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Biblical Law

Our society, as well as many modern societies, have exhaustive law codes. Basically, if we want to regulate or prohibit something, it must be explicitly stated in separate laws. For this reason, our federal, state and local law codes have thousands and thousands of entries (as well as a relatively high instance of loopholes, or omissions in the laws that allow someone to get away with something that everyone knows is wrong.)

Ancient laws did not work that way. They were what’s called paradigmatic (think paradigms), giving models of behaviors and models of prohibitions/punishments relative to those behaviors but they made no attempt to be exhaustive. Ancient people were expected to be able to extrapolate from what the sampling of laws did say to the general behavior the laws in their totality pointed toward. For example, no Israelite would see the law for providing restitution for stealing an oxen or sheep and believe they didn’t have to provide recompense for a stolen goat. Similarly, the law that says not to attack dear old mom and dad doesn’t mean it’s ok to attack your grandma. Such arguments would have insulted the intelligence of the judges (who were wisely in place prior to the giving of the law to handle such things as these).

The nature of law in this way is why Jesus can sum up the law in the NT as being to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love people as yourself and have it still be right. All the laws function this way (not intended to be exhaustive). Now, by the time all is said and done, we’ll have over 600, this is because as situations come up we start to see some more specificity. But all of those 600 laws can be rolled up into the 10 Words and those can be rolled up into those 2 that Jesus said.

Anyway, thought that was a worthwhile distinction and should help with proper context as Exodus moves into its second half, the provision from God to His people on what it looks like to live in covenant with Him.

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Angel of the Lord

The phrase that is usually translated “the Angel of the Lord” shows up in in the Old Testament 67 times (including the description of the character in the burning bush). It is a curious phrase considering what it leads us to ask about the identify of this angel and its relationship to God. The Hebrew here is “mal’ak yahweh”, and because of how its constructed must be a specific definition (THE angel of the Lord) as opposed to something more broad (AN angel of the Lord). Think similarly of how we might see the phrase “the River Euphrates”. We recognize that this is a specific river called the Euphrates, not a river in or of Euphrates. The second word is used to provide clarity on how to understand the specificity or use of the first one. (This is coming to a point, I promise).

So, given those rules, it’s possible we could read the phrase “mal’ak yahweh” as “the angel that is Yahweh” or “the Angel Yahweh”. But this seems problematic. We know that God is not an angel, per se, or is at least not limited to that distinction in a moment in time. The other option is some kind of impostor angel who takes on God’s identity in certain situations.

Complicating this further is the number of Old Testament passages where “mal’ak yahweh” is either called or recognized as the Lord. Remember in Genesis 16, we have an Angel of the Lord (v.11) who talks to Hagar and promises she will be safe. In response, it says, “…she called on the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing.” Who spoke to her? The Angel of the Lord…who she just called God (or at least attributed God qualities to.) Or Genesis 31, when the Angel of God shows up to Jacob to tell him to leave Laban and go home. In v.13, the angel says about itself, “I am the God of Bethel…”

The strongest of all these connections happens in Exodus 3, within that burning bush. In v. 2, it is the Angel of the Lord who first appears in the burning bush. When Moses turns to see, in v. 4 it says that the “Lord” saw and that “God” called out to him from the bush. Unless there’s a switcheroo happening that is omitted from the text, it sure seems like the Angel of the Lord is indeed God Himself.

That leaves a reasonable question as to why. Why not show up as “God” instead of an Angel of the Lord? To a certain extent, trying to nail down the motivations of God and, the human rendering of their interaction with God, will often feel unsatisfactory. Often, we can’t really know, we can just speculate. But I have two thoughts. One, the identification seems to progress. We start with a description of a messenger/angel/being who is acting on the Lord’s behalf. And then as the narrative progresses the true identity is realized. Further, given how we understand the nature of God, specifically his omnipresence, it’s difficult to conceive that He can be represented at a specific moment/location in time, especially embodied in something that appears human (not necessarily the bush here, think about the Hagar interaction, wrestling with Jacob, etc.)

So how to think about it? It think it’s pretty this is the presence of God vs. some sort of other being acting on His behalf. In resolution of the representation a specific moment/location in time vs. omnipresence, think of it like a video-conference. You get the sense of the presence of someone in a room through a video screen and speaker, even though they are not fully present.

Alternatively, this is where we find the thought that this is a pre-birth (or pre-incarnate) Jesus. We have experience in Jesus understanding a God who can be physically manifested in tandem with retaining all the attributes and authority of God (being still God, of course). Thus, when we see the phrase “the Angel of the Lord”, we can think of it as God, but specifically Jesus.

It’s not a slam dunk for me that we are to see that as always specifically Jesus. But given that we should rightly see the Angel of the Lord as God Himself in some form or another, I’m not sure it particularly matters.

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Bible Study 3 John Study

3 John – Chapter 1 (well, the only chapter)

John describes himself as the “elder” – This makes sense. At this point he’s likely the only apostle still alive. For some reason I have in my head that he is pretty heavy at this point and wears a black cloak but that isn’t supported by any historical record. It’s kind of a cross between the man in the painting who prays with the Bible and the bread and a monk.
 
Gauis is likely a close friend. Sometimes we’re concerned that praying for “shallow” things like good health and soul wellness is bad because we could be praying for ways to die for Jesus or go broke. I’m not against the latter half, but John seems to think it’s not an issue to pray for the former. So, you know, don’t beat yourself up about it, it’s cool to pray for good health. I do like the thought of praying that someone’s soul might be well, we should probably do that more.
 
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth.” I hear that, brother. Gaius seems to be up to good things, training fellas up for the work of the good news, spreading it to the Gentiles. When he says that they accept nothing from the Gentiles, it’s not a bad thing, he’s basically saying that the church is providing for them so they don’t ask for anything from those they are trying to serve. Further, John encourages that Jesus people should support fellow workers that are up to such things.
 
Sounds like Diotrephes is a trouble maker, a selfish dude who does what he wants, talks badly about others, and is an inhospitable jackanapes to travelling Jesus fellas. Worse still, he tries to chuck hospitable folks who want to help the travelling bros out of the church. No wonder John wants to reckon with him. It’s interesting that this guy even retains any authority at all. John has more patience for him at this point than I do.
 
That said, he reminds them to not imitate evil but good and we hear echoes of his first two letters in “Whoever does good is from God…” In light of which, Demetrius seems to be doing a good job and everyone is saying so. (Hey man, are we telling folks they are doing good work? Encouraging them? Let’s do better at that.)
 
Finally, John still wants face to face time, better than a letter. He ends with some simple commands: Have peace, accept the greetings from all your friends, and greet them back, all of them. Seems easy enough.
 
 
 <<< 3 John Intro Jude Intro >>>

 

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Bible Study 3 John Study

3 John – Intro

Written by John the Elder to house church believers, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John echo the gospel of John. They emphasize that God is light and love and every true believer will demonstrate God’s light and love. Each book also addresses deceivers, teachers who no longer acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah or Son of God but spread fear and division among believers.

All legitimate teachers will share the truth about Jesus and the cross, love others sacrificially and spread love and light rather than fear. He also reminds believers to welcome true missionaries who teach the message of the cross and love others. They should not welcome deceivers or make idols of anything that exalts itself in God’s place.

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Bible Study 2 John Study

2 John – Chapter 1 (well, the only chapter)

John’s greeting is interesting, we seem to be dropping in on a conversation between John and some woman. However, it’s hypothesized that the “elect lady” is actually a church body. Tough to be certain. And John, as in his first letter, uses pronouns in such a way that it is difficult to understand who it refers to.
 
The contents of this letter are familiar to those who have read 1st John. He kicks off with a reminder to love one another and that to love is to walk according to his commandments. And, as we have heard before, there are deceivers out there who don’t walk in truth and we are to be careful to not be deceived by them. They are the antichrists, again, because they are against the Messiah.
 
In fact, John goes so far as to say that you shouldn’t even receive someone into your house or give him a greeting. By doing so, you’re taking part in the “wicked works”. Tricky. We are here on the King’s business, and although that means loving people, loving people is defined by John as following God’s commandments. So we probably need to be careful that we don’t stray from the Biblical understanding of love (which obviously goes beyond John’s definition to include sacrifice and mercy and forgiveness and grace, but it can’t include sacrificing fealty to Jesus in the process.)
 
John ends with talking about coming to visit face to face. Letter ends with, “the children of your elect sister greet you”, which makes a strong case for “lady” and “sister” being churches, as John is obviously speaking on behalf of the latter group. Makes more sense as a church.
 
 
 <<< 2 John Intro 3 John Intro >>>

 

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Bible Study 2 John Study

2 John – Intro

Written by John the Elder to house church believers, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John echo the gospel of John. They emphasize that God is light and love and every true believer will demonstrate God’s light and love. Each book also addresses deceivers, teachers who no longer acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah or Son of God but spread fear and division among believers.

All legitimate teachers will share the truth about Jesus and the cross, love others sacrificially and spread love and light rather than fear. He also reminds believers to welcome true missionaries who teach the message of the cross and love others. They should not welcome deceivers or make idols of anything that exalts itself in God’s place.

 

Introduction from the Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.com/explore/1-3-john/

 
 <<< 1 John Chapter 5 Chapter 1 >>>

 

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1 John – Intro

Written by John the Elder to house church believers, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John echo the gospel of John. They emphasize that God is light and love and every true believer will demonstrate God’s light and love. Each book also addresses deceivers, teachers who no longer acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah or Son of God but spread fear and division among believers.

All legitimate teachers will share the truth about Jesus and the cross, love others sacrificially and spread love and light rather than fear. He also reminds believers to welcome true missionaries who teach the message of the cross and love others. They should not welcome deceivers or make idols of anything that exalts itself in God’s place.

 

Introduction from the Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.com/explore/1-3-john/

 
 <<< 2 Peter Chapter 3 Chapter 1 >>>

 

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Bible Study Amos Study Amos

Amos – Chapter 9

Ok, so I know I’ve said this before, but the proclamation in chapter 9 is mega-super-fierce. It’s a vision, so we can’t take the imagery literally (it wouldn’t make sense with the end of the chapter if we did). However, that doesn’t mean it’s not intended to communicate something tangible and impactful to the people Amos is talking to.
The Lord is giving instructions here and will use two ends of a spectrum (top of the column and bottom of column, Sheol to heaven, mountain top to bottom of the sea) to communicate the complete judgment upon Israel and the warning that none shall be able to hide or flee from the coming wrath. Their efforts to escape are fruitless.
God says, “I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good”. Hmm, does this impact your perception of God? It should be part of it. It’s not new, either. God says a very similar thing in Deuteronomy 28. It does bring into question, though, how we are to understand “evil” and “good” in these contexts, for the purpose of all this seems to be Israel’s restoration (as we will see yet still in this chapter and as was listed later on in the previous use in Deuteronomy 30). In general, his attention is upon his people and he will cause and allow evil to come upon them and persist in light of their rebellion as it seems to be the way to call them back to restoration. How many modern parenting books does that jack with? This is followed, again, by a reminder of who exactly they are dealing with.
He continues back with the Cushites, Philistines and Syrians to provide context that he is sovereign over those nations as well and that the very things His people may have been praying for against those nations will ironically fall upon Israel itself. Israel will be destroyed from the surface of the ground…except it won’t (again, it’s a vision, you have to let it breathe a little). Basically, there’s still hope it can be rebuilt.
In fact, the next part talks of God commanding that although Israel shall be tested and tried and put through the ringer for their rebellion, they will not be utterly destroyed. The distinction of those that will be destroyed seems to be those who believe they are immune from it.
And then the hope comes. There will be a day when the ruined, torn, fallen house of David shall be rebuilt once again. However, they will bear the responsibility for bringing light to Edom and to all the nations (this is how Acts interprets this section, see Acts 15:16-17.) And those days will be bountiful (the guy plowing will overtake the guy harvesting because the ground produces so well, similar to the wine-maker). All will be restored, made new and provide graciously for the people. The tricky part in all of this is the notion of Israel as a “land” vs. a kingdom (as this promise is understood to be fulfilled by Jesus).
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Bible Study Amos Study Amos

Amos – Chapter 8

All false idols are like that, in their day as well as ours. They make promises that we foolishly buy into. But when you’re in the trench and going through the dregs of life, porn, food, pride, money and power don’t have your back. But they’ll be all you have left when you tell the prophets of God to shut up.
Amos gets another vision from God and it is indeed dire. God has a basket of summer fruit, which is picked at the end of the season. I’m assuming that this is an indication to Amos that the season God has allowed is coming to a close and the fruits are now being gathered (and Israel’s fruits are junky and bring them ruin). There are other potential interpretations there probably but that makes sense to me, especially when coupled with the pronouncement that the end has come to the people and the reiteration that he will not pass over their sin anymore.
The picture is an especially rough one. The exile will be indiscriminate and violent. Bodies will be strewn about treated without honor (lying around, no proper burial). And although that’s a shocking image, Amos reminds them of what got them there: treating the poor terribly, focusing on their own gain over concern for others (when will all of these holidays/holy days be over so I can get back to selling my goods?) and generally being deceitful in business (false balances, selling the worthless part of the wheat, etc.) God will not forgot how prideful they’ve been and the repercussions are equaled only in the power of nature.
The judgment will be so terrible that nature itself will be impacted. Do I think the sun really is going down at noon? No. Darkness, moon and sun being impacted in very unnatural ways, are all ways the Bible has described judgment. Could it be literal? Sure. But it’s not likely and it’s not the most natural reading of the text. And note the rest of the section, everything gets flipped on its head; feasts into mourning, songs into lamentations, sackcloth everywhere, rampant baldness (intentionally, sign of mourning, check Isaiah), etc.
Compounding the dire situation of the exile, God also declares a famine…of His words. He will turn them over to the Assyrians and they will be denied the comfort of God’s words even though they will desire them. What he has communicated thus far will be all they have to chew on. He is almost turning them over, saying “go to your idols, let them save you.” You set up false temples at Samaria, Dan and Beersheba, what they have given you is all you have left. All false idols are like that, in their day as well as ours. They make promises that we foolishly buy into. But when you’re in the trench and going through the dregs of life, porn, food, pride, money and power don’t have your back. But they’ll be all you have left when you tell the prophets of God to shut up.
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Bible Study Amos Study Amos

Amos – Chapter 7

Chapter 7 opens with a series of visions God gives to Amos. The first two are visions of circumstances that would bring destruction to Israel (forming locusts to basically eat the budding wheat crop after the king’s share has already been paid and a fire judgment so fierce that it consumes the land and the water). Amos, even after he has been the conduit through which judgment has been proclaimed to Israel up to this point, begs God to forgive and relent and, interestingly, God agrees.
 
The third vision has God himself standing next to a wall with a plumb line (this is not a unique use of this metaphor in Scripture) and the gist is that they don’t measure up. They are out of balance and will fall under their own weight. You should read, “…never again pass by them…” as “I will not pass over their transgressions ever again.” The false temples will be destroyed and the king, Jeroboam, is held accountable (which foreshadows a conversation that is about to take place between Amos and Jeroboam’s adviser.)
 
Then Amaziah shows up, a “priest” at Bethel (dig the quotes, remember this is a false temple this man is presiding over.) He’s here to warn Jeroboam about what Amos is saying, primarily that Jeroboam is to die and Israel to be removed from their land. Then Amaziah addresses Amos directly, telling him to leave Israel and go home to Judah and basically spout your crapola back there, but keep your words from Bethel because it (you know, the false temple) is the king’s sanctuary (oh man, that can’t be good) and it is a temple of the kingdom (ding, ding, ding, we have a loser and an understanding of how the wall is all jacked up compared to the plumb line God has out.)
 
Amos defends himself, basically saying that he didn’t ask for this job, he’s a fig man, not a prophet. But when God tells you to do the thing you do the thing. And God goes to bat for Amos against Amaziah and says that everything he holds dear will be taken from him (wife becomes a prostitute, kids will die in battle, land will be taken from you and given to others), and, of course, Israel is still getting the boot.
 
Lesson here, you don’t attempt to shut up the words of the prophet (note they have consistently done this, as Amos pointed out earlier). Telling the prophet not to speak doesn’t change what is going to happen, it just causes you to not know about it.
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