Thumbing through Genesis

In the latter part of Genesis, the story starts to skip around a bit, and becomes a little harder to follow.

Here's what I mean: Genesis 32, Jacob is afraid of Esau, and wrestles with God, gets name changed. / 33, Jacob timidly returns to meet Esau. / 34. Jacob's daughter is (to put it delicately) 'defiled'. Her brothers slay the man who did it, and his family. Then they plunder what's left. Jacob turns tail and runs. / 35. God comes again in a vision and again tells him his new name, reaffirms the covenant. Benjamin born, Rachel dies. Firstborn (Ruben) sleeps with Jacob's concubine (wife), Issac dies. / 36 Genealogy of Esau / 37 Joseph gave a 'bad report' about his half-brothers, was the favorite, got a special robe, had dreams of greatness, told his brothers, they plotted to kill him, then they changed their plan to selling him into slavery.
Then in 38, it leaves off with Joseph headed to Egypt, and jumps over to tell the story of Judah's family. Judah is one of Joseph's brothers, 3rd son of Leah and Jacob.

Judah's daughter in law was trying to have a family, but her 2 husbands died. The first one was wicked, so the Lord killed him. That's all it says. Then she becomes wife of his brother, to raise up a son to the dead brother. God kills him too. Hubby #2 doesn't mind sharing the bedroom, but apparently didn't want to provide the child. Fast forward: and Judah did not give her as wife to the next son when he was of age.

So Tamar is childless, but is supposed to have a member of the family sire a child for her. Then Judah's wife dies. Judah travels, and is seeking the comfort of a woman. Tamar deceives him, poses as a prostitute, and lo and behold, they conceive a child.

Her pregnancy becomes evident to all, and Judah accuses her of immorality, and calls for her to be burned alive. *

She produces the evidence that Judah is the baby's father (oops). Suddenly the call for sexually impure people's execution is forgotten, and she had twins. (Incidentally, one of these twins is in Jesus' family tree.)

From there, it pans back to the story of Joseph, his humiliation, accusation, incarceration, vindication and exaltation.

The famine comes, and he has the encounter with his brothers, where they are tested, left to twist awhile, but finally restored and forgiven.

How do we make sense of all these twists and turns? Yes, in one sense, this is a fairly orderly chronicling of the affairs of life. The births, the deaths, the interactions and the drama of life in their day. It paints some of the broad strokes of what life looked like with them.

In a redemptive history sense, it shows how God's hand of Providence upholds both the weak and the undeserving within His ultimate plan. The weak, as we see the vindication of two women wronged in different ways, Tamar, in particular, upheld by God more than once.

And my favourite: this passage shows Joseph as a type and shadow of Christ.

His own brothers count him an enemy, and seek his life. They plan his death, and put him in a sort of a tomb.

Death is cheated because the slave traders show up, but the garment is still provided as "proof" of his death. Through many twists and turns, he becomes the Prime-Minister of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

Consider the life and nature of the brothers in question. Besides attempted murder, kidnapping, and profiting from the trafficking in human slaves (their own brother, no less!), Simeon and Levi murdered a family after arrangements had been made for that family's son to marry Dinah. Ruben slept with his stepmother, Judah was going to execute his daughter-in-law for having slept with him. Sounds like prime-time TV, right?

These were not nice people. They murdered a whole family for defiling their sister, but did nothing when their brother slept with dad's wife. Mercy and justice simply were not words that they had a good grasp of.

Contrasted to that, Joseph lived a life where there was no moral failing in his life that God considered worth pointing out.

Joseph, in a position to jail, sell into slavery, or even kill those wicked brothers who had enslaved him, instead forgave(!) them, and still more amazing, gave them gifts.

Jesus, in a position to justly judge and condemn us to eternal hell for our sins, lived a perfect life, and offers us that righteousness he procured, and absorbs the Divine wrath in himself upon the Cross.

Wicked and undeserving brothers were welcomed and offered grace by the one who held their very lives in his hands.

Wicked and God-denying sinners are welcomed and offered grace by the Redeemer who holds our very eternity in his nail-pierced hands.

Such a glorious gospel!

Four Constants -- Restoration

"IT IS FINISHED."

--Jesus Christ

We have looked at God's just wrath upon sin being satisfied at the cross.
We have seen what we have been saved from, but what exactly have Christians been saved to?

Now we will compare both the 'general' and 'personal' Redemptive results, and each of these in both their present and final fulfillments.

God's redemptive plan, His triumph over sin and its effects begins with the completed work in Calvary, and takes final, full effect in the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

The final 'general' outcome is seen in the New Heaven and the New Earth where all of the ruination unleashed upon Creation is overthrown. Anyone who looks upon it will call it good. Glimpses of this can be seen in Isaiah and Revelation.

This is the Final State of nature, but even now, God's purposes are unfolding. As His kingdom spreads, and sanctifies man's original mandate of dominion over creation, righteousness will exalt nations. Everywhere the Gospel is lifted up, lives and nations will be blessed. Every sphere of public, private, or community life, every industry, institution -- and even government -- to the degree to which it is submitted to God's authority, can be a tool of Righteousness in God's hand.

The Kingdom of God, of course, consists of Christians, and the way their lives affect their world. But before they can affect their world, they must benefit from Christ's work at Golgotha.

First, our dead spiritual nature, our wicked and rebellious heart must be changed to a new one, one that is responsive to the Living God.

To give us the ability to live the kind of life we were released into, God gave us His Holy Spirit. He leads us into His truth; and He gives us grace, strength, and wisdom. He helps us to pray, He helps us resist temptation, and re-makes our characters to reflect His own. He restores us when we stumble, corrects us when we're wrong, and comforts us when we mourn. In short, He gives us all things pertaining to life and godliness.

The Holy Spirit is the firstfruits, the 'downpayment' of life as it will be when God's work is fully revealed.

Both the Just and the Wicked will see His final triumph over Death itself, and while body and spirit will nowhere be separated, not everyone will rejoice.

The wicked will face an eternity of despair. We have been warned "fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10.28) Jesus affirms that there is no 'annihilation' or 'soul sleep' or 'reincarnation' but rather an eternal physical presence in a finite place called Hell. He also affirms the eternal duration with such images as 'where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.'

By contrast, the Glory of the life that awaits us is unspeakable. Greater than the wonders we will behold in a perfect created order, we will hear the commendation of the faithful, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord." Greater even than that is the unimpaired relationship with Perfection Himself, as He said to Abraham, "I Am thy shield, and thy Exceeding Great Reward."

If we can truly grasp the realities that await us, if we 'get' the truth and significance of these "Four Constants" we will not find it a hardship to seek first the kingdom of God, or to bear up under hardships. It will seem easy to testify to His truths, or to live as Pilgrims and Strangers in this present world.

...And Great is our reward if we do.

[...]

Four Constants -- Redemption

Say, heavenly pow'rs, where shall we find such love?
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem
Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save.

-- John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book III 1.213)

You can determine the importance of a thing by the priority given to it.

Consider medical treatment, for example. The average healthy person would never voluntarily injest a chemical cocktail whose properties would cause hair loss, vomiting, appetite loss, weakness, lethargy, immunosuppresion, sleep disruptions, general malaise and a host of other unpleasant consequences. Not even on a dare or a bet.

Take that same person, and tell them that they have a form of cancer which responds very well to Chemotherapy. Though still unpleasant, it suddenly seems a small price to pay. Life, in this example, is shown to take priority over convenience.

In addressing God's Redemption of Creation, it is no exaggeration to say that we are examining the single most pivitol event of all Time.

How can that be said with confidence? By examining the priority given to it by God Himself in His Word. (I Peter 1.19,20-- But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,).

When did God foreordain this? Before Man ever rebelled, before He created man a living soul, and even before He said "let there be light," the sacrificial death of Jesus had already become an accomplished fact in the mind of God.

Let's back up a little...

Knowing, then, that this is the pivitol event in history, it is impossible to give a full accounting of it here.

Redemption, in a theological sense, is the complete reversal of the curse initiated in The Fall (see previous post). It is, principally, the final payment of the totality of divine Wrath upon Sin. Secondarily, it is the reconciliation -- by God -- of fallen man to Himself.

The redeemed -- as those who will benefit from redemption are called -- had the plan gradually revealed to them:

Adam and Eve, received the promise of the Messiah, and then had their ineffective fig-leaf coverings replaced, by God, with clothes made from the skins of animals, foreshadowing sacrificial death as the remedy for sin. (Genesis 3)

Notice that the promise of the final resolution of sin (Messiah, or Seed of the Woman) was given greater priority than the temporary, symbolic measure of animal sacrifice. Notice also that God prepared the skins FOR Adam and Eve, a foreshadowing of divine grace, apart from works.

There were countless other types and symbols throughout Biblical history: God's substitute for Issac, Noah's Ark, and Passover being only three of them.

Everything was setting the stage for the Great Event.

Keep in mind, the sacrifice must be: (1) Freely Offered. (2) Unblemished. (3) Of Sufficient Value to Redeem.

None in the natural family of man would be a suitable sacrifice. All of us are tainted, having received, through Adam, a fallen nature. A sacrifice suitable to God must free of Sin. The sacrifice must also be of adequate value.

The sacrifice had to be sufficient to satisfy God's wrath against man's sin, and it had to be holy.

The only way God could be true to His Holiness, at the same time as extending grace and compassion to His Image-bearer, is to have His Son receive the due penalty of Divine Wrath in man's place. Sin having been punished, those who are found to be "In Christ" could be reconciled to God.

Having seen what was accomplished, namely the propitiation of sin, the restoration of relationship with God, and even the beginnings of the reversal of our corruption, let us examine the cost.

The Triune God had to send His Son to rescue us. Jesus, fully-God and fully-Man, was born into obscurity, misunderstood, mistreated, betrayed, sold out, mocked, beaten, cursed, humiliated, spat upon, forced to carry a cross, His scalp pierced with a mock crown, stripped naked, and then whipped until he was unrecognizable as a man, and His back looked like a ploughed field. Then He was committed to a form of death so horrific that even the bloodthirsty Romans had to devise a new word to describe the suffering involved. The word? "Excruciating".

This was the price. But as we saw in the opening remarks, there are times when the price, as unpleasant as it may be, has a 'payoff' that outweighs the price.

Jesus shared in our every weakness as people, yet did not sin. He knew apprehension. He would recoil at pain. He slept and wept and ate. He even sweat blood while praying in the Garden the night of His arrest.

Jesus had a priority that outweighed the pain, the shame, and the horror He would endure. It is summed up nicely in one verse:

Hebrews 12:2 "...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

What was the joy set before Him?
The result of the Cross: the Redemption of Man.

Such is His love for us.
(more here)

Four Christian Constants

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. - John Calvin

The influence of Post Modernism upon the Church has made many Christians unable to recognize, let alone defend, the non-negotiable truth claims that make Christianity what it is.

Many of us have adopted an a-la-carte approach to Biblical truth claims. Some religious 'leaders' have gone so far as to critique which parts of the Gospels they view as credible, as though Holy Writ somehow needed affirmation from frail and fallen man.

There are very many things about Christianity which are infalible -- the entire contents of Scripture, for example.

This post will center on Four Christian Constants. Tamper with any one of these Constants, even slightly, and you are left with some meaningless ritual, teaching or philosophy, but the Gospel is forfeit.

1. Creation.
2. The Fall
3. Redemption
4. Restoration

How, one may ask, are all of these necessary? Even our Seminaries have liberal theologians denying the historical nature of #1-3, and putting forward novel theories about #4.

Implied in each of these categories are both the nature and plans of God. Break the chain, and the other categories become non-sensical.

My future posts will touch more on what each of these mean.

(For the next in the series, link here)