Week 5 Homework

Read Genesis 2:4-25

What was Adam supposed to do in the garden?

Was there a goal Adam was working toward?

What would have happened if there was no fall?

 

Week 5: Prayer Requests

Dave Howell's flu

Kristen’s foot

Beth’s genetic test to determine if she is a carrier for X-linked Juvenile Retinoschisis.  

Tricia (Beth's Sister-in-law) Ongoing Cancer Treatment

Health of church with ongoing sickness

Church meeting and future of Grace Hill

Kristen’s co worker whose 4.5 mo old is having emergency surgery

Week 5: The Days of Creation Debate

Small Group Week 5

The Framework View

Literalism in interpretation is actually a tricky concept.  We know that some parts of the Bible are meant to be understood as a literal factual account.  Moses goes up to Mount Sinai and receives the 10 commandments and then the Israelites build a tabernacle and an ark of the covenant.  

However, other parts of the BIble are not meant to be taken literally.   The following two verse are obviously not literal:

1. Psalms 114:4  The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs

2.  2 Chronicles 16:9  For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.

Not only that some passages are meant to be read literally but have an abstract meaning.  For example the parable of the sower is clearly meant to be understood literally, yet its meaning is not about how seeds grow in various soil types.  

Interpreting the Bible is much more difficult than simply taking a literal approach or allegorical approach.  The Bible demands different readings in different parts.  

Q.  How do we know when to read a passage literally or figuratively?

-  Often we can tell by identifying the genre.  Poetry and apocalyptic literature is obviously meant to read metaphorically.  Narrative is often read literally as referring to a concrete, historical event, but in some case it to can refer to something abstract.  So even with narrative we have to distinguish between historical narrative like the siege of Jericho and a narrative story like the one Nathan tells to David about the poor man and the lamb.  

Q.  What is the genre of Genesis 1?

-  It is very difficult to say.  There are elements that read like poetry.  For example there are lots of phrases that are repeated.  The structure demonstrates parallelism.  

-  At the same time, the account is written in what in Hebrew is known as the vav consecutive.  The use of the vav consecutive is always used in a narrative.  The narrative could have an abstract meaning.  

-  Clearly there are figures of speech used which are clearly not meant to be taken literally.  God does not speak in the way we understand speech.  Many of the acts of creation are described using verbs reminiscent of a craftsman or potter.  God is described as walking in the garden but clearly God does not walk the way we understand it.  The spirit hovers over the deep like a bird.  The language is concrete and helps us understand, but it refers to something abstract.  

-  However, figures of speech can be embedded in a narrative that is overall historical.

-  The genre of Genesis 1 is not all that clear and hence the debate over how to interpret this passage.  

- The Genesis account does use lots of language and concepts reminiscent of other ancient near eastern creation narratives.  However, the Genesis account seems to be mostly concerned with challenging the underlying concepts of those stories.

- In the Ancient Near East the god created everything after a battle.  Genesis seems to go to great lengths to show God effortlessly commanding everything into existence.

-  Everything including chaos is created by God.  In the ancient world chaos was an independent force and typically a god prevailed over it or other preexistent gods.  

-  The God of Genesis consults his council but is all powerful over them.  In the ancient near east the gods would debate amongst themselves.  If you remember the Illiad and the Odyssey you are familiar with this concept.  God says “Let us create..”  There is no debate.

-  The created world was represented by different gods.  Here god creates everything.  The Sun and Moon which are powerful deities in the Ancient Near East are not even called by their proper names, but called the greater light and the lesser light.  

-  It seems Genesis is using Ancient Near East stories and changing them in order to communicate the truth about the actual Creator of the universe.  

-  The days of Genesis 1 are actual days.  The word yom can refer to an age but it clear from the refrain “and there was evening and there was morning the x day”

-  The day age view would say that the days are really long time periods, however, this view would still preserve the order of creation which seems to satisfy no one since you have things like plants being created before the sun and moon.

Q.  There are three clues in the text that the days are not literal, what are they?

1.  Day and night is created on day one but the sun and moon which is ordered to rule over day and night and to serve as signs for the season and the days and years is not created until day 4.

2.  The seventh day is ongoing.  Hebrews 4 says there still remains a sabbath rest for the people of God.  So if the seventh day is not literal why are should we take the other days as literal.

-  The purpose of the day framework is not give an accurate description of the creation process but rather to communicate the concept of kingdom and dominion.  

-  This is emphasized by the parallels between day 1 and day 4, day 2 and day 5, and day 3 and day 6.  Genesis wants us to understand man’s role of king over creation in God’s image.  

-  God however has ascended the throne of heaven but holds out the possibility of man joining God in His sabbath rest after the successful completion of man’s task.  This is symbolized in the structure of the work week.

-  God also uses ideas and stories familiar to the people to communicate the truth of Himself as the creator as opposed to other ideas of creation.  

3.   A phrase repeated throughout Genesis 1, “and there was evening and there was morning, the nth day.”  This phrase occurs after the creation act and the judgment that the creation was good.  Why does the phrase start with evening and move to morning?

-  It occurs after the creation act because God has finished his work for the day and now waits until morning to begin a new day of work.  God is being pictured as a workman.  Obviously God does not have the limitations and habits of a workman, so this must again be a figurative illustration.

Q.  If the days are meant to be literal then a lot of how we know the world works does not make sense.  How can there be light without the sun?  How can plants grow without photosynthesis?  

-  The answer you are forced to come up with is that at this time in history God is operating the universe by supernatural means.  The laws of nature as we know them are not operating.  

-  That is absolutely possible, but there is a problem with that.

Genesis 2:5-6

-  Genesis says that there was no bush land or plant in the field for what reason?

1.  The Lord God had not caused it to rain.

2.  There was no man to work the ground.

Q.  What does this tell us about the creation state?

-  If we assume literal days then we must assume that the laws of nature are suspended and that the universe is operating according to supernatural means.

-  Here we are told that the reason there was no bush or plants is for natural reasons.  This only makes sense if the universe is operating under the normal laws of nature.  

-  Why would God’s work suddenly be constrained by natural law in this instance and not others.  

-  God does what He always does - He condescends to man in order to make Himself known to man.  

Kudurru

The above photo is of a kudurru.  A kudurru is an ancient boundary stone used in Babylonia from the 16th to 12th century B.C.  This time period covers roughly the time period from the time the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt until just before the time of David.  

For our purposes, kudurru are important because they provide most of the evidence we have for the royal grant covenant.  The kudurru serve as a record of a land grant from the suzerain to his loyal vassal.   Two copies of the kudurru were made, with one placed in a temple and the other set up on the land as a boundary marker confirming legal ownership and detailing the boundaries of the land grant. Typically images of the gods who protect the covenant were inscribed on the kudurru along with a list of divine curses for anyone who broke the contract.  The kudurru of Abba-El to his servant contains an inscription that states, "may I (Abba-El) be cursed if I take back what I gave you.'

The kudurru above dates from the 12th century B.C. and records land granted from Governor Eanna-shum-iddina to his servant Gula-eres. The text at the bottom contains the names of 9 Babylonian gods who will curse any person who removes, ignores, or destroys the kudurru.  Since few people living in the ancient near east would have been literate, the top of the kudurru graphically illustrates the gods who protect the royal grant.  For example the crescent represents the moon god Sin, the 8 pointed star represents Ishtar, and the rayed disk represents the sun god Shamash.  

The Old Testament scholar, Moshe Weinfield, has done a lot of research on kudurru and shown a relationship between the royal grant arrangements detailed by the kudurru and the Abrahamic covenant.  

His conclusion is that the Abrahamic covenant differs substantially from the suzerain-vassal covenant since the Abrahamic covenant contains all the characteristic of a royal grant covenant.   According to Romans 5 and Galatians 3, Paul agrees with Weinfield that there is a difference between suzerain-covenants like the one God made with the Israelites at Sinai and royal grant covenants such as the one God made with Abraham.  

An Everlasting Covenant

In our study of the covenants, we discussed two types of covenants: the suzerain-vassal covenant and the royal grant covenant. A suzerain-vassal covenant is a covenant typically initiated by the suzerain but containing stipulations for the vassal.  The successful performance of the stipulations by the vassal results in blessing by the suzerain.   Violation of the covenant stipulation results in the curses of the covenant being enacted.   Under the suzerain-vassal covenant, the blessings and curses are dependent on the performance of the vassal and so we may term this a works based arrangement.

A royal grant covenant occurs when the suzerain grants land or possessions to a loyal servant.  In contrast to the suzerain-vassal covenant, the royal grant places no specific conditions on the vassal.  Instead, the suzerain accepts the responsibility of ensuring the grant to the servant is protected.  The grants were protected in some cases by divine curses for the person who would try to steal the grant.  In other cases, the suzerain himself would take the curses on himself if he did not guarantee the grant.  One other feature of the royal grant is that the grant was given to the future descendants of the vassal as a perpetual inheritance.  Since the royal grant is unconditional we can term this a grace based arrangement.

Interestingly, the Old Testament on several occasion uses the term everlasting to describe a covenant (berit olam in Hebrew).  Two times everlasting covenant is used to describe the covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:16. Isaiah 24:5), four times of the covenant of Abraham (Genesis 17:7, 19, Psalms 105:10, I Chronicles 16:17), twice of the covenant of David (2 Samuel 23:5, 2 Chronicles 13:5), and six times of the new covenant (Isaiah 55:3, 61:8, Jeremiah 32:40, 50:5, Ezekiel 16:60, 37:26).  The Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic, and new covenant all fit best in the category of royal grant covenant.

The Noahic covenant is established by God shortly after the resolution of the flood.  In Genesis 9:9, God promises to never destroy the earth with a flood again.  This covenant is given by God to Noah, his sons, and to all the animals.  Noah, his sons, and the animals all benefit from God's promise.  There is no obligation on their part to earn the blessings of this covenant.

The Abrahamic covenant is described in Genesis 12.  Under the terms of the Abrahamic covenant, Abraham is granted descendants, land, and a promise of blessing by God.  The grant by God to Abraham is no where said to be based on the performance of certain duties by Abraham.

In 2 Samuel 7, the Davidic covenant is announced in response to David's desire to build a house for God.  God denies David the opportunity to build a house for God, but instead promises to make a house for David.  The house God intends to make for David is a royal dynasty from David's descendants.  God promises to establish the throne of the house of David forever.  Neither David nor his descendants is bound by any stipulations in order receive the promised eternal dynasty.

The new covenant is described in Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 31, and Ezekiel 36.  Often this covenant is described in contrast to the covenant at Sinai.  Where the Sinaiatic covenant required obedience, the new covenant promises that the law of God will be written on the heart to ensure obedience.  The sins of the members of the new covenant will be forgiven.  All of the duties described in the new covenant are duties required of God.

The Mosaic covenant is never described as an eternal covenant.  Retention of the land of Canaan results from the successful performance of the Mosaic law by the Israelites,  Since the Mosaic covenant is a works based covenant, it cannot be described as a royal grant covenant but is better classified as a suzerain-vassal covenant.  

Under the terms of a suzerain-vassal covenant, the responsibility lies with the vassal.  This responsibility of the vassal is symbolized when the vassal takes an oath and subjects himself to divine retribution if he fails to uphold the covenant stipulations. The children of Israel take the oath of the Mosaic covenant.   By contrast, the suzerain is the one who upholds the royal grant covenant and it is the suzerain who takes the oath.  In Genesis 15, God Himself takes the oath of the Abrahamic covenant by passing between the severed corpses of the various animals.  This ceremony dramatically illustrated to Abraham that God himself would be under a curse if God did not fulfill his duty to bless Abraham.

Ultimately, the strength of a covenant depends on the character of the person who guarantees its fulfillment.  A vassal who cannot fulfill his obligations will break the covenant and suffer its sanctions.  Likewise a suzerain who cannot grant the promised possessions to his vassal will make a royal grant covenant meaningless.

Since the vassal in the Mosaic covenant is responsible for upholding the covenant, the Mosaic covenant cannot be termed an everlasting covenant.  The Israelites would time and time again demonstrate their inability to uphold the Mosaic law and ultimately would suffer the covenant sanction of exile from the land.   However, since God is the one who upholds the royal grant covenant, the Noahic, Davidic, and new covenant can all be properly termed everlasting covenants.  

So all the royal grant covenants in the Old Testament can be considered everlasting covenants whereas the suzerain-vassal covenants cannot make that claim.  The key difference is not just the type of covenant.  A royal grant covenant issued by an untrustworthy suzerain will fail to be everlasting.

The difference also lies in the character of the one who swears the oath.  Under a suzerain-vassal arrangement the vassal swears the oath.  In the case of the Mosaic covenant, the character of man is flawed and the covenant can only be broken.  However, because God is the guaranteer of the royal grant, its permanent nature can be assured because of the flawless character of God.  This aspect of God's character, that He upholds the terms of His covenants, is called hesed in Hebrew and will likely be the subject of a future blog post.

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

Shalmaneser III was the King of Assyria from 859 - 824 B.C.  He would have ruled about the same time as when Elisha was prophet.  Shalmaneser III led a campaign from modern day Northern Iraq into Southeastern Turkey.  The black obelisk pictured above was built to commemorate that campaign.  The text of the obelisk reads as follows:

In the seventh year of my reign I marched against the cities of Khabini of Til-Abni.  Til-Abni, his stronghold, together with the cities round about it, I captured.  I marched to the source of the Tigris, the place where the water comes forth.  I cleansed the weapon of Assur therein; I took victims for my gods.  I held a joyful feast.  A mighty image of my majesty I fashioned; the glory of Assur, my lord, my deeds of valor, all I had accomplished in the lands, I inscribed thereon and I set it up there.

Shalmaneser III is the conquerer and when he conquers the land he sets up an image of himself as a marker of the glory of his god Assur.  Assur was the chief deity of the Assyrians.  Shalmaneser III as the representative of Assur builds an image of himself in order to claim the territory as belonging to Assur.  This is the ancient near eastern conception of the image of god.

In Genesis, man in created as God's image and given the task of subduing and having dominion over the earth.  As man accomplished this task, God's glory would spread throughout the earth in the same way that Assur's glory would as the image of Shalmaneser III "the glory of Assur" was set up in the newly conquered territory.

The text also states Shalmaneser III cleansed his weapon.  The cleansing of the weapon is a motif that goes back to the time of Sargon the Great way back in the 23rd century B.C.  Sargon the Great was also from modern day Northern Iraq and created the first empire by conquering all the territory to the south along the Tigris and Euphrates river.  When Sargon reached the Persian gulf, he cleansed his weapon in the water symbolized his conquest had come to in.  Similarly, the rest talked about in Genesis refers to the cessation of conflict and the beginning of the rule of the king over the conquered land.

So in the text, Shalmanesser III conquers his enemies, enters his rest, and the sets up his image to mark his rule.  In Genesis 1 we find that God does something similar.   God creates the universe, enters His Sabbath, and sets up His image by creating man.

There are some differences mostly as a result that the Genesis 1 account of creation seems to purposely challenge other Ancient Near Eastern creation accounts.  God's creation does result from battle as is common with most ancient creation stories.  Instead God effortlessly creates the universe merely by speaking it into existence.   God is pictured, not as a warrior, but as a craftsman.  As a result, God has no weapons to cleanse.  The image of God is also not limited to the king, but is extended to Adam and all Adam's descendants.

Small Group Schedule

Here is the schedule for the Beckett's Ridge small group for the next few weeks:

October 21:      No small group, Grace Hill Church will be meeting as a whole on Wednesday
October 24 to hear our own Chris Lundberg speak about sharing our faith.

October 28:      No small group, but there may be a social event.  Stay turned for more details.

November 4:    The Days of Creation: Literal, Figurative, or Something Else

November 11:   Genesis 2:4-25:  The Creation of Man and the Adamic Covenant

November 18:   Genesis 3:  The Fall of Man and the Gospel

Prayer Requests Week 4

1.  Beth's sister-in-law's cancer has returned.  This is particularly devastating because she had been cancer free until 3 months ago and the cancer is now in her lungs, liver, and colon.

2.  Gabe has a ophthalmology appointment on October 15th.

3.  Miles has an appointment with the UNC Feeding Team on October 17th.

Week 4: The Creation of the Heavens & Earth

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Q.  What strikes you most about this passage?

Q.  What does verse 1 refer to when it says God created the heavens and the earth?

Q.  If  the heavens and the earth refer only to sky and the ground, what does this leave out?

-  The angels and heaven.  The problem is Hebrew uses the same word for the sky as it does for God’s heaven.  

-  The heaven and earth is a comprehensive statement that God created everything.  

Q.  How do we know that the heaven in verse 1 does not refer to the sky?

-  The sky is not created until day 2 in verse 8  

-  However, the statement still could be taken as a summary statement of what God does on day 1-6. The verb create is in the perfect tense and then the following story is in something called the vav consecutive.  Typically a verb in the perfect tense before a vav consecutive refers to background information before the story gets under way.

-  We know that this passage refers to God’s heaven and earth because of other passages in the Bible:

1.  Colossians 1:16  Here Paul makes a direct reference to Genesis 1:1 making the argument that Christ as the image of God was also involved in the creation of the world.    Paul goes on to say in the parallel line that the heaven and earth correspond to all things visible and invisible.  He reverse the order which is actually a rhetorical way to strengthen the connection.  A B B A.  He goes on to mention thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities which were all ancient Jewish terms for angels.  Here he is establishing that Christ is greater than the angels.  

2.  Psalms 115:16  Once again we see this two part division of creation into the invisible heaven which belongs to God and the visible earth where man lives.  This is also a comment on Genesis 1:1 because Genesis 1:1 is quoted in the previous verse.  

3.  Nehemiah 9:6  Nehemiah also quotes 1:1 and distinguishes between the heaven of heavens and all their hosts with the earth.  

-  The Bible does not view God’s heaven as a place that could be reached by getting in a spaceship.  Heaven is an invisible dimension coexistent with our own.  At times people are given supernatural senses to reveal this world to them.  

Q.  Can you think of examples where this happens?

1.  Genesis 28:16,17

2.  2 Kings 6:17

Q.  What does creating everything tell us about God?

-  This shows that God creates everything out of nothing including angels and heavens.  There is nothing that preexisted God and nothing that is outside His control.  This is very different from other ancient cosmogonies.  In the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic, Marduk, the creator god, first has to defeat Tiamat, a sea monster representing chaos, and then tears her body in two creating the sky and the land and forming man from the drops of her blood.  Here chaos exists before creation and in the ancient mind there was always the fear that the chaos would reassert itself.  

Q.  How does the Genesis account differ in its view of chaos?

-  Chaos comes after creation and is created by God and God effortlessly addresses it without any sort of battle or struggle.

Q.  There are two problems with creation what are they?

-  The earth is void and without form.  In Hebrew the words for void and without form are tohu and bohu.  

Deuteronomy 34:10  Here tohu is called a waste, wilderness, a desert.  

bohu is a much more rare word but means emptiness.  So the earth before creation is flat and featureless like a desert and empty.

God addresses the problem of tohu v’bohu in the creation days.  

Q.  Does God speak?  

-  God does not speak like we would know speech.  The language is a metaphor.  The image it is meant to evoke is the king issuing decrees.  The king’s power is such that when he speaks the action is performed.  Think of Pharaoh in the 10 commandments “So shall it be written, so shall it be done.”

-  Here God demonstrates his sovereignty and kingship.

Q.  What similarities or patterns did you note in the creation days?

- We can divide the 6 days of creation into 2 triads.  By doing so we can see some similarities:

         Kingdoms                              Kings

Day 1 Light & Dark     Day 4   Sun, Moon, and Stars

Day 2 Sea & Sky          Day 5 Fish & Birds

Day 3 Dry Land           Day 6 Animals, & Man

-  The first 3 days are the creation of the realms or kingdoms and the second 3 days are the kings.  

-  In verse 1:18 God says the purpose of the moon, the sun, and the star is to rule over the day and night.  

-  In verse 1:22 God commands the birds and the fish to be fruitful and multiply, the same command He gives man when he gives man dominion over the earth.

-  In verse 1:26 Man is created to have dominion over fish, birds, livestock, and over all the earth.  

-  We were told earlier that the earth was tohu v’bohu, formless and empty.  Here God solves the problem by creating the kingdoms to deal with the issue of formlessness and the He fills the kingdoms with their kings to deal with the issue of emptiness.

Q.  What is man given to rule?

-  Man is given the whole earth to rule.

Q.  What do we call this position?

-  Man is God’s vassal

-  That is the reason man is created in the image of God.  God is the Suzerain who rules over all creation.  Man is made in his image and likeness precisely to rule over the earth as God’s vassal.  

-  The Hebrew word for image tsalom is the same as used for an idol.  An idol was a physical representation of a god.  In a similar way, man is a physical representation of God’s rule and authority.

-  The Ancient Near East, kings would erect statues of themselves throughout their empire signifying the reach of their rule.  

-  Man as God’s vassal is commanded to subdue and fill the earth and have dominion over it.  Man is to complete the work of God as His obedient vassal.  

-  Man is to imitate God.  Just as God took the formlessness and emptiness of creation and created His kingdom.  Man, as God’s representative is to fill the earth and to subdue it.  

-  On the seventh day God rests.  God’s rest is not a rest of exhaustion or inactivity.  In the ancient cosmogonies, when the god defeated his opponents, he rested.  In the Enuma Elish after Marduk defeats Tiamat and her husband Kingu he builds a temple.  The god is resting from the struggle with his enemies.  For the ancients rest takes place when a king ascends his throne in order to begin his rule.  

-  God’s rest is a picture of God’s enthronement

Q.  We talked about the similarities between the true God’s rest and the ancient gods, what is the difference?

-  God never has to fight His enemies, there are no enemies for Him to defeat.  While creation is a result of the ancient gods victory over chaos, God simply commands order to come into existence.  

-  This is actually a good place to begin because this will help us with our discussion next week about the creation days.   

Week 3

Small Group Week 3

- We have been looking at the Kingdom as the central theme of the Bible and we looked at objections to this being the theme.  It seemed too broad and did not include things like Jesus, grace, and faith.

-  We saw that those ideas can be found in the concept of Kingdom if we view kingdoms like they did in the ancient near east. 

Q.  What was the key to understanding how ancient kingdoms worked?

-  They worked on 3 levels with a suzerain, a vassal, and subjects. By fulfilling the stipulations of the suzerain, the vassal earned the blessings for the subjects.

-  So the vassal earned the blessings but the subjects received it by grace.  

-  Nimrud, the simple date farmer, would receive blessings or curses of the covenant depending on how well his king kept the stipulations from the suzerain.  

-  This arrangement was formed by something known as a covenant.  We looked at an ancient Hititite covenant between Mursilli II the King of the Hittites and Dupa-Tessup the king of Amarru.  If Dupa-Tessup gave Mursilli II 300 shekels of gold each year and was loyal to Mursilli II and not to the Egyptians, then Dupa-Tessup would earn Mursilli II protection.  If not the gods were called upon to curse the Amorrites and destroy his family, his land, and his people. 

-  A covenant is an commitment divinely sanctioned.  It is not a simple contract, it is part of the divine realm.  The covenant was not enforced by some international law court like the UN, but by the gods.  

-  There are two types of covenant arrangements:

1.  Suzerain - Vassal:   The vassal must perform the duties required by the suzerain.  If the vassal fails to do so then he suffers the curse.  

2.  Royal Grant:  The suzerain promises a reward to the vassal.  There are no stipulations of the part of the vassal, it is a promise on the part of the suzerain.  

Q.  What happens if the suzerain fails to perform his responsibility?

-  The covenant is divinely sanctioned and so the suzerain would suffer the curses of the gods. 

-  The question is how do we decide when a covenant is a suzerain-vassal covenant and obligatory on the part of the vassal or a royal grant and thus obligatory on the part of the suzerain

-  With a suzerain-vassal covenant the vassal takes the oath and agrees to the sanctions of the gods.

-  WIth a royal grant covenant the suzerain takes the oath and agrees to take the sanctions of the gods.

Q. What are some examples of covenants in the Bible and how do we classify them?

1.  Abraham - God promises to give Abraham land and seed.  Genesis 15

2.  Mosaic -  The people of Israel take an oath to keep the law.  Exodus 19:8

Galatians 3:10 - 18

Q.  What two principles are contrasted in verses 10 - 12 

-  The law and faith.

Read Galatians 3:13-18

Q.  What words are concepts are associated with the law? with faith?

-  The law is a curse, it is based on the principle “do this and live”.

-  Faith is righteousness, blessing, promise

Q.  What historical period is the law associated with?

-  430 years after the law, which is the time of the Exodus.

Q.  What historical period is faith associated with?

 -  The time of Abraham.

-  So in Galatians Paul sees two time periods: the period of promise that is associated with Abraham and the period the law which is after the Exodus.  

Romans 5:12-14

Q.  What are the three time periods mentioned in this passage?

-  Adam, Adam to Moses, and after Moses

Q.  Paul draws a parallel between two of these time periods, which two time periods are parallel?-  Adam and Moses

Q.  What does it mean that Adam and Moses both committed transgression?  How is that different from the sinning that the passage said happened from Adam to Moses?  

-  Adam and Moses were both under a works arrangement covenant and their transgression was not just sin it was a breaking of the covenant with God.  Adam’s sin brought death to his posteriority - the people from Adam to Moses.  

- So according to Paul, we can divide the Old Testament into three epochs.  The time of Adam, from Adam after the fall to Moses, and from Moses to Jesus.  These epochs are associated with different operating principles.  In Eden before the fall it was the works principle, from Adam to Moses it was the principle of faith, and from Moses to Jesus it was works again.  In some ways Israel can be viewed as another garden of Eden and a corporate Adam.  

- After Christ we know the faith principle returns.  However, in the last day Revelation tells us the Kingdom of God will return in power and judgment will come and separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats.  This is a restoration of the works principle.  Christians though will be reckoned as righteous because they have identified with their vassal, Christ.  

So we have 5 epochs of redemptive history:

1.  Kingdom Offered

2.  Kingdom Promised

3.  Kingdom Prefigured

4.  Kingdom Inaugurated

5.  Kingdom Consummated

- In epochs 1,3,5 the works principle operates.  There is also a visible, tangible kingdom, where there is a defined land and the presence of God is present.  

-  In Epoch 1, the garden of Eden was a tangible kingdom that Adam was to guard and expand throughout the whole earth.  God was present in the garden and would walk in the garden.  Outside of the garden was the place of exile from God’s presence.  

-  In Epoch 3, the Kingdom of Israel was the kingdom.  It was to be a kingdom of priests where its inhabitants walked in the precepts of God.  There was a clear boundary between the land of Israel and the rest of the world.  This was symbolized by circumcision and the food laws.  God’s presence was visible in the tabernacle and later the temple.  Outside of Israel was the place of exile. 

-  In Epoch 5, the Kingdom will be the new heavens and new earth.  God’s presence will be visible throughout the Kingdom, in fact it will not need a sun or a moon because the glory of God will give it light.  Outside of the kingdom lies the lake of fire which is the second death.  

-  Epochs 2 & 4 operate differently.  There is no visible kingdom and no so distinction between clean and unclean.  The wheat and the tares grow together.  Those in this epoch are awaiting and journeying to the Kingdom of God.  They are pilgrims in a land not their own.  

Week 3 Homework

1.  Read Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

-  I think part of the point of this passage is to inspire awe in God and his creation.  What are you struck by or find really fascinating in this passage?  We will start our discussion next week by asking this question.  

-  Do you notice any patterns or similarities between the days of creation? 

Week 3 Prayer Request

1.  Gabe's eye appointment.

2.  Gary's family in the wake of his uncle's death.

3.  The Merrill's friend's daughter Adrian with the neurodegenerative disorder.

4.  Young Life's fall retreat 

Ghengis Khan Quote

Here is the Ghengis Kahn quote I referenced in small group today.  The quote gives a good idea of the ancient mentality of divine retribution.  It also would look great cross stitched and framed in my dining room.  

Your Faith Has Made You Well

During Jesus' ministry, he heals a number of people of various diseases.  The gospel writers present Jesus healings as the fulfillment of prophecy that will occur along with the restoration of Israel and the coming of the new heaven and new earth.  Most of these prophecies are found in the book of Isaiah where the prophet Isaiah predicts a future for Israel free of strife with agricultural abundance and an acknowledgement from all the nations of God and His laws.  For the gospel writers, these healings are proof that Isaiah's vision is coming to pass as God restores His kingdom and brings Israel out of exile in new, more spectacular exodus.

In response to John the Baptist's question if Jesus was the one who was to come, Luke says in 7:21-23, "In that hour, he (Jesus) healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind, he bestowed sight.  And he answered them, 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.'"

Here Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29, a passage that describes Israel personified as a besieged city.  The city is suddenly relieved by the Lord and the armies opposing it are defeated.  God promises to do wonderful things despite the fact that the hearts of His people are far from Him.  Among these wonders are the healing of physical ailments.  In this passage Jesus is confirming to John the Baptist the glorious vision of Isaiah's new Exodus has begun.

However, Jesus' healings are but a foretaste of the more spectacular reality of the new heavens and new earth.  The people he healed will eventually be afflicted with other ailments.  One days Lazarus will die again.  They are signs that in some ways the new kingdom has come but it is not here its full reality yet.  That must wait for the second coming.   Nevertheless, they do point to the coming reality that Isaiah describes in the last 15 chapters of his book.

We can apply our suzerain-vassal model to Jesus' healings.  As the obedient vassal, Jesus will earn the blessings of the Suzerain.  Among those blessings are fully restored bodies and the new reality that John described in Revelation in which every tear will be wiped away, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

As subjects of the obedient Vassal we too will receive this blessing.  We become subjects of the Vassal by professing our loyalty to Jesus as the Vassal who will earn these blessings.  This abandoning of our own efforts and acknowledging of the Lordship of Christ as our vassal is what is contained in the concept of faith. That is why Jesus tells those He has healed "your faith has made you well."  Jesus heals only those who place their faith in Him, demonstrating they are the subjects of the Vassal and thus inheriting the blessings of the Suzerain.

Repentance and Faith

I mentioned in small group that one of the things that I really like about viewing faith and grace using the covenant structure we looked at last Sunday, is that it make grace and faith more concrete ideas.  Faith and grace have become theologically charged words that have become so abstracted that they have almost lost their meaning.  This is a problem because it makes it difficult for us to wrap our heads around these important concepts.

We have faith in Christ as the obedient Vassal and because Christ is obedient he merits the blessings of the Suzerain.  As the subjects of the Vassal, we receive the blessings of the Suzerain despite the fact that we have done nothing ourselves to earn the blessings.  Here faith and grace are not mere theological buzzwords.

One of the points I have been making is that God communicates His plan in the form of a story that takes place in history for a good reason.  God could have communicated to us in the form of a systematic theology and precisely defined faith and grace for us.  However, the terms become alive and real when we see them played out in history.

N.T. Wright made an interesting observation from one of the works of Josephus about the words repentance and faith that I find helpful in making those concepts more concrete.  Josephus was a Jew who lived in the first century A.D. and was born around the time of Paul's conversion.  In 66 B.C. he was in Galilee when a zealous Jewish revolutionary tried to assassinate him.  Josephus managed to evade the attempt on his life and subdue his assassin and then taking the man aside he says:

     that I was not ignorant of the plot which he had contrived against me... I would,
     nevertheless forgive his actions if he would show repentance and have
     faith in me.

The words Josephus uses for repentance and faith in the above quote are the same words that the Gospels use for repentance and faith.  As Josephus is writing at almost the same time as the Gospels were written, we can be reasonable sure that this tells us what the words meant at that time.

For Josephus, repentance means that the man should give up his ideas of revolutions.  Instead Josephus wants the revolutionary to have faith in his own ideas and show loyalty to him as a leader.  In the same way Jesus asks us to abandon our own agenda and our ideas.  Jesus wants us to see Him as a leader and to show loyalty to Him.

Applying this to the suzerain-vassal relationship, we should abandon our own ideas of how to please the Suzerain.  We should also abandon our loyalty to other vassals who cannot possibly earn the blessings of the Suzerain.  Instead we should have faith that Jesus' agenda is the correct one and that He can satisfy the demands of the Suzerain.

The Victory Stele of Esarhaddon

This is the victory stele of Esarhaddon.    Esarhaddon was the king of Assyria from 681-669 B.C.  This stele graphically represents the suzerain - vassal relationship.  The large figure is Esarhaddon the suzerain and below him are two vassal kings kneeling before him.  The two kings are Ba'al, the king of Tyre, and Unshunkuru, the crown prince of Egypt.   Until the Assyrians, most covenants were tools of diplomacy meant to prevent war.  The Assyrians were bent on conquest and so most of their covenants were meant to subjugate people they had conquered.  In keeping with this arrangement, the sanction clause of Assyrian covenants contained no blessings and a lot of curses.  You will notice that, Esarhaddon is holding two ropes that hook to rings on the noses of the two crouching kings.

Week 2 Prayer Request

1.  Gabe Lundberg has an appointment October 15 with a Pediatric Ophthalmologist concerning a possible diagnosis of Juvenile X-Linked Retinoschisis.

2.  Leilani Owens has a great class this year, but is having to train 3 new teachers.

3.  The Howell's neighbor, Debbie, whose 23 year-old son committed suicide.

4.  Gary Owens' friend from small group, Jack Blackaby who recently received a difficult diagnosis

5.  Our small group

6.  Wisdom for the Merrill's as Josh is spending time with a Mormon family.

Week 2 Homework

Week 2 Homework

We did not have time to get to the material covered by last week's homework, so the homework this week is the same as week 1.  

We are going to attempt to organize the Bible and the concept of the Kingdom of God into some sort of framework - a beginning, middle, and end that will help us see the story more clearly.  However, we want to see how the Bible organizes itself not what I might think is a good way to do it - that is what we are trying to get away from with our approach  

Often we view the Old Testament as one thing - usually the law.  However, Paul does not see it that way.  Your homework is to read these passages and try to determine how Paul divides the Old Testament.  HINT: Paul divides the Old Testament into three parts.  

Galatians 3:10-18

1.  Paul describes two principles at work in the history of the Old Testament what are they?

2.  What time period or with whom are these two principles associated with?

Romans 5:12-14

The Romans passage is particularly difficult, but it contains some key points that we are going to be examining for the rest of the class.  Here are two questions to ask yourself that will help you try to figure it out.  

1.  Why does Paul say that death reigned from Adam to Moses, why not from Adam to Jesus?  In other words, what is different about the time from Adam to Moses?

2.  Why does Paul distinguish the sin of the people from Adam to Moses from the sin of Adam?

Chris’ homework is to study the difference between the Greek words ἁμαρτία and παράβασις.  In what situation does the LXX use the word παράβασις?

Week 2

The Kingdom of God

Are you uncomfortable with the Kingdom of God as the central organizing principle of the Bible?

-  Why not the death and resurrection of Christ?

-  Why not justification by faith?

Our uneasiness results because we have a 17th or 18th century European model of a kingdom and not an Ancient Near Eastern model.  

In a European model there is a king and subjects and the subject are to obey the rules and laws of the king.  

Q.  What happens to subjects of the king that do not obey the law?

If the subjects do not obey then they are wiped out by the king.  

                                                  King

             

                             Obey                                    

                                          

               

                                              Subjects

The European model creates a legalistic/authoritarian model of a kingdom which is why we are uneasy allowing it to be the organizing principle of the Bible.

In the Ancient Near East the model looks different.  Instead of a king and subjects, there were actually three levels: the suzerain, the vassal, and the subjects.  

                                                         Suzerain

                                           Obey

       

                                                          Vassal

                                                       

                                                         Subjects

Pharaoh was the earthly representative of the sun god Amun-Ra.  Amun-Ra is the suzerain and pharaoh is the vassal.  To the degree that the pharaoh correctly pleases Amun-Ra through his actions and rites, the pharaoh’s subjects benefit by Amun-Ra’s maintenance of ma’at.  

In Babylon the King was seen as the earthly representative of Marduk.

II Chronicles 9:8  -  Israel has similar concept.  

In the Ancient Near East this concept also worked between different nations.  The arrangement to form this relationship is called a covenant.  

Example:  Egypt may have a bigger army than the Hittites but fighting a war would by costly for both.  Instead of having a battle the Hittites from a covenant with the Egyptians.  The Egyptians promise the Hittites protection in exchange for the loyalty of the Hittites.  

Covenants usually have six parts:

1.  Preamble - Identifies parties

2.  Historical Prologue - Story of the relationship between the two parties

3.  Stipulations - Actions required of the parties

4.  Documentary Clause - Arrangement for storage of the covenant document

5.  Divine Witness - Statement about who oversees covenant

6.  Sanctions - curses and blessings the divine witnesses will administer depending

     on the obedience of the vassal to the stipulation

Q.  In this model how do the subjects, say a simple date farmer, receive the blessings and curses of the covenant?

-  The blessings and curses are based on how well the vassal keeps the covenant stipulations.  

I Kings 9:1-9 shows that Ancient Israel had this concept.  

-  The European concept of monarchy only has two levels, the Ancient Near East has three.  The vassal king acts as a mediator between the suzerain and the subjects.

Q.  How does this construct work in Christianity?

-  God is the suzerain, Jesus is the vassal, and we are the subjects who receive the blessing of the covenant based on Jesus’ obedience.  

Q.  What principle operates between the suzerain and the vassal?  What principle operates between the vassal and the people?

-  This is why the birth of a King in Luke is good news to shepherds.  Jesus is the obedient Vassal King who will bring the blessings of the Suzerain to his people. 

-  Those who recognize Jesus as the obedient Vassal king and identify themselves with Him will receive the blessings of the Kingdom.  That is why when Jesus heals people He tells them their faith has made him well.

-  Using this model, faith becomes a more concrete and less abstract concept.  Faith is like when the Fellowship of the Rings when the Fellowship pledge their lives to Frodo.  They have faith in Frodo in his plan and his work.

-  So we see the Kingdom is about faith, faith in the vassal King Jesus.  This concept contains the concept of grace since the subjects receives the blessing through the work of the vassal and not their own work.  All of this is accomplished in the person of Jesus.  

Week 1 Prayer Requests

1.  The Lundberg's neighbor passed away from cancer leaving behind her husband.

2.  The Howell's neighbor, Debbie, whose 23 year-old son committed suicide.

3.  The Howell's neighbor who is awaiting the results of a lymph node biopsy after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma.

4.  Aarron's friend, Rainey, who was recently diagnosed with a lung tumor.

5.  That our small group would be a profitable time and that we would get more people from the church involved.  

Week 1 Homework

Week 1 Homework

Q.  Does the idea that the theme of the Bible is the Kingdom of God bother you?  What don’t you like about it?  We will open the next session of small group with this question.  

We are going to attempt to organize the Bible and the concept of the Kingdom of God into some sort of framework - a beginning, middle, and end that will help us see the story more clearly.  However, we want to see how the Bible organizes itself not what I might think is a good way to do it - that is what we are trying to get away from with our approach  

Often we view the Old Testament as one thing - usually the law.  However, Paul does not see it that way.  Your homework is to read these passages and try to determine how Paul divides the Old Testament.  HINT: Paul divides the Old Testament into three parts.  

Galatians 3:10-18

1.  Paul describes two principles at work in the history of the Old Testament what are they?

2.  What time period or with whom are these two principles associated with?

Romans 5:12-14

The Romans passage is particularly difficult, but it contains some key points that we are going to be examining for the rest of the class.  Here are two questions to ask yourself that will help you try to figure it out.  

1.  Why does Paul say that death reigned from Adam to Moses, why not from Adam to Jesus?  In other words, what is different about the time from Adam to Moses?

2.  Why does Paul distinguish the sin of the people from Adam to Moses from the sin of Adam?

Chris’ homework is to study the difference between the Greek words ἁμαρτία and παράβασις.  In what situation does the LXX use the word παράβασις?

Week 1

What is the Theme of the Bible? 

-  We want to look at the Bible as a coherent story and see how it all fits together.  Typically we look at the Bible from the perspective of exegesis or systematically.  Both approaches are valuable but they have their deficiencies.  Exegesis focuses on only a small portion of the Bible, whereas systematics looks at topics extracted from the story.  One sees the trees and misses the forest, the other zooms out and misses the forrest. 

-  The benefits of this approach will be to:

    1.  Get more out of our own reading of scripture.  If we understand the overall theme 

     then we can see how passages fit together.  

    2.  Understand the Old Testament better and hopefully make it relevant. 

    3.  See the gospel throughout the whole Bible and see God’s plan of redemption 

    woven throughout the Bible even in parts like the genealogies.  

    4.  Communicate the Old Testament to our children better.  

Q.  What are some problems you have teaching the Old Testament to your children?

 

-  In many ways the Bible is a difficult book particularly the Old Testament.

Q.  What are some things that are difficult for you as you study the Bible?

-  How does the Old Testament with its emphasis on law and land fit in with the New  Testament?   On this side of Christ, most of it seems unimportant and even irrelevant. 

-  It is difficult to connect the historical story of the Old Testament with Christ.

-  How does the law, land, sacrificial system, and temple find its fulfillment in the person and work of Christ?

-  It mostly contains the history of an ancient people with language, customs, and thoughts very different from our own.

-  It contains a hodgepodge of different literary styles and genres (poetry, genealogies, prophecy, and history) most of which are foreign to us.  

-  The Bible is probably not the book we would have written if we were God.  

Q.  If you wanted to communicate the message of redemption how would you have written it?

-   We would have written a neat, orderly, systematic theology in an outline form with lots of bullet points.

-   It seems like the topics are scattered and jumbled.

Our goal is to assume that God is wiser than us and try to take the Bible on its own terms and for the most part the Bible is not written as a systematic theology.  The Bible is a narrative history written in a chronological fashion and the reason it is written this way is to tell a story.

Q.  Why use a story?

-  Stories are actually a great way to communicate, even a child can understand them.  In many way 
   easier to understand than a systematic theology.

-  Stories have a beginning, middle, and end.  They are coherent and have a point.  

The key to solving this problem is to organize the story of the Bible under an overarching theme.  That is what I want us to accomplish today.  

Q.  What do you think is the theme of the Bible?  Does it have one?

-  Death and resurrection of Christ?

-  Justification by Faith?

I think the key is to discover what the New Testament views as the theme of the Bible and I think the New Testament teaches that the Kingdom of God is the theme of the Bible.  We are going to spend the rest of this class using the grid of the Kingdom of God to interpret the Bible.  I am going to use Luke & Acts to demonstrate this.  Luke & Acts act as a bridge connecting the Old Testament to Paul.  This will also give us a taste of the method we are going to be using in small group to show how the Bible fits together as a coherent story.

1.  Luke begins with stories of pious Jews like Elizabeth & Zechariah and Simeon & Anna and others awaiting the consolation of Israel - when Israel's true Davidic king would come and restore the Kingdom of Israel.  

Luke 1:31-33   Mary is told that her son will inherit the throne of David and be king and that the kingdom that comes will have no end.  These are the promises of the Old Testament that these pious Jews were looking for.  Christ is described using royal terminology and so in His kingdom, God’s purposes for Israel are being fulfilled.  

Luke 1:54-55, 1:68-75 

Q.  How do Mary and Zechariah connect the birth of Jesus to the Old Testament?  

-  He is the royal king who will bring about the promises of the covenant with Abraham.  

Luke 2:8-11 

Q.  Why is the birth of a king good news to a bunch of shepherds?

  -  This king is also a savior and his kingdom brings with it what Israel had been waiting for - the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises about the restoration of Israel and you poor, dirty, marginalized shepherds will benefit from the work of this King.   

Jesus’ baptism is an anointing where Jesus is declared the Son of God just as David had been anointed at Hebron.  Son of God is actually not a divine term but a term of royalty.  

Luke 8:1  

Q. What is the content of Jesus’ preaching?

How do we know the Kingdom of God is here - because the king is here - and why is that good news - because the king is a savior.  

Q. During Jesus’ ministry what does he do?

 -  Heals the sick, casts out demons, forgives sins.  All the kind of things the Old Testament prophets described would happen when the Kingdom of Israel is restored.  They also demonstrates Jesus’ authority as king.  

Luke 7:18-23

-  John is discouraged because he expected the Kingdom of God to come and yet here he is imprisoned.  Jesus responds by quoting Isaiah 29 which is a prophecy about the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  

Luke 11:20

-  Jesus asserts his authority as King by casting out demons.  No more is man under the rule of Satan.  That is why the birth of a king is good news because this king is a savior.

Acts 1:6-8 

-  Now that Jesus has risen, the disciples want to know when the restoration of the Kingdom will happen.  Jesus starts telling them about being witnesses and talking about the Holy Spirit

Q.  Does Jesus answer their question or is He changing the subject?

-  The Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel is the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  

Q.  When does the Holy Spirit come upon them?

-  At Pentecost, and in Peter’s sermon he explains Pentecost as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel which is a prophecy about the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  So Jesus was not changing the subject He was saying that the Holy Spirit is the Kingdom of God.

Acts 8:12  

-  For Phillip what is the content of the good news/gospel?

Acts continues with the apostles preaching the good news and the good news is what Jesus taught in Luke 8 - the Kingdom of God.  

Acts 28:30-32  

-  Acts end with Paul imprisoned in Rome and preaching to a group of Jews - and what is he preaching?  The Kingdom of God.

-   A lot of people find it disappointing that Acts ends right here.  We don’t find out what happens to Paul.  According to church history, he was released and then killed by Nero.  However, for Luke’s purpose it makes perfect sense to end here.  How does Luke begin his work?  With pious Jews awaiting the consolation of Israel and the Kingdom of God and it ends with Paul proclaiming to the Jews that the Kingdom of God has arrived through the person and work of the Jesus Christ the King whose birth is good news because He is a King who is a savior and His Kingdom is the restored Israel, the Kingdom of God that will come about through the Holy Spirit and preaching.

-  We see how Acts & Luke acts as a bridge.  We start with Old Testament Jews speaking in Old Testament Jewish concepts like the covenant of Abraham and the restoration of Israel.  Then we see Jesus come and how He fits in with this story but then He fulfills this story visibly demonstrating the fulfillment of these prophecies.  Paul’s preaching shows how Jesus’ teaching and works fit in with the Old Testament organically and so Luke links the Old Testament with Paul through Jesus.