The Jealous Lover

Brother in Christ, Shai Linne, lays down the story in his song like this:

“Ok, let’s begin, let your mind roam, Our scene takes place inside of a home, The husband has just walked up the staircase, He glares in displace, with despair on his face, His soul is on fire, inside there’s a war, That can’t be denied, he stands outside the door, On the other side, his bride and her lover, Oblivious to the fact, their lies been discovered, So, as they embrace and try to make haste, They have no idea what’s about to take place,

Gun in hand, he longs to understand, What would lead his wife in the arms of another man, He thinks back to the day they made their vows, Before God, before the minister and the crowds, Exchange of the rings, the joy of the reception, Now a tainted memory, destroyed by deception, He had been faithful to her, now the fire of his desire, Got him ready to do something hateful to her, He never thought his wife would just be a faker, And that her lust would make her a covenant breaker, The promise of fidelity they made was glorious,

But now his jealousy has made him furious, And they can’t see, the danger those screams of pleas, They make could ever ease the pain or appease his anger, He kicks open the door, they jump out of the bed, Don’t move is all he said, gun pointed at his head, The screams of his wife, as she clutches the covers, Close, her lover spoke to plead for his life, The husband says to the guy, “Look me in my eye, My face will be the last thing you see before you die”, The husband cried inside, his love is bona-fide,Trouble for the bride, double homicide.”…….

Jealousy

It’s a dangerous emotion that can be driven by anger, hurt, loss, and fear.

It can hurt relationships, ruin friendships, destroy careers and will more than likely lead to your downfall.

And rarely, is Human Jealousy ever a good thing.Most of the time, human jealousy will hurt you.

But when it comes to God, His jealousy is a virtue.

In fact, there are only a few times in Scripture where God tells us His name and in Exodus 34, He tells us his name is Jealous. See in Scripture, Yahweh is known as El Qanna

El Qanna is Jealous for His Deity, His sovereignty, His glory, but, thankfully, He is Jealous for His very own People.

wow.

For see, The fundamental meaning of El Qanna relates to a marriage relationship. God is depicted as Israel’s husband; and we are His precious Bride.

Sadly, we are more like a Whore than a Bride.

Since the Fall, Humankind has opened its legs(Jeremiah 2:20) to anyone and everyone who captures its heart and mind with the lies, deceits and sins that have crept into our soul.

Tim Keller, speaking on Jeremiah 2:20, says that literally it should be:

On every high hill, and under every spreading tree, you spread your legs.

“God isn’t using this language to shock,” Keller says, “but to teach. There is an attraction going on at the spiritual level every bit as powerful as the sexual attraction at the physical level.” Derek Kidner, likewise, says that what some translators translate “bowed down” is better rendered “sprawled out,” as The New English Bible does:

“Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill and under every green tree, like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers.“

Adultery is a powerful word picture for sin, for idolatry, because this language awakens us to the truth that sin is not breaking the rules but breaking God’s heart. It is getting into bed with other lovers — and of course He withdraws.”

God is Jealous For his Bride, His wrath and anger burn against his bride’s enemies who steal her heart and disgrace her with shame, guilt, and sin that stains the heart and soul.

But also, God’s anger burns against us, for the sins we have all covered ourselves with. You have broken the covenant, whether you believe in God or not, and His Wrath is against you.

I remember reading a story one time about a Pastor counseling a couple, where the wife had cheated on and slept with Her Husband’s Best friend. After deep conviction, the woman wept for her sins, but there was still this strain. The pastor took the husband aside and asked him “What do you want?” The husband replied, “I want Blood.”

God feels the same. He is Jealous for His bride and wants the blood of the monsters who stole His bride’s heart. But He is also Jealous for His glory, The Love in The Trinity, and therefore Sin must be punished, and it must be shed by Blood.

And God did shed blood. A lot of Blood in fact.

The Blood of His precious Son

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”–Leviticus 17:11

God, in His great love, grace and mercy, decided to not give us the death that we deserve, to not give us the punishment of eternity without Him, to not let us suffer with the very enemies who enticed us and let us whore ourselves to them.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.For 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.More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”—Romans 5:8-11

Instead, By and through the Cross of Christ, The Blood for atonement was shed, The New Covenant Sacrifice was made and now we are forgiven and the wrath of God has been dealt upon the One who, you could radically say, NEVER “sprawl[ed] out before her lovers”

and now we are called to show that same grace, to forgive those who have betrayed us, spat in our face with their sin, left us for other lovers and disgraced us. For The Blood that was shed by Christ atones for the sins that once covered you, Christian, and now you must go and share That precious news, The glorious Gospel and tell the world….

The Story of The Jealous Lover.

The Beauty of Calvinism: An Introduction and Response to Matt Matheson Pt 1 of 7

“Few would disagree with the statement that a true Christian is a person who clings for salvation, not to the church; not to the sacraments; not to the Bible; not even to the proclamation of the gospel or the believer’s belief in it; but to the cross and the empty tomb. Calvinism is just the systematic application of this truth in all doctrine, piety, and life. If you make this truth your theological touchstone and resolve to reject everything that comes into conflict with it, and carry out that resolution consistently, you will find yourself a Calvinist.”—Greg Forester

Over the Next few weeks, my friend and brother, Matt Matheson, will be discussing Calvinism. You can read is blog here:

http://notbyhands.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/calvinismsucksp1/

I will be defending Calvinism and hopefully beautifying Jesus in my responses. So let’s get on with it. May grace lead the way…

John Calvin, the famous theologian and pastor of Geneva, died in 1564. Along with Martin Luther in Germany, he was the most influential force of the Protestant Reformation. His Commentaries and Institutes of the Christian Religion are still exerting tremendous influence on the Christian Church worldwide. Calvin certainly wasn’t perfect. He was a sinner saved by grace, simultaneous just while a sinner. He was not Jesus the Christ. I appreciate John Calvin but he isn’t the JC that I worship.

So what is Calvinism?

When discussing Calvinism, the only thing that is ever talked about is the “Five points” or the cute word picture known as “TULIP”. Calvinism isn’t a “brand” or a list of points; it’s a framework for understanding scripture and the Bible that results in the greatest possible amount of truth, comfort, and joy.

If you want to understand the command to rejoice at all times, and still more if you want to obey it, of all places you might start looking for help with that problem, the best place to start is with Calvinism. But for now, I will explain Calvinism using the generally known way of seeing Calvinism as the five points. These five points are at the heart of Biblical theology. They are not unimportant. Where we stand on these things deeply affects our view of God, man, salvation, the atonement, regeneration, assurance, worship, and missions. The acronym TULIP is:

T-Total depravity.

U-Unconditional election

L-Limited atonement

I-Irresistible grace

P-Perseverance of the saint

 

Most often times, I will present it as this:

1. We experience first our depravity and need of salvation.

2. Then we experience the irresistible grace of God leading us toward faith.

3. Then we trust the sufficiency of the atoning death of Christ for our sins.

4. Then we discover that behind the work of God to atone for our sins and bring us to faith was the unconditional election of God.

5. And finally we rest in his electing grace to give us the strength and will to persevere to the end in faith.

My hope is to go more in depth over the next few posts to explain each one a little more and hope to answer other questions

Now I personally don’t agree with everything Calvin preached, nor do I agree with what everything my favorite pastors say, but I do agree with what is clearly portrayed in Scripture. The Beauty of Calvinism is that it truly is the Gospel, It displays the grace of God and His love for me that has freed me from bondage and as helped me see the real beauty of God.

Calvinism is intended to be radical abandonment of self in to the hands of a gracious encompassing God. As Charles Spurgeon once said “Calvinism is the gospel.” I would say it like this, “In Calvinism one sees the beauty of the gospel.” Calvinism draws us to sees the beauty of the gospel because it draws us outside of us and to Christ.

My Prayer is that dialogue and fruit will grow out of this discussion between Matt and I and that the Glory and Love of The Triune God will be displayed and that we may lavish in His Grace.

Amen.

“Salvation is of the Lord.” That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, “He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord.” I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, “God is my rock and my salvation…..I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.”—Charles Spurgeon

 

The Blasphemous King

The word “blasphemy” is rarely used now-a-days in its proper context.

In Ancient Judaism though, blasphemy was one of the, if not the worst, crime you could ever commit.

Leviticus 24:16 states that those who speak blasphemy “shall surely be put to death” by stoning. The blasphemer was to be taken outside the camp, and all who heard him should lay their hands upon his head; then all the congregation should stone him.

If you defiled God’s name, reviling God and His Character or Equated yourself to God, you were Blasphemous

Everyone, pick up your stones.

For to the Jews, Jesus was an audacious Blasphemer.

The audacity of the Blasphemous King.

Jesus was a very bold God-Man; He didn’t give any props to false teachers, hallow and shallow fakes and anyone else who didn’t forsake all to follow Him.

Jesus didn’t care about stepping on toes or being “tolerant” to the people around Him. He was walking through the Gospels flipping over tables, claiming to be Lord over the religious establishment and not hesitating to call his opponents and enemies a bunch of vipers and hypocrites

Ouch.

But that’s not even skimming the surface of why His enemies wanted to kill Him.

This is why: Jesus claimed Himself to be God, Yahweh, The King of the Jews.

In chapters 8 and 10 of the gospel according to John, Jesus lays down the gauntlet.

The Jews asked Him: ”Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (John 8:53-59 ESV)

What does Jesus mean “Before Abraham was, I, AM”?

See, way, way back in The Book of Exodus, little, timid Moses comes “face to face” with the Living God, Yahweh, in the burning bush. When God sends Moses to lead his beloved people out of the hands of Pharaoh, Moses begs God to tell him who he should say His God is to persuade his people to come. With that question from Moses, God answers him with “I AM WHO I AM.”

Woah.

C.S. Lewis wrote about how audacious this claim was in the Jewish Religion of the first century.

“Then comes the real shock,’Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists…anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God … But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.”

Jesus was saying something huge here and this wasn’t  just one isolated instance. Jesus made this claim quite frequently in the Gospels:

• “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12)
• “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6)
• “I am the only way to the Father” (John 14:6)
• “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)
• “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11)
• “I am the door” (John 10:9)
• “I am the living bread” (John 6:51)
• “I am the true vine” (John 15:1)

There is one more way Jesus makes this “blasphemous” claim.

“At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:22-33 ESV)

“I and the Father are one”

With this statement Jesus makes the ultimate claim, the claim that He is the Messiah, The True King, The God of the universe, The Word.

And with this statement, it ultimately puts himself in the eyes of the religious and political forces of the world that would one day crucify him. It was here that the shadow of the cross followed Him throughout the rest of the story.

He was charged with Blasphemy, Crucified and hung on a cursed cross…

But something miraculous happened.

He rose.

Not like a zombie or a comic book superhero like Superman.

Jesus was killed, laid in a tomb and in 3 days, Jesus rose from the dead in His resurrected body and showed the world something amazing…

He showed…

that He truly wasn’t blasphemous.

The audacious Jesus is truly King, is truly Messiah and finally,

Jesus is God.

Is Remarriage a Sin? A Response to my Questioner

The Doctrine of Remarriage

Divorce and Remarriage is a touchy, but much-needed to be discussed, topic in the church. As most of you may already know, my fiancé was divorced and because of that, people have had the boldness and audacity to say that my marriage to her in a couple of months might be sinful. This is to all who want an honest, biblical look at what the bible as to say about divorce and remarriage. I write this not to be “right”, but because I truly love my fiancé, and anyone who approaches me with something like this, needs to trend with caution, for you are insulting my fiancé, and that will not be taken lightly.

Let’s start with scripture

God Hates Divorce, for the ideal since the foundation of creation is for a man and woman to marry and live happily ever after and never go apart. But then sin happened, and as a result of the fall, we have broken people marrying and then because of sin, the marriage falls apart and results in a divorce. While both Jesus and Paul strongly upheld the biblical ideal of a lifelong, monogamous marriage relationship, both also addressed the issue of divorce and remarriage.

So let’s go to the Scriptures

1)      Matthew 5:31-32… “It was also said. Whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

1. First we need to talk about Historical ancient Israel. Often quoted when talking about divorce in the Old Testament is Deuteronomy 24:1-4, which does not command, commend, condone or even suggest divorce, rather it recognizes that divorce occurs and permits it only on restricted grounds. Moses allowed his people to divorce under certain conditions, but a huge thing that must be said is that divorce was the prerogative of the man only, only the man could carry out the divorce and did not need the woman’s consent, unlike today , where to get a divorce you need both parties to consent to the divorce.
2. To put passage from above in context, during the time of Jesus, and much a part of ancient Israel, men where giving out divorce certificates left and right, just so they could marry , divorce and remarry with whatever woman they wanted. Sounds a lot like today. So because divorce was so widespread in ancient times, God had instituted a regulation through Moses that was intended to uphold the sanctity of marriage and to protect women from being divorce for no reason.
3. “But I say to you” indicates that Jesus does not accept the practice of easy divorce that has been represented. In fact, Jesus takes the audience back to the original intent of marriage, which is presented in Genesis 2, to be a lifelong monogamous marriage. Jesus then gives one of the only times divorce is allowed, “Except on the ground of sexual immorality. The greek word used for sexual immorality is “porneia” which can refer to adultery(jer3:9) prostitution (Nah 3:4, 1 cor 6:13,18), incest (1 cor 5:1) or fornication (genesis 38:24, john 8:41). This shows that when a divorce is obtained because of the sexual immorality of one’s spouse, then such a divorce is not morally wrong.
4. “Whoever marries a divorced woman” is not an isolated statement that applies to all divorced women, or it would contradict the “except” clause that Jesus has just given or that Paul later gives. The Statement rather continues the same subject that Jesus had just mentioned.

2)      Matthew  19:1-12… “Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

1. Again, I want to definitely reiterate this, and Jesus does that in this passage, that marriage is not merely a human agreement but a relationship in which God changes the status of a man and a woman from being single to being married. From the moment they are married, they are unified in a mysterious way that belongs to no other human relationship, having all the God-given rights and responsibilities of marriage and a new loyalty only to each other.
2. Sadly, sin is very real and destroys marriages and corrupted the nature of Mankind. Divorce was not intended from the beginning and that even when it is allowed, it is only allowed on very specific grounds
3. “Except for sexual immorality”…From here divorce and remarriage on the grounds of sexual immorality are not prohibited and DO NOT constitute Adultery. This is the one exception Jesus makes to the requirement that marriage be lifelong, for sexual immorality grievously defiles and indeed corrupts the one flesh Union.
4. Divorce, it must be remembered, is permitted but not required in the case of sexual immorality. Since God’s intention is that marriage should be for life, this provides good reason to make every reasonable effort to achieve restoration and forgiveness in marriage before taking steps to dissolve a marriage through divorce.

3)      Mark 10:1-12… “And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

1. First thing to note here that I did not note in Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew is primarily written to a Jewish Audience, While the Gospel of Mark is written more for a gentile audience, as we seen in this passage that in the gospel of mark, it is the only time assumed that a woman also had a right to initiate a divorce, a right for women only in the Roman law and gentile nations.
2. This passage omits “except for sexual immorality”. Many commentators try to argue that the exception clause is not original with Jesus, and that Matthew or another editor of the Gospel inserted it at a later time.  They contend that Jesus would not have allowed for exceptions and would have branded all divorces as contrary to the will of God.  After all, they argue, look at the absolute form of Jesus’ statements in Mk. 10:11-12 and Lk. 16:18. As a Reformed Calvinist Presbyterian that believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, I take the position that if the exception clause belongs to the genuine text of Matthew’s gospel, then it is truly the work of Jesus for it to be there. Second, its omission by Mark and Luke is not sufficient ground for rejecting it as an authentic saying of Jesus.  Their silence could be due to their taking the clause for granted.  It was not in dispute. Third, the Greek text includes the emphatic “I”, “And I say unto you.”  What follows would naturally all be attributed to Jesus. This was indeed Matthew’s intention, and Matthew was there as an eyewitness.  For these reasons, the burden of proof rests on those who with critical presuppositions would take these words from Jesus’ lips.  The exception clause cannot be sidestepped in this way as unimportant for one’s interpretation.
3. Therefore, Matthew includes a fuller account of Jesus words with the exception clause to illustrate the teaching to an audience that is much more aware of the Jewish law and its contents. Matthew does this another time in Matthew 16:4 where in Mark 8:12 we seen Matthews exception missing.

4)      Luke 16:18… “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

1. What I said about the mark passage applies here as well

5)      1 Corinthians 7:10-16… “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.  To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?”

1. First let’s talk about the audience. 1 Corinthians was written to a Gentile church, where Roman law permitted either a husband or wife to initiate a divorce with no stated cause required.
2. From this Passage we can see that Paul allows believers who have been abandoned by spouse the right to remarry, for they are not bound, especially after trying to seek reconciliation.

I hope this helps all who may want to approach me in the future and for all who have questions and may find themselves in the same situation. At this, I would have to agree with Mark Driscoll, more Christian men need to step up and marry and love single moms =) and I love my Mandy =)

So, I am Getting Married…=)

Love.

All my life I have longed for My Wife

Hoped for her to walk into a room and we hit it off well

Longed for her to find me, to surprise me

Dreamed for her to run into my arms and begin a life together

A shared life, a “two become one” life, a life that would lavish in His grace and Display His glory. A shared life that is magical, special, something beyond comprehension or explanation.  A Shared life that trumps Notebooks and Walks to remember. A Shared life that is the “Rose is a Rose is Rose is a Rose” kind of life.

A shared life that is a beautiful Love Story. A story that has never been told, a story that has yet to be written, but by His grace, A story that will be the stuff of legends.

My Friends, Rejoice, For I, Dustin Carpenter, have found my beloved.

O, how Beautiful she is, none can compare or even dare to. Flowers, Night skys, Snow peaked Mountains, Sun sets on beaches…No, none can compare.

O, how Brilliant, how Deep she is, for not even the depths of the oceans can hold her spirit, not even the canyons of the earth could measure the same as her.

O, how Kind, how Sweet she is, for her smile and baby blue eyes lets you know it’s all going to be ok, that there is hope, that there may be pain in the night, but joy will come in the morning.

“Here is the deepest secret nobody knows(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart”

God gave His Daughter to me

Out of anyone in the World! For any and every guy would be blessed to be chosen to be with her…

God gave His Daughter to me

And for that Amanda,

I promise to Love you, to Cherish you, to Honor you, Protect you, Trust you, Pursue you and Die for you

I promise to always be there for you, to never leave or forsake you, to never give up on you

Every Morning and Every Night, I want to tell you…That I love you, that my heart belongs to you…

For we all fall sooner or later, but as long as when I fall, you know that I never stopped loving you

Always and Forever

The Belly Of Beast: A Response to Matt Matheson’s Blog On Jonah

“Jonah didn’t want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God’s judgment. Imagine a Jewish man in New York during World War II hearing God say, ‘I’m going to bring terrible judgment on Germany. I want you to go to Berlin and tell Nazi Germany to repent.’ Instead of doing it, the man heads for San Francisco and then hops on a boat for Hong Kong.”— (David Guzik)

For my blog today, I wanted to respond to my Brother in Christ, Matt Matheson’s blog about his different opinions and points on what he got from the Book of Jonah. You can find his blog here http://notbyhands.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/some-follow-up-thoughts-on-jonah/  Matt is an awesome dude that attends The Garden of Baltimore church and is definitely a very insightful dude from what I have come to know of him and very badass on the drums. Now on to the Belly of the Beast.

1.       The Book of Jonah IS historical.

The Genre of Jonah is debated. The book has been read in different proposals. Those Proposals are:

1. Allegory, using fictional figures to symbolize some other reality. According to this interpretation. Jonah is a symbol of Israel in its refusal to carry out God’s mission to the nations. The Primary argument against this view is that Jonah is clearly presented as a historical and not a fictional figure, seen in the specific historical and geographical details in Jonah 1:1-3, 3:2-10, 4:11 and also 2 kings 14:25.
2. Another proposal is that the book is a parable to teach believers not to be like Jonah. Like allegories, parables are also based on fictional and not historical characters. Parables, however, are typically simple tales that make a single point, like a lot of the parables Jesus told, whereas the book of Jonah is quite complex and covers a multitude of ideas, themes, and historical detail.
3. The last Proposal is one of the Prophetic narratives. The book of Jonah has all the marks of a prophetic narrative, like those about Elijah and Elisha found in 1 Kings, which set out to report actual historical events. The phrase that opens the book (“the word of the Lord came to”) is also at the beginning of the first two stories told about Elijah (1 kings 17:2,8) and is used in other prophetic narratives as well. Just as Elijah and Elisha narratives contain extraordinary events =, like ravens providing bread and meat for the prophets, so does the book of Jonah, as with the great fish. In fact the story of Jonah is so much like the stories of Elisha and Elijah that one would hardly think it odd if the story of Jonah were embedded in 2 kings right after Jonah’s prophetic words about the expansion of the kingdom. The story of Jonah is this presented as historical like other prophetic narratives.

There are additional arguments for the historical nature of the book of Jonah. It is difficult to say that the story teaches God’s sovereignty over the creation if God did not in fact appoint the fish, the plant, the worm, and the east wind to do His will. Jesus, moreover, treated the story as historical when he used elements of the sotru as analogies for other historical events( Matt 12:40-41) The story is not, however, history for history sake, for it is all clearly didactic, but remember, at this point, it clearly fully historical and fully didactic, as the Church Fathers Luther and Calvin agree.

2) Jonah was a prophet and this probably, and most likely was Him.

Jonah 1:1 specifically identifies the Prophet Jonah from the town of Gath-hepher in lower Galilee, The same prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II (782-753 B.C; see 2 Kings 14:23-28) as the author of the Book of Jonah. Flavius Josephus reiterates these details in his Antiquities of the Jews (chapter 10, paragraph 2). Jonah was not an imaginary figure invented to play the part of a disobedient prophet, swallowed by a fish. He was part of Israel’s prophetic history. As for the fish, the Bible doesn’t actually specify what sort of marine animal swallowed Jonah. Most people assume that it was a cachalot (also known as the sperm whale). It may very well have been a white shark. The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gadowl dag, literally means “great fish.” The Greek used in the New Testament is këtos which simply means “sea creature.” There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are known to be able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to Mediterranean sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his 4th-century B.C. Historia Animalium.

3) Jonah’s Prophecy or Words of warning implied repentance.

Although the threat sounds unconditional, a condition was implied: If people repent, God will relent(Jer 18:7-8. Jonah knows this condition is included (Jonah 4:2) and the king of Nineveh will hope that it is (3:9) Interesting enough the word “Overthrown”(3:4) is a word applied to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:25, Lamentations 4:6, and Amos 4:11) and I wonder if possibly that led people to think of those historical events.

I had wonder myself at how extreme the repentance of an entire city was. But then I found something interesting in my research. The people of Nineveh worshipped a sort of Aquatic creature god. Dagon was a fish-god who enjoyed popularity among the pantheons of Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean coast. He is mentioned several times in the Bible in relation to the Philistines (Judges 16:23-24; 1 Samuel 5:1-7; 1 Chronicles 10:8-12). Images of Dagon have been found in palaces and temples in Nineveh and throughout the region. In some cases he was represented as a man wearing a fish. Jonah’s experience with the fish in light of the ninevites pagan beliefs certainly gained him an instant hearing.

Another interesting thing I found in my research was In the 3rd century B.C., a Babylonian priest/historian named Berosus wrote of a mythical creature named Oannes who, according to Berosus, emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to men. The curious thing about Berosus’ account is the name that he used: Oannes. Berosus wrote in Greek during the Hellenistic Period. Oannes is just a single letter removed from the Greek name Ioannes. Ioannes happens to be one of the two Greek names used interchangeably throughout the Greek New Testament to represent the Hebrew name Yonah (Jonah) In the Assyrian inscriptions the J of foreign words becomes I, or disappears altogether; hence Joannes, as the Greek representative of Jona, would appear in Assyrian either as Ioannes or as Oannes. What this essentially means is that Berosus wrote of a fish-man named Jonah who emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to man – a remarkable corroboration of the Hebrew account.

4) Matt is absolutely correct, The repentance didn’t last.

Sadly, like I believe all humans, we all fall again and again. We are all dumb sheep. Bahhhhhh

5) Again I agree with Matt, this story is a Didactic and is told to teach the reader key lessons.

I love what actually Matt does with this, because it talks about the racism undertones that are accompanied in Jonah and He did a wonderful job with that and my hat is off to him. John Piper has some nice sermons on that http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/by-scripture/jonah

As for Matt’s last two points, I don’t know about the shelter/booth. It’s probably something we are missing to what maybe a shelter to the readers of the time period knew of then our thought of what a shelter is. As for the cattle, I think it’s God’s way of having relationship with Jonah. Jonah expresses concern over something perishing, but ironically it’s the plant and if Jonah will not allow God to have compassion on Nineveh for the sake of the people whom God created and care for, will Jonah not allow God to have compassion on Nineveh for the sake of the animals, since after all Jonah was willing to have compassion on the plants?

Again, thank you deeply to Matt for bringing up these points, it is always nice to have someone who wants to search the scriptures and dig deeper in the word and its nice to have someone who brings up points different than yours so that way you can examine yourself and grow even closer to God =)

 

Do you Believe…in The Devil?

The Devil

He goes by a list of names

Lucifer, Satan, Murderer, Father of lies, The Serpent.

He is The Enemy, the ruler of this world and the leader of the rebellion against The King and His Angel Armies.

And for centuries his desire is for your blood

He will do anything and everything to blind the people of this world from discovering and knowing the grace and love of God

And He will do anything and everything to keep you from walking with God and enjoying a beautiful relationship with God.

The greatest lie that Satan has told the world is that He doesn’t exist. When you speak of the Devil in secular and worldly circles, people look at you like you are crazy. When you speak of the devil in christian circles, well, people still look at you like your crazy. And so you are left trying to fight an invisible enemy who acts and fights like he is very visible enemy all by yourself with no one to help you.

Just where The Devil wants you. Alone, scared, defenseless and vulnerable to his vicious attacks on a battlefield that is so complex and difficult that you go into a war trying to fight with your bare hands when the enemy has tanks.

Good Luck.

O Christian, Please hear my words. The Devil is very real and if you are afraid to talk about him then you have already lost the battle. If you are afraid to go to battle with him then you will never get to experience what it is like to live in this world. For if you want to live LIFE in this world with The King, then you must be ready to do battle and fight the good fight. For Satan notices when you grow closer to God and desire to carry out His will, His way, and His kingdom to all throughout the world and will stop at nothing to hinder you from doing that, either with spiritual torment or disgusting sin. He will tell you what seems like the most clever truths, but in the end, they are nothing but ugly, vicious lies. He will try to condemn you with your past sins and even with thoughts of sins and sins you never even committed. He will tell you how God is angry, bitter and you are nothing but a Bastard child of His. He will slander you, taunt you, and drag you through the mud and murder your soul.

O Christian, Please hear my words. The Devil will say all these things and try to destroy you. But let me tell you this…

God is FOR you, He is your Warrior King and He will not let you drown in the lies and distortions of the devil. He will Fight for you and with you. He will protect you. He will love you. And even though the fight will be long, the battle will be hard, the war will be won. For on the Cross, Jesus became your Christus Victor, He defeated the dominion of darkness and took away its power and stripped it of its pride. Jesus stomped on Satan’s head.

O Christian, please hear my words. The devil has been defeated, and his sting has been destroyed. Don’t let the devil beat you up and tear you down anymore.

Jesus won

You are Victorious

“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”
― Martin Luther