THE POGOSTICK FOR THE JUMP
Summation
One message comes through from all the early Bible reading: People die. Sin is forever, but people die.
You may say: "Wait. My sin is washed away."
How about Satan's sin? You know, eternity in the lake of fire. The same for the False Prophet and the Antichrist. The same for those who refuse to accept Christ as savior. More on this when we discuss the Final Flesh, but you get the idea.
Sin is not a momentary thing. Adam and Eve didn't just bite the fruit and then God said, "All's forgiven." We don't insult someone or take their land or betray their trust and have it not reverberate behind that. We may be forgiven, but the hurt we engender lives on. Why do you think we have to forgive those who sin against us? Why do we have to let go of our anger at Hilary and at Donald? At Osama Bin Laden and at Putin? At Mom or Dad? We may not think they were the best choice for the parent or the job, but we are not to hate them despite failures and character flaws. I expect forgiveness and must let it flow from me as well. We can see their errors, point them out and pray for a change of heart in ourselves and them, but we must forgive.
YOUR sin and MY sin get washed away. "I'm freeeeeee!!"
Recall when we had that perfect first flesh? We had only one rule: Don't eat that fruit. So we ate it. But the bite goes on, We fell. We actually fell the first moment we listened to temptation but the actuality became OUR flesh and dwelt among us in our genes. Our Fallen Flesh began to decay. We start to die the moment we are born. The wrong conditions and we do die early. We opened the door to Death by sin and Death came rumbling in. Quiet, deadly. And we rush to his arms with our excesses. Disease, germs that wither the Fallen Flesh. Measles, mumps, the common cold. Flu which once threatened to kill everyone. Cancer, Heart disease. Then as now.
The first world of people got wiped out for their excesses. Sin cried for power and lust and sang the operatic "Me, me, me, me!" God giving them Enoch and then one last chance with Noah then sweeping them away because they would never accept Him. They accepted only the flesh and the perceived joys of sin. God preserving the line of Christ alone. Noah and his family became the basis of all our genomes. Did you see that? The line of Christ also produced our line.
Say again: "The line of Christ also produced our line."
Noah was a great man of God yet had his bad moment late in life with wine. Sin goes on in the genes.
They were to populate the Earth. They didn't spread out at first. God had to move them with natural disasters and the desert around expanding and then Babel. Nimrod united the Middle East and drove off the giants only to declare himself God. Getting wrapped up in our own power. the way we all tend to see our successes as ours alone. Sin took a mission that suited God and corrupted it. As it had corrupted the flesh.
One man got the call. Abraham. THE call to be the beginning of the line. the direct line to Jesus. The call was to create a people and give them salvation. It was both a physical and spiritual call. The line began with Isaac and went on to Moses without the Law. Just to worship God and make sacrifices. To be fruitful and multiply. To seek the Lord.
Humanity sank low again and Sodom went up in nuclear splat. Sin didn't go away then either just because the bloodline had begun
Then the Law arrived and nothing changed. But everything changed. WE didn't change, but we now sin was defined. Had we pushed pause and thought, we would have seen that we lived so long in sin we were habituated. Our parent's were addicts and we were born that way. In an ER, one of the most dread moments is the desperate birth of a "crack baby" an undernourished child who comes out screaming then spend days still screaming because the baby got addicted in the womb to the drug his mother was on and now she must withdraw because the mother refused to relent from her sin even for a second, even to spare her child. Judgement for sin arrives in a smaller than healthful package which will have a hard, probably troubled and faulty life putting a face to the sin of the addict. The Law brought judgement we never faced before. Make no mistake, there was Judgement as the Flood showed, but we got a certain kind of pass because we didn't have it all down in stone. I don't know how that gets worked out in the Final Judgement, but we will likely come to see.
The Hebrews had freedom thrust upon them, the possibility of life in obedience because that way of obedience was laid out. Not to live without sin, but the choice to stop sinning. Even down to the food they were to eat.
(Today, Nestles is using genetic testing in Europe to help design diets that match each body's genetic code. We want to rewrite the Law's dietary plan to suit our corrupted genetic structure. We miss the point that no matter how we struggle the sin corruption still goes on.)
Then they wandered for forty years because they complained and denied the plan of invasion and resisted every step of the way, God guiding them also every step of the way and them wanting more. Wanting something else. The taste of the world's food, the sensuous life. The addict will resist getting clean even at the cost of death, even the death of their children. Go back in the post and read the Scriptures. Look at the ones who died for disobedience on the forty year trek.
Then came Joshua, directly from Moses' leadership. Direction flowing from the Law. Joshua led the People into battle after battle, taking the land as they went, but he passed on before the battle was complete. he had founded the kingdom but there was still work to do.
Now we pause and become poised for the jump.
Compare and contrast Jesus and Joshua.
I would do the Yeshua thing, but we end up in all manner of legalistic mess when we go there. But we will pause to discuss the name a bit to give us an example of how humans get on these matters.
http://yeshua.org/who/what-does-yeshua-mean/
Our nature is to argue over the meaning of a name when the person brought salvation to the world so we might live in agreement with God. Do you see the way our sin gets to us? Me, too, by the way, so please don't point out the way I quibble about details. That's one of those : "I know, I know."
Suffice it to say they have the same name, one which was common in Israel as a form of remembrance for the work of the first Joshua. Even as the name Judas was common in Jesus' time (He had another disciple and a (half)brother by that name) in remembrance of Judas Maccabee.
And the name Joshua means Salvation.
Now compare and contrast...
https://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/jesus-a-better-joshua/
We notice the comparison that Joshua conquered but there was still work to be done by the Tribes and that Jesus conquered on the cross but there is still work to be done by the Church. We heard: "It is finished." on the cross, but we heard He was sending us on a mission when He spoke afterward. Dwell on what you learned about the tribes in judges and you will get a sense of where we are going in comparing the two beginnings of kingdoms.
Heb 4:7 After a long time, again naming a certain day, he says in David, Today (as he had said before), Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart,
Stephen knew that EVERY forefather in someway foreshadowed Christ. He knew too the meaning of the statement on 37 and 38:
Summation
One message comes through from all the early Bible reading: People die. Sin is forever, but people die.
You may say: "Wait. My sin is washed away."
How about Satan's sin? You know, eternity in the lake of fire. The same for the False Prophet and the Antichrist. The same for those who refuse to accept Christ as savior. More on this when we discuss the Final Flesh, but you get the idea.
Sin is not a momentary thing. Adam and Eve didn't just bite the fruit and then God said, "All's forgiven." We don't insult someone or take their land or betray their trust and have it not reverberate behind that. We may be forgiven, but the hurt we engender lives on. Why do you think we have to forgive those who sin against us? Why do we have to let go of our anger at Hilary and at Donald? At Osama Bin Laden and at Putin? At Mom or Dad? We may not think they were the best choice for the parent or the job, but we are not to hate them despite failures and character flaws. I expect forgiveness and must let it flow from me as well. We can see their errors, point them out and pray for a change of heart in ourselves and them, but we must forgive.
YOUR sin and MY sin get washed away. "I'm freeeeeee!!"
Recall when we had that perfect first flesh? We had only one rule: Don't eat that fruit. So we ate it. But the bite goes on, We fell. We actually fell the first moment we listened to temptation but the actuality became OUR flesh and dwelt among us in our genes. Our Fallen Flesh began to decay. We start to die the moment we are born. The wrong conditions and we do die early. We opened the door to Death by sin and Death came rumbling in. Quiet, deadly. And we rush to his arms with our excesses. Disease, germs that wither the Fallen Flesh. Measles, mumps, the common cold. Flu which once threatened to kill everyone. Cancer, Heart disease. Then as now.
The first world of people got wiped out for their excesses. Sin cried for power and lust and sang the operatic "Me, me, me, me!" God giving them Enoch and then one last chance with Noah then sweeping them away because they would never accept Him. They accepted only the flesh and the perceived joys of sin. God preserving the line of Christ alone. Noah and his family became the basis of all our genomes. Did you see that? The line of Christ also produced our line.
Say again: "The line of Christ also produced our line."
Noah was a great man of God yet had his bad moment late in life with wine. Sin goes on in the genes.
They were to populate the Earth. They didn't spread out at first. God had to move them with natural disasters and the desert around expanding and then Babel. Nimrod united the Middle East and drove off the giants only to declare himself God. Getting wrapped up in our own power. the way we all tend to see our successes as ours alone. Sin took a mission that suited God and corrupted it. As it had corrupted the flesh.
One man got the call. Abraham. THE call to be the beginning of the line. the direct line to Jesus. The call was to create a people and give them salvation. It was both a physical and spiritual call. The line began with Isaac and went on to Moses without the Law. Just to worship God and make sacrifices. To be fruitful and multiply. To seek the Lord.
Humanity sank low again and Sodom went up in nuclear splat. Sin didn't go away then either just because the bloodline had begun
Then the Law arrived and nothing changed. But everything changed. WE didn't change, but we now sin was defined. Had we pushed pause and thought, we would have seen that we lived so long in sin we were habituated. Our parent's were addicts and we were born that way. In an ER, one of the most dread moments is the desperate birth of a "crack baby" an undernourished child who comes out screaming then spend days still screaming because the baby got addicted in the womb to the drug his mother was on and now she must withdraw because the mother refused to relent from her sin even for a second, even to spare her child. Judgement for sin arrives in a smaller than healthful package which will have a hard, probably troubled and faulty life putting a face to the sin of the addict. The Law brought judgement we never faced before. Make no mistake, there was Judgement as the Flood showed, but we got a certain kind of pass because we didn't have it all down in stone. I don't know how that gets worked out in the Final Judgement, but we will likely come to see.
The Hebrews had freedom thrust upon them, the possibility of life in obedience because that way of obedience was laid out. Not to live without sin, but the choice to stop sinning. Even down to the food they were to eat.
(Today, Nestles is using genetic testing in Europe to help design diets that match each body's genetic code. We want to rewrite the Law's dietary plan to suit our corrupted genetic structure. We miss the point that no matter how we struggle the sin corruption still goes on.)
Then they wandered for forty years because they complained and denied the plan of invasion and resisted every step of the way, God guiding them also every step of the way and them wanting more. Wanting something else. The taste of the world's food, the sensuous life. The addict will resist getting clean even at the cost of death, even the death of their children. Go back in the post and read the Scriptures. Look at the ones who died for disobedience on the forty year trek.
Then came Joshua, directly from Moses' leadership. Direction flowing from the Law. Joshua led the People into battle after battle, taking the land as they went, but he passed on before the battle was complete. he had founded the kingdom but there was still work to do.
Now we pause and become poised for the jump.
Compare and contrast Jesus and Joshua.
I would do the Yeshua thing, but we end up in all manner of legalistic mess when we go there. But we will pause to discuss the name a bit to give us an example of how humans get on these matters.
http://yeshua.org/who/what-does-yeshua-mean/
Yeshua is a name which means ‘Salvation’ in Hebrew.
Who is Yeshua? Yeshua is the same as Jesus Christ of the New Testament Bible, and the same as the Messiah which was prophesied to come through the Jewish people over and again in the Old Testament Bible which is known as the Tanakh to the Jews.
Why do people call Yeshua ‘Jesus’?
The name “Jesus” comes from the Latin Iesus, which comes from an Anglicized form of the Greek name Yesous. What this means is that the Greek name Yesous was altered as it was adopted by the English language. In the 1st century the Greek name Yesous represented the Hebrew name Yeshua, which was a shortened form of the Hebrew name Yehoshua. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no historical or linguistic basis in any biblical texts for other modern forms of the name Yeshua, such as Yahshua, Yahushua, Yeshu, or Y’shua. The name ‘Jesus’ did not yet exist during the the time that Jesus Christ was on Earth, approximately 4 BC to 29 or 34 AD. It did not come into existence until it was configured by the Council of Nicea of the Roman Catholic Church in the 4th century.
“Yehoshua”
Yehoshua is a compound name consisting of two parts:
- The first part is the “prefix” form of the Tetragrammaton—God’s Four-Letter Name: Yod-He-Vav-He or YHVH.In the Hebrew Bible “Yeho-” is used at the beginning of certain proper names: Jehoshaphat, Jehoiachin, Jehonathan (In Medieval English the letter “J” was pronounced as “Y”). The “suffix” form of the Tetragrammaton is “-yah” (“-iah” in Greek, as in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, or Halleluiah).
- The second part is a form of the Hebrew verb yasha which means to deliver, save, or rescue.
Symbolically, the name Yehoshua/Yeshua/Jesus conveys the idea that God (YHVH) delivers or saves (his people).
Some have suggested that the name Yeshua can be found hidden within the tetragrammaton YHVH, as “Yeshua HaNazarei Vemelekh HaYehudim” which in Hebrew translates as, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” which is the same as the familiar Latin inscription INRI seen written on the notice that was nailed to the cross above Jesus per Pontius Pilate’s instruction, “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum”. However, Hebrew linguists are reluctant to state that this is the case, because the word “Ha” translates as “The”, so the ‘Ha’ could be referring to anything. Point taken, but it is interesting none the less, especially in light of what YHVH means and what Jesus said about himself.
YHVH, pronounced Yaweh, was first used in the Bible in Exodus 3:14 as the name of God when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. YHVH translates as “I AM THAT I AM” or “I AM WHO I AM”.
Our nature is to argue over the meaning of a name when the person brought salvation to the world so we might live in agreement with God. Do you see the way our sin gets to us? Me, too, by the way, so please don't point out the way I quibble about details. That's one of those : "I know, I know."
Suffice it to say they have the same name, one which was common in Israel as a form of remembrance for the work of the first Joshua. Even as the name Judas was common in Jesus' time (He had another disciple and a (half)brother by that name) in remembrance of Judas Maccabee.
And the name Joshua means Salvation.
Now compare and contrast...
https://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/jesus-a-better-joshua/
“There was one, then, of old, who bore this famous name of Jesus, or Joshua, and was a type of our Jesus. What did Joshua do?
Well is his name called Jesus.”
- When Moses could not lead the people into Canaan, Joshua did it; and so our Jesus accomplishes what the law never could have done.
- Joshua overcame the enemies of God’s people: though they were very many and very strong, and bad cities walled to heaven and chariots of iron, yet in the name of Jehovah, as captain of the Lord.s host, Joshua smote them. Even so doth our glorious Joshua smite our sins and all the powers of darkness, and utterly destroy our spiritual enemies. Before him Amalek is smitten, Jericho falls, and Canaanites are put to rout, while he giveth us to triumph in every place.
- Moreover Joshua conquered an inheritance for Israel, took them across the Jordan, settled them in a land that flowed with milk and honey, and gave to each tribe and to each man to stand in his lot which God had ordained for him. Precisely this is what our Jesus does, only our inheritance is more divine, and on each one of us it is more surely entailed.
- Though Joshua could not give to the people the heavenly Sabbatismos, or rest of the highest kind, yet he gave them rest most pleasant to them, so that every man sat under his own vine and fig tree, none making him afraid; but our glorious Joshua has given us infinite, eternal rest, for he is our peace, and they that know him have entered into rest.
- Joshua, the son of Nun, caused the people to serve the Lord all his days, but he could not save the nation from their sins, for after his death they grievously went astray: our Joshua reserves to himself a people zealous for good works, for he ever liveth an is able to keep them from falling.
- No more doth Joshua lift sword or spear on behalf of Israel, but Jesus still rideth forth, conquering and to conquer, and all his people have victory through his blood.
(Charles Spurgeon: “Jesus” – Matthew 1:21)
We notice the comparison that Joshua conquered but there was still work to be done by the Tribes and that Jesus conquered on the cross but there is still work to be done by the Church. We heard: "It is finished." on the cross, but we heard He was sending us on a mission when He spoke afterward. Dwell on what you learned about the tribes in judges and you will get a sense of where we are going in comparing the two beginnings of kingdoms.
Heb 4:7 After a long time, again naming a certain day, he says in David, Today (as he had said before), Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart,
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have said anything about another day.
9 So that there is still a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.
10 For the man who comes into his rest has had rest from his works, as God did from his.
(BBE)
The Writer of Hebrews points out to the Hebrews that Joshua provided a temporary place of rest, one that men immediately messed up and expounds on how the new Joshua, Jesus, has become the perfect rest himself.
The Writer of Hebrews points out to the Hebrews that Joshua provided a temporary place of rest, one that men immediately messed up and expounds on how the new Joshua, Jesus, has become the perfect rest himself.
Then I keep going back to Stephen, the first martyr, who did the best job of explaining the links in my own blog better than I long before I began ambling through it centuries later, did it so well it got him killed.
Acts 7:1 Then the high priest said, Are these things true?
2 And he said, My brothers and fathers, give hearing. The God of glory came to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he was living in Haran,
3 And said to him, Go out of your land, and away from your family, and come into the land to which I will be your guide.
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and went into Haran; and from there, when his father was dead, he was guided by God into this land, where you are living now:
5 And God gave him no heritage in it, not even enough to put his foot on: but he gave him an undertaking that he would give it to him and to his children after him, though he had no child at that time.
6 And God said that his seed would be living in a strange land, and that they would make them servants, and be cruel to them for four hundred years.
7 And I will be the judge, said God, of that nation which made them servants: and after that, they will come out and give me worship in this place.
8 And he made with him the agreement of which circumcision was the sign. And so Abraham had a son, Isaac, and gave him circumcision on the eighth day; and Isaac had a son, Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve heads of the families of Israel.
9 And the brothers, moved with envy against Joseph, gave him to the Egyptians for money: but God was with him,
10 And made him free from all his troubles, and gave him wisdom and the approval of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food.
12 But Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time.
13 And the second time his brothers had a meeting with Joseph, and Pharaoh had knowledge of Joseph's family.
14 Then Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all his family, seventy-five persons.
15 And Jacob went down to Egypt, and came to his end there, and so did our fathers;
16 And they were taken over to Shechem, and put to rest in the place which Abraham got for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17 But when the time was near for putting into effect the undertaking which God had given to Abraham, the people were increasing in Egypt,
18 Till another king came to power, who had no knowledge of Joseph.
19 He, having evil designs against our nation, was cruel to our fathers, and they were forced to put out their young children, so that they might not go on living.
20 At which time Moses came to birth, and he was very beautiful; and he was kept for three months in his father's house:
21 And when he was put out, Pharaoh's daughter took him and kept him as her son.
22 And Moses was trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was great in his words and works.
23 But when he was almost forty years old, it came into his heart to go and see his brothers, the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them being attacked, he went to his help and gave the Egyptian a death-blow:
25 And he was hoping that his brothers would see that God had sent him to be their saviour; but they did not see.
26 And the day after, he came to them, while they were having a fight, and would have made peace between them, saying, Sirs, you are brothers; why do you do wrong to one another?
27 But the man who was doing wrong to his neighbour, pushing him away, said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Will you put me to death as you did the Egyptian yesterday?
29 And at these words, Moses went in flight to the land of Midian, and was living there for a time, and had two sons.
30 At the end of forty years, an angel came to him in the waste land of Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn-tree.
31 And Moses, seeing it, was full of wonder, and when he came up to have a nearer view of it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying,
32 I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses, shaking with fear, kept his eyes from looking at it.
33 And the Lord said, Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy.
34 Truly, I have seen the sorrows of my people in Egypt, and their cries have come to my ears, and I have come down to make them free: and now, come, I will send you to Egypt.
35 This Moses, whom they would not have, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? him God sent to be a ruler and a saviour, by the hand of the angel whom he saw in the thorn-tree.
36 This man took them out, having done wonders and signs in Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the waste land, for forty years.
37 This is the same Moses, who said to the children of Israel, God will give you a prophet from among your brothers, like me.
38 This is the man who was in the church in the waste land with the angel who was talking to him in Sinai, and with our fathers; and to him were given the living words of God, so that he might give them to you.
39 By whom our fathers would not be controlled; but they put him on one side, turning back in their hearts to Egypt,
40 And saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him.
41 And they made the image of a young ox in those days, and made an offering to it, and had joy in the work of their hands.
42 But God was turned from them and let them give worship to the stars of heaven, as it says in the book of the prophets, Did you make offerings to me of sheep and oxen for forty years in the waste land, O house of Israel?
43 And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, images which you made to give worship to them: and I will take you away, farther than Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the Tent of witness in the waste land, as God gave orders to Moses to make it after the design which he had seen.
45 Which our fathers, in their turn, took with them when, with Joshua, they came into the heritage of the nations whom God was driving out before the face of our fathers, till the time of David,
46 Who was pleasing to God; and he had a desire to make a holy tent for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon was the builder of his house.
48 But still, the Most High has not his resting-place in houses made with hands, as the prophet says,
49 Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is a resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, says the Lord, or what is my place of rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?
51 You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52 Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death;
53 You, to whom the law was given as it was ordered by angels, and who have not kept it.
54 Hearing these things, they were cut to the heart and moved with wrath against him.
(BBE)
Stephen knew that EVERY forefather in someway foreshadowed Christ. He knew too the meaning of the statement on 37 and 38:
37 This is the same Moses, who said to the children of Israel, God will give you a prophet from among your brothers, like me.
38 This is the man who was in the church in the waste land with the angel who was talking to him in Sinai, and with our fathers; and to him (i.e.,Moses) were given the living words of God, so that he might give them to you.
Surely at that time the people thought he meant that Joshua. and he meant physically that Joshua, but the Second Joshua, the Prophet and the Messiah, the second Adam, the spiritual Joshua was also spoken of in that message.
As Joshua ushered in the age of Judges, as he started the building of the Kingdom on Earth so does the Spiritual Joshua usher in the Church Age, the start of the heavenly part of the Kingdom. We will trace the corresponding developments as we proceed. And as the Second Joshua brings Spiritual renewal, so the Second Adam begins the bodily renewal, the personal physical renewal. Enter the Refreshed Flesh.
Surely at that time the people thought he meant that Joshua. and he meant physically that Joshua, but the Second Joshua, the Prophet and the Messiah, the second Adam, the spiritual Joshua was also spoken of in that message.
As Joshua ushered in the age of Judges, as he started the building of the Kingdom on Earth so does the Spiritual Joshua usher in the Church Age, the start of the heavenly part of the Kingdom. We will trace the corresponding developments as we proceed. And as the Second Joshua brings Spiritual renewal, so the Second Adam begins the bodily renewal, the personal physical renewal. Enter the Refreshed Flesh.
