Burn the Banners
We live in the days of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, baiting us with the temptation to feel as though we must pick a side of the line in the sand and choose which banner we’re going to stand under; the Israelis, or the Palestinians?
We live in the days of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, baiting us with the temptation to feel as though we must pick a side of the line in the sand and choose which banner we’re going to stand under; the Israelis, or the Palestinians? Who’s right? (Is anyone?) Which narrative will history vindicate as truth—that Israelis have stolen someone else’s territory, only to occupy it as a militaristic force under an apartheid regime, or that our sympathy should be given to the Israelis, who are simply trying to survive continued extermination attempts at the hands of bloodthirsty suicide bombers and genocidal neighbors?
While it’s imperative to put the conflict in its proper context,[1] we also cannot responsibly dismiss the plight of the suffering—on either side of the checkpoints and armistice line—whilst professing ourselves disciples of our Master from Nazareth. This is where we stumble upon our plumb line: We’re disciples of Jesus, “Son of Abraham, Son of David”[2] before we’re anything or anyone else. Thus the modern geopolitical conflict and social injustices must be seen through the lens of His Personhood, plans and purposes as revealed through the Scripture written by the prophets and the apostles. We should be wary of how little attention the prophets receive in Western teachings and sermons, or how fluid their context is considered when they are mentioned. God spoke for centuries through the Hebrew prophets about what He intended and intends to do in the earth; we cannot afford to be ignorant of their messages. If myopia arrests our gaze and forces us to stare at modern, finite—albeit bloody and contentious—geopolitical conflicts rather than the broad scope of redemptive history barreling towards the Day of the LORD,[3] nothing will make much sense. We’ll simply argue, backbite and grasp for wind.[4]
Just before the miraculous siege—the miraculous, military, siege—of Jericho, the commander of Israel’s armed forces took a moonlit stroll, likely to get some headspace and think through the tactics with whatever meager solitude he could find. While out on his walk, he ran into a Man who’d already drawn His sword. Joshua understandably stopped in his tracks, frozen with fear, with one question that could yet escape his lips: “Are you for us or against us?”[5]
“Whose side are You on?”
The answer came quite like Gabriel’s elevator pitch to come years later to a similarly stupefied man (though Zechariah was frozen more with disbelief than fear)—“I stand before the LORD of Hosts”[6]—yet with greater authority:
“No, but as the Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.”[7]
Joshua expected one of two answers, and received neither. What he heard instead was, “Joshua, this is bigger than you and your campaigns. This is bigger than Jericho. This is bigger than Canaan. You know nothing of it. All you need to know right now is you’re standing on holy ground.” That tiny, frightened man (who had once, with Caleb, been the sole representation of courage in his entire company)[8] removed his shoes and bowed before the One who put the dust in the desert they met on.
As we navigate the expression of covenant tension in our own era, we must remember Joshua’s default inquiry when he saw the sword-drawn LORD of glory: “Are You on my side or theirs?” He received a gentle, humbling rebuke: “Joshua, you’re My pawn on My chessboard.” We are but pawns on His cosmic chessboard, given only the information He deems fit to share. Our post-Enlightenment, “post-truth” even, generation scorns submission and faith as the drunken stupor of naivety, and we fear accepting what we’re told when such nuanced complexities and human lives are involved.
The Lord is not afraid of our questions and tensions. He who made the mind and gave us frontal lobes with critical thinking capacities beckons us to fully love Him with our minds.[9] That means searching, seeking, and knocking with aggravating persistence.[10] It also means we surrender our minds to the One who stitched them together and believe what He says when He says it, however He sees fit to say it. It means we burn our banners, erase our lines in the sand and bow our faces to His Word. Let Scripture be engraved on our hearts and held above our minds, intellect and confusions. I am confident the Greater Joshua will lead us out of the ashes of our banners to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly.”[11]
________________________
[1] See “The History of the Conflict.” COMING SOON
[2] Matthew 1:1
[3] Zechariah 14:1-21
[4] Ecclesiastes 1:14; II Corinthians 12:20
[5] Joshua 5:13
[6] Luke 1:19
[7] Joshua 5:14
[8] Joshua 5:15; Numbers 13:1-14:38
[9] Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27
[10] Matthew 7:7-12Luke 11:9; 18:1-8
[11] Micah 6:8
The Realignment
Sometimes our theology needs a divine chiropractic appointment:
BY GABRIEL CALIGUIRI (@GABEONDRUMS)
The Roman Coliseum is the most iconic structure of the Classical world. It towers in the midst of the Eternal City, having survived almost 2,000 years of earthquakes and stone pilfering, with half of the outer wall still standing at an impressive 187 feet. In its heyday, it could accommodate 50,000 spectators. For more than 400 years, the Coliseum was the largest and most impressive venue in the ancient world.
The preceding paragraph is, of course, the predictable treatment of the Roman Coliseum in every Western high school textbook for the last 200 years. Students might learn that the project was commissioned by Emperor Vespasian and completed by his son Titus between 72-80 CE. They might receive a brief description of how the Coliseum represents Roman architecture, the divisions in Roman social strata, or the brutality of pagan entertainment. But it’s less likely that students will learn about how the massive structure was financed, or where the Romans got their labor force to build it. The answer, on both counts, is the Jews.
The Jewish Builders
Vespasian and Titus are known in history for one other significant achievement, not as emperors, but as generals. They respectively commanded the legions that quelled the Jewish Revolt of 66-70 CE, ending in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. By the middle of the First Century, the heavy boot of Italy had fractured the politico-religious establishment in Judea with taxation and oppression. When a Roman governor seized a large quantity of silver from the Temple in 66 CE, radical Zealot parties rose in armed rebellion and overthrew the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. From there, the Zealot militias attacked Greek settlements and Roman garrisons throughout the Land, expelled and massacred their inhabitants, and established a revolutionary government in Jerusalem. The strategy was to throw off the yoke of Rome and usher in the Messianic Age.
Rome was indeed provoked to war by the Zealots, but Messiah did not arrive to lead the Sons of Judah to victory. Instead, Vespasian’s legions swept through the Galilee and routed the rebel fighters in their strongholds, killing or enslaving more than 100,000 Jews along the way. The remaining Zealots fled to Jerusalem where they consolidated their hold over the city and prepared to take their stand. They refused to negotiate with the besieging Roman army, now commanded by Titus, after his father left for Rome to claim the throne of Caesar. The siege dragged on for almost 3 months until, in the Summer of 70 CE, the legions entered Zion in a surprise nighttime attack. A bloodbath of massive proportions ensued. It ended with the destruction of the Temple, along with most of the city, and the deaths and enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Jews who had managed to survive months of famine and disease.
Titus returned to his father in Rome victorious, like Sargon and Nebuchadnezzar before him, with the spoils of Jerusalem and 100,000 Jewish captives. Imperial coffers overflowed, and with a massive, newly-acquired supply of slave labor, plans were drawn to build a massive amphitheater in the city. And so, the Roman Coliseum was quite literally built on the backs of Jews, who would have worked to quarry stone, transport it, and move it into place. In this sense, visiting the Coliseum is like visiting an ancient Dachau. We can stand on the very site where the forced labor and stolen treasure of Jews was used to build a monument to a pagan empire. It was a horrible woe that portended the sufferings of fellow Jews throughout the Diaspora for the next 1900 years.
The Christian Martyrs
Trajan said, “Do you then carry within you Him that was crucified?”
Ignatius replied, “Truly so; for it is written, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them.'”
Then Trajan pronounced sentence as follows: “We command that Ignatius, who affirms that he carries about within Him that was crucified, be bound by soldiers, and carried to the great [city] Rome, there to be devoured by the beasts, for the gratification of the people.”
When the holy martyr heard this sentence, he cried out with joy, “I thank you, O Lord, that You have vouchsafed to honor me with a perfect love towards You, and have made me to be bound with iron chains, like Your Apostle Paul.”
Having spoken thus, he then, with delight, clasped the chains about him; and when he had first prayed for the Church, and commended it with tears to the Lord, he was hurried away by the savage cruelty of the soldiers, like a distinguished ram the leader of a goodly flock, that he might be carried to Rome, there to furnish food to the bloodthirsty beasts.
“...[Ignatius was] led with all haste into the amphitheater. Then, being immediately thrown in, according to the command of Caesar given some time ago, the public spectacles being just about to close...he was thus cast to the wild beasts close beside the temple, that so by them the desire of the holy martyr Ignatius should be fulfilled, according to that which is written, ‘The desire of the righteous is acceptable [to God]’...”
Just 27 years after Titus announced the inaugural games at his new amphitheater, Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and disciple of John the Beloved, was taken to the Coliseum to receive his long-awaited gift of martyrdom. The groaning of Jewish slave laborers was soon mingled with pagan cheers for Christian blood. The steadfast witness of Ignatius unto death was replayed hundreds of times in arenas across the Empire. Ignatius’ martyrdom in the Roman Coliseum was bookended 280 years later by the stoning of Saint Telemachus, who, according to tradition, stood against the mob to protest the savagery of gladiatorial games.
Even as the legions of Vespasian and Titus marched through the Galilee and besieged Jerusalem, the apostles Peter and Paul were martyred by Nero in Rome, John Mark in Alexandria, Andrew in Patras, Matthew and Matthias in Ethiopia, and Thomas in India. As Jacob’s children bled, trapped in the Jerusalem from below, the nascent Bride of Jacob’s Offspring bled throughout the nations, striving toward the Jerusalem from above. In this way, an alignment of Judeo-Christian suffering was forged, which endured for over 200 years. Israel suffered nationally while praying and fighting for Messiah’s coming. The churches suffered joyfully for the testimony that He has come, He has died, and He is risen. Although the road of Providence was forked after the Cross, the natural and engrafted branches were still on parallel courses, where the former could watch the latter suffer joyfully for the covenant, in order that they might be provoked to the kind of jealousy that can save. This alignment of suffering is embodied in the slave crews and martyrial spectacles of the Coliseum. For it is not only tragically and beautifully poignant, but even emblematic of this age, that the suffering of Messiah’s kinsmen would literally construct an altar upon which the suffering of Messiah’s Body might be put on full display to the world.
The Mis-Alignment
Even as Christians were still being thrown to the beasts, the anti-Judaism of some Church Fathers had begun to further widen the rift between church and synagogue. A final Jewish revolt broke out against Rome in 132 CE. It was led by Shimon bar Kokhba, a man who the famed Rabbi Akiva pronounced to be the Messiah. Bar Kokhba’s well-disciplined army expelled the Romans from Judea and briefly established a small, independent kingdom for almost three years. But the legions once again arrived in force to quell the revolt. It is estimated that 580,000 Jews were killed, thousands more died of famine and disease, and most of the rest were deported from the Promised Land.
Obviously the Jewish believers in Judea were not supportive of bar Kokhba’s messianic candidacy and refused to participate in his rebellion. Bar Kokhba, for his part, persecuted the believers in return. After his rebellion collapsed and most of the remaining Israelites were driven from the Land, many gentile Christians interpreted these events as a sign that God had finally revoked His covenant with the Jewish nation. At the same time, indifference grew toward the Hebrew Scriptures, especially among the Alexandrian fathers in Egypt. Origen was the most prominent among them, pronouncing in 220,
“We may thus assert with utter confidence that the Jews will not return to their earlier situation...Hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election.”
And so, when Constantine united the fractured Roman Empire under the banner of the Cross in 311 CE, he already had a century-old theological well of anti-Judaism from which to draw. Only 4 years later, he enacted laws that targeted Jews, declaring that conversion to Judaism was illegal, and that any Jew who assaulted a fellow Jew for publicly professing faith in Jesus as Messiah was to be burned to death. The emperor also validated the decision of the Council of Nicaea to separate Easter from the Passover, writing,
"... it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Savior a different way.”
Constantine’s son and successor, Constantinius, continued in his father’s anti-Judaic footsteps by enacting laws that forbade certain marriages between Jews and Christians. More restrictions were codified in the following decades which forbade Jews from holding public office and from testifying against Christians in court. A regional church council denied the Lord’s Table to Christians who ate with Jews. An ecumenical council commanded Hebrew Christians to divest themselves of their Judaism, including Sabbath observance, on the threat of excommunication.
The Mystery of Alignment
The Church and her imperial benefactors had drifted into ignorance of the same “mystery” which the Apostle Paul had solemnly commended to the gentile believers in Rome. Namely, that God had partially, temporarily hardened the sons of Israel as an act of mercy to the nations, until the “full number of gentiles had come in,” after which, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob...and in this way, all Israel will be saved.” Both Jew and gentile are turned over for hardening, for a time, that God may later have mercy on both. For Israel, that final, consummate act of mercy will take the form of both physical deliverance and spiritual regeneration when the “Deliverer comes from Zion” to “banish ungodliness from Jacob.” Gentile ignorance of this mystery leads inexorably to arrogance, and arrogance to violence. The same Roman church to which the apostle had addressed this exhortation would eventually sanction, and even sponsor, the outright persecution of Jews throughout Christendom. The fellow-persecuted had become the persecutors. The alignment of suffering between the natural and engrafted branches was broken.
The Re-Alignment
In July, 2014, the Israeli Defense Forces began a military operation against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip; just days after the jihadists fired over 40 rockets indiscriminately into Israel. During Operation Protective Edge, the Israelis sought to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties through the use of targeted munitions and multiple, redundant civilian warning systems. Despite the unprecedented show of restraint against a clear and present danger, the Israeli government was condemned in parliaments and public squares by hundreds of thousands across the world. Massive protests were held in dozens of cities on almost every continent. Some protestors chanted Anti-Semitic slogans praising Hitler, Jewish expulsions, and the Holocaust. Jewish students on Western university campuses were verbally and physically assaulted, not for being Israeli, but for being Jewish. Anti-Semitic attacks quadrupled in Britain. A mob in Paris surrounded a synagogue and pelted it with bricks while worshippers took cover inside. A synagogue was firebombed in Germany. Graffiti declaring “Dirty Jews” and “Jews, your end is near” was seen on the streets of Rome. “Slaughter the Jews” was heard on the streets of Antwerp. “Jew, France is not for you” was heard on the streets of Paris. Reports of anti-Semitic incidents rose over 20 percent in the United States. Phrases such as “Jews=Killers” and “Jews are Killing Innocent Children” were found near the entrance to a Jewish summer camp near Malibu, California. Leaflets which threatened violence if Israel did not pull out of Gaza were left on cars in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Chicago.
Although incidents of anti-Semitism usually increase during times of Israeli military action, the angry reaction to Operation Protective Edge was much larger than previously seen, and shockingly virulent. The chants in the streets, in the university squares and in the football stadiums made it clear that many, if not most of the protestors, were not concerned for an end to the Palestinian conflict, but rather eager for an end to the Jewish State. The half of global Jewry with Israeli citizenship was not the only target, but also the other half. That is, the 6 million Jews who do not live in Israel, have little or no influence in Israeli government, and who in many cases disagree with the policies of the Israeli government. But these distinctions did not matter to many of the protestors. In their eyes, Jews and Israelis are synonymous, interchangeable words in their street-chanting lexicon. This means that any war crime or human rights violation on the part of the Israeli government, real or perceived, is a reflection on the character of all Jews worldwide. Anti-Zionism has finally taken its rightful place as the new Anti-Semitism.
Rather than abating after Operation Protective Edge, anti-Semitism has continued to metastasize in 2015 and 2016. For the first time since World War II, the French Army has deployed thousands of troops in French cities. Their mandate is to protect every Jewish synagogue, school and heritage site in the country. The Belgians have followed suit. For the first time since the Holocaust, the majority of European Jews feel unsafe in their host countries, and 3 in 10 of them is considering emigration. Thousands are making aliya to Israel from Europe every year. In 2015, a jihadi sworn to the Islamic State killed four people inside a Jewish-owned hypercacher market in Paris. This was followed nine months later by the massacre of 89 people by al-Qaeda jihadis inside the Jewish-owned Bataclan Theater. Many Diaspora Jews have come to the conclusion that they would rather face the world’s threats among their own in Eretz Yisael than face them as a minority among the goyim. And so, after a nearly 70-year respite, another storm of Jewish suffering is threatening on the horizon.
One month after the hypercacher market attack, ISIS published a video to the Internet entitled, “A Message Signed in Blood to the Nations of the Cross.” Standing on a Mediterranean shore in ISIS-held Libya, a masked narrator declared in English to those who “have been carrying the Cross delusion” that the Islamic State was “sending another message.” He was flanked by masked cohorts and 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits, kneeling in the sand. The video ended with the uncensored beheading of the Coptic believers, even as some of them prayed silently to the Lord. The world was shocked to see such graphic brutality depicted in professionally produced high-definition.
Then in April 2015, another video was released by ISIS showing the beheading and execution-style shooting of 18 Ethiopian Christians. The Coptic and Ethiopian martyrs instantly became icons of Christian persecution in the Internet Age. Across the Islamic world, from Nigeria to Bangladesh, Christian persecution has increased exponentially in the 21st Century, both in its frequency and its intensity. Violent attacks targeting Christians have become a common occurrence across the Muslim World. Even traditionally moderate Islamic nations such as Uzbekistan and Indonesia have seen an increase in state-sponsored persecution, including church closures, police raids on Christian homes, and imprisonment for private worship and the possession of Christian literature.
Outside the Dar-el-Islam, state-sponsored repression and mob violence against Christians has increased in Russia, China, India and North Korea. Even the allegedly tolerant, secular West has become increasingly antagonistic towards Christianity within the last two decades. It would appear that a global storm of Christian suffering is also looming on the horizon.
This “perfect storm” offers the churches a long-lost opportunity. Not since Constantine’s reign have Christians found themselves to be fellow-sufferers with Jews on a global scale. The dynamics of controversy over Jewish political sovereignty in Israel and Christian suffering throughout the nations is parallel to the landscape of the First and Second Centuries. A re-alignment of Judeo-Christian suffering would appear to be forming once again.
It would behoove the churches to consider this: We find ourselves now on the precipice of a unique season of history, when the natural branches, yearning for covenantal identity, can once again see the promised covenant on full display in the glad suffering of the Body of her Messiah. We have, once again, the opportunity to confound, amaze, and provoke Israel to covenantal jealousy. And when Israel joins at times with our detractors and scoffers (and you can be assured that she will), we have the opportunity to correct the errors of our ancient fathers with blessings instead of curses. In doing so, we are faithful witnesses of her Messiah, the very One whom we long for her to recognize and embrace. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps...When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
The Consummation of Alignment
The witness of the believers in the coming storm is critical because it will orient Christ’s Church toward her prophetic role at the end of the age. The Prophet Daniel foretold that while the King of the North profanes the holy place and ravages the Land, “The wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder.” The alignment of Judeo-Christian suffering is eschatological. As Jacob approaches his Time of Troubles, he will need the “wise” among him, suffering by sword and flame with him. When the Dragon chases the Woman into the wilderness, she will need voices crying out in that wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” For in that Day, unlike before, the trampling of the Holy City and the spilt blood of the Bride will indeed provoke Messiah to roar from the sky and fulfill every hope of Remnant Israel “in power and great glory” beyond her wildest dreams.
At the Final Trumpet, the mystery of the suffering of the covenant people will be gloriously fulfilled. The Judeo-Christian alignment will be fully realized and will continue on into the Kingdom Age. God’s purpose for the alignment of Israel and her gentile commonwealth will be fully realized in Messiah’s Kingdom. As He said, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” We will suffer with them now, so that we may recline with them in the Kingdom.
Waking Up in a Covenant
Get drunk on the mercy of the saving God. There is none like Him.
In Finally Alive, John Piper says of the new birth: “You can’t make it happen yourself. God makes it happen. It happens to us, not by us. But it always happens through the word of God.”[1] One could, in a manner of speaking, paraphrase the first passage of Ephesians chapter two to read something like: “You were asleep, walking dead in your sin. But God woke you up, and now you’re awake.”[2] The great “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, reflected on it this way: “God has quickened us, who were dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually dead. We were full of vigour towards everything which was contrary to the law or the holiness of God, we walked according the course of this world; but as for anything spiritual, we were not only somewhat incapable, and somewhat weakened; but we were actually and absolutely dead. We had no sense with which to comprehend spiritual things. We had neither the eye that could see, nor the ear that could hear, nor the power that could feel.”[3]
Yet “you He hath quickened.”[4]
The saving grace of the strong Savior is good news indeed. Using Piper’s words again, God Himself is the Gospel.[5] Knowing the saving Son “holds” all the saving Father has “given” Him in His saving hand is perhaps the singular truth we need to get us through sun up to sun down wondering who will save us from these bodies of death, so given to recurring indiscretions.[6] We can, however, stare at our sin and stupid and remember those beautiful words Paul wrote us: But God. You were dead, but God intervened. You loved your treachery, but God interceded. You denied Him before dawn, but that Man Jesus prayed for you and prayers at the right hand of the Father must get heard mighty fast because you’re still saved.[7] Take courage, saint.
The beautiful gift of salvation is as irrevocable as the rest of them, this “benefit” of God’s grace and mercy towards His enemies.[8] Who could fathom a Sovereign who would take on a dusty frame just to give it up for kingdom traitors? Literally no one. No one would think this up because His holy nature betrays that of our sin. His very presence exposes that thing in us that has hated Him since we bit what we shouldn’t have eaten, when the creator first began to scorn the Creator. Hell is too good for us, yet He restrained His hand because He is kind.[9]
Get drunk on the mercy of the saving God. There is none like Him.[10]
The new birth is the first mark of saving grace working to sanctify a child of wrath—which we all were, at a minimum, and some still are.[11] No one becomes a child of God but by the saving intervention of God Himself, the Father of Lights and Glory.[12] So those who’ve bowed the knee to King Jesus have absolutely nothing boast about but Him, absolutely nothing to cling to but the cross, and absolutely nothing to cry out for but the same intervention on every other sinner’s life.[13] This should make us the most fervent intercessors and far-reaching missionaries. It has before.[14]
In the earliest hours within which the Everlasting Covenant was first unveiled, the father of the faith we bear fell asleep. Literally—he fell asleep. Took a good, hard power nap while the Holy walked down an aisle cut for a covenant and Abraham woke up in the covenant. He woke up bound up in the sovereign salvation of God and could not get out of it if he tried. Neither did he get into it because he tried—Abraham fell asleep, and then he woke up in a covenant. He woke up in the Everlasting Covenant. He had absolutely nothing to do with it. Abraham was Abram, a pagan man who worshipped the petty moon, but God called him and the calling of God cannot be averted, thwarted or defeated.[15]
The One who leaves the ninety-nine to go after the lost one found him out.[16] The One who loses none snatched him from his blasphemy.[17] The One who stays up all night praying us through our stupid stayed up for Abram and gave him a new name and a new home and a new family.[18] That man from Ur took a nap in Hebron and woke up in a covenant that has implications on your life today as you read this.
Abraham had nothing to do with it.
Isaac had nothing to do with it.
Jacob had nothing to do with it.
You had nothing to do with it.
We are but trophies of grace, crafted over time to shine for eternity.[19]
“O come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”[20]
________________________
[1] Piper, J. (2009). Finally alive. Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications; Minneapolis: Desiring God. (You can read this book here: http://document.desiringgod.org/finally-alive-en.pdf?1446647305).
[2] Ephesians 2:1-10
[3] Spurgeon, C.H. (1892). Life from the dead. Retrieved from http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/sermons/2267.htm
[4] Ephesians 2:1. See above.
[5] Piper, J. (2005). God is the gospel. Wheaton: Crossway Books. (You can read this book here: http://www.desiringgod.org/books/god-is-the-gospel).
[6] Romans 7:24-25
[7] Luke 22:32; Hebrews 7:25
[8] Psalm 103:2
[9] Ephesians 2:7; During the Hebrides Revival, an elderly gentlemen was found in front of the police station one night buckled over on his knees, burdened by the weight of his sin and guilt before God, sobbing and crying, “Hell is too good for me! Hell is too good for me!” Read about this and more in Sounds from Heaven: The Revival in the Isle of Lewis, 1949-1952 [Peckham, C., Peckham, M. (2011). Christian Focus.]
[10] Romans 3:9-18, 23; I Corinthians 6:11
[11] John 1:12; Ephesians 2:1-10
[12] Ephesians 1:17; James 1:17
[13] Romans 3:27-28; 5:11; I Corinthians 1:31; Galatians 6:14
[14] The missionary thrust during the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries was driven by men and women who clung to the sovereignty of God in salvation; Charles Spurgeon, JC Ryle, William Carey, George Muller, George Whitefield, Adoniram Judson, and Hudson Taylor were all pioneers and supporters of missions and relief ministry driven by their confidence in God’s saving hand to retrieve His lost sheep.
[15] Isaiah 55:11
[16] Luke 15:4-7
[17] John 6:37-39; 17:12; 18:9
[18] Genesis 17:5; Psalm 121:4; Hebrews 7:25
[19] Daniel 12:3
[20] Psalm 95:1-2
Of Her
She is central to the covenantal narrative, yet her walls are scarred with bullet holes. Her borders are contested. Her citizens are divided. The last time Jesus saw her before being nailed to Roman crossbeams in the Place of the Skull, He wept.
“I saw you struggling in your own blood.” So begins the narrative of Jerusalem’s origins, told by the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel.[1] She was born an orphan, neglected the moment she left the womb; abandoned, unwashed, exposed to the cold, all but dead. “I saw you struggling, and I said, ‘Live!’” And she lived.
She survived, thrived; her name would change, her evolving throne would shift hands.[2] She would host prophets, judges and a crowned man named David long after Melchizedek passed away.[3] The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would lead His sojourning children to her hills, soon to be filled with their tents and His.[4] Songs would erupt from this burgeoning city on a hill, this one set to serve as a light to the world.[5]
She’d been destitute in poverty, and He exalted her. She had been exposed and cold, and He covered her. She had been overlooked, and He adorned her. She was plain, and He beatified her.
It went to her head.
Conceited and dissatisfied, she “played the harlot” with anyone who would look her way.[6] She gave herself away, pawned off the gold He gave her, and brought kings to their knees. Sons and daughters were given over to maintain her delicate dance with the devil, “and in all her abominations and acts of harlotry, she did not remember the days of her youth, when she was naked and bare, struggling in her own blood.”[7]
Sons who’d survived sacrifice were set apart by a holy word, forged to carry a message and mercifully delivered to her gates. Unwilling to hear their indictments and uninterested in remorse and repentance, Jerusalem became known as the siren with murdered prophets littering her shores.[8] Their blood soaking her soil would not be the last; she would soon scourge the breathing Word while quoting Moses and crucify the Son of David while singing His father’s psalms.[9] Nineveh would respond to the mercy of God better than she did.[10]
David’s patriarch found her with a dream in his heart; Jacob’s grandfather spent his life searching for a different kind of city, built by an Architect with eternal hands.[11] Isaiah wrote tirelessly about her destiny, this eternal city with crystal gates and sapphire foundations, established in righteousness, giving birth to children who will never want and never see war.[12] David sang about her future, the “consummation of beauty” and perfection shining from Zion; John himself would see “something like jasper,” remarkably similar to the One on the throne.[13]
She is central to the covenantal narrative, yet her walls are scarred with bullet holes. Her borders are contested. Her citizens are divided. The last time Jesus saw her before being nailed to Roman crossbeams in the Place of the Skull, He wept.[14]
She has always been complicated.
________________________
[1] Ezekiel 16:1-63
[2] See Judges; I-II Samuel; I-II Chronicles; I-II Kings
[3] Genesis 14:18; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1-11, 15
[4] See I Samuel 16; II Samuel 5
[5] See I Chronicles 15
[6] Ezekiel 16:16; Hosea 1:1-2
[7] Ezekiel 16:6
[8] Matthew 23:37
[9] John 19:6
[10] Jonah 3:1-10
[11] Hebrews 11:10
[12] Isaiah 54:11-17
[13] Psalm 50:2; Revelation 4:3; 21:11
[14] Matthew 23:37-39
The Church of Christ
"I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible, it is this." – C.H. Spurgeon
BY CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
On Sunday 3 June 1855, Charles H. Spurgeon preached a message
on Ezekiel 34:26 at the New Park Street Chapel. The following is an
excerpt from that sermon; you can read the rest here.
The hour is approaching, when the tribes shall go up to their own country; when Judea, so long a howling wilderness, shall once more blossom like the rose; when, if the temple itself be not restored, yet on Zion's hill shall be raised some Christian building, where the chants of solemn praise shall be heard as erst of old the Psalms of David were sung in the tabernacle. Not long shall it be ere they shall come—shall come from distant lands wher'er they rest or roam; and she who has been the offscouring of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a byword, shall become the glory of all lands. Dejected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from dust, and darkness, and the dead. Then shall the Lord feed his people, and make them and the places round about his hill a blessing. I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible, it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel. "Thither they shall go up; they shall come with weeping unto Zion, and with supplications unto Jerusalem." May that happy day soon come! For when the Jews are restored, then the fulness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in; and as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign with his ancients gloriously, and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn; we shall then know every man to be a brother and a friend; Christ shall rule, with universal sway.
“I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible, it is this. ”
This, then, is the meaning of the text; that God would make Jerusalem and the places round about his hill a blessing. I shall not, however, use it so this morning, but I shall use it in a more confined sense—or, perhaps, in a more enlarged sense—as it applies to the church of Jesus Christ, and to this particular church with which you and I stand connected. "I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."
Neither Final Nor Forever
The tumultuous city of the Great King will soon come face-to-face with that Man from Nazareth.
Nearly a month and a half after the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord of glory, He walked with His disciples to the familiar Mount of Olives, a modest hill opposite the Temple Mount. These forty days had been filled with the King teaching them about the Kingdom; it is no wonder, then, they asked Him thus: “Lord, are You now going to restore the Kingdom?”[1]
Some stop here to criticize the disciples, as if nothing could sway their minds from petty things. Others go farther, suggesting “God doesn’t care about real estate.”[2] Yet every king has a city, and Scripture is very clear that Jerusalem is—literally—the city of King Jesus.[3] His history, intentions and purposes in that city cover Scripture end-to-end. If Zechariah’s prophecy literally meant He’d enter the city on a donkey, then it literally means He’ll return to the city from the same Mount of Olives He ascended from.[4] Our confusion and ignorance surrounding the God of Israel’s plans for Jerusalem is directly related to our confusion and ignorance of the Scriptures themselves.
Jesus neither refuted nor condemned their question posed to Him on that final morning before the Ascension. Instead, His answer pointed to the fact that redemptive history (including the restoration of the Kingdom) involved a long-haul the disciples were unaware of.[5] The men weren’t petty. How unprepared do we think forty days with a resurrected Jesus would leave them?
For sake of Gentile inclusion,[6] the men were told to wait it out. The Helper would come, and when He did, they were to start moving, and go so far to reach the point on this circular globe where one more step would start their journey home. They were to go to the ends of the earth.[7] No Jewish ear that morning would’ve been unfamiliar with the term. The psalmist sung about it. Isaiah spoke at length about it. The LORD Himself brought it up when He confronted Job’s ego.[8] Surely, the international intentions of the Everlasting Covenant would’ve begun to make more sense to these men who’d pledged their allegiance to the Lamb slain to absolve their sins.
Their conversation that morning, closing forty days of Emmaus-road teaching,[9] confirmed the testimony of all the prophets who’d gone before: the Great King has plans for His city. He wasn’t finished then, and He isn’t finished now. Jesus’ farewell to Jerusalem was neither final nor forever;[10] as the fading rays of this aging sun fall over this present evil age, we can be confident His purposes will be filled; not one jot or tittle of the Law will go to waste; no Word will return void.[11] The tumultuous city of the Great King will soon come face-to-face with that Man from Nazareth.[12]
________________________
[1] Acts 1:3, 6
[2] Burge, G. (2012). Theology of the land in the New Testament. Christ at the Checkpoint, 2012. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRlgxfqB8wI.
[3] Psalm 2; 48:2; Isaiah 2:1-4; Matthew 5:35; Revelation 6:22
[4] Zechariah 9:9;14:1-5; Acts 1:11
[5] Acts 1:7-8
[6] Genesis 12:3; Isaiah 65:1; Romans 10:19-21
[7] Psalm 2:8; 48:10; 59:13; 67:7; 72:8; 98:3; 135:7; Isaiah 24:16; 40:28; 41:5, 9; 42:10; 43:6; 45:22; 49:6; 52:10; Acts 1:8
[8] Job 38:12-13
[9] Luke 24:13-35
[10] Saphir, A. (1911). Christ and Israel: Lectures on the Jews. London: Morgan and Scott.
[11] Isaiah 55:11; Matthew 5:18
[12] Zechariah 12:10
That Gentiles Should Hope
The Everlasting Covenant wasn’t and isn’t primarily about Jew or Gentile, and thus neither Jew nor Gentile have a right to get protective about or offended over anything to do with their covenantal “rights.”
BY STEPHANIE QUICK (@QUICKLIKESAND)
The election between brothers made the covenant easy to trace; Isaac, and not Ishmael; Jacob, and not Esau. For the distribution therein to be spread amongst the sons and tribes of Israel made things manageable; any Gentile participation required full conversion to Judaism and adherence to the Mosaic Law.[1] Children of the covenant were identifiable by even visible means, accountable by culture, and qualified by birthright.
Scripture and history are rife with stories of men and women who loved the promises made by the God of Israel without actually loving the God of Israel—Israelites and Israelis included. The Apostle Paul lived and died with a holy jealousy for all the promises of God concerning the covenant,[2] but so was Jonah. The two men could hardly be more different.[3] One knew and cherished a holy Zionism which affirms the authority of Scripture and exalts the Name of God’s Son; the other rejected covenant righteousness and clung to distorted nationalism and defiled Zionism.
It is easy, then, to understand why the early disciples and apostles, numbered so few as they were, were slow to suggest the Gospel of the Kingdom[4] should perhaps travel beyond the boundaries of Judea and Samaria.[5] Gentiles never quite looked the part. Gentiles didn’t live the Law. Most importantly, Gentiles were disqualified by birth. It is easy to understand, sure—and, too easy. We dismiss the early offense and jealous hoarding of the covenant—generations of Jonahs—as selfish and Scripturally ignorant. We dismiss modern Jewish resentment of that Man from Nazareth and all His deceived disciples as arrogant. It’s an unfair dismissal; just as Jacob’s sons must reckon with the God of their fathers grafting a bunch of crass, formerly pagan and lawbreaking non-Jews into this holy covenant of particularity, so must we former pagans stumble over and reckon with Jewish offense at Gentile inclusion. If we ignore it, we fail to see a beautiful thing:
The audacity of Gentile hope in the Jewish Messiah.
When the Syrophoenician woman confronted the Christ and begged for deliverance, she was herself confronted with this undeniable truth: that deliverance was never actually promised to her. The check written to the children of Israel could be cashed freely by the children of Israel by virtue of the One who wrote it. But her name was never written on it, and she had to right to the account. It was audacious for her to even think to ask, and the disciples knew it. That’s why they were punks about it.[6]
The scandal of peculiarity found in the fusion of wondrous grace and specific election turns itself on its head within its very foundations—“through [Abraham], all nations of the earth will be blessed.”[7] Through a chosen nation, many would be chosen from the nations. Here’s why this has caused so many to stumble (read: get hot and bothered and offended) on either side of the Jew-Gentile ethnic line: If this is primarily about Israel proper, every Jew has a right to get offended at the proposed inclusion of bloody-handed non-Jews into this covenant made and given with and to Jews. If this is primarily about Gentiles getting grafted into what began as a Jew-specific covenant, every Gentile has a right to get offended at any Jew selfishly white-knuckling this grandiose thing that was meant for anybody and everybody.
But the Everlasting Covenant wasn’t and isn’t primarily about Jew or Gentile, and thus neither Jew nor Gentile have a right to get protective about or offended over anything to do with their covenantal “rights.”
This is fundamentally about the God who made and keeps said covenant, who owns salvation and does as He pleases.[8] About the God who said from the beginning He had purpose for all nations, that the “knowledge of the glory of [Him] would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea,”[9] such that on the distant shores of faraway coastlands, those born without any access to any knowledge of the God of covenant which is always given within covenant will have heard a declaration of His Name effectively producing due worship and exaltation of His precious Name[10]—certainly not because the nations deserve to hear or deserve the privilege to speak and sing of the Holy One, but simply because the Holy One of Israel Himself deserves all the praise, honor and glory that could ever be given from otherwise pagan tongues and idolatrous minds. He deserves to be known and worshipped in Papua New Guinea. He deserves to be known and worshipped in Canada. He deserves to be known and worshipped in Nepal. He deserves to be known and worshipped in Saudi Arabia.
And He will be.
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[1] Ruth, Rahab and Uriah the Hittite are all Old Testament examples of Gentiles who yoked themselves to the God of Israel
[2] See Romans 9:1-24
[3] See “Whales, Enemies & Mercy: What We Need to Learn from Jonah's Tantrum.”
[4] See Matthew 24:14
[5] See Acts 1:8
[6] See Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:25-30
[7] Genesis 12:3; 26:4
[8] Psalm 115:3; 135:6
[9] Habakkuk 2:14
[10] See Isaiah 24:14-16; Philippians 2:9
The Coming Restoration of the Kingdom of Israel
If we neglect to proclaim either of these two dimensions of the coming messianic age, we are simply not proclaiming the complete gospel message that was declared by God’s “holy prophets from ancient time.”
If you ask most Christians why Jesus died on the cross, they will most often quote, affirming that, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”[1] The idea is that the “good news” of the Bible is summarized in that Jesus died on the cross so that anyone who believes in Him can go to heaven after they die.
Of course, when Christians say these kind of things, they are not wrong. This is certainly part of the good news. But the gospel is far more than just John 3:16 and being saved from hell. The gospel, as it was proclaimed by Jesus and the Apostles, is an extension of the good news that was proclaimed throughout the Old Testament. So what else beyond merely going to heaven after we die is entailed when we speak of God’s good news for mankind?
The simple answer to this question is found in the phrase, “the restoration of all things.” Shortly after Pentecost, when Peter preached God’s good news to the crowds, he specifically spoke of the “the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”[2] What is this period, what were the prophets speaking of, and what exactly will be restored?
The period being spoken of is the age of the Messiah, after Jesus returns and establishes His kingdom. As to what will be restored, Jesus will not only restore the earth, but also the Kingdom of Israel. Within the grand unfolding plan of God are His many promises not only to restore Eden—a glorious garden-paradise, but also to restore the Jewish Kingdom to a glory far greater than during the days of King David or Solomon.
Let’s consider just a few of the passages that speak of these days. In the prophecy of Isaiah, we are told that during the messianic age, in partnership with Jesus, the righteous will actually renovate the earth: “Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations; and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.”[4] Elsewhere, the prophet Amos speaks of the days, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet wine.” Under the rule of Jesus, God’s people will, “plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit.”[3] The prophet Zechariah says that “‘In that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.’”[5]
In speaking of those days, the prophet Ezekiel describes, a river that will run southward, out of Jerusalem, turning the Dead Sea into a fresh water lake, teeming with life:
It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. And it will come about that fishermen will stand beside it; from Engedi to Eneglaim there will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be according to their kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea, very many.[6]
When is the last time that any Christian you know declared the good news that in the age to come, after we die, we will be able to fish? I don’t know about you, but for me, this is truly good news!
The Scriptures also affirm that after Jesus returns, He will set in place a new global leadership structure. From God’s perspective, the primary purpose of every position of leadership is to serve others. Yet today, I think it is fair to say that many, if not most politicians, seek and maintain positions of authority not primarily for the purpose of truly serving others, but in order to secure greater wealth, power, and control. This is a problem that is common throughout the world. How will Jesus respond to this when He returns? Psalm 110 tells us that Jesus will literally kill unrighteous rulers and politicians throughout the earth: “The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.”[7]
Not only will Jesus’ return be accompanied by his execution of a host of wicked, self-serving politicians and dictators throughout the earth, but He will also replace them with those who have proven themselves to be faithful and humble leaders: “Well done, my good servant! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities,” He will declare.[8] When I think of how many throughout the earth groan under the weight of oppressive government, I rejoice at this profoundly good news. Genuinely humble servant leaders will assist Jesus in governing the new world. Hallelujah!
Yet as wonderful and glorious as these descriptions of a restored earth are, they are only part of the picture. Beyond a restored and glorified garden paradise, the Scriptures also speak of a glorified, restored Kingdom of Israel. If we neglect to proclaim either of these two dimensions of the coming messianic age, we are simply not proclaiming the complete gospel message that was declared by God’s “holy prophets from ancient time.”
After Jesus rose from the dead, His disciples asked Him about the time that He would restore the glory of the Jewish kingdom, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”[9] In no way did Jesus rebuke his disciples for their question. Instead, He assured them that at the proper time, according to the time set by the Father, He will return and restore the Kingdom of Israel. The Scriptures are brimming with references that testify to this reality. At the every onset of the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that the son she would bear would forever reign on the restored throne of David:
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”[10]
The throne of David, we must understand is not a vague reference to the rule of Jesus. This is the restored Jewish royal monarchy.
Later, as Jesus spoke to His disciples, He told them of the time after He returns when they would assist Him in judging the twelve tribes of Israel:
“Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”[11]
The restoration of all twelve tribes in the age to come shows that indeed we are looking forward to a fully restored Kingdom of Israel. Though few Christians discuss this aspect of the Bible, the Scriptures in both the Old and New testaments are brimming with descriptions of the coming kingdom of God.
When we take a real hard look at the way that the Christian Church has related to the Jewish community throughout most of Church history, it is no surprise that a failure to recognize this critical aspect of the good news—namely the coming restoration of the Kingdom of Israel—often accompanied the horrific mistreatment of the Jewish people by Christians. In my most recent book, When a Jew Rules the World,[12] I carefully lay out the case for why the Christian Church must reclaim the fullness of the gospel as it was proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles. In doing so, we will accomplish much. First, we will proclaim a message that most Jews—those who are far more Old Testament literate than many Christians—will relate to, understand, and receive far more naturally. Second, we will be much better equipped to avoid the great errors and sins of our forefathers with the long history of Christian persecution of the Jewish people. And finally, we will prepare our hearts to receive Jesus at His return with hearts full of joy and understanding as we all together exclaim with fullness of joy: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”[13]
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[1] John 3:16
[2] Acts 3:21
[3] Amos 9:9-15
[4] Isaiah 61:4
[5] Zechariah 3:10
[6] Ezekiel 47:9-10
[7] Psalm 110:5-6
[8] Luke 19:17
[9] Acts 1:6-7
[10] Luke 1:31-33, emphasis mine
[11] Matthew 19:28-29
[12] Richardson, J. (2015). When a Jew rules the world. WND.
[13] John 12:13
The Great Rage Transcript
Read the entire cited transcript of The Great Rage here.
Seen The Great Rage and have questions? Read our fully cited transcript here: PART 1: THE GREAT RAGE (CITED TRANSCRIPT)
The Death of the Bridegroom
"…but he was a type of Him who was to come.…” (Romans 5)
We’ve heard their names; Adam, Eve. We know about the snake, the fruit. We’ve heard the accusations, heard how deceit cloaked once innocents with foreign shame they’d never be fit to shake off. Familiarity breeds contempt, and we forget to honor our father and mother. Many eyes are so busy throwing daggers and stones at the guilty they fail to see how Adam sought the “bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh”[1] into the depths of the grave, or how excruciatingly the weight of treason bore upon the both of them, now six feet deep and too weak to climb out.
They heard footsteps; the King against whom they’d rebelled, the Father who formed and fashioned them from dust and blood. They heard His indictments as they hid behind shrubbery far too small to deflect the sight of the Eyes which search the earth.[2] Allegations and verdicts followed; expulsion for their crimes. Their frames would begin to rot as they toiled the rest of their days. Perverted desire would torment their marriage, but they would bear children; One of them would come and do what they could not do.[3] The family didn’t make it far without disaster, and not much farther before they realized they couldn’t save themselves, couldn’t bear the exile any longer.[4]
The prophet heard two words: “Go again.”[5] Seek again the wife who scorned him; pursue again the whore who betrayed him. “Going again” forced him to walk through the exploitation, past the manipulation, and raise other men’s children. “Going again” made him vulnerable to stoning. “Going again” cost him his name, his life and every item bearing weight in his pocket. Fifteen silver coins and enough barley to brew for a wedding, worth another fifteen silver shekels alone.[6] Nothing about the covenant was cheap, but everything about Gomer would be redeemed.
Another man—another Hosea—received a change of name.[7] Joshua, “Yeshua,” would lead the wandering exiles onto the soil promised to another sojourner; the name and faith of Abraham had followed his family line though a son borne of promise and a conniving grandson who wrestled with God Himself.[8] A Babylonian man left his father for a life spent in tents became the “father of the faith” in the Mighty One who could raise the dead; vindicated for his willingness to take the life of his promised heir, his blade once nearly tore the skin of his son until something else was offered. Moriah witnessed a son spared.[9] A later day would see the same Moriah uphold a different Son, a different blade, and the death of the One not spared. His blood soaked the soil outside the gates of the “faithful city,” the bride who’d become a “harlot.”[10] The Hosea sold for thirty silver coins tasted death for the fallen Eve.[11]
The red-tinged flood at the foot of a splintered cross, the “blood of the everlasting covenant”,[12] vindicated the promise made to the man of dust and woman of rib and blood. The second Adam would jump six feet deep to retrieve His bride, successful in every way the first Adam could never be. “Zealous for Zion with great zeal,”[13] the death of the Bridegroom, ordained since before light was allowed to shine,[14] bought her with holy blood more precious than all the silver of the earth combined. His resurrection sealed and secured the “everlasting covenant” uttered first to man in Eden’s garden among traitors and reaffirmed to a wandering Iraqi and a sinful shepherd.[15] His return will publicly exonerate her name, absolve her stains and humiliate every accusing scoffer who told Gomer her crimes were too severe, that Hosea valued thirty coins more than her life; told Eve she’d fallen too far, and no Adam would follow her into the grave; told Jerusalem no “ransom”[16] would be paid, no Joshua would stand to lead her children into glory.
Indeed, “jealousy is a husband’s fury,”[17] and He isn’t finished yet.
1. Genesis 2:23
2. See Genesis 3; II Chronicles 16:9
3. See Genesis 3:15
4. See Genesis 4:26
5. Hosea 3:1
6. See Hosea 3:2
7. See Numbers 13:16
8. See Genesis 12:1-3; 32:22-32
9. See Genesis 22:1-19
10. See Isaiah 1:21
11. See Genesis 2:24; Matthew 26:14; Ephesians 5:31-32
12. Hebrews 13:20
13. Zechariah 8:2; See also Isaiah 62:1-5
14. See I Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; Genesis 1:1-3
15. See Genesis 15; 17:7; the promised Seed of Genesis 3:15 would deliver the “blood of the everlasting covenant,” the same “everlasting covenant” committed to the line of Abraham (from Babylon, in modern-day Iraq), specified through the descendants of David (a shepherd who became king with one of the messiest track records), and prophesied by Jeremiah (see chapter 31).
16. See Jeremiah 31:11; Hosea 13:14 (see also I Corinthians 15:54-55); Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; I Timothy 2:6; I Peter 1:18; Revelation 5:9
17. See Proverbs 6:34