Names of God, Part 77
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Names of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 57:56
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· 101 viewsAs we study the Covenant Name of YHWH - יהוה and His depiction in the typology of the Tabernacle, we are studying the Talbe of Incense, with an emphasis tonight on the cleansing needed to participate in prayer. Our special name of God is Ruler — Moshel מוֹשֵׁל YHWH our MOSHEL/Ruler.
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Sunday December 8, 2024
Sunday December 8, 2024
TNOG 66
TNOG 66
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Review
Review
Showbread
So far we’ve talked about the menorah on the left. That was the last lesson a couple of weeks ago. We missed out because of the storm last week. So tonight I want to focus on the table of showbread and its significance. This is a place where 12 loaves of unleavened bread were set out before the presence of God or before the face of God (as we’ll see) as a picture of the 12 of course depicted the 12 tribes of Israel. Then you would also have various instruments and vessels and bowls that were used in the making of the bread.
The last time we looked at the lampstand, which pictures Christ as the light of the world. All these elements picture something about either the person or the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We looked at what the Old Testament says about the lampstand and then tied that into Christ’s statements in John that He is the light of the world. We’ll do the same thing tonight, looking at the table of showbread. We’ll look at how it was used in the worship of Israel. We’ll look at all the descriptions and guidelines for its construction. Then we will see that that is the backdrop for understanding Christ’s statements in John 6 where He says He is the bread of life. So, He’s consciously identifying Himself with these different elements within the Tabernacle so that the Jews can make the connection and see how the Old Testament ritual depicted who He was and what He would do.
So, first of all, let’s look at the names of the showbread tables. In Hebrew, the spelling is different. You probably read this when you were young. When I was young, I would read shewbread (s-h-e-w) and wonder what in the world that was and how that differed from show (s-h-o-w). But it’s just the archaic English spelling. The Hebrew is the word lehem happanim. Lehem is the word for bread just like you have in the city - baked lehem – the house of bread, Bethlehem. Leham happanim - panim means face and the “ha” at the beginning is the article in the Hebrew. So it literally means bread of the face - that is bread that is set before the face or the presence of the God. The face of God of course (as we’ve studied for those of you who survived and made it through on Tuesday night with our in-depth discussion on figures of speech) that the face of God is an anthropomorphism. God doesn’t have a face as men have faces. This is an idiom for the presence of God. So the bread is set before the face of God or the presence of God. Some passages it’s referred to as lehem hammarecket which means the bread of the ordering. That’s mentioned in I Chronicles 9:32.
1 Chronicles 9:32
32 And some of their brethren of the sons of the Kohathites were in charge of preparing the showbread for every Sabbath.
Numbers 4:7
7 “On the table of showbread they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the dishes, the pans, the bowls, and the pitchers for pouring; and the showbread shall be on it.
In Numbers 4:7 , it is described as the “continual bread” because there was always this offering of the showbread on the table before God. Each Sabbath, it would be taken down and replaced by fresh bread, and the bread that had been out for a week would not have grown stale anymore than the manna would have grown stale overnight on the Sabbath and the rest of the week, it did or that the Israelites clothes wore out during the time in the wilderness. God kept it fresh so the priests would have bread at the end of the week. The bread would go to feed the priests. So it was always to be before the presence of God; so it’s called continual bread. It’s a perpetual offering to the Lord, according to Numbers 4:7.
The idea of showbread refers to the arrangement of bread in rows in an orderly display before God, as mentioned in several passages in the Old Testament. Although the table of showbread, the altar of incense, and the golden lampstand are not in the Holy of Holies itself - which is actually where the Shekinah dwelt between the cherubs, God is enthroned between the cherubs on the Mercy Seat - because they were just outside of the Holy of Holies, they were spoken of as being in the presence of God. They were before God’s presence. That’s important to note when we think about our passage in Hebrews (just so you didn’t forget that we are studying Hebrews on Thursday night). In our study of Hebrews 9 we’re diverting ourselves just a little bit to go back and study the Tabernacle so we can make a little more sense of what is taught in Hebrews 9.)
In Hebrews 9:2 we read;
Hebrews 9:2
2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary;
… or the holy place.
Hebrews 9:3
3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,
Hebrews 9:4
4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;
Now, the golden censer was actually in the outer place, but it was just up against the veil so that the incense would be drawn into and through the Holy of Holies, a depiction of prayers going up before God.
Now the description of the Temple is given in Leviticus 24:5-9.
Living Bread Lechem Chai לֶחֶם חַי
Living Bread Lechem Chai לֶחֶם חַי
John 6:31–35, 48–51, 58
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Ex. 16:4, 15 ; Neh. 9:15 ; Ps. 78:24
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.
15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land Which You had sworn to give them.
24 Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven.
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
“Our fathers ate man [manna] in the desert—as it says in the Tanakh, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! I tell you it wasn’t Moshe [Moses] who gave you the bread from heaven. But my Father is giving you the genuine bread from heaven; for God’s bread is the one who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread from now on.” Yeshua answered, “I am the bread which is life! Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty.”
“I am the bread which is life. Your fathers ate the man in the desert; they died. But the bread that comes down from heaven is such that a person may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that has come down from heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.…”
“So this is the bread that has come down from heaven—it is not like the bread the fathers ate; they’re dead, but whoever eats this bread will live forever!”
Some form of bread is used as a staple, the world over. Whether you buy it or bake it, that loaf of bread on your kitchen counter will eventually grow moldy. God gave us bread from heaven that will never spoil. Only Yeshua, the Living Bread, can satisfy our spiritual hunger.
Revealer of Secrets -- Galeh Razin (Aramaic) גָלֵה רָזִין
Revealer of Secrets -- Galeh Razin (Aramaic) גָלֵה רָזִין
Daniel 2:29–30, 47
Daniel 2:29–30, 47
29 As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. 30 But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
47 The king answered Daniel, and said, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”
“Your majesty, when you were in bed, you began thinking about what would take place in the future; and he who reveals secrets has revealed to you what will happen. Yet this secret has not been revealed to me because I am wiser than anyone living, but so that the meaning can be made known to your majesty, and then you can understand the thoughts of your own mind.”
To Dani’el the king said, “Your God is indeed the God of gods, the Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, since you have been able to reveal this secret.”
Luke 8:9–10
Luke 8:9–10
9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?” 10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.’
His talmidim [disciples] asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God; but the rest are taught in parables, so that they may look but not see, and listen but not understand.”
1 Corinthians 4:4–5
1 Corinthians 4:4–5
4 For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
… The one who is evaluating me is the Lord. So don’t pronounce judgment prematurely, before the Lord comes; for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness; he will expose the motives of people’s hearts …
Are there secrets in your life you hope nobody finds out? There are no secrets with God. He knows and sees all. One day, the motives of our hearts will be revealed. Seek to live a life of humility and honesty before God and with others.
End of 12/15/2024
End of 12/15/2024
Sunday December 15, 2024
Sunday December 15, 2024
TNOG 67
TNOG 67
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Sunday December 22, 2024
Sunday December 22, 2024
TNOG 68
TNOG 68
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Review
Review
This was a picture also of the value of the offering to the Lord. Each Sabbath according to Leviticus 24:5-9 each one was removed each Sabbath, and new ones were placed there.
5 “And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. 7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”
The former ones were to be eaten by the priests only in the holy place. So they were to eat the bread there in the holy place. Now, that’s going to become somewhat important in an episode that we’ll get to a little later on in the New Testament when Jesus takes His disciples, and they eat the grain as they go through the fields.
That’s on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees challenged them. We’ll look at that and its background in I Samuel 21.
So that gives us the basic descriptions and prescriptions for the provision of the table and its use.
The next passage is one that we mentioned as a central passage in Exodus 25:23-30. That passage gives us the description of how the table was to be constructed. This begins in Exodus 25:33.
Exodus 25:23
Exodus 25:23
23 “You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
In the Hebrew this is shittim. It is an extremely hard dense wood that is very resistant to any kind of rot or mildew or decomposition. The point of course is that the wood would also represent the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ as in impeccability. It’s not corruptible as He was impeccable. So the acacia wood that they used in the construction of the Tabernacle was designed to teach the impeccability of Christ and it would be overlaid with gold (pure gold) which would depict the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
So that means that the table would be approximately 3 feet long, 1.5 feet wide and 2.3 feet high. So it would come up – for me it would come up a little below waist high. It was probably over waist high for the Israelites, for the priests at that time. Archeologists have uncovered burial sites from this early period and so we know that the average height of an Israelite male at this time was about 5’ 6” or 5’7”. That was true even up through the period of David. But that’s not unusual in ancient times or even in more modern times.
So they were average height of the adult male was about 5 ½ feet tall. So that table would come up to your waist or a little higher.
Verse 24 says:
Exodus 25:24
Exodus 25:24
24 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around.
Exodus 25:25-26
Exodus 25:25-26
25 You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. 26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs.
So there would be a finely constructed molding in the gold that would surround the table at the top and it was decorated in an artistic fashion. This is not just utilitarian or pragmatic. This would be designed with beauty for God the Holy Spirit specifically gave wisdom or skill…actually the
Hebrew says chokmah which has the idea in many passages of wisdom. The root idea is skill to Bezalel and Aholiab who were the goldsmiths, the jewelers, the designers and to the other craftsmen so that what they made was of beauty.
That relates to the whole doctrine of esthetics. How important that is in God’s creation!
This is one thing to emphasize when discussing about in the past and worship and even church architecture.
To the degree that we can do it, we need to reflect the various attributes of God. One of those is that when God creates, He creates with beauty. It’s not just a pragmatic creation. We go out and look at flowers and trees. Everything in God’s creation has this remarkable, incredible beauty with it. It’s not just practical. It doesn’t just work. It has beauty with it. So that would be reflected in all the furniture in the Tabernacle.
Exodus 25:27
Exodus 25:27
27 The rings shall be close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table.
You can see in our model here that we have that was designed by the folks at Goodseed. We have the rings on the side and the two poles with the two lobes sitting on top of the table of showbread.
Exodus 25:28
Exodus 25:28
28 And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them.
That is how they would carry it.
Verse 29 and 30 describe the other implements, the accessories that went with the table. These would be used in the baking of the bread.
Exodus 25:29-30
Exodus 25:29-30
29 You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.
So everything would be handled with these vessels made of gold other than when it was actually baked. Then the gold would not of course withstand the heat from that. The serving vessels are described in verses 29 and 30.
Dishes which were used as bread pans were made for carrying the bread into the holy place.
There were spoons for incense cups which would handle the frankincense which was poured on top of the bread.
Then covers that are mentioned there are pictured as bowls for pouring. All of these were made from pure gold.
By the New Testament period at least, or by the end of the Old Testament period, the priest had developed a set ritual and practice for removing the old bread at the end of the week and replacing it with new bread.
According to the Mishnah we have a description.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have mentioned the Mishnah and Talmud. There are differences between the Mishnah and the Talmud.
The Mishnah was the record, the written record of the teaching of the rabbis. It wasn’t actually written down or much of it wasn’t written down and didn’t reach its final form until near the end of the 1st century after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and into the beginning of the 2nd century. But what is taught in the Mishnah was passed down through oral tradition and probably some written for at least two or three centuries prior to its final form in what we now call the Mishnah. The Mishnah records these debates among the rabbis.
Now in the Mishnah What you have typically is a question that is posed.
Then they’ll say, “Well, rabbi so-and-so said this and rabbi so-and-so said that and then rabbi such-and-such says this and this is what we’re going to do.”
A lot of times they don’t even come to a conclusion and you have different schools of thought following different rabbis. Now you pick up many commentators, many commentaries on the Bible and they’ll give you all the different positions or different interpretations on a verse.
Then they’d say, “Most likely it means this, but we’re not sure.”
That’s the implication. Unfortunately too many seminary students are coming out of seminaries today and they can tell you the 5 positions on this passage or the 4 positions on that passage, but they can’t tell you what it means because they don’t have an integrated consistent systematic theology to orient everything and to pull everything together. So you end up with this sort of spiritual agnosticism that we’re pretty sure what God means but so-and-so says this and this pastor says that. This other theologian says this. So how do you know?”
So the people in the pew are left thinking,, “Well, if these guys who know the original languages and have been to seminary can’t tell me what it means, then how am I supposed to know what it means? “
What this really reflects is not so much the fact that we have difficulty understanding what God is communicating as that modern man has a theory of knowledge that he doesn’t think can give him absolute truth. So just like the culture as a whole is impacted by relativistic views of knowledge, so too the seminaries are affected by relativistic views of hermeneutics. That gets into a totally different study.
So the Mishnah recorded what the rabbis said. Then in the subsequent centuries from about the 2nd century on down to the 5th or 6th century, you have rabbis writing commentary on the Mishnah.
The commentary that they wrote on the Mishnah is called the Talmud. This is the development of rabbinical Judaism. Rabbinical Judaism has nothing to do with the Old Testament.
It has to do with what the rabbis taught, much like Roman Catholics don’t have a clue what the Bible says. They can just tell you what their priest tells them or what the pope has said. But, they never read the text for themselves. The same is true of orthodox Jews. They debate among themselves the different rabbinical views, but they don’t ever really read the text or study the original text for themselves.
If you have a copy of a Talmud what you will see – you’ll have a large page and in the middle of the page there will be a square, double column square, which is the Mishnah. That will be bordered by a border of white space. Then around the outer border you have more text and that’s the Talmud. So they will come together in one book.
Now, According to the Mishnah this is how they would conduct the ceremony.
Four priests entered the holy place, two of them carrying the piles of bread and two of them the cups of incense.
Four priests would have gone in before them, two to take off the old piles of showbread and two to take off the cups of incense.
Those who brought in the new bread stood at the north side facing southward.
Those who took away the old bread stood on the south side facing northward.
One part lifted off and the other put on the hands of one being over against the hands of the other as it is written. “thou shall set upon the table bread of the Passover always before Me.”
The loaves that were removed were delivered to the priests for their consumption within the Tabernacle the whole quantity amounting to 75 pounds of bread per week.
[The average american loaf of bread weighs 1 to 1.5 lbs, so that is the equivalent of 50-75 loaves of bread.]
So they had a very formal procedure for making sure that the bread was transferred properly.
Now when we look at any of these articles of furniture within the Tabernacle - they picture something about either the person or the work or sometimes both, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now this is what we call a type (t-y-p-e) which is sort of an old English word. We might use the word illustration or the word shadow image or a foreshadowing. But type is basically a more technical term.
Type
Now it’s based on the Greek word τύπος [tupos]
Greek τύπος impression, figure, type,
< the root of τύπτειν to beat, strike
Etymons: French type, Latin typus.
Etymons: The antecedent form of a word; the word or any of the separate words from which another word has developed historically by borrowing, derivation, compounding, etc. Also occasionally: the facts relating to this; an etymology.
The “u” or upsilon is often translated with a “y” when it comes into English.
when we look at any of these articles of furniture within the Tabernacle - they picture something about either the person or the work or sometimes both, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now this is what we call a type (t-y-p-e) which is sort of an old English word. We might use the word illustration or the word shadow image or a foreshadowing. But type is basically a more technical term.
Tupos can have a general meaning of example. It’s used that way several times in the New Testament.
You have to be careful. Students of the Word have to be careful. Just because the Bible uses the word tupos doesn’t necessarily means it’s talking about a type of Christ. It may be a broader example or illustration.
A type is a little more narrow (narrowly technical) depiction of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we look at all these elements (all these pieces of furniture) and these are types or pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ.
First of all what they depict is the impeccability of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. I have three points on that.
1. First of all the shittim (as I pointed out, the shittim) wood is hard, incorruptible, indestructible wood that grows in the Sinai Desert.
2. That pictures the incorruptible, impeccable humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This depicts the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of its incorruptibility and impeccability.
3. The indestructibility of the wood pictures Jesus as able to withstand the temptations to sin and the ability to handle the judgment for sin as well as the decaying affect of the grave according to Acts 2:31 and the quotation from the Psalms that His body did not under go corruption and His physical, bodily resurrection.
31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
Refiner -- M’tzaref מְצָרֵף
Refiner -- M’tzaref מְצָרֵף
Jeremiah 9:6
Jeremiah 9:6
6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord.
“Therefore,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot [Lord of Hosts],
“I will refine them and test them.
What else can I do with the daughter of my people?”
Zechariah 13:9
Zechariah 13:9
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
“That third part I will bring through the fire;
I will refine them as silver is refined,
I will test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is my people’
and they will say, ‘Adonai is my God.’ ”
Malachi 3:2–3
Malachi 3:2–3
2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.
But who can endure the day when he comes?
Who can stand when he appears?
For he will be like a refiner’s fire,
like the soapmaker’s lye.
He will sit, testing and purifying the silver;
he will purify the sons of Levi,
refining them like gold and silver,
so that they can bring offerings to Adonai uprightly.
Psalm 66:10
Psalm 66:10
10 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.
For you, God, have tested us,
refined us as silver is refined.
1 Peter 1:3-8
1 Peter 1:3-8
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
James 1:3-4
James 1:3-4
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
When silver is refined, heat separates the precious metal from the dross. Too much heat harms the silver. Someone asked a silversmith how he knew when the process was complete. The silversmith replied, “When I can see my image in the silver.” Be open to God’s refining process and allow his image to be formed in you.
End of TNOG 68
End of TNOG 68
Sunday December 29, 2024
Sunday December 29, 2024
TNOG 69
TNOG 69
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Review
Review
We made our way through Exodus 25:23-30 in our review of the Table of Shewbread.
Picking up where we left off last week:
when we look at any of these articles of furniture within the Tabernacle - they picture something about either the person or the work or sometimes both, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now this is what we call a type (t-y-p-e) which is sort of an old English word. We might use the word illustration or the word shadow image or a foreshadowing. But type is basically a more technical term.
Tupos can have a general meaning of example. It’s used that way several times in the New Testament.
You have to be careful. Students of the Word have to be careful. Just because the Bible uses the word tupos doesn’t necessarily means it’s talking about a type of Christ. It may be a broader example or illustration.
A type is a little more narrow (narrowly technical) depiction of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we look at all these elements (all these pieces of furniture) and these are types or pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ.
First of all what they depict is the impeccability of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. I have three points on that.
1. First of all the shittim (as I pointed out, the shittim) wood is hard, incorruptible, indestructible wood that grows in the Sinai Desert.
2. That pictures the incorruptible, impeccable humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This depicts the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of its incorruptibility and impeccability.
3. The indestructibility of the wood pictures Jesus as able to withstand the temptations to sin and the ability to handle the judgment for sin as well as the decaying affect of the grave according to Acts 2:31 and the quotation from the Psalms that His body did not under go corruption and His physical, bodily resurrection.
Acts 2:31
Acts 2:31
31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
So, all of that is depicted through the use of the shittim wood or acacia wood.
1. In terms of the undiminished deity of Christ, we see that pictured in the gold. The gold in the table pictures Jesus’ deity. It emphasizes the value, the beauty and the glory of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Bible explicitly states that Jesus is fully God.
Passages like John 1:1, John 10:30-33 and John 10:28 specifically state that Jesus is fully God.
John 1:1
John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 10:30-33
John 10:30-33
30 I and My Father are one.” 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
John 10:28
John 10:28
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Now what’s important here is (as Arnold Fruchtenbaum has pointed out) what happens in the early church. By the early part of the second century there starts to develop a split between Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians so that by the end of the 2nd century Jewish Christians have basically become isolated from their Gentile counterparts.
At this same there’s the introduction of allegorical interpretation. With that there begins to seep into Christianity a mild but definite anti-Semitism.
As a result of this by the end of the 3rd century you have a primarily Gentile church that is so isolated from its Jewish roots that students of the Word no longer understand the culture out of which the Bible came.
So they’re interpreting Jesus and His teaching and His ministry totally within the frame of reference that they have in terms of Greek or Roman culture and not in terms of the Jewish culture which is the immediate context at the time in which Jesus ministered. As a result of that, they don’t have the benefit of truly understanding these images and the typology in the Old Testament.
That might surprise us because in our teaching community, we go back and look at these depictions in the Tabernacle related to the humanity and deity of Christ.
It just helps us understand the hypostatic union so much better.
But it took these early Christians (because of the fact that they were divorced from the Jewish background it took them) a couple of hundred years to figure out how to properly articulate the hypostatic union.
This is what gave rise to the debates surrounding the Council of Nicaea and then the Council of Ephesus and the Council of Constantinople and finally the Council of Chalcedon in 451 when the hypostatic union is finally settled and articulated.
So the definition that we use for the hypostatic union is one that borrows its language primarily from the Chalcedonian confession of 451 AD.
So we define the hypostatic union as (relating to the incarnate Christ):
The hypostatic union describes the person of the incarnate Christ as the union of two natures, divine and human, in the one person of Jesus Christ.
It’s very important to talk about that and think about that precisely. The one person hungers. The one person is tired or weary. The one person turns the water into wine. The one person heals. But, some of these miracles that He did (for example the changing the water into wine) demonstrate that He is fully God and that there is a true undiminished deity as part of His nature. So His one person has a divine nature.
The fact that He hungered and that He thirsted and that He was tired, that He came under emotional stress as He did in the garden the night before He goes to the tomb indicates that He is true humanity.
But, He has a true human nature as well. So these two natures are both there within the one person. We always have to be careful how we articulate this and not talk about – “Well, Jesus did this out of His deity.” Well, the one person did it and that He did one thing may demonstrate He is fully God. That He did something else would demonstrate that He is fully man; but they come from the one person.
We can’t fall into Nestorianism as if there are two persons and two natures. There is one person and two natures — and these two natures are inseparably united.
A billion years from “when we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun”, Jesus will still be in hypostatic union. Ten thousand years later He will still be in hypostatic union. There will always be the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
without loss or mixture of separate identity
So, when the deity takes on humanity; the deity didn’t lose anything. It didn’t lose any of its divine attributes. Somehow the infinite took on affinitude without losing its infiniteness. There’s no mixture of characteristics or of attributes so that you don’t have a blending of the two.
That was the error of Eutychianism in the early church.
Without loss or transfer of properties or attributes He remains fully God and He has true humanity.
the union being both personal and eternal.
That means that it is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ – that’s what’s meant by personal. And, it’s eternal. It is everlasting. There will never be a time when Jesus is no longer in hypostatic union.
So the conclusion:
Jesus is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.
That’s the short definition - John 1:14, Hebrews 1:2-3, and I John 4:2 .
John 1:14
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 1:2-3
Hebrews 1:2-3
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; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
1 John 4:2
1 John 4:2
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
So those are key passages on understanding the hypostatic union.
That is seen by the fact that the table made of wood is then overlaid with gold. That depicts that union between the divine and the human.
And if the early church had just had a good handle on the imagery and the typology coming out of Exodus and Leviticus then that could have helped them understand so many things.
It’s not till the11th century that we have a clear articulation on substitutionary atonement by Anslem of Canterbury in his work Tri Deis Homo (Why the God-Man?) It’s not that they didn’t believe in substitutionary atonement. They taught that way. They used that language, but it’s used in a somewhat naïve or non-critically aware way. They’re just restating what the Scripture says – that Christ died for you.
But they’re not really analyzing what that means and in what way Christ died for someone until Anselm comes along and writes a very clear articulation of substitutionary atonement.
When we look at the elements on the table itself, we have the showbread which is the bread of the presence. We see that this is unleavened bread.
According to Numbers 6:15 this is a bread that is not leavened. Numbers 6:15 says:
Numbers 6:15
Numbers 6:15
15 a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings.
So the bread is unleavened. That’s again depicting the fact that Jesus Christ is without sin. To make the fine flour - several have pointed out that the fine flour, the fine meal has to be crushed, ground, and sifted which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth in hypostatic union where He is sifted by Satan during the period of the temptations in Matthew 4:1-11.
He is ground and crushed in the suffering and the buffeting in the beating and flagellation that occurred prior to going to the cross then His death on the cross and His crucifixion for mankind.
The bread also depicts the source of life. We need bread to live. So, it not only depicts the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ; we are to feed on that. That comes out of John 6 as well. Jesus says speaking metaphorically; it’s not the doctrine of transubstantiation in the Roman Catholic Church:
John 6:53
John 6:53
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
He precedes that by saying:
John 6:35
John 6:35
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
This whole thing is a picture of taking in and receiving Christ as our own just as when we eat food we are taking the food in and it becomes part of who we are. That is the imagery that’s there. So the bread provides nourishment.
In Deuteronomy 8:3 we have the statement:
Deuteronomy 8:3
Deuteronomy 8:3
3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
So the bread depicts the spiritual nourishment that God provides in His Word. And, there is a certain ambiguity there because He provides that nourishment through the Living Word (the Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ) and through the written Word which we have which is the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it pulls it all together.
The baking of the bread depicts the judgment of sin imputed to Jesus Christ. The baking pictures that judgment as the refined flour is baked into loaves. It is a picture of Jesus Christ who goes through the fires of judgment (speaking metaphorically) and suffering for us as Peter states in 1 Peter 3:18.
1 Peter 3:18
1 Peter 3:18
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
The frankincense that’s sprinkled on the loaves pictures the value of Christ’s death. Frankincense was an extremely expensive spice in the ancient world. It’s a fragrant gum resin that has a silvery white cast to it. It’s ground into powder, burned at the altar while the priests would eat the showbread on the Sabbath. The fragrance from the incense (the frankincense) would fill the entire holy place and Holy of Holies. That relates to the continuing prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. The offering of the bread depicts grace oriented freewill giving – that this is given freely and it is not conditioned just as Jesus Christ was freely given by the Father for our salvation.
Then last but not least the eating of the bread is a picture of fellowship with God. Eating and having a meal together is a picture throughout the Scripture of our fellowship with God. As we come to the Lord’s Table what we are doing is we are just memorializing a portion of that meal that the Lord had with His disciples. It is a picture of our fellowship with God. That’s why it’s important for us to confess our sins and be in fellowship before we partake of the Lord’s Table. It is a picture of the fellowship that we have which is in Christ and on the basis of His work on the cross that fellowship in the body of Christ is not a social thing. It is fundamentally a relationship with God. Because we have that vertical relationship with God and we have peace with God; then as a result of that we have relationship with other human beings who are in the body of Christ. But that fellowship is always on the basis of God’s Word. Christians can get together and they can socialize and they can have a party. They can have a lot of good times together. They may not be in fellowship. That doesn’t have anything to do with biblical Christian fellowship - not that that’s a bad word. Some people think it is; but that’s not a bad word. It’s a good word. When you get together with believers and there is within that context of your time together a discussion of doctrine and the Lord and His Word, then what grows out of that is true genuine biblical fellowship because Christ is at the center of it. So it’s not social life, but it’s something that is integrally related and consciously tied to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ within His body.
As we go through the Old Testament there are several other passages that talk about the table of showbread. The most significant is in 1 Samuel 21:1.
The Lord Who Sets You Apart -- Adonai M’kadishkhem יהוה מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם
The Lord Who Sets You Apart -- Adonai M’kadishkhem יהוה מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם
Leviticus 20:8
Leviticus 20:8
8 And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
“Observe my regulations, and obey them; I am Adonai, who sets you apart to be holy.”
Exodus 31:13
Exodus 31:13
13 “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
“Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘You are to observe my Shabbats [Sabbaths]; for this is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you will know that I am Adonai, who sets you apart for me.”
John 17:17–19
John 17:17–19
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
“Set them apart for holiness by means of the truth—your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world. I have sent them into the world. On their behalf I am setting myself apart for holiness, so that they too may be set apart for holiness by means of the truth.”
1 Corinthians 6:11
1 Corinthians 6:11
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Some of you used to do these things. But you have cleansed yourselves, you have been set apart for God, you have come to be counted righteous through the power of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and the Spirit of our God.
God gave the people of Isra’el special instructions for holy living, setting them apart for himself, and making them different from the surrounding nations. Are you like all of your neighbors, coworkers, or friends? Ask God to show areas in your life that need to be set apart for him.
End of TNOG 69
End of TNOG 69
Sunday January 5, 2025
Sunday January 5, 2025
TNOG 70
TNOG 70
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Review
Review
Picking up where we left off last week:
We have been looking at the articles of furniture within the Tabernacle - they picture something about either the person or the work or sometimes both, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We made our way through Exodus 25:23-30 in our review of the Table of Shewbread.
The Table is a joining of Acacia Wood and Gold in a depiction of the humanity and divinity of Christ joined into hypostatic union.
Last week we looked at the relevant passages in John dealing with the deity of Christ and addressed some of the doctrines pertinent to the deity of Christ.
Also, we saw that Jesus is the unleavened showbread. He is that which the bread illustrates, the perfect sinless human sacrifice.
Next we saw that He was the bread of life, the spiritual nourishment that we associate with the word of God. Jesus, as the bread of life, is the living word.
We move on to our next consideration relevant to the doctrine of the Shewbread and the Table of Shewbread.
1 Samuel 21:1
1 Samuel 21:1
1 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
The other passages we have looked at just mention Shewbread as part of the levitical ritual.
For example it says in I Chronicle 9:32.
1 Chronicles 9:32
1 Chronicles 9:32
32 And some of their brethren of the sons of the Kohathites were in charge of preparing the showbread for every Sabbath.
But in I Samuel 21:1 we have an episode where David is fleeing from Saul.
1 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
David at this point is the Lord’s anointed. God has had him anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel. He is the anointed king but not the reigning king. So he has been appointed, but he hasn’t been installed yet.
That’s a great picture of the present ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ who has been anointed as it were; but He is like David sitting and waiting for God to give Him the kingdom which doesn’t occur until the end of the Church Age period.
So He is seated at the right hand of God the Father waiting for God to give Him the kingdom.
This is where we must divide from the Progressive Dispensationalists who say that Jesus is sitting on the throne of David right now.
But that makes no sense.
Jesus sits where?
At the right hand of the throne of God, in cession, as the appointed honorific who holds honor as the exemplified recipient of God’s approval. He is approved in His role as the Federal Head of Mankind.
That is not the same as sitting on the Throne of David, however, is it?
That’s the background for what we see in Revelation 4 and 5, Daniel 7 when the Lamb comes forward to take the scroll to enact the judgments in order to establish His kingdom.
So back to our text, David in this in-between period when Saul is persecuting him (Saul is chasing him.) By analogy to Christ, being designated as King, but not seated on the King’s throne, this is a picture of what happens during the Church Age when Satan is persecuting the body of Christ while the Lord is waiting for the kingdom.
1 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
See Ahimelech is fearful because he knows that Saul has his army out looking for David and he’s made David public enemy #1.
and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one is with you?"
1 Samuel 21:2-4
1 Samuel 21:2-4
2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” 4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”
That’s the bread on the table of showbread.
if the young men have at least kept themselves from women."
In other words if they have refrained from sexual activity recently, then we can distribute the bread. So the bread then is brought out and David’s men are fed. David says in verse 5:
1 Samuel 21:5-6
1 Samuel 21:5-6
5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.
Now there are a lot of different elements in this story and we don’t want to get distracted with those. We just want to focus on the fact that David is in a position where he is taking his men and he is on this journey and he needs food. So because he is the Lord’s anointed, Ahimelech can give him the food, the bread from the table, and this is legitimate. This is used in a very sophisticated argument by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 12. The key verses in Matthew 12 are verses 3 and 4; but I want to read from the beginning of the chapter so that we pick up the context.
Matthew 12:1
Matthew 12:1
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Now this just really upset the Pharisees because they said that this was work and you couldn’t harvest grain. That is what they would define it as. Harvesting grain would be a violation of the Sabbatical law. So the Pharisees looked at him and used this to accuse Him of violating the Mosaic Law.
Matthew 12:2-3
Matthew 12:2-3
2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
Notice how sophisticated His argument is here.
"Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
So Jesus is comparing Himself as the Messiah, the Lord’s anointed to David who was the Lord’s anointed and David’s companions are compared to the Lord’s disciples.
He says how David entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for him to eat nor those with him, but for the priests alone.
So he is saying that there are exceptions within the Law because this would be an application (They were starving. They were hungry.) of the principle of loving your neighbor as yourself.
So Jesus then is using this in a very sophisticated way. In verse 6, we go on to read there:
Matthew 12:6-7
Matthew 12:6-7
6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
In other words the point was that the technicalities of the law were overridden by the principle of mercy and grace.
The principle of mercy and grace would be to love your neighbor as yourself and to provide for the needs of David’s the Lord’s anointed and his men on the basis of grace obeying the spirit of the Law and not the letter of the Law.
So Jesus is giving the correct divine viewpoint interpretation of the Law at that point and pointing out that refusal on the part of the priests would have violated the essence of the Law.
So he concludes in verse 8 by saying:
Matthew 12:8
Matthew 12:8
8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
As the Son of Man He is saying, “I am the author of the Law so I can determine how and why it is applied,”
He’s not turning the law (twisting it) to His own advantage; He is simply stating that this fits within His original design.
John 6 is the passage that deals with the depiction of this in Jesus bread of life discourse. John 6 is a tremendous passage and there is a lot there. It begins with the feeding of the five thousand and then that sets the stage as Jesus feeds the 5,000. It sets the stage for His discourse that He is the bread of life, the one who of course provides that which sustains us in the last part of the chapter. But, we also get into one of those tremendous theological passages that come up in verse 44 where Jesus says.
John 6:44
John 6:44
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
This is a central passage that is used in Calvinism to substantiate the doctrine of irresistible grace that God is the one who draws people to Himself and He only draws the elect to Himself and He doesn’t draw anyone else to Himself. Now if you want to know the truth of that you’ll have to come back next time.
John 6:22
John 6:22
22 On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—
On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone --
Well, what happened on the preceding day sets the stage for what is going to be taught in the last half of the chapter. This is an extremely important chapter to understand a number of different aspects of Christ’s ministry and so I want to spend a little time just setting the stage going back to the beginning of chapter 6.
Chapter 6:1 begins:
John 6:1
John 6:1
1 After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
Now I want to give you just a little bit of an overview here as to what this looks like.
Here’s a map of the Sea of Galilee. Actually it’s not a sea. That’s a bad English translation. It’s not a sea. It’s a lake. The Greek word that is translated “sea” can mean sea or lake. Sea is saltwater; lake is fresh water. It’s the Lake of Galilee or the Lake of Kenneret. Here you see the Sea of Galilee itself. Down here to the southeast shore you have the town of Tiberias. Then as you go up the shoreline several miles you come to the village of Magdela which is where Mary is from Mary from Magdela or the Mary the Magdalene.
Then you continue to come up around the northwest shore and you come to the village of Capernaum. Capernaum is where Peter lived. This is where Jesus had a home, and many of His miracles and His teachings took place in and around Capernaum in this area – this northwest quadrant of the Sea of Galilee. So the scene that takes place here - some of the people that are coming out are coming out from Tiberias. It begins when Jesus feeds the 5,000, which I believe, according to the evidence within this chapter, was probably in or near Tiberias. Then, that night or that evening, or that afternoon, Jesus gets away from the crowd. He goes up to be alone on one of the hills in that area – one of the ridges that you see just back from the Sea of Galilee. The disciples can’t find Him. They take off in their boat. They are headed to Capernaum, and they get out into the middle of the Sea of Galilee, and a storm comes up in the evening. Then Jesus walks on the water and comes out to them.
So that’s the framework of events that take place here, the first part of chapter 6. We see a number of things that are important to note within the context. So let’s begin with – put a slide up here so you can see something of what the Sea of Galilee looks like. This slide is looking from the north to the south. The buildings that you see on the distant horizon there, that’s the modern city of Tiberias. That gives you an idea of the size of the Sea of Galilee.
So, if you start with the chapter, Jesus goes to the Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias.
John 6:2
John 6:2
2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.
So their motivation is that their curiosity is stimulated by the fact that He’s healing people. So the crowds follow Him because of the signs He performed and not necessarily because they are interested in Him spiritually. Remember the major problem He faces in the first part of His ministry is that He’s offering the kingdom and because of the pharisaical theology, the people are thinking of the kingdom in a literal manner - that He’s going to come and establish a political kingdom and overthrow Rome. That’s what they’re looking for – a political leader, not a spiritual leader.
So the crowd follows Him because their curiosity is stimulated by His healing. Jesus then goes up on a mountain. The word there is oros.
John 6:3
John 6:3
John 6:3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and
3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.
It doesn’t mean mountain. If you have been up in the Rocky Mountains lately, you would not think anything around the Sea of Galilee would ever be called a mountain. These are like hills, not quite as hilly even as some of the things you’ll see around the hill country of Texas. So Jesus goes up on a hill. The term there can mean an area of relatively high elevation.
John notes for us in verse 4 that the Passover was near.
John 6:4
John 6:4
4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
So this is prior to the Passover so it’s roughly the end of February or early March which is still a fairly cool time. There’s some rain. The early rains in Israel are in the spring and so we’ll note that there’s grass on the hill for people to sit down. You’ll note from some of the pictures I have here – for example the next picture there’s not a whole lot of grass when you’re there in June. It was a comfortable setting in the early part of the spring.
He also notes with relation to Passover - we think of the different elements of the Passover meal – the lamb that depicts Jesus Christ as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. We think of the unleavened bread which was a picture of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ which comes over to the Lord’s Table as well as the wines. So Passover is the first day in the Feast of Unleavened Bread which is a one week long feast. So the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is Passover. So the context (the chronological context) is that bread is on the horizon. They are about to begin the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The unleavened bread is the focal point there. So Jesus is going to use this as a teaching opportunity to teach about His person and work.
So Jesus looks up and He sees this great multitude coming toward Him and He asks Phillip:
John 6:5
John 6:5
John 6:5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a
5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”
Jesus says this (according to verse 6) to test them - to get them to think logistically about how in the world are all these people are going to be sustained and what are you going to do about it?
In verse 7 Phillip says, “Well, we don’t have enough money to buy all of this bread. What we have isn’t sufficient. We couldn’t feed them anyway.”
John 6:7
John 6:7
7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”
So the disciples are left with a quandary. Andrew comes up and finds a young boy who has 5 barley loaves and two small fish. So Jesus then says in verse 10:
John 6:10
John 6:10
10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
John notes there was much grass. See how it fits the time and the place. The Bible is not some fantasy book, but it fits very clearly. The descriptions all work within the time and place as it’s described.
The people sat down. The men are sat down about 5,000 in number. So, there were more than 5,000 there. The men are numbered at 5,000.
Jesus took the loaves. He gave thanks. He distributes them. We’re familiar with the story that the miracle of the multiplication of the fishes and the loaves. The traditional site for this is the site depicted here on the overhead.
Now we go on to read:
John 6:13
John 6:13
13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
The point here is that is going to be made - the loaves (the bread) are going to be used to depict the provision of God primarily in the person of Jesus as the bread of life. The point here is that God’s provision of the bread of life is more than sufficient. It’s more than enough. He just doesn’t give a little bit. He just doesn’t give enough. It is more than sufficient. It could have taken care of many more than just the ones who showed up.
John 6:14
John 6:14
14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
So this is the event that takes place and sets the context of the chapter.
So we go on then to John 6:15 when Jesus said:
John 6:15
John 6:15
15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
See they have this political agenda to make Him the king and to establish a political kingdom. Jesus is going to show that a political solution that is not preceded by a spiritual solution is no solution. That is an important principle for us to remember in this election year. There are so many people that get overly concerned. (I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned. We should be very concerned, but people get overly concerned and caught up in everything that is going on in the political season.) The problems in this country are not going to be solved politically. The problems in this country are only going to be solved spiritually with a change in the nature of people. Without a spiritual solution, then all we’re doing in the picturesque language of J Vernon McGee is we’re just polishing the brass on a sinking ship. That’s as far as it’s going to get. So we don’t get caught up in the political solution because without the spiritual change, political solutions are only superficial. But that’s where the Jews were. It’s a political solution. So Jesus departs from them to be in the mountains by Himself, alone.
If you ever want to do an interesting study, go through the gospels and see how many times Jesus goes off by Himself to be alone to pray. It happens again and again and again as in His humanity He’s recharging His own spiritual batteries taking time to pray, constantly in fellowship with the Father.
John 6:16
John 6:16
16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,
So we’re back to something like the first picture I had up here. It’s getting dark. Dusk is coming. Evening is coming. The disciples decided they’d waited long enough; they needed to leave. They actually waited too long because darkness will descend before they get across the Sea of Galilee. They get in the boat. They cross over towards Capernaum. Verse 17 says it was already dark.
John 6:17-19
John 6:17-19
17 got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. 18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. 19 So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.
They had gone about two-thirds of the way across the sea. They see Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat and they were afraid.
John 6:20-21
John 6:20-21
John 6:20-21 But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid."
20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
Notice another miracle. Immediately the boat is at the shore. As soon as He got on the boat, it was immediately transported over to the land where they were going at Capernaum.
John 6:22-23
John 6:22-23
22 On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—23 however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks—
So these folks are coming out from Tiberias. They noticed that the disciples had left. There is no other boat. Where did Jesus go? How did He get across? Then they begin to look for Him and the disciples.
John 6:24-25
John 6:24-25
24 when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”
Teacher -- Moreh מוֹרֶה
Teacher -- Moreh מוֹרֶה
Exodus 4:15
Exodus 4:15
15 Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.
“You will speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and his, teaching you both what to do.”
Deuteronomy 4:1
Deuteronomy 4:1
1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you.
“Now, Isra’el, listen to the laws and rulings I am teaching you, in order to follow them, so that you will live; then you will go in and take possession of the land that Adonai, the God of your fathers, is giving you.”
Isaiah 48:17
Isaiah 48:17
17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.
Thus says Adonai, your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Isra’el:
I am Adonai, your God,
who teaches you for your own good,
who guides you on the path you should take.”
Job 35:11
Job 35:11
11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’
Job 36:22
Job 36:22
22 “Behold, God is exalted by His power; Who teaches like Him?
“Look, God is exalted in his strength;
who is a teacher like him?”
John 7:16
John 7:16
16 Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
So Yeshua gave them an answer: “My teaching is not my own, it comes from the One who sent me.”
God hasn’t left us alone to figure out the answers to life’s questions all by ourselves. We have a Teacher who is there to help lead and guide us. Ask him what lessons he wants you to learn today.
End of TNOG 70
End of TNOG 70
Sunday January 26, 2025
Sunday January 26, 2025
TNOG 71
TNOG 71
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Mosaic Law — Leviticus 5-6
Review
Review
Picking up where we left off last week:
We have been looking at the articles of furniture within the Tabernacle - they picture something about either the person or the work or sometimes both, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We made our way through Exodus 25:23-30 in our review of the Table of Shewbread.
The Table is a joining of Acacia Wood and Gold in a depiction of the humanity and divinity of Christ joined into hypostatic union.
Last week we looked at the relevant passages in John dealing with the deity of Christ and addressed some of the doctrines pertinent to the deity of Christ.
Also, we saw that Jesus is the unleavened showbread. He is that which the bread illustrates, the perfect sinless human sacrifice.
Next we saw that He was the bread of life, the spiritual nourishment that we associate with the word of God. Jesus, as the bread of life, is the living word.
So let’s look at some of the pictures I have here to give you a little bit of an idea of Capernaum. This is a shot looking to the north and Capernaum is located just off – this is looking more to the northwest. Capernaum is located right up in this area just on the right hand part of the shore. Now as you enter into Capernaum, there are various signs introducing the place.
Some of the more humorous along the way are found in Capernaum.
Here’s a nice bird’s eye view of the archeological finds that are there. In the center here we have a 2nd century synagogue - remains of the 2nd century synagogue. It’s built on top of the 1st century synagogue which is where Jesus would have taught.
Over here we have a Roman Catholic Church which is built over the site of what is believed to be the home of Peter.
Now whenever you go over to Israel, there are all kinds of different things that people will say, “This is where this happened. That’s were that happened.”
Most of the guys that I know would classify things in terms of four categories.
1. Category #1 would indicate that we’re pretty sure and certain from both written evidence and archeological evidence that a site and a location is what it is claimed to be.
2. The 2nd category would be things that are probable - pretty likely. There’s either archeological or written evidence to substantiate a site.
3. The third is that it’s possible, but not likely.
4. The fourth is it’s just made up out of thin air.
This site is probably a #1 or a #2. There is evidence in Scriptural evidence written like graffiti on the walls of this 1st century house indicating that this was a place where Christians came and venerated as early as the first part of the 2nd century. You don’t find that anywhere else. So there’s something unique and distinct about this particular house and there’s evidence that a church was built there, over that house as early as the mid-part of the 2nd century. So as things go this is pretty strong evidence that - we know Peter lived in Capernaum. This is where Jesus healed his mother-in-law. So there is pretty solid evidence that this would be that particular location.
Of course whenever you go to a lot of places in Israel because of the influence of these religious groups down through the years, they always want to protect these holy places. So you have lots of signs to make sure that you don’t do anything that would deface or profane these holy places. So I like this particular sign. This always has a little resonance with anybody who is a Texan.
No dogs. No smoking. No guns. No short clothing.
So they’re very precise on that. They want to make everybody – even the men. If you have shorts on you have to wear a wrap around skirt. Ladies have to wear wrap around shirt, wrap around shawl. This sign was there last year, but it wasn’t there this year.
Holy place. No shorts and no décolleté.
If you don’t know what that means you can look it up when you get home.
Here’s another shot looking across the Sea of Galilee from the area of Capernaum and then here are the ruins at Capernaum. You can see the foundations and the lower parts of the walls in the houses in this fishing village which is what it was. This is where Peter and James and John and Andrew had their fishing business with their father. You can see from how the houses are laid out. You see the water in the background so it’s right on the shore. It was lost. Nobody knew where the city was. It was even thought to have been made up until this was discovered by a mid 19th century explorer named Robinson. So that gives you just a little bit of an idea of what Capernaum looks like today and the ruins that we find there.
Now the whole background for this is emphasizing
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of heaven. So verse 22 starts:
John 6:22
John 6:22
22 On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—
So when they find Him:
John 6:26
John 6:26
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
If they came because of the signs, that would indicate that they were looking, they were being stimulated to seek Him as Messiah. That’s the point that John’s making in the gospel.
John 20:31
John 20:31
31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
The “these” refers to the previous verse where he writes that Jesus did many other signs.
So some people will say, “A faith based on signs is not a very strong faith.” But, John is writing his gospel built around certain signs because signs give objective evidence that Jesus is who He claimed to be.
John 6:26
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
This is the modus operandi of every politician almost down through the ages. (If you feed the masses ,then they will follow you anywhere.) It’s the old principle that if you feed people well, then whatever else happens on a trip or in the military then that covers a multitude of sins. The idea there is that because Jesus fed them, now they’re following Him. They’re totally focused on finite material sustenance.
So he commands in verse 27:
John 6:27
John 6:27
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Don’t put your focus on the details of life that perish that are here today and gone tomorrow.
but labor
“Labor” is left out, but it’s implied.
for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
That is “on Jesus Christ.”
Now what’s interesting in this particular passage is we often make a distinction for sound theological reasons that salvation is based on faith and not on works. What we mean when we use the term “works” in doing something is the idea that somebody can through ritual or through conduct or through association with the right group can do something that merits favor with God. We define it somewhat strictly. Now Jesus is going to use the words “working” and “doing” in this chapter in a broader sense in that anytime you believe something in a broad general sense you’ve done something - that you have worked. You have done something. That is not a conflict of meaning. We use the word that way many times.
So he is saying here:
John 6:27
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
He doesn’t mean that you have to labor for salvation. But He’s talking within the context and contrasting their focal point.
So they responded to Him saying:
John 6:28
John 6:28
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
John 6:29
John 6:29
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
So see He’s defining “work” here not in the sense of meritorious work, but in terms of non-meritorious belief.
Now as we get into this particular chapter it’s important to recognize that this verb “believe” is central to understanding this chapter. Nine times in this chapter Jesus is going to connect eternal life (salvation) with believing. The verb “believing” is used 98 times in the Gospel of John. It’s used 9 times or a little less than 10% in this chapter. So you would understand from that that believing is a key idea in this chapter. The word “bread” is used in this chapter 21 times. So that again shows the emphasis in this chapter is on bread as a symbol for spiritual sustenance. So we continue to go through the chapter and he emphasizes that this is the work of God that you believe in Him who He sent. So this sets the framework for everything that He is going to say. The focal point is that you have to believe in Jesus Christ as the one God sent.
John 6:30
John 6:30
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
Well, He’s already performed numerous signs. He fed them the day before and yet they come back and they want more of a sign. They relate this to the Old Testament event of manna.
They say:
John 6:31
John 6:31
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
The manna was the food that God gave to the Jews.
Now the background for understanding that is in Exodus 16. In Exodus 16 you have the Jews coming out of Egypt. (We’re not going to take the time to go there.) You have the Jews coming out of Egypt and they’re in the wilderness and there’s no food and they’re starving. So what do they do? They start to grumble; they start to complain.
In Exodus 16:1-15 the verb for grumbling is used 7 times to emphasize that they’re just complaining and griping about their circumstance and whining.
Exodus 16:1-15
Exodus 16:1-15
1 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. 2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. 5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. 7 And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord; for He hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we, that you complain against us?” 8 Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.” 9 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ ” 10 Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ” 13 So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. 14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.
“God doesn’t take care of us. God doesn’t provide for us. He brought us out in the desert to starve.”
So it is the crowd that brings up this episode and says:
as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' "
Now Jesus responds to them and says:
John 6:32
John 6:32
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
So He is going make this analogy from the manna that God provided in the wilderness is physical bread for physical sustenance to the spiritual bread and spiritual sustenance and nourishment that God has provided through Him.
but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
John 6:33
John 6:33
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
So according to the context what Jesus is saying here is that He is the one who is the bread of heaven. This is going to be reinforced when we get down into verse 35 and later on in the chapter he states very clearly:
John 6:35
John 6:35
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
So He identifies Himself as the bread of life.
Now verse 34:
John 6:34
John 6:34
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
John 6:35
John 6:35
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Now I want you to notice the parallelism that occurs in those verses. Let me get the slide up here so you can see it. The parallelism is between “coming to Me” and “believing in Me.” So in this context we see that Jesus sees “coming to Him” and “believing in Him” as synonymous terms. Coming to Jesus and believing in Him are two different ways of talking about the same thing. The key idea set up in the text is “believing in Him”. That’s what is important for salvation. But, He uses synonymous phrases to illustrate this point.
He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Now in John 7:17 He emphasizes again that the point is going to be on the will of the individual. Now I am making this point ahead of time because of a problem passage that we are going to run into in just a minute.
John 7:17
John 7:17
17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.
What is the Father’s will? The Father’s will is to come to Jesus. The Father’s will is to believe in Him. That’s doing the work of the Father.
So in John 17:17 He says:
he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority
So the issue is volition.
Now verse 36 – Jesus said:
John 6:36
John 6:36
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
Empirical evidence is not sufficient to lead people to Jesus Christ. There has been more than enough empirical evidence down through the ages. There was evidence of His resurrection and yet there were many Pharisees and Sadducees that didn’t believe on Him. There were many in this crowd who didn’t believe in Him. They’d just seen the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 the day before. They saw other miracles, but they didn’t believe in Him because ultimately the issue boils down to whether or not you’re willing to trust in the Word of God.
This is why we had the event in Luke 16 when Lazarus and the rich man die and they go to paradise and torments respectively and the rich man says to father Abraham, “Please send Lazarus back. Let him come back from the dead so he can tell my brothers about what’s going to happen to them so they’ll be saved.”
And Abraham says that if they didn’t believe Moses and the prophets they won’t believe a miracle. They won’t believe a man who has come back from the dead. The point is – when we’re witnessing to people it’s not an argument about who’s right. It’s not trying to present the tighter intellectual case or coming up with the best rational argument. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but that’s not what makes witnessing effective. It is a spiritual issue and you can have the best evidence, the best presentation of the gospel that you could ever present (that anyone could ever present) and still people will reject because they are not willing according to John 7:17.
John 7:17
John 7:17
17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.
He will know what? The teaching. In other words the priority comes from the teaching of the Word of God.
So in verse 37 Jesus says:
John 6:37
John 6:37
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
Now coming to Jesus means what contextually? Believing in Him. Okay! So we could paraphrase verse 37 – “All the Father gives Me will believe in Me. And, the one who believes in Me I will not cast out.”
The issue here isn’t on that the Father is going to give them to Him. The issue in the whole text puts the priority on believing in Him.
John 6:38
John 6:38
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 6:39
John 6:39
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
That’s eternal security. Those who the Father gives to Him are the ones who believe in Him. The one who believes in Him are the ones the Father gives Him and of the ones the Father gives Him He won’t lose any. So that means that if you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you can’t lose that salvation. Jesus is not going to let go and you’ll be raised up in the rapture.
Now this phrase “all that the Father gives Me” is used four other times in the Gospel of John. It’s used here in 6:39 and it’s used in 17:1-2 and in 17:6 and 17: 9. In those passages in chapter 17 that is what’s known as the high priestly prayer of Jesus when He is praying for His disciples the night before He goes to the cross. In 17:20 He makes it clear that there’s a distinction between them as the disciples “those whom you have given Me” and those who believe through Him.
Just hold your place here. I think we ought to take some time (take a minute) so you see this. This is important to understand what Jesus is talking about here. What I’m saying here is this phrase (those who the Father has given Him) is a phrase that describes Jewish believers and Old Testament Jewish believers that the Father has given to Jesus. Jesus is coming and as He announcrs the gospel the Old Testament believers are coming to Him. They are being drawn to Him because they’re already believers and He’s teaching the Word. So when you come to John 17:20 He says:
John 17:20
John 17:20
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
That is these that you gave Me.
also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
See the point He is making there this distinction that those “who believe in Me through their Word” are us. But we’re not Old Testament Jewish saints who saw the Messiah. We’re not those who are coming to salvation at the message of the Messiah. Now that’s important to understand what He is getting ready to say.
He says:
John 6:37
John 6:37
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
That is these Jewish believers. These Old Testament saints, they’re going to hear my message and respond.
John 6:38
John 6:38
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 6:39
John 6:39
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
These Old Testament saints and those who are believing in Me before the cross in the First Advent...
but should raise it up at the last day.
John 6:40
John 6:40
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
It’s not us. We don’t see the Son. This is talking about that generation.
and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
So what’s the key to having everlasting life? Believing in Him. That’s the key all the way through here.
So verse 41:
We have already looked at
Living Bread Lechem Chai לֶחֶם חַי
Living Bread Lechem Chai לֶחֶם חַי
My Provider—The Lord Will See to It — Adonai Yir’eh יהוה יִרְאֶה
My Provider—The Lord Will See to It — Adonai Yir’eh יהוה יִרְאֶה
Genesis 22:7-8
Genesis 22:7-8
7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
Genesis 22:14
Genesis 22:14
14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Yitz’chak [Isaac] spoke to Avraham
[Abraham] his father: “My Father?” He
answered, “Here I am, my son.” He said,
“I see the fire and the wood, but where is the
lamb for a burnt offering?” Avraham replied,
“God will provide himself the lamb for a
burnt offering, my son”; and they both went
on together.
Avraham called the place Adonai Yir’eh [Adonai will see (to it), Adonai provides]—as it is said to this day, “On the mountain Adonai is seen.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.
1 Timothy 6:17
1 Timothy 6:17
17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
As for those who do have riches in this present world, charge them not to be proud and not to let their hopes rest on the uncertainties of riches but to rest their hopes on God, who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment.
How do we determine what we really need? Sometimes we don’t even know what we need or how to pray. Our Provider knows all of our needs and what is best for us, even before we tell him. Thank you God, for meeting all of my needs.
End of TNOG 71
End of TNOG 71
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Sunday, February 2, 2025
TNOG 72
TNOG 72
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Review
Review
These Old Testament saints and those who are believing in Me before the cross in the First Advent...
but should raise it up at the last day.
John 6:40
John 6:40
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
It’s not us. We don’t see the Son. This is talking about that generation.
and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
So what’s the key to having everlasting life? Believing in Him. That’s the key all the way through here.
So verse 41:
John 6:41
John 6:41
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
The Jews here is not talking about all the Jews. It’s a term John uses to refer to the Jewish leaders - the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They’re complaining because He’s identifying with Himself with manna. He’s drawing this connection.
So they say:
John 6:42
John 6:42
42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Actually if they’re rejecting Jesus, they really didn’t know Mary or Joseph and they don’t understand who Jesus is.
But they are saying, “Well, He grew up just like any other kid in the neighborhood so there’s nothing special about Him. So how can He say He’s come down from heaven?”.
Jesus confronts them in verse 43.
John 6:43
John 6:43
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
Then verse 44, this is the problem passage.
John 6:44
John 6:44
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Now this is the third time He has said something about raising Him up on the last day. The first time He said this is in verse 39.
John 6:39
John 6:39
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
What’s the key to those who He has given to Me? “Those who the Father gives to Me will come to Me” and these are the ones who believe in Him.
John 6:40
John 6:40
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
But now He introduces a new concept. He introduces the concept of “the Father who sent Me draws and I will raise Him up on the last day.” So the drawing of the believer has got to be related to believing in Him. Now what’s important about this is this is a passage that is used many times in the argument between Calvinism and Arminianism to argue for the Calvinist doctrine of irresistible grace. The Doctrine of Irresistible Grace means that - is built on the Calvinistic understanding – first point in TULIP. That’s the acronym for the five points of Calvinism - total depravity (that man can’t do anything to save himself). That really should mean “he can’t do anything to merit salvation of his own.” But the way they craft it within the five points of Calvinism is that man is so dead he can’t even will. For them “will” is always meritorious. Here we see it’s not meritorious. But, that’s what they would say. So in order to overcome their resistance, irresistible grace means that the Holy Spirit only works on a few - those who are the elect. The Holy Spirit then will irresistibly draw them to the Father.
There are various passages that are used within Calvinism in order to try to substantiate this particular meaning of the text.
John 18:10
John 18:10
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
Now this word for drawing is the same word helkuo that we have here for “unless the Father draws Him.” They’ll go to a passage like this and they’ll say “drawing it” indicates the sword has no volition; but it’s something that is being taken totally at the will of the one who draws it.
Then they’ll go to John 21:6 relating to the dragging of the net and see here once again it’s totally at the control of the one who drags a net.
John 21:6
John 21:6
6 And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.
Then they’ll go to a passage like – oh let’s just skip over to Acts 16:19 where Paul and Silas are dragged off to the marketplace, the bema seat where they’re going to be judged and dragged off to jail.
Acts 16:19
Acts 16:19
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
Their point is that this means that you are dragged against their will. But the word helkuo if you look it up in the dictionary can mean dragging against the will; but it can also mean to attract. It has a range of meaning.
In John 12:32 Jesus says:
John 12:32
John 12:32
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
It is not a drawing that is exclusive to a set group of people which the Calvinist will emphasize as the elect.
So when we get to our passage in John 6:44:
John 6:44
John 6:44
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is talking about the Father is going to be attracting unbelievers to Christ. Now how is thist done? That’s the important thing. Is it done through an interior ministry through the Holy Spirit – that is that counters the will or controls the will of certain unbelievers? No! You have to look at the context.
The very next verse in verse 45 says:
John 6:45
John 6:45
45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Who comes to Jesus? Those who have heard and learned from the Father – not the Spirit (number one.) That’s your first observation. And, number 2 the context is a quote out of Isaiah 54:13 which is dealing with a prophecy in the Millennial Kingdom but the context or the application that Jesus is using here in John 6:44 is that this drawing occurs through being taught the Word of God.
Isaiah 54:13
Isaiah 54:13
13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children.
It’s not that God is reaching inside of people and manipulating their volition so that they will be brought to Jesus and it only affects a few. It is that God draws or attracts all people through the proclamation and the teaching of God’s Word.
So Jesus goes on to say as the Pharisees grumble among themselves (the same word that’s used of the grumbling of the Exodus generation in the Greek Septuagint) in verse 46:
John 6:46-47
John 6:46-47
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
It doesn’t say who is drawn irresistibility by the Holy Spirit has eternal life; it says:
he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
John 6:48-49
John 6:48-49
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
That was just physical nourishment, but:
John 6:50-51
John 6:50-51
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Now a couple of things we need to note about this are very important for understanding the analogy. First of all, eating is something that anyone can do. Eating is non-meritorious. Anybody can choose to eat or not eat. Once you eat though there are certain automatic, involuntary reflexes and muscles and systems that take over to digest the food, breakdown the food and make it useable. But the option of eating is up to each one of us. That’s volition. That’s what is comparable to faith. We trust Christ, then it is God the Holy Spirit who takes that faith and makes it useable, makes it effective for salvation. That’s what Jesus is talking about.
If anyone eats of this bread,
When you compare this with the other passages here in John 6, eating is comparable to coming to the Father and is comparable to believing in Him.
John 6:47
John 6:47
47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
John 6:40
John 6:40
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:53
John 6:53
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
John 6:54
John 6:54
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
So drinking and eating are metaphorical expressions for believing in Jesus. They’re comparable to coming to Jesus. He uses this as a metaphor.
This is not talking about the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation (that the elements in the Lord’s Table are turned into the literal body and blood of Christ and by eating them we become saved.) That’s why in Roman Catholic theology they have to celebrate the mass week after week after week because you’re never sure you’re saved. But what John is saying here is you can be sure you are saved.
Jesus is saying, “All you have to do is believe in Me.”
Believing in Him is being pictured through the imagery of eating which is receiving something into yourself. Just as receiving bread into yourself provides physical life; eating or receiving Jesus into yourself provides spiritual life. That is the point of the entire metaphor.
He says in verse 55:
John 6:55-58
John 6:55-58
55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
So that is His point. This whole imagery of the bread, the unleavened bread, comes out of the table of showbread (the Tabernacle) that Jesus is the bread of life.
Merciful God — El Rachum אֵל רַחוּם
Merciful God — El Rachum אֵל רַחוּם
Isaiah 49:13
Isaiah 49:13
13 Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted.
Sing, heaven! Rejoice, earth! Break out in song, you mountains! for Adonai is comforting his people, having mercy on his own who have suffered.
Psalm 86:15
Psalm 86:15
15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
But you, Adonai, are a merciful, compassionate God, slow to anger and rich in grace and truth.
Psalm 116:5
Psalm 116:5
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful.
“Adonai is merciful and righteous; yes, our God is compassionate.”
Nehemiah 9:31
Nehemiah 9:31
31 Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You are God, gracious and merciful.
“Even so, in your great compassion, you didn’t completely destroy them; nor did you abandon them, for you are a compassionate and merciful God.”
James 5:11
James 5:11
11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Look, we regard those who persevered as blessed. You have heard of the perseverance of Iyov [Job], and you know what the purpose of Adonai was, that Adonai is very compassionate and merciful.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Sunday, February 16, 2025
TNOG 73
TNOG 73
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Review
Review
Accepting the Bread of Life; John 6:41-51
While we are working our way through the topic of the Table of Shewbread, and we have reviewed John 6 as we see Christ’s fulfillment of that picture, in light of our focus on the Names of God, I want to return to this Chapter as a means of looking at one of the Names of Christ, a little out of order from our current cycle of teaching.
In this chapter, Jesus is going to say certain things, and if with miss this context of the crowd emphasizing their own authority to set the standards, their own authority to set the agenda, that the crowd is making a strong claim to autonomy, then when we look at what Jesus says well will miss the buss and will end up like many hyper-Calvinists and misinterpret some of His statements to say that God has all the say and man has no say. Jesus will make some strong claims to God’s authority in this chapter, but He does that because the crowd is claiming to be the ultimate authority in the universe. What Jesus is doing in making these statements is bringing them back to the reality that God is the ultimate initiator of everything in human history, and He is the one who controls human history, not at the expense of individual responsibility of human volition but that the emphasis on individual responsibility is not autonomy. There is a difference. Dependence on the authority of God and orientation to the authority of God do not negate human responsibility and individual volition. God decreed in eternity past that His sovereignty would coexist with human responsibility and volition in human history. He will not override it but will superintend and control history to bring out His end without violating human volition.
Jesus began the discourse on the bread of life in Capernaum. The people came to Him, and Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” They are operating on a physical plane and a material and political agenda. Jesus must shift their focus. This is the hardest thing to do with people who are locked into a materialistic mindset. He tries to shift their focus from the physical to the spiritual, John 6:27
John 6:27
John 6:27
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Then He begins a discourse in verse 32:
John 6:32-34
John 6:32-34
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
They really don’t want the bread, they are still thinking materially. They are like the woman at the well when Jesus promised to give her water that springs forth to eternal life. She says, “Where is this water?” She is thinking physically and they are thinking physically as well.
John 6:35
John 6:35
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
This is the other important verse for properly interpreting this whole section. The main verb here is “come,” the standard everyday word for coming or entering someplace. In this verse, erchomai [ἔρχομαι] is used synonymously with faith, pistis or pisteuo [πιστεύω]. That tells us that from now on, when we see the word erchomai in the text, we need to think “believe.” That is what Jesus means—the person who comes to Him by faith alone in Christ alone, is the person who accepts the free gift of salvation. He who accepts the free gift will not hunger; he who believes in Him shall never thirst.
We pick up in verse 41. It is uncertain whether this was one long discourse by the Lord or whether if He was in Capernaum, He taught in one place and then moved to another place, and in between, there is the reaction of the Jews. This is probably how it works until He ends up in the synagogue at Capernaum, where He teaches them. The interesting thing in terms of background is that archaeologists have recovered the site of the synagogue in Capernaum. It is interesting to note that various figures are carved over the entrance lintel. The figures in the Old Testament are of God giving manna to the Israelites in the wilderness. The backdrop for this whole chapter is found in Exodus chapter sixteen. Jesus has taught them that He is the bread of life that has come down from heaven. Notice the negative response of the Jews.
John 6:41
John 6:41
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
They were grumbling. This is the Greek imperfect active indicative of γογγύζω goggúzō which means to murmur, to grumble, to complain, to gripe. Their focus is on Him, and they reject His provision and proposal. So Jesus challenges them on that very point, the assumption of their human viewpoint agenda. What we see here is a conflict between Jesus and the multitude. Whose agenda is going to prevail? To understand this we have to look at Exodus chapter 16.
The Israelites have been emancipated from slavery in Egypt, have crossed the Red Sea, and now they are in the wilderness and there is no food for them.
Exodus 16:2
Exodus 16:2
2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
Then continues
Exodus 16:7-9
Exodus 16:7-9
7 And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord; for He hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we, that you complain against us?” 8 Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.” 9 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ ”
Exodus 16:12
Exodus 16:12
12 “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”
So, if we were going to choose a keyword for this passage, it would be “grumblings,” the griping and complaining of the Israelites. God has provided so much for them; He has delivered them from slavery, but they have no doctrine and no capacity to appreciate their new freedom because they are focused on a political solution and not the spiritual solution. This is the exodus generation, and the majority of these Jews are believers, in contrast to John chapter six, where the majority are unbelievers.
However, there is a parallel between the two events, and it is intentional. In Exodus 16 , Yahweh provides for the physical nourishment of the Jews in the task of going through the wilderness of Sin.
Exodus 16:9
Exodus 16:9
9 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ ”
Exodus 16:4
Exodus 16:4
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
Notice it is a daily provision. God does not dump it all at once — it is one day at a time. Why? What is God teaching? He is teaching some fundamental principles that we must have if we are going to advance in the spiritual life.
1— The faith-rest drill, constant dependence upon God, mixing faith with the promises of God.
2— Grace orientation. That God is going to provide enough for everybody, whether they are obedient, disobedient, believer or unbeliever. He is going to provide for everybody on a day-by-day basis.
3— They have to become oriented to doctrine—as God said, “that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.” That speaks of doctrinal orientation.
What we see here is that God has devised ten stress-busters. They begin with getting into the plan of God or recovery through confession and the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is followed by the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, and doctrinal orientation.
These five stress-busters basically define spiritual infancy. When you are a brand new believer, a spiritual baby, you are commanded to desire, i.e., to hunger for, to prioritize being nourished by the Word of God. Then, there are three spiritual skills. A skill is something you have to practice, a technique, something you have to master to handle certain circumstances. This is so that when we get to certain application situations or tests, we have practiced these things and can use them. So, we have a responsibility as a believer every time we get into situations to think, think. Am I going to operate on doctrine or human viewpoint at this point? What is the doctrine to apply? These are the fundamental stress-busters that characterize spiritual childhood and infancy.
The fifth is a personal sense of our eternal destiny. This is where we learn that we are living today to prepare for eternity and that the decisions we make today determine who will be in all of eternity. This is where we begin to shift from childhood to adulthood, and that is known as spiritual adolescence. It is at this point that most believers bail out and fail in the spiritual life.
Then, we get into the adult characteristics. Numbers 7, 8 and 9 are the love triplex. These are related to one another, and they build together. The first is personal love for God, then impersonal love for all mankind or unconditional love, and then, 10, occupation with Christ where we put our focus, the focus of our adoration, our attention, on the person of Jesus Christ. The result of all of this is inner happiness, the joy of Jesus Christ, where we share the happiness of God in our lives.
These are the stress-busters that God has provided us to handle every situation in life.
Faith-rest drill, grace orientation and doctrinal orientation become fundamental to any advance in the spiritual life.
That is why when God brings the Jews out of Egypt, the first thing He teaches them has to do with daily physical nourishment and sustenance. They have to rely upon God day by day, moment by moment, and they are learning these three things together. These are the same things that Jesus is teaching in John chapter six.
Exodus 16:12-15
Exodus 16:12-15
12 “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ” 13 So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. 14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.
In John 6, nothing has changed. They are still reacting to the provision of God. God chose Israel not because they would be the most spiritually mature people on earth but probably because of their reaction because He would show that they are the most obstinate, stiff-necked people and that if He is gracious enough to save them, then He will save everyone. They are still operating on human viewpoint; they are not operating on faith, and so when Jesus says that He is the bread that came down out of heaven, they reject that.
Look at their response. They try to refute His argument and disprove His claim by taking a superficial approach.
John 6:42
John 6:42
42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Notice Jesus’ response. He is unyieldingly iron-willed here.
John 6:43
John 6:43
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
This is a very important verse often taken out of context, often mistranslated, and often used by hyper-Calvinists to argue for what they term “irresistible grace.” That is a misinterpretation of this passage.
Remember the context. They are asserting their authority against God’s authority. They are on negative volition, they are resisting common grace. At the point of God-consciousness, they were negative toward God. Jesus begins in v. 44 by saying,
John 6:44
John 6:44
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
In the Greek, there is a compound pronoun οὐδείς oudeís—o)u = negative; eij = one. This is an exclusive term and means every member of the human race; “can come to me” is where we come to the verb, which is the aorist active indicative of dunamai [δύναμαι]. Usually, it is translated as “can,” it is the word for ability and the word from which we get our English word dynamite. Plus we have the infinitive of erchomai [ἔρχομαι], to come.
So, “No one has the ability to come to me.”
What does that mean?
Remember the context, going back to verse 35. What Jesus means by coming to Him is believing in Him. So, this is synonymous with belief or faith alone in Christ alone.
“unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”
What is this saying? It is saying that God exercised in eternity past what is called antecedent [because it comes prior] grace. This is the divine initiative in eternity past to establish a plan of salvation to overcome the resistance of the sin nature and bring men into a saving relationship with Him. It is what we normally refer to as the council of divine decrees and God’s establishment of the plan of salvation in eternity past. What this passage is saying is that God took the initiative in eternity past, in the creation of his plan for mankind, to provide salvation for the human race.
“… the Father who sent Me.”
He subtly reminds them of His authority orientation and that He is totally subservient to the Father. He demonstrates that He is not acting independently of the Father’s plan, as they are, but He is acting in dependence upon the Father’s plan. Then, we have the important verb “draws him.” This is the aorist active subjunctive of ἕλκύω helkúō. The word means to draw, drag, attract, or pull something that gives resistance and to overcome that resistance.
At some point, we will come across some Calvinists who create a semantic fallacy called an illegitimate totality transfer. To explain that, every word that we utter has a root meaning. But then it has some secondary meaning and various other nuances and shades of meaning. In John 21:11 Peter drew the net to land.
John 21:11
John 21:11
11 Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.
He is pulling the fish against their will. They don’t want to be caught. So, there is a nuance of dragging against the will. We also have that nuance in Acts 16:19:
Acts 16:19
Acts 16:19
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
Is that nuance of against the will inherent to the root meaning of the word helkuo? No. But when you operate as if that is the root meaning, you end up making John 6:44 say that God drags everybody into salvation and overcomes their volition. In other words, God is the one dragging everybody kicking and screaming into the kingdom of heaven, and nobody wants to go there. Calvinists define the T in their acronym TULIP as total depravity, and how they define total depravity is crucial because their definition is that man, because he is a sinner, cannot and will not ever want to know God. He will always resist God and is hell-bent on rejection of God no matter what God does. And God must choose them and drag them into the kingdom in order for them to be saved because man can’t and won’t ever will it on his own. That loads the whole TULIP with the fact that man will never exercise positive volition.
A better understanding of man’s fallen nature is “total inability”, i.e. that man is totally unable to do anything to save himself; God had to do everything. That is what we believe and affirm.
What are some other meanings of helkuo? If against the will is not part of the inherent meaning, how do we prove that?
John 12:32
John 12:32
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
Not just some men, not just believers, but all men to Himself. There, it has the basic meaning of attraction. Of the six uses of this word in the New Testament all but one is in John.
In John 18:10 he uses the word:
John 18:10
John 18:10
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
He draws the sword out of the scabbard; and there is no resistance. In fact, if you are a good soldier and know you have to use this weapon in battle, you want it to come out of that scabbard with as little resistance as possible. So we see that the idea of resistance and against the will is not an inherent nuance of the word but is only there in some contexts. The basic meaning is to attract or draw, and God draws all men to Himself through the gospel message of the cross. So, Jesus is saying that God will take the initiative in the plan of salvation but the individual has to respond and accept the gospel.
John 6:45
John 6:45
45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Jesus tightens the noose of His argument.” The last sentence here is a summary statement. The verse break here is terrible. The first half of the verse is a quote from the Old Testament in a new covenant passage.
Isaiah 54:13
Isaiah 54:13
13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children.
The context of Isaiah 54 is that this is a prediction of what will take place in the Millennial kingdom when Messiah comes, emphasizing the ultimate source of learning spiritual truth. We are taught of God. How do we learn spiritual truth? Because God teaches it to us. Man on his own cannot understand the things of God because we are spiritually brain dead, and it is God the Holy Spirit who makes these things clear to us. God the Holy Spirit functions as the human spirit at the moment of God-consciousness. Jesus is not interpreting the passage; He is just quoting it to establish His point that, ultimately, people learn spiritual truth directly from God. Then He concludes:
45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Once again, He identifies Himself closely with the Father. If you believe the Father, you will come to me; if you don’t believe the Father, you won’t come to me. His sub-text is: You are rejecting the Father. You have rejected the Father’s provision, so you will not come to me. You have been negative at God-consciousness, you are negative at gospel hearing, and you are not accepting me. Then He goes on to talk about the fact that everyone learns the revelation of God.
John 6:46
John 6:46
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.
Compare this to John 1:18:
John 1:18
John 1:18
18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
It is Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, who is the revealer of God the Father. All revelation comes from Jesus because He is the only one who has immediate knowledge of God. He has immediate and complete intimacy with God the Father because they are one. They are distinct persons, but they are one in essence. He knows everything that God has because the Scriptures are the mind of Christ ( 1 Corinthians 2:16), and He is revealing His thinking to us in the 66 books of the Bible.
1 Corinthians 2:16
1 Corinthians 2:16
16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
John 6:47
John 6:47
47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
Here He uses the phrase ego eimi [ἐγώ εἰμι], I AM, the personal name of God in the Old Testament, Yahweh. Jesus again claims full deity. Then He drives home the point.
John 6:49
John 6:49
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
What happened in the Old Testament was just a physical miracle to demonstrate a spiritual reality. They ate the manna in the wilderness and still died; it wasn’t enough to sustain them forever. Remember, the Passover is approaching. Passover took place when God redeemed the nation out of Egypt; then they went into the wilderness, where God fed them by means of manna. We have seen that that is a picture of three things: the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, and doctrinal orientation. Why is eating used as an illustration of this? First, eating is non-meritorious; everybody can eat. The issue is grace and God’s provision. Every day, we have to eat, which stresses the continual orientation to grace, day in and day out. Then, eating is mandatory for life. If you don’t eat, you don’t live. We have to eat to have physical life; we have to eat to nourish our spiritual life.
1 Corinthians 10:1-3
1 Corinthians 10:1-3
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food,
Although manna was physical food, it represented spiritual food and grace orientation. Eating the physical food illustrated relying on grace.
1 Corinthians 10:4
1 Corinthians 10:4
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Notice verse 6:
1 Corinthians 10:6
1 Corinthians 10:6
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
The Old Testament is examples for us.
John 6:50
John 6:50
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
When they ate the physical bread they died, but if you eat the spiritual bread, which is Jesus Christ, you will not die. He is promising eternal life. Then He identifies Himself.
John 6:51
John 6:51
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
This verse has a notorious use. This verse has nothing at all to do with communion.
“If anyone eats” is a 3rd class condition: maybe they will; or maybe they won’t. The word for “eat” is the aorist active subjunctive of phago [φάγῃ]. If this were a present tense verb, it would be continual action in the present time. The aorist is passed; it is a summation, and it is all summed up at one point. What He is saying is you eat once. That is salvation.
End of TNOG74
End of TNOG74
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Sunday, February 23, 2025
TNOG 75
TNOG 75
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Review
Review
In verse 52, the Jews misunderstand this, and they take the metaphor, flesh, literally. There are many Christians throughout history who have made that same mistake.
John 6:52
John 6:52
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
He is not talking literally. He is speaking metaphorically.
Prerequisite for Freedom; Interpretation; John 6:51-59
When Jesus starts claiming exclusivity in front of the crowds in John chapter 6, they become increasingly uncomfortable. They begin to react. “How could He say that? How could He say He is the only way? How could He claim to be the Messiah? We know His parents!” The problem with the crowd was that they had an agenda, and it was not God’s plan. They want to assert their authority and do it their way over against the authority of God. Jesus wants to make this very clear, so each time they react, He makes the statement sound slightly more abrasive. He wants to bring everything out in the open and remove the veneer of religiosity, and make it clear to one and all that they are rejecting Him as the Messiah. He makes statements like “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him.” He is emphasizing divine authority over their authority. Then he says, “He who believes has eternal life.” Once again the issue is faith, not works.
He says, “I am the bread of life,” then, “I am the living bread; the bread I shall give is my flesh.” See how He is pushing it now? He says the bread is His flesh, and then the flesh is His life, and then He says He gives His life as a substitute for the sins of the world. Jesus could not be more clear. He makes it so clear that they understand what He is saying. They react more and more, and the text says that they grumble, complain, and argue among themselves. They are not interested in what God says, rather they are interested in their own agenda. To religion, they say yes, but to God, they say no. To a political solution, they say yes, but to God, they say no.
So now, from verse 51, Jesus is really going to turn up the heat. He is going to make sure they understand the dynamics. What he says, if taken literally, which is how they react to it, is so abrasive and offensive to the Jewish mentality that they just react to it.
The doctrine of interpretation
1) Interpretation is the science and art of analyzing a text to understand the meaning the author intended to convey to the reader. It is not what it means to me. It is what the author intended.
2) The Bible’s interpretation is based on the historical-grammatical principle. This principle emphasizes the study of the original languages in terms of linguistics and grammar, the historical context, and the literary context (whether it is poetry or whatever) and emphasizes the plain or normal sense of the text. Allegorical interpretation reigned through the Middle Ages until literal historical-grammatical interpretation was restored with the Reformation.
3) The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek, and to correctly understand what it says, we must understand it in its original language.
4) When we talk about the historical-grammatical principle, grammar relates in the sense of grammar or syntax, which is the arrangement of words and their relationship to one another. Grammar or syntax studies the relationships between words and clauses to display the author’s emphases and to bring out the various nuances and shades of meaning.
5) The historical context is vital, for the Bible was written over 2000 years in places as diverse as Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Asia-Minor, and Italy, and it was written under a variety of different governments and in different cultural contexts. All of these things affect the author’s individual style and the literary form, which will affect how the author conveys his meaning. Remember, the Bible must always be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and the word we use to describe that is isagogics.
6) The literary context must not be ignored. What kind of literature is this? Is it a personal letter or history? Does the author’s style include imagery and metaphor, and how does he use them? Remember, every text has a context, and a text without a context is a pretext.
7) This is the key principle of hermeneutics: When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, it makes no other sense. Therefore, take every word at its ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truth indicate clearly otherwise. Scripture must always be interpreted in a plain, normal sense. Once the ground of meaning shifts from the author to the reader, then the text can mean anything, and once something can mean anything, then it means nothing.
8) The literal interpretation of Scripture does not exclude the use of imagery or figures of speech, but these are clearly indicated by the context and general rules of grammar and literature.
9) Some types of figures of speech that are common are similes (like or as) and metaphors.
10) The apostle John particularly informs us of numerous metaphors that our Lord used to teach things about His person. So when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” He did not mean that He is physical bread or the source of physical nourishment or that He was to be physically, literally eaten. He is simply making an analogy that He is the source of life and eternal life.
11) The physical act of eating bread and drinking wine is used as a metaphor throughout the Scripture. Eating manna in the Old Testament was a physical act, but it had spiritual significance, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The picture of eating means to accept as true. Eating shows that a person takes something, accepts it, and makes it his own.
Proverbs 9:5
Proverbs 9:5
5 “Come, eat of my bread And drink of the wine I have mixed.
It is a metaphor: Come, make me (wisdom) part of your life. That is the thrust of the meaning of eating and drinking. Cf.
Compare this with Jeremiah 15:6
Jeremiah 15:6.
Jeremiah 15:6.
6 You have forsaken Me,” says the Lord, “You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting!
Furthermore, the Rabbis used eating and drinking as metaphors for accepting and believing something.
John 6:51
John 6:51
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
The word “came down” in Greek is an aorist active participle of the word katabaino [καταβαίνω]. The word means to come down, but the significance here is that it is in the aorist tense—past time, and it refers to an event. The participle means that the action precedes the action of the main verb and that this is referring to an event in history. When did Jesus come down? Approximately 32 years before this. It was a one-time event; it was not a continuous event.
Then Jesus says, “if anyone.” He uses a 3rd class condition, which means maybe you will or maybe you won’t, it is a matter of volition; “if anyone eats,” and here we have an aorist active subjunctive of esthio [ἐσθίω], which means to eat. But it is in the aorist tense—a one-time action in past time, an event. Then, a present tense follows: “he will live,” which is continuous action.
John 6:53
John 6:53
John 6:53 NASB “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat [aorist tense] the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves’.”
He is pushing their buttons to the maximum. He is talking metaphorically. The Jews should be thinking in terms of Scripture, but they have rejected Scripture. They are operating in human viewpoint legalism and religion and are rejecting the Old Testament. The Old Testament says in Leviticus 17:11
Leviticus 17:11
Leviticus 17:11
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’
In the Mosaic Law, they were forbidden to eat meat that had blood in it. They had all these rituals to drain all the blood out of meat. Jesus uses these metaphors to talk about spiritual truth and veil it. But then He will come out and state it clearly to those who are responsive, those who are positive, and those who are negative. He is not going to make it any clearer.
John 6:54-56
John 6:54-56
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
So, we have the question: What does it take to be a Christian? The key word is believe. When the apostle Paul was asked by the Philippian jailer, “What must I do to be saved?” He didn’t say believe and go to church, believe and participate in rituals, believe and be good. He said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”
Acts 16:30-31
Acts 16:30-31
30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Judge -- Shofet שֹׁפֵט
Judge -- Shofet שֹׁפֵט
God is Judge
Let’s start with Psalm 50 where we have a nonverbal sentence or clause.
Psalm 50:4-6
Psalm 50:4-6
4 He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people: 5 “Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” 6 Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge. Selah
Psalm 50:4-6… he calls to the heavens above and to earth, in order to judge his people.The heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
Psalm 7:7-8
Psalm 7:7-8
7 So the congregation of the peoples shall surround You; For their sakes, therefore, return on high. 8 The Lord shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, And according to my integrity within me.
May the assembly of the peoples surround you; may you return to rule over them from on high. Adonai, who dispenses judgment to the peoples, judge me, Adonai, according to my righteousness and as my integrity deserves.
Psalm 96:12–13
Psalm 96:12–13
12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord. 13 For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.
… let the fields exult and all that is in them.
Then all the trees in the forest will sing before Adonai, because he has come, he has come to judge the earth; he will judge the world rightly and the peoples with his faithfulness.
Acts 10:42–43
Acts 10:42–43
42 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
Acts 10:42-43“Then he commanded us to proclaim and attest to the Jewish people that this man has been appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. All the prophets bear witness to him, that everyone who puts his trust in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Have you ever heard of a judge that accepted a bribe or was biased in favor of one party? We have a Judge who is upright and honest. All of his rulings are impartial and we can trust him with our lives.
End of TNOG75
End of TNOG75
Sunday, March 2, 2025
Sunday, March 2, 2025
TNOG 76
TNOG 76
Names of God
Names of God
YHWH - יהוה
YHWH - יהוה
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Understand the Tabernacle of the Covenant viz a viz Hebrews — The Table of Shewbread and Jesus the Bread of Life.
Review
Review
The Altar of Incense: Christ the Intercessor. Exodus 30: 1-10,34-38
We are looking at the Tabernacle Furniture from the perspective of the book of Hebfews. In Hebrews 9 the writer of Hebrews is developing his ongoing doctrines related to the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that is at the very core of the importance (the core emphasis) of Hebrews because this section, which begins in chapter 7 and goes through chapter 10, is the heart of the whole epistle to the Hebrews. The focal point is on understanding the riches, the depth, the breadth of everything that the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. But what it means for us today is His high priestly ministry. He has ascended to the Father’s right hand, and He is seated at the right hand, which is the Doctrine of the Session.
So, what is the Lord Jesus Christ doing right now? One of the key things that the Lord Jesus Christ is doing for each of us is interceding for us. He is involved in intercessory prayer. We are coming to a part of the Tabernacle tonight –a piece of furniture that specifically looks at this aspect of intercessory prayer. That is the altar of incense.
The altar of incense speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, our intercessor. We are continuing to study the Tabernacle because an understanding of the Tabernacle, the rituals that occurred in the Old Testament in the Tabernacle, and the furniture in the Tabernacle and what each piece of furniture did in terms of how it spoke about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is crucial for us to understand who He is and what He did. Looking at the Old Testament background will enhance and strengthen our understanding of what is said in Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10.
So we have a few pictures here. Here is a depiction of the Tabernacle at night with the pillar of fire indicating the Shekinah or the dwelling presence of God. We see the organization in the background of the tribes of Israel, each one according to their tribe and laid out in a very orderly, organized manner. We see the inner tent, which is the main tabernacle itself, the tabernacle proper, which is composed of two compartments – the Holy of Holies and the holy place.
In this picture, we see the cutaway of the Tabernacle itself, the outer veil that the priest would enter to go into the outer room, the holy place. In the holy place he would see three pieces of furniture. We have spent time studying two of these — the golden menorah, the candlestick which speaks of Jesus Christ as the world's light. On the right side, which would be on the north side, you have the table of showbread, which has 12 loaves or one each for the 12 tribes of Israel made of unleavened bread, the furniture itself made with acacia wood covered with gold depicting the hypostatic union, the undiminished deity and the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the unleavened bread picturing His impeccability.
The centerpiece is the altar of incense, which is the piece of furniture closest to God’s presence. A priest would enter and first go to the altar to light the incense or to pray at the altar of incense. This is the closest that any priest could come to God. The High Priest alone could go into the Holy of Holies once a year.
Now, there’s another thing to point out as we go through this. Go back. Let me see. I guess we’ll just start with this schematic. An interesting thing happens when the priest enters the Tabernacle, all the way into the Holy of Holies. Think about where he is headed. He is headed into the presence of God, the closest that any human being in the Old Testament would ever get to God inside the Holy of Holies. What had to happen for that human being to be able to enter into the presence of God? That’s what is illustrated in each of these steps. So the first thing that he would do is he would have to go in, and there would be the sacrifice at the altar (the brazen altar), which speaks of the substitutionary atonement work of Christ. Before anybody can come into the presence of God, there has to be faith-alone-in-Christ-alone (meaning trusting in His substitutionary atonement).
The next thing that has to happen is a cleansing of the hands and the feet, which is a picture of confession of sin - that ongoing experi