Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
-- John 5:2-17, ESV
In John 3:1-21, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again, using the language of baptismal cleansing; and in 3:22-36, when a dispute arises about baptism and cleansing, John the Forerunner explains that the Bridegroom has arrived to bring new and eternal life.
In John 4:1-38, the Bridegroom meets a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus is like Abraham’s servant, like Jacob, and like Moses, who found wives at wells. Jesus offers the woman water of eternal, new-age life, and she believes Him. Following this, in 4:46-54, Jesus raises the son of a nobleman to life. In both of these cases, the new life comes when the person believes the words of Jesus.
—<Quote ends>—
The bridegroom has come to bring new, eternal life via the water from heaven, the Holy Spirit.
—<Quote begins>—
Now we come to John 5. Again we find a pool of water and a person who believes Jesus’ words and acts upon them, and is given new life. This time the focus is not on Jesus as Bridegroom, offering Himself as a new Husband to a woman at a well. Rather, the focus is on the sheep who are gathered at the well. Again, when we go back to Jacob and Moses, we find that when they encountered their wives at wells they also watered the women’s sheep. Jacob opened the well so that the sheep might be watered, and Moses not only watered the sheep, but drove away the wicked shepherds. (See Genesis 24 & 29 and Exodus 2.)
Jesus now waters a sheep at a pool, and then fights the wicked shepherds, the Jewish “guardians of orthodoxy.” In the speech that follows, Jesus tells us that He as the Son has the power to bestow new life, not only new-age life in this world (John 5:19-24), but also life in the resurrection (5:25-29).
As He concludes His speech, Jesus informs the Jews that He is really saying and doing nothing new. Moses had told them all about this long ago, but they did not believe Moses (5:45-47). Thus, it might be enough to see Jesus as the New Moses, watering sheep and opposing evil shepherds. But there is more.
Entering the Sabbath Land
Overlooked by most modern commentators is something that would have leaped out at any ancient Jewish reader or hearer of this text: The man had been sick for 38 years. Israel had wandered in the wilderness for 38 years (Deuteronomy 2:14). No synagogue-educated Jew would fail to make this obvious connection. And it would start him to thinking about the rest of what is going on in John 5.
None of the following commentators even take notice of this: Calvin, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry, Hendriksen, Beasley-Murray, Tasker, and Lenski. Others, like Meyer, Morris, and Brown, mention the connection only to dismiss it. After all, what do numbers mean? The only reason we are told that the man was sick for 38 years is so that we will know he has been sick for a long time. It does not occur to such expositors that if this is all the Spirit had intended, the text would say that he had been ill for “many years.”
Westcott, however, notes that the connection is often made by ancient and pre-modern commentators, though he doesn’t do anything with it. We found only Arthur Pink taking it seriously, as a symbol of Israel “under the law,” but he does not link it to the events that follow.
Yet, the connection is obvious and pregnant with meaning. It explains everything that follows: Jesus, whose very name is the same as Joshua, is the New Joshua who is leading His people into Sabbath rest. Hebrews 3-4 makes this point, and if the author of Hebrews could figure it out, so could John; and so could Jesus. As angels, under the Angel of Yahweh, guided Israel to the promised land in the wilderness era, so now Jesus, the New Joshua, the Son of Man, leads the new Israel in the new era.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Jesus performs this miracle on the Sabbath day. We notice that Jesus tells the man to take up his bed and walk back into the community. He is told to re-enter the Promised Land, carrying his possessions with him. And, as soon as he enters the Land, he meets the new Canaanites, the Jews, who tell him he has no business doing what he is doing.
The fact that it was a bed that the man was to carry with him on the Sabbath day back into the land is also doubtless significant, for a bed is a place of rest. What more fitting symbol of Sabbath? Indeed, as a follower of Jesus this man is in a sense bringing Sabbath into the land with him, for both his testimony (word) and the sign given to him (bed) are testimonies of new life through Jesus.
Joshua was Moses’ successor. He completed Moses’ work. And in doing so, Joshua departed neither to the right nor to the left from what God had taught through Moses (Joshua 1:7). Moses had been similarly obedient. Jesus, the New Joshua, says the same thing when He says that He does nothing except what the Father has told Him to do (John 5:19ff.)
Jesus links John the Forerunner with Moses in 5:33-35, 45-47. As Moses came before Joshua, so John came before Jesus. The Jews rejoiced (somewhat) in John as they rejoice in Moses. They reject, however, the testimonies of Moses and of John, for Moses pointed to Joshua, and John points to Jesus. Moreover, by rejecting Moses, they reject the God who commanded Moses, just as they reject the God who commanded John and the Father who commands Jesus.
In conclusion, the great clue to John 5 lies precisely in the statement that the man had been ill for 38 years. This detail sets up the typology that is used throughout. The period of the wilderness, the time of Moses and of John the Forerunner, is coming to an end. It is now time to enter the true Sabbath of eternal life, following the New Joshua.
—<Quote ends>—
The ability to see what is in front of your nose is a skill we all should carefully cultivate.
Our theological position is known variously as Christian Reconstruction, theonomy, or dominion theology. All three terms are accurate.
The requirement of dominion appears first in Genesis 1:28. It is God’s command to man to make the world God’s Kingdom by bringing everything under God’s rule and purpose. Eden, an enclosed area, was to be man’s pilot project towards this worldwide goal. The whole earth, everything in it, and man were to be under God’s dominion. In Genesis 1:28, God commands man as his only rightful Lord, i.e., He lays down the law to Adam and to all mankind in and through him.
The second great occasion of God’s summons to dominion comes to and through Moses in the giving of the law. Law is a key means toward dominion. The giver of law is the lord of that people and society. In the modern world, either the state is the law or, as in anarchism, the individual. By denying the validity of God’s law for all time, antinomians have denied the lordship of Christ. Logically, many of them deny His lordship.
A lawgiver simply says, by enacting laws, I am lord. In early America, the Bible was the lawbook used by courts and juries, and constitutions simply governed procedures of operation. The United States and various early state constitutions simply set forth procedures of operation, not laws in the historic sense.
The fundamental test on this in the New Testament is Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” God’s righteousness (or, it can be translated, justice), His law, must be sought first by His people.
But today, those who claim to be His people commonly deny His law and see this as a moral stance! They deny morality in the name of morality!
Humanism substitutes man’s law for God’s law because its god is man. Humanism vilifies those who adhere to God’s law because it is a threat to man’s claims to sovereignty.
Because most churches are antinomian, Christianity is in retreat. In the twentieth century, U.S. church membership increased dramatically while its influence decreased phenomenally. Antinomian churches, churches which bypass God’s law, have, whether or not they admit it, another god than Jesus Christ. And so, with full churches, Christianity so-called is in retreat. In fact, it hates dominion theology quite commonly.
The state, with its man-made laws, seeks false dominion, or domination. The Son makes us free, but the humanistic state makes us slaves. Only when the Son makes us free are we free indeed, according to Scripture. The modern state defines freedom in terms of its lordship, not Christ’s.
By denying, avoiding, or revising God’s law, the modern church has transferred sovereignty and dominion to man and the state, the prerequisite to slavery. It sees God’s law as bondage rather than evidence of God’s sovereignty and our freedom under God. Law is not for us salvation, but for the redeemed of God, it is freedom under God. Or do we wait for Christ’s lordship until heaven?! If so, we may wait in vain. How can Christ be our Lord in heaven if He is not now our Lord?
How can we have Christ as our Savior if we deny His lordship? If the Lord has no dominion over us now, how can He see us as His people? If we want salvation without lordship, can we have either?
The subject of dominion, of lordship, is basic to the Bible. Should it not be basic to our faith and law? Can we truly believe in the Bible from cover to cover and deny dominion, law, and lordship?
The fact of hostility to us for our dominion theology is a sad one. We must see a change soon, or else Christian churches will retreat into at least irrelevance. And true Christianity can never be irrelevant.
Taken from The Institutes of Biblical Law, pp. 448-452
Man was created in the image of God and commanded to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it (Gen. 1:26-27). Not only is it man’s calling to exercise dominion, but it is also his nature to do so. Since God is the absolute and sovereign Lord and Creator, whose dominion is total and whose power is without limits, man, created in His image, shares in this communicable attribute of God. Man was created to exercise dominion under God and as God’s appointed vicegerent over the earth. Dominion is thus a basic urge of man’s nature.
As a result of the fall, however, man’s urge to dominion is now a perverted one, no longer an exercise of power under God and to His glory, but a desire to be God. This was precisely the temptation of Satan, that every man should be his own god, deciding for himself what constitutes right and wrong (Gen. 3:5). The ultimacy of man in both law and power was asserted.
History therefore has seen the long and bitter consequence of man’s perverted urge to dominion. Man has made vicious and perverted use of man individually, in gang activities, and as an army or a nation. History is a long tale of horror in which man has sought power and dominion as an end in itself. George Orwell in 1984 saw the meaning of this fallen urge to dominion: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever.” This sinful, fallen urge to dominion is prominent in every sphere of modern life, as well as in all history. It certainly governs the political world, where the state daily gains power for power’s sake.
As a result of all this, many have become frightened of all power and hostile to the concept of dominion. Liberals, neo-orthodox, existentialists and others have renounced the idea of power as an illusion or a temptation, and the possession of power as an evil. The result has been to accentuate the drift to totalitarian power.
Dominion does not disappear when a man renounces it; it is simply transferred to another person, perhaps to his wife, children, employer, or the state. Where the individual surrenders his due dominion, where the family abdicates it, and the worker and employer reduce it, there another party, usually the state, concentrates dominion. Where organized society surrenders power, the mob gains it proportionate to the surrender.
This fact poses the problem, which for an Orwell, who saw the issue clearly, is impossible to answer. Fallen man’s exercise of dominion is demonic; it is power for the sake of power, and its goal is “a boot stamping on a human face-forever.” Its alternative is the dominion of anarchy, the bloody and tumultuous reign of the momentarily strong.
Clearly, there is no hope for man except in regeneration. The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Divines, in dealing with the image of God declared:
Q. 10. How did God create man? A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:26-28; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).
The salvation of man includes his restoration into the image of God and the calling implicit in that image, to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion. Hence, the proclamation of the gospel was also the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, according to all the New Testament.
A radical deformation of the gospel and of the redeemed man’s calling crept into the church as a result of neoplatonism. Dominion was renounced, the earth regarded as the devil’s realm, the body despised, and a false humility and meekness cultivated. Dominion was regarded as a burden of the flesh rather than a godly responsibility. Especially with Pietism, Jesus was pictured as meek and helpless, pacifistic and mild of manner.
The word meek is a Biblical term. It is used in Numbers 12:3 to describe Moses, who is termed “very meek”; Moses hardly jibes with modern ideas of meekness. In fact, Moses is described as meek “above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” Marsh indicates the meaning of meek: “Moses does not fight for his own status before men, but is concerned to be Yahweh’s servant. Therefore Yahweh cares for him and his position among the people.”1 The word meek thus refers primarily to a spiritual state in relationship to God. Elliott noted, “It may be observed, further, that the word anav, meek, is frequently interchanged with the cognate word ani, and that the meaning may be bowed down, or oppressed.”2 The meaning is further clarified by the Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Dominion over the earth is given to the meek, and meekness clearly has reference to God. The meek are the redeemed whom God has burdened, oppressed, and broken to harness, so that they are tamed and workable. God subjected Moses to a more rigorous discipline than any other believer of his day, and Moses accepted that oppression, grew in terms of it, and became disciplined and strong. Hence, Moses was the meekest man of his age. Meekness is thus not mousiness, but disciplined strength in and under God.
Jesus Christ described Himself as “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29; rendered “gentle and humble” by both Moffatt and BV). He described Himself as such in relationship to those who sought Him. In His relationship to the Pharisees and Sadducees, Christ’s conduct was firm and resolute. As Christ used the term meekness, it meant, not the surrender of dominion, but rather the wise, merciful, and gracious use of dominion. We cannot understand the meaning of meekness in Scripture unless we realize that it is not the surrender of dominion but rather the humble and godly use of dominion that it has reference to. The blessed meek are the tamed of God, those harnessed to His law-word and calling, who shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). The blessed meek are those who submit to God’s dominion, have therefore dominion over themselves, and are capable of exercising dominion over the earth. They therefore inherit the earth.
This point is of very great importance. Apart from it, the gospel is perverted. Man has a God-given urge to dominion, to power. The purpose of regeneration is to re-establish man in his creation mandate, to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth. The purpose of the law is to give man the God-appointed way to dominion. The purpose of the call to obedience is to exercise dominion.
What happens then when a caricature of Jesus is presented, when obedience is constantly demanded without the God-ordained goal of obedience being mentioned, and when man is continually summoned to prepare himself in the Lord, but for no purpose? The ministry of the church then becomes trifling, and the life of the believer, frustrating.
But the urge to dominion does not disappear simply because the church does not speak of it. Instead, it reappears as an ugly and sinful struggle for power in the church; rightful dominion being neglected or denied, sinful dominion begins then to emerge. The life of the church becomes then an ugly struggle over meaningless trifles in which the sole purpose is sinful power and dominion. All too often this sinful urge to dominion is masked with hypocritical meekness. It is very necessary therefore to recognize that the urge to dominion is God-given and is basic to the nature of man. An aspect of this dominion is property.
It is the custom among ecclesiastical socialists to deny that there is Biblical warrant for private property. Their ground for this is the often repeated Biblical declaration, “The earth is the LORD’S” (Ex. 9:29, etc.). They choose to neglect the total witness of Scripture to private property. The so-called communism of Acts 2:41-47, also cited by ecclesiastical socialists, was simply a voluntary sharing on the part of some (Acts 5). It was limited to Jerusalem. Because the believers took literally the words of Christ concerning the fall of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:1-28), they liquidated their properties there. The wealthier members placed some or all of these funds at the church’s disposal, so that a witness could be made to their friends and relatives before Jerusalem fell. Very early, persecution drove all but a nucleus out of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1).
The earth is indeed the Lord’s, as is all dominion, but God has chosen to give dominion over the earth to man, subject to His law-word, and property is a central aspect of that dominion. The absolute and transcendental title to property is the Lord’s; the present and historical title to property is man’s. The ownership of property does not leave this world when it is denied to man; it is simply transferred to the state. If the contention of the liberals that the earth is the Lord’s, not man’s, is to be applied as they require it, then it must be applied equally to the state; the state then must be denied all right to own or control property. The Scripture, however, places property in the hands of the family, not the state. It gives property to man as an aspect of his dominion, as a part of his godly subduing of the earth.
If the doctrine of dominion in and under God is weakened, then all the law is weakened also.
God grants dominion to man under His law, but He does not grant His sovereignty. God alone is absolute Lord and Sovereign. To deny God’s sovereignty is to transfer sovereignty from God to man, or to man’s state. Thus, Thomas Paine, in the Rights of Man, affirmed as a fundamental principle the sovereignty of the nation-state, declaring, “The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any INDIVIDUAL, or ANY BODY OF MEN, be entitled to any authority winch is not expresslv derived from it.”3 Paine and the French Revolution clearly affirmed their totalitarianism by this statement. The state as god became the source of authority, morality, and dominion. Quite logically, the Revolution became a boot, grinding down the face of man, but, by the grace of God, not forever.
God’s purpose is not the dominion of sin but the dominion of redeemed man over the earth under God. According to St. Paul, the very creation around us groans and travails, waiting for the godly dominion of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-23). Because of the fall, creation is now under the dominion of sinful man and is being laid waste by his perverted use of power. Even as the plant turns to the light, so creation turns with longing to the restored dominion of godly man. Even as dust and stones move in terms of gravity, so they move also in terms of God’s purposed dominion of man over them. The people of God must therefore be schooled into the nature and requirements of godly dominion. Anything short of this is a contempt of the supreme authority of God, who declares in His word that He will make a covenant with the very beasts of the field to ensure man’s prosperity in the day of his obedience: And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely (Hosea 2:18).
1. John Marsh, “Numbers,” in Interpreter’s Bible, II, 201. 2. C. J. Elliott, “Numbers,” in Ellicott, I, 516. 3. “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, By the National Assembly of France,” in The Complete Political Works of Thomas Paine (New York: The Freethought Press Association, 1954), II, 95.r
—<Quote ends>—
A thought about this:
Because most churches are antinomian, Christianity is in retreat. In the twentieth century, U.S. church membership increased dramatically while its influence decreased phenomenally. Antinomian churches, churches which bypass God’s law, have, whether or not they admit it, another god than Jesus Christ. And so, with full churches, Christianity so-called is in retreat. In fact, it hates dominion theology quite commonly.
There will come a time when church membership will fall rather sharply — “Oh no! The tithe is shrinking!” shouts the antinomian profit-hungry hustlers — while Christian influence in American society gets stronger and stronger: not as quickly, but rather steadily and strongly.
Church membership and faithfulness becomes, of all things, elite phenomena. Hopefully not to today’s seminary-rooted forever-failures, but the actual faith with actual families, actually guiding each other in greater obedience and sharing the covenantal signs of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism together, as the heart of an expanding Godly society.
The Christian governing class becomes reality – primarily governing each other and themselves, tying their lives to obedience to God and His Law-Word… and so, naturally rising via superior service to positions of power and authority.
Positions of power and authority they get to keep, only so long as they continue to obey God and serve Men.
Summary:
The Empire of the Ba’als fall.
Christ rises, and the Kingdom of God rises with Him.
Dominion through service.
As Jesus did, so we must do as well.
In law and politics, medicine and engineering, garbage collection and room cleaning, factory work and clerical work, mothering and fathering, astronomy and biology, history and physics, drivers and pilots.
All things — and all nations! — must be brought under the dominion of Jesus Christ, into His just and good Kingdom.
No exceptions.
To partially repeat the previous quote:
—<Quote begins>—
The word meek is a Biblical term. It is used in Numbers 12:3 to describe Moses, who is termed “very meek”; Moses hardly jibes with modern ideas of meekness. In fact, Moses is described as meek “above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” Marsh indicates the meaning of meek: “Moses does not fight for his own status before men, but is concerned to be Yahweh’s servant. Therefore Yahweh cares for him and his position among the people.”1 The word meek thus refers primarily to a spiritual state in relationship to God. Elliott noted, “It may be observed, further, that the word anav, meek, is frequently interchanged with the cognate word ani, and that the meaning may be bowed down, or oppressed.”2 The meaning is further clarified by the Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Dominion over the earth is given to the meek, and meekness clearly has reference to God. The meek are the redeemed whom God has burdened, oppressed, and broken to harness, so that they are tamed and workable. God subjected Moses to a more rigorous discipline than any other believer of his day, and Moses accepted that oppression, grew in terms of it, and became disciplined and strong. Hence, Moses was the meekest man of his age. Meekness is thus not mousiness, but disciplined strength in and under God.
Jesus Christ described Himself as “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29; rendered “gentle and humble” by both Moffatt and BV). He described Himself as such in relationship to those who sought Him. In His relationship to the Pharisees and Sadducees, Christ’s conduct was firm and resolute. As Christ used the term meekness, it meant, not the surrender of dominion, but rather the wise, merciful, and gracious use of dominion. We cannot understand the meaning of meekness in Scripture unless we realize that it is not the surrender of dominion but rather the humble and godly use of dominion that it has reference to. The blessed meek are the tamed of God, those harnessed to His law-word and calling, who shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). The blessed meek are those who submit to God’s dominion, have therefore dominion over themselves, and are capable of exercising dominion over the earth. They therefore inherit the earth.
That day Moses charged the people, saying, “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:
“‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s nakedness.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
-- Deuteronomy 27:11-26, ESV
Did archaeologists just confirm yet another account from the Scriptures? On May 12, 2023, Associates for Biblical Research published a press release announcing the publication of a research study on an exciting find of a small, folded lead tablet sifted out of a pile of discarded archaeological material on biblical Mount Ebal. And, if the study is correct, this tablet confirms, yet again, that the Bible relates an accurate account of history!
Now, the small tablet couldn’t be opened without destroying it, but the researchers were able to use a form of CT scanning to peer inside. After months of studying the indentations, the researchers believe they’ve pieced together what it says, and the results are exciting. Researchers believe the tablet states:
You are cursed by the god yhw, cursed. You will die, cursed – cursed, you will surely die. Cursed you are by yhw – cursed.
Now, the letters “YHW” represent the name God gave for himself to Moses: Yahweh (the vowels are often not written out in Hebrew). So, if that interpretation is correct, this is absolutely a tablet from the Israelites since that is the unique name of only the Hebrew God (the one true God).
This tablet was discovered in a pile of discarded fill from a previous archaeological expedition that uncovered a religious site—two altars—located on Mount Ebal. Those altars, and thus this artifact, are dated roughly to the time of the conquest of Canaan. This is now believed to be the oldest—by a few centuries—Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel.
The really amazing part comes with some Old Testament background information. Deuteronomy 11 records the Lord’s command to Moses:
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. (Deuteronomy 11:26–29, emphasis added)
Then the book of Joshua records Moses’ successor, Joshua, doing just this.
At that time Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written . . . And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. (Joshua 8:30–32, 34)
Could this small lead tablet be a record of the curse put by Joshua on Mount Ebal? Perhaps. But, at the very least, it shows that some ancient Israelite considered Mount Ebal to be the mountain of curses—which is what we’d expect, given what the Lord said to Moses.
Now, as with all archaeological finds of this significance, the interpretation of the tablet’s contents is controversial, and papers will certainly be written either decrying or defending the interpretation. But if this interpretation proves correct, we won’t be surprised. It would be just another of the many examples of archaeology confirming the Bible’s history. After all, God’s Word is true, from the very first verse.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying, Ken
This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.
Putting Genesis 36 together with 1 Kings 11, we see Edom as having a week of kings, and then undergoing death and resurrection, followed by a new line of kings. The earlier kings were not a dynasty, but were elected from various cities and locations; while the later kings were descended from Hadad (I Kings 11:20, by implication). Parallel to this, there were seven elected judges in the book of Judges (Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Jephthah, and Samson), followed by a death of Israel when the Tabernacle was taken apart in the days of Samuel, followed by a resurrection with David, who began a dynasty, and whose son put the Tabernacle back together as the Temple. But the seven judges of Israel are not called kings, while their contemporaries in Edom are called kings, according to the rule that the wicked get their inheritance first and then lose it, while the righteous get theirs last and keep it (Genesis 36:31). (See the Note 1 at the end of this essay.)
[…]
The fifth king was Samlah, and the fourth was Hadad ben Bedad. This Hadad “smote Midian in the field of Moab” (Genesis 36:35). Now, in Judges we read that Gideon liberated Israel from Midian (Judges 6-8). It seems very likely that these events are linked somehow. It is typical of the Edomites to fall upon a defeated nation and despoil it. The Amalekite Edomites were on their way to take over Egypt as the “Shepherd Kings” when they met Israel coming out of Egypt (Exodus 17). We find the same pattern in Obadiah 10-14 and Psalm 137. Thus, it seems likely that after Gideon defeated and drove out the Midianites, the Edomites under Hadad ben Bedad fell upon them and conquered them.
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Note 1:
Genesis stresses that the fallen culture arrives in history before a true culture arises. We see this clearly in Genesis 4, where we have the first city, the first musician, the first agriculturalist, the first metallurgist, and the first poet, all in the line of Cain. Later on, while Abraham (“Father of a Multitude”) has only two sons (before his marriage to Keturah), his brother Nahor has a full complement of twelve. Similarly, while Isaac has only two sons, Ishmael has twelve. Jacob arrives finally at twelve sons, but his brother Esau gets a kingdom and has a line of kings long before Jacob does (though Jacob is promised kings in Genesis 35:11).
Enoch and Babylon are the first cities, but Jerusalem is the last. Jubal is the first musician, but David the “last.” The wicked get there first and do much of the work, laying up an inheritance for the just. Because they are not concerned with morality, the wicked can employ slave labor freely and built their cultures early, while the righteous culture takes longer to build.
Note 2:
As I discussed at length in my extended Studies in Food and Faith, especially No. 7: “The Meaning of Eating in the Bible,” eating is incorporation. In Revelation 3:16, the Church is pictured as in Jesus’ mouth, as He eats her into Himself, incorporating her. When God “eats” the sacrifices in Leviticus, He is “eating” the people into Himself as their King. When Christians greet each other with a holy kiss, they are symbolically “eating” one another, sharing their lives.
The names Bela (Bel`a) and Balaam (Bil`am) (bl`, bl`m) are most obviously related to the root bl`, which means “to eat or devour.” In Balaam’s name, the word `am is evidently joined, which means “people,” so that Balaam means “People Eater.”
The word Baal, shortened to Bel, means “lord” or “husband.” It is written in Hebrew b`l, which simply transposes the second two letters of bl`. Such transpositions happen occasionally in Hebrew words. Moreover, the shortened form Bel drops the middle consonant: bl. Thus we cannot be far from the mark in associating the two words. A king is both a lord and husband, and an eater of his people into himself.
—<Quote ends>—
You can extract quite a number of useful insights, when you take the Hebrew scriptures seriously.
And blessings for your life, when you hear and consistently, continually apply the commandments of the scriptures.
I suspect that there are insights to be gathered from the insights, depending on how much you understand of Hebrew, ancient Near East culture, and how the Law interacts with the behaviour of people. Truth builds on truth.
Our current pagan civilization is dying. A Godly is aborning, but we will not see the New Christendom blossom in our lifetimes.
We can build in the time of small things, though. Make sure that the Christian children that carry the future can build on our own lives, and grow up from there. No need to waste time relearning old lessons, over and over again.
I’m with Stephen C. Perks: The church was stolen from Christian families by the Roman priests, always hungry for status and control. When the priest took the covenantal signs of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, they exalted themselves into self-serving power positions.
Only with the Reformation were that set of chains shattered… but Calvin and Luther sadly placed their faith in their personal safety more in the princes, than in the Law of God. This crippled and stunted the scope of the Reformation, opening the door to the statist order that is dying all around us now.
A defeated Western Christianity has defeatist shepherds, who leave their defeatist sheep unprotected, to be fleeced and/or slaughtered by the wolves… or by those same supposed shepherds.
It’s time for a change.
And if God has to raise up shepherds from the commoner men and women… or shepherd them directly, in their families and houses by His own spirit and His own word… that’s exactly what will happen.
The Good Shepherd will not abandon His people to His (and their!) enemies.
Regardless of what those enemies are pleased to call themselves.
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
“As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
“Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.
“I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD. And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD.”
-- Ezekiel 34, ESV
And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.
Our Betters laugh, in open contempt.
“Go pray. All you want, for as long as you want.”
God sees. God hears. Both us, and them.
And He is not laughing.
Not in the slightest.
Truth: the Children of God were slaves in Egypt for many long hard years, before God sent Moses to lead them out.
But at the appointed time salvation did come to God’s friends…
A person wrote in referring to a previous article, and I like the fact that they questioned them: and once they questioned them they had to sort of change their tune…. And let me just read this real quickly:
“Your article about how global warming is causing sea levels to rise, endangering the low-lying island nation of Tuvalu speculates that the people of Tuvalu will someday have to abandon their islands and perhaps maintain a sense of digital nationhood while living somewhere else.
While sea level rise continues to threaten Tuvalu’s existence, not all of its Islands have been impacted equally. Over the past four decades, only one of the country’s 101 Islands have been entirely eroded, whereas 73 have seen a net increase inland mass. How did that happen, and are any of those 73 Islands inhabitable?”
Boom!
Boom!
Well, and what they were saying was, as they explained to get their way out, of it “Yeah, that is what’s happening, but what we’re really talking about is that building infrastructure on the new islands would make it hard to inhabit them.”
No you were trying to insinuate something else and this person got you, so I think that was kind of fun. I think they probably just had to put that in there to show their honesty.
Their site, Creationseminar.net, could use a face lift. On the other hand, the dates of their seminar are recent and plentiful.
Substance matters most. But there’s nothing wrong with a bit of time and money for the surface appearance, if just to bring in more traffic.
Sir Pantsalot @James Möhler so you should doubt everything? To what end? This way of thinking leads to people believing that the earth is flat. Nobody says that gullibility is a virtue. If you applied your reasoning equally, you’d doubt everything you’ve ever learned, but you don’t want to, you just want to hate on religious people.
[snip]
Bawhoppen To everyone who is criticizing James Mohler… if your belief system is definitely right, you shouldn’t need to worry about it being scrutinized, right? It should hold up to any questioning, and you should have nothing to fear about allowing someone to do so in the first place. But… do you allow that?
—<Quote ends>—
As I observe some atheists push their foolishness into an informal Christian social space, something comes to mind…
“in the first place, when the modern world says to us aloud, ‘You may be religious when you are alone,’ it adds under it’s breath, ‘and I will see to it that you are never alone.’” C.S Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”
In Western culture, it is demanded of Christians that they be tolerant of atheistic beliefs. No such demand is expected of atheists.
“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for Freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.” Frank Herbert, Children of Dune.
Now, there are two common ways you can respond to these fools:
Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
— Proverbs 26:4-5, ESV
But there is a better third way:
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
and a rod for the back of fools.
— Proverbs 26:3, ESV
Christians with an aptitude for it need to be adept at using combative verbal rods. This takes practice, and should have been done a long time ago. But today’s the second-best time to start.
When Christians get comfortable with using those rods, and increasingly lost the ability to suffer the babble of fools and the nonsense on stilts they promote, Christians can go on the offensive, and enter the chambers of those who hate them… and the One who made reality itself.
First the low-hanging fruit. Then the choice prizes. All in a lawful manner.
Something Christians should have learned, long ago.
We can use more men with the determination, aptitude, and desire for winning verbal street battles. With increasingly skill and effectiveness.
You work your way up from the bottom, to the top.
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
-- First Samuel 17:26, ESV
I recently posted a meme with the above caption. Its purpose was to stimulate discussion about what we actually do in Church services and whether this is really what the Church is for, what the Lord Jesus called his disciples to do when they assemble together. My view is that it is not. But the Churches and their services have travelled a long way from their beginnings in the Bible, and they have picked up major elements from pagan worship that have transformed the life and witness of the body of Christ on earth and indeed seriously compromised the calling of the body of Christ and compromised the way we are meant to go about fulfilling that calling. As a result of my posting the meme some people asked questions to which I provided answers as best I could. I was subsequently asked if these questions, answers and the discussion around them could be put together in a single article, and so here I have done this, though two of the questions have been condensed into one.
Q.1. Can you please elaborate on why you think all church services are syncretistic with paganism?
A. Because the form of Roman religion, ritual, i.e. magic, was taken on by the Church in its services and Christian content was poured into the rituals. These rituals did not exist in the New Testament. For example the Lords supper was meal, a feast, the agape, but it was replaced by a ritual in which the meal was virtually non-existent and which was presided over by priests, and then by the middle of the first millennium two Church councils had banned the agape feast altogether in Church buildings and it ceased completely shortly after that. As a result of this the nature of the Christian faith as a social order was distorted and rituals, i.e. magic, took its place, and this still goes on today, even in Protestant churches. The life of the body of Christian as a social order, a kingdom, a nation as the Bible calls us, was replaced by a clerical order that performed the faith on behalf of the believers in the form of rituals, and the citizenship of the kingdom was effectively stolen from the faithful and vested in the clergy.
Q. 2. Show us how it’s done. What specifically do you do for the Lord’s Supper? I assume it’s not a tiny cracker and half an ounce of juice.
A. It is a feast, a full meal, the Christian Passover. Tell everyone to bring enough food and drink for themselves and their family and a bit more and put it all on a common table as a bring and share (but don’t get drunk). Eat the meal together and have fellowship. Get to know each other. Talk to each other, pray for each other, help and support each other. Sing a hymn of praise together—but don’t turn the whole thing into a sing-song marathon. The whole thing is worship, not just the singing. As you do this regularly you will start to grow together as a community. If you have someone to teach, make sure that during this part of the get-together he does not bleat on so long that the poor chap sat on the window goes to sleep, falls off and accidentally gets killed from boredom—the apostle Paul learned this lesson the hard way. Most preachers can talk a glass eye to sleep. Make sure they shut up plenty and listen to others. Make sure that others can contribute, and that there is mostly time for questions and discussion—this is important. If the teacher does not accept this tell him to shut up, and if he complains kick him out. Make this teaching and discussion time only a part of what you do together. The central thing is the meal, the fellowship and the growing together as a community, the family of God. Let it all spill out into an intertwining of your lives together.
A few other things to consider : (1) Try to live near to each other if possible. This is not always possible I know. But the more closely you live near to each other the more effective you will be as a community and as a social order as you grow. Community requires geographical proximity. However, do not make this a requirement or turn it into doctrinaire thing. Not everyone can up sticks and move. It’s a good thing to aim for though if possible.
(2) Also, and especially in this context, avoid control freaks that want to take over and control everyone. The Church has real problems with control freaks. You will probably come up against them and you need to be gracious but firm with them. When you get them do not let them take over and impose their agenda. Show them that this is not how things should be and not in line with the teachings of Jesus. If you let them take over they will wreck the whole thing. Those who lead are those who serve, not those who are served.
(3) As the community grows you will need to appoint elders and deacons from those who are qualified in terms of biblical criteria, but it is absolutely essential that control freaks are kept out of the eldership and the diaconate.
(4) Those who have ministries should be able to exercise them but not in an exclusive or controlling way. Ministry should not be restricted to elders and you need to take a broad view of ministry. We all have ministries, but not all ministries are Ephesians Four (E4) type ministries. Don’t let E4 ministers hijack the fellowship. Those who exercise these ministries are there to serve and help not take over. They also must be willing to learn from others, but if they have a genuine calling I think they should be exercising their ministry in a wider capacity than the local assembly. E4 type ministry in the New Testament is primarily itinerate, and was in the sub-apostolic age as well.
(5) The aim is to be a community that is a light on a hill, a community that models to the world what true society and true social order should be. As you grow bigger you can start organising the diaconal function on a wider basis. The aim is to have your own welfare system; your own education system,—probably mostly home education and support and help for it at the moment, though I speak from the UK and other countries may have other options as well (there are not many Christian schools in the UK and they are difficult to set up at the moment); your own arbitration system for settling disputes (this is an area where elders will be necessary); your own healing and eventually medical system. Then there is the whole area of trade and business, the arts, sciences etc. All these are important and all are legitimate callings in our task of building a Christian society and seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness first.
In all these areas we are not become a ghetto, an inward focused and retreatist community, but rather the exact the opposite of this, an outward focussed community that provides light to the world and models and demonstrates to the world what true society should be, and by doing so calls the world to repentance. But this community does need to be based on faith in Christ and we need to build the Christian society that grows out of it in terms if a Christian worldview and on a Christian ethical foundation.
A Christian society is not merely the world with a Christian mystery cult added onto it. It is a whole social order that revolves round and functions in terms of the good news of the salvation of the whole person through faith in Christ. And it must be outward focussed, seeking not to retreat from the world but rather to transform and disciple all nations to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian community needs eventually to become the dominant influence in the wider society across the whole spectrum of life and society. But I am perhaps getting ahead of myself. These things need to grow out of the community and will take time. Nothing less than the discipling of the whole world, all nations, to Christ is the goal. But start small with the micro community and pray for the growth.
Performing rituals will not create this community and the social order that must grow out of it. Ritual will hinder and compromise the whole venture, and divert the body of Christ from the mission that the Lord has given us. If the present dysfunctional and decrepit state of the Church shows us anything it is surely this. Our calling is to the discipling of the nations, not the creation of Christian mystery cults. We are commanded to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not Church services. The kingdom of God is a counter-revolutionary prophetic social order, a community, the true society, that is meant to grow until it displaces and eventually replaces the idolatrous cultures that surround us. That is the meaning of the parable of the mustard seed.
Acrosss the Stars 