Mercy and Atonement

Reading Psalm 136, you can't help but notice that every verse ends with "His steadfast love endures forever". (It would help if we also had the original tune to go along with this "praise chorus"!)

So being overly analytical I wanted to see what those words are in Hebrew.  Ki le'ovlam chasdow - Because of His eternal mercy.  The Hebrew word for "steadfast love" or "mercy" is chasdow or Chesed (start by snoring backwards, then add "hess-said").  Chesed is one of the core attributes of God.  It refers to how God treats those in need - to care for them and help them.  A Chesed organization in Israel would be called a charitable organization in America.

So I got curious if this word was used in the "mercy seat" of the Torah.  Not at all.  Actually I was surprised to see that the "mercy seat" is really mistranslated and would be more accurately translated "the covering" or "the atonement cover".  The Hebrew is "Hakkaporet" or simply "The Cover".  The root word "kopher" (KPR) in Hebrew has several meanings, most often translated "ransom" or the price one must pay to redeem a life from debtor's prison or slavery.  I think this must be where we get the usage of "covering a debt" in English.

OK, so step back for a moment and consider what the the Kopher is covering.  It's the lid on the ark of the covenant.  Inside the ark of the covenant is the Law of Moses, which is the law of sin and death.  We could go back one more step and note that "kopher" also means "pitch" or "bitumen" which was used to seal and protect another ark - Noah's ark.

So, why does the ark need a covering?  In Noah's case the ark needed to be sealed so it could float for a year without leaking or getting waterlogged.  The "kopher" kept the creatures inside the ark separate from the water outside the ark.  In that sense it stood between the redeemed and judgment.

In the case of the ark of the covenant, the cover was to stand between man and the law of sin and death. This is the concept of atonement.  Yom Kippur - the day of atonement - would ensure that the sins of the people were covered for another year.  Why is this translated "the mercy seat"?  "Seat" because the cover is seated on the top of the ark (an artifact of King James English I suppose).  "Mercy" because it is only by God's great mercy that we are not consumed by His wrath.  The law requires death as the penalty for sin, and all of us stand in need of His mercy to save us from the just sentence of death.


So now we come to what covers our sins as Christians.  It is the righteousness of Christ. Unlike the black tar used to cover the ark of Noah, the righteousness of Christ is a white linen garment, fine and clean.

Genesis 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Isaiah 61:10 For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.

Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Revelation 19:18 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Yet there is something more than atonement available for followers of Christ.  Atonement is temporary, and our sins are covered by the blood of Christ while we are in the flesh, but we are also:

Redeemed (all our debts under the Law are paid by Christ's sacrifice),

Reconciled (brought back into the presence of God),

Saved (delivered from the power of sin and spared from the wrath of God),

Reborn (resurrected to a new life in Christ),

Justified (imputed with the righteousness of Christ),

Sanctified (purified from sin and re-formed into the image of Christ),

Anointed (filled with the Holy Spirit of God),

Appointed (sent into the world to make disciples of all men), and

Glorified (together with Christ) when our earthly bodies are exchanged for heavenly bodies in the world to come.

Now that I think about this list, I think I will memorize it for a time of thanksgiving and praise!

Buying the Land of Promise

'Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You...O great and mighty God...great in counsel and mighty in deed...'
Jeremiah 32:17 NASB

I guess if you've been around Christian music more than a few years you recognize that song. This was a prayer by Jeremiah as a profession of faith in God's coming restoration of His kingdom in Judea. It was said on the eve of the destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. You see, Jeremiah had just purchased some of the Benjamin tribal territory from his cousin Hanamel. He did this while the armies of Babylon camped outside the gates of Jerusalem ready to strike. And this testimony of faith was done in front of the king and the high priest in the royal palace.

The deed to the land would be sealed in an earthenware pot, in order to last a very long time. So long was the exile in Babylon that Jeremiah would not enjoy this new purchase in his lifetime. Of course the contract would be nullified when the government of Judea was overthrown, but the promise of God to return His people to the land of their forefathers was Jeremiah's assurance of things hoped for, and conviction of things not seen. He was one of those who were stoned, sawn in two, tempted, put to death with the sword; who went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy). Hebrews 11:1, 37-38 NASB

Jeremiah traded this little bit of silver for a piece of the land of promise. What a lesson for us. To trust God enough to trade our worldly pleasure here for an eternal treasure there! God, whose outstretched powerful right arm (Jesus) made heaven and earth, is worthy of our faith and our praise! Nothing is too difficult for Him, even to give us "what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" -- the things God has prepared for those who love him. I Corinthians 2:9 NASB

If you remember this song, remember Jeremiah and his purchase of heaven's promised land.

Holiness and the Sabbath

One of the things that I find difficult to reconcile between the Old Testament and the New Testament is the Sabbath.  This was one of the fundamental tenets of the Law; the Sabbath is to be a holy day unto the Lord.  The Sabbath rest is introduced in the very beginning of the Bible and it is one of the Ten Commandments.  I ran into this quandary again today when I was reading Isaiah 56.

Thus says the LORD,
            “Preserve justice and do righteousness,
            For My salvation is about to come
            And My righteousness to be revealed.
      “How blessed is the man who does this,
            And the son of man who takes hold of it;
            Who keeps from profaning the Sabbath,
            And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

This theme of not profaning the Sabbath is repeated three times in Isaiah 56, even  applying it to gentiles who come to the Lord.

“Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
            To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD,
            To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath
            And holds fast My covenant;
      Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
            And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
            Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
            For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

When I was a child in Houston, I remember the world around me seemed to stop on Sundays.  At that time (the 1960s) America was just getting started on its way to abandoning the Sabbath or "blue laws."  Today in America you couldn't tell much difference between Sunday and any other day of the week.  Most people still get weekends off from work (praise the Lord), but treat Sunday just like Saturday or any other day off from work.

So I had to stop and ask myself, how does this fundamental Old Testament law apply to Christians, or does it apply at all?  First, the Sabbath as counted by the original keepers of the Sabbath occurs on Saturday.  That immediately causes me concern about Sabbath legalism being applied to Sundays.

The apostles seemed to dismiss or even discourage observance of holy days, and even Christ seemed to intentionally violate Jewish traditions based on the Sabbath day, in order to challenge the religious establishment.

So, what can we learn from the principal of the Sabbath that applies to Christians?  Well, first the principal of rest on the seventh day is built into our genetics by our Creator.  This is a physical principal which we would do best to observe.

More importantly, just like our bodies need rest periodically, our spirits need refreshing periodically.  The Sabbath, like the tithe, is a principal which pre-dates and exists outside the Law of Moses.  Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So we should use the Sabbath rest for its purpose, to re-unite our spirits with the Spirit of God, and re-unite our souls with our brethren in the Lord.

Most critical though, the Sabbath is a demonstration of the holiness of God.  Profaning the Sabbath is really just making the Sabbath like any other day.  There is another similar commandment right before the Sabbath law.

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain."
Exodus 20:7 NASB

The first four commandments deal with the holiness of God.  There have been teachings in America that bring God down to our level, as a friend or a brother.  While it is true that God may present himself through Jesus as a fellow servant of God, we cannot presume to approach Him in that way.  The first words in the Lord's prayer lift up the holiness of God.

I came across this in my study of the prophets.

He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die, by setting their threshold by My threshold and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger.
Ezekiel 43:7-8 NASB

It appears to me that the Jewish priests set up a room next to the holy place in the temple where they kept the remains of their kings.  This reminds me of some churches I saw in Europe where they had the bones of dead saints right there in the sanctuary mixed in with images of Jesus.  Certainly elevating saints to a level of worship is an abomination to God.

God may come down to our level, but we are not allowed to go up to His level or bring Him down to ours. If we make His throne in our lives just one of many, we profane His name.  God's throne must be supreme; He will not share His glory with any other.

"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images."
Isaiah 42:8 NASB

The early disciples called Sunday the "Lord's Day" and it was indeed a special day.  We need not re-introduce the Law of Moses to make Sunday our Sabbath.  Rather, I pray that I will remember to keep the Lord's day separate in some ways, to spend a little more time in prayer, to read a little more from His word, and maybe even write something honoring the Name of my Creator!

Seven Shofars and a Shout

In the last few days I learned something about shofars (trumpets made from ram's horns).  In the Bible they are used to lead people into battle.  Sometimes these are spiritual battles, as when the priests blew the shofars to gather the people for fasting and prayer.

In one particular battle, priests blew their shofars once a day for six days to warn the enemy of the coming judgment of God.  The city under siege was Jericho, and the commander of the invading army was Joshua.  On the seventh day, the army marched around Jericho seven times, then blew their shofars seven times, and then when the people shouted God brought down the walls of Jericho by the power of His word.

So it is in the end of time, that the blast of the angel's shofars will pronounce doom on the city of Babylon, which is the dominion of Satan.  Six times the shofars will sound the solemn warnings, and after the seventh blast, with the shout of a great multitude of believers and angels, the Lord will bring down the walls of Satan's kingdom by a great earthquake and by the power of His word.

Indeed, our entry into the eternal kingdom must be preceded by this great battle, in which the promised land is cleansed from all the powers of sin and darkness.  It was an inspiration to me to see this prototyped in the battle of Jericho, to demonstrate the power of God when His people enter the promised land.  Get ready to shout, people of God, and watch the gates of Hell come down!

The Four Seasons of Man

For way longer than I've been around, people have compared their lives to the seasons of the year.  I see parallels in Bible prophecy.

The Four Seasons of Life
Springtime brings new birth, fresh growth, and wonderful awe in the eyes of a young child who has nothing but hope and expectation for the future.  Springtime is bursting with innocence and trust; no doubt or fear is found here.

Summertime brings the fevered heat of adolescence and young adulthood.  Desperate searching for purpose, frantic pursuit of pleasure, and rebellion against authority accompany the lives of young people as they become adults.

Autumn brings a time of settling down; ambitions give way to wealth accumulation and retirement planning. The kids grow up and begin their own families; those in the autumn of their lives are left with an empty nest and silent hallways.  Some in this season of life are overcome by doubt and fear, and enter winter earlier than the rest.

As autumn ends the cold winter wind grows stronger. Our bodies begin to show the process of death that has been at work in us since the beginning of autumn. Winter white dusts whatever hair is left and we realize our own mortality. For those of us with eternal hope, new life grows within our hearts even as the body decays.

The Four Seasons of Man
The kingdom of man also has four seasons.

The first season of man is the age of authority. The people cry "Give us a king to rule over us!"  Peace is guaranteed by the king or the emperor.  One empire overtakes another until the domination of the final empire reaches to the ends of the earth.  Inevitably the worldwide empire becomes overstretched and grows weak from within.  Under worldwide imperial control, organization of a large opposing army is not possible. But discontented mobs and opportunistic gangs finally break through and plunder the lazy, overindulged empire.

In the second season mankind enters the dark ages. Chaos and war is the outgrowth that naturally follows in the wake of the washed-up empire.  In the post-imperial era, warring tribes eventually settle far enough apart or annihilate themselves until they live in isolated cloisters of well protected villages.  Enough of the centralized structure has been decimated to allow independent thinking.  Among those who are literate and have access to the word of God, some discover the concept of grace and liberty.

The third season of man could be called the Age of Reason.  It is characterized by regions that are liberated from the mental and spiritual bonds that remain from the empire, led by those that have found the light of salvation.  The light of salvation and liberty soon leads to increasing knowledge and scientific advancement. Without repression from the state or the church, mankind pushes the boundaries of knowledge to enrich themselves in ways only emperors could previously have known.  This continues until they reach that dreaded time when they declare themselves to be like God.

The fourth season of man begins when the dominion of wealth and knowledge suddenly collapses of its own weight. The tables have instantly turned and specialized intellectual and legal skills become worthless almost overnight.  It is this suddenness that prevents this season from reverting to a tribal warfare cycle. People simply aren't organized enough without the thin fabric of civilization to survive and organize.  Death and disease spread so rapidly that the entire social order is permanently destroyed.  Out of those ashes comes one who brings the final destruction.

Where Are We Now?
If you overlay the four horsemen of Revelation 6 on the four seasons above, you will see where I believe we stand.  The horseman on the white horse is like the springtime of mankind, the red horse like the fiery summer of chaos. The rider on the black horse is like the autumn of enlightenment and wealth, and the final riders like the winter of death.  We stand perilously close to the blasphemy that is the beginning of the end of time.  Is it inevitable that we become puffed up and reject God who has brought us this far, or do we gather together as a body of believers and pray God's mercy back into our fallen world? The end is prophesied, but the timing is not. It may still be possible that another great revival will delay God's wrath again.  Please join me as I pray for that outcome!

Balaam's Error

I have been wandering around the Bible lately studying prophecy.

[Actually I'm surfing around the Biblos Bible Hub web site, which I'm convinced is God's special gift to mankind for these last days.  When else in the history of mankind could a lay person like myself have the best concordances, multiple translations, commentaries, Greek and Hebrew text and dictionary references and more, all available for no charge, only a mouse click away?  History has not always been so kind to Christians seeking the truth.  Roman Catholics authorized by King Henry IV of England burned people at the stake for publishing or translating the Bible.  Thankfully, and owing a huge debt to those who laid down their lives for this privilege, there is a greater opportunity today than ever before for the body of Christ to "rightly divide the word of truth."]

A Canaanite in the House 

So, one verse caught my attention recently:

Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts in that day.
Zechariah 14:21 NASB

That thing about the Canaanite no longer being in the house of the LORD just didn't quite click.  To be sure, God was totally opposed to the Canaanites from the day Ham walked in on Noah's hangover.  That's another whole topic.

However, Jesus didn't reject the Canaanites.  After all, the disciple Simon the Zealot was also called a Canaanite (Kananaios) in Matthew 10 and Mark 13.  In Matthew 15 a Canaanite woman had such great faith that Jesus healed her daughter.  So, why won't there be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD?

I had two thoughts (maybe equally valid and possibly both true).  First, is the antichrist a Canaanite?  This could be a prophecy about the day when the antichrist no longer stands in the temple and proclaims himself to be God.

The other thought is a bit deeper and less speculative.  The word for Canaanite here is also the Hebrew word for merchant or trader.  I suppose that because they settled on the Mediterranean coast, the Canaanites became traders and thus their name became synonymous with trade.  Some translations read more like "And there will no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts in that day."

That sheds a whole new light on this verse (and illustrates why you need more than one translation of the Bible when you study deeply).  During the Millennial reign of Christ everything is holy, from the animals to the cooking pots to the people.  There won't be any demand for merchants to sell holy animals and vessels to the people like they were doing when Jesus cleansed the temple.  Merchandising in the temple of God was one thing that made Jesus very, very angry.  Which brings me back to my original topic.

Balaam's Error

But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Jude 1:11-13 NASB

Balaam was a merchant in the house of the Lord.  In other words, he offered his prophetic gifts for money.  Worse, he offered to help the enemies of the Lord and curse God's chosen people for money.  Of course, God wouldn't let him do that.  It didn't help Balaam much to be in direct communication with God because he also consulted demons.  Balaam is on Satan's all-star team because he thought he could profit from being a prophet.  In fact, he was blaspheming the Holy Spirit and bringing a curse on himself.

Notice the term "wandering stars" in the verses above.  The Greek is "asteres planetai".  Asteres is the Greek word for star, from which we get the word "asterisk".  The English word planet comes from the Greek word for "wandering".  Astronomers at the time couldn't figure out why planets didn't stay in the same constellations as the other stars, so they called them "wanderers."

The "error of Balaam" in Greek is "plane".  Basically it is the same Greek root, implying that the error of Balaam was to wander away from his gift and into error.  How many of those gifted by God have gone astray into using their gift for obscene financial rewards - and then because of the love of money have introduced error into their message to maintain or magnify their gains?  Like planets, we will drift slowly away into darkness if we are not under the control of the light of truth.

According to John in the book of Revelation, when Balaam could not pronounce a curse on Israel, he taught the Canaanite king Balak how to weaken Israel by enticing them into idolatry and fornication.

The love of money is indeed the root of all kinds of evil, but when the love of money is mixed in the temple of God, Balaam's error is born.  We must be particularly careful to avoid the many snares that are laid for us by those that follow the error of Balaam.

His Name is "Maher Shalal Hash Baz"

I'm reading Isaiah now.  I realized after an intense foray into eschatology (study of end-time prophecy) that having an increased understanding of prophecy is an open door for me to re-read the prophets and discern more of God's word.

 

As a matter of fact, I feel a desperate need to read and understand as quickly as possible because the time is short and there is much to do.

 

Today I was reading Isaiah 8: Then the LORD said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

 

Isaiah was so impressed by these words that they became the name of his next son - Maher Shalal Hash Baz.  (Talk about opening the door for witnessing!  Try naming your kid Maher Shalal Hash Baz and let me know how it works out.  I guess the poor boy would get a lot of chances to explain the prophecy right before he got beat up.)

 

I can imagine the prophet and prophetess telling people about their cute baby - "his name is swift the booty speedy the prey" - with their fiery prophet gaze.

 

Whoa where is this conversation headed? Well I'll tell you where.

 

"...for before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

(Isaiah 8:11-15 NASB)

 

One principle in the Bible is the testimony of two witnesses, which are required to pronounce judgement.  In this case the two witnesses are Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the prophet. The law and the prophet - this might sound familiar if you read my earlier post (Two Witnesses at the End of Days).  The wrath of God is immediately preceded by the testimony of two witnesses.

 

The testimony also serves as a sort of contract to prove that God is faithful and His judgments are true.  God's judgment is conditioned upon the people's response to the testimony.  Repentance will always turn away God's wrath.  This is why the LORD has delayed His final judgment on creation.  This is why the "apostacy must come first" - the people must become so hardened that repentance is impossible.  Notice the response in Isaiah 8:

They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness. (Isaiah 8:21-22 NASB)

 

This is a prophetic reference to the final judgment, as in Revelation 9:

 

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts. (Rev 9:21-22 NASB) 

 

Finally...

 

Satan has had plenty of antichrists ready for the final conflict, but God has always had a people who would repent and pray for God's mercy; thus the final wrath has been withheld even until now.  It is when God's people are finally "taken out of the way" then "...that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming." (II Thessalonians 2:7-8 NASB)

 

There may yet be time to delay God's wrath, but the answer won't come through politics or economic genius or military might.  It will come only

 

"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways" (II Chronicles 7:14 NASB).

 

Remember,

 

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (II Peter 2:9 NASB)