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One Untimely Born (Paul)

As I read along in Numbers, I keep seeing things that Paul has latched on to.

Par example…

Paul says (1 C0r 14.5-9, 24):

“Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

⁶Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? ⁷If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? ⁸And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? ⁹So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?…24 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?”

The punch line to this whole thing is at the bottom, but let’s focus on the bugle thing first.  Look at Numbers 10.1-3, 9:

¹The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. ³And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. …⁹And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.“

The bugle gets two things to happen which Paul uses in 1 Cor 14:

1. Gets the congregation to assemble
2. Gets the congregation to be ready for battle by breaking camp while making a memorial directed at God.

Having established the passage connection, notice another huge one, which we see when God gives “the Spirit which is on Moses” out to the 70 elders, and two have not shown up at the elder assembly.  They were caused to prophecy even in the camp, and Joshua wants to help by saying, “My lord Moses, stop them!”  What is Moses’ reply?

²⁹But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 10.29)

Remember that?

Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. (1 Cor 14.5).

Paul’s heart is Moses’ ministry desire too.

One Untimely Born (Paul)

Jethro sees that Moses has too much work for one person, and he suggests a division of labor  (Exodus 18).  God hears Moses’ complaint that the people are too burdensome and gives Moses similar advice to arrive at 70 elders.  This eases what Moses calls “nursing the people.”  And Paul says the apostles have done just this very thing excellently: “We,” he says, “took care of you” like “a nursing mother to her own children.”

Paul is not alone; and Paul is properly burdened – not so much that he despairs of life, and not so little that he doesn’t take pains for the people.

The passages to compare are below:

Num 11.10-15

¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. ¹¹ Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? ¹²Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ’Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? ¹³Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ ¹⁴ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

1 Thess 2.6-8

⁶ Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. ⁷But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. ⁸So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Incidentally, Moses seems more tender by Exodus 32.31-32:

“Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

Coincidentally, Paul says the same thing in Romans 9.1-3:

1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

I know, I know… that’s not a great sounding sermon….the Sabbath!?

Tim Gallant, an Elder at Christ Covenant Church in Grand Prairie, Alberta preached this message:

February 15, 2009 “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2.23-28; Tim Gallant. 5.44 MB.)

Tim makes several very important points in this sermon which are not usually attended to when people deal with this passage:

1) The Pharisees are right about the unlawfulness of what Jesus was doing (picking grains on the Sabbath).

• The Law of Sabbath comes from Exodus 16 and the giving of manna.  It was NOT lawful to gather food on a Sabbath, just because it was a necessity.
• Jesus backs up his own right to eat by analogy to David’s eating of the bread of the presence.  David was permitted to do what was clearly unlawful for those who were not the Messiah in need.

2) The translation of “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” should reflect that the phrase is a reference to Adam and not to all men in general:

• “The Sabbath was made because of Adam; Adam was not made because of the Sabbath.”  That is, God rested in delight of having made Adam.
• This is why the “therefore” connects said phrase to “the Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.”

Conclusions:

Jesus is the new David, and the new Adam.  He is greater than David, and greater than Adam.  Jesus is the occasion for rest, not the subject of it.  We reign with the messiah and we help others rest by bringing them to the New Sabbath, Jesus, that land of perfect rest (Heb 4).

It really does behoove a listen.  Any errors here are mine and not Tim’s.

———–Extra Info on the Preacher————

Mr. Gallant is the author of Feed My Lambs: Why the Lord’s Table Should Be Restored to Covenant Children.  This is an excellent treatment, and one that I recommend.

Also, These are Two Covenants: The Mosaic Law in Paul’s Thought.  I am reading this currently.

Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time (Sacraments)

I am wondering about what appear to me to be priestly qualities to Abraham.  I haven’t read anyone saying this, so I am looking for corroboration.

1. Conduit of blessing: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12.3)
2. Makes altars:
   1. “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ”To your offspring I will give this land.  So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.” (Genesis 12.7)
   2. From there he moved to the hill country on the east ofBethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 12.8)
   3. 13.4; 13.18
3. Serves meat to Yhwh at his tabernacle in a Sabbath setting:
   1. “⁴Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, ⁵while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on— since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”" (vv.4-5 from Genesis 18.1-8 – note Resting and Refreshing was what God did on the Sabbath, according to Ex 31.17)
4. Intercedes before Yhwh for Sodom in front of his tabernacle (Gen 18.22-33).
5. Offers Burnt Offerings, and a pretty SIGNIFICANT one at that (Genesis 22).

My suspicion is that Adam and Noah deserve priest studies too.

Thoughts?

To the Pure All Things are Pure (Fidelity)

I like to repost my comments here that I posted on other blogs.   Here’s a recent comment I put up on Doug Wilson’s Blog and Mablog.  [Of course, I am just an average Joe commenter; this does not imply approval by said blog] [Click to see the original post upon which I am commenting]

——————

In a recent conversation another Christian mentioned to me the idea of purity rings, and that some were very expensive ($399). I replied that we all as Christians had been given a free and more valuable purity ring – our baptism. It is a symbol of covenant.

We are covenanted with God and the external wedding ring is baptism (internally it’s the Spirit – the arabon).

Our marriages as humans, picture our marriage with God, the marriage we pledged in our baptisms to uphold. We must uphold our human marriages, because in our baptism we said we would be faithful to God. We must display what we have – faithful life in community.

Anyway, I am pleased to see baptism as a grounds for calling ALL Christians to holiness. Paul, of course does the exact same thing in Romans 6.

I mean, since we must be faithful to God, we must display the same kind of faithfulness in Marriage, and therefore, baptism requires faithfulness in BOTH relationships.

Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time (Sacraments)

In a short conversation tonight with good family friends, the question was considered, what’s a Christian to do with Santa and the Easter Bunny?  What about various kinds of celebrations of Easter and of Christmas.   I suggest the answer lies in the question, “What supplies are in God’s party closet?”

When I was about 23, I remember having a strong opposition to any celebration that I couldn’t find in scripture, thinking it made legalism and promoted works-salvation.  The Bible didn’t say to celebrate Easter!  By making people dress specially, and feel like it was a more special Sunday weren’t we making people feel bound where scripture left us free?  Well, I don’t actually remember anyone binding my conscience on Easter, but the thought pattern in which I was trained was ready to see legalism behind any practical work done FOR God.

I believe the answer I have come to now has to do with answering what is lawful and how God likes to party.  The main thing I am attacking first is Christmas without presents.  May we give presents at Christmas?

I will write tomorrow or soon on what I think is the answer, but I put forth Deuteronomy 14.22-28 as a text to answer my question, and request your comments (From Biblegateway: )

Tithes

²² “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. ²³And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. ²⁴And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there,²⁵then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the LORD your God chooses ²⁶and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

²⁸ “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.

good and pleasant

And after that post on Psalm 132.

As if on cue…my stats are at 133.1

“Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.”

That is one of my favorite of all Psalms.