’s – “woe is me I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Is. 6:5).  Many today would see themselves as basically good.  Their problem is that they don’t know good.  They haven’t seen the King, the Lord of hosts.  If they could see the one who is thrice holy, then they would fall down like Isaiah and say “woe is me.” 

This emphasis of the Lord being holy and just runs throughout all of Isaiah.  When we get to the New Testament, we find who this holy holy holy God is.  After quoting from the passage above, Isaiah 6, John says “These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.” (John 12:41) In Isaiah we find that God stands far above all His creation, absolutely holy.  In the New Testament we discover that it is Jesus Christ who is this just God, who is “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.”  (Heb. 7:26)

We need to have a renewed and healthy fear of the Lord.  Have we forgotten the one we pray to is too awesome for angels to behold?  Have we forgotten that when we say “Dear God” in our breakfast prayers, we are addressing the one to whom all the nations, and every man must give an account – the great King of all the earth?  A fear of the Lord should be seen in our prayer life, as well as our seriousness in studying Scripture.  “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)  May we be those who tremble at His word!

The Savior God

If all we did was notice the sovereignty and justice of God, we would do a great injustice to this majestic prophecy.  Remember our theme verse, Isaiah 45:21b – “There is no god beside me, a just God, and a savior.”  We read in 43:11, “I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior.” 

If you’ll remember from earlier, the second section of Isaiah is addressed to the nation of Israel prophetically as they will be in the Babylonian captivity.  But from that bondage God promised salvation.  It’s for this reason that Cyrus, the King of Persia, is called the Lord’s anointed (Is. 45:1).  “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord” and God moved Cyrus to release Israel from their bondage, fully funding their trip back to the land and their rebuilding of the temple, the city, and the walls. 

But there is an even grander salvation that is envisioned in Isaiah’s prophecy – not only a return to the land, but a creation of a new heavens and new earth.  Israel will be the head of the nations and the curse from Adam and Eve will greatly diminished.  People who die at the age of 100 will be considered children.  Lions will lay down with lambs.  It will be a time of unprecedented peace for Israel.  But not only for Israel, but also for the whole world.  In that coming day Egypt will be called “God’s people” and Assyria will be called “the work of God’s hands.”  “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”  And this is another important theme in Isaiah – not only will God send someone to gather the nation of Israel, but that person will be “a light for the nations that [he] should be [God’s] salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).  

And this leads us to another striking feature of Isaiah, specifically the later section.  Without this theme what we have said so far would be like the outer perimeter of a puzzle with nothing in the middle.  We have seen God’s exclusivity and His justice.  All must give an account to Him and all are guilty before Him.  Even the executors of His judgment and the instruments of His mercy stand guilty before God.  And yet there is a time of peace and blessing among all the nations.  What happens?  Enter the Servant of the Lord.  Isaiah has these famous portions, called Servant Songs.  These are descriptions about the person and work of the messiah, written 700 years before His advent.  They can be found in chapters 42, 49, 50, 53 and 61.  They describe Him as the servant who will come to bring about the spiritual reformation that is necessary to put the nation in a position to receive God’s salvation.  These Servant Songs climax in Isaiah 53 where we discover that not only does the messiah preach peace, but He Himself provides the basis for that peace by offering Himself as an atonement for sin.    

This is the LORD – the only God, the just God, and the savior God.  As you read through Isaiah, preferably in one sitting, pay attention to the characteristics of God that are described there.  Do so in an attitude of prayer, trusting the Holy Spirit to show you “the sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow” (1 Pet. 1:11).  You will not come away disappointed. 

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[1] Longman and Dillard, An Introduction to the Old Testament

[2] Ibid for a discussion and refutation.