Thursday, September 30, 2021
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Monday, September 27, 2021
Galatians, chapter 4, comments
Galatians 4:1
¶ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a
servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed
of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a
son, then an heir of God through Christ.
The Holy
Spirit, guiding Paul in his wisdom, likens our time in the world before Christ
to being under a sort of tutor just as he likened the Law given to Moses
previously as a schoolmaster. We were in bondage, though. It was then that
Christ became the vehicle of our adoption by God, to be His own sons and
daughters. So, when the time was right we received the adoption, leaving the
things under which we labored, the world and the Law.
The Spirit of
God and Christ, the Holy Spirit, indwells each genuine believer.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and
we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
We are now the children of God and heirs of God
through Christ.
Galatians 4:8 ¶ Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye
did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known
of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye
desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe
days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am
afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
While a good
sermon can be made about modern “gods” of wealth, entertainment, sex, etc. this
is specifically referring to the danger of the Judaizing element in early
Christianity. On the surface we might view this as a warning about the gods of
the Graeco-Roman world but upon review of the entire letter and, indeed, most
of Paul’s letters it becomes clearer that this is a warning against adopting
the rituals and observances of the Jews as the basis for Christian faith. One
might think one is justified by their strict observance of Jewish dates and
seasons but then that person would be wrong based on what Paul has said
previously and will say again.
So, it seems
that Paul is warning them that they were once enslaved to gods, little g, and
have now made themselves slaves to Jewish observances. Paul is warning them not
to give up the freedom they have in Christ.
Galatians 4:12 ¶ Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am;
for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. 13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the
gospel unto you at the first. 14 And my
temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me
as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15
Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it
had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them
to me. 16 Am I therefore become your enemy,
because I tell you the truth? 17 They zealously
affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect
them. 18 But it is good to be zealously affected
always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you, 20 I desire to be present
with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
Hear is
evidence that Paul’s affliction had to do with his eyesight. Remember how he
was blinded on the road to Damascus.
Saul is blinded temporarily but his vision never fully recovers. While the Bible does not
specifically say that Paul’s vision was bad it definitely suggests that this
was a problem from here on out.
2Corinthians 12:7 And lest
I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
He refers to a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh.
Verse 15 suggests there is something wrong with his eyes.
Galatians 6:11 Ye see how
large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.
In verse 14
we have an important Bible interpretation issue. The word even as
meaning the same is used in other locations in the Bible to tell us how to
understand its use.
In Genesis
6:17 it is I, even I. In Genesis 9:3 it is the green herb being meat
or food. While even has other uses here it is shown to link Jesus as an
angel or appearance of God. This is consistent with other Bible statements like;
Judges 2:1 And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal
to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto
the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my
covenant with you.
We know that
an angel is an appearance or presence of someone or some thing who is someplace
else as I have shown many times in my comments on the Bible.
Christ is the
visible image of the invisible God. See Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:3.
Paul is
worried about the spiritual welfare of these Galatians.
Galatians 4:21 ¶ Tell me, ye that desire to be under
the law, do ye not hear the law? 22 For it is
written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a
freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two
covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia,
and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the
mother of us all.
See the
comparison Paul makes here between justification under the Law and
justification under Christ. He links Ishmael and Isaac as being a son of the
flesh and a son of the promise. He links Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, with Mount
Sinai from whence the Law was issued and Sarah as the New Jerusalem
representing our salvation in Christ. He reinforces the superior state of
blessedness of being in Christ as being devoted to following the Law to justify
oneself. This is the burden the Judaizers want to put the Christian back under,
that of self-justification rather than being justified by God through Christ.
Galatians 4:27 ¶ For it is written, Rejoice, thou
barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the
desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Some
commentators say this verse refers to the explosive and surprising growth of
the Christian faith. It is a reference to;
Isaiah 54:1 ¶ Sing, O
barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou
that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate
than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Keep in mind, though, this verse in Psalms.
Psalm 22:30 A seed shall serve
him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
Galatians 4:28 ¶ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are
the children of promise. 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Some rabbis
declared that the beginning of the 400 or so years of persecution of the
Israelites began with Ishmael mocking Isaac.
Genesis 21:8 And the child grew, and
was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac
was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son
of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
At this point
in Christian history it is Jews who are persecuting Gentile and Jewish
Christians. So, Paul is calling the Jews the children born after the flesh and
the Christians the children born after the Spirit of God.
Galatians 4:30 ¶ Nevertheless what saith the scripture?
Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be
heir with the son of the freewoman.
This is a
clear division between the unbelieving Jews and those Jews and Gentiles
(Greeks) who have trusted in Christ. There is no room for the Judaizers in
Christianity. Paul is setting a clearly different path for the Christian faith
that will abandon the tendency to follow Jewish Law and tradition and forge a
new faith that is not a mere sect of Judaism but a force all its own.
Galatians 4:31 ¶ So then, brethren, we are not children
of the bondwoman, but of the free.
So, Paul
declares here a complete break with the Jewish roots of Christianity.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Joshua, chapter 2, comments
Joshua 2:1 ¶ And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. 2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. 3 And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country. 4 And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: 5 And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. 6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. 7 And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
The mythologies of other ancient nations are often the stories of kings and great warriors but the narrative that our Creator gives us of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself is the story of common men and women and even prostitutes; people God makes great and useful to Himself.
Rahab is an ancestor of Christ. Rachab is from the Greek manuscripts. It is the same name.
Verse 15 will tell us that her house was on the wall. Although I cannot prove this, common sense would dictate that a house on the wall was important as its contribution to the defense of an ancient city.
What we do know is that according to some sources under the walls was where the prostitute would ply her trade as John Gill quotes an earlier source, a Roman poet named Martial.
Roofs were flat and used for storage and other activities. A battlement would be a low wall at the edge of a roof, on medieval castles containing openings to shoot from at various intervals.
Joshua 2:6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof…8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
Judges 16:27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
2Samuel 11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
Nehemiah 8:16 So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
Here is one website’s explanation of the usage of flat roofs in Egypt from whence the Israelites came.
Egyptians developed sun-dried mud bricks that could resist the flooding from the Nile and rain for much longer than undried mud bricks. These new dried bricks also proved useful for constructing flat roofs, which virtually all Egyptian homes had. In order to bear the weight of people, the roof was supported by palm trunks. The roof wasn’t just a convenient covering for the home. Instead, it was often used as a secondary living area and the primary sleeping area. These early homes couldn’t ventilate heat easily and would even retain uncomfortable amounts of heat during the night. Rooftops were cooler, especially at night or when equipped with reed canopies for shade, so people naturally preferred to spend time on them. Rooms in the home were used for storage, cooking or other activities.
Flax is a food and fiber crop that is often made into linen or clothing. Egyptian mummies were embalmed in linen and Egyptian priests only wore linen as it symbolized purity. Flax fibers are two to three times as strong as cotton fibers. There are a lot of possible sermons out of this.
Joshua 2:8 ¶ And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof; 9 And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: 13 And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. 14 And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. 15 Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. 16 And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way. 17 And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee. 19 And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. 20 And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear. 21 And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window. 22 And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not.
Joshua 2:23 ¶ So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them: 24 And they said unto Joshua, Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.
Verse 18 is of special note in this narrative in that there is a scarlet thread in type that runs through history, a thread of mercy and deliverance, and that thread is Christ and His blood. Other than that the narrative speaks for itself.