Tag: Yahweh

Relation to Self

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 17 – Finding our place

Relation to Self

[Bible references: Psalm 8:5; 104:27-30; Micah 6:8; Matthew 6:26; 10:29-31; Luke 12:24; 18:29-30; John 13:35; Ephesians 1:7; 5: 21-33; Philippinas 2:1-11]

The second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” implies that we love ourselves. God loves us. He cares about us, even to the number of hairs on our head. We are His creatures. That makes us worth something. While the focus in the Greatest Commandments seems to be of us loving God and us loving our neighbor, we need to remember that the love we give flows out of the love we are given. We are neither loved more nor less than anyone else. This complementarity is woven together in Ephesians 5 where husbands are instructed to love their wives as much as they love their own bodies. In fact, we are best able to take care of others if we are healthy ourselves.

Our health includes all dimensions of our being: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual – If you will, our body, soul, and spirit. To be fully healthy, we need to pay attention to all these aspects of our lives. One problem area in the church as a whole is that it has commonly addressed all these aspects in an unbalanced way. It was due to that imbalance that a pastor, Peter Scazzero wrote, “Emotionally, Healthy Spirituality”[1] in response to the results of an unhealthily imbalance in his own life. Even within the field of medicine, there is a recognition of the connection of physical and spiritual health.[2]

Yahweh has created us with particular bodies in particular times and places, but our post-modern culture has added one more type of imbalance. When some of us experience a dysmorphic disorder, our culture encourages us to deny our embodied identity in Christ. Instead of grounding our being in the surety of our identity in Christ, we are encouraged to ground our being in an identity based on a broken self-perception.

This action replaces Yahweh’s authority with our own, centering our lives in our limited knowledge which is subject to fleeting emotions. This post-modern diminished focus on Yahweh’s authority strips the determination of truth from an all-knowing God and places the determination of truth on our incomplete (and sinfully corrupted) knowledge.[3] However, our primary identity should be based on our identity in Christ with all sub-identities being subject to that.

When we engage in other relationships both within and without the church, we need to be honest about who we are. None of us has it all figured out. We all fall short of what Yahweh intends for us to be. We all lack wisdom and knowledge and all of us are in rebellion. All of us, whether we claim we are children of Yahweh or not, are daily working our way to or from Yahweh. We all imperfectly “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.” We all need forgiveness.

In the end, Yahweh will be the dispenser of wrath to those who remain in rebellion against him, but it is his love that draws us to Him, and it is by His love that people will know we belong to him. The love and mercy we receive from Yahweh may be unearned, but we are loved, and therefore, we need to learn to love ourselves as well. From the security of that love, the love which Christ had towards us when were unlovable, we can then reach out in love with those with whom we disagree or find offensive. As we learn to fully receive the love of God, we will strengthen our ability to love others.

[1] Scazzero, Peter. “Emotionally, Healthy Spirituality”  Zondervan, 2017

[2] Cook, Alison. “The Most Important Gift” Alisoncookphd.com www.alisoncookphd.com/the-most-important-gift and “Saying Yes To Yourself” 2 Dec 2020 www.alisoncookphd.com/saying-yes-to-yourself/

[3] Groothuis, Douglas. “Postmodernism on Race and Gender: An Evangelical Response” Asbury Seminary, place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1317&context=asburyjournal

Reflect

Various businesses use our various media to try to make us dissatisfied with our bodies to create desires to buy services or products to make our bodies “more acceptable.” Our social media enhances that effort. While It is good to be

Observe

Read Psalm 8:5; 104:27-30; Matthew 6:26; 10:29-31; 12:11-12; Luke 12:24. If God cares about your needs, how should you care for yourself?

Relation to Yahweh

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 17 – Finding our place

Relation to Yahweh

[Bible references: Exodus 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:12]

Most English translations of the Bible obscure a very significant relationship. In Exodus 6, the Creator revealed himself to Moses as Yahweh for the first time in history. Our translations mask the personal nature of the name when they translate that name with the title, LORD. However, if when reading the Old Testament replacing the word LORD with the name, Yahweh, we will discover, particularly in the Psalms, a very personal relationship between us and Yahweh.

Not only is God not some impersonal force but He is a person with whom we can have a relationship. In fact, He created us to have a special relationship with Him. As such, the meaning of our lives cannot be found solely within ourselves as if we were isolated creatures or self-contained universes. We are image-bearers of Yahweh, the person who is a community, we are designed to be people in community. And since we are created as an outpouring of the love that was shared between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we should outpour that very same love in our relationship with Yahweh and with each other.

We were created to be co-creators with Yahweh. Not that we have the same kind of powers, but we can use the materials and abilities He has supplied for us to create families, cities, nations, art, tools, and many other types of things. It was intended that our creations would glorify Him.

We know that we are not able to love Yahweh in the same way He loves us. Firstly, He is the Creator, and we are the creatures. Secondly, ever since our Rebellion, we were born in a corrupt state with a tendency to rebel against our Creator. Therefore, to discover the meaning of our lives, we need to search out the essence of the love of Yahweh toward us. In Chapter 15, we explored the various spiritual disciplines which could be helpful in guiding us in the search of who Yahweh is and how he loves us.

Even though our rebellion against Yahweh has harmed our relationship with Him, he continues to love us and has made provision for our relationship with Him to be restored. It is also because of his love, that he has had great patience to endure our constant rebelling and he is constantly working to draw us back to him. Our relationship with Yahweh does not require us to do great things or to do sufficient good things to outweigh the bad things we do. We “merely” need to be born again, to have his Spirit join with our spirit. When we are born of the Spirit, that is when we are born again, then we are not only image-bearers, but children of our heavenly Father. And one day, we will know him fully even as we are fully known by Him.

Observe

Read Exodus 6:1-6. What is the difference between knowing God as “God Almighty” (El Shaddai) vs. “Yahweh?”

Passion unto death

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Passion unto death

[Bible references: Genesis 3:12; Matthew 16:21-23; 21:4-5; 26-27; Mark 9:30-37; Luke 22:54-62; John 1:14; 12:12-19; Romans 1:18-32; 5:20; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-10]

There is a sense in which each moment of history is equally important to the next. Each moment is a moment which God pursues us as he guides us to our ultimate flourishing. There is no reason to suppose that our continuing flourishing will cease once heaven and earth are reunited, but we should expect that our flourishing will continue as a manifestation of his glory.

However, in our current state of affairs in which earth is broken from heaven, there are moments, epiphanies, in which heaven more noticeably breaks through. There are moments in which angels are more visible or in which Yahweh reveals himself through his prophets. Even more remarkable is the moment in which Yahweh submitted himself to taking on human form, even to the point of being conceived as an embryo inside the body of a human woman and then enduring the normal process of physically growing to become a human adult. Yet even that was not sufficient. Yahweh may have taken the form of a human, but it wasn’t a glorified human,[1] not yet the human as he intends for us to be.

To do that would require him to suffer the shame and justice that we ourselves have earned. The sin that brought us death would have to overcome by a sacrifice that would bring us life. In becoming human, Jesus identified himself with us, but in order for us to become like him he would have to make us ready to receive his spirit. We were helpless to make ourselves acceptable to God, to make ourselves free from sin and its consequences. Bonhoeffer once related his prison experience to Advent. He could not free himself – he needed someone to come from the outside to rescue him.[2] And that is our dilemma, we need someone to come from the outside to rescue us. The covenant revealed to Moses was given to increase our sin, to make it more evident than before about our inability to rescue ourselves. We were condemned by our sin to remain separated from God.

We saw in the previous chapter, that the world was very much like it is now, full of factions and frictions, the powerful and the poor, and everyone waiting and wanting the world to be a better place. The world into which Jesus was born was as broken as it is now. Jesus came into this world with a message of love and hope and with acts of healing and casting out of demons, but that would not be enough. Sin and death had a power over the world that needed to be broken. To rescue the world, to restore it to what it was intended to be, sin and death would need to be defeated. And there was no one who could carry out the rescue except God.

It was as true then as it is now, ever since Adam and Eve, people look at the problems around them and think that the problem lies somewhere else besides inside them. In particular, the more factions and frictions there are, the easier it is to find someone else to point to. So, when Jesus came, teaching, healing, and identifying with the common people more than the elite, it seemed that the more Jesus revealed himself the more the people seemed to think that Jesus would be the one – to rescue them from the Roman government.

Even Jesus’ chosen twelve disciples, the ones who would spend three years with him day and night … even they couldn’t understand the type of rescue they would need. Jesus would explain many times about what he needed to do, but the disciples couldn’t understand. The truth is, though, that even as we look back and see what Jesus had to do, we also have a hard time fully understanding just how desperately that we need rescuing. We don’t understand the depths of our own depravity.

When Jesus approached Jerusalem with his disciples for the last time, some of the disciples argued about which of them was the greatest, or who would sit next to Jesus on his throne. When Jesus showed his power with his resurrection of Lazarus, the crowds got more excited about the possibility of Jesus throwing out the Roman government and then they gave him a grand entry into Jerusalem. However, Jesus refused to act as they wanted, and the crowds eventually turned against Jesus. Even one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, gave up on Jesus and agreed to betray him to the Sanhedrin. Then, when Jesus was arrested, the rest of the disciples went into hiding. Even Peter, who tried to follow the lynching party at a distance, refused to be identified with Jesus.

[1] Got Questions “How does the Bible describe glorified bodies we will possess in heaven?” Got Questions www.gotquestions.org/glorified-bodies.html

[2] Kincaid, Elisabeth Rain, “Bonhoeffer: Advent is Like a Prison Cell” Christianity Today www.christianitytoday.com/women/2018/december/bonhoeffer-advent-is-like-prison-cell.html

Observe

Read John 12:12-19. In this scene, the crowd is expecting a rescue from the Romans,  the Pharisees are worried about their competition becoming too popular, and the disciples are not comprehending what is happening. How did the disciples eventually understand what was happening?

Inheriting the kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Inheriting the Kingdom

[Bible references: Matthew 5:1-12; 18:1-9; 19:13-14; 25:34; Luke 18:15-17; John 3:1-8; James 1:4]

The Beatitudes are not parables but rather descriptions of the type of people who are in the kingdom of heaven (first and last beatitudes) and the blessings that they shall obtain.[1] The poor in spirit are those who see themselves powerless, helpless in themselves and unworthy regarding Yahweh;[2] they know that they may be loved by God, but they are broken and not worthy of that love. Those who mourn are those who mourn for their sin, for loss, injustice, etc.[3] The meek are those who trust in Yahweh are will wait for Yahweh even in the face of opposition.[4] Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are those who want justice as much as they do food and are willing to take action for it.[5] The merciful are those who respond to the mercy shown them by Yahweh by showing mercy to those who need it.[6] The pure in heart are those who stay away from deceit and want the glory of Yahweh.[7] The peacemakers are those who pray for and pursue peace even for those who persecute them.[8] Those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are those who are persecuted because of their pursuit of righteousness but not because they were not merciful or not poor in spirit.[9] The beatitudes show the rewards and blessings and shalom  (peace, wholeness, and well-being) for all those types of people.

No one enters the kingdom of Yahweh by their own merit, it is strictly only by family ties. Children only. Only those who are born-again, that is born into the family of Yahweh, are eligible to inherit the kingdom of God. The beatitudes describe the kind of children that one should find in the kingdom. Jesus reinforces this again when answering the question about who is greatest in the kingdom of God. Furthermore, Jesus cautions the adults in this world that not only should they become like children but that they should not cause problems for the children in this world.

[1] Piper, John. “The Beatitudes and the Gospel of the Kingdom” Desiring God 26 Jan 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-beatitudes-and-the-gospel-of-the-kingdom ; Kauffman, Richard A. “Blessed are those who mourn” Christianity Today www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/22.50.html

[2] Piper, John. “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit who Mourn” Desiring God 2 February 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit-who-mourn

[3] Biblehub “Matthew 5:3” Biblehub biblehub.com/matthew/5-3.htm

[4] Piper, John “Blessed are the meek” Desiring God 9 Feb 1989 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-meek

[5] Piper, John “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” Desiring God 16 Feb 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-those-who-hunger-and-thirst-for-righteousness

[6] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Merciful” Desiring God 23 Feb 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-merciful

[7] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Pure in Heart” Desiring God 2 Mar 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart

[8] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Peacemakers” Desiring God 9 Mar 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-peacemakers

[9] Piper, John, “Blessed are the Persecuted” Desiring God 16 Mar 1986 www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-persecuted

Observe

Read Luke 18:15-17; James 1:4. James encourages us to become mature in the faith. Luke encourages us to receive the kingdom of God like a little child. How do we reconcile these two thoughts?

The kingdom arrives

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

The Kingdom Arrives

[Bible references: Isaiah 61:1-2; Matthew 8:16, 28-34; 9:6; 10:1; 28:18; Luke 4:14, 18-19, 32; 5:21; 6:6-7; 7:1-10, 29-30; 9:1-6; John 5:14; 10:11-18; 14:9; Acts 10:38; 1 Corinthians 15:24]

When Jesus broke into history, we no longer saw the kingdom of God overlapping the earth in a place as in the Garden of Eden or a place in the Holy of Holies. This time the kingdom of God had entered by a person, Jesus, who was anointed with the power of the Spirit. His next goal then was to invade the earth with his kingdom by that same Spirit entering our lives, by the overlapping of Heaven and Earth within each of us as Heaven and Earth overlapped within Jesus.

“God’s kingdom” in the preaching of Jesus refers not to postmortem destiny, not to our escape from this world into another one, but to God’s sovereign rule coming “on earth as it is in heaven.” [1]

When Jesus began his ministry, he quoted from the book of Isaiah to declare how he had come to fulfill that prophecy. Then there were many times throughout his ministry when he declared the reason he had come.

Left to our own resources, we cannot, on our own, correct our relationship to Yahweh; we cannot find our way back to a good relationship with him. We are lost to sin and unable to find our way back to Yahweh, the good shepherd.

Even though His power was evident in the teachings alone, His power was testified to by healing all sorts of diseases[2] including physical or spiritual blindness, casting out spirits (all these things that not only Jesus did but his disciples as well), proclaiming freedom for those in prisons, and setting the oppressed free. But even above providing hope and healing, Jesus offered forgiveness for sin and admonitions to turn away from sin. Jesus came to make us whole in body, mind, and spirit, to experience shalom. Sadly, even though some Gentiles recognized Jesus’ power and authority, some of the chief priests and elders did not want to recognize it themselves, remaining trapped and oppressed in their sin.

[1] Wright, N.T. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church Harper Collins 2008. Kindle Edition (p 19.).

[2] Walk with the Wise “Every instance of Jesus Healing in the Bible: What they all had in common” Walk with the Wise walkwiththewise.org/every-instance-of-jesus-healing-in-the-bible-what-they-had-in-common

Reflect

How do we participate with Jesus in bringing His Kingdom to the earth?

Observe

Read Matthew 10:1; 28:18-20; Luke 9:1-6. How do we participate with Jesus in bringing His Kingdom to the earth?

Baptism, Anointing Temptation     

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Baptism, Anointing Temptation     

[Bible references: Genesis 3:6; Mathew 3:13-17; 4:1-11]

Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated when John baptized Jesus. When Jesus submitted to the baptism to “fulfill all righteousness,” Jesus testified that John’s baptism by water was ordained from heaven. The Spirit then affirmed Jesus’ ministry by coming down and anointing Jesus.[1] The baptism was at once followed by the Spirit leading Jesus to the desert where Jesus fasted for 40 days and submitted to being tempted by the devil. Like David, Jesus responded to the temptations by waiting for the Father. In the first temptation, Jesus waited for the Father to feed him instead of trying to satisfy his need by himself apart from the will of the Father. In the second temptation, Jesus trusted God by not testing God and foolishly putting himself in danger. In the third temptation, Jesus refused to worship and serve anybody but Yahweh. In all these cases, Jesus confirmed Hebrew scripture to be the word of God by using Hebrew scripture to refute the devil.

[1] Biblehub “Matthew 3:13” Bible Hub biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/3-13.htm

Observe

Read Matthew 4:1-11; Genesis 3:6. What is similar to the temptations of Jesus and the temptations of Adam and Eve?

Looking for Messiah

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Looking for Messiah

[Bible references: 1 Samuel 8:5; 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 9:6-7; 52:13-53:12; Matthew 2:2; 3:16; Luke 1:23-33; 1 Peter 2:24; John 6:15; 1 John 5:1-13]

During all the messy history, Yahweh was working to bring his plan into fruition. His end goal was to create a new heaven and a new earth but there were things that needed to happen first, including the removal of the power of sin over his people. His solution was to lay aside some of his power and enter history as a human, not only so that he could identify with his image-bearers but so that we would be challenged to choose his authority as a matter of faith – not a blind faith, but a faith based upon recognizing God’s work.

In the writings of Hebrew scripture there were clues and prophecies about the Redeemer that Yahweh would provide: the Redeemer that would be anointed by God, the Redeemer would rescue people from sin and the Redeemer would restore their relationship with Yahweh. The charts in Appendix D show many of those prophecies. These prophecies created an air of expectation. While it’s easier for us who are looking back to see how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, at the time that Jesus was born there were differing expectations about how those prophecies would be fulfilled.

One thousand years previous to Jesus’ birth, the Israelites thought that their problem was that they didn’t have a king “like everybody else” Now once again, many still thought that their problem was still a political one and that what they needed was the kind of Messiah that would throw out the Roman government.[1] (There were also some other various controversies swirling around which we will discuss in more detail in the next chapter.) Nevertheless, people were looking for a Messiah.

[1] Bible Study Tools “John 6:15” Bible Study Tools www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/john-6-15.html

Observe

Read 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 9:6-7; 52:13-53:12; Matt 3:16; Luke 1:23-33; 1 Peter 2:24. What kind of Messiah was expected to come?

Recognizing the unity of Yahweh and Jesus

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Recognizing the unity of Yahweh and Jesus

[Bible references: Genesis 3:14-15, 21; 4:13; 5:5-6; 6:5-6; 12:1-3, 16-33; Exodus 32:1-14; Judges 6:24; Psalms 29:11; 78:40; Job 42:10; Isaiah:4; 54:7-10; Jeremiah 42:10; Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:50; 8:48; 10:5-6; 12:49-53; John 2:13-17; 8:58; 10:30; 14:27; 16:33; 20:28; Romans 12:18-19; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1; Revelation 6-10]

We need to remember that Jesus, as God, was present in whatever God was doing during the times of the Old Testament. There are various Hebrew designations for God in the Old Testament, such as Elohim or Yahweh. It remains a mystery as to whether those Hebrew names refer to all the persons together (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or whether they might refer to God the Father in particular. Either way, Jesus was included. On one side, anything that Yahweh did, was Jesus’ doing as well. On the other side, whatever Jesus did was the work of Yahweh as well. If Jesus was working at reconciling the world to himself from the beginning, that was the work of Yahweh as well.

While we usually have no problem seeing Jesus as a one bringing peace, Yahweh also desired peace. When Yahweh needed to discipline his people, he desired to show mercy, as well. While human sin drew the wrath of Yahweh, it also brought Yahweh sorrow. We also see that Yahweh did not correct His people when they petitioned Him to show mercy to others.

On the other side, while we usually have no problem seeing the violence of Yahweh, Jesus himself never promised not to use violence. In fact, he promised to bring division. Jesus did not admonish Roman soldiers about their jobs when he encountered them, even complementing them on their faith. At one point, Jesus even violently attacked property in the temple.

In the present time, we are instructed, if it is possible, to live peaceably with all people and that vengeance is reserved for God. But we also know, that at the end of the end times, violence will be unleashed in the final judgment.

Observe

Read Genesis 6:5-6; Matthew 8:5-13. Compare these two passages. How is God portrayed the same way in both passages?

Problematic acts of violence in the Old Testament

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Problematic acts of violence in the Old Testament

[Bible references: Genesis 4:26; 6:5-22; 9:1-1; Exodus 15:1-21; 17:16; 20:5:34:6-7; 14:18-19; Deuteronomy 5:9-10; 33:27; Joshua 6:15-19; 8:1-2; 10:20, 40-43; 11:16-23; 13:1; 15:63; 16:10; 17:16; 21:43-45; Judges 3:1-7; 1 Samuel 17:45-47; 25:28; 1 Chronicles 21; Isaiah 28:21; Jeremiah 6:23; 42:11-12; Ezekiel 8:17; 23:19; Habakkuk 1:6-7]

The Flood

Human violence made God grieved[1] that he had made humans and He was filled with pain. God sent a flood as a judgment on the violence and evil of humanity, but in His mercy, God spared Noah and his family. In addition to that, after the flood God imposed a penalty for murder and gave the rainbow as a sign of his covenant to never flood the earth again.

The conquering of Canaan

God’s instructions to Joshua for conquering the land of Canaan along with and the language that summarized some of results can make is seem genocidal, like all the Canaanites were wiped out. However, reading more carefully, we can see that the language is being used hyperbolically. For example, at the end of Joshua and the beginning of Judges we still see all the Canaanite tribes still exist, that there was still Canaanite land waiting to be possessed and that there were still many Canaanites around that God intended to remain in order to bother the Israelites. Also, as we look at the language God used for driving out the Canaanites in Deuteronomy 33:17, it indicates that Yahweh had a prior relationship with the Canaanites just like He had in primeval times with Adam’s son, Seth, and Seth’s descendants.[2] What is not often linked to the demise of the Canaanites is the curse that Noah placed on Canaan (Genesis 9:18-25).[3]

Intergenerational violence

Many people are disturbed by the statement made in a few locations in the Old Testament, about punishing the children for sins of the fathers to the 3rd and 4th generation. Some clarifications need to be addressed in this statement.

  1. Some translations use the term “punish” but other versions use the better translation “visit,” That is to say that God will witness the effects of the sins of one generation on the following generations. Since family structures in Old Testament times included up to four generations living in one location, it would be natural to see the effect of the oldest generation affecting the others.
  2. Setting the effect of sin to just 3rd and 4th generations also needs to be seen in contrast to the mercy shown to thousands of generations. Yahweh’s mercy is greater than sin.
  3. This statement also needs to be set in contrast to Ezekiel’s statement that the penalty for sin would only be applied directly to the sinner.

Yahweh’s abandonment of Israel

Just as Yahweh had disciplined Assyria, Babylon, and other nations for their excessive violence towards Israel, Israel’s continued practice of violence and evil warranted the same violent discipline. Yahweh allowed the capture and exile of Israel and Judah by Assyrians and Babylonians. This violence by Yahweh towards Israel was in contrast to the continued mercy shown by God to Israel in the past. For that reason, this abandoning Israel to the violence of Assyria and Babylon would be referred to as his “strange” work (Isaiah 28).

During that abandonment, much of the suffering Israel and Judah experienced, including extreme starvation that led to cannibalism, was due to their failure to surrender during the siege of the cities. Of course, if Israel and Judah had been obedient from the beginning, Yahweh would not have brought in the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

When Israel successfully evaded the Egyptians during their exodus, a song was created in which Yahweh received the title, “the Warrior God.” After that, Yahweh was described as a warrior fighting for Israel. But that sentiment disappeared after Israel went into exile because Yahweh turned the tables and fought against Israel.

[1] From Genesis 6:6. Some Bible translations use “regret” or “repent” to translate the Hebrew nacham which also encompasses grief or sorrow.

[2] Mariottini, Claude. Divine Violence and the Character of God, Wipf & Stock, 2022 (p.329-330)

[3] Fischer, Bryan. “What did Ham do when he ‘saw the nakedness of his father”’” American Family Radio www.afa.net/the-stand/family/2014/08/what-did-ham-do-when-he-saw-the-nakedness-of-his-father/ This curse has been misused by Europeans and Americans who wanted to justify enslaving the Africans by insisting that the curse was put on Ham from whom the Africans were descended.

Observe

Read 1 Chronicles 21. Would you prefer to be disciplined directly by God or by image-bearers commissioned by God to discipline you?

General Issues with Violence

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

General Issues with Violence

[Bible references: Isaiah 10:5-12; 40:1-2; 48:8-11; 55:8; Jeremiah 25:12-14; 30:24; Zechariah 1:14-15]

In many ways, our modern-day sanitized culture puts a distance between us and some of the everyday realities of violence. Some examples: Buying packaged meat from the butcher, without seeing the slaughter of the animals, People dying in the hospital and sent to the morgue instead of allowing us the honor hosting the dead at home.

For those of us who have more privileged lives where we don’t directly experience violence done to us or loved ones, many have problems with a judgmental God. But those who are oppressed and do directly experience violence done to them or their loved one’s desire God’s judgment and His righteousness.

God’s acts of violence are not part of his nature but are a reaction to acts of human violence. The purpose of God’s violence is to restore justice in his creation.

When God’s assigned His image-bearers the responsibility of stewardship over His creation, that assignment did not end with our rebellion. To that end, Yahweh’s preferred method of working in the world is through His image-bearers. Even when Yahweh wishes to use violence to restore justice, He often uses human agents. Those agents however often exceed the charge given them, creating much of the abusive violence we see in the Old Testament. However, when that happens, God disciplines those same agents.

Even with all these explanations we should expect that, in the end, God’s violence is a mystery we cannot fathom. We cannot grasp why God allows violence to persist on earth.

Reflect

Is it possible for God’s justice to not use violence against those who unrepentantly use violence against God’s other image-bearers?

Observe

Read Isaiah 55:8; Jeremiah 25:12-14; 30:24. Is there a warning for all of us here?

Looking back – Signs and shadows of the kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 11 – The Kingdom Enters

Looking back – Signs and shadows of the kingdom

[Bible references: Genesis 6:5-7; Exodus 25:17-22; Leviticus 16; Joshua 24:19; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Chronicles 36:17-24; Ezra 1-2; Psalm 14:2; 53:6; Isaiah 43; Jeremiah 29:10; 31:31-39; Matthew 4:12-17; Romans 7:7-24; 8:20-22; Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1, 5-10; Revelation 21-22]

In the beginning, God created a good earth. Within that good earth, Yahweh created a special place, the Garden of Eden, where he could meet and live with the creatures who bore his image. The Garden was a place where the heaven and earth overlapped, a place where the goodness of Yahweh overflowed, a place of shalom, a place where his image-bearers were intended to thrive and develop as co-creators with Yahweh and ultimately create a civilization that would cover all the earth to the glory of God.

“Perhaps the most fitting symbol of the development of creation from the primordial past to the eschatological future is the fact that the Bible begins with a garden and ends with a city – a city filled with “the glory and the honor of the nations.”[1]

However, the image-bearers put Yahweh’s authority to the side and rebelled against him. The rebellion disrupted the union of the Yahweh’s kingdom with his creatures and all of creation was put into disorder. Human space and Yahweh’s space were separated and all of creation was damaged, including not only the relations between Yahweh and his image-bearers but between the image-bearers themselves.

In the Bible, the themes of heaven and earth can be thought of as heaven being God’s space and the earth being the human space. It may be helpful to think of these spaces as different dimensions. In the Garden of Eden these spaces overlapped, allowing God and man could dwell together. In the garden the humans were to be partners with God taking care of this garden, however they decided to do things their own way rather than God’s. This resulted in the humans being ejected from the space where heaven and earth overlapped, and the remaining story of the Bible is about how God is once again going to bring heaven and earth back together.[2]

The image-bearers found themselves in an increasingly vicious cycle of violence and corruption causing God to restart his project by creating a great flood. Fortunately, out of his deep love for his rebellious image-bearers, Yahweh was resolved to overcome the violence and oppression and had a plan to reunite heaven and earth, extending his kingdom over all the earth.

Yahweh set processes in place that would begin with Abraham and Sarah, continue through to the other patriarchs, and then continue with the nation of Israel. Under Moses’ leadership and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the tabernacle was constructed to be the place where heaven and earth would overlap within the Holy of Holies. The temple was decorated and designed to make people feel like they were going back to the garden.

The difficulty was that God’s space is perfect, pure, just, and holy but the human space is full of sin and corruption. This problem was somewhat resolved through the sacrifice of animals, where the animal absorbed the sin of the people and died in their place, creating a limited clean space. Within the Holy of Holies, the mercy seat on the ark was where God’s presence would be but could only be accessed once a year by the high priest.

However, the tabernacle with all its rituals were designed to only be a shadow of things in heaven and a shadow of the things that were coming, a shadow of how Yahweh’s relationship with his image-bearers would be restored and all of earth would be joined with Yahweh’s kingdom in heaven as was intended from the beginning.

In the meanwhile, in those shadows of the coming kingdom, Yahweh worked within the nation of Israel, his chosen people, to gradually reveal signs of his intended restoration. Within those shadows, the people of Israel could see the futility of their own efforts to reconcile with Yahweh despite their denial of the reality of Joshua’s words, “You are not able to serve Yahweh.” Within those shadows, the nation of Israel would rebel against the kingship of Yahweh, rejecting his reign and insisting on creating their own kingdom, like “all the other nations.”

The nation was reminded time after time that the law was good, but they were not, that their continual animal sacrifices were never a permanent solution to reconciling with Yahweh, that they needed a redeemer, they needed a change of heart. Prophets were raised up to warn the people of the consequences of their continual rebellion, but they also delivered messages of hope that, despite their rebellion, God would restore his people to himself.

Then the promised judgment for their rebellion came: Most of the nation was lost to history as ten tribes of Israel were scattered through the Assyrian empire, which would be followed by the temple being destroyed and with a remnant of the remaining tribes being sent into exile in Babylon. If there was any hope that the ritual sacrifices at the temple could reconcile the people with Yahweh, now even that possibility was taken away. The restoration of their own kingdom seemed to be in doubt, never mind the kingdom of Yahweh.

However, the exile was promised to be temporary. After 70 years, the exiled nation had the opportunity to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple. Once the temple was rebuilt it was now possible for the temple worship to continue and even for their government to be restarted, although it would be under the auspices of a foreign nation. Yet in all that happened, one thing had not changed; the hearts of the image-bearers had not changed. There was still a need for a redeemer.

167 Wolters, Albert M. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1985, 2005. eBook (Kindle Locations 581-583)

[2] Bible Project “Heaven and Earth” Bible Project thebibleproject.com/explore/heaven-earth

Worship in exile

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 9 – The Prophets and writings

Worship in exile

[Bible references: Jeremiah 29:1-23; Daniel; Esther; Ezekiel]

During this exile, the Jews, as they would now be called, had to become more deliberate if they were going to preserve their culture. It was during this time that the Jews would begin to collect all their writings in order to begin to determine what would be their scripture. They had the writings of Moses, but they had to determine what else should be included.[1]

During this time, they focused more seriously on worshipping Yahweh. Before this time, the biblical and archeological records indicate that Israel had a habit of adopting the worship of any idols of the culture they were in contact with.[2] But now they had to preserve their culture while living amid a dominant foreign culture.

The books of Daniel, Esther and Ezekiel give examples of how the Jews were able to thrive, even while experiencing opposition while the nation was in exile: Daniel as an exceptional administrator, Esther as queen to the emperor and Ezekiel as a prophet.

From this time forward, most Jews have remained outside their homeland with no access to the one temple in Jerusalem. It was during this time that local synagogues were created, with worship now being focused either in the home or at the synagogue.[3]

[1] Waltke, Bruce. “How We Got Our Old Testament” Christianity Today, Christian History www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-43/how-we-got-our-old-testament.html; Hirsch, Emil G. Blau L, Kohler, Kaufmann. Schmidt, Nathaniel “Bible Canon” My Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3259-bible-canon

[2] Gayle, Damien. “How idolatry continued in the Kingdom of Judah: Israeli dig uncovers temple and icons dating back to Old Testament era” Dailymail.com 27 Dec 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2253695/How-idolatry-continued-Kingdom-Judah-Israeli-dig-uncovers-temple-icons-dating-Old-Testament-era.html

[3] Bacher, Wilhelm and Dembitz, Lewis N. “Synagogue” Jewish Encyclopedia www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14160-synagogue

Observe

Read Jeremiah 29:1-23. What did Jeremiah say that the exiles were to do while they were in exile?

The Ark in the Promised Land

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 9 – The Prophets and writings

The Ark in the Promised Land

[Bible references: Joshua 4-5; Joshua 18:1; 1 Samuel 4-6; 5:1-2; 6:19; 21-22; 2 Samuel 6:5-7; 12-13; 1 Kings 8:27; 1 Chronicles 21:29; 2 Chronicles 1:13;]

After Israel entered the Promised Land, the tabernacle and all its furnishings were originally placed in Gilgal.[1] After the land was settled the tabernacle was then set up in Shiloh where it stayed for two hundred years. During the time of Samuel, Samuel’s sons, without consulting God, removed the ark from the tabernacle to take it into battle with the Philistines who not only won the battle but took the ark with them. The Philistines found that although Yahweh did not see fit to help Israel win the battle, Yahweh did create issues with the Philistines. The Philistines responded by moving the ark a couple of times, but the problems did not disappear and so the ark was sent back to Israel.

The ark initially ended up in Beth Shemesh, but after 70 people died when they tried to look in the ark, the people of Beth Shemesh sent the ark to Kiriath Jearim where it stayed for 92 years. The Bible is not explicit about when it happened, but sometime during the reign of King Saul, the tabernacle, sans the ark, was moved to Nob and then to Gibeon.

After David established the capital in Jerusalem, King David set up his own tabernacle and then moved the ark there. In moving the ark, David had to learn a lesson. He first tried to have the ark carried in a cart, but when the ark started to slip out of the cart, the people died who touched the ark to prevent it from slipping out. So, the ark ended up in Obed-Edom’s house for a while. Hophni and Phineas learned the hard way that you don’t necessarily take the presence of God when you take the ark, but David learned the hard way that you can’t ignore the presence of God when you take the ark. David was successful in moving the ark to Jerusalem after he had the ark moved according to the instructions that God had given Moses.

[1] Joshua 4-5 – Although the tabernacle is not specifically mentioned, Gilgal seems to be the place where Israel settled until the land was divided and is where Passover was celebrated. In Joshua 9, Gilgal is where the Gibeonites come to make a treaty with Israel.

Reflect

Some people use objects or rituals as “good luck charms.” How does the story of the ark relate to that? Have you used a “charm” instead seeking the will of God?

Observe

Read 1 Samuel 4:1-11; 5:1-12. Contrast how God acts differently between these two passages.

The Divided Kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 8– Kings and kingdoms

The Divided Kingdom

[Bible references: I Kings 11:11-13, 26-40; 12:1-24; 2 Kings 12]

Solomon’s divided heart ended up dividing the kingdom. When Solomon’s son Rehoboam succeeded him on the throne, Rehoboam foolishly followed the advice to increase taxes, causing a revolt. Yahweh, who knows all things, had already selected Jeroboam to lead the revolt. The result was that ten tribes (the Northern kingdom, commonly called Israel) followed Jeroboam, leaving only two tribes (the Southern kingdom, commonly called Judah) to follow Rehoboam. With only a few exceptions, most of the kings in the divided kingdom participated in idolatry and the associated practices of the surrounding communities, earning God’s wrath. These two kingdoms were in continual conflict with each other until each came to an ignominious end.

Reflect

God’s discipline of Israel was a slow process as God was at work carrying out his plans for them. Does it comfort you to know that in all circumstances God is carrying out his will for you?

Observe

Read 2 Kings 12. What should we learn from Rehoboam’s mistake?

Solomon

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 8– Kings and kingdoms

Solomon

[Bible references: Deuteronomy 17:14-17; 2 Samuel 7; 1 Kings 3:1-15; 8:27; 11:1-13; 1 Chronicles 22; 2 Chronicles 6]

Solomon had a great start. David gave him materials with which he could start building the temple. Solomon’s heart was humble enough to ask Yahweh for wisdom above all things, for which God blessed Solomon not only with great wisdom but with great wealth besides. The one weakness in all this provision was that Solomon, like other Oriental kings, accumulated wives and concubines. And because Solomon loved his wives who came from other cultures more than Yahweh, he not only tolerated their idol worship but took part in that idol worship as well. One thing that Solomon ignored despite his great wisdom, was the warning, written in Deuteronomy, for kings not to accumulate great wealth and many wives. One early sign of his failure may have occurred during his prayer of dedication for the new temple when, despite the use of wealth from donations or taxes and despite the slave labor and labor from other countries, he still said, “the temple I built.”

Reflect

By putting the love of his wives above the love of God, Solomon’s judgement became clouded. This is the problem wealth always brings us. How does this influence what you pray for?

Observe

Read 2 Chronicles 6:33. What could have been wrong about Solomon praying about the temple “I built?”

Repentance

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 8– Kings and kingdoms

Repentance

[Bible references: 1 Samuel 13:14; 2 Samuel 11:1-27; 12:1-14; Psalm 51:1-19; Acts 13:22]

There were a couple of instances where David committed sin but, unlike Saul before him, David responded to Yahweh’s rebuke with repentance. The most egregious sin David committed was to have an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers, getting her pregnant. Then when he failed to cover it up, he arranged for that soldier to be killed on the front lines. When the prophet, Nathan, confronted David about the sin, David repented and confessed his sin. The baby born from that affair died shortly after being born, but later David would have another child with Bathsheba, Solomon, setting up the next part of the story line.

Observe

Read 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22. Of the three kings of the united kingdom of Israel, only David had a pattern of recognizing his sins and repenting. He was also known as a man “after God’s own heart.”[1]

[1] Edmondson, Ron. “10 Reasons David is Called “A Man After God’s Own Heart” Bible Study Tools www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/ron-edmondson/10-reasons-david-is-called-a-man-after-god-s-own-heart.html; Got Questions “How could David be considered to be a man after God’s own heart?” Got Questions. www.gotquestions.org/man-after-God-heart.html

Saul

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 8– Kings and kingdoms

Saul

[Bible references: 1 Samuel 9:2; 13:1-14; 15:1-35; 1 Kings 13:6]

God gave Israel a king in the mold of other kings. In physical appearance, King Saul was a tall, handsome son of a powerful man, but spiritually, Saul would continue the national habit of “doing what was right in his own sight.” In fact, there were times when Saul was talking to Samuel that Saul made references to “Yahweh your God” instead of “Yahweh our God.” (That phrase had also been used by Jacob before his wresting match with God and would be used again by King Jeroboam at a later time.) Saul had ceased to trust in God. There would also be other times when, instead of leaning on God for victory, Saul would also resort to making foolish, rash vows.

Saul barely began his 40-year ministry as king before Samuel had to inform him that God had rejected him as king. Although that rejection happened early in his career, God did not replace Saul until much later. Saul would have to endure the knowledge that God had rejected him for the rest of his career, which was most of his career, as king. That may have been a factor in him becoming more unstable as time went on. Yet despite his rejection by God, he did have some success in conducting war against Israel’s enemies, but Saul’s standing with God did not change.

Reflect

When Israel got what they thought they wanted, “a king like everyone else,” they – and Saul – had to endure the consequences of that decision. How do we avoid that mistake?

Observe

Read 1 Samuel 15. How did Saul indicate that Yahweh was not his God?

Rejecting God as King

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 8– Kings and kingdoms

Rejecting God as King

[Bible references: Judges 2:10-23; 21:25; 1 Samuel 8:1-22; Psalm 81:8-16]

Ever since the time of Adam and Eve, we have had a problem of thinking that we know better than God. After Israel started to settle into the Promised Land, that same problem appeared again with the diagnoses, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” That problem caused the cycle of 1) God disciplining Israel by allowing them to be dominated by one of the nations, which then caused 2) the people to cry for help, after which 3) God raised up a leader who overcame the dominating nation, 4) then once Israel is freed up, they turned from Yahweh and … the cycle repeated.

Eventually, Israel figured that they thought they knew what the problem was … that they needed a king … like everyone else. When the prophet, Samuel, was old and people became uncomfortable with Samuel’s sons leading the nation (Note: It seemed that Samuel had the same kind of problem with his sons as Eli had with his sons), the people rebelled against God and asked the prophet Samuel to ask God to give them a king. Samuel was troubled because he knew that their diagnosis was wrong. Yahweh confirmed that when he told Samuel that the real problem was not that they rejected Samuel, but rather they’ve rejected Yahweh as king. Unexpectedly, Yahweh said that he would grant their wish anyway. They will get a king (!!!) … like everyone else!!!. One of the lessons from this event is that we need to be careful; in our rebellion, God may condemn us to what we want.

Observe

Read 1 Samuel 8. Knowing that God may discipline us by giving us what we want instead of what we need, how should we then pray?

God’s fullness, his followers’ emptiness

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 7– Settlement

God’s fullness, his followers’ emptiness

[Bible references: Numbers 33:55-56; Deuteronomy 7:1-5; 12:2-3, 29-32; 6:17; Joshua 3:3; 4; 6; 10:1-15; 23-24; Isaiah 65:6-7]

God’s provision though was going to require their involvement. It would start with the way they crossed the Jordan River where the people carrying the ark needed to get their feet wet in the river before it would stop flowing. And since this time, the river would now be the boundary of their new land, the people were instructed to set up a monument of twelve stones to be a reminder God’s provision. The next miracle which came soon after was the crumbling of the walls of Jericho which occurred after seven days of marching around the city. That miracle would be followed by others as the people of Israel continued to capture the cities.

According to the message that Yahweh shared with Abraham, the entry of Israel into the Promised Land meant that the sin of the Amorites had now reached its full measure. As with the time of Noah, that full measure would now end in the destruction of the inhabitants of the land, this time by the people of Israel. The danger to Israel would be, that if the current inhabitants of the land with their idolatries and atrocities, which included sacrificing their children to be burned alive, were allowed to live among the people of Israel, the people of Israel would be tempted to also turn from God.

So, beginning at Jericho, the people of Israel to instructed to “totally destroy” (Hebrew cherem)[1] the inhabitants of the city. This instruction would be repeated other times as well. The problem that would appear is that Israel did not always follow these instructions with the consequent result that Israel would continuously get drawn into the idolatries of the current inhabitants.

Before Joshua died, he challenged the people to serve Yahweh and the people responded that they would choose to serve Yahweh. Joshua replied that they could not serve Yahweh, the God who is so holy. Nevertheless, the people responded that they would serve Yahweh. Joshua then said that they were “witnesses against themselves.” They would be. In the end, they did not follow God’s commands to defeat the tribes in the Promised Land. They did not “completely destroy” the cities as they were told. Israel therefore allowed themselves to be subject to continual temptation to sin by turning from worshipping God and towards worshipping idols, participating in the same atrocities that God found so reprehensible.

[1] Lyon, William L. “Between History and Theology: The Problem of H9 Erem in Modern Evangelical Biblical Scholarship” Florida State University, dissertation Spring 2003

Reflect

Our culture has traditions like New Years’ Resolutions where we promise to make changes in our lives, yet 85% of resolutions fail.[1] What make us unsuccessful so often?

[1] Tabaka, Marla. “Most People Fail to Achieve Their New Year’s Resolution. For Success, Choose a Word of the Year Instead” Inc.com  www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/why-set-yourself-up-for-failure-ditch-new-years-resolution-do-this-instead.html

Observe

Read Deuteronomy 7:1-5.  Why do you think that the Israelites did not follow God’s instructions about destroying their enemies?

The Tabernacle, shadow of something greater

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 6– A nation emerges

The Tabernacle, shadow of something greater

[Bible references: Exodus 25-27; Numbers 2; Hebrews 8:1-18; 10:1-18]

During the time in the wilderness, God instructed the Israelites to build a tabernacle that would serve as the point of presence for Yahweh in the community. Through the tabernacle, God would be seen both as an unapproachable and transcendent God[1] and as a personal, immanent God living among his people.[2] The tabernacle would serve to display the shadow of a deeper reality.

[1] The Holy of Holies could only be accessed once a year and only by the high priest.

[2] The presence of God was indicated by the pillar of fire by night and smoke by day where the people could see it. Also, Moses was able to have face-to-face contact with God.

Reflect

For the nation of Israel, the tabernacle and its rituals provided a visible reminder of that the presence of God was among them, but God was still not accessible except once a year by the high priest. Does God seem like that to you?

Observe

Read Hebrews 8:1-18; 10:1-18. What were the Tabernacle and the Old Testament Laws designed to point to?