How are we to understand the need for Jacob to wrestle not only with Laban, but also with the angel of the Lord?
Abraham was given a miraculous son and his greatest test was to face the loss of that promised son. Jacob’s test was a similar loss of what had been gained through unity with God by Covenant. Both Abraham and Jacob had learned that they were not lords themselves but stewards under the Lord. Their authority was delegated to them. They were “Word incarnate.” Theirs was the authority of a head servant. They were Covenant vassals, and what was truly precious was their faithful relationship to God under this Covenant. Continue reading
36. Acording to Preterists, all those left in Jerusalem were reckoned unholy. But see Isaiah 4:3-4.
Simple answer: Isaiah 4 refers to the “new Jerusalem” of Ezra and Nehemiah. But I’m going to use this as an opportunity to analyse Isaiah 4 and its context. This stuff blows me away.
During the 2008 election campaign, I remember being chastised for suggesting that a McCain/Palin administration was the best choice off a “bad-or-worse” menu. As Doug Wilson put it, it was a choice between heading for the cliff at 5mph or 100mph.
…those with the title “the sons of God” in Job were not angels but priestly, mediatorial men (an observation I have heard from Gary DeMar). Satan envied them, accused them, as he always does. They are Adams in the garden, Covenant heads, and he hates them. Job was a priest-king.
DeMar has also just published an article on Job in the last few days that deals with the crazy angel/human hybrid Nephilim theory, and of necessity covers the identity of the sons of God.
One of the reasons I appreciate James Jordan is his ability to identify the “universals” in Scripture. Understanding these recurring themes answers many questions and solves many mysteries. These universal “roles” and events all point forward to the events of the first century. For instance, we cannot understand what the apostles meant by the phrase “the sons of God” without checking its history in the Old Testament. [1]
The danger with dealing in all the “big picture” stuff is that it can become self-serving. The heart is deceitfully wicked, and theology can become a kind of escapism, an ideology. Like the worst of the 20th century’s political ideologies, it can be divorced from reality so that in practice it rides roughshod over people to achieve its goals. Any big theology must maintain a big pastoral heart.
[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.] Continue reading
31. The remnant of Israel still practices iniquity (Zeph. 3: 13).
Drew was right. Some of these really are weak. Zephaniah denounces Judah for her indulgence in idolatry and luxury while she presumed the Lord would protect her. He predicts a new Jerusalem without these sins. All fulfilled. Ripping the prophets out of context and applying them to modern “Jews” is not only infantile exegesis, it removes most of the Bible from the real world so it can apply to some future Jews. God doesn’t work that way. He warns, waits a generation, then judges. Always. Same thing goes for the Revelation.
Sanctification is not a progressive improvement of the Adamic nature, but a growing maturity of sound judgment. From Sanctification: What Is It? by C.H. Mackintosh:
…This leads us to the second objection, to the erroneous theory of the progressive sanctification of our nature, namely, the objection drawn from the truthful experience of all believers. Is the reader a true believer? If so, has he found any improvement in his old nature? Is it a single whit better now than it was when he first started on his Christian course? He may, and should through grace, be able to subdue it more thoroughly; but it is nothing better. If it be not mortified, it is just as ready to spring up and show itself in all its vileness as ever. “The flesh” in a believer is in no wise better than “the flesh” in an unbeliever. And if the Christian does not bear in mind that self must be judged, he will soon learn by bitter experience that his old nature is as bad as ever; and, moreover, that it will be the very same to the end.
“A Puritan confronted by failure and ambivalence could find his faith justified by the experience, could feel that the world had answered his expectations.”
Mike Bull is a graphic designer who lives and works in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia. His passion is understanding and teaching the Bible, and he writes occasionally for Theopolis Institute in Birmingham AL, USA.
