March - Reading 14

Good morning -

The schedule of scriptures for our reading today is:

Matthew 25:31-46

Romans 9:1-18

Psalm 61

and

Numbers 33-36

May God bless the reading of His Word.

 

Helen -

Let that boy get his own screen name! LOL Just kidding, I appreciate the input from both of you.

Good evening all -

Tonight we finish our reading of the Book of Numbers. Chapter 33 gives us a synopsis of the trek of the Israelites from Egypt to the plains of Moab. You guessed it, I have a map: http://scriptures.lds.org/biblemaps/2

I wish to add to Barry and Helen's comments on Matthew that the message I glean from the parable tonight is summed up well in the scripture itself, that being how we treat each other is how God will judge our treatment of Him. It's as basic as that. Other ancient cultures had myths of their gods visiting earth in disguise to wander among the mortals. God has no need to disguise Himself, but He certainly knows how we treat our neighbor. So when do we see God hungry, thirsty, a stranger, needing clothes, sick, or in prison? Every day bretheren! We were all made in the image of the Creator. We're all responsible to Him.

May God bless you

- Clint

 

Sunday School lesson – 12/4/05

Romans 9:1-29

Paul had raised the question of the Jewish situation at the beginning of the Letter with the proposition of the “Jews first” in verses 1:16 and 2:9-10. He then returned to the subject of the position of the Jews in the development of the Gospel in 3:18 where the question of faithlessness is raised. At that point in his diatribe Paul was addressing the subject of justification and the subject of the Jewish question was put aside. Now in chapter 9 the issue is brought back to the forefront and the Apostle analyzes with much more specificity the nature of the Jewish nation and the Jewish individual in light of the revelation of the Gospel.

It should be noted at the outset of this study exactly what the historic setting was under which the Jewish members of Paul’s audience found themselves. That there were Jews in the congregation is undeniable as Paul spends much time and text addressing them. Judas Maccabeus, the Jewish revolutionary and leader who led his people to a brief period of autonomy had forged an alliance with Rome requesting that they recognize the independent state of Palestine. Less than a century later, however, Pompey conquered Judea and brought back many prisoners of war, many of whom were soon freed, and by 50 BC the city of Rome had a large Jewish population.

In 31 AD a crisis arose when the Emperor Tibereus learned that four Jews had misappropriated funds that a Roman woman convert had donated to the Jerusalem Temple. In retribution, about four thousand Jews were exiled to die in Sardinia. The other Jews were not allowed to return until 31 AD. Soon after in 49, the Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome because he accused them of constant rioting “at the instigation of Chrestus.” Most Christian scholars conclude that the name “Chrestus is a Gentile variation of “Christus,” or Christ. This expulsion is also mentioned in the Scriptures in Acts 18:2 where Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla, two Jewish Christians who were victims of that expulsion.

By the writing of Romans, however, the Jewish community had once again begun to grow in Rome. Though much of Christendom at this time was Jewish converts, the audience in Rome was probably mostly Gentile. The Jews in Rome were likely the Hellenistic Jews who had migrated back to a hostile city. It is primarily these people to whom Paul now speaks.

Romans 9:1-5 Introduction: Israel’s Unbelief

Paul had once before mentioned Israel’s advantage in 3:1-2 but Paul elaborates more fully now. The decided advantage of the Jews provided by God set against the unfaithfulness of the Jewish people as a corporate entity presents a crisis for Paul and he responds with anguish. For any of Paul’s opponents who may have accused him of anti-Semitism, this Passage would have laid those claims to rest. Paul even wished (literally Greek: prayed) that he could sacrifice his own salvation if it would bring the rest of his ethnic group to a saving knowledge of the Gospel. His statements here are very close to those of Moses in Exodus 32:32 as he plead for the Israelites. Paul even addresses them as his “brethren,” a word typically used by Paul to denote Christians. Paul expresses his earnestness in that he speaks the truth in Christ from a conscience led by the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle names seven elements that gave the Jews a spiritual advantage over the Gentiles. They are (1) sonship (adoption), (2) glory, (3) covenants, (4) law-given, (5) worship, (6) promises, and (7) patriarchs (fathers).

Sonship was given to Israel when the Law was given (Exodus 4:22-23). Glory was the presence of the Lord among the people of Israel (Exodus 40:34). The Covenant (or covenant by some manuscripts) are primarily the Sinaiatic but also could include the Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic and New. The law was given to apply the covenant relationship to daily life but it also brought them to the knowledge of sin. Worship (or service) refers to the liturgy of the Temple. The Promises reached back to the time of Abraham and pointed towards the coming Messiah. The patriarchs or fathers were important as they were the predecessors of the Messiah. Here the term “concerning the flesh” refers to the physical nature of Jesus.

The final phrasing of verse 5 has been translated various ways. As the original Greek had no punctuation, translators are left with the task of deciphering the phrasing of the manuscripts. Some have felt that a period should be inserted, making the final phrase a benediction: God who is over all be blessed forever. Others such as the KJV insert a comma making the sentence a statement that Christ is God. Whether the statement is a declaration of Christ’s divinity or not is of no consequence in this matter as the point is made abundantly clear in a myriad of New Testament Passages.

Romans 9:6-13 Election and God’s Promise

Another point made in a variety of New Testament Passages is that heredity has nothing to do with one’s state of salvation. Though the idea of a Jew being damned to hell was foreign to most of the pious Jews of Jesus’ day, John the Baptist warned the crowds that God could make children of Abraham from stones and Jesus told the Pharisees that they were children of the devil and not of the Patriarch.

Now the question must be addressed, if God is sovereign, and the Jews were His chosen people, had the word of God failed. Had not God promised Abraham that it would be his seed through whom the world would be blessed? Paul’s point is that the word of God had not failed, even if every Jew in the world had rejected Christ. The promise had been fulfilled in Christ and it is through Christ alone that election occurs.

To illustrate his point, Paul states the words of God to Abraham in Genesis 21:12 where Abraham is told that it was through Isaac his seed would be named. Recall that in the account Abraham had already had a child by Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid. Therefore, lineage to Abraham was secondary to the Lord bestowing the promise. Ishmael was not the seed God had foretold. He was the result of Abraham and Sarah’s floundering faith.

Paul’s opponents may have then argued that Ishmael was the son of a slave and therefore disqualified for election. Paul answers this unstated objection with a second Old Testament example in the sons of Isaac. Jacob and Esau were both sons of Isaac and Rebekah. They were in fact twins. Yet before they were born, before they committed good acts or bad acts, Rebekah was told that Jacob, the child born second, would master over Esau.

Paul then quotes Malachi in the phrase, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” While the love of God for Esau is easily understood, the hate for Esau bears some commentary.

Franz Jehan Leenhardt, former professor of theology at the University of Geneva, contends that “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choosing” and “leaving aside.” Others agree with that commentary and state that a very fair paraphrasing of the sentence would be “I preferred Jacob to Esau.” Bear in mind also that by the time of the writing of Malachi, Jacob and Esau were long dead and the names refer to the nations that descended from the men. Esau was the father of Edom.. Nonetheless, Paul’s point is made that genetic lineage was no guarantee of being an heir of God’s promise to Abraham.

Romans 9:14-18 Election and God’s Justice

There is no end to the variety of reaction to these verses. The question of God’s justice was raised in 3:5 but dismissed as a human way of thinking and inconsistent with God being a just Judge of the world. Returning to the diatribe style consistent throughout Romans, Paul embarks on an explanation of God’s plan of election.

It is somewhat evident that Paul is moving through Jewish history as he moves from the story of Jacob to the Pharaoh in Exodus. Just as God spoke to Moses and revealed to him a plan for the salvation of Israel, so the Scriptures God personified, spoke to Pharaoh. The specific reference here in Exodus 9:16. The effect of Pharaoh’s resistance to God was to serve two purposes. First it was to display God’s power in the Exodus event and secondly to proclaim His name to all the earth.

It is an incorrect assumption to interpret verse 18 as stating that God causes an evil disposition in any man, including Pharaoh. Though at times in Exodus the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is attributed to God, in other instances it is attributed to Pharaoh himself. God’s word to Pharaoh had the same effect as the Law. The Law brought about consciousness to sin that was already present. God’s word to Pharaoh brought about hardness that was already there. As Dale Moody states in the 1970 Broadman Commentary, “the sun that hardens the clay melts the butter.”

Just as God’s word hardened Pharaoh’ heart when he resisted, so too did it harden the hearts of those who rejected Christ when they were called. The final answer to God’s justice is that not only is He just; He is just and merciful.

continued

 

Our Scriptures for 3/15 are:

Matthew 26:1-16

Romans 9:19-33

Psalm 62

Deuteronomy 1-3

 

Our Scriptures for 3/15 are:

Matthew 26:1-16

Romans 9:19-33

Psalm 62

Deuteronomy 1-3

 

Our Scriptures for 3/15 are:

Matthew 26:1-16

Romans 9:19-33

Psalm 62

Deuteronomy 1-3

 

Our Scriptures for 3/15 are:

Matthew 26:1-16

Romans 9:19-33

Psalm 62

Deuteronomy 1-3