Genesis Principles Predate Moses

Several years ago I asked the Lord…How can we know which of His principles/laws apply to us today?

God impressed on me to look in His word prior to Moses to see which principles of God are evident that far back.  In the book of Genesis.  Before there was the nation of ancient Israel.  Before there was any Old Covenant (OC) or New Covenant (NC).  The name “Moses” doesn’t appear until Ex.2:10.

So I searched Genesis for (timeless) righteous principles of God…which we see carried-over into the OC in Exodus, and also apply to us Christians today and eventually to all mankind.

Predating Moses…God’s righteous standards for mankind and the Kingdom of God, and even glimpses of Christ’s gospel, are seen in the book of Genesis.  As we read between the lines of narrative, Genesis reflects examples of how to honor God and love our neighbor; how to live our lives, and how not to.  Lessons that apply to Christian living.

Reformed Church theologian Albertus Pieters’ Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind; we have here the institution of the Sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  There’s much revealed between the lines of Genesis!

Genesis was written/compiled by Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit (2Ti.3:16).  It tells of ancient gentiles.  Some of them applied God’s ways, while others violated principles of God and His Kingdom.

The Lord said of the gentile Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Also Wisdom of Sirach 44:20 KJV 1611 edition “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  Abraham was obedient to the Lord.  To be so consecrated in obedience, he surely had much faith/belief in God!  Jesus said to Jews who opposed Him in Jn.8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham”.  Abraham the non-Jew applied God’s principles & laws, present in Genesis.  Long before Moses (400 years)!  Also ref the topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.

James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

Later, God had Moses define, describe, elaborate on, and add to those godly moral principles/laws via codified injunctions.  Moses did so in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

The Old Covenant for Israel/Jews contained God’s moral precepts & laws existing in Genesis, which Abraham obeyed.  But added for Israel were pilgrim feasts, tabernacle/temple rituals, sin & guilt offerings, etc.  (see “Added in the Old Covenant”.)  We read of no regularly recurring animal sacrifices prior to Moses/Israel.

However, in Genesis there’s no nation of Israel!  The first Jew (Judah) isn’t even born until Ge.29:35!

So the acts we read the gentiles in Genesis doing/not doing relate to principles of conduct for mankind in general (not solely for Jews)…predating by centuries the Old Covenant Law of Moses for Israel.

Doug Ward The Law of God in the Book of Genesis “This beginning portion of the Bible has quite a lot to say about legal matters. However, it often addresses these matters indirectly rather than in the form of explicit commands.”  There are laws of God present in Genesis between the lines.  cf. Ro.4:15, 5:12-13.

Here I’ll go through the book of Genesis, noting God’s principles revealed in it.  Again, Genesis reflects the Lord’s guidelines for man before there was a nation of Israel.  As we read Genesis, we’ll see actions, both good and bad, righteous and unrighteous…done by those ancient gentiles and non-Jews.

(As an exercise or for reference, you might divide a sheet of paper into two columns.  On the left side, list things/actions to AVOID.  On the right side, list things/actions that are scripturally right to DO.)

Ge.1:11-12 “Plants and trees bearing seed after their kind.”  From creation, kind is to produce kind in biogenesis (cf. v.21, 24).  Vegetation which may be eaten.  Hybrid crops weren’t authorized, nor are GMOs.  Genetically Modified Organisms pose yet unknown health risks; they may also affect allergies.

Ge.1:29 “I have given you every seed-bearing plant that is on the surface of the earth, and every tree which has fruit with seeds. It shall be food for you.”  Seed-bearing land crops are for food.  These do photosynthesis.  These aren’t funguses or algae/seaweed.  Mushrooms are a fungus e.g.; they live on rot.  Some mushrooms are carcinogenic.

Ge.1:27-28 “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion.”  God gives to man the mandate to beget children (if physically able), and maintain the environment of the earth.

Ge.2:2-3 “God ceased [or rested, shabáth Hebrew] on the 7^th day from all His work. God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it.”  It’s the first thing God made holy!  The sabbath is created for man, Mk.2:27.  Sabbath day rest is the recurring weekly sign which identifies that God/Christ is the Creator.  see the series “Sabbath 7^th Day”.

Ge.2:17 “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day you eat it you shall surely die.”  To disobey God will result in death (cf. 3:6, 24).  God is to be obeyed.  see “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.

Ge.2:24-25 “A man shall join to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife.”  Marriage and sex between male & female is ordained.

Ge.4:4 “Abel offered the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.”  This righteous gentile Abel (He.11:4) didn’t eat the fat portions.  Fat (and organ meats) wasn’t authorized for human consumption (ref Le.3:3-5, 17).  Eating fat is unhealthy.  see “Unclean verses Clean Food”.

Ge.4:8 “Cain killed his brother Abel.”  Murder is a crime.  We all know that.  Here, long prior to Mt Sinai and the codified law given to Moses/Israel.  (also see “War & Killing and the Bible Christian”.)

Ge.4:14-15 “The Lord said, ‘Whoever kills Cain, will suffer vengeance sevenfold’. The Lord set a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him.”  Personal vengeance isn’t allowed (legal authorities determine who executes God’s vengeance, e.g. Ge.9:6 & De.17:6-11.  see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians”.)

Ge.5:22 “Enoch walked with God.”  The faithful (non-Jew) Enoch’s life pleased God, He.11:5.

Ge.7:1-3 “Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and his mate; one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and his mate.”  The gentile Noah knew clean & unclean creatures differed.  God didn’t approve the unclean for sacrifice or as food; some are carcinogenic.  (Clean wild animals weren’t used for godly sacrifices…the six extra pairs of clean wild animals were for food!)  Ge.8:20-21 thanksgiving worship towards the Lord is done by Noah (through sacrifice).

Ge.9:3 “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, as the green plants.”  However, as some green plants are poisonous, some moving creatures are unclean/harmful.  The only creatures for “food” are (clean) moving/live creatures, properly bled.  Not creatures which die of themselves (“strangled”, Ac.15:29 KJV), not carrion or road kill, which attract parasites.  see “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.

Ge.9:4 “You shall not eat the flesh with the life, the blood.”  God forbad blood as “food” (cf. Le.3:17, Ac.15:29).  “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Le.17:11)  Blood transmits disease.  Drinking blood is toxic to our system.

Ge.9:5-6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.”  A human justice system with governing law courts, even to include capital punishment, God authorized. (ref De.17:6-11, Ro.13:1-4.)

Ge.9:20-23 “Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He became drunk.”  Farming and vineyards are fine.  But drunkenness/intoxication has bad consequences (cf. Pr.20:1).

Ge.9:24-26 “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.”  Dishonoring a parent or grandparent is wrong.

Ge.12:14-20 Pharoah.  Adultery is very wrong (cf. 20:1-18).  Adultery occurs when a married/betrothed woman has sexual relations with a man not her husband/fiancée.  see “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape”.

Ge.13:13 “The men of Sodom were wicked, sinners against the Lord.”  Wicked sinners?!  Without law, there is no transgression/sin (Ro.4:15).  Evidently there was law and the transgression of it in Genesis!

Ge.14:18 “Melchisedek king of Salem brought out bread & wine; he was priest of the Most High God.”  Both king and priest.  This indicates there is no complete separation between state and church.  Here also is bread & wine, the forerunner of communion with Jesus.  (ref He.7:17 Jesus is priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.)  see “Melchisedek Order Priesthood” and “Bread and Wine in the Church”.

Ge.14:20 “Abram gave him [Melchisedek] a tenth of all.”  Tithing to God’s representative of church and state is done by the gentile Abram, the father of the faithful, Ro.4:16.  (cf. Ge.28:22 God hadn’t raised taxes in Jacob’s day; His rate is still just 10%.)  see “Tithe to Church and State”.

Ge.15:16 “The iniquity of the Amorites isn’t yet full.”  But if God didn’t have moral law in Genesis, they wouldn’t be guilty of iniquity.  Paul wrote, “Without law there’s no transgression”, Ro.5:12-13.

Ge.19:4-11 the men of Sodom said to Lot, “Where are the men [angels] who came to visit you tonight? Send them out so we can have sex with them’….Lot said to them, ‘Please don’t act so wickedly.”  Same-sex intercourse is wickedness (as is beastiality, sex with a different kind)!

Ge.20:7, 17-18 “Abraham prayed to God.”  Ge.25:21 so did Isaac.  Ge.24:63 Isaac meditated.  Prayer and meditation to God are good practices.

Ge.21:9-10, 14 Abraham sent away Hagár his wife (ref Ge.16:3) and their son Ishmaél.  Divorce may be done for just cause, as when continual disrespect/mockery or physical abuse is present. (cf. De.24:1)

Ge.25:8-10 “His sons buried him [Abraham].”  Isaac & Ishmael.  This reflects proper burial for the deceased.  Also seen in this passage is sons honoring their parents (ref Ex.20:12, Ep.6:2).

Ge.27:11-13, 19 Jacob lied to Isaac.  Lying is usually wrong; so is deception and notably false witness.  (cf. 27:34-36, 37:31-33, 39:14, 20, Ex.20:16, Col.3:9, Ac.5:1-11.)  see “Lying – Ananias & Sapphira”.

Ge.30:1-13 lists the four wives of Jacob (v.4), and their offspring.  Having plural wives simultaneously isn’t morally wrong, if they’re adequately provided for.  Jacob/Israel wasn’t an adulterer!  (see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)

Ge.31:33 Jacob’s four wives had separate tents.  (However, having plural wives in most of today’s western world isn’t customary and isn’t recommended.)  Sexual orgies aren’t God’s way.

Ge.31:19 “Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s.”  Stealing is wrong.  We know that.  Also, idolatry and having other gods is wrong (cf. Jsh.24:2)!

Ge.31:34-35 Labán wouldn’t search the saddlebags upon which Rachel sat during her period.  Again, blood transmits disease.  Contact with human uncleanness and sex during menstruation is to be avoided (ref Le.15:20, 20:18, Ac.21:25).  Menstrual sex can cause tubal pregnancy and cervical cancer.

Ge.31:32 “Anyone you find your gods with shall not live.”  Jacob was talking to Laban, Rachel’s father.  Speaking curses upon someone can have dire consequences…Rachel died young (Ge.35:16-19).

Ge.31:42 “The God of Abraham, the God of my father.”  The true God is noted here by Jacob.

Ge.34:1-2, 24-26, 30 Dinah.  Rape/seduction (not mutual consent or elopement) is wrong; violations may be a capital offense.  (see “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape”.)  v.15-30 covenant-breaking is wrong.  (Here by Jacob’s sons; Shechemites did become physically circumcised.)

Ge.35:22 “Reuben lay with Bilháh his father’s concubine.”  She’s a secondary wife of Jacob, Ge.30:4.  Dishonoring your father is sin.  Sex with father’s wife is a wrong form of incest, Le.18:8 & 1Co.5:1.

{Sidelight: Yet lesser incest such as marrying your sister wasn’t disallowed.  Kindred endogamy was necessary for reproduction and environmental caretaking, as per Ge.1:28 & Ge.9:1.  However, it’s said that when Abrám married Sarah (his niece or half-sister), Ge.20:11-12, the gene pool was still deep and the risk of birth defects was less.  (Later, when the risk became greater, this too is prohibited, Le.18:9.)}

Ge.37:5-9 “Joseph had another dream.” (fulfilled in Ge.42:6.)  This shows that God gives valid dreams.

Ge.37:27-28 Joseph’s brothers sold him to traders.  Kidnapping is very wrong (cf. Ex.21:16).  Also, selling one into slavery against his will was evil (cf. Ge.50:20).

Ge.38:7-10 refusing to father a son for a deceased brother’s widow was a form of cruelty to women (the weaker sex).  A son would care for his mother in her old age.  Also seen here is wrong coveting.

Ge.39:7-12 adultery is a “great evil” (v.9).  Again, God’s moral laws existed in Genesis.  In this passage, a married woman tried to rape Joseph.  He knew adultery was sin (prior to the law of Moses).

Ge.45:4-15 Joseph and his brothers reconcile.  Forgiveness is seen; also respect and love of family.

Ge.48:5-6 from Jacob’s example, we see that inheritances for children/grandchildren are good.

Ge.50:21 “I will provide for you and your little ones.”  Joseph takes into account the welfare of others.

Ge.50:24-26 reflects honoring the memory of the deceased (Joseph, fulfilled in Jsh.24:32).

Even hints & prophecies of the Savior and the gospel predate Moses.  Ge.3:15 indicates the seed of the woman (not of the man) eventually would crush the serpent’s head…the future virgin birth of Christ the Lord is implied.  Also Ge.22:8, the Lord Himself to be the lamb/sacrifice.  That will be Jesus.

Also, 1Pe.3:20-21 relates baptism for Christian converts to the Genesis Flood (Ge.6–8).  By means of flood waters, Noah was saved from the evil so prevalent around him.  Peter ties this to the water of baptism saving believers, in the sense of figuratively cleansing their conscience.

Bruckner op. cit., p. 205 wrote, seen in Genesis is “…a full range of law implied and functioning from the beginning”.  Indicative of this are the three dozen godly principles I’ve noted in this topic survey.

These principles/laws are universal from Creation regarding gentiles; they predate Moses, the OC and the NC!  Since they are universal…Christians of all nations should ordinarily adhere to most today!

In Genesis we read of Godfearers who obeyed the Lord…non-Jewish men such as Abraham (Ge.22:12) and Joseph (Ge.42:18).  Job too was a Godfearer (Jb.1:8).  That was prior to the OC law for Israel, later codified in Exodus.  (also cf. Ac.10:1-2 Cornelius the gentile Godfearer.)

However, absent from Genesis (but part of the Levitical OC for Israel) were tabernacle procedures & ceremonies: e.g. sin/guilt offerings, pilgrim feasts, various washings.  Any such rituals aren’t seen or recorded by Moses in Genesis regarding righteous gentiles and non-Jews of old.

Yet God had moral laws from the beginning, in Genesis.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”

This concludes our survey of God’s moral principles/laws seen in the book of Genesis.  The principles predate Moses’ later codification and they transcend the OC.

The topic “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job” focuses specifically on the Decalogue/Testimony, as seen prior to Moses and the Old Covenant for Israel.

Rebirth to Physical Life (2)

This is the conclusion to “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first, before continuing with this Part 2.  Also, I suggest you read “Universal Christian Salvation”, before proceeding here.

In “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”, we read about God’s future for the men of ancient Sodom, and for men in both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah in the light of Ezk.37:1-14.  A physical rebirth.  The apostle Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel shall be saved”.  Not just a remnant!

We considered the book of Job, when he was suffering.  Jb.1:21 Tanakh KJV Septúagint “Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.”  Job indicated he could later be reborn from a mother’s womb, his spirit indwelling a human newborn!  Job symbolically compared himself to the ancient phoenix bird (Jb.29:18 Tanakh), which would live again after a cycle of 500 or 1,000 years.  (see Part 1.)  cf. Re.20:5 “The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were completed.”  Re.20:8 the dead, resurrected and returned to physical life, would inhabit “nations” of the earth.

Where in the Bible do we read of an individual, a human spirit, indwelling a second physical body…a personality who later did return to a mother’s womb (as Job indicated) to live another physical life?

The prophet Elijah lived in the early 800s BC.  He was a famous character in Israel’s history.  There’s no scriptural record of Elijah’s death.  2Ki.2:1-14 he was translated into heaven by a whirlwind.

{Sidelight: Elijah’s immediate successor Elisha then received a double portion of God’s Holy Spirit, unlike other “sons of the prophets”.  Elisha performed miracles (ref 2Ki.2:9, 15, 1Co.12:28-29).  Poole Commentary 2Ki.2:9 “Elisha seems to have had a greater portion of the prophetical and miraculous gifts of God’s Spirit.”  Elisha still had his own human spirit of course; it wasn’t replaced by Elijah’s spirit!}

In the 400s BC the Lord said in Mal.3:1, “Behold, I will send My messenger; he will prepare the way before Me”.  Mal.4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  Consequently, the Jews expected a bodily return of Elijah.  Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.100 “The coming of Elijah…he was to appear personally.”  Traditionally, each spring they’d set a place for Elijah at the Passover Seder table and leave the door open for him.  Rabbi David Kimchi “When God shall bring him [Elijah] to life in the body, He shall send him to Israel.”  He’d be sent from God, bodily.

John the Baptist was a man “sent from God” (Jn.1:6).  Lk.1:13, 24-27 John was born 6 months before Jesus.  John’s mother was Mary’s aunt Elizabeth.  Mk.1:1-4 John “prepared the way” for Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus identified John the Baptizer as the Elijah who was to come!  Jesus said of John in Mt.11:13-14, “This is Elijah”.  John the Baptist was the Elijah who had lived approximately 900 years before!  Jesus said later in Mt.17:12-13, “Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him. Then His disciples understood He was talking to them about John the Baptist.”  Cambridge Bible Mt.17:12 “[Many Jews] didn’t recognize him as the Elijah prophesied by Malachi.”  Mk.9:13 re John, “Elijah has indeed come”.

The angel Gabriel foretold Zacharias re John his son to be. Lk.1:14-17 “He will go before Him [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah”.  The same human spirit in Elijah was in John the Baptizer.  Both were empowered to call the people to repentance.  Jews believe Elijah will return bodily.  He did.

Let’s now notice several similarities between the lives of Elijah and John the Baptizer:

Both dwelt in the wilderness east of the Jordan River (1Ki.17:2-6 & Mt.3:1-3, Lk.1:80).

Both characteristically wore a shaggy cloak and a leather belt (2Ki.1:8 & Mt.3:4).

Both were witnesses for the true God (1Ki.18:37 & Jn.1:14-15).

Both mocked their opponents who displayed a form of religion (1Ki.18:27 & Mt.3:7-9).

Both reproved their wicked king who disobeyed God (1Ki.18:17-18 Aháb & Lk.3:18-19 Herod Ántipas).

Both were wanted dead by the king’s evil wife (1Ki.19:2 Ahab/Jezébel & Mk.6:17-24 Herod/Herodiás).

Both endorsed their replacement, Elisha and Jesus (1Ki.19:16, 19 & Mk.1:9, Jn.3:28-30).

John the Baptizer even ministered at the same site on the east bank of the Jordan River from where Elijah had been taken up into heaven 900 years before (2Ki.2:1-14)!  Scripture reflects too many similar characteristics for it to be just coincidence.  They were the same personality, the same human spirit.

Ja.5:17 Elijah was a man with faulty human nature, as we.  He made mistakes, one serious.  1Ki.18:4, 13 Israel’s evil queen Jezebel had killed prophets of the Lord.  Elijah took vengeance by killing Jezebel’s false prophets.  1Ki.18:40 “Elijah said to them [Israel], ‘Seize the prophets of Báal [450 men, v.22]; don’t let one of them escape.’ They seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishón and slew them there.”  Ellicott Commentary 1Ki.18:40 “The ruthless slaughter of Baal’s prophets.  Pulpit Commentary 1Ki.18:40 “It is true that the spirit of Elijah was not the spirit of Christianity (Lk.9:56); because our religion instructs us to leave it to Him who has said, ‘Vengeance is Mine.”

Elijah wasn’t a civil authority.  Yet he made the decision to kill the false prophets without having the authorization to kill/stone false prophets (cf. De.18:20, 13:6-11).  The Lord didn’t tell him to kill them.  Elijah chose to kill them…with the sword.  1Ki.19:1 “He had killed all the prophets with the sword.”

1Ki.19:2-3 after slaying the prophets, Elijah fled for his life in fear.  He escaped from evil queen Jezebel.

However, 900 years later John the Baptizer died by the sword, at the behest of evil queen Herodias!  ref Mk.6:17-29.  v.27 the king’s executioner had John “beheaded in the prison”.

Elijah, as John, eventually reaped what he’d sowed!  Ga.6:7 Paul wrote, “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap”.  Cause and effect.  Elijah killed with the sword…John the Baptizer died by the sword.  Mt.26:52 Jesus said, “All who take up the sword will perish by the sword”.  What goes around, comes around.  Oba.1:15 “As you have done, it will be done to you.”  Ps.7:16 “His violence shall come down upon the crown of his own head.”  Barnes Notes Ps.7:16 “He’d be treated as he had designed to treat others.”  God is just.  Karma?  John reaped the payback for Elijah’s unauthorized ruthless treatment of the false prophets.  Although Jezebel failed to kill Elijah, Herodias succeeded in having him/John slain.

Jesus said John the Baptizer was Elijah.  Jn.1:21 but John didn’t think he was Elijah.  It seems that God mercifully causes amnesia to set in before or by the time children mature.  So a person (like John) isn’t tormented with guilt from any memory of his previous life when he’d committed major crimes or sins.

Elijah was considered a great prophet.  In the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), Moses typified the Law and Elijah typified the Prophets…the “Law and the Prophets”.  And in Lk.7:28, Jesus said there’s no greater prophet than John/(Elijah)!  Mt.17:3-4, 10-13 in the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus.  The representatives of the Law and the Prophets were two witnesses to Messiah Jesus’ upcoming death (Lk.9:30-31).  Note that the Transfiguration occurred after John the Baptizer was beheaded (back in Mt.14:10).  Elijah couldn’t have been present in the Transfiguration if John was still alive in Judea.

The commission given to John the Baptizer as “My messenger” (Mal.3:1, Is.40:3 & Mk.1:2-4) came to pass in the 1^st century AD, although unconverted Jews still don’t think John was the prophesied Elijah.

Rebirth to physical life was a common belief in Bible times.  Elijah was expected to personally appear on the scene.  Philo Judaeus (ca 20 BC – 50 AD) wrote of the Lógos (Greek), the Word of God.  Works of Philo: The Special Laws 1, p.541 “Now the image of God is the Logos [Word], by which all the world was made.”  The apostle John affirmed in Jn.1:1-4, 14, all things came into being through the primordial Logos/Word who became Jesus in the flesh.  Philo preceded the apostle John.

Philo also wrote in On Dreams 1:138-139, “Now of souls some descend upon the earth with a view to be bound in mortal bodies. Of these, those which are influenced by a desire for mortal life, and familiarized to it, again return to it.”  According to Philo, some Jews returned to a physical life and others didn’t.  (This wasn’t the false New Age belief of transmigration of souls into lower animal bodies!)

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 18:1:3-5 “Pharisees believe souls have an immortal rigor, and under the earth [cf. Paul’s Php.2:10] there will be rewards or punishments. Virtuous souls have the power to revive and live again, the vicious to be detained….The doctrine of the Sadducees is that souls die with the body…The Essenes teach immortality of souls and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for.”  Pharisees & Essenes thought there was life after death.  Paul had been a Pharisee.

Roman author Pliny (23–79 AD) wrote admirably of the Essenes.  Biblical Archaeology Review Spring 2020, p.49 quotes Pliny. “So fruitful for them [Essenes] is the repentance which others feel for their past lives. Natural History 5:17:4.”

Jews who encountered Jesus thought He too had lived previously.  Some mistakenly thought Jesus was the expected Elijah to come, or that Jesus was John the Baptizer reincarnated.  Mk.6:14-16 “People were saying, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him [Jesus].’ But others were saying, ‘He is Elijah.’ When Herod heard of it, he kept saying, ‘John, who I beheaded, has risen!”  Evidently Herod didn’t hold to the Sadducean doctrine of no resurrection.

Others thought Jesus was an Old Testament prophet (other than Elijah) returned to life.  Jesus asked His disciples in Mt.16:13-14, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They answered Him, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the Prophets.”  Some of Jesus’ countrymen thought He was Jeremiah (lived ca 650–570 BC) physically alive again.  Why Jeremiah?  Jeremiah had prophesied of the future Messiah (Je.23:5-6) and New Covenant (Je.31:31-ff).  Both Jeremiah and Jesus were persecuted by Jewish leaders who opposed them (cf. Je.20:7-10).  JFB Commentary Mt.16:14 “Jeremiah…suggested by a supposed resemblance between the ‘man of sorrows’ [Is.53:3 Messiah] and the ‘weeping prophet’ [Je.9:1, 13:17]?”  Jeremiah’s book of “Lamentations” means “weeping”.  So it is perhaps understandable why some would (wrongly) think Jesus & Jeremiah were the same human spirit.

Jn.9:1-3 Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus about the man born blind from birth.  “His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  Jesus then displayed the works of God by miraculously giving sight to this man.

We understand, a human embryo or fetus in the womb doesn’t commit sin.  Jesus’ disciples assumed the man sinned in a past life and his blindness in this life was the payback; he was reaping what he’d sowed.  Or else the man’s blindness was caused by some sin committed by his parents.  Jn.9:34 Pharisees who opposed Jesus accused this man of being “born entirely in sin”.  Although sin wasn’t the cause with this man, Jesus didn’t tell His disciples that a person couldn’t have sinned in a prior physical body.

Gill Exposition Jn.9:2 “The disciples asked whether this man had sinned in a pre-existent state when in another body. This notion, Josephus says, was embraced by the Pharisees.”  Barnes Notes “Many of the Jews believed…that the soul of a man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled into other bodies, and be punished there.”  The nature of the past life sins may not be capital crimes or wholly evil.  Ellicott Commentary ties Jn.9:2 to the apocrypha book Wisdom of Solomon 8:20. “Being rather good, I came into a body undefiled” (KJV 1611 edition).  He’d been more good than evil; his rebirth body had no congenital defects.  (In Mt.12:42, Jesus referred to the “wisdom of Solomon” 6:1.)  Jesus didn’t tell His disciples that belief in a rebirth from a mother’s womb (as Job believed, Jb.1:21) was erroneous.

Jn.5:28-29 Jesus said that from the graves there is resurrection to eternal Life (Strongs g2222, Greek) for those who did good, and resurrection to judgment for those who didn’t.  Judgment involves evaluation.  Ac.24:15 Paul said there shall be “a resurrection of both the just and the unjust”.  Cambridge Bible Jn.5:29 “This passage and Ac.24:15 are the only direct assertions in the New Testament of a bodily resurrection of the wicked.”  (also cf. Da.12:2 with Je.23:40.)

He.11:35 a resurrection to eternal Life with a spiritual body is better than resuscitation, and better than resurrection to another physical life.  1Co.15:44 that which is planted a natural physical body is raised a spiritual body.  Paul is referring to the just who believed, repented, and lived by the Holy Spirit.  (see “Life and Death – for Saints”.)  The just were “firstfruits” (Ja.1:18, Re.14:4), rising to eternal Life.  The just who sowed good works reap a spiritual body to be with the Lord.

He.9:27 all die at least once physically.  cf. deaths: He.11:35, Jn.11:44, 1Ki.17:22, 2Ki.4:35.  Re.20:14 a second death which terminates consciousness is indicated for the very few.  (see “Gehenna (2) – Lake of Unquenched Fire”.)  Yet based upon God’s principle of justice seen in De.19:21, “life for life”…there wouldn’t be a second death without a second life preceding it!  To hear the name Jesus, believe, repent.

Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.1064 “It is at least conceivable that there may be a purification or transformation of all who are capable of such…and that in the end of what we call time, only that which is morally incapable of transformation, be it men or devils, shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.”  (Also, some few view the lake of fire as a refiner’s fire of purification.)

So what do the scriptures reflect will be the final result when every human, BC and AD, has had ample opportunity to hear of salvation via Jesus’ sacrifice, and time to show belief and repentance from sin?

Re.5:11-14 “And every [g3956] created thing – which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all [g3956] that are in them – I heard saying ‘To the One who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [Jesus], be blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the ages of the ages. Amen.”  Ellicott Commentary Re.5:13 “The whole universe joins in this grand acclaim.”  Barnes Notes “Ascribing praise. All worlds seem to join in it.”  JFB Commentary “The universal chorus of creation.”  Every creature.

So this is total.  At this time all will worship, giving honor and praise to the Lord.  This is done of their own free will.  2Ti.1:10 Jesus has “abolished death”!  There are none left in a hell agony, resisting God!

John envisioned in Re.21:1, 4 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist. He [God] shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death will not exist any more; or mourning or crying or pain; for the former things have ceased to exist.”  There’s no cries of pain & torment from a hell-fire!  Gill Exposition Re.21:4 “There will be nothing to afflict the mind.”

What great news this is in regards to our ancestors, family members, friends & loved ones who died unconverted/unsaved!  Their ultimate fate isn’t eternal conscious torment in hell!  The same goes for “all Israel” (not just a remnant).  And for the unnamed multitudes who lived in BC times.  God is so good!

Needless to say, Christians should hope that Universal Salvation for all through Jesus will eventually be a reality in the ages to come.  God’s loving, impartial plan for mankind, created in His image, is greater than we’ve thought!  Praise the Lord!

Rebirth to Physical Life (1)

This topic is follow-up to the two-part topic “Universal Christian Salvation”.  As background, I suggest you read/review the Bible verses referenced in “Universal Christian Salvation” before proceeding here.

In “Universal Christian Salvation”, we examined pertinent passages in the New Testament (NT) and the Old Testament Septúagint/LXX which contain the Greek term for “all”…“pas” (Strongs g3956).  This term “pas” occurs 1,240 times in the NT.  In several of those verses, all/pas pertained to all of mankind.

Universalism or Universal Christian Salvation/Reconciliation is the belief that all or most humans will ultimately be reconciled to God, saved through Jesus.  (It isn’t pluralism; since not all mans’ religions are from God.)  Two disparate beliefs of Christians are…Eternal Conscious Torment in hell-fire, held by Calvinists & Arminianists…and Annihilationism extinction.  see “Universal Christian Salvation (1)”.

A person may cite isolated Bible verses which seem to support any or all of the above three beliefs!

Yet God is love (1Jn.4:16).  Universal Christian Salvation/Reconciliation does comprehensively reflect God’s love.  God is also fair, impartial.  Ro.2:11 “There is no partiality with God.”  He’s no respecter of persons (Ac.10:34).  And God is just.  Ro.9:14 “There is no injustice with God.”  Is.61:8 the Lord loves justice.  1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”

But if all humans end up ‘saved’, how does such Universal Salvation also reflect God’s character as just & consistent, with the requirements for His forgiveness and mans’ salvation the same for every person?

Over the millennia, most of humanity died without believing in the name of Jesus, the only name by which we’re saved (Ac.4:12).  Many or most never even heard His name!  e.g. the multitudes of gentiles who lived in BC times, before Jesus’ incarnation.  All men are sinners (Ro.3:23).  Some die cursing God.

Yet Paul wrote in Php.2:10-11, “At the name of Jesus everyone [pas g3956] in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will bow the knee. And every [g3956] tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  That’s universality…even including those “under the earth” (KJV)!  also cf. 1Pe.3:19.  Geneva Bible Php.2:10 “All creatures will at length be subject to Christ.”  Meyer NT Commentary Php.2:10 “The bowing of the knee represents adoration.”  Cambridge Bible Php.2:10 “Created existence, in its heights and depths…being said to worship.”  Ellicott Commentary Php.2:11 “The acknowledgement of universal Lordship and majesty.”

However, many didn’t believe and repent, two requirements for salvation (Mk.16:16; Jn.3:18, 36; Lk.13:3; Ac.2:38, 16:31).  If they’re saved without belief and repenting from sin, it would seem that God has a double standard!  Yet God is just and impartial.  Mankind reaps what he sows (Ga.6:7).  How may this be reconciled?  Jesus and Paul said there were other “ages to come” (e.g. Mt.12:32, Ep.2:7).

Ge.18:20 the sin in the ancient cities of Sodom & Gomorrah was “exceedingly grave”.  Consequently, the Lord destroyed their inhabitants with fire from heaven (Ge.19:24-25, Jude 1:7)!  Therefore, we may think it would be intolerable for them in the judgment.  Condemnation.  But that’s not what Jesus said (speaking to the unrepentant who opposed Him).  Mt.11:24 “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”  What?!  also Mt.10:15.  Having destroyed those wicked cities with fire, for their judgment to be “more tolerable”…implied is a measure of future forgiveness.

The Lord asserted in Ezk.16:53-55, “I will restore the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria [Israel’s 10 tribes] and her daughters….Sodom with her daughters will return to their former state.”  The Jordan River plain.  Keil and Delitzsch Ezk.16:53 “What the apostle teaches [1Pe.3:19, 4:6]…is equally applicable to the Sodomites…and indeed generally to all the heathen nations who either lived before Christ or departed from this earthly life without having heard the gospel preached.”  So it’s not hopeless for those ancient Sodomites!  They would eventually be restored.  Such tolerance could also include the children of those utterly corrupt heathen nations/Canaanites who Christ commanded Israel to exterminate in De.20:16 & Jsh.6:20-21?  Those ancients may still obtain salvation!

But those individuals all died.  How can they return to their former lands and hear the saving gospel?  Furthermore, reanimation doesn’t apply only to those gentiles; it applies to the entire house of Israel too!     

The dry bones passage of Ezk.37:1-14 reflects the whole house of Israel rebirthed to physical life!  (It’s too long to quote here in full.)  Their corpses (slain, v.9) had decomposed.  v.4-5 NET “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, I Am about to infuse breath into you and you will live.”  Barnes Notes Ezk.37:6 “In Ezk.37:5, not ‘I will cause’, but I cause or am causing.”  It was about to start happening.  v.6 “I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you…and you will know that I Am the Lord.”  (cf. Job said in Jb.10:11, “Did you not…cloth me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews?”)  These are literal breathing physical bodies with human spirits!  Cambridge Bible Ezk.37:6 “Their becoming actual men of flesh & blood.”  At death their human spirit had returned to God who gave it (Ec.12:7).  God sends those same spirits into new flesh bodies.

Ezk.37:11-13 “These bones are the whole house of Israel. I will open your graves and bring you back to the land of Israel.”  This pertains to all Israel.  They’ll all return to the land of Israel.  Similarly, the Lord said ancient Sodom’s inhabitants would return to their land area.  Ezk.37 is a fleshly rebirth of all Israelites.  v.14 “I will put My Spirit in you.”  God’s Holy Spirit (HS) too is given to them.  God will call them to Himself, they’ll be taught the gospel (Jn.6:44-45) and receive the HS to walk in His ways.

Paul said in Ro.11:26, “All Israel shall be saved”.  (also cf. Is.45:17, Zec.8:13.)  Not just a remnant!  Not just the 100^th generation, but excluding most of the previous 99 generations (with those who went into Assyrian & Babylonian captivities) who burn forever in hell-fire!  No.  God puts His Spirit in the historical house of Israel!  All will have the opportunity to repent & believe, and be saved through King Jesus (Ezk.37:24).  God loves all who live, both BC and AD.  His will is none perish forever; that all come to repentance, 2Pe.3:9.

Hosea prophesied to the northern 10 tribes of Israel around 750 BC.  Ho.13:12-14 “The iniquity of Ephráim [the northern kingdom] is on record…I will deliver them out of the power of Hades, and will redeem them from death. O Hades, where is thy sting?”  (Paul quotes this LXX verse in 1Co.15:55.)  But when?  First…Ho.13:15-16 in 722 BC Shalmanéser V will attack from the East, since the guilty northern Israel (capital at Samaria) has rebelled against God.  Israel will be deported by Assyria into captivity.  Those Israelites will die in the attack and in captivity.  Then later…Ho.14:4-5 “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger is turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel.”  v.8 “O Ephraim…it is I who answer and look after you.”  The Lord will care for them.

But those had all died!  Yet the Lord will bring back those apostate Israelites from Hades (the realm of the dead); the sting of death is past.  MacLaren Expositions Ho.14:5 “That promise in its depth and fullness is applicable only to Christian Israel.”  That deported generation of northern Israel will have opportunity for salvation.  Again, “All Israel shall be saved”.  Sanh 10:1 “All Israelites will have a share in the world to come.”  Including the hardened, Ro.11:15, 25.  But those individuals will have to live a right life…believe, and repent (of apostasy).  God’s standards are consistent; He is impartial (Ep.6:9).

Later the Jews of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah were killed or sent by God into captivity to Babylon (between 606-586 BC).  Lam.2:21-22 they were slaughtered!  La.1:5 God’s wrath was due to the multitude of their transgressions.  La.3:42-43 the Lord didn’t pardon them then.  La.4:6 “The iniquity of Thy people is greater than the sin of Sodom.”  Adult survivors died in captivity.

Yet Je.32:36-40, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city [Jerusalem], ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and pestilence. Behold I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My wrath, and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in peace and safety…And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” (cf. Ezk.37:13-14, 24).

But they’d died (elsewhere)!  JFB Commentary Je.32:37 “The ‘all’ countries implies a future restoration more universal than that from Babylon.”  Not just after the 70 years of Je.29:10.  That generation was killed in the siege, and over the decades the adult survivors from 597 BC had died in captivity.  Barnes Notes Je.32:39 “Under the new covenant they will walk with one consent in the one narrow path of right-doing.”  Ellicott Commentary Je.32:40 “The ‘new covenant”…which shall abide forever.”  Gill Exposition Je.32:40 “An everlasting covenant…which is known and made manifest at conversion.”  Cambridge Bible Je.32:40 “It is the ‘new covenant’ of Jer.31:31, etc., which is meant.”  Jesus said in Lk.22:20, “This is the new covenant in My blood”.  Yet those Jews had perished 600 years before the inauguration of the New Covenant in the 1^st century AD at Jesus’ Last Supper!

The southern kingdom of Judah, long since dead, would be restored to their land too.  Paul wrote in Ro.11:15, “What will their [the Jews] acceptance be but life from the dead”.  v.23 God is able to graft them in again.  Ro.14:9 Christ is Lord of both the dead and the living. (cf. Ezk.37:12.)  It’s not all over for those Jews who perished in the first half of the 6^th century BC!  They’re part of “all Israel”.

Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.116 “In view of Isa.53 and other passages…the Messiah is represented as willingly taking upon Himself all these sufferings, on condition that all Israel – the living, the dead, and those yet unborn – should be saved.”

1Sm.2:6 “The Lord kills, and makes alive; He brings down to Sheól and raises up.”  also see De.32:39.  God, the author of life, has the right to end a life.  He may kill the wicked.  The Lord sent Israel/Judah to die in captivity.  Men reap what they sow (2Co.9:6).  But the order in the above two verses isn’t ‘He makes alive and then kills’, later…it’s vice versa.  After God kills, He then makes them alive again.

God allowed the patriarch Job to suddenly lose his wealth, children, and health in his trials.  Job was suffering, thinking God was angry over his (unknown) sin.  Jb.14:13 Job lamented, “If only you would hide me in Sheol until Your anger passes”.  He wanted to go to the realm of the dead (temporarily).  Though Job didn’t understand why this evil had come upon him, He didn’t blame God.  Instead, Job said in Jb.19:26 KJV, “Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God”.  Job didn’t doubt God existed.  Cambridge Bible Jb.19:26 “Before death he shall not see Him.”  Then when?

Jb.1:21 Tanakh KJV LXX, “Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.”  What?!  Job said he would later be reborn from a mother’s womb; his same spirit indwelling a human newborn!  After death, the Lord would make him alive again (1Sm.2:6).  cf. Is.26:19 “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust. The earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”  Ellicott Commentary Is.26:19 “Like the vision of dry bones in Ezek.37:1-14.”  Physical rebirth.

Job said in Jb.29:18 Tanakh, “I shall die with my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix.”  Barnes Notes Jb.29:18 “Herder observes that the phoenix is obviously intended here…The rabbis generally understand here the Phoenix; a fabulous bird, much celebrated in ancient times…Jannai adds that ‘This bird lives 1,000 years, and in the end of the thousand years, a fire goes forth from its nest, and burns it up. But there remains an egg, from which again the members grow, and it rises to life.”

Job thought he too would experience another physical life, as the ancient phoenix bird.  Clément was a fellow-worker with Paul (Php.4:3).  1Clem.12:2-6 describes a 500-year life cycle of the very rare phoenix.  v.6 “The Lord…even by a bird shows us the greatness of His power to fulfil His promise.”  (A phoenix was exhibited in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius, 41–54 AD).  Tacitus Annals 6:28 (117 AD) “There is no question that the bird is occasionally seen in Egypt.”  The phoenix symbolized rebirth.  We understand that Job’s physical life did end well (Jb.42:10).  But that’s not the case for every human.

Re.20:5 “The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were completed.”  Interestingly, an ancient Greek & Roman belief was…the spirits of the dead dwelt in Hades for 1,000 years, and then were resurrected or reincarnated to earthly life.  [Note – ref for Hades: Lk.16:23; 1Co.15:55; Re.1:18, 20:13-14.  also see the topic “Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (2)”.]

Re.20:8 at that time, after the 1,000 years, there are “nations in the four corners of the earth”.  Physical nations!  cf. Ec.6:6 “Though a man live 1,000 years twice told….”  May this include the men of Sodom and ancient Israelites/Jews reborn to another physical life (Ezk.16:55; Mt.11:24, 10:15)?

The Jewish apocryphal book Wisdom of Sírach, called Ecclesiásticus, was written ca 180 BC.  Its writer Yeshúa ben Síra alluded to a rebirth to physical life, for the righteous.  WisSir.46:11-12 “Whoever did not turn away from the Lord – May their memory be blessed, may their bones revive from their place, and may the name of those honored live again in their sons.”  This brings to mind the “dry bones” of Ezk.37.  Also WisSir.49:10 “May He indeed revive the bones of the twelve prophets from their place.”

The Jewish book of 2Maccabees was written ca 125 BC.  Its writer too believed in rebirth to physical life.  2Mac.12:44-46 KJV 1611 edition “If he had not hoped that the slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Whereupon he made reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.”  Wikipedia: Resurrection “The concept of resurrection of the physical body is found in 2 Maccabees, according to which it will happen through re-creation of the flesh.”  (also ref 2Mac.7:22-23, 28-29; Ezk.37.)  It was their custom to pray for the deceased.

Paul wrote in 1Co.15:29 Good News trans, “What about those people who are baptized for the dead? What do they hope to accomplish? If it is true, as some claim, that the dead are not raised to life, why are those people being baptized for the dead?”  In the 1^st century, it seems it was a custom to not only pray for the dead but to also be baptized by proxy for the dead.  Several interpretations have been offered for 1Co.15:29.  Expositor’s Greek Testament 1Co.15:29 “How futile Christian devotion must be, such as is ‘in those baptized for the dead’, if death ends all.”  Pulpit Commentary “Why do some of you get baptized on behalf of your dead friends?”  Cambridge Bible “The natural and obvious explanation is that the apostle [Paul] was here referring to a practice, prevalent in his day, of persons permitting themselves to be baptized on behalf of their dead relatives and friends.”  Perhaps prayers and vicarious baptism was efficacious for their comrades and loved ones who would later have a physical rebirth.

Where else in scripture do we read about belief in physical rebirth (besides Jb.1:21)?  As well, a rebirth could be great opportunity for our ancestors, children, family members, friends & loved ones who died unconverted/unsaved!  Their ultimate fate wouldn’t be eternal conscious torment in hell-fire!

{Sidelight: For our non-religious relatives/ancestors who’d lived a peaceful quiet life to suffer hell-fire forever equally with genocidal tyrants…such injustice wouldn’t reflect just retribution!  God is just.  The punishment fits the crime; the lex talionis principle of equality (e.g. Le.24:17-22).}

This topic is concluded in “Rebirth to Physical Life (2)”.  (The future for converted/saved Christians is addressed in the topic “Life and Death – for Saints”.)

Holy Spirit-Filled (2) – Be Refilled

This topic was begun in “Holy Spirit-Filled (1) – Death to Self-Will”.  It discussed the symbolic death of the old self/old nature, using the life and writings of the apostle Paul as an example.  Part 1 should be read first.  In this Part 2, we’ll tie-in the life of the apostle Peter also.

Part 1 ended with the question…How much time do we live filled with, or aware of, the Holy Spirit?  Paul exhorted the church in Ep.5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit”.

In the Old Testament (OT), the Holy Spirit (HS) wasn’t universally available to all.  OT saints weren’t baptized into the Body of Christ.  He hadn’t yet incarnated as Jesus.  Some were (occasionally) Spirit-filled to do God’s purpose.  To name a few: Bezalel Ex.31:1-3, elders of Israel Nu.11:25, Caleb Nu.14:24, Gideón Jg.6:34, Samson Jg.15:14, David Ps.51:11, Micah Mic.3:8, other prophets.

Later, John the Baptizer was Spirit-filled; Lk.1:13-15 “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb”.

Christians are enjoined to be Spirit-filled…or refilled!  Pastor Don Finto “The Presence of God should differentiate us from all other people on earth.”  A personal awareness of the HS or God’s Presence.

Jesus was so aware!  Jn.3:34 “He [Jesus] whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives Him the Spirit without limit.”  Jesus was continually Spirit-filled!  And the spiritual believer should be Spirit-filled.  HS infilling brings boldness (for testimony) and fellowship with God.

After Jesus’ resurrection, in Ac.1:5 He promised His disciples would soon be filled with the Spirit.  This infilling occurred in Ac.2:4. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Their baptism in the HS and filling with the HS was simultaneous.  Peter was one of those (Ac.2:14).

Peter was emboldened by the HS to take his stand and speak with confidence (Ac.2:29, 36).  The now Spirit-filled Peter isn’t fearfully denying Jesus, as he’d done earlier 3 times (ref Jn.13:38, Jn.18:12-27)!  Throughout Ac.3, Peter continued to boldly proclaim Jesus the Christ publically, while exhorting Jews in Jerusalem to repent of their wicked ways.  He healed a lame man in the name of Jesus (Ac.3:6-10).

We read that Peter is still Spirit-filled the next day.  Ac.4:8 “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit….”  Then v.31 “When they prayed, the place where they’d gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness.”  Peter and other Jewish Christians in that meeting place were filled or refilled.  (Note: Ron Phillips Awakened by the Spirit, p.117 “This manifestation gave early American Quakers their name.”)

HS indwelling provides spiritual power and gifts for Christians.  But we can subsequently become unfilled or less filled by: sin in our life, not spending time with God, not yielding to God’s will.

Paul wrote Galatians c 50 AD.  Ga.2:11-14 “But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, for he was to be blamed. The Jewish Christians joined him in hypocrisy. Barnábas was swept along with them.”  This dispute (noted only by Paul, not Luke) indicates that the apostles Peter & Barnabas, or Paul himself, wasn’t then filled with the HS.  Being in error, someone(s) had become unfilled or less filled.

Later their falling out was mended.  cf. 2Pe.3:14-16.  Peter as an old man went on to write two epistles included in our Bibles.  And in Paul’s subsequent letters, Paul recognized Barnabas (1Co.9:6, Col.4:10).

The Spirit can be rekindled.  2Ti.1:6 “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God which is in you.”  Barnes Notes 2Ti.1:6 “What was the ‘gift of God’? Paul specifies in the next verse, 2Ti.1:7, ‘the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  Paul exhorted Timothy to stir up, or be refilled with, the HS.  When the fire gets low, stir the coals or add more coals.

If the sense of HS fullness has waned in us, we heed Paul’s exhortation to be (re)filled, Ep.5:18.

There were periods when Paul felt unfilled.  He admitted in Ro.7:19, “I don’t do the good I desire to do. Instead, I practice the very evil that I don’t want to do.”  v.24 “O wretched man that I am!”  It seems Paul wasn’t sufficiently filled at that time, to victoriously combat old wrong tendencies.  JFB Commentary Ro.7:19 “The conflict here…cannot be the conflict between passion and struggles in the unregenerate, because of this description given to ‘the desire to do good.”  Here he’s the regenerate, converted Paul.  Barnes Notes Ro.7:24 “This frequent subjection to sinful propensities.”  There were times when HS influence was neglected or unsought for Paul (and Peter) to obediently mind God.

An unfilled worldly Christian may feel wretched, miserable; he’s not yielded away from his self-will, and is controlled by his old self or ‘flesh’.  (ref Part 1.)  Having lost (close) contact with God, he may feel fruitless and defeated…depending on self-effort to try to live the Christian life, rather than living by the indwelling HS.  This can result in frustration or confusion, living by emotional feeling & self-desire, rather than by active faith and HS guidance.  We are to trust, obey, and follow the Lord via the Spirit.

Alfred H. Pohl said, “Every Christian has the HS in his life as Resident, but the Spirit-filled (controlled) Christian has Him as President!”  (The Godhead is one in essence.  Jesus is Lord!)  West Colonial Hills Baptist Church “Where the Baptism of the Spirit makes the Spirit resident of our lives, the Filling makes the Spirit president of our lives. The Filling of the Spirit happens to those who obey, submit and surrender to the Spirit.”  But we can become complacent or lackadaisical in submitting to the HS.

CBN The Filling of the Holy Spirit “D.L. Moody was asked why he continually needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He replied, ‘Because I leak’. Like Moody, we all run out of gas and need the power of the Holy Spirit to recharge our lives. Scripture says we must be continually filled, not just once or twice.”  Friends Review, vol.28 “Baptized once for all, there is need to be refilled for every service.”  The HS is likened to living water (Jn.7:38-39).  We too leak, become spiritually dry or empty.

If we feel spiritually weak or that our growth is stunted, or that the HS may have been grieved or quenched…we need refilling or renewal!  Ep.4:22-24 “Lay aside the old self…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self.”  Refilling, renewal, rekindle, stir up the Spirit…these are comparable expressions.

What may we do to be refilled or rekindle the HS?  Php.2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  Again, Jesus was continually Spirit-filled (He was conceived by the HS, Mt.1:20)!

First, we should examine our lives.  Paul wrote in 2Co.13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are still in the Christian faith”.  Then quit any (recurring) sin that becomes evident.  Is.59:2 “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear you.”  Sin separates us from the Lord’s Presence.  (So does neglect and self-absorption.)  We’re to confess any new sin and repent of it, and then God will forgive, 1Jn.1:9.

Ja.4:7-8 “Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  He.4:16 “Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.”  How do we draw near?  There are spiritual tools we can implement that will bring us closer to God:

We can devote more time to God and the things of God.  Every day set aside some quiet time.  David wrote in Ps.63:1 KJV, “Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee”.  Seek His Presence in the morning to start the day right.  The HS of wisdom says in Pr.8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently shall find me”.  God knows when we’re in earnest.  The Lord promised in Je.29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart”.  Heartfelt seeking.

Spend more time praying.  Paul said in1Th.5:17, “Pray without ceasing”.  As we pray, listen for God impressing or speaking to us in our spirit.  Ep.6:18 “Pray at all times in the Spirit.”  Throughout the day.

Do daily Bible reading or Bible study.  Following a program of reading the entire Bible-in-a-year will give us a broad overview of the scriptures.  Let the written words, inspired by the HS, soak in.  1Ti.4:13 Paul exhorted Timothy at Ephesus to “Give attention to the public reading of scripture”.  That was primarily the OT scriptures, the Law and the Prophets (and the Psalms/Writings).

Meditate on the Lord, on scriptures, and the wonders of God’s creation.  Ps.119:15 “I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways.”  This will help us remain mindful of God.  Ps.111:2 “Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them.”  Ps.77:12 “Muse on all Thy deeds.”

Occasional fasting too is beneficial.  Jesus said, Mt.6:16-18 “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father in secret. And your Father which sees in the hidden place will reward you openly.”  Fasting isn’t for religious show.  It’s for seeking God (and for health).  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be blessed (Mt.5:6).

Worship/fellowship with other Christians.  We can edify each other.  Pr.27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”  Spend time praising the Lord (Ps.111:1), corporately and also privately as we go about our day.  David wrote in Ps.22:3, “You are holy, You who inhabits the praises of Israel”.  Offer-up the “sacrifice of praise” and give thanks (He.13:15)…God shows up.

Exercise your spiritual gift(s).  For example, if God has given you the gift of tongues, don’t let it lie dormant.  (also see the topic, “Spiritual Gifts and Tongues”.)  Speak in tongues privately to God in your prayer closet or secret place.  That will build you up spiritually.  Paul wrote in 1Co.14:4 KJV, “He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself”.

Also, reading Christian books about communing with God can inspire and motivate us.  God’s Presence is our best environment (regardless of our church background)!  I recommend Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God.  Living in the 1600s, Brother Lawrence experienced God’s Presence as a way of life daily, hour by hour!  Other such Christian books you may find helpful are: The Joy of Full Surrender and The Sacrament of the Present Moment, both by Jean-Pierre de Caussade; Frank C. Laubach Letters by a Modern Mystic; Gregory A. Boyd Present Perfect – Finding God in the Now.  The desire of those writers was to sense God’s Presence habitually.

A HS refilling may seem like a brand new experience to us, especially if we’ve regressed away from God.  But we’re still in the Body of Christ.  It’s now about us getting right or staying right with God, surrendering the self, personal consecration, trusting and allowing His HS to guide us.  In daily situations we encounter, ask ourself…‘What would Jesus do (WWJD) if He were in my shoes today?’

We can still be living as if in the day of Pentecost (Ac.2:1-4)…living a Spirit-led life!  God wants us to present ourselves to Him as available empty vessels or jars of clay…to be filled by the HS.  cf. 2Ki.4:1-7 the Lord caused the widow’s empty jars of clay to be miraculously filled with oil in Elisha’s day.

We should seek to be Spirit-empowered, Spirit-influenced, Spirit-guided; Spirit-controlled in a sense.  Jesus said in Jn.4:24, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”.

Although we won’t achieve complete perfection in this life…life is much more satisfying walking in the Spirit!  (e.g. Enoch walked with God, Ge.5:22.)

Our bodies are the temple of God.  Paul wrote in 1Co.6:19 KJV, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost [Spirit], which is in you”.  We host the Holy Ghost!  It’s a great privilege we’ve been given…God desires to actually indwell Christians!

Col.3:1 “If then you have been raised up [cf. Col.2:12] with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.”  Strive to keep our mind & intent fixed on right things of God.  Col.3:4 “And when Christ, who gives meaning to our life, appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.”  The glorious goal of our converted Life will then be reality.  To God be the glory!

Repentance from Sin

In Sunday sermons, churchgoers in general don’t hear much about repentance.  It’s not a popular topic.  Yet the Bible (and Jesus) has much to say about it.  This is about repenting and repentance.

What does it mean to repent?  The Greek verb translated “repent” in the LXX Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) is met-an-o-éh-o, Strongs g3340.  It occurs 33 times in the NT.  Repent means to change one’s mind (for the better), or to turn.  Webster’s Dictionary: Repent “To turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life; to feel regret or contrition, to change one’s mind.”

What is repentance?  The Greek noun translated “repentance” is met-án-oy-ah, g3341.  It occurs 24 times in the NT.  Repentance means a change of mind by one who repents; the action of sincere regret or remorse.  Webster’s Dictionary: Repentance “The process of repenting, especially for misdeeds or moral shortcomings.”  Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary “To turn from evil and turn to the good.”

To begin, here’s two passages about repent from the OT book of Jeremiah.  The Lord said of treacherous Judah in Je.8:6 LXX. “There is no man that repents [g3340] of his wickedness.”  Wickedness is to be repented of, but the Judah of Jeremiah’s day didn’t have a change of heart for it.  The Lord declared in Je.18:7-10 LXX, “If that nation turns from their evils, then I will repent [g3340] of the evil I thought to do to them….But if they do evil things before Me, and don’t hearken to My voice, then I will repent [g3340] of the good things which I spoke to do for them.”  If they turned from their wickedness, God would change His mind (repent) and relent from doing them bad…but also vice versa.

Man is to repent of…sin.  Some verses from the NT which show we’re to repent (g3340) of sin: Lk.15:10, 17:3-4; Ac.2:38, 3:19, 8:22; 2Co.12:21; Re.2:21, 9:20-21.

Some NT verses which show that repentance (g3341) is from sin: Mt.9:13; Mk.1:4, 2:17; Lk.3:3, 5:32, 15:7.  Also, 2Ti.2:25 shows that God gives us repentance (g3341) as the ability to change our mind in regards to acknowledging His truth.  He.6:1 & Re.2:22 indicate repentance (g3341) from dead works.

Quoting several of the above verses: Jesus said in Lk.17:3-4, “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him”.  (Repentance is a prerequisite for forgiveness.)  Peter admonished Simon the Samaritan in Ac.8:22, “Repent of this your wickedness”.  In 2Co.12:21, Paul said he would “Mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented”.  Jesus spoke about the Thyatíran church in Re.2:21. “She does not want to repent of her immorality.”  Immorality is sin.  Re.9:21 “They did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their immorality, or their thefts.”  Those acts are all sins.  Mankind is to repent (g3340) of sins!

In Mk.1:4, John the Baptizer “Came into the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance [g3341] for the forgiveness of sins”.  In Lk.3:3, Jesus “Came into the district around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance [g3341] for the forgiveness of sin”.  Jesus and John both preached repentance from sin.  Jesus said in Mt.9:13 KJV, “I Am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”.  There’s no admonition for a repentance from righteousness.  Repentance (g3341) is from sin!

Again, repentance involves a change of mind or change of heart.  But 1Ki.11:1-9 shows King Solomon changed/turned for the worse.  Because he was so wise, maybe he thought he didn’t need to heed God?

2Ki.21:1-11 King Manasséh did worse than ungodly gentile nations!  But eventually he changed for the better.  And God responded favorably to even evil Manasseh’s sincere change of heart (2Ch.33:10-19)!

Jnh.3:3-10 the gentile Ninevites in Assyria repented at the preaching of Jonah (cf. Lk.11:32).  But their change for the better wasn’t lasting.  Approximately 100 years later they returned to wickedness.  (The book of Nahúm then foretells Nineveh’s coming ruin.  Nineveh fell to Babylon in 612 BC.)

How is “sin” defined?  In the Bible are found at least 5 definitions or descriptions of sin:

1) 1Jn.3:4 sin = lawlessness, or the transgression of the law (KJV).  The OT is said to contain 600 laws, and the NT 1,000 commands.  Which ones are still applicable in today’s world?  A basic rule of thumb is…all God’s written (moral) principles and precepts apply, unless He has rendered them obsolete over time.  In the words of Jesus, Mt.4:4, “It is written”.  Jesus was referring to the written OT.

2) Ja.4:17 sin = Knowing we should do a good act we’re capable of doing, but not following through and performing it.  “He that knows to do good, but does it not is sin.”  Sins of omission, that is.

3) 1Jn.5:17 sin = “All unrighteousness is sin.”  Not meeting God’s justness/justice (within the confines of one’s national laws) or moral standards.  Ps.119:172 “All Thy commandments are righteousness.”  Unrighteousness is disobedience to God’s right principles.

4) Ro.14:23b sin = “Whatever is not of faith is sin.”  The righteous or just live by faith (Ro.1:17).  Our conscience becomes educated as to what thoughts, words, actions constitute sin.  We shouldn’t defile our conscience!  (Avoiding the appearance of evil helps keep a pure conscience, 1Th.5:22.)

5) Pr.24:9 sin = The thought of foolishness/folly.  Our thoughts can be sin, before they become words or actions.  Jesus said in Mt.15:19, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts…”  Thoughts should be pure.

Those are 5 scriptural definitions, if you will, of “sin”.  To be repented of.

{Sidelight: I won’t delineate or discuss various categories of wrong: sin, trespass, transgression, crime, iniquity, wickedness, evil, etc.  John H. Walton The Lost World of Adam and Eve, p.154 “It is important to recognize that there are categories of evil, and not all of them are connected to sin (e.g. what is called ‘natural evil’). We should, for example, differentiate between experiential evil (discomfort resulting from non-order and/or disorder on all levels), personal evil (anti-social behavior that causes suffering in others), punitive consequence (discomfort resulting from actions by God or rulers designed to punish or discourage personal evil and/or the perpetuation of disorder), and sin (ritual/moral impropriety that damages relationship with deity). Most people use ‘sin’ or ‘evil’ interchangeably to refer to any or all of these….The problem of evil is a larger discussion than the problem of sin that people face.”  This topic won’t philosophically discuss the broad concept of evil, but simply refers to various wrongs as…sin.}

Sin can be any thoughts we dwell on, any words we speak, or anything we do that is contrary to God’s word/principles and His revealed will for our individual lives!  Any wrongs and anything outside of God’s will for us as individuals.

Our interpretation of laws can influence which thoughts/actions of ourselves or others we view as sin.  The Lord gave Levitical rituals and observances to ancient Israel for their culture.  Gentile peoples such as Abraham, Eskimos, Pygmies, Amazon River tribesmen, don’t know Levitical tállit fringe (Nu.15:38), or téfillin box customs (De.11:18, Mt.23:5), e.g.  Such unawareness isn’t sin.  The Levitical priesthood is obsolete.  Dress customs among peoples differ.  Most customs of dress don’t need repentance.

Churches or sects shouldn’t erect an oral law or man-made traditional fence around God’s written laws/precepts, and then pharisaically masquerade that God Himself said it.  That’s adding to His word.

{{Sidelight: In matters where your government isn’t adhering to God’s principles & justice, we aren’t to take His law/precepts into our own individual hands…no personal vengeance (Ps.94:1, Ro.12:19).  We don’t personally avenge govt neglect or ignorance.  see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians”.}}

Supposedly, the rabbis placed Jews into three moral categories: the righteous (his merits exceed his sins), the intermediates (half and half), the sinners (his sins exceed his merits).  ref Carl Schwartz The Scattered Nation and Jewish Christian Magazine, p.226.  Most Jews were considered intermediates?

Who has sinned?  Ro.3:9b, 23 “All have sinned.”  Both Jews and gentiles.  Sin separates one from God.  What is the result of sin?  Ro.6:23 “The payment of sin is death.”  Spiritual death.  (see “Life and Death – For Saints”.)  Animal lifeblood was a temporary covering for sin (ref Le.16, e.g.).

But the ultimate remedy for sin is forgiveness through Jesus’ shed blood (He only never sinned).  Ac.5:30-31 “He [Jesus] is the one God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”  Forgiveness is given by God to those whom He grants the ability to repent.  We can’t come to repentance of and by ourselves.  The Lord is so gracious!

Ro.2:4 “The goodness of God leads you to repentance.”  Even the desire to repent is initially from God, not of ourselves.  Mankind is unable to repent solely through our own initiative or human nature.

Also, confessing our sins is of prime importance.  1Jn.1:9-10 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.”  Again, sin separates us from God.  Is.59:2 “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.”  We can’t hide our sins from the Lord.  God is greater than our hearts, and He knows our conscience (1Jn.3:20).  Unconfessed sin won’t remove this separation and obtain God’s blessings.  However, upon confession and repentance, Father God will wash away those sins forever on account of Jesus’ lifeblood.  As we’ve seen, God offers forgiveness after repentance.

One must change his/her mind and conduct in regards to sin, and think differently.  Actions begin with thoughts, and words.  We are to confess our misuse of the tongue (ref Ja.3:1-ff.)

In a word…repentance means ‘change’.  Change from a life of sin and unbelief.  It may involve a gradual process of a 180° turnaround!  Spiritually it’s the turning from darkness to light.  However, we may not immediately overcome old wrong habits that are deeply ingrained.

As we began to recognize God’s hand in our lives, He caused us to see the need to repent and be baptized.  Peter proclaimed in Ac.2:38, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.  Repentance precedes baptism.

Lasting change from some sins may be difficult, but can be accomplished through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit (HS) indwelling us.  Peter proclaimed at Solomon’s porch of the temple in Ac.3:19, “Repent, and turn back [to God], that your sins may be wiped away; in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”.  Repent, and come into God’s Presence!

Again, it involves a change of mind or heart.  The Lord God promised to provide believers with a new or exchanged heart.  Ezk.36:26-27 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh. I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  The HS enables us to cease continuing to live disobediently with sinful habits as a way of life.  (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)

John the Baptizer admonished the Jewish leaders in Mt.3:5-8. “Bring forth fruit befitting of repentance.”  In other words, start living a changed life as evidence of repentance…talk can be cheap.  Jesus proclaimed to Galileans in His first (red-letter) words of the book of Mark, Mk.1:15. “The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.”  Repentance and belief are prerequisites for salvation.

Jesus warned in Lk.13:2-5, “Repent [g3340] or you will all likewise perish”.  Jesus is serious about repentance!  Time and chance, to an extent, and God’s judgments happens to humans.  Yet the Lord gives protection and deliverance to His repentant saints (e.g. 2Th.3:3, Ps.91:7, 34:19, 1Co.10:13).

Repentance is offered to gentiles too!  Paul said in Ac.17:30, “All everywhere should repent”.  (cf. Ac.20:21.)  Ac.26:20 Paul declared to those in Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea, and to gentiles that “They should repent and turn to God, performing works appropriate for repentance”.  Prove it by good works.

Re.2:5, 16, 21, 3:3, 19 Jesus reprimanded five of the seven churches in Asia Minor to further repent (g3340)!  Repentance should be ongoing for a Christian, as we become aware of any sin in our life.

2Co.7:9-10 two kinds of sorrow are evident here.  First, sorrow we feel regarding our sin against God.  Second, sorrow we got caught.  Feeling regret over past wrong thoughts, words and conduct is part of it.  Yet we’re not always able to fully change habits immediately.  (cf. Ec.11:9 we change from wrong acts of youth.)

Ezk.18:1-20 shows that a son doesn’t bear responsibility for his father’s sin, and vice versa.  Everyone is responsible for their own actions.  v.21-32 God doesn’t take pleasure in the death of the wicked.  Yet…v.26-27 “A righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies because of it. When a wicked man turns away from his wickedness, and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life.”  Their lasting decision for habitual living determined their fate.

He.6:4-6 is a fearsome concept about those who were made partakers of the HS, but later fell away to become disqualified or castaways (cf. Ezk.18:24, 1Co.9:27).  One who returns to living a life of sin with an ‘I don’t care’ attitude!  The writer to the Hebrews indicates that such a person cannot repent.

Saul/Paul had been responsible for the death of others in his past…a past murderer, in a sense!  In our struggles, weaknesses, and failures, we can take heart from his experiences.  Paul struggled against sin, Ro.7:14-25.  The sin to which he refers wasn’t habitual crime.  It was occasional sins, coveting, wrong thoughts.  Perhaps most men wrongly covet or idolize something in this material world?  We shouldn’t dwell on wrong thoughts that occur.  2Co.10:5 “Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”  We’re to strive to govern our thoughts and be obedient.  (see “Coveting – Wrong and Right Desire”.)

We’re to root-out sin, coveting, and bad habits when the HS shows us our wrongs, in the light of God’s word.  Jesus said in Re.3:19, “Those whom I love I reprove and discipline”.  The Lord lovingly chastises us for our good so we’ll repent, though His affliction is unpleasant at the time (He.12:6, Ps.119:75).

However, sincere differences of opinion, or dogmatic or ‘oral law’ disagreements between believers may not actually constitute sin.  We’re all growing in understanding and in the knowledge of Christ.  Peter wrote, 2Pe.3:18 “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.

Victorious faith can be ours! (cf. 2Ti.4:7-8).  Let’s continue to fight the good fight of faith to overcome an evil world of sin (e.g. Ro.12:21), obeying God’s righteous principles.  (see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?” and “Genesis Principles Predate Moses ”.)  Also discerning and doing His will for us as individuals.  To not grow weary in well-doing (Ga.6:9).  Our diligence is necessary.

Concluding…Lk.15:11-24 is Jesus’ heartwarming parable about the prodigal son, whom his earthly father honored.  It reflects how our heavenly Father takes joy in His repentant children who change for the good!

God mercifully grants us awareness of our sins, so we can change…repent.  We examine our lives (2Co.13:5) and make any needed godly corrections.  And we are renewed (Col.3:9-10).  Jesus proclaimed in Lk.15:10, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”.  Heaven rejoices in the repentant individual who changes for the good!

 

 

 

Added in the Old Covenant (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation of “Added in the Old Covenant (1)”.  Most of the background material in Part 1 won’t be repeated here.  In this topic, we’ve been addressing two main passages of scripture:

#1) The apostle Paul wrote in Ga.3:18-19, “For if the inheritance is based on law [Strongs g3551 nómos, Greek], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis, seven New Testament (NT) occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15]…until the Seed should come.”

The majority of Bible students think the apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added.  Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added.

#2) The prophet Jeremiah wrote in Je.7:22-23, “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085 shemá, Hebrew] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

The Lord had said of Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed [h8085] My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Due to transgressions of God’s pre-existing moral laws/principles (seen in Genesis), the Old Covenant Law of Moses was subsequently added for ancient Israel.  (ref Part 1)

God’s Old Covenant included His pre-existing moral laws that date from Adam (which Abraham obeyed)…plus pilgrim feasts, Levitical ceremonial tabernacle/temple rituals and the sacrificial system.  Gentiles in Genesis didn’t have pilgrim feasts or recurring animal sacrifices, sin/guilt offerings, etc.

Part 1 ended with two related questions: What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system for ancient Israel?  Why did God add recurring burnt-sin-guilt sacrifices to the (pre-existing) moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant (OC) from Genesis?

God did so because…upon leaving Egypt, Israel proceeded to transgress and disobey God, and evidenced unbelief (prior to Ex.21 judgments at Sinai).  Let’s briefly trace their history leaving Egypt:

Ex.14:11-12 Israel rebelled at the Reed Sea (ref Ps.106:7).  The Lord parted the sea for them, and the pursuing Egyptian army drowned.  Ex.15:22-25 Israel then grumbled about water at Maráh.  So the Lord showed Moses a tree and Moses threw it into the waters; the waters miraculously became sweet.

Ex.16:27-28 Israel then broke God’s 7^th day sabbath.  (see the series, “Sabbath 7^th Day”.)  The Lord gave them manna to eat.  Ex.17:1-7 Israel tested the Lord at Massáh/Meribáh; they even wanted to stone Moses!  Moses obediently struck a rock and water gushed forth for them (ref Ps.106:14).  Ex.18:5, 16 in the wilderness, Moses made known to them pre-existing statutes and laws of God.

The Lord kept intervening for His people Israel…yet they kept sinning in unbelief.  Prior to Sinai.

Ex.20:1-18 at Sinai, Christ spoke the Decalogue.  (De.4:13 the Ten Commandments or ten “words”, h1697 debarim, was the heart of the OC.)  The people heard His voice!  Ex.20:19-20 but they’re afraid of God and only want to hear Moses, not God.  v.21 so Moses alone approached the Lord in the cloud.

The Lord won’t speak directly to His people after that; He speaks through Moses the mediator.

Then the Lord instructed Moses in Ex.21:1-ff, “These are the judgments which you are to set before them….”  Civil judgments and the sacrificial system are seen in remaining chapters of the Péntateuch.

In the beginning, Adam & Eve heard (h8085) the Lord’s voice…but they hid themselves, Ge.3:8.  Israel later didn’t hearken to (h8085) God’s voice.  Nu.14:22 the Lord said of Israel, “Ten times you haven’t listened to [h8085] My voice”.  De.4:12, 5:25, 18:16 the people didn’t want to hear (h8085) God’s voice at Sinai.  Later, Joshua wrote that those coming out of Egypt didn’t obey (h8085) God’s voice, Jsh.5:6.

Again, Je.7:22-23 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

Ge.26:5 father Abraham had obeyed (h8085) God’s voice.  After God miraculously provided water at Marah for Israel, Moses told the people in Ex.15:26, “If you will earnestly heed [h8085] the voice of the Lord, and do what is right in His sight and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have put on the Egyptians”.  Obedience to God’s pre-existing moral principles was expected of them…in Ex.15:26 there is no sacrificial system for sin.

Before He gave the Ten Commandments, the Lord said to Moses/Israel in Ex.19:5, “If you will obey [h8085] My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all peoples”.  Later, De.5:2-3 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horéb [Sinai]. The Lord didn’t make this covenant with our fathers.”  The fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob didn’t have the OC (although they knew God’s moral principles/commandments, which later became part of the OC).  For example, A-I-J didn’t have individual sin or guilt/trespass offerings; none of those sacrifices appear in scripture before Le.4–6, given to Moses later at Sinai (ref Le.27:34).  see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.

In Ex.24:7-8, Israel affirmed they would obey the Lord’s OC. “The people said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do and be obedient [h8085]!’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you.”  The OC was a blood covenant between the Lord and ancient Israel.  It was ratified.

But in Ex.32:1-10, Israel then held an idolatrous golden calf feast with burnt/peace offerings!  Ps.78:10-20 they disobeyed, didn’t keep God’s covenant.  Ps.78:17 “They continued to sin against Him.”

The Lord recapped in Je.11:7-8, “I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice’. Yet they didn’t obey, but each walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart.”  Most of them repeatedly refused to hearken to God.

The Lord is holy.  God won’t dwell with sin.  Sin must be atoned.  God told Moses in Ex.25:8, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them”.  The tabernacle was the place of God’s Name, where Christ (the good Shepherd, Ps.80:1 & Jn.10:14) dwelt among His ancient people.  (also see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

A purpose of animal blood sacrifices at God’s tabernacle was to expiate sins.  see “Day of Atonement (1)”.  Thus the sacrificial system was instituted for a holy God to dwell with them.  However, 1Sm.15:22-23 “To obey [h8085] is better than sacrifice, to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”  Obeying the Lord is much preferable to disobeying and then having to sacrifice to expiate the sin.  Where there’s no transgression or sin, there’s no need to offer an atoning sacrifice!

From Are Christians Freed from the Old Covenant?: “When Paul states, in Galatians 3:19, ‘It (the body of law governing sacrifices) was added because of transgressions,’ he is referring to a contractual provision, one that would not have been put into effect had Israel obeyed God. How do we know this? Notice Hosea 6:6: ‘For I (the Eternal) desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.’ (Also notice Psalm 40:6, 8.) But animal sacrifices were not instituted by God as an afterthought, any more than was Christ’s sacrifice.”  see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.

David wrote of God in Ps.40:6-8, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. To do Your will, my God, I desired. Your Law is within my heart.”  The Lord didn’t take pleasure in the flesh of sin offerings.  He desires obedience to His righteous moral principles (which predate the OC) more than animal sacrifices.

Again, the Lord said in Ho.6:6, “I desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and an acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings”.  By comparison, animal sacrifices were secondary in importance.  JFB Commentary Ho.6:6 “God valued moral obedience as the only end for which positive ordinances, such as sacrifices, were instituted.”  In Mk.12:32-34 of the NT, Jesus confirmed that to love God and to love one’s neighbor is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices!

Je.6:20 “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable. Your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”  At that time (ca 600 BC), Judah was offering them from an evil and insincere heart.  Barnes Notes “God rejects not the ceremonial service, but the substitution of it for personal holiness and morality.”

So after centuries of disobedience, God eventually sent His people into captivity…Israel to Assyria, and Judah to Babylon in 597 BC.  The Lord ceased to honor their feigned sacrifices, offered insincerely.

The fault was with the people…not with God’s Old Covenant!  He.8:8 “Finding fault with them….”  Not, “with it.”  A purpose of the OC was to reflect: the Lord’s standard of law, so crime wouldn’t run rampant in the streets…a standard of order, to prevent chaos in society.  The Law given to Moses/Israel also contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.

Again, Ga.3:19 “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions.”

Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law.  Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [g3847].”  And Ro.5:13, “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”  Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.”  So there must be some form of law in existence for there to be sin/transgression (of that law), as per Paul.

Earl Henn What Was the Law ‘Added Because of Transgressions’? “For years, people have wondered how anyone could have transgressed the laws before they were given. Simply put, Paul is talking about the laws of God which have been in full force since Creation! When he writes that the Old Covenant was added ‘till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made’, he means that the Old Covenant was temporary; Christ would replace it with the New Covenant. Rather than saying that God’s [moral] laws had become obsolete, he is explaining how important it was to preserve the knowledge of God’s laws in Israel….Paul is showing that the Old Covenant was an interim, temporary addition to the [prior] covenant made with Abraham. It was necessitated by Israel’s transgressions of God’s holy laws that had been—AND STILL ARE!—in full force and effect since Creation.”

James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.207 “In the pre-Sinai narrative, Biblical law is set in the context of creation.”  p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

John Sailhamer The Law Was Added Because of Transgressions “As Israel continued to transgress the laws given to them, God continued to give them more. God did not give up on His people. When they sinned, he added laws to keep them from sinning further….The laws were added to keep them from disappearing into the world of sin around them. It thus was the transgressions of the people that provided the motivation for God’s giving the Mosaic law.”

After 39 years of wilderness experience, Moses repeated to the next generation in De.13:4. “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him, and you shall keep His commandments and obey [h8085] His voice, and remain loyal to Him.”  Although they didn’t obey then either…they eventually will obey God!

De.4:30 “When you are in distress, in later time, you will return to the Lord your God and obey [h8085] His voice.”  Eventually Israel will obey the Lord with a steadfast heart.  Benson Commentary De.4:30 “Particularly in the days of the Messiah.”  And Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel will be saved”.

Animal sacrifices and the detailed sacrificial system for Israel are no more!  Yet there are righteous moral principles of God brought into the OC Mosaic Law which predated and transcend that OC.

As Paul wrote in Ro.8:4, “That the righteousness [g1345] of the Law may be accomplished in us, who live not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”.  Gill Exposition Ro.8:4 “By the righteousness of the law, is not meant the righteousness of the ceremonial law, though that was fulfilled by Christ; but of the moral law, which requires holiness of nature.”

Yes, Christians are able to obey God’s moral principles (also contained in the Old Covenant), via the Holy Spirit (HS).  Whereas carnal-minded ancient Israel, most of whom didn’t have the HS, was unable to obey.  Ro.8:7 “The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God; it doesn’t subject itself to God’s law, because it is powerless to do so.”  But the HS will figuratively write God’s righteous principles, seen in Genesis also for gentiles, on the minds & hearts of New Covenant Christians (He.8:10).

Also Ro.2:26-27, “If the uncircumcised man keeps the righteousness [g1345] of the Law…if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you [Jews] who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor [g3848] of the Law?”  The HS enables uncircumcised gentile Christians to obey God’s moral laws.  Barnes Notes Ro.2:26 “It could not be supposed that a pagan would understand the requirements of the ceremonial law; but reference is had here to the moral law.”

That’s the moral laws, commandments and statutes which the gentile Abraham obeyed (Ge.26:5), and which Moses made known (Ex.18:16)…prior to Sinai and the OC.  Meyer’s NT Commentary Ro.2:26-27 “The uncircumcised person, who observes what the law has ordained, i.e. the moral precepts of the law, shall one day be awarded the same salvation….The standard of judgment remains the [moral] law of God.”  God’s moral principles/laws…seen even in Genesis for gentiles prior to Moses.  see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” and “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.

bible.org The Mosaic Law “The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls ‘the righteousness of the law’ (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Ro 6–8).”

Jesus said in Jn.10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”.  Unlike most of faithless ancient Israel, real believers do desire to follow and obey Christ the Lord.

The Christian isn’t under the Mosaic law as such…since it included sacrifices and Levitical rituals.  Those are impossible to perform without a tabernacle/temple.  Those are inapplicable today.

The Old Covenant was added for ancient Israel…added because of sins/transgressions of God’s prior eternal laws, Ga.3:19 (ref Part 1).  The OC also contains judgments which governed civil society.

The Lord isn’t an anarchist!  God’s moral principles/laws existed for gentiles prior to the OC.  And those just principles were then put into the OC for ancient Israel.  Those principles/laws of God are still valid for humanity/Christians today!  The HS enables the willing heart to obey them.  (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)  The character and principles of Jesus Christ, the God of ancient Israel, are the same…yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  He is Lord and Master!

Added in the Old Covenant (1)

Paul wrote in Ga.3:19, “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions”.  What prior law(s) was transgressed that led to God adding the law of Moses?  And what all did the Lord then add (for Moses/Israel) to His more ancient prior laws after those were transgressed?

The majority of Bible students think the New Testament (NT) apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added.  Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added.  In this topic, we’ll explore the issue.

Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law.  Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [Strongs g3847, Greek].”  And Ro.5:13 “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”  Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.”  So there must have been some form of law already in existence for there to be sin or transgression (of that law), according to Paul.

Since the Bible mentions sin several times in Genesis (Ge.4:7, 13:13, 18:20, 20:9, 31:36, 39:9, 42:22, 50:17), prior to the Law of Moses…Divine Law must have existed and been revealed to humanity prior to Moses, for sin to have been present!  1Jn.3:4 “Sin is the transgression of the law [lawlessness].”

Sin occurred in the Garden of Eden (Ge.3)…long before sin was described in God’s theocratic laws for Moses & ancient Israel and identified elsewhere.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”  Divine Law, which the serpent violated (Ge.3:3-4) and Cain violated (Ge.4:7-11)…existed from the beginning!

Ge.26:5 the Lord said, “Abraham obeyed [h8085 shemá, Hebrew] Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Abraham did all that…prior to the Law of Moses!  He was very obedient to God.  Also Wisdom of Sírach 44:20 “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  God Most High had laws in Abraham’s day (centuries before Moses).  Abraham had much faith/belief, to obey God!

There were (eternal) laws of God in existence during the period from Adam to Moses.  Those laws were kept by early righteous gentiles such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Job, etc.  1Enoch 99:2 “Woe unto them who pervert the words of uprightness, and transgress the eternal law.”  1Eno.106:13-14 “Some of the angels of heaven commit sin and transgress the law.” (cf. 1Jn.3:4)  An eternal law existed before the Law of Moses, according to 1Enoch.  Abraham was aware of God’s earlier moral laws, and he obeyed.

The topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?” references some of those more ancient (eternal) laws.  They won’t be listed here.  James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.208 “Law is presented, in the first canonical book of scripture [Genesis], as part of the created order.”  There are scriptures that show principles of all the Ten Commandments reflected in Genesis, long before Moses.

Paul also indicated that a moral sense of God and of sin has always existed in man’s consciousness.  Ro.1:19-21 “That which is known of God is evident within them. For since the creation of the world, even though they knew God, they [most] did not honor Him as God.”  Early humans knew of God.

God’s moral principles/laws seen in Genesis, and given to ancient Israel…weren’t new in Moses’ day!

Evangelical Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote in God’s Promise Plan and His Gracious Law: “So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on Sinai. Moses did not invent the moral law; God did, and He had already been holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally wrote it on tablets of stone.”  Yes, real ‘living by faith’ includes living by God’s moral law.

Then in the Old Covenant, God included His preexisting moral commandments, statutes, laws (which Abraham obeyed)…and added to them.  Added new in the Old Covenant Law of Moses were: pilgrim feasts (Ex.12:1-13:7, Ex.23:14-18); the daily morning & evening sacrifice (Ex.29:38-43); sin & guilt offerings (Le.4–6); the tabernacle/temple sequence of offerings, rituals, ceremonies (Nu.28–29); etc.

Conspicuously absent in Genesis are the (later) three pilgrim feasts and the Levitical ritualistic aspects with the detailed sacrificial system.  In Genesis, there’s no tabernacle/temple, and no Passover before the Lord later ‘passed over’ Israelite homes (Ex.12:13).  see “Feasts of the Lord  and the Jews”.

Ga.3:18-19 “If the inheritance is based on law [g3551 nómos], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law [of Moses] then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis].”  (7 NT occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15.)

Meyer’s NT Commentary Ga.3:19 “It [Law of Moses] was, after the covenant of promise was already in existence, superadded to the latter.”  Cambridge Bible Ga.3:19 “It was added’, yet so as not to interfere with the promise.”

Expositor’s Greek Testament Ga.3:19 “But there could obviously be no transgressions until the law existed. The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments….these sins prevailed before the law.”  Yes, laws of the Ten Commandments, and several other laws, existed for Abraham and gentiles in Genesis.  There could be no transgressions, if there’s no existing laws to transgress (according to Paul, Ro.4:15).

God’s moral principles/laws existed, for gentiles, prior to the Old Covenant.  The Lord carried-over those principles/laws into the Old Covenant as codified for Israel and for aliens among them. The prior laws remained applicable to gentiles.  (see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.)

Moses wrote in De.11:1, “You shall love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, ordinances, and His commandments”.  Notice the similarity of that verse to what all Abraham had obeyed earlier in Ge.26:5 (without an Old Covenant Law of Moses).

Barnes Notes Ga.3:19 “The Law [of Moses] was given [by the Lord] to show the true nature of transgressions, or to show what sin was.”  Benson Commentary Ga.3:19 “To restrain the Israelites from transgressions.”  Restrain them from transgressions of God’s prior enduring moral laws.

Also, the Old Covenant law contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.

Paul wrote in Ro.4:13, “The promise [g1860 epangeleéah] to Abraham or to his seed that he would be heir of the world [g2889 kósmos] wasn’t through law, but through the righteousness [g1343 dikaiosúnay] of faith”.  Vincent Word Studies Ro.4:13 “Paul here takes the Jewish conception of the universal dominion of the Messianic theocracy prefigured by the inheritance of Canáan, divests it of its Judaistic element, and raises it to a christological truth.”  Gill Exposition Ro.4:13 “Not through the law of circumcision, or on their obedience to that, for this promise was made before that was enjoined; see Genesis 12:2; nor through the law of Moses, which was not yet given.”  God made the promise to Abrám back when there were no pilgrim feasts (no Passover), Levitical rituals, sin offerings, etc.

God’s promise to Abraham wasn’t made through the Law of Moses or the Old Covenant.  The gentile Abraham didn’t have that.  But Abraham knew God’s moral principles/laws which predated “the promise”.  However, the focus of this topic isn’t “the promise” to Abraham…but what was added later, according to Paul in Ga.3:19.  Yet the promise was made to the Abraham who…“obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”, Ge.26:5!  He knew God’s righteous precepts…and they were later incorporated into the Old Covenant, which God codified for Moses/Israel.

{Sidelight: Moses too had known God’s preexistent righteous precepts.  After Israel exited Egypt, Moses’s father-in-law Jethró came to Moses/Israel in the wilderness in Ex.18:5.  Moses said to Jethro, Ex.18:16, “I judge between a man and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and His laws”.  Moses made known God’s preexistent laws/principles and justice…prior to the Old Covenant (Ex.24), and even prior to God speaking the Ten Commandments (Ex.20)!}

Early gentiles like Abraham didn’t have the detailed sacrificial system.  It was added for Israel…added after Israel rebelled against the Lord in unbelief as they left Egypt.

Je.7:22 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  Gill Exposition Je.7:22 “These are not in the decalogue or ten commands…but are an appendage or addition to it; and though they are of early institution and use, yet they never were appointed for the sake of themselves.”  JFB Commentary Je.7:22 “The ten commandments having been delivered first.”  (see “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)  Cambridge Bible Je.7:22 “In general it may be said that obedience to the moral law always ranked first.”  Ellicott Commentary Je.7:22 “The ritual in connection with sacrifice was prescribed partly as a concession to the feeling which showed itself, in its evil form, in the worship of the golden calf.”

Again, the (eternal) laws which Abraham and other righteous gentiles in Genesis obeyed, and the Decalogue spoken by the Lord (Ex.20)…were absorbed into the Old Covenant Law for Israel.  It was ratified in Ex.24:1-8, and repeated/amplified in Deuteronomy as Israel was finally entering the Land.

Je.7:23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”  Barnes Notes Je.7:23 “Sacrifice is never the final cause of the [old] covenant, but always obedience.”  God wants obedience first, not recurring sacrifices.

But Matthew Poole Commentary Je.7:22 “They [sacrifices] have been of Divine institution ever since Adam, Ge.4:3-4. God doth not condemn them, or deny them, save only comparatively in respect of obedience, not so much these as obeying His [moral] commands.”

The Lord didn’t institute the detailed sacrificial system for Israel until after they faithlessly rebelled against Him.  Yet there was animal sacrifice before Moses/ancient Israel, and before Abraham.

Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “As early as the 4^th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On….Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4^th and the 3^rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gúdea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”

Sacrifice was ordained by God, and it’s probable He told Adam how to do it.  After Adam & Eve sinned, God required the first sacrifice, providing them with clothing (Ge.3:21).  It’s unlikely Cain & Abel invented sacrifice on their own (Ge.4:3-5).  The practice was passed down to others.

Animal sacrifice to (pagan) deities was customary in much of the ancient world.  Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, (Job) offered sacrifices to the Lord long before ancient Israel left Egypt.  see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.  Yet no verse in Genesis commanded anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices.

Later, in Ex.3:18, 5:3, 8:27, 10:24-26, Moses was to ask permission from Pharaoh for Israel to have a sacrificial 3-day feast in the wilderness (his request was denied).  Animal sacrifice wasn’t new to those Egyptians.

Ex.12:1–13:7 God ordained the Passover for Israel and the accompanying days of unleavened bread as they were leaving Egypt.  Ex.12:51 the Lord brought them out of Egypt.

What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system to ancient Israel?  Why did God add recurring animal sacrifices to His prior moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant?

Those questions are addressed as this topic is concluded in “Added in the Old Covenant (2)”.

Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings

We read of various sacrifices/offerings throughout the Old Testament (OT) history.  There were five main types of offerings.  They are described in Leviticus: #1 Burnt (ref Le.1, 6:8-13), #2 Grain (Le.2, 6:14-23), #3 Peace (Le.3, 7:11-34), #4 Sin (Le.4, 5:1-13, 6:24-30, 16:3-22), #5 Guilt/Trespass (Le.5:14-19, 6:1-7, 7:1-7).

This topic mostly discusses burnt offerings.  Peace offerings are discussed in the topic “Passover and Peace Offerings”.  Sin and guilt offerings, and blood sacrifice (and Christ’s sacrificial death) are discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.

New Age advocates have sought self-enlightenment through their own efforts, and ignore the necessary sacrifice of Jesus.  Most Islamics, Deists and other non-Christians also disregard His shed blood.

After mankind (Adam & Eve) sinned in the Garden of Eden, the only Way to God’s forgiveness and reconciliation was through shed lifeblood.  He.9:22 “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  Sin is atoned for by life/blood.

The first sin of Adam & Eve and the ramifications are discussed in the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.  Ge.3:7 “Then their [Adam & Eve] eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings.”  Nakedness can be both physical and spiritual, being unclothed or symbolic of sin and shame.  Sin brought guilt and shame to their psyche.

Adam & Eve tried to cover their physical nakedness and their sin themselves with fig leaves.  Sewn fig leaves, or human devices/ways, are inadequate to cover sin.  Ge.3:21 “The Lord God made garments of skin [Strongs h5785, Hebrew] for Adam and his wife, and clothed [h3847] them.”  God Himself covered them with animal skins, perhaps leather garments of calfskin or kidskin.  In so doing, the Lord showed that to cover the nakedness symbolic of sin and their diminished condition, humans must be “clothed” by means of the death of another!  (also see “Skins Made For Adam Were Passed Down?”.)

After they sinned, Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden, from God’s Presence (Ge.3:22-24).  The Way (cf. Ge.3:24, Ac.24:14, 22) back to the Presence would mainly be God’s doing and according to God’s plan, not man’s.  It continually required blood.

Most Bible teachers think those first skins were taken from an animal sacrifice.  It foreshadowed the (temporary) animal sacrificial system, and ultimately Jesus the Lamb of God’s perfect final sacrifice to cover or atone for humanity’s sins.  Cambridge Bible Ge.3:21 “The first mention of death among animals is implied in this provision for man’s clothing.”  Ellicott Commentary Ge.3:21 “Animals were killed even in Paradise….Adam must in some way, immediately after the fall, have been taught that without shedding of blood is no remission of sin, but that God will accept a vicarious sacrifice.”  JFB Commentary “This implies the institution of animal sacrifice, which was undoubtedly of divine appointment.”  It appears that animal sacrifice was an institution authored by God.

Throughout his life, Adam probably followed God’s example/lead or mimicked His action.  And Adam & Eve would’ve told their Garden experience to their sons Cain and Abel.

Consequently, Ge.4:3-5 “In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the ground. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock.”  This is the first offering (h4503 mincháh) recorded in the Bible.  Abel brought a burnt offering, less likely a peace offering.  Bible Bay Why Did People Sacrifice Animals? “Ge.4:3-5 Scholars tell us the Hebrew of the first phrase, ‘In the course of time’, suggests this offering of sacrifices was a recurring event.”  Perhaps, though we don’t read of God commanding offerings that early.  However, it’s very unlikely that Abel and Cain invented sacrifice on their own.

Abel must have known of and believed his parents’ Garden experience/covering, and he offered a lamb.  Gill Exposition Ge.4:5 “Firstlings of these, lambs were first brought forth.”  Barnes Notes Ge.4:5 “Blood was therefore shed, life was taken away.”  Cain brought a form of grain offering (no blood) from common produce he’d grown.  (After Adam’s sin, God had cursed his ground, Ge.3:17.)  He.11:4 “By faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. He [Abel] was approved as righteous.”  But Cain tried to atone via his own cultivation works.  (Adam/Eve had attempted fig leaves as covering.)  Cain murdered Abel, and wandered lost from God (Ge.4:6-16).

Knowledge of animal sacrifice was passed down from Adam and his other offspring to the generations of the antediluvian age.  After the Flood, history shows that ancient peoples practiced animal sacrifice.

Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “The origins of animal sacrifice are lost in antiquity. As early as the 4^th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On. Among the animals sacrificed were oxen, wild goats, geese, and even pigs. Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4^th and the 3^rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gudea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”

The second animal sacrifice recorded in the Bible is in Ge.8:20-21.  After the Flood, Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings…oláh h5930, Greek LXX holocaust g3646.  (The ground curse ended.)  Bible Encyclopedia: Burnt Offering “It was the most frequent form of sacrifice, and apparently the only one mentioned in the book of Genesis.”  (Again, it seems Abel’s sacrifice was a form of burnt offering.)

Animal sacrifice was continued by the post-Flood patriarchs.  Abram was from Mesopotámia (Ge.11:31).  Ge.12:7 & 13:4 Abram built an altar and called on the Lord.  Ge.13:18 Abram built another altar at a different location.  Ge.15:9-11, 17-18, here the Lord commanded a covenantal sacrifice from Abram.  This was the first single offering commanded by God in the Bible.  Ge.22:1-13 later the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering.  But God then substituted a ram in place of Isaac…the burning of human offspring/children as sacrifice wasn’t God’s will.

Ungodly peoples vainly sacrificed children at heathen temples, while drinking blood mixed with wine.  God strictly forbad sacrifices to idols and the human consumption of blood.  ref Ge.9:4, Le.7:26-27, 17:12, Ac.15:29.  see “Sacrifices To Idols and Romans 14”.  (After departing Egypt, even Israel would offer burnt & peace offerings to the golden calf idol they made, Ex.32:1-6.)

After Abraham died, Isaac built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Ge.26:25).  Ge.31:54-55 Jacob and his father-in-law Laban offered a sacrifice and shared a meal at Mizpáh in Gileád.  This is the first occurrence of the actual term sacrifice (h2077 zébach) in the Bible.  Later, Jacob sacrificed at Beersheba (Ge.46:1), enroute to Egypt to be with his son Joseph the Prime Minister.  Joseph’s father-in-law was an Egyptian priest at On/Heliópolis (Ge.41:44-45).

Jb.1:5 the patriarch Job offered burnt offerings at Uz in the East.  Family heads often served as priests.  Jb.42:8 the Lord commanded Job’s three friends to sacrifice a one-time burnt offering of bulls and rams (clean domestic animals).

Balaám was from Pethór on the Euphrates River in N. Mesopotamia.  Balák was the king of Moab.  Nu.23:1-4 Balaam & Balak sacrificed bulls and rams as burnt offerings.  Then God met with Balaam.

When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the Lord had commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel must go offer sacrifices.  Ex.3:18 “The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.”  Ex.10:25-27 Moses/Israel asked permission to go sacrifice burnt offerings (denied).  Ex.18:12 after the exodus, Moses’ father-in-law Jethró, the priest of Midián (Ex.18:1), made a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God.

Burnt offerings represented a tribute to God, submission to His will, and a desire to fellowship with Him.  An individual, recognizing that he is weak & commits sin, and wanting to renew his relationship with God, could generally give a burnt offering at any time.  In a basic sense, it made atonement for his sin nature (Le.1:4), but not for specific sins.  The Jewish Encyclopedia article Burnt Offering indicates that burnt offerings weren’t distinctively expiatory (unlike sin/guilt offerings).

Ex.20:24-26 Israelites would be allowed to erect individual altars for burnt & peace offerings.  Ex.24:4-8 “He [Moses] sent young men of Israel to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings.”  Moses sprinkled the blood of that offering on an altar at Mt. Sinai.  This was to ratify God’s Old Covenant with Israel.

Ex.29:38-43 the Lord instituted the daily morning & evening burnt offering, offered every day of the year at the tabernacle/temple.  A grain offering was required to accompany this twice-daily sacrifice.

Voluntary salted unleavened grain offerings (KJV “meat” offering is from the Middle English for grain/cereal/meal/food) accompanied other burnt & peace offerings.  Or grain offerings were brought alone by the poor.  But they didn’t accompany sin/guilt/trespass offerings.  (However, the Lord did allow the very poor to offer grain as a sin offering, Le.5:11.)  The priest ate a portion of the grain offerings (Le.2:3, 6:16.)  Perhaps grain symbolized God’s harvest blessings.

Nu.28–29 shows the extensive sequence of sacrifices that were to be repeated at the tabernacle/temple throughout the year and over the centuries.  Why Did God Require Animal Sacrifices in the Old Testament? “The animal served as a substitute—that is, the animal died in place of the sinner, but only temporarily, which is why the sacrifices needed to be offered over and over.”

Burnt offerings were from clean domestic animals…cattle, sheep, goats.  The poor could offer birds.  Le.1:1-17 the offerer slaughtered the animal.  The priest splashed/sprinkled the blood on the altar.  The animal was skinned and cut in pieces.  The priest arranged the pieces on the altar.  The entire animal was burned, except for the hide.  The priest kept the hide for himself.  Le.7:8 “The priest who presents any man’s burnt offering shall have the skin [h5285].” (cf. Adam)  None of the burnt offering was eaten.

De.27:4-7 entering the Holy Land after 40 years in the wilderness, Israel was to offer burnt & peace offerings on an altar at Mt. Ebál.  This was a renewal of the Old Covenant with burnt/peace offerings (Ex.24:5-7).

Simple common altars were allowed for the private worship of YHVH, if they weren’t made from stones cut by the hand of man (ref De.16:21 & Ex.20:25).  God honored the offering.  We read of them elsewhere in the OT.  Jg.6:19-21 supernatural fire consumed Gideón’s offering in the presence of the Messenger of the Lord.  Jg.13:18-21 the Messenger of YHVH ascended in the flame of Manóah’s (Samson’s father) offering.  God’s Messenger or Name was there for those two offerings.  (Ge.4:4-5 possibly fire had fallen on Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.)

1Ch.21:26 fire from heaven fell upon the altar of David’s burnt & peace offerings on Mt. Moriáh at the site of Ornán’s/Araunáh’s threshing floor.  In 1Ki.18:30-39, fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s burnt offering on an altar at Mt. Carmél.  God showed up!  (see “Fire From Heaven!”)

However, no Bible verse commands anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices away from the Lord’s tabernacle/temple…the place of God’s Name.  All sin and guilt offerings…and most burnt, grain and peace offerings…must be sacrificed at the altar of the tabernacle/temple.  That one altar with holy fire!  Those offerings there, and the altar, were most holy (ref Ex.40:10, Le.2:10, 6:17, 14:13).

Centuries later, the Lord sent the kingdoms of Israel and Judah into captivity for their disobedience; to Assyria and Babylon respectively.  Ezr.6:3-9 afterwards, the Jewish returnees to the Land from Babylon were to offer burnt offerings (h5928 Aramaic, v.9) at the altar of Zerubbabél’s temple in Jerusalem.

Burnt offerings were the most common type of sacrifice.  They may be voluntary korbán (h7133, ref Le.1:2-3), which was an offering in general for worship/fellowship with God.  But in Mk.7:9-13, Jesus criticized those Jews’ oral tradition…they dedicated/claimed that one’s wealth would pass to the temple, while using it selfishly until death.  Those Jews were claiming “It is korban” (Mk.7:11).  They tried to excuse themselves from using their means to rightly care for the needs of their elderly parents.

Again, only clean domestic animals (and clean birds) were allowed by God for sacrifices.  Clean wild animals/game, unclean creatures, and fish weren’t allowed.  Those cost the offerer comparatively nothing!  It is meaningful that sin and sacrifices exact a cost.  2Sm.24:24-25 David understood there should be a price to pay.  e.g. a more expensive animal, a ram, was required as a guilt offering to atone for a person or family’s intentional non-capital sin (Le.6:1-7).

The Jews continued to offer burnt offerings and other sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, until it was destroyed in 70 AD.  Blood was sprinkled on the altar there.  The Old Covenant was a blood covenant (Ex.24:4-8).  Throughout OT times, blood was offered.

Then the promised Seed of the first woman (Ge.3:15) came to earth 2,000 years ago…and shed His perfect blood on the cross!  (see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.)  Jesus the Son of God died once for all mankind.  1Pe.1:18-19 Jesus’ precious blood!  Mt.27:50-51 the temple veil of separation tore at Jesus’ death.  Jesus entered into the Presence of God, into the greater and more perfect heavenly tabernacle, on our behalf.  ref He.9:8-16.

No more Old Covenant sacrifices are necessary!  The temple has been gone for 2,000 years.  After Father God watched His Son die on the cross, there’s no need to revert to inferior animal sacrifices!  They are finished.  Jesus fulfilled the burnt offerings…and all the OT sacrificial types.

{Sidelight: Le.14 is about cleansing the leper.  v.1-8 two (clean) birds and cedar wood were involved.  One bird was slain.  The live bird and the cedar wood were dipped in the blood of the slain bird.  The live bird was set free.  Then the priest sprinkled the leper with the blood.  The blood “cleansed” (g2511 LXX) the leper.  Even the typology of this ceremony to cleanse the leper is fulfilled.  The slain bird symbolized the blood of Jesus crucified.  The cedar wood symbolized His cross, and the live bird the resurrected Jesus.  (also ref the slain goat and the live goat in Le.16, discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.)  1Jn.1:7 we too are figuratively “cleansed” (g2511) from sin by His blood.}

1Co.11:23-25 the New Covenant is in Jesus’ blood.  He.13:20 we’re in this eternal Covenant.  Re.1:5 mankind is released from our sins by His blood.  Ep.1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”  Col.1:20 the blood of the cross reconciles us to the Father and brings peace.  1Co.6:20 “You have been bought with a price.”  God paid the highest price to redeem us…His lifeblood (Ac.20:28)!  Jesus said in Jn.19:30, “It is finished”!

Adam & Eve were cast out of the Garden.  God provided them with clothing from an animal sacrifice.  Re.19:13 the garment of Jesus, our ultimate sacrifice, was stained with His own blood.  (Mt.27:35 the Roman soldiers even cast lots for His garment at His crucifixion.)  Animal sacrifices, including burnt offerings, are now unnecessary.

The separation from God is ended!  Jesus’ blood makes it possible for us to come before God and be in His Presence again (He.10:19)!  The blood of Christ is a must for our salvation!  There’s no other Way to God (contrary to New Age theories and false religions).  As the song goes…Don’t Forget The Blood!

War & Killing and the Bible Christian (1)

It’s been said, ‘War is hell!’  Yet human history is filled with wars.  But should Christians participate in military wars?  In this Part 1, we’ll survey war from the Old Testament (OT), and look to identify a right or just war.  Can a war be justified?  Are there times when it would be wrong or remiss not to war?

Paul wrote in Ro.12:18-19, “If possible, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.”  Peace is best!  Vengeance belongs to God.  Man isn’t to take personal vengeance or revenge.  In passages such as Ge.9:5-6 & De.17:8-11, we read where God authorized law courts and government (govt).  Govt should maintain law & order within society, and carry out God’s vengeance as needed.  see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians”.

God is the giver of life.  As the giver of life, God also has the right to take life.  Ja.4:12 “There is one Lawgiver and Judge, who is able to save and to destroy.”  Is.33:22 the Lord is Judge, Lawgiver, King.  God is at the top of three functions of govt: judicial, legislative, executive.  The Lord is the Highest Authority.  Only God is completely just.  His laws & principles are the standard for implementing true justice.  Christians are to first obey God and His moral principles, Ac.5:29.

There’s a difference between killing and murder.  The Lord said in Ex.20:13, “You shall not murder”.  Murder is immoral, a crime.  An individual, of his own volition, doesn’t have the right to take the life of another.  Yet God authorized law courts.  Ge.9:5-6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.”  Also the Lord said to Israel in Ex.21:12, “He who strikes a man so that he dies, shall surely be put to death”.  Law courts duly exercise God’s vengeance via God’s principles, prescribing capital punishment even.  That’s killing, but it isn’t murder.  (Lesser crimes exact lesser punishments.)

What causes wars?  Ja.4:1 “From where come wars and fightings among you? Don’t they come from cravings that war within you?”  War can result from wrong coveting, wanting land & goods that others have.  Coveting violates the 10^th Commandment, De.5:21.  (see the topic “Coveting – Wrong and Right Desire”.)  Wars of aggression to control or steal from others are most often sin.  Killings (especially of civilians) by such aggressors are akin to murder.

War may also be a means of defense to protect a people from an aggressor nation or government bent on getting for itself (not giving or serving) or imperialism.

People who advocate nonviolence see war as immoral, that God doesn’t justify war.  Similar is pacifism, which sees the disadvantages of warfare as greater than the advantages.  Just War Theory says war is justified if it’s done in self-defense or ‘to end gross violations of human rights’, cruel oppression.  Waging a ‘just war’ kills, but it isn’t murder.

The account of the first war in the Bible is in Ge.14.  King Chedorláomer had conquered and exacted tribute from the kings of five city-states.  It seems he wanted to take from them, but without providing commensurate benefits for them.  The five rebelled from his yoke.  So Chedorlaomer, with three allied kings, made war against the five.  One of those attacked was the king of Sodom.  Abrám’s nephew Lot lived in Sodom, and was taken captive with others.  v.14-16 Abram assisted the five-king coalition.  He led 318 of his fighting men to defeat the four invading kings and rescued Lot.  People were killed.  We might say that the five city-states (with Abram) engaged in a just war to stop unjust oppression.

Later in Ex.1–14, God miraculously delivered the ancient Israelites from bondage in Egypt.  His plagues killed numerous Egyptians.  But it wasn’t murder.  It’s God’s right to judge and take life as He sees fit.  Ex.14:14-31 “The Lord will fight for you; you shall hold your peace.”  He led them through the Sea.

Ex.17:8-16 after the Israelites departed Egypt, the descendants of Amalék (Esau’s grandson) made an unprovoked attack on weak Israelite stragglers (De.25:17-19).  In self-defense, Joshua/Israel fought and defeated the Amalekites.  God also said for their memory to be blotted out, as just retribution.

Christ, the Rock of Israel (e.g. De.32:4, 18, 1Co.10:4), brought the Israelites to the Promised Land.  Ex.15:3 “The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name.”  Ps.24:8 “The Lord is mighty in battle.”  Christ was as a man in His just war, to carry-out His judgment against evildoers, as He determined.

God wanted wicked inhabitants of the Land destroyed (Ex.23:23).  How?  De.7:1-4 Israel’s army became Christ’s agent, administering His judgment genocide upon the corrupt “nations” who inhabited Canaan.  God determined that inhabitants of the 7 nations were so depraved, they would corrupt others.

Before they entered the Promised Land, the Israelites had wanted to pass through the land of Edom via the King’s Highway trade route (Nu.20:14-21).  The Edomite army blocked them.  The Moabites wanted Balaám to curse Israel (Nu.22:1-ff); they fought with Israel (Jsh.24:9).  The Philistines and Ammonites attacked Israel (Jg.10:7-9).  In self-defense, Israel later repelled the Ammonites (1Sa.11:1-11).  King Saul would war against Moab, Ammon, Edom, the Philistines (1Sa.14:47).

De.20 contains laws of warfare.  Christ allowed His people to fight in self-defense against enemies.  v.1-4 the Lord would fight for them.  v.5-8 classifies the men exempt from military service: he who has built a house but not yet occupied it; he who has planted but not yet eaten the fruit (not until the 5^th year, Le.19:23-25); he who is engaged but hasn’t yet married her; he who is afraid (fear can spread to others).

De.20:9-14 Israel was to first offer terms of peace.  War should be a last resort.  If the enemy accepts terms of peace, it may pay annual tribute to Israel (and learn about the true God as a side benefit).  But if terms of peace are refused and the enemy chooses to make war, then Israel was to strike the men.  Israel was to take civilian women & children, animals, and other booty as spoils.

De.20:15-18 the above conditions pertained to enemy peoples outside the Land of Canáan.  (Israel was to destroy inhabitants of the evil 7 “nations” of the Land.)  v.19-20 Israel wasn’t to cut down edible trees in enemy lands.  They were food for Israel’s soldiers.  Israel could construct siege works against enemy cities from inedible trees.

In Nu.31:25-47, the Lord gave instructions how spoils of war were to be divided (De.20:14).  Israelite soldiers and non-soldiers were to receive two equal shares of the booty from the whole taken by them.  The soldiers paid 0.2% (1/500) of their half to the Lord/priests.  The non-soldiers paid 2.0% (1/50) of their half to the Levite non-priests.  (Among the Levites, only the clan of Aaron were priests.)  So the soldiers retained more residual spoils than did the non-soldiers.  Soldiering can be high-risk!  The priests received 10% of the amount the other Levites received.  (also cf. Ge.14:18-20 where Abram gave Priest–King Melchisedek 10% of the war spoils.)  But Israel’s high priest wasn’t authorized to receive any women as spoils…unlike other priests, he must marry only virgin Israelitesses (Le.21:1, 7, 10, 14).

After Moses, in the days of Joshua, the Lord still fought for Israel.  Jsh.10:14, 25 “Joshua said, ‘Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies.”  Jsh.23:3, 10 “The Lord our God has been fighting for you, just as He promised.”  But Israel didn’t really trust Christ to be with them and help fight their battles (De.1:26-36).  They would want a king to lead them in battle and make conquests (1Sa.8:10-12, 18-22).  So after the period of judges, God gave them King Saul.  David succeeded Saul.

God taught David to war (Ps.144:1-2, 18:34, 44:4-7).  He became a war hero (e.g. 1Sa.18:5-7).  David subdued the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites (2Sa.8:1-14), Ammonites (2Sa.12:26-31).  Those peoples were a clear and present danger.  They’d tried to take Land portions within the borders of Israel.

There’s a time for war and a time for peace (Ec.3:8).  A nation would be remiss if it failed to somehow try to defend its citizens from an attacking nation.  Pr.24:6 “By wise counsel you shall wage war.”

2Sa.2:17-23 Saul’s cousin, general Abner, killed Ásahel, warrior brother of David’s general Joáb, in self-defense.  2Sa.3:26-30 but then Joab wrongly took vengeance by murdering Abner.  Killing in self-defense differs from murder!  Ex.22:1-3 even at the family level, an intruder breaking & entering a home at night might be killed by the residents acting in self-defense.  The Hebrew term for murder (and manslaughter) is rawtsák, Strongs h7523.

Jg.19-20 Even a (lopsided) civil war in Israel was commanded against the obdurate tribe of Benjamin.  The Benjamites had refused to turn over for prosecution the murderers from Gibeáh of Benjamin.

King David said in 1Sa.17:47, “The battle is the Lord’s”.  Yet the Lord didn’t allow David to build God’s temple, because David had shed much blood (1Ch.22:7-9, 1Ki.5:3-5).  David’s son Solomon, a man of peace, was allowed to build the temple.  2Sa.10:15-19 David expanded his kingdom into Syria, beyond the borders of Israel.  De.17:15-17 Israel’s king wasn’t to have numerous horses, not for use as a conquering cavalry in wars of aggression.  (Yet see 1Ch.18:3-4 regarding David’s expansionism.)

Later the united monarchy of Israel divided into the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south.  During the monarchies of Israel and Judah, there was much needless war.  1Ki.14:30, 15:32 even war between Israel and Judah (continually).  2Ki.16:5-6 the first time the term “Jews” occurs in scripture, the Jews (the southern kingdom of Judah) are fighting against an alliance of Israel & Syria!  2Ch.16:1-14 King Asa of Judah would have wars, because he trusted in his own Syrian alliance, not God.

2Ch.17:1-2, 10 King Jehoshaphát fortified Judah for self-defense.  Other nations feared to invade Judah.  2Ch.20:1-30 when an attack did come, praise-singing to God was ordered…not fighting.  v.17 “You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord.”  Judah’s ready army stood still.  v.23 Judah’s attackers then destroyed each other!

Is.63:7-10 overall, Israel rebelled against God and vexed His Holy Spirit.  So instead of fighting for them, Christ became their enemy and fought against them.  Consequently, Israel was taken captive by Assyria (2Ki.17:23).  The allies/”lovers” in whom Judah trusted spurned Judah.  The Lord said in Je.30:12-14, “All your lovers have forsaken you, for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, because your iniquity is great”.  The Lord sent Judah into captivity to Babylon.  Je.27:6-13 God gave Nebuchadnézzar a kingdom.  Je.21:3-7 Judah and nations who resisted him would die via warfare & famine.

This ends our compacted survey of warfare in the OT.  God, who brought the Israelites into the Promised Land by force of arms…in time, removed disobedient Israel and the Jews from the Land by force of enemy arms.  Ex.15:6-7 “In the greatness of Your excellence, You overthrow those who rise up against Thee.”

War is a consequence of sin.  Fast forwarding to today…in wars between peoples and nations, there are Christian brothers fighting each other!  For example, in the present day Syria civil war, Christians are fighting Christians.  Also Arab Christians in the Middle East fight Israeli Jewish Christians!  What!?

We’ll look at war in the New Testament, and recently, in “War & Killing and the Bible Christian (2)”.

Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (2)

Foundational scriptures for this topic were addressed in “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (1)”.  Part 1  laid the groundwork for (2).  Verses noted in (1), not restated here, are essential to better grasp Part 2!

In Part 1, the various types of sexual immorality were listed.  Two definitive passages are Le.20:10-22, 5-6 and Le.18:5-24.  Those scriptures tell us what sexual sin is, according to the Lord’s standard (not men’s standards).  Sexual sin includes: adultery, incest, beastiality, homosexuality/lesbianism, transvestism, menstrual sex, idolatrous prostitution.  Pornography is a form of wrong coveting, if the desired object is illicit or cannot be rightfully obtained.  Paul wrote in 1Co.6:9, “The unrighteous won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolators, adulterers, nor practicing homosexuals will inherit the kingdom.”  Sexual acts which the nations today deem as/not as sexual sin…may or may not be sin, based upon the true standard of God’s written word.

Children born from forbidden adulterous or incestuous relationships weren’t the guilty ones.  Yet they were excluded from eldership or government in Israel; see De.23:2 in Matthew Poole Commentary and Gill Exposition.

Jesus said, Mt.19:9-10 “Whoever puts away his wife, except it be for sexual immorality [pornéia], and marries another [wife], commits adultery”.  In the New Testament (NT), porneia (Strongs g4202, Greek) meant any type of sexual sin (Le.18 & Le.20).  Any type is just cause for divorce.  Pulpit Commentary “All illicit connection is described by this term, it cannot be limited to one particular kind of transgression.”  Christ in the NT didn’t contradict what the Lord Christ had instructed Moses/Israel (De.6:1) in De.24:1-4. “When a man marries a woman and she displeases him because he finds some indecency in her, he writes her a bill of divorce.”  But in Jesus’ day, many wrongly thought that wives could be divorced for any cause.

In Mt.19, Christ wasn’t giving a comprehensive sermon on marriage.  Jesus didn’t address desertion, serious neglect, or marriages where there is physical brutality…and the life of a spouse or child may be endangered.  In Jesus’ day among Jews, remarriage was assumed for the innocent spouse.  But Jesus indicated that remarriage with those not having just cause for divorce can be sin.  Remarriage (to a Christian, 2Co.6:14) is permissible in cases involving porneia, brutality, life endangerment, desertion.  1Co.7:15 after abandonment, the spouse needn’t remain in the bondage of that marriage…he/she is free to remarry and have children.  Christ didn’t disapprove of all remarriage (e.g. De.24:2).  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).

Although a lifestyle of harlotry can have grave consequences, lay prostitution wasn’t sin or iniquity that required strict penalty or even an expiating animal sacrifice.  That is, if it wasn’t religious harlotry (temple prostitution) and she wasn’t married or still living at home.  Part 1 examined Bible passages.

Jesus declared in Mt.21:31-32, “Truly I say to you that tax collectors and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you”.  Jesus said the harlots who believed John the Baptizer will go into the kingdom of God before those Jewish leaders who opposed Him!  (Must all harlots and tax collectors change jobs…did Zacchéus, Lk.19:1-10…must IRS agents?!)

The Greek term porneia (g4202) referred to idolatrous harlotry in the Septúagint/LXX, then to sexual sin in general in the NT.  In the LXX, it’s one of four Greek terms used for zanáh (h2181), which occurs 93 times in the Hebrew Bible, ‘be a harlot’.  (Also porneia is used for h2183 & h2184, meaning whoredoms.)  Porneúo (g4203), the verb form of porneia, meant to practice idolatrous prostitution.  Porné (g4204) usually referred to secular prostitutes.  The LXX ekporneúo (g1608, occurs 36 times) was one given over to idolatrous sex.  Also the NT pórnos (g4205, 10 occurrences: 1Co.5:9-11, 6:9, Ep.5:5, 1Ti.1:10, He.12:16, 13:4, Re.21:8, 22:15) comes from pernemi or pernáo, ‘to sell’.  It was used for a male prostitute, a sodomite or a catamite.  It is sin.  That’s five Greek Bible terms for harlotry.

The term “fornication” originated from two Latin words, “fornix” and “fornicare”.  A fornix was the vaulted archway of the cellar place where prostitutes sold their bodies, to marrieds & singles.  A man who visited a brothel was a fornicare.  Fornication pertained to sex for sale, not premarital sex!

Somewhere along the way, Christianity adapted or devised a different meaning for fornication.  That is, fornication became equated with premarital or unmarried sex!  Berean Bible Church “Fornication’, i.e. the Greek ‘porneia’, actually describes a much larger class of activities, however, than ‘intercourse between unmarried people.”  Various sex acts are porn.  Actually, in Bible times women married young, age 13-14, so any window after puberty for premarital sex was quite small.  Since the meaning of “fornication” has changed over the centuries, I rarely use the term, so as not to be ambiguous.

Religious prostitution was used in the worship of pagan gods.  Ac.15:29 the church is to avoid sacrificing to pagan gods with: blood, unslaughtered animals, prostitution.  (also see the topic “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)  Re.2:14 some in the Pérgamos church were engaging in cult prostitution as worship.  Sexual immorality figuratively relates to pagan gods.  Le.17:7 “They must no longer sacrifice to goat demons, to whom they play the harlot.”  Sacrificing to demon idols was a form of idolatry & whoredom.  In Nu.25:1-8, the Israelites played the harlot when the daughters of Moab invited them to offer sacrifices to the god Báal-Péor…this included religious sex.  Ex.19:15-17 sex was to be completely separate from worship of the true God, unlike sex rites for pagan gods.  Ex.20:26 Israelite priests were not to show any nakedness in performing their duties.

1Co.6:15-20 “He who is joined to a harlot is one body with her. For it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh’. Flee porneia! Your body is the temple of God.”  cf. Ge.2:24 & Mt 19:5.  Paul indicates that “one flesh” means more like general organic union than one husband & one wife.  Because…a harlot has many partners with whom she is “one flesh”, not just one man; and for that matter, a man could visit more than one harlot.  When Paul wrote to Corinth, idolatrous temple prostitution prevailed in the area.  There were 1,000 priestesses at the temple of Aphrodíte on Acro-Corinth!  Ancient heathens thought sex rites would cause the gods to become so moved to make the soil fertile.

Christ had warned ancient Israel in Ex.34:14-17, “You shall not worship any other god, and not cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods. You shall not make any molten gods.”  No more golden calf sensual revelry either! (see Pulpit Commentary Ex.32:6, Ellicott Commentary, Gill Exposition.)

Ho.8:9 “Ephráim has hired lovers.”  Israel was trusting in their allies rather than their God.  Ho.9:1 “You have gone whoring from your God.”  They made alliances with nations who worship pagan gods.  But Israel & Judah were metaphorically married to the Lord (Je.31:32, Is.54:5)!  They were His wives (Ezk.23).  Israel & Judah became Christ’s adulterous wives; so He sent away them both into captivity.

Married harlots are adulteresses.  Pr.7:10-11 “A woman dressed as a harlot. She is loud and defiant; her feet don’t abide at home.”  v.18-21 she says “Come, let us take our fill of love. My husband isn’t at home, he’s gone on a long journey.”  Since this prostitute is married, any sexual relationship she has with another man is adultery.  Ezk.23:2-5, 11, 45-47, Ezk.16:2, 8, 35-38 Israel/Samaria & Judah were as married prostitutes.  Ho.1:1-3 God even instructed the prophet Hosea to marry a harlot, to symbolize God’s own marriage to adulterous, idolatrous ancient Israel.

Re.17:1, 5 “Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.”  She was the metaphorical epitome of (adulterous) religious sex.  Re.18:7 she boasted, “I sit as a queen and am not a widow”.  But Re.19:2 “God has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth [Land] with her immorality [porneia].” (see the topic “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”.)

The ‘oldest profession’, public prostitution, wasn’t ‘sin’ that required an animal sacrifice.  In Ge.1:28, God’s first command to humanity was, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”.  To enable humans to fulfill His command, God created sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, etc.  God is responsible for placing sexual desire in humans!  However, misuse or perversion of sex through immorality and prostitution can result in harmful consequences such as STDs, AIDS, social stigma (e.g. 1Ki.22:38).

Harlotry was tolerated in ancient Israel, but harlots had a lower social status.  Jg.11:1-2 Jephtháh the judge was the son of a harlot (or perhaps a concubine, LXX), and his brothers wanted him disinherited.

Lk.15:30 the prodigal son, a single man, wasted the inheritance he’d demanded on harlots.  Pr.29:3 “He who consorts with harlots wastes his wealth.”  A man who frequents harlots squanders his money, and puts himself at risk of suffering a disease.  Pr.23:27-28 “A whore is a deep ditch, a loose woman is a narrow well.”  Ironically, a single man may view his circumstances or loneliness as an ox in the ditch.

The sexual crime of rape receives much media publicity these days.  2Sm.11:2-4, 12:4 King David seduced Uriáh’s wife Bathsheba.  Some view rape as a form of kidnapping, done against the victim’s will.  Kidnapping, including sex trafficking, is a serious crime (De.24:7).  De.22:28-29 the man who seized (h8610) or raped an unengaged virgin must marry her.  Benson Commentary “He wasn’t at liberty to refuse her, if her father consented to his marrying her, and he was deprived of the privilege of ever divorcing her.”  Also he must pay her father a substantial fine, 50 shekels of silver, plus perhaps the bride-price.

2Sm.13:1-2, 10-11 David’s son Amnón desired his half-sister Tamár, and got her alone in the bedroom.  v.12-18 she tried to talk him out of raping her, suggesting Amnon ask the king for her hand.  However, their union would be incest (Le.18:11).  Possibly she is unaware of God’s law…more likely, she’s grasping at straws to dissuade him from raping her, or is speaking impulsively.  Amnon rapes her.  But it was more lust than love.  He then despised her (he said ‘get out’).  2Sm.13:32 later Tamar’s full-brother Absalóm had Amnon killed in revenge.  De.27:22 “Cursed is he who has lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or his mother.”  Also Le.20:17, the incestuous brother shall bear his iniquity.

Bible readers view the tragic ‘love’ between Shechém and Jacob’s daughter Dinah as: seduction, or an ancient form of elopement, or rape.  Ge.34:1-8 “Shechem the Hivite took [h3947] her, lay with her and humbled her.”  Here the Hebrew term translated as “took” isn’t the term translated as “seized”/raped (h8610) in De.22:28.  (cf. Ge.11:29 Abram took [h3947] Sarai for a wife; Ge.24:67 Isaac took Rebekah and she became his wife.)  Shechem loved Dinah and wanted her for a wife.  Ge.34:25-30 therefore it was very wrong for Jacob’s sons Simeón & Levi to kill Shechem and all the males in that town!  Ge.49:5-7 before Jacob died, he cursed the cruelty and violent action done by Simeon & Levi!

Christ’s guidelines concerning war brides are in De.21:10-15. “When you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire to take [h3947] her as a wife, she shall remain in your house a full month and mourn her father & mother. After that you may have relations with her and she shall be your wife.”  (also see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)  Israelite soldiers weren’t to rape the enemy’s women!  In Nu.31:16-20, 35 Israelite soldiers didn’t rape the women; purification rites were also required.  But prophesied in Is.13:16-17, the wives of Babylon would be raped by the conquering Medes. “Their wives will be ravished.”

In the 1960s occurred the tragic affairs which resulted in Viet Nam war babies.  Smithsonian Magazine 2009 “They grew up as the leftovers of an unpopular war, straddling two worlds but belonging to neither. Most never knew their fathers. Many were abandoned by their mothers at the gates of orphanages. Some were discarded in garbage cans. Schoolmates taunted & pummeled them and mocked the features that gave them the face of the enemy – round blue eyes and light skin, or dark skin and tight curly hair if their soldier-dads were African-Americans. Their destiny was to become waifs & beggars, living in the streets and parks of South Vietnam’s cities, sustained by a single dream: to get to America and find their fathers.”  Very sad.  American laws & customs differ from those Christ gave to Moses/Israel.

Ge.19:5 the desire of the men of Sodóm to have relations with Lot’s guests was a form of homosexual, or beastial rape with a different kind of being.  Ge.19:31-35 two daughters conspired to rape their father on successive nights.  Jg.19:22-28 resembles Ge.19:5, but the Benjamite men in Gibeáh desired same-sex relations with a Levite guest passing through.  The men proceeded to rape and murder the Levite’s concubine.  The penalty for murder was death, Jg.20:13; v.46-48 the incident led to civil war in Israel.  The tribe of Benjamin was almost annihilated.  Jg.21:7, 12-23 to preserve the tribe, the remaining men “caught” virgins for wives.  Perhaps this unusual scheme to obtain a wife seemed like rape to some?

Ge.39:6-21 the wife of Potiphár, an Egyptian officer, tried to rape the patriarch Joseph.  But she failed.

Rape isn’t addressed in the NT.  In many of the Old Testament passages which relate to rape, there were other (serious) sins involved too.  It appears that God didn’t punish the heterosexual non-incestuous rape of a single woman or man, of and by itself…to the extent some nations punish today, according to man’s laws.  That is, unless it was clearly a kidnapping against the victim’s will.

The best preventative against Biblical porneia is sex within a godly marriage.  1Co.7:2-4 “To avoid immorality [porneia], let every man have his own wife and each one her own husband. The husband should give to the wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.” (cf. Ex.21:10)  It works both ways.  And not with somebody else’s wife!  He.13:4 “Let marriage be honored among all, and the bed undefiled. But the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge.”  Sex should be pure.

Celibacy and total abstention from sex will also prevent porneia.  But that ignores God’s first command to humanity in Ge.1:28. “Be fruitful and multiply.”  Ti.4:1-3 Paul said liars were forbidding marriage.  Again, God created testosterone, and wants people to reproduce themselves…made in God’s image!

To conclude: Prostitution, even non-religious prostitution, certainly isn’t God’s ideal!  Heterosexual marriage and family is (He.13:4).  Ge.2:24 “A man shall leave father and mother and cling to his wife.”  Yet God isn’t a prude.  God, in His word, is surely more loving than the self-righteous.  I realize some of the verses quoted in this two-part topic seem odd to our western minds, maybe even shocking.

Verses from Part 1 indicated, by definition…it was impossible for a widow, or a woman rightfully divorced, or an otherwise single woman to commit adultery (unless she was betrothed).  And it was impossible for a man to commit adultery with an unmarried or unengaged woman.  Also, Roman Catholic Church (RCC) influence later contributed to changing the meaning of (the Latin) fornication.

If it was a ‘sin’ for a man to sleep with anyone other than his wife, the Lord could have simply said that in His Word.  But He didn’t.  1Th.4:3 “It is God’s will that you should avoid sexual immorality [porneia g4202].”  We’ve referenced many verses, to learn what sexual sin really is….using more verses from Christ’s theocracy than from NT conditions extant in heathen Greco-Roman society.  I haven’t used as a final authority the morality filtered through the RCC & Puritanism into the modern church, nor the morality of humanistic nations today.

God wants the best for us.  God’s will and His true morality are revealed through His word.  May His perfect will be done in our individual lives!