Doctors Woefully Wrong in Two Ways

Miracle baby born after mom advised to have abortion!!

ANTICIPATING SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE SUNDAY (Jan. 22): VIDEO COMMENTARY ON PSALM 139!

PSALM 139 ESV

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
³ You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

¹³ For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

¹⁹ Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
²⁰ They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²² I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!

Trusting in God's Providence--Stick Your Neck Out

I normally find House Sparrows emptying my feeders irritating.  They actually rake out the millet and milo to get to the sunflower seeds, dumping what they don't want on the ground.  With five feeders to keep stocked, that little habit makes me want to reach for the Daisy!

However, Fanny pulled off these interesting shots of a female House Sparrow a couple days ago, and I couldn't help but see some joy in them.

Jesus enjoins his disciples to "Look at the birds of the air..." (Matt. 6:26) and adduce a fortiori the greater-greatness of God's fatherly care for the needs of his people.  Similarly, elsewhere Jesus mentions sparrows (στρουθίον) to illustrate the Father's providential care for believers (10:29--31; cf. Lk. 12:6--7).  Commenting on these passages, Cyprian, following Jesus' line of reason, remarks,

"God feeds fowls, and daily food is afforded to the sparrows; and to creatures which have no sense of things divine there is no want of drink or food.  Thinkest thou that to a Christian--thinkest thou to a servant of the Lord--thinkest thou that to one given up to good works--thinkest thou that to one that is dear to the Lord, anything will be wanting?...What does a faithless heart do in the home of faith?  Why is he who does not altogether trust in Christ named and called a Christian?  The name of Pharisee is more fitting for you" (The Treatises, in ANF, V:479). 

Repetitio in Genesis 28

Our text selection this week, Gen 28:10—22, is a fine illustration of Bullinger’s definition of repetitio or repetition.  Repetition occurs when “[a] word or words are repeated, not in immediate succession…not at the beginning, middle, or end of sentences…not at definite intervals; but frequently in the same passage and irregularly for the sake of emphasizing and calling attention to it.”[1]  Two different instances of repetition are recognizable in our text.  

The first term taken up in repetition is “behold” (hinnêh),[2] which occurs in vv 12, 13, and 15.  In the broader context of the narrative, “behold” is used six times in chapter 27 (vv 1—2, 6, 36, 39, 42), during the high-tension episode of Jacob deceiving his father, Isaac, and thus craftily stealing Esau’s blessing.  In the context of 28:10ff, “behold” is used four times to introduce Jacob’s vision and the developments of its escalating intensity. 

“behold…a ladder” (v 12a)

“behold, the angels of God” (v 12b)

“behold, the LORD” (v 13a)

“Behold, I [Yahweh] am with you…” (v 15a)

At this point in the narrative of Genesis, two things are in seeming peril, Jacob’s character and Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham.  Without coming to the text of Genesis with the assumptions that Jacob was a man of virtuous character and strong faith, one would never deduce them from Genesis chapters 25 – 27.  As both Isaac and Esau recognized, Jacob was living up to his namesake (27:35, 36)!  If anything good was to come about in, through or for Jacob (and by extension the whole world, see 28:14c), it would require nothing less than the in-breaking of the covenant fidelity and sovereign grace of Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Isaac (cf. Rom 9).  So, “Behold,” reader, that in-breaking has begun in 28:12f! 

It is also worth noting that the awakening term “behold” was also used to introduce the “smoking fire pot” image of Yahweh’s unilateral covenant cutting and pronouncement to Abraham (15:17), just as it here introduces the image of the “ladder” (28:12a).  Likewise, in 17:4, to Abraham, Yahweh says, “Behold, my covenant is with you…” and to Jacob, he says, “Behold, I am with you…” (28:15a).  Because Yahweh is the substance and surety of his covenant, these clauses are nearly synonymous (comp. 15:1).  “Behold” in 28:12f is, therefore, the clear signal to the reader (and/or hearer) to consider the remarkable revelation of what Yahweh is doing and will do in order to rescue Jacob, and consequently the world, from himself and his deceptive dealings. 

Secondly, just as Jacob’s character was in peril at this point in the narrative, so too were the covenantal promises made to Abraham and his seed.  Not quite as jeopardizing as the near-sacrifice of Isaac (ch. 22), our passage, concerning Jacob, still presents the reader with the suspense of the fulfillment of Yahweh’s covenant being in great peril.  Although Jacob has filched Esau’s birthright (25:29—34), attained the patriarchal blessing through deceit (ch. 27), and even enjoyed the covenantal pronouncement of his father, Isaac (28:3—4), Jacob (and the readers) has yet to hear the Word from Yahweh!  Moreover, Jacob is wifeless and is now being sent out from the land (28:1—2; cf. 46:1—4)!  Thus far, then, Jacob is impious, wifeless, “seed”-less, and now landless, and all the while Yahweh is yet speechless, with respect to Jacob! It appears that the Abrahamic covenant has reached a terminus!  What of a people?  What of the paradise lost in Gen 3?!?  In great trepidation, the reader is left wondering if humanity’s only hope is forever lost—what of redemption!?!  Above all, Yahweh had taken an oath and swore by himself that his covenant to Abraham would be fulfilled (Gen 22:15—18; cf. Heb 6:13—14).  The very truth of God was at stake!  Thankfully, God will not let sinful man or the devil have the last word.     

Against these stark realities, Moses reassures his readers in 28:13—15 that God would most certainly finish the good work he had started in Abraham.  In these three verses, Yahweh renews the covenant promises original to Abraham (cf. 12:1—3).  And to emphasize the absolute certainty of the promises’ fulfillment, repetition is used again. 

I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.

The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring.

Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth…

And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go,

and [I] will bring you back to this land.

For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you (28:13—15).

This short section contains not only all three of the primary elements the Abrahamic covenant (i.e., land, seed/offspring, and blessing), paralleling the original bestowal of 12:1—3, etc. to Abraham, it also presents Yahweh as the active subject of a series of wills and shalls that galvanize the hope of final fulfillment of that which was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob.  God to the rescue again! 

I would mention only one more interesting feature that I noticed during my studies for this board.  Genesis 28:13—15 is a covenant pronouncement to Jacob by Yahweh; it is God’s first word to Jacob, and is the starting point for the Jacob narrative proper.  In 46:2—4 we find another covenant pronouncement to Jacob by Yahweh; it is God’s last word to Jacob, and is the finale of the Jacob narrative proper.  Thus, Jacob’s story is encased in a beautiful covenant inclusio! Jacob’s walk with the God of his fathers begins and ends with the absolute, certain word of promise from the ever-faithful Yahweh. 

---

[1] Figures of Speech Used in the Bible.  Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, Michigan (1968), pg. 263.  (Emphasis added).

[2] All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

From Deep Exegesis to Deep Snow!

As I type this, a blanket of white snow is being spread over us here in the mountains of Virginia like a line-dried sheet cast over a bed. This afternoon the thoughts of so much snow evoked in my mind what snow teaches us, as an image in biblical literature and theology.

Snow is to teach us of God’s faithfulness in both creation and redemption. For instance, Isaiah reads: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (55:10—11). The purposeful and providential care God gives and reveals through his general revelation in creation, namely through the all-wise function of the snow, is a vivacious, yet soothing picture of his sovereign design and its incontrovertible fulfillment. In fact, Job 37:6 and Ps 147:15—16 picture the snow as a result of God’s speech. The universe was created and is governed by the Self-same, omnipotent Word of God (Heb 1:3); the Bible knows nothing of the "Laws of Nature," only nature's Lawgiver and nature's strikingly immediate obedience to his Word. In like manner, Ps 148:7—8 sees the snow as a "fulfillment of God’s spoken word." So also here in Isaiah. The snow is an illustration of God’s omni-accomplishing Word; its effect is governed by nothing more or less than his own good pleasure.

In addition to the surety and faithfulness of God to his own purposes, taught us in the regularity and fruitfulness of snow, snow is an image that predominately carries moral connotations in Scripture. Paradoxically, as a word-picture, snow occupies both polar extremes of the Bible’s ethical continuum. We’ll consider this and more tomorrow.

Until then, please remember the poor, the young and old, the EMS volunteers, and even the animals that are affected by this fantastic snowfall in your supplications to Christ. Mom tells us that the Weather Channel has Roanoke set for 28 inches before it’s over!

Blessings!