I was out all day, working, and didn’t get to read my daily dose of blogs – so, I thought that I might read a few now and share some with you. By the way, I am now collecting a retirement fund so that I can sit and read blogs all day long. Please feel free to donate.
Mar 05 2009
What listening to Todd Bentley and John Crowder get you
First, here:
“Eisegesis” — from the Greek root word “eis,” which means “into, in, or among.” Eisegesis is the errant hermeneutic practice of reading or forcing a desired meaning into a text, by applying either an unbiblical or extra-biblical presupposition to the text. “Exegesis,” on the other hand, is the biblical hermeneutic practice of drawing the true meaning of a verse or passage from the text, by using other sound hermeneutic principles to assist in arriving at the right interpretation. Proper exegesis of Scripture requires the Bible student to set aside subjectivity for objectivity.
I would like you to meet Joshua. Joshua is a student (either past or current) of the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry. The school is a subsidiary of Bethel Church, in Redding, CA–sadly, a hub of activity for the false spiritual movement known as the Lakeland Revival, a creation of now disgraced adulterer Todd Bentley and Fresh Fire Ministries.
And if these unbiblical influences aren’t enough, Joshua (according to his MySpace page) is apparently influenced by the likes of John Crowder. Crowder is worst known for his blasphemous teachings and practices sometimes referred to as “toking on Jesus.” Through Crowder’s wicked works, young people around the world are being taught to treat the Word of God like an empty beer bottle.
Feb 06 2009
Isaiah 63.1-6 – A Few Thoughts on Interpretation
The speaker is a watchman (the Prophet Isaiah) on the walls of Jerusalem, and he sees an enemy coming from the Edom (perhaps the ‘World’), but instead it turns out that it is God Almighty who is leading the charge.
Who is this who comes from Edom,
From the city of Bozrah, with his clothing stained red?
This One who is glorious in His apparel,
Traveling in the greatness of His strength?–“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?“I have trodden the winepress alone,
And of the nations no one was with Me.
For I have trodden them in My anger,
And trampled them in My fury;
Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,
And I have stained all My robes.For the day of vengeance is in My heart,
And the year of My redeemed has come.I looked, but there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.I have trodden down the peoples in My anger,
Made them drunk in My fury,
And brought down their strength to the earth.”
My thoughts:
Calvin says that those commentators that have associated this passage with Christ has ‘violently distorted it’ preferring the passage to be attributed to God. Further, this passage is related to Isaiah 34.
“For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. (Isaiah 34:5-6 NKJV)
Jerome seemed to think that this passage referred to Judah Maccabeus, citing,
But Judas made war on the sons of Esau in Idumea, at Akrabattene, because they kept lying in wait for Israel. He dealt them a heavy blow and humbled them and despoiled them. (1 Maccabees 5:3 RSVA)
Although the robe of blood is reminiscent of John’s vision of the Rider on the white horse,
He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. (Revelation 19:13 NKJV)
The winepress is a symbol of eschatological wrath,
So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs. (Revelation 14:19-20 NKJV)
The year is again seen in chapter 34,
For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion. (Isaiah 34:8 NKJV)
But, it is the year of the Lord to which our mind is called,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, (Isaiah 61:2 NKJV)
Of course Christ utter these words,
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; (Luke 4:18 NKJV)
Verse 5 is mimicked before in chapter 59,
He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him. (Isaiah 59:16 NKJV)
So, what do we have? It is an eschatological picture of the coming of the Lord? Or perhaps as Jerome, the Maccabean Revolt some 160 years before the birth of Christ. Or could it be, contrary to Calvin, that Christ here is represented as a warrior king, defeating the eternal enemy of all people, which is death and the grave? Is not death the thing that has chased us since the Fall, just as Esau had chased Jacob?
If we learn interpretation from the Church Fathers, then we must see this passage as referring to Christ. If we do, we see the loneliness of His mission – He was alone in His anointing. Yet, He alone led the charge against Edom, destroying the enemy of His people, the Church. It is the year (the Last Days) of the Redeemed (His Church), and he has trodded down the enemies, the tares in the world for His Church.
Apr 10 2008
Psalm 84: The Vally of Baca – Pt 3
(Psa 84:8) O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
(Psa 84:9) Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
The final conclusion is a prayer of hopeful remembrance. The Psalmist is asking for God to once again turn His face to him and bless him with a return to the courts of the Lord. It brings to mind 2 Chronicles 7:14-15, which reads:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
I take it, and I alone it seems, that when the Psalmist refers to the God of Jacob (instead of the three Patriarchs) that he might just have in mind Jacob’s separation from his homeland, God’s promise to bring him back (Gen 28:20) and how God brought him once again to the house of the Lord (Bethel)
(Psa 84:10) For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
‘Courts’ here is the same as in verse 2. Here again, to be even in the outer reaches of the tabernacles of God is better than to dwell with the wicked. The Psalmist would rather be a servant (again, Prodigal Son) in the house of his God, then to be well thought of. The phrase is literally, “I choose to sit at the threshold.” Reminds one of the woman with the blood disease who only desired to touch the hem of the garment of Christ. For those separated from God, just a glimpse, a taste, or a touch of God seems better to them than all that they have around them.
(Psa 84:11) For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
The Lord is the source of light and warmth and brings Creation to life. He will give mercy and honor and will hold back nothing that we need if we walk undefiled.
(Psa 84:12) O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Thus the completion of the Psalm, summed up with a single line. Had David walked undefiled before God and kept God as a refuge, hope, trust, then he would not have been separated from God.
Again, we turn to Isaac Watts:
The Lord his people loves;
His hand no good withholds
From those his heart approves:
From pure and pious souls
Thrice happy he,
O God of Hosts,
Whose spirit trust
Alone in Thee!
Apr 09 2008
Psalm 84: The Valley of Baca – Pt 2
(Psa 84:4) Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
Here the author calls those that are in the House of the Lord (tabernacle/temple) happy or blessed, as the KJV translates. עֹוד gives it’s meaning as continually. The house dwellers are continually praising God. This brings to mind what John saw in his Apocalypse 7:15 where those that come out of great tribulation are around the throne serving the Lord day and night, or continually. The Septuagint has the phrase: ‘They will praise you for ages of ages’ – quite literally, forever.
How unique is the perspective of the man separated from God! And how his heart longs for perfection.
(Psa 84:5) Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
The prophet Isaiah told us that those who will wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. David, when committing the sin with Bathsheba, failed to find the strength that God had previously given him. Now, he was suffering because of that. Now, he son had thrown him out of the palaces and had started a civil war. David knew full well that a man’s true strength lies with God, not in armies or even within himself.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, we read of God’s response to Paul’s prayer
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”.
Throughout Scripture we find that God is presented as our strong tower, our refuge, our consolation.
“in whose heart are the ways of them”
Consider the esteemed lyricist, Isaac Watts, when he wrote:
O Happy souls that pray
Where God appoints to hear!
O Happy men that pay
Their constant service there!
They praise thee still
And happy they,
That love the way
Happy, says the Psalmist, is the man who has found strength in the Lord, and who loves the way of God. This entire Psalm is reflective of a journey, whether it is David’s, pilgrims or even ours. Our heart must be given over to the highways of God, to travel them, and to find strength for the journey.
(Psa 84:6) Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
הבכא can be translated as weeping or tears, but the theory is also that it relates to a balsam tree that excretes sap (hence weeping). All the translation theories that I have seen point to the same idea, that of weeping or tears. It is no far stretch of the imagination to see that Psalmist here is conjuring up a painful journey. If it is indeed the arid valley where travelers are hard pressed to find life sustaining water, then so be it; however, the image is still the same: When traveling through such a place, the righteous will make it a source of strength.
מעינה rightly means fountain or spring. It is the spring that the weary traveler sets down in to refresh himself, or renew his strength in pressing toward the city of God. Perhaps in the valley of weeping, when the tears are flowing, you should use those tears and grow from them. You should make them into a fountain. God has already promised us that He would never leave us nor forsake us.
That is not to make light of any situation that one is going through. Look what the Psalmist was going through. He had been separated from the city of God and could not worship Him in the place that He had appointed. David, presumably, had been exiled and was running for his life as his own son pursued him. He was in the midst of a civil war. He was at a pretty low point in his life.
When Paul and Silas was thrown in prison, instead of accepting defeat or recanting, they began to sing and we know what happened then. That was their Baca. That was their fountain.
“the rain also fills the pools”
גם ברכות יעטה מורה has several different suggested meanings. The Septuagint renders it: ‘The lawgiver will give blessings.’ Some render the Hebrew as, ‘The instructor will cover in blessings’. Some authorities render it as early rain. To a simple reader such as I, I can see the beauty and edification of both meanings. Since the giver of all blessings, and he who pours the rain (Joel 2:23) is God, it really makes no difference on how you translate it; the meaning is the same – In that Valley of Weeping, when you journey through and your tears start to flow, make it a moment of rejoicing and you will receive your blessing.
(Psa 84:7) They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Or, from victory to victory, from army to army, from company to company. The meaning is that those who walk victoriously through the valley will go from victory to victory, winning and overcoming. On the final victory, the overcomer will appear in the city of God, to sing and worship God continually, without anymore valleys.
Apr 08 2008
Psalm 84: The Valley of Baca – pt 1
This is my first attempt at exegesis of an OT passage, at least for this blog, so if you want to offer any helpful comments, let me know!
Some have called this one of the most difficult Psalms to translate; something that I will not even attempt to do, Hebrew being a weakness. It is filled with some vague phrases, but overflowing with powerful images. Some have suggested that David wrote this during his exile, having been overthrown by his son Absalom. To those who would suggest such a thing, it is easy to see that this was written on the way back to Jerusalem, perhaps even resting in a place called Baca. Some see this as the same valley in Judges 2:1-6.
It has also been suggested that this is a Psalm sung on the way to the Tabernacle, perhaps as a pilgrimage tune. Some Muslims refer to Baca as the valley of Bakkah where the first mosque was built. To them this is Mecca, and the Psalm relates to the journey there.
I see it as a journeying Psalm, perhaps on the way to the Tabernacle or the Temple, but written by one who has been separated from the city of God for some time. (See Psalm 137) We know that the Ark of the Covenant resided in Jerusalem when this Psalm was written. (v7). We also know that the author, presumably David, was not at Jerusalem and somehow kept from getting there. This is why I would suggest, along with a few others, that this was written during Absalom’s civil war.
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
(Psa 84:1) How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
The word משׁכנותיך rightly means ‘beloved’ as opposed to ‘lovely’, as if the tabernacles (perhaps everything surrounding the center of divine worship) was tenderly love. Granted, no matter the material state of the building, wherever the people of God meet, it is still a beautiful place, something to be loved, but the meaning here is that the tabernacles of God is beloved, something to cherish.
(Psa 84:2) My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Here the writer speaks longingly of the outer courters of the tabernacle/temple, where all manner of people may visit. To me, the simple reader, I see the write longing to the point of exhaustion to be even in sight of the house of God, to be included even among the strangers of Israel. I am reminded of the Prodigal Son who sought only to be a servant in the house of his Father if he could but be home again!
I live in West Virginia, and when I have to travel for extended periods of time, I start to long for home. When I was out in Indiana for a while, I missed the mountains so much that I would take a different path or go into Kentucky just to feel closer to home.
I know that when I am far from the Lord, and I begin to long, I do what I can just to get another taste of the goodness of God. How far was David away from the city of God that he was willing to settle for just being in the courts, where everyone was allowed?
David says that his לביand his בּשׂר cries out for God. This is his entire being. With every ounce, his inner man and his outer man, he sought his God, and longed for that city.
(Psa 84:3) Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
I know from what I have read that the Hebrew here is a bit confusing as is the logic of what David is saying. The altar was considered holy, so who would permit birds to nest there? How could they with the constant activity in that area?
I prefer this reading: (combining verse 2 and 3) My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my flesh cries out for the living God, even for your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God! Even the sparrow has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.
This preamble, as it where, sets the stage for the rest of the Psalm. We see the writer, presumably David, on a journey, perhaps exiled from the very city of God, barred from worshipping the one true God where He had chosen to place His Name. Surrounded by many others (the same could be said for pilgrims) perhaps even a court full of servants, he was solitary; he was alone.
No matter the circumstances imposed by perception on the Psalm itself, a few things are clear:
1.) A separation, whether spiritual or physical exists between the author and Zion (v7)
2.) A great longing, a deep seated emotional attachment to Zion exists in the author’s heart.
3.) The author is going back to the city of God.
