Friday 5 April 2013

"...For It Was Founded Upon A Rock": The Helix Ianthina

There's a very cool thing that has come out of some studying that I've been doing.  It's something that I don't ever remember any pastor teaching, and I would like to share that with you, most excellent Theophilus. 

Numbers 15 appears to have a number of topics that all may seem like separate issues (i.e. the offerings, the "one law", the guy who gathered sticks, and the blue ribbon on the clothes).  But to me they all form one big lesson.  Jesus, in a different format, covered every point of that big lesson in The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  The point in particular that I like is the statement that Jesus makes at the end of the sermon that the person who does these things is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock, so that when the storm comes, the house will not fall.  What is He saying here by this statement though?  He's saying, if you do what God commands, you will be protected, and will not fall. That is to say that the commandments of God were meant for your protection!

How many times have you heard a parent say "my rules are for your protection" or "this is because I love you"?  Well this is what Jesus is saying at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and it is also what is being said with the figure of the blue ribbon at the end of Numbers 15, as we will see. 

But first, the connection of the subjects.  The offerings in the beginning of Numbers 15 show that you may freely give God love offerings of good works (as symbolized by the bodies of the animals) as large as you wish; the bigger the offering, the more consideration, wisdom, grace, love and joy should go with that offering, hence the larger portions of flour, oil, and wine.  (This concept is similarly described in the Sermon on the Mount in Jesus' parables of the salt and the light).  Second, we have the statement that there is one law for all people.  This is no big difficulty to understand.  Having different sets of rules leads to confusion, and God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33).  Period.  (This is illustrated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount by stating that not one jot or tittle of the law will pass until all be fulfilled, which is really to say until the end of time because the law prophesied to that day.)  Third, the man who broke the law was "cut off" from the People.  Why?  The law had just been given to the People and the man showed that he was more interested in his own good than following the law.  This is dangerous to the whole congregation, and it is better to have him out of the congregation than to put it in jeopardy.  (Was this illustrated in the Sermon on the Mount? Yep.  The illustration of cutting your hand off or plucking your eye out, as applicable on the level of how the law applies to the whole house or congregation, is to say that if you have rebels in the congregation looking out for their own good and jeopardizing the wellbeing of the whole, it is high time to flush them out rather than to suffer the loss of the congregation [i.e. the whole "body of Christ" - 1 Corinthians 12:27].  Conversely, it is possible to accept them back again after they have learned their lesson, but not until that time. That's proper discipline.)  And lastly, the blue thread to remember the commandments of the Lord.  This is my favourite part, and why I set out on this post.  The lesson here comes not so much from the colour of the ribbon or how it is obtained, but from the nature of the very animal that the colour came from itself.  This is a neat study in biology.

The colour blue that was used to dye the ribbon came from a sea shell that the Hebrews called chelzon, and that Gesenius' Lexicon calls helix ianthina: or simply, a sea snail.  The shell of the snail would be ground up and added to water to make a beautiful royal purplish (hyacinth colour) dye.  This was then used to dye the ribbon that would be sown into the fabric of the Hebrew clothes to remember the commandments of the Lord.  But what was the purpose of that shell on the sea snail itself?  It was for the snail's protection.  It was the snail's "house".  It was the protection that the animal needed because, without it, the snail is a very very fragile creature.  It carried this shell around with it wherever it went, like an outer garment, just like the Hebrews would carry around the reminding blue ribbon on the outside of their clothing everywhere they went.  The fact that they were to use this ribbon to remember the commandments of the Lord was to say, "These rules that you must remember are for your protection because I love you;" just like the shell is used for the snail's protection, a protection that it abides in.  That's a cool lesson.  Did Jesus also teach this in the Sermon on the Mount?  Absolutely, in the illustration of the wise man who built his "house upon the rock" by doing the commandments of the Lord, which protected him from the storm to come.

Fantastic.  I love that God created biology and science, and I love it when they come into the lessons that are taught in the Bible... for our protection.  God bless.

Tuesday 22 January 2013

The People Which Sat in Darkness Saw Great Light...

We have been walking chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, through the Book of Matthew in a Bible Study group that I am in.  We just covered chapter 4, and a really cool lesson shone through that I would like to share with you.  I've been puzzled at some of the "fulfilments of prophecy" that Matthew cites in his telling of the Gospel, but just recently had the light shone on the one in chapter 4 - which is very apropos because of the subject. 

Level 1: Jesus shines His light

Matthew describes how Jesus overcomes Satan's temptations in the first part of chapter 4 by using the instructions that God gave in the law; all three of Jesus' quotes from Scripture come directly from Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:16, and 1:3-4.  (The incident reminds me of Psalm 119, where the psalmist says, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee," and again later, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.") So Jesus defeats Satan with the Word of God, the lamp unto His feet, and then begins His ministry, proclaiming, as though He were sounding a watchman's trumpet call, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Matthew says that this fulfils Isaiah's prophecy, "The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the People which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up (Matthew 4:15-16)."  The fantastic thing is that this is the first level of three that we need to understand how Jesus has fulfilled this prophecy.  Jesus overcomes Satan by shining the light of the truth of the Word of God and sounding the trumpet of the Word of God is Level 1.

Level 2: The prophecy of Isaiah

Matthew's quote above comes from Isaiah 9:1-2.  (In Isaiah's time, Israel and Judah were not one nation, but had split into two nations.  Ten of the tribes of Israel made up "the house of Israel" in the north, and two of the tribes of Israel made up "the house of Judah" in the south.  The split happened because of the harshness of Rehoboam's rule as king in 1 Kings 12.)  The verses are in the middle of a speech from Isaiah (resulting from an incident starting in chapter 7) concerning the fact that Pekah, the king of the house of Israel, had conspired with Rezin, the king of Syria, to conquor the house of Judah.  Ahaz, the king of the house of Judah, was shaking in his boots for fear of this threat, like the leaves of a tree shake in the wind (see Isaiah 7:2).  And the Lord says through Isaiah not to fear Rezin and Pekah, but to trust in Him, and "'Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first He lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.' Thou hast multiplied the [exultation, Thou hast]* increased the joy: they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.  For Thou has broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.  For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.  For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."  What Isaiah is saying is that there is no need to fear the enemy, the king of Assyria (see Micah 5:5), because the Lord will protect His people.  This is not a battle to be fought of flesh and blood (see Ephesians 6:12), but a spiritual battle to be fought with the Spirit of God (see Zechariah 4:6), Who is a consuming fire (see Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29).  The Word of the Lord, that lamp and light unto our feet, is the burning and fuel of fire that Isaiah is describing above.  This leads us to "the day of Midian" which is a deeper and further witness of this.

Level 3: The day of Midian

The day of Midian that Isaiah is referring to above is told through the story of Gideon in Judges 6-7.  Israel, which was not yet split into two houses in Gideon's time, but was still one nation, was allowed by God to fall into oppression (read: correction) under the nation of Midian for seven years because they were behaving poorly.  The word Midian means "strife".  After seven years, they cried out to the Lord and He chose a deliverer for them, a man named Gideon.  The name Gideon means "harvester" or "cutter down" (see where Isaiah says "they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest" above).  In the story of the day of Midian, Gideon performs two acts.  First, he overthrows the image of Baal that his father had allowed to be set up in his house, and he also cuts down the grove by which they worshipped Baal.  Baal is a figurative representation of Satan, and the grove a representation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the Garden of Eden.  This is similar to Jesus conquering Satan in the wilderness in Matthew 4, and overthrowing Satan's reasonings in his temptations.  Next, the Lord gets Gideon to pick out a small number of men - 300 to be exact - to go and defeat the armies of Midian, who were described as "grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude (Judges 7:12)."  300 men against... a lot more!  So, what Gideon did was give each of the 300 men a torch (a lamp/light like above), which they hid under earthen pitchers at first to conceal their lights,  and he also gave every man a trumpet.  Then they all moved up to the top of a hill in the middle of the night (in the "middle watch" as it is described), and all at the same time, broke the pitchers that were hiding their torches (to let their lights shine), all sounded their trumpets, and all cried "the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" (See what the sword of the Lord is by reading Revelation 1.)  What happened? All of the enemy became terrified and fled away. This was the victory that the Lord brought.  And what did Gideon do? He shone his light, and he blew his trumpet, and proclaimed the Word [sword] of the Lord, and Almighty God took care of the rest.  How does this connect to Matthew 4?  In that chapter, Jesus overthrows the image and the knowledge of Satan, and then He shines His light on the people in the darkness, and blows the trumpet to proclaim the gospel of kingdom of heaven, just like Gideon did. 

It's pretty cool how many levels the fulfilment of that prophecy has.  God bless.

* This translation is supplied by Dr. C. D. Ginsberg, whereas the translation in a regular King James Version Bible states, "Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before The according to the joy in havest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil."  The statement as translated is clearly contradictory.  Ginsberg suggests that the manuscripts read one word "haggilo" (exultation), and not two words "haggow  l'o" (nation, not).