Bully's Blog

For those reading my book, I need to correct a paragraph on p. 289. Although the newly expanded territory measured out the pattern of the Ark, the Ark was in heaven. So restored Jerusalem became the four-cornered Altar of Incense beneath it (the Holy Place/City) and the Empire became the Bronze Altar beneath that. 

“The Lord had used the exile to expand His territory. He had scattered His people as the four winds. Jerusalem was now the Temple (the holy city), a rebuilt Altar of Incense. The Empire was now the Land, the four-cornered bronze Altar beneath it.”

This all of course is a type of the New Jerusalem ruling an even greater world in this current age. I’ve also added a diagram.

“God claimed the Babylonian Empire as His territory, and began converting Nebuchadnezzar’s new World (Sea) into Land. The kings had failed to continue bringing the riches of the Gentiles under the Covenant, so the Lord expanded the Covenant promise. The expansion would cost Israel her life.”

A friend of mine discovered John Piper and devoured just about every online sermon in under 12 months. It changed him profoundly. (I highly recommend Piper’s biographical series. I should listen to them again.)

Anyhow, my friend shared that Piper had made a comment about not ‘getting’ the prophets. As there are so many views on what the prophets are talking about, this is understandable. Based on what I’ve heard from James Jordan and my resulting studies, I would like to offer some helpful hints. They seem to play out, from what I can see.

Continue reading

It was always God’s plan that Israel have a human king:

“When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.” Deut. 17:14-15

Like Adam, this dominion would only come by obedience: by servanthood to God and faithful mediatory witness to the Gentiles. But like Adam, they seized dominion and demanded “a king like the Gentiles.” With Saul, they had a king who palled around with Agag of Amalek whom Moses commanded to wipe from the face of the earth.

Continue reading

“Catholics do not worship idols, it would be a mortal sin if they did.”

Apparently there is a difference between veneration and worship? That is their argument.

I agree that the common argument against it is a bit weak, but James Jordan writes:

“This commandment is often misinterpreted as stating that no picture of God can be made. This is not what it says. What is says is that no image of anything can be set up as an avenue of worship to God and the court of heaven… Thus, the idea is not that of a “graven” image as opposed to a “molten” image or a “painted” image. The idea is that of a manmade graven object versus the God-made graven Word. The opposition is between God’s content-filled graven Words and man’s silentgraven images. The opposition of God’s verbal covenant and man’s graven images is set out in greater detail in Deuteronomy 4:15-31.”

Continue reading

or An answer for those who think modern day Israel has any special place in Bible prophecy.

After the scattering at Babel, the Lord tore the world in two by calling Abram. With the end of this large Division, signified by circumcision, there was no more distinction between the priest nation and the Gentiles. James Jordan writes:

Continue reading

Why did Nehemiah pull out the children’s hair? Was this just going too far? Recognising Bible patterns is a big help in interpretation.

Continue reading

A new Adam (High Priest) ruled the wild animals of the Gentile kingdoms, but without a king this rule would be truly priestly. Daniel prefigured the nature of this new kingdom: obedience would bring persecution, and suffering as witnesses before the Gentiles would be the means of Gentile conversion. A new Israel would be the initial fulfilment of the despised, suffering priestly servant of Isaiah 53. When the Lord scattered His people for their sin, He also spread them to the four winds as witnesses to the empire.

Continue reading

The Ark was always to be carried by human legs, never on a beast or a man-made cart. The Jewish rulers and religious leaders were content to keep God in a box, symbolically hidden behind a veil. But in Christ, the Ark was free and walking around on human legs with the eyes and mouth of a Man. When the Ark was mobile, the people of God followed, seeking rest and scattering His enemies on the way (Numbers 10:33-34).

The Ark was a covering that protected Israel from the consequences of face-to-face exposure to God’s Law. With the Ark taken by God, the Restoration Covenant would be different. The synagogues would come into their own, and the Law would be studied by all Jews throughout the empire:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31)

The next fulfilment was the bodily incarnation of the Words, Jesus Christ. He was both the Law of God written on tablets of flesh, and the blood covered container that protected Israel from extermination. They all knew Him, from the least to the greatest. Like the Ark, His words were a flaming sword that would bring either life or death to His hearers.

And of course, we are familiar with Paul’s explanation of this being applied to believers who are His body. Our words also bring division:

“…clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart… for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor. 3)

“Are we Western Christians truly suffering because of Christ? Or the lack of us standing up for Christ?”

Good point. Once again I would use the book of Esther. The role of restored Israel was to be witnesses within the world empire, as Daniel had been. It seems Mordecai sought to be like Joseph or Daniel, but by compromising Esther’s witness, Haman ‘usurped’ his role at the right hand of the throne (a pattern begun in the Garden of Eden).

However, God used the situation for good, and Esther provides us with an historical blueprint for events in the first century:

Continue reading

Ezra took a great risk to bring Levites and riches to the Temple from Persia. Mixed marriages were suddenly of more concern, which poses a difficult question. Things seem to be heading backwards—away from the New Testament rather than towards it.

Continue reading