September EssaysWeek
36: Song of Solomon 5 - 8, Isa. 1 - 12 , I Tim. 5 -6, II Tim. 3, Psalm
99 - 102 This week we are beginning to read Isaiah, which is full of pictures of the messiah and the coming kingdom of God. One of the first that we encounter is a vision for the messianic age - it says:
Isaiah is full of rich words and images to express God's promises. If we can see the thoughts behind the pictures, the beauty becomes all the more evident. Let's read through this poem, getting a sense of the word-pictures and the ideas behind them:
The mountain of the house of the Lord
is the temple mount of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was built on Mt. Moriah,
the tallest mountain in Judea, so when a person goes to Jerusalem,
they always go up. If you go to visit, you will always remember
the long climb that the busses make up the hill into Jerusalem. Even
today in Hebrew, the Temple Mount is called Har HaBeit, which
means "mountain of the house". Throughout the Bible, the
Temple is often referred to simply as "the house".
The word "nations" in Hebrew has a stronger connotation than it does in English. In Hebrew, the word is "goyim", which is what Jews call Gentiles. It tends to carry an understanding of pagan-ness, to be one of the surrounding nations who worshipped idols and practiced immorality. A person might translate it "the heathen". So once again, this passage has a picture of the lost sinners of the world finding the God and wanting to worship Him.
When the people who do not know God come
to Jerusalem, they will want God to teach them His ways, so His law
(torah) will go out from Jerusalem. It is important to note
that the word for teach, yarah, is the verb form of torah,
teaching or instruction. In response to their desire to have God teach
them, they will have God's teaching (torah), instruction for
how to live. The words walk (lekh) and way (derekh) are frequent metaphors used when speaking about having a covenant relationship with God. Lekh means walk, but as Hebrew words tend to be very broad, it often describes a general life direction. Derekh means road, path, or street, but often is a metaphor for a way of living. To "walk in God's ways" is to live out a relationship with God. Many times God says to Israel,
In the book of Acts, the first Christians refer to themselves as "the people of the Way". They often spoke of their movement as "The Way", probably having the picture of living out the teaching that Jesus gave them. It suggests they are thinking of learning from Jesus how to live in relationship with God. The Fulfillment of this Prophecy The picture in Isaiah is of a coming time when people from all the Gentile nations will seek the God of Israel, to know and worship the God of the Jews. They will want to know the Lord and have a relationship with Him, which is what salvation is, in this life. And it will begin at Jerusalem and go out to the ends of the earth. The fulfillment was first begun at Pentecost, when people in the Temple were filled with God's Spirit, and the gospel began to be poured out on all the world beginning in Jerusalem. Within a short time, the first Gentile, Cornelius, was filled with the spirit and all his family became believers. And then Paul brought the gospel to the Gentiles. It is still being fulfilled today as the all the nations of the world are hearing about the God of the Jews, how He came to earth to make a covenant of forgiveness of sin with His own blood. He came to walk on earth with us, so that we can learn to walk with Him. ____________________________ ©2002 Lois A. Tverberg, Ph.D., OurRabbiJesus.com. All of the articles in this series are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the express written consent of the author. To request permission for use, contact Tverberg@OurRabbiJesus.com.
One
of
the
things
that
has
intrigued
me
most
as
I
have
studied
the
Old
Testament
is
what
it
says
about
Jesus
as
the
coming
Messiah.
Even
though
the
gospel
about
Jesus
is
the
first
thing
every
Christian
learns,
it
is
rare
to
hear
a
methodical
explanation
of
what
the
Bible
predicts
about
him.
What
exactly
is
a
Messiah?
Why
we
believe
that
the
Messiah
would
be
God
Himself?
We
would
be
stronger
witnesses
if
we
could
open
up
the
Bible
and
trace
from
start
to
finish
what
it
said
about
Jesus
Christ.
Several
of
En-Gedi's
commentaries
have
come
out
of
that
quest
to
see
Jesus
Christ
in
the
light
of
the
scriptures
that
speak
about
Him.
See
weeks
19,
20
&
21
from
May,
especially.
One
thing
that
Christians
may
overlook
is
that
many
prophecies
about
the
Messiah
do
not
expressly
say
that
he
would
be
God
in
the
flesh.
The
term
"Son
of
God"
can
refer
to
divinity,
but
also
is
occasionally
used
about
angels
and
even
people
(see
Gen.
6:2,
Job
1:6,
Matt
5:9).
In
the
passage
above,
it
could
be
interpreted
to
mean
that
the
messianic
king
would
be
so
close
to
God
that
he
would
be
like
a
son
to
him.
In
the
life
of
Jesus
we
often
look
at
His
miracles
as
proof
of
divinity.
But
Moses
and
Elijah
and
others
had
done
miracles
before
Him,
so
even
that
isn't
conclusive.
An intriguing study is to find the passages in the Old Testament said that the Messianic King who was coming would be God Himself. I found it very significant that in this week's reading in Isaiah we encounter one of the clearest statements that the Messianic King would be divine. It says,
It
is
very
clear
that
the
passage
is
talking
about
the
Messianic
king
from
David's
line,
and
also
very
clear
that
it
refers
to
him
with
the
words
"Mighty
God",
and
"Everlasting
Father".
The
promised
Messiah
would
be
called
"mighty
God",
an
obvious
statement
of
the
divinity
of
the
messiah.
We have hardly scratched the surface of the texts that point to the divinity of Christ, although some are indirect allusions. Jesus refers to many of them and applies them to himself, and His first followers would have recognized them. As we finish the Old Testament by reading the prophets, keep listening for the prophecies about the Messiah. We will see that Jesus used many of them to proclaim Himself as Messiah, and even God in the flesh. ____________________________ ©2002 Lois A. Tverberg, Ph.D., OurRabbiJesus.com. All of the articles in this series are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the express written consent of the author. To request permission for use, contact Tverberg@OurRabbiJesus.com.
Throughout
Bible
there
is
a
recurring
image
that
is
mysterious
to
modern,
Western
Christians
- that
of
blood.
We
will
encounter
it
in
all
of
the
readings
this
week,
in
Isaiah,
Hebrews
and
in
the
Psalms.
By
understanding
some
of
the
ancient
beliefs
about
blood,
it
will
give
us
some
insight
on
why
it
is
such
a
central
motif
in
the
scriptures.
Because of this commonly held belief, it was understood that imbibing the blood of a powerful animal would allow a person to acquire its "life", to take on some of its power. The Bible is unique among documents of its time for forbidding the consuming of blood. Although they could kill and eat animals, God Himself owned the "life" of the creature, and the blood had to be given back to him by being poured on an altar, or on the ground. We read this as an outmoded regulation from ancient times. But we should look at it as if God was speaking their language in order to teach them a profound idea -- that God alone is the creator and possessor of the life of every creature. He says:
Here God is teaching them that human lives are precious to God - that He made us in His image, so by taking a human life, we are destroying the one thing in creation that uniquely bears God's likeness. Innocent
Blood
Jesus also said that this was would bring judgment on His generation as well, when Jerusalem would be besieged and the temple burned. He said that God would punish the corrupt temple leaders because of the righteous blood that they shed:
The
Preciousness
of
Human
Life
The Hebrew word for blood is dam, and the plural is damim. When the Bible talks about murder, or "bloodguilt", it usually uses the plural form, damim. Using the logic that the blood contains the life of a person, to speak of blood in the plural is to say that a murder doesn't just take the life of one person, it takes the lives of many. Jews even have a tradition that the voice of the blood crying out from the ground was actually the voices of all of the future descendants of Able that would have ever lived. From this they have a saying, "To take the life of one person is like taking the life of a whole world, and to save the life of one person is like saving a whole world!" The
picture
of
blood
is
a
central
motif
in
the
Bible,
and
it
is
key
for
understanding
the
sacrificial
system,
atonement,
and
the
work
of
Christ.
It
was
also
a
central
aspect
of
the
making
of
covenants,
so
we
need
to
understand
it
in
order
to
see
why
Christ's
blood
was
necessary
for
the
new
covenant
of
forgiveness.
We
will
discuss
this
in
another
article.
But,
one
thing
that
we
can
see
in
what
we
have
learned
so
far
is
how
God
taught
his
people
about
the
sanctity
of
life
by using
their
belief
in
blood
as
a
representative
of life.
While
most
of
us
do
not
believe
that
our
life
is
literally
contained
in
our
blood,
we
can
see
that
through
this image God
claimed
ownership
of
every
life
on
earth,
and
that
He
will
require
an
accounting
for
every
life. ____________________________ ©2002 Lois A. Tverberg, Ph.D., OurRabbiJesus.com. All of the articles in this series are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the express written consent of the author. To request permission for use, contact Tverberg@OurRabbiJesus.com.
Last
week
we
discussed
how
in
the
scriptures,
the
image
of
blood
is
associated
with
life. This
is
an
example
of
the common
practice in
Hebraic
thinking
of using
physical
pictures to
describe
invisible
things.
The
scripture
is
full
of
these
images
--
if
we
don't
understand
them,
we
miss
many
profound
thoughts
and
wonderful
promises
in
the
Bible.
In Isaiah this week we will be reading many beautiful promises about the messianic age - when God's kingdom would break forth in a powerful way on earth, with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. This age is described several times as a time when rivers of water will flow in the desert:
Why is this image of water flowing in the desert used? Because it represents the pouring out of the Holy Spirit that is giving new life to those who find it! This happened at Pentecost and still goes on today. Jesus proclaims this in the gospel of John:
Anyone who has lived a life apart from God knows the utter dryness of life in a world without Him. We also have experienced how thirst forces us to recognize our dependence on water for life. So the Lord, in his wisdom, has brilliantly painted for us an image which is unmistakable: we cannot live in the desert of life without Him. The need in the world today for the life-giving water of his Spirit is very great; we all should be dedicated to sharing our cup with those who need it. ____________________________ ©2002 Lois A. Tverberg, Ph.D., OurRabbiJesus.com. All of the articles in this series are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the express written consent of the author. To request permission for use, contact Tverberg@OurRabbiJesus.com.
For
a
little
change
of
pace,
I
would
just
like
to
share
one
of
the
most
powerful,
meaningful
things
I have
ever
discovered
in
my
study
of
the
Bible.
I
found
it
several
years
ago
after
singing
in
a
performance
of
Handel's
Messiah,
when
I
wanted
to
see
where
the
words
of
the
songs
came
from.
Some
of
you
may
have
already
discovered
this,
but
if
you
haven't,
it
will
be
exciting
when
you
do.
Reading this passage, we can hear its clear and obvious message about the atoning sacrifice Christ made for us. It is so detailed and pointed in its description of Jesus' coming, and about His death and resurrection, that it sounds like it came from our New Testament readings this week. It seems to be a restatement of the basic tenets of the gospel message for the early church. In
fact,
it
comes
from
Isaiah,
chapter
53,
vs.
3
-
11,
and
was
written
almost
700
years
before
the
birth
of
Christ! I
was
utterly
surprised
that
the
prophecy
about
Jesus'
mission
on
earth
could
be
so
clearly
laid
out,
so
many
hundred
years
before
He
was
born.
The
New
Testament
writers
refer
to
it
many
times,
seeing
that
it
so
clearly
foretold
Jesus'
mission
on
earth. It
was
even
more
amazing
to
hear
about
this
text
in
the
Dead
Sea
Scrolls.
In
1948,
many
scrolls
and
fragments
were
discovered
in
the
Essene
community
of
Qumran,
in
the
Judean
Desert
near
the
Dead
Sea
in
Israel.
The
scroll
that
revealed
to
biblical
archaeologists
that
this
was
an
extremely
important
discovery
was
called
the
"Great
Isaiah
Scroll",
containing
a
complete
manuscript
of
the
book
of
Isaiah.
Several
copies
of
almost
all
of
the
books
of
the
Old
Testament
were
found
there,
mostly
in
fragments
that
have
been
pieced
back
together.
Just
a
few
scrolls
were
found
intact,
including
two
copies
of
the
book
of
Isaiah.
Before
that
discovery,
the
oldest
known
manuscripts
of
the
Old
Testament
were
from
about
900
AD,
and
a
skeptic
could
charge
that
somehow
a
monk
had
written
this
powerful
prophecy
into
the
Bible.
But
the
Dead
Sea
Scroll
texts
that
were
found
were
a
thousand
years
older
than
any
other
manuscript
they
had
found,
from
about
100
BC! So
both
the
original
text
and
the
copy
on
this
scroll
predate
the
life
of Jesus. Most
powerfully,
the
Dead
Sea
Scroll
text
was
virtually
identical
with
manuscripts
of
over
a
thousand
years
later,
that
had
been
hand-copied
over
and
over
again.
The words quoted
above
from
the
New
International
Version
Bible
are
actually
from
the
text
found
in
the
Dead
Sea
Scrolls.
The
only
difference
between
that
text
and
later
copies
is
the
small
insertion
set
off
in
brackets
-
[of
life].
Scribal
errors
are
common
in
ancient
manuscripts
-
the
fact
that
so
little
change
was
seen
over
thousands
of
years
shows
the
amazing
reverence
the scribes
had
for
the
texts. ____________________________ ©2002 Lois A. Tverberg, Ph.D., OurRabbiJesus.com. All of the articles in this series are copyrighted and may not be redistributed without the express written consent of the author. To request permission for use, contact Tverberg@OurRabbiJesus.com.
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