Josh Benner

Tag: Israel

  • Sermon: Crossing the Red Sea. Exodus 14

    Sermon: Crossing the Red Sea. Exodus 14

    5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 

    8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 

    10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 

    12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” 

    15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 

    17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 

    19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. 

    21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. 

    And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” 

    26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 

    29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 

    30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. 

    Prayer 

    Our gracious and heavenly Father, 

    We again come to you in a Spirit of praise and rejoicing. Lord, we continue to pray for our nation and all of the division that we face. Let us continue to honor you with our lives, our thoughts, our deeds. Let us live as living sacrifices to you O Lord. 

    We pray that you would bless our time in your word. 

    In Jesus’ name, amen. 

        Introduction

    We’ve actually covered this passage before. About a year and a half ago. 

    And I had asked myself “should we do it again?” 

    And for two main reasons, I decided to. 

    Perhaps most obviously, we’ve been talking about the Exodus and it makes no sense to skip over the most significant event of the entire book of Exodus, when God actually frees the Israelites from Egypt by parting the waters of the Red Sea. 

    And although we’ve looked at this passage before, it’s still helpful because it’s God’s word. And a good knife cuts more than once. 

    And with that very limited introduction, we’re going to get right into our passage this morning. And the plan is to cover the crossing of the Red Sea and close by talking about how that points us to the gospel. 

    And the main idea I want to make this morning: God delivers his people from slavery to freedom. 

    In chapter 12, God had brought the most severe plague against the Egyptians when he struck dead the firstborn of all the people in Egypt. When that happened, Pharaoh seemed to finally tell the Israelites to leave. 

    Fast forward to Exodus 14, and the Israelites are being led out of Egypt, but Pharaoh has decided to pursue them. 

    Now we saw numerous plagues where Pharaoh 

    Beginning in verse 5:

    5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

    We see supreme pride and arrogance on display from Pharaoh. 

    God has continually shown his supremacy and Pharaoh won’t accept it. 

    Now Egypt had a well-equipped and well-trained army. They have chariots which was the great military technology of that day. 

    The Israelites are unarmed. 

    9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

    I think the movie the Ten Commandments actually does a good job of capturing the drama. 

    The Egyptians are in pursuit of the Israelites. 

    With all that God had done for the Israelites, how do they respond? 

    Do they respond in confidence and faith and trust in the Lord? 

    10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

    The Israelites see the Egyptians coming for them and they’re scared. 

    They ask if he’s brought them out into the desert to die. 

    It’s the first time in their wilderness journeys that they’ll complain about the Lord’s goodness towards them. But it won’t be the last. 

    They lose confidence in what God can do. 

    Again, it can be easy to be critical of that. But it’s tempting to lose sight of God when an army is coming towards you. It’s temping to lose sight of God when a situation seems hopeless. 

    It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture of what God is doing, easy to forget what God has done and how he has blessed you. 

    Moses gives them a powerful word. 

    13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. 

    Fear not. The most commonly given command in the Bible.

    God had promised where he was bringing the Israelites. 

    Exodus 3:17, the Lord said to Moses: 

    and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey

    That’s the land to which God had promised Abraham in Genesis. 

    He promises again in Exodus 6:6 and 6:8. 

    And after all the plagues, all the wonders that God had done, the Passover where the firstborn of the Egyptians all died and God spared the Israelites. 

    After all of that, at the beginning of Exodus 13:3-5, the Israelites were told: 

    3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5 And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month

    They had again been reminded of where the Lord was bringing them.   

    God’s promises are trustworthy! 

    And yet the Israelites fall into fear. The Israelites were in a dire circumstance in the eyes of the world. I think all of us would be tempted to fear too. 

    But they had the promise of the Lord. 

    I think fear, stress, worry, and anxiety are extremely common for us in our society. 

    But so many of the fears we have are not necessarily even about life and death situations. They’re not usually fears where we are in imminent danger. 

    We so often live in our minds, and dwell on situations and fears. 

    I can be terrible at this, by the way. So I don’t want to sound condemning. 

    But the problem is when we do that, and I know some of you know what I’m talking about, we can really go to some irrational places with our fears. 

    To some extremes that are never going to happen. 

    I’m not saying we need to be in denial if we’re fearful. 

    But in the face of fear, let us also respond in gratitude to God for his goodness. 

    And again, it can be tempting in the face of fear to make up a story for how things could go that is terrible, everything goes wrong, it’s all bad. That type of worry is not productive. It robs us of joy. It wastes time. It distracts us from the promises of God. 

    God is a good and loving God who has a good plan for his people in the world. 

    And he had a good plan for Israel. 

    Let us respond with gratitude, faith, and trust in the Lord in the times where we’re fearful. 

    The Israelites made a mistake when they jumped to the worst case and lost sight of what God had promised them, lost sight of the wonderful things the Lord had already done for them. 

    Moses says: stand firm. 

     We see phrases translated “stand firm” several places in the Bible, especially in Paul’s letters. 

    In this instance, what it seems to be saying is to stand still. Stand and watch. Look and see. 

    Especially as Moses continues this thought. 

    Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:13-14)

    He was with them. They’d didn’t have to perfectly understand everything. They didn’t have to have control over everything. Again, I think these are temptations that we all face. 

    Let us look at what the Lord is doing. At what he has done in our lives and in his church.  

    Verse 15:

    15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

    Go forward? 

     For the Israelites, with Egypt in pursuit, there are only two directions to go. 

    Towards the army or towards the water…

    But it is in that moment that the Lord will do a miracle that the people could never have possibly imagined. 

    How could they? God does something that has never happened before it. But that’s what God does. 

    Verses 16-18 preview what God is specifically going to do. 

    16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

     God is leading his people. And the Egyptians are going to follow but it won’t go well for them. God delivers his people from slavery to freedom. 

    Verse 19. 

    19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

     God had been leading the Israelites by a pillar of fire. He had been directing them but he had also been protecting Israel. 

    And it says that the pillar moved before Israel. 

    But verse 20 also says that it came between the Israelites and the Egyptians. 

    Some think that the crowd created some sort of darkness or fog around the Egyptians which temporarily prevented them from following the Israelites. 

    21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided

    The waters part. 

    I think this is the mental image we probably most prominently have with the sea parting. It’s like in the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. 

    It’s not Moses who does this ultimately. It is God, literally parting the water for his people to cross. 

     22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

    What must that have been like for the Israelites? 

    All of the miracles that God had done. Being brought into the desert. And now they’re walking on dry ground with the parted waters of the sea on either side of them. 

    Imagine that for a moment. 

    They had been given an incredible promise. And here it happens. 

    God delivers his people from slavery to freedom.  

    The Israelites make it across safely but then the Egyptians start pursuing them. They’re no longer being supernaturally prohibited.  

    23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

    It’s ironic. The wheels the Egyptians chariots were getting clogged. The chariot was their greatest symbol of military strength, but here it’s a weakness. 

    The soldiers of Pharaoh want to turn back. They say that God is against them.  

    26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

    God had parted the waters. And now the sea is going to be closed back up.  

    27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.

    In verse 30, the story ends. 

     
    30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

    The Lord delivers his people from slavery to freedom. 

    The Egyptian army is defeated without Israel having to fight a war. Israel is now totally and finally and forever free of Egypt. 

    Gospel in Exodus

    And that brings us to our second part which is looking at the gospel in the Exodus. 

    For the Israelites, God is using this miracle as an instrument of his grace. 

    The Egyptians were evil. They have not submitted to God. They have persecuted and oppressed the people of God, the Israelites. 

    And so the miraculous event God used for the redemption of Israel, he used for the downfall of Pharaoh and the judgment of Egypt. 

    Every person is going to ultimately bring glory to God. Either you will bring him glory through being an example of the grace of the gospel. Or you will bring him glory as the righteous judge. 

    And that is the beginning of Israel’s exodus. God acting in mighty ways to redeem his people and fulfilling his promises. 

    There are a number of parallels between the exodus and the gospel. 

    The Israelites were in slavery in Egypt. We were enslaved to sin and Christ redeemed us. 

    The Israelites complain and rebel here. That’ll be a continual theme. We continue to struggle and rebel. But for the person who has faith, Jesus continues to be faithful. 

    God redeemed Israel to bring them to the Promised Land. And God is bringing us into a land too. To a new heaven and a new earth. 

    Both the exodus and the new covenant of the gospel are commemorated with meals. As we talked about last week, the Passover meal was celebrated annually, as a reminder for God’s deliverance in the exodus event and for him sparing the Israelites. With the gospel, we celebrate the Lord’ Supper, communion which is a reminder of Jesus body that was broken for our sin and his blood that was shed for our sin. 

    Exodus was in fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham for land and to Moses for deliverance from slavery. The gospel is fulfillment of God’s promise of providing a Messiah, a king from the Davidic line, a perfect and spotless lamb to be sacrificed, of giving his Spirit to those who have faith. 

    In both stories, we see victory in a place where it appeared to be defeat. Israel was caught between an army and the sea. It seemed there was no way out. In the gospel, Jesus died on the cross, where it looked like that was the end of Jesus’ ministry, where it appeared that he had been defeated. 

    For both the Exodus and the gospel, they are entirely acts of God.  It was entirely a work of God in freeing his people from slavery in Egypt and it is entirely a workof the Lord in redeeming us from the penalty of sin.  

    The exodus and the gospel are both stories of intervening in a situation where there was no hope. Egypt between the army and the sea. And we were dead in sin, and hopeless apart from Christ. 

    Both events are undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable, unimpeachable proof of God’s love. God loved Israel. And God loves you. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have enteral life (John 3:16). God shows his love that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

    Thanks for visiting! Have a blessed day

  • Poverty, paganism, and the gospel – Galatians 4:1-11

    The gospel is meant for both Jews and gentiles. Both need the grace of Jesus and are invited to receive the forgiveness that he offers. In this passage, Paul will warn Christian converts from these two distinct backgrounds from falling back into their old religious systems.

    Sermon manuscript

  • How does Jesus have a Father? Studying John 5:17

    How does Jesus have a Father? Studying John 5:17

    In John 5, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. This causes a controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees who had an extremely restrictive view of activities which were allowed on the Sabbath. 

    In John 5:17, Jesus says: “My father is working until now, and I am working.” 

    That’s a theologically loaded statement. 

    It’s so much a part of our vernacular. It’s so ingrained in our thinking of God as our heavenly father that it can be easy to lose sight of how radical a statement that Jesus is making to the Pharisees. 

    Jesus refers to the God of creation as his father. 

    Jesus is not seeker sensitive with that.

    Historical context  

    In the Old Testament, there were appropriate forms in which to address God and Father was not one of them. 

    The first Jewish person to refer to God as their “father” was Jesus. 

    There are a few texts which refer to God as being the father of Israel. But that’s not how individuals addressed God.

    It’s fairly uncommon in pagan religions before Jesus. 

    In fact, it’s uncommon in all of the world’s major religions. It does appear that fatherhood language is sometimes used in Sikhism, although Christianity predates Sikhism by more than 1,400 years. 

    But Jesus calls God his father. 

    It’s really pretty personal and intimate language to use in referring to God. 

    To this point in John, Jesus has made a reference to the temple as his father’s house, in chapter 2. 

    But this language of fatherhood will start to become commonplace in this gospel. From this point forward, Jesus will make dozens of references to God as his father or God as The Father. Just in this chapter, Jesus will talk of the fatherhood of God 14 more times, and the fatherhood language and showing the relationships between Jesus and God becomes much more theologically dense. 

    How does Jesus have a father?  

    But what does that even mean? 

    That God is Jesus’ father? 

    Jesus is uncreated and eternal. He’s God and has always been God. 

    John 1:1 tells us: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

    How does Jesus have a father? 

    Let’s consider several aspects of fatherhood and what that means. 

    D.A. Carson brings up that when we think of fatherhood, we tend to just think of it biologically. A man and a woman procreate and have an offspring, and the man is the father of the child. 

    I’m influenced on this subject by Carson, Michael Horton, and Louis Berkhof among others. 

    The child has his DNA. I think that’s the first place our mind goes when we think of fatherhood. 

    And certainly, that’s true. 

    Incarnationally 

    In one sense, the fatherhood of God and sonship of Christ relates to the incarnation where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 

    Jesus is eternal and uncreated. But he was not eternally a man. 

    In the union of Christ’s humanity and divinity, he was born.

    Luke 1:31-32, where the angel Gabriel is telling Mary of the son whom she is to bear. 

    behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David

    And Jesus was indeed born, as we learn in Luke 2:7: 

    unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord

    In his humanity, Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit through the will of God. In the beginning was the Word. Jesus always was, but he was not always human. 

    How can an eternal being can be born and fully man is a divine mystery that we cannot fully understand. 

    But he was born, and in that sense, he is the Son of God. 

    The word became flesh. That’s not saying Jesus simply took on a human body like he was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, but that he became flesh. He became a man. 

    So he’s the son of God, incarnationally. But that’s not the only sense in which Jesus is the Son of God. 

    Second. He’s the Son of God, from an ethical standpoint. 

    Ethically  

    You also have sonship in a moral sense in the Bible. 

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says: 

    love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High (Luke 16:35). 

    In that usage, he’s saying that, in one sense, it is acting like God which makes us like a son. 

    Follow me for a second. 

    Again borrowing from Carson. Prior to the industrial revolution, most people went into the same vocation as your parents. If your father was a farmer, you were a farmer. If your father was a fisherman, you were a fisherman. If you father was a blacksmith, you were a blacksmith. 

    You did what your father did. You were trained by your father.

    Some people still go into their parent’s line of work now, and that’s all well and good, but it’s not culturally assumed today that everyone will just follow in their father’s and mother’s footsteps. 

    But our heavenly father is perfect and righteous. We are not. 

    But Jesus ties acting like our father in heaven to sonship. 

    He does the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:9: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God. 

    And that goes both ways. In Acts 13:10, Paul calls a magician named Elymas a “son of the devil.” 

    Now Jesus is the one who truly is perfect. In his ministry in the world, he truly lived as God because he is himself divine. Fully man, fully divine, and without sin and he is morally the Son of God. 

    Royalty

    Jesus is the royal Son of God. 

    In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel in the Davidic dynasty are sometimes referred to as God’s son. 

    The king didn’t refer to God as his father. But he is proclaimed to be God’s Son. 

    We see that in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 talks of the kings of the earth and their opposition to God. But then talks of a king whom God has called his son. 

    Psalm 2:7: 

    7 I will tell of the decree: 

    The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; 

    today I have begotten you. 

    In the Old Testament, this is applied to the Davidic kings. 

    We see this language in 2 Samuel 7 when the temple is dedicated. 

    2 Samuel 7:13-14. 

     13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

    But the kings are still ultimately sinful in their leading of the people. 

    In Jesus, he is the true royal son who came into the world and preached of the kingdom of God. 

    Israel 

    Israel collectively is referred to as God’s son. 

    Jeremiah 31:9, God calls them his firstborn: 

    for I am a father to Israel, 

    and Ephraim is my firstborn. 

    Reminder that Ephraim refers to Northern Israel. 

    Exodus 4:22-23, Moses has been sent by God to command Pharoah to free the Israelites. 

    Moses is told: 

    you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.

    With Israel, they had the law and failed to keep it. Jesus kept it perfectly. 

    Moses gave them the law on a mountain. Jesus gave the new law in the Sermon on the Mount. 

    They were in the wilderness and sinned. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and did not sin. 

    The Book of Hosea refers to Israel when it says “out of Egypt, I called my son.” That same verse will be applied to Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. 

    He is the greater Israel. 

    Image of God 

    Jesus is the Son of God in the sense that he is the image of God. 

    The image of God goes back to creation. 

    Genesis 1:26: 

    26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

    Goes on to say in verse 27: 

    27 So God created man in his own image, 

    in the image of God he created him; 

    male and female he created them. 

    It’s not until the New Testament that Adam is referred to as a son of God. We see that in the genealogy of Christ in Luke 3:38. 

    Man is created in the image of God. But humanity is also sinful and fallen. 

    Romans 5:10 says: 

    if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

    We don’t have time to quote the whole passage, but Paul is building an argument. 

    In verse 12, he says: 

     just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

    Then he says in verse 17: 

    because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 

    So what Paul is saying is that sin entered the world through Adam and that Jesus is a new Adam who is without sin and comes bringing grace. 

    Jesus is the greater Adam and the truest example of the image of God. 

    Colossians 1:15 says: 15 He is the image of the invisible God.

    Hebrew 1:2-3 says: 

    in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

    In that sense, Jesus is the true son.

    I’m giving all of these examples, because Jesus as the Son of God means something. 

    It’s not a haphazardly chosen title. 

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  • The height of the reign of Saul. Studying 1 Samuel 11:8-15

    The height of the reign of Saul. Studying 1 Samuel 11:8-15

    Israel defeats the Ammonites

    In 1 Samuel 11, the Israelites face their first major military test under their new king, Saul. He has found out that the Ammonites have besieged the city of Jabesh-Gilead and so Saul assembles an Israelite force. 

    Verse 8: 

     8 When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.

    Numbers can always be a little bit difficult in the Bible. Especially in the Old Testament. In English, our word for thousand always refers to a numerical value. The Hebrew word translated thousand can mean more than one thing. So it’s possible that it’s 300 thousand. It’s also possible it’s 300 military units, but not necessarily 300 thousand men. 

    It’s a large group in any event. 

    It’s also noteworthy that you have a split between Israel and Judah – north and south – just two generations later and even here, it’s listing the military numbers for these primary regions of the kingdom separately. The news of this army is shared with the besieged city of Jabesh-Gilead. 

    Verse 9: 

     9 And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.’ ” When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad.

    And so they give their response to the Ammonite king: 

     10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.”

    In the Hebrew, their wording is actually a little bit cryptic. 

    The ESV translates it as we will give ourselves up to you. 

    The ESV commentary on 1 Samuel says that more literally, what they’re saying is we will come out to you.

    Which has a double meaning where the Ammonites could think they were coming out to surrender, but in reality they would be coming out to do battle. 

    In verse 11, the battle is recorded. 

     11 And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. 

    Again, it’s a passage where a battle happens but it’s not really a passage about the battle itself. It gets summarized in one verse. Saul divided his men and they surrounded the Ammonites and so we see some skill in planning on the part of Saul. 

    The Israelites have a decisive victory. No two of them were left together. 

    The Ammonites are decimated. More attention is actually given to the aftermath of the victory than to the battle itself. 

    To explain the end of this chapter, we need to understand the end of chapter 10.

    Team of rivals

    In chapter 10, after Saul becomes king, he returns to his home and chapter 10 ends by mentioning that there were some who were enthusiastic about the new king, and there were some who were not. 

    Chapter 10, verses 26-27: 

    26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. 

    After the victory, people wanted to round up those detractors who had been less enthusiastic about Saul and see them executed. 

    Back in chapter 11, verse 12: 

    12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” 

    The high point of a doomed kingdom

    Verse 13:

    13 But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel.”

    As I said in the beginning of our time, this is the high point of the reign of Saul. 

    For a brief moment, Israel has the king they wanted. 

    Saul could have been vengeful to his detractors but chose grace instead. He could have hogged the glory but he gives the credit where it’s due when he says that it was the Lord who has worked salvation in Israel. 

    All is well in Israel. 

    There is a celebration. 

    It’s like when a team brings in a new coach or a new general manager and it takes them a few years to built up and then it culminates in a championship. The Cubs winning the World Series in 2016 comes to mind. All that time without winning a World Series and then they get the right people on staff and on the roster and they get there. 

    14 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.” 15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. 

    So we’ve had this great victory. The Israelites are carrying Saul around on their shoulders. The Prophet Samuel suggests that they go to Gilgal to renew the kingdom. 

    Why would they need to renew the kingdom when they literally just installed a new king? 

    I think that John L Mackay argues convincingly that the renewal of the kingdom in light of this great victory is not about Saul. That Samuel is seeking to renew the covenant to the kingdom that they have with the Lord who gave them this victory. 

    Gilgal was mentioned in chapter 10. It’s the place where Saul became king. It was also the place where Joshua built the first altar to the Lord within the Promised Land after they had crossed the Jordan River. In renewing the kingdom at Gilgal, it is also tying the future of Israel to God’s past faithfulness.

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  • Studying 1 Samuel 11:1-7

    Studying 1 Samuel 11:1-7

    In 1 Samuel 11, Israel is on the verge of war against the Ammonites, a surrounding enemy.

    At the beginning of the passage, the Ammonite king – Nahash – has the Israelite city of Jabesh-Gilead surrounded. The Israelites seek out a treaty with the Ammonites. 1 Samuel 11:1 says: Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.”

    In verse 2, the Ammonite king makes an audacious request:
    But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel.”

    An immodest proposal

    There are two reasons why Nahash would make such a demand. From the text, it says that it would bring disgrace upon them. I think that’s pretty obvious. A way to shame and humiliate the people by half-blinding the nation and also the pain which that would involve. 

    A second reason is also likely for such a request. If they just gouged out one eye, they could still farm and therefore serve the Ammonite conquers. But it would make it much harder for them to have any type of military resistance. It would affect depth perception. 

    Most people are right handed and so to have to carry a sword in your right hand when you couldn’t see in your right eye would also cause problems. Carrying a shield with the left hand could also potentially obstruct the view in the left eye, especially when marching in formations as was common in ancient warfare. 

    So there is strategy behind this, but given that Nahash wanted to bring disgrace upon Israel, we also see hatred and vengeance as motivations for why he wanted to defeat them. 

    Back in our passage. Verse 3, we see a request from the Israelites in Jabesh: 

    3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.”

    They ask for a reprieve of seven days. They want to see if they have any options.

    It’s obvious from the context of the passage that the Ammonite king agrees because messengers get sent out in the following verse. 

    Perhaps he’s overconfident or assumes that the Israelites couldn’t possibly mobilize a force in seven days.

    We’ve seen Israel’s situation as they come under threat. 

    And we will see in this passage that it is ultimately a story about the Lord protecting his people. 

    The king and the battle

    So the Israelites asked for a seven day reprieve. They send out messengers. 

    Verse 4: 

    4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud. 

    We don’t know how many messengers are sent or how wide ranging these messengers were sent throughout Israel. But some messengers had made their way to Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, Israel’s new king. 

    There is one point worth making that helps us understand the connection between Saul’s hometown of Gibeah within the Benjaminite territory and Jabesh-Gilead which was the city under Ammonite siege. 

    A tale of two cities

    As I keep mentioning, Saul was a Benjaminite and so he lived in the Benjaminite territory. 

    The Benjaminites had fought a war against other Israelite tribes. One area that did not participate in this war were the soldiers from Jabesh-Gilead. So Jabesh-Gilead is under attack in today’s passage. They go to a place that they had previously spared and ask for help.

    So you have some good historical relations between these two cities. And that place just “happens to be” the home of the new king. 

    I say “happens to be” in quotes because it wasn’t just some random coincidence. Once again in this passage, we continue to see this theme in Samuel of the providence of God. And I want to reiterate the point I keep making. That this passage is about God’s faithfulness. Here, we see it through his providential actions. 

    Verse 5: 
    Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. 

    So it just happens to be these two cities who had this warm relationship with each other, and it just happens to be the hometown of Saul, and now Saul just happens to pass by. 

    People are weeping. We’re not sure if the messengers even know that there’s a king, or know that they’re in his hometown. 

    He’s just coming by with his livestock. 

    We continue to see God’s divine initiative in verse 6. 

     6 And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.

    So we’ve seen the providence of God, now we see the equipping from God. 

    The Spirit rushed upon Saul. 

    This is something that we also see in the Book of Judges where the judges are endowed by the divine Spirit in times of crisis and then act. 

    The same thing happens to Saul and he goes to work. 

    Verse 7: 

     7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. 

    If nothing else, Saul is a showman. Pretty gruesome. 

    Cutting up the oxen alludes back to events in Judges but it is also giving a stern warning to his people that they’re being called upon by their king to serve. 

    The verse ends with they came out as one man. 

    Saul’s action had its intended effect. And for one of the few times in the history of Ancient Israel, the people are united. 

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