A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 14 (Part 2)

Deuteronomy 14:22-29—22 “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. 23 And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. 24 But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you, 25 then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses. 26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. 27 You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. 28 At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” 

So many who teach that we are still bound to tithe miss this part. They teach that we are to give our 10% to the preacher, while neglecting what Moses says here. The first 10% tithe was given to the Levites because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, but now we see another tithe, one that was to be eaten by the one offering it. How often do you hear any tithe teachers mention this? You don’t. Because they don’t mention this, they just go running to Malachi and wag their finger at you and proclaim that you are robbing God. (Ask them where the Levites are that they are giving their 10% to!) So let’s look at this tithe. 22 “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. 23 And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.” After they took the first 10% off the top to give to the Levites, they were then to take the next 10% to take to the place where God put His name, and eat it as a sacrificial meal. This was to be done yearly, of all the grain that could be used for food, as well as wine and oil and from the herds and flocks. This was to be done as a way for the people to remember that it is God who gives us all things to enjoy. “That you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.” They were to eat it and drink it where God chose to put His name. They couldn’t just say “Hey, let’s take it over to Yitzhak’s house and have a barbecue.” They were to go where God told them to go, that they may eat it in the sight of God, that they may give Him the reverence due Him. Keep in mind: the land they were going to did not get an abundance of rain throughout the year, and it did not have a river that would overflow its banks. This land depended on the rains that came by God’s good pleasure, and it was this rain that the grain needed to grow and the herds and flocks needed to drink. And they were to give this year’s crop as a tithe during this year; they were not to hold on to it until the next year came around, and they were not to use this year’s crops for the preceding year. 

And once a year they were to take the first 10%, give it to the Levites, then take another 10% and use it in one meal “In the place where He chooses to make His name abide.” Just imagine this. If we were to put this in modern terms, let’s say you earn $60,000 per year. You would take 10% ($6,000) and give that to the Levites. That would leave you with $54,000. Then you take 10% of that ($5.400) and use it for one meal. Every year, year by year. To many this would seem absurd, but that is because they don’t have a proper reverence of God. He is the One who allows them to earn their money, and without Him they would be beggars in the street. But in order for these people to remember that it is God who gives them the ability to eat (see Deuteronomy 8:18), He commands them to eat 10% of their grain, oil and flocks and herds in one meal at the place He commands them to eat it. “That you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.” Not that they should eat with trembling hands and dread in their heart, but that they may remember that all this was given to them by God. “For the fear of the Lord is not merely a feeling of dependence upon Him, but also includes the notion of divine blessedness, which is the predominant idea here, as the sacrificial meals were to furnish the occasion and object of the rejoicing before the Lord. The true meaning therefore is, that Israel might rejoice with holy reverence in the fellowship of its God” (Keil and Delitzsch). That it is only by His generous mercy that they would have anything to eat at all. That by looking upon the Tabernacle, they may be reminded that it was God who led them through the wilderness and was faithful to them even when they were doubting and complaining. That when they grumbled because “all we have is this manna to eat”, He sent them more quail than the entire camp could eat in a month, and many who ate of that quail died because of their ungrateful attitudes. 

24 “But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you, 25 then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses. 26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.” Suppose someone lived in the land of Beersheba in the land of Simeon at the south end of Israel, and the Tabernacle was in the land of Naphtali in northern Israel, a good ways away by foot. And it would be too difficult for them to take their tithe of their grain and wine and oil and their flocks and herds to the Tabernacle, what would they do? What could they do? They could sell their grain, oil and flocks or herds for money, take that money to the land of Naphtali, and buy whatever they wanted. And they could eat and drink to their heart’s content, giving praise to God for it. But it still had to be bought and consumed at the place where God caused His name to abide. “You shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.” And it was not to be done as an excuse for gluttony or drunkenness. That was for the pagan to be caught up in. The person of God is to always retain their faculties, always keep their mind and their wits sharp, for we never know when an occasion may arise where we will have an opportunity to share the Gospel of Christ. And at any rate, we do not want to appear to be as the heathen, being caught up in gluttony and drunkenness. 1st Peter 4:3—For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. But while we should be careful not to indulge our flesh too much, we must also remember that everything we have and everything we enjoy comes from God. Ecclesiastes 2:24—Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. We should enjoy the fruits of what we work for, since the ability to do what we do comes from God. 

27 “You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. 28 At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” This is the hard one. It is one thing to give 10% to the Levite to support them, since they had no land (only cities). You count off your 10%, you take it to them, they take 10% of that and give it to the priests, and that’s that. You take another 10% and you enjoy a meal. But here, the people were commanded to set aside yet another 10%, and let it be eaten by “The stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates.” Today we would call it charity. The people were to take 10% of their grain, set it aside, and watch the poor in the land Levites eat it. We have lost this idea in the world we live in today. To take care of the orphans and widows. To give what we have and give to those who don’t have. Isaiah 10:1-2—1 “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed. 2 To rob the needy of justice, and to take what is right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless.” This principle had been forgotten in the days before God sent the people into exile. There was great greed in the land; those who had wealth were hoarding it for themselves and were neglecting the needs of those in need. They did not want to help them; rather, everything they did was to keep more of their wealth and to keep their foot on the necks of the orphans and widows. But this principle of helping the needy is laid out again in the New Testament. James 1:27—Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. This one verse sums up what the Christian life is to be like. To take care of the less well-off and to avoid the things the world says are to be enjoyed. 

This is why we now have deacons in the church—to help those who have no resources, who have no way of making a living, who have no choice but to depend on the church to provide for their basic needs. Acts 6:1—Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. The Gentile widows were being neglected by the Jews. Remember this was the very earliest days of the church, and there was still schism between some Jews and Gentiles. There were still Jews who looked down upon the Gentile believers, and so neglected them. So the disciples gathered together and chose seven men to see to it that the Gentile widows were also cared for. Acts 6:3—“Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.” Paul more clearly outlines the qualifications for a deacon in 1st Timothy 3:8-13—8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. 11 Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. A man must be these things in order to fill the role of deacon, as he is to distribute to the needy, and not keep the distribution to the poor for themselves. If a man was given to too much wine, he would bring reproach upon the name of our Lord. If he was greedy, he could keep some of the distribution for himself. If their wives were not also so, they could also share in these failings and cause the deacon to fall short in his duties. 

“But what if the widow was well off and did not need help from the church? Suppose they had a wealthy relative?” This is why Paul tells Timothy later, If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows (1st Timothy 5:16). If the woman had a near kinsman who could care for her, it was their responsibility to do so. Why? Because otherwise, the widow would rely on gifts from the church, burdening this gathering when it did not need to be burdened.  If the church was tasked with taking care of a widow who could be taken care of by her family, this would take away from more necessary works that the church needed to take care of. Which is why Paul said a few verses earlier, But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1st Timothy 5:8). This person would be taking away from what the church could be giving to widows who are truly in need in order to keep more of what they have. To do so would show that this person may not truly be in the faith, if he would burden Jesus’ called ones when he himself could take care of this need. Vine’s Expository Dictionary defines widows thus: “1st Timothy 5:9 refers to elderly "widows"…, recognized, for relief or maintenance by the church, as those who had fulfilled the conditions mentioned; where relief could be ministered by those who had relatives that were "widows" (a likely circumstance in large families), the church was not to be responsible; there is an intimation of the tendency to shelve individual responsibility at the expense of church funds.” 

So the people of Israel were commanded to give a tithe, every three years, to the widows and orphans. This seems to have been forgotten when the early church started. The Lord’s Table is to be a solemn remembrance of how He gave His life for us (see 1st Corinthians 11:24-25). But they had turned it into a riotous feast, complete with gluttony and drunkenness and ungratefulness and greed. They were to keep Christ before them in their minds as they were partaking of the bread and wine, but they had forgotten him in their indulgence. It was this ungratefulness and greed that the Apostle Paul was warning the Corinthians about in 1st Corinthians 11:20-21—20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. 21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. They were bringing their own food from home and not sharing with the rest of the body. So some were overfilled and others were empty. This is not the way it is supposed to be. There is not to be division between rich and poor, between those who have and those who have not. The Table our Lord instituted was for all who came, and equally. But these Corinthians who despised the poor in their actions saw this as an occasion to have a lavish feast, and to deny to the poor the help they needed. The Cambridge Bible has this to say:

 

…this is not to eat the Lord’s supper] Better, perhaps, it is not to eat a supper of the Lord’s Institution…It is not merely that the conduct of the Corinthian Christians was inconsistent with taking’ part in the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, but that it was in no sense a supper of Christ’s institution of which they partook. “The question arose,” says Dean Stanley, “whether the majesty, the tenderness, the awe of the feast should be lost in a senseless orgy.” 

The Lord’s Table is not a place to indulge our appetites; it is a place to remember what Jesus did for us on Calvary. God placed His name on Jesus, and we should always keep that in the front of our minds as we partake of the bread and wine. It should not be a place of fun and frolic; it should not be a place of debauchery (which is never to be named among Christians). It is a place to remember who we were, to remember what Jesus has done, and to remember where we are headed. 

We should always take care to provide for those in need. Does that mean we always give our 10% to the church to do that? No. We are not bound neck and heel to giving 10% to the church. Paul told us this. While we should give to the church for its upkeep and to provide for the pastor, Paul says we are to give where we feel led. 2nd Corinthians 9:7—So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. Perhaps you feel burdened to take care of a family that has little income. And providing for them will take up our funds to where we cannot give to the church, this is not a bad thing. If it is God who is directing you to give in such a way, you are doing the Lord’s work and I dare anyone to say this is a bad thing. Besides, nowhere—NOWHERE—in the New Testament are we ever commanded to tithe. Tithing was of the Old Covenant, which has been done away with. If anyone teaches that we are still bound by the tithe, they must explain why all the commands connected to the tithe still apply. “But Jesus commends the Pharisees for tithing of mint and cumin and anise!” True. Was the Old Covenant still in effect at that time? Yes, it was. So that is not applicable. 1st Corinthians 16:1-2—1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: 2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. Why didn’t Paul say “I commanded them to bring the tithe”? The churches of Galatia had been influenced by the Judaizers, those who wanted to keep the people under the Law. And here, Paul was saying that giving was individual, that it was not bound up in a strict 10%, and that each should give as they felt led. 

Do you feel led to give 10% to the church? Then do so, there is no shame in doing so. But churches that teach that you MUST give 10% (and there are many) do a disservice to giving, making people feel ashamed if they cannot give the 10% every week. “But what about Hebrews 7:2, 4, where it says Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, and that before the Law was introduced? Doesn’t that mean the tithe is eternal?” Is this verse telling us we must tithe? Or is it giving us an example of a man who gave a proper gift to a great man? And note, he gave a tenth of the spoils (Hebrews 7:4). So if one is to use this verse properly, they would have to give 10% of the spoils of war, which is what is depicted here. Adam Clarke says, “It was an ancient custom, among all the nations of the earth, to consecrate a part or tenth of the spoils taken in war to the objects of their worship. Many examples of this kind occur. This however was not according to any provision in law, but merely ad libitum (“at one’s pleasure”), and as a eucharistic offering to those to whom they imagined they owed the victory. But neither Abraham’s decimation, nor theirs, had anything to do, either with tithes as prescribed under the Mosaic dispensation, or as claimed under the Christian.” David Guzik, Henry Ironside, Paul Kretzmann, and Matthew Henry all agree that this was a voluntary tithe, and that this act is not to be used to force and obligatory 10% giving on the Christian. So give what you feel led to give. The important thing is to give. 

Why should we be always giving―/Giving money, giving love?

Jesus loves the cheerful giver,/He will bless us from above.

Why should we be always giving―/Sending gifts so far away?

There they need the news of Jesus,/Millions die while we delay.

Why should we be always giving?/Jesus freely gives to all;

Every day and every moment,/His uncounted mercies fall.

Why should we be always giving?/’Tis a joy like that above;

Blessings shared are blessings doubled,/Giving always goes with love. 

Let us give with joy and gladness,/Give with generous heart and hand;

Giving brings the Savior’s blessing,/Let us give at His command.

(“Joyful Giving”, Julia H. Johnston)

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 14 (Part 1)

This is a chapter that again contains things we have already covered so we’ll be skipping some verses. This is not the Department of Redundancy Department J. But we will look at some parts of this chapter. 

Deuteronomy 14:1-2—1 “You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Usually when God begins a statement He will begin by saying “I am the Lord”. But here, Moses begins by saying “You are the children of the LORD your God.” God often needed to remind the people, not only of who God is in relation to them, but also who they were in relation to God. And He would also remind other kings of who the people of Israel were. In Exodus He tells Moses to say to Pharaoh, “‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is My son, My firstborn”’” (Exodus 4:22). These words should have gotten Pharaoh’s attention. For the firstborn in this time was to be regarded as higher than any other. And if God says that Israel was His firstborn, it meant that they were to be highly regarded by all. It means that God regards them higher than all other peoples in the entire world. “You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” We who are in Christ are valued by God above all other people in the world. This fact should not make us arrogant, but it should rather humble us, that God has chosen us for no other reason than His sovereign will. There was nothing in me that would have made God say “Oh, he is so much better than anyone else. I want him!” On the contrary, I was a sinner just like everyone else. And there is nothing in anyone that makes them better than anyone else in the eyes of God. All are sinners, and if God had not saved anyone, none would be saved, and we would all receive our just reward—an eternity feeling God’s wrath. 

“So, what about the command to not shave the front of their heads for the dead?” This was a common practice at the time, to make extravagant markings in one’s flesh in their mourning of the dead, and cutting the hair on the front of one’s head was a more obvious sign of mourning. Like the prophets of Ba'al in 1^st Kings 18:28—So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. The pagans believed they would be heard for the anguish they suffered in cutting themselves (see also Leviticus 19:28). They thought that by the stripes they inflicted upon themselves they would be heard by their gods and the dead they were mourning would be given a better afterlife for it. Much like in the Roman Catholic System there were some who would beat themselves to show their contriteness and penance. Martin Luther used to do this before he came to know the truth of Scripture, that it is not by our own stripes, but “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). When he officiated his first Mass, the weight of the righteousness of God washed over him

 

Luther began to speak the words of the mass, “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, the eternal God.” Luther later writes about saying these words, “At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, ‘With what tongue shall I address such Majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround Him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall a miserable little pigmy say, ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living eternal and the true God.”

(found at https://themajestysmen.com/joshuajenkins/the-life-doctrine-of-martin-luther-pt-1/)

 It was then that Luther realized that it was not the beatings that he administered to himself that made him accepted in the eyes of God, but rather the stripes laid on Jesus and his faith in that sacrifice that made him righteous. “By His stripes we are healed.” 

There are many New Testament passages that infer this very thing. Ephesians 1:6—To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted in Christ, not on the basis of anything we do, but on the basis of what He has done. 2nd Corinthians 5:21—For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. God placed the curse that belonged to us and that we deserved on His perfect Son, so that by faith in Him we might not just have, but become the righteousness of God. Titus 3:4-5—4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. It is not by the works that we do that we obtain the mercy of God, for if it is our works that put us in right standing before God, then God is, by necessity, obliged to save us because of what we have done. Romans 11:5-6—5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace. If we can “earn” our salvation, then we are putting God under an obligation to save us. “So you’re saying we can just believe and we don’t have to do anything? We can just sit back and wait for our golden ticket to Paradise to be punched?” God forbid! James 2:18—But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. It is by our works that we show the world that we belong to Christ. (I posted on James 2 and works here.) 

“And the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” What made these people so special? Why should God look upon them more favorably then the people of Moab or Edom? Well, there was nothing about them that made them any better than any other peoples. God made a promise to one man, to make of his descendants a great nation. What did God see in Abraham that convinced God to make, even more than just a simple arrangement, but a covenant, with him? From what we have in the Scriptures, there was nothing great about Abraham, he was just a man living in Mesopotamia, and God called him to leave there and come to a land that He would give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A land Abraham had never seen before and had no idea about. And from this one man, God would make a people special to Him and separated to Him. A people to whom He would make covenant with also and give them the particulars about how they were to live before Him and what they were to do for their sins to be covered over. “But what about the Ammonite? Why didn’t God give these instructions to them?” That is not up to us to debate. This is what God wanted, and this is how He made it. Our ideas of “fairness” don’t mean a hill of beans compared to it. Psalm 115:3—But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. And it pleased Him to choose this little rag-tag group of slaves and bring them out of their slavery in Egypt and make of them a nation special to Him. 

And do not try to think of yourself more highly than the Israelites. Were they a stiff-necked people? Yes. Did they grumble and complain? Definitely. Did they often forget the goodness and mercy of God? No doubt. But do not think we are any better. How often do we, even after we know Christ, grumble and complain about our lot in life? How often do we forget Him in a fit of pride or anger? How many times do we lose sight of His mercy in keeping us from harm, and take the sacrifice of Jesus for granted? If you know Christ, if He has truly saved you from the wrath to come, if He has taken you out of this world of sin and death and set you apart to Himself, you are His forever! Are you set apart, sanctified by Christ? Hebrews 10:14—By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Has He begun a good work in you? Philippians 1:6—He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Do you realize that you are a sheep, and do you hear your Master’s voice? John 10:27-29—27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.” Is God going to set someone apart to Himself and allow them to go back to serving Satan? What kind of mercy is that? All that would do would give impetus to the enemies of Christ to blaspheme Him. “Hah! He saved this one, but could not hold on to him! Not very mighty for one who claims to be ‘Almighty’!” But that is not the God we worship. What do we read in the book of Jude? Near the very end of the book? Jude 1:24—Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. “Well, yeah, He is able to, but does He really?” What kind of a stupid question is that? Is God faithful? Of course He is. And if you have truly—truly—put your faith in Christ for your eternal salvation, and your life reflects that faith, God is faithful to preserve you until the very end. If you believe you can be unrighteous enough to lose your salvation, then you, by default, believe you can be righteous enough to keep it. 

Begin, my soul, some heavenly theme,/awake, my voice, and sing

The mighty works, or mightier name,/Of our eternal King.

Tell of his wondrous faithfulness,/And sound his power abroad;

Sing the sweet promise of his grace,/the quickening word of God.

Engraved as in eternal brass,/the mighty promise shines;

Nor can the powers of darkness raze/those everlasting lines.

His every word of grace is strong,/as that which built the skies;

The voice that rolls the stars along/speaks all the promises.

Now shall my fainting heart rejoice/to know thy favour sure:

I trust the all-creating voice,/and faith desires no more.

(“The Faithfulness of God”, Isaac Watts) 

Deuteronomy 14:3-21 outlines clean and unclean animals, those that were and were not acceptable as food. We have covered this here and here, so we will move on shortly. First I want to go over Deuteronomy 14:19, as this could be a place for the skeptic to latch onto and shout “contradiction!” Deuteronomy 14:19—“Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.” For the supposed contradiction the skeptic could point to John the Baptist, who ate locusts and wild honey. This is easily cleared up. However, by looking at Leviticus 11:20-22—20 “‘All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you. 21 Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. 22 These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.’” Also the Targum of Jonathan renders Deuteronomy 14:19 as “And all flies (bees) and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and pulse, which come away from (materials of) food and fly as birds, are unclean to you, they may not be eaten.” The injunction was against eating any insect that could fly. The command is not that locusts and grasshoppers are abomination to eat, but that flies, bees, etc. are the abomination. So any hope the skeptic has of using this as a “Gotcha!” verse is sorely mistaken.

Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 13 (Part 3)

So, do we Gentiles need to be circumcised in order to be included in the people of God? God forbid! Acts 15:1, 28-29—1 And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” … 28 “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” Circumcision of the flesh has been done away with as a sign of a covenant. We are now no longer circumcised in the flesh, but of the heart. Romans 2:29—But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter. The signs of the New Covenant are Baptism and the Lord’s Table.  These are not things which save us (as circumcision brought the Old Covenant believers into that first covenant) but rather show the world that we are in a saving covenant with God. Baptism shows that we have been declared dead to sin and alive to God (see Romans 6:4), and the Lord’s Table (instituted by Jesus Himself in Matthew 26:26-28; Luke 22:17-20; Mark 14:22-25, and reiterated by Paul in 1st Corinthians 11:24-25) is what we do to proclaim His sacrifice on our behalf, that we do belong to Him and His body and His blood were given for us. As Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” We are not literally eating the literal flesh or literally drinking the literal blood of Christ (after all, He said, “this wine is My blood”, not “My blood is this wine” before He went to the cross) but rather we are proclaiming to the world that we are tasting the heavenly gift, and we believe that what He did on the cross was real. This is the New Covenant that Jeremiah wrote to us about. 

And this New Covenant has caused the Old Covenant to be done away with. Hebrews 8:13—In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. The word translated “obsolete” is the Greek πεπαλαίωκεν (pepalaioken, from the root word παλαιόω [palaioo, “to make (passively, become) worn out, or declare obsolete”]). The Old Covenant is no more. It is done, finished, completed, finito, fin, no mas. Whereas under the Old Covenant bulls and goats and turtledoves had to be killed for the sins of a person every time that person sinned to make atonement for that person, this New Covenant was different: when a person sins, the blood that has been spilled but once by the Lamb of God is what makes atonement for those sins! Hebrews 8:12—Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. ONCE! The spotless Lamb of God shed His blood ONCE. Then He took that blood into the Tabernacle in Heaven, offered it up to the Father as the payment for all the sins that would ever be committed by God’s elect, and that blood bought our atonement for all eternity! Whereas under the Old Covenant the high priest had to go into the Holy of Holies once every year with the blood of goats to ask for forgiveness for the sins of the people, our new High Priest has already done that. And He only had to do it ONCE. Hebrews 8:25-26—25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Morgan G. Campbell tells us

 

The pre-eminent thought in this section is that now in the priesthood of Christ a place of worship, unlocalized and unlimited, is provided. Wherever is found the soul who will come to God through Him, there He is as Priest, with the value of His own sacrifice, providing redemption and acceptance; and, moreover, having exhausted judgment in the process of His death, He hides from coming judgment all who trust in Him, changing the dread of that awful assize into the glorious hope of His own second appearing. 

The last and final prophet God sent us is the Man we have been speaking of, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our King, our High Priest, and our final Prophet. Hebrews 1:1-2—1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. Everything the prophets spoke and wrote in the Old Testament pointed forward to Christ, and Christ pointed backward to them to indicate to His hearers that He was the One of whom they spoke. One of the first prophecies He gave was about how He would, in His body, replace the temple that Herod had spent decades building. John 2:19—Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The reactions of those who heard Him say this are a good example of why we need to read Jesus’ words carefully and to not always take them at face value. Many times He spoke to the people in parables, especially to those who stood against Him (see Matthew 13:35). Why did He speak in parables? He did so to separate those who believed in Him and who were careful in understanding what He was saying in His role as Prophet from those who simply heard what He said and counted Him a madman. But they all thought He was saying that He would destroy Herod’s temple and rebuild it three days later. This saying followed Him all the way to the cross, when it was used by His opponents to blaspheme Him (see Matthew 27:40; Mark 15:29). But He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2:21). He was saying to them that once they put Him to death, He would rise from the grave three days later. Which He did. 

Another early prophecy He gave was about the gathering of Gentiles with the physical sons of Isaac in the Kingdom of God, while those who depended on their familial lineage would be cast out. Matthew 8:11-12—11 "And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  We have already seen from Romans that we Gentiles are now counted as being among the people of God. And here, Jesus was saying this after He healed from afar the servant of a Roman centurion. And this would happen again in Acts 10, when Peter was sent to the house of another Romans centurion. He feared entering the man’s house, with Cornelius being a Gentile. Acts 10:28—“You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.” It was not considered lawful for a Jew to enter the home of a Gentile. “Where does it say that?” Well, it doesn’t. There is no Scriptural prohibition against this. Peter had still not learned the words of our Master when He said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (see Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1). For He said to His disciples about these Pharisees, “'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'” (Matthew 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-7). This was another place where they substituted their own thoughts for the commands of God. They despised the Gentiles and forbade them from entering the house of a Gentile. And Peter, a devout Jew, got carried away in this hypocrisy (see Galatians 2:11-13). But this episode with Cornelius was an early fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy about Gentiles entering the Kingdom of God. 

Now, think about it. With all these prophecies, from Moses and from Isaiah and Jeremiah, and others given by Haggai and Obadiah and Nahum and Agabus (Acts 21:10-11) and so many others including Jesus—prophecies which foretold the judgement of God on the people for their insolence and disobedience—how can anyone stand on a stage today and simply proclaim good things and health and wealth and peace and safety? It is because there is no fear of God in them. They do not fear the wrath of God because they do not believe in the wrath of God. They don’t care. All they want is to see the money rolling in from giving people some treacly, watered-down, easy-on-the-ears feel-good story about how God will do for them if they command Him to do so. They don’t see God as God, they see Him as an ATM. He does not exist for His glory; He exists to give them handouts and morsels. These self-appointed “prophets” will not speak out against injustice and oppression; they will not decry immorality; they will not cry and moan against those who mock God, because they would be crying out against themselves. In short, we do not have prophets as the ones we read about in the Old Testament. “But what about Ephesians 4:11 and 1st Corinthians 12:28? Where it says that God gave some to be prophets for equipping the church?” That is true. God gave some to be prophets in the Church. But what does this mean? That there are some who speak from God only good, smooth things? That they only speak peace and safety? No friend, the true prophets today do not speak words that those hearing will rejoice over (although they may). They speak forth (the meaning of the Greek προφήτης [prophetes]) the word given to us in Scripture. Now, if there be one who speaks harsh words things that are hard for the hearer to hear, and if they speak things that line up with the word and character of God, then that one is speaking by the gift of prophecy. But telling people that if they send the “prophet” money and God will rain down wealth into their lives? That is not prophecy, that is borderline blasphemy. 

God…has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. Jesus was our last true prophet (see Deuteronomy 18:15-19), although the gift of prophecy still exists today. But one should be careful in exercising this gift. Deuteronomy 18:20—20 “‘But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’” The one who presumes to speak a word from God—a word which God has not commanded him to speak—that one was to be put to death. Today God does not put these “prophets” to death immediately; He allows them to store up their sin for the Day of Judgment. For those who speak words not given to them by God as if they were given to them by God, and which do not come to pass, impugn the righteousness of God. For if they presume to speak from God, and that word does not come to pass, then they make God a liar, and who will trust Him? 2nd Peter 2:1-2—1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. But if one speaks a word which aligns with the character of God, and they do so through the gift of prophecy given to them by God, then they will speak true words and they will glorify God and edify the Church. 1st Corinthians 14:3—But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. Why is this? Because true edification and true exhortation and true comfort are found in Jesus Christ our Lord. Do we have eternal life? We do if we know and follow Him. Will we be able to endure persecution? Yes, because He ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit to lead us. Can we be sure that we are saved? Of course! Jesus told us that none can snatch us out of His hand and no one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28-29). Speaking forth these truths and others found in the very words spoken to the writers of Scripture by God, and warning others to listen to these words and teaching them to follow Christ and His commands to love God and love our neighbor—that is true prophecy. 

The Church will always need the gift of prophecy, and those who speak as prophets. That is what keeps the Church on the narrow way. But if one takes the mantle upon themselves and speaks presumptuously words not given to them by God, they risk destruction for bringing shame to the name of God. If we do prophesy, let us do so carefully and tread lightly when we do so. Let us not be as the false prophets that Peter warned us about and bring swift destruction upon ourselves. Let us speak those words which will bring to mind the love and grace of our Lord, keep the church focused on Him, and bring glory to God.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A ssurvey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 13 (Part 2)

Now, let us consider the first of the “major prophets”, Isaiah. In Hebrew his name is יְשַׁעְיָה (yᵊšaʿyâh, “Yah has saved”). He was sent to prophesy to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, during the time of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, probably beginning in 740BC with his vision recorded in Isaiah 6:1-13 and extending at least as far as the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701BC. There is a theory that the book of Isaiah was written by three different authors, chapters 1-39 being attributed to the prophet himself, chapters 40-55 is said to be written by a second author (Deutero-Isaiah), and chapters 56-66 by a third author (Trito-Isaiah) . Whether this is true or not does not take away from the fact that this entire book was spoken by God, whoever the authors may be. Besides, this theory only came about in the 1700s (like the “Documentary Hypothesis” about the book of Deuteronomy), and is not accepted by most conservative Bible scholars:

 

Most reputable Bible scholars reject the “Deutero-Isaiah” theory. Their conclusions include the similarity of writing styles in both sections, the consistent use of the same words throughout, and the familiarity of the author with Israel, but not Babylon. Furthermore, Jewish tradition uniformly ascribes the entire book to Isaiah. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain a complete scroll of Isaiah dated from the second century BC. The book is one unit with the end of chapter 39 and the beginning of chapter 40 in one continuous column of text. This demonstrates that the scribes who copied this scroll never doubted the singular unity of the book. Neither did the New Testament authors, nor the early church, as quotations from both sections are attributed only to Isaiah.

(https://www.gotquestions.org/Deutero-Isaiah.html) 

Isaiah’s prophetic office was one of dire warnings, not only to the nation of Judah, but to the pagan nations surrounding them. One of Isaiah’s earliest prophecies is the Messianic prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14—(repeated in Matthew 1:23)—“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” This is the first of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecies. The word translated “virgin” is the Hebrew עַלְמָה (almah, “virgin, young woman; of marriageable age; maid or newly married”). In the Septuagint this word is rendered in the Greek as παρθένος (parthenos, “a virgin; a marriageable maiden; a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man; one's marriageable daughter”), as it is in Matthew 1:23. The fact that the Holy Spirit led Matthew to use this word παρθένος rather than a word which would insinuate a woman who had had sexual relations with a man should be enough to quell any thoughts that Mary was not a chaste virgin when the Holy Spirit came upon her. “Well, hold on now! In Genesis 34:3, the LXX uses the Greek word παρθένος to describe Dinah after she was raped! So how can you say that this word only means a chaste virgin??” Simple. Because Dinah was taken in rape, and it is probable that at the time she was still chaste. Genesis 34:3—His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman (LXX, παρθένος). But in the very next verse (Genesis 34:4) the LXX uses the word παιδισκην (paidisken, “a young girl, damsel; a maid-servant, a young female slave”) for “young woman.” Genesis 34:4—So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young woman (LXX, παιδισκην) as a wife." So why did the translators of the LXX use two different words for “young woman” (KJV, “damsel”)? Here’s why: because before Shechem took her, she was a virgin. After he took her, she was now simply a “young woman”, no longer chaste. So let’s put these verses together. Genesis 34:3-4—His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman (Hebrew נַעֲרָה, [naʿărâ, “young woman”]; LXX, παρθένος). So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young woman (Hebrew יַלְדָּה [yaldâ, “marriageable girl”]; LXX, παιδισκην) as a wife." It is also possible that Shechem spoke kindly to her to get on her good side and seduce her and that when this didn’t work he took her by force. I found this at the website for Summit Theological Seminary (which appears to be affiliated with the Church of Christ. I do not agree with many of the doctrines of the Church of Christ, but that does not negate the fact that the following is most likely a correct exegesis of the text in Genesis 34):

 

Notice that the narrative in verses 1-3 are presented as a single event in time. That is, he saw her, he took her, he lay with her, he violated her, was attracted to her, loved her, and spoke kindly to her all at the same time. To read this as a progression of events each happening after the other is likely a mistake. Was he only attracted to her after he violated her? That is absurd. Why would he take her, lay with her, and violate her if he was not attracted to her? When exactly did he love her and speak kindly to her? Was it only after he had violated her? It is possible that the account is telling us that he loved her and spoke kindly to her before, during, and after he violated her. That in no way minimizes his guilt. In fact, it makes it that much worse. He raped a girl that he loved, spoke kindly to, and later wanted to marry. That is very twisted behavior. The original Hebrew structure of these verses also indicates that the events of verses 2 and 3 happened simultaneously. These verses contain a series of what is called vav-consecutives. Essentially, that is a list of actions strung together by conjunctions to indicate a quick series of events or events occurring simultaneously. It can be illustrated in English as follows:

And he saw her…

And he took her…

And he lay with her...

And he violated her…

And he was attracted to her…

And he loved her…

And he spoke kindly to her…

The Septuagint translators evidently recognized this Hebrew construction as they used the Greek conjunction “kai” meaning “and” to begin each of the phrases in these verses. This is as close as you can come to mimicking the Hebrew vav-consecutives in Greek. This indicates that the translators were not saying that she was a virgin after he raped her, but when he raped her.

(Summit Theological Seminary, “Was Dinah a Virgin After She Was Raped?”, from “The Gospel Unashamed”, vol. 37 no. 1, found at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://summit1.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GUN_Vol_37_1_-_Jan_2024_-_Was_Dinah_a_Virgin_After_She_was_Raped_by_Terry_Carter.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjTlozYotCLAxXaRTABHf0gC7AQFnoECCkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2RtlDL2KZWYVH_ssRu-s9k)

Whatever the case may be, Matthew was well within his rights to use παρθένος to describe Mary, as Mary was still a chaste virgin at the time of Jesus’ conception. Luke 1:34—Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" Luke’s words give still more evidence that this she was pure at the time of this miraculous event. 

The next words of Isaiah we will look at are the words he wrote of the “Suffering Servant”. Keep in mind these words were written some 700 years before Jesus came and fulfilled them. When Messiah came, the people were looking for a military leader like David (as they knew Messiah would be the son of David) and throw off the yoke of the Romans as Judas Maccabee had done about 200 years prior. They were not looking for a Messiah who was coming to save the people from their sins, to die for those sins and unite Jew and Gentile into one body. They probably also expected him to be a handsome man like David was. They expected him to be popular, to be adored by all the people. But that was not the picture Isaiah drew of Him. Isaiah 53:3-10—3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. So many prophecies just in these verses that were fulfilled by Christ: 

1.       He is despised and rejected by men (see Matthew 27:39)

2.       And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him (see Matthew 26:56)

3.       Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (see 1st Corinthians 15:3)

4.       Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted (see Matthew 27:46)

5.       But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (see 2nd Peter 2:24)

6.       All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way (see Romans 5:12),and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (see Romans 5:15)

7.       He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth (see Luke 23:9)

8.       And they made His grave with the wicked (see Luke 23:33)

9.       But with the rich at His death (see John 19:38-41)

10.   When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed (see Matthew 28:16-17; Mark 16:7; Luke 24:36; John 20:19) 

Ten prophecies in eight verses. And they all were fulfilled. No “Prophet” today could give even one prophecy that would come true. But what do we do with that phrase in verse 10, the one that says Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him? Was the Father really looking forward to watching His Son beaten and crucified to death? Was He really that vindictive? Do we Christians serve, as we have been accused by many, of belonging to a “blood cult” that vicariously derives some sick and twisted pleasure from the Father watching with unbridled glee as the murder of His Son is carried out? God forbid! God did not take delight in the death of Jesus, but that what He willed from before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) was coming true. Why? Why did God ordain that His Son should suffer and die? The answer is simple: He did it for us. And in all actuality, He did it for His glory. He would not wipe out Israel for their groanings in the desert for one reason: His glory. And He would not allow the crown of his creation to all go to eternal destruction for one reason: His glory. 

When he comes, our glorious King,/all his ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:/Hallelujah, what a Savior! 

Jesus ransomed us from eternal death in the depths of Hell so that He might bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10), and by so doing He brought glory to the Father (John 17:1). We could talk about so many more prophecies we find in the book of Isaiah, but I think that will suffice for now. 

Let us move on then to the prophet Jeremiah. He was called as a prophet before he was born, before he was even conceived in the womb. Jeremiah 1:4-5—4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." His was a sad calling, as he was called during the reign of Josiah and Josiah’s wicked son Jehoakim, all the way through until the captivity of Judah under King Zedekiah (Jeremiah 1:1-3). He was to prophesy to the people about their coming exile into Babylon. Not a very happy message to be delivering to the people. Not one you would hear on TBN these days. Not gonna fill a stadium for Jesse Duplantis. But such was the lot in Jeremiah’s life; such was the burden he carried for Judah. They had seen the Northern Kingdom of Israel taken into captivity 135 years prior, and now the same fate was going to befall them. And Jeremiah had seen it all in his prophecies, and was going to live it out in flesh and blood. 

And why did they go into captivity? Jeremiah 2:1-5—1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. 3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them," says the LORD.'” 4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me, have followed idols, and have become idolaters?” Jehoiakim, Jehoachin and Zedekiah were the final kings in Judah, and they all did wicked before the LORD. Jehoiakim’s name was Eliakim before Pharaoh Necoh changed it to Jehoiakim (2nd Kings 23:34). It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar came up to Judah to take it into captivity (2nd Kings 24:1). Jeremiah had had his scribe Baruch write a letter, a prophecy he had received from God in Jeremiah 36 to warn Jehoiakim of the captivity that was to come upon Judah. And much like many things that God said to rebellious people, this was not taken well. In fact, Jehoiakim was so outraged that this prophet dare say that Jehoiakim’s reign would come to an end that he burned the scroll that Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch (Jeremiah 36:23). And he thought this would be the end of the thing God said He would do. But God is God, and His plans will not be foiled by men, so He ordered Jeremiah to take another scroll and write on it the very same words He had given the prophet in the previous scroll (Jeremiah 36:28-32). 

In Jeremiah 37:1 we read these words, Now King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. Coniah was the name given to Jehoiachin (also rendered as Jeconiah in 1st Chronicles 3:17), who was cursed by God in Jeremiah 22:24, 30—24 “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off…30 Thus says the LORD: 'Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah.'” The words 'Write this man down as childless' present us with a problem, however. For Coniah—along with his son Shealtiel—is mentioned in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1:11-12. If he were childless, how could he beget Shealtiel and be listed in this genealogy? In fact, 1st Chronicles 3:17-18 list the sons of Jehoiachin. So how do we answer when this is brought up as a challenge to the inerrancy of Scripture? Here is where a deeper study of Scripture is warranted. In 2nd Kings 7:12-13, God says to David, 12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” So God had promised to David that a king would sit on the throne of Israel forever (see also Jeremiah 33:17, which says “‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel’”). Yet Coniah (Jehoachin), who was descended from David, was to be “written as childless” and is yet included in the genealogy of Christ. 

And here is where we come to our solution: The genealogy found in Matthew is the descent of Joseph (the one found in Luke is the descent of Mary). Was Joseph the natural father of Jesus? No. Matthew 1:18—Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Joseph could not have fathered Jesus, as (1) Joseph was a man—a decent man, but one tainted by the curse of sin, and would have passed his sinful nature to his son; and (2) Joseph was naturally descended from Jeconiah. The answer lies in Luke’s genealogy. Luke 3:27-28—27…the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er… In 1st Chronicles 3:16-17 we read that Jeconiah was the son of Jehoiakim. 1st Chronicles 3:16-17—16 The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son and Zedekiah his son. 17 And the sons of Jeconiah were Assir, Shealtiel his son... So Jeconiah and Neri were two different people, having different fathers. The best explanation for Luke listing Neri as the father of Shealtiel (that I have found) is that Shealtiel was the product of a Levirate marriage and was born to Jeconiah’s wife after Jeconiah went into captivity to Babylon, thus not a natural son of Jeconiah. Luke was a meticulous historian and would not have overlooked something as simple as the parents of Shealtiel. And if he was indeed the product of a Levirate marriage (and not Jeconiah’s natural son), this would fit even better into Luke’s genealogy. Keep in mind, Luke listed Jesus’ lineage as “X, the son of Y, the son of Z”. Thus, it would be very probable that this would be the case. “So why does Matthew say that Jeconiah begat Shealtiel?” Because Matthew is not listing Jesus’ credentials as king, whereas Luke is. Remember the words of God, 'Write this man (Jeconiah) down as childless'. Thus, the theory that a Levirate marriage produced Shealtiel is further undergirded. More evidence is provided by this rather lengthy passage from Keil and Delitzsch:

 

The omission of Assir in the genealogies in Matthew and the Seder olam also proves nothing, for in the genealogies intermediate members are often passed over. Against the appellative interpretation of the word, on the contrary, the want of the article is decisive; as apposition to יְכָנִיָה, it should have the article. But besides this, according to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:27, Shealtiel is a son of Neri, a descendant of David, of the lineage of Nathan, not of Solomon; and according to Haggai 1:1, 12; Ezra 3:2. 5:2; and Matthew 1:12, Zerubbabel is son of Shealtiel; while, according to 1st Chronicles 3:18-19, he is a son of Pedaiah, a brother of Shealtiel. These divergent statements may be reconciled by the following combination. The discrepancy in regard to the enumeration of Shealtiel among the sons of Jeconiah, a descendant of Solomon, and the statement that he was descended from Neri, a descendant of Nathan, Solomon's brother, is removed by the supposition that Jeconiah, besides the Zedekiah mentioned in 1st Chronicles 3:16, who died childless, had another son, viz., Assir, who left only a daughter, who then, according to the law as to heiresses (Numbers 27:8, 36:8), married a man belonging to a family of her paternal tribe, viz., Neri, of the family of David, in the line of Nathan, and that from this marriage sprang Shealtiel, Malchiram, and the other sons (properly grandsons) of Jeconiah mentioned in 1st Chronicles 3:18. If we suppose the eldest of these, Shealtiel, to come into the inheritance of his maternal grandfather, he would be legally regarded as his legitimate son. In our genealogy, therefore, along with the childless Assir, Shealtiel is introduced as a descendant of Jeconiah, while in Luke he is called, according to his actual descent, a son of Neri. 

I know that whole explanation may have been a bit long, but sometimes you must go around the whole block to make a left-hand turn. So, in stating that Jehoiachin would be written down as childless, Jeremiah was saying that he would have no natural sons. 

The next prophecy of Jeremiah we will look at is the word that came to him from God that God would establish a New Covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-34—31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” We are no longer under the Old Covenant. Nobody is. That was done away with at the Cross. When Christ died, was buried, and rose from the grave, a New Covenant came into effect, doing away with the regulations found in the Law, and ushering in a new era of grace (not that the Old Covenant was without grace). 

So “Now”, you may ask, “Who and what is Israel?” It is not the physical descendants of Jacob that are Israel, but rather those who are of faith in Christ who are Israel. Do not be mistaken, however, there are some who are physical descendants of the Patriarchs who are of faith in Christ and who are, therefore, Israel. Romans 11:1-2—1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. But we Gentiles who also believe in Christ are Israel. Romans 11:11—I say then, have they (the Jews) stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God has always accepted Gentiles into the congregation of His people. But they had to go through certain rites (e.g., circumcision) to be accepted into that people. They had to become like the Jews. But now, there are no special things we need to do to be counted among the people of God. He has grafted us wild branches into the natural olive tree. Romans 11:17-21—17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. God broke off some of the natural branches of the natural olive tree and has grafted in us Gentiles—wild branches—that we may be one people with the natural Jews. In other words, He has made the two—Jew and Gentile—one, through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:11-14—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

 Part 3 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen