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Scripture Stories Ozunox
SCRIPTURE
STORIES
LIVES AND TIMES
D OU G L A S W I L S O N
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Contents
O
nce upon a time, in the very beginning of our world,
the great Creator God made the heavens and the earth.
The earth was misshapen and unformed, and the Spirit
of the Lord hovered over the waters. The great Creator cre-
ated all things in just six days, beginning with light on the
first day. On the second day, the Creator separated the waters
above the heavens from the waters below the heavens. The
third day, He separated the waters again, this time dividing
the waters with dry land. Once the land was established, the
Creator God showed His kindness by covering the land with
grass, with herbs, and with fruit-bearing trees. On the fourth
day, the true God created rulers for the day and for the night,
these rulers being the sun and moon, respectively. The stars in
the sky—the heavenly host—were also created on the fourth
day. And on the day of their creation, this great angelic host
1
SCRIPTURE STORIES
shouted and sang for joy (Job 38:7). The morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for their joy. On the
fifth day, the Creator fashioned creatures above for the sky,
and creatures below for the great deeps. In the sky, He created
birds to fly above the earth, and He also created all the fish of
the sea. In addition to the multitude of fish, He created great
sea serpents. On the sixth day, the last day of creation, the
Creator God made all the beasts of the earth. And then, as
the crowning work of all He had done, He created Man out of
the dust of the ground.
At the end of each day, the Creator pronounced in His wis-
dom that what He had done was good. Everything He made
was very good, but one of the best things He came to make
was an enclosed garden at the very top of a mountain. This
garden was east of a land called Eden and was situated as a
high mountain sanctuary. The Creator had already made Man
out of the dust of the ground that was east of this garden of
Eden, which in its turn was east of the land of Eden. After He
had created Man, the Lord God planted this garden and ap-
pointed Man to dress it and keep it. In the garden, the Lord
had caused every pleasant and good tree to grow. All the trees
that were pleasant to see were growing there and all the trees
that were good for food. When He placed Man in the garden,
the Creator generously told him that he could eat from any tree
there, with just one exception.
Four rivers originated in this garden—but they started as
one river. From this point of origin, that river soon divided
into four. Two of them were called the Pishon and the Gihon,
which no longer exist. The other two were the Tigris and the
2
M an and I shshah
3
SCRIPTURE STORIES
4
M an and I shshah
5
SCRIPTURE STORIES
his home, leaves his father and mother, joins himself to his
wife and they become one flesh. Because one man and one
woman were once one flesh, a man is to leave his father and
mother and seek out a woman to be his true companion that
he might become one flesh with her. Everything about this
beautiful story was now perfect.
But one of the great celestial creatures that the Creator had
made was the seraph. Of these great seraphim, one of them
had become filled with craft and guile and had fallen from his
heavenly estate. We have many names for these fallen sera-
phim, but they include dragon, serpent, and worm. Centuries
later, such flying serpents afflicted the children of Israel in the
wilderness until a servant of God named Moses made a bronze
figure of one impaled on a pole and lifted it up so that the chil-
dren of Israel could by faith see the ultimate destruction of
their enemy.
The first book of the Bible calls this creature a serpent. The
last book of the Bible calls him a great dragon (Rev. 12:9). That
great dragon, the ancient serpent, is called the Devil, or Satan.
He has been a murderer from the very beginning and has been
the enemy of our souls for all these long years. This dragon,
full of hatred and guile, came into the garden where Man and
Ishshah were living and decided to lure them into an ungrate-
ful disobedience of the Creator. In accordance with his lying
nature, he did this with craft and great subtlety.
There were two important trees in the garden. The Creator
did not expect Man to work as a slave but rather as a faithful
steward. Man had every right to receive his life from the gar-
den he was tending. In fact, the Creator God told him that
6
M an and I shshah
he could eat from all the trees in the garden (and there must
have been very many) with only one exception. The Creator
had even said that Man was free to eat from the Tree of Life—
which was his life. The only tree that was prohibited was called
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But the Creator had given Man his instructions about these
trees before Ishshah had been created. The Creator had said
that Man would die if he ate the fruit from the forbidden tree.
This is why the lying dragon decided to begin his wiles with
Ishshah. But Man had known the Creator’s will firsthand, yet
he just stood by while the dragon twisted the requirements of
the Creator ever so slightly. And while the difference in word-
ing was slight, the resultant slander against the Creator God’s
character was great. The dragon began by asking if it were true
that the Lord had prohibited them from eating from every tree
in the garden. Now between the sentences You may eat from
all the trees but one and You may not eat from any tree is a vast
difference. But this dragon is the father of all liars, and this is
how successful lies go. Words are twisted, and it appears that
the twisting is slight, but the meaning of the words is entirely
reversed. In this case, the twisting of the words conveyed the
meaning that the Creator was abundant in creating but stingy
in sharing what He had made.
Ishshah answered the serpent, and it is telling that although
she corrected him, the leaven of lies was already at work in
her. She did not represent the actual requirement either. She
said that the Creator had said, You shall not eat of it, neither
shall you touch it, lest you die. But the Creator had said nothing
about touching it. And this is where the serpent showed his
7
SCRIPTURE STORIES
8
M an and I shshah
9
SCRIPTURE STORIES
far away from the Tree of Life. And from that time to this, no
man has ever found his own way back to that Tree.
But we do know, according to the promise, that the way is
West.
10
Our Father Noah
T
he story of the great Flood is a tremendous story of judg-
ment, victory, faith and grace. About 1,600 years after the
creation of the human race, God visited this great cata-
clysm upon us—but He nevertheless spared the human race
through a righteous man with the name of Noah. Our people
survived this great judgment, but barely. This event in our his-
tory was so striking and so traumatic that virtually every tribe
and nation of men afterward preserved the story of it down
to the present day, each generation telling their children after
them about the time the whole earth was destroyed by a deluge.
The Babylonians called their Noah Utanupishtim, the Chinese
called him Fu Hi, or tamer of the animals, and the Greeks
called him Deucalion. The North American Indians had him
surviving in a great canoe, and the Babylonians thought the
ark was shaped like a cube. Of course, it is only in Scripture
11
SCRIPTURE STORIES
12
O ur F ather N oah
13
SCRIPTURE STORIES
14
O ur F ather N oah
for their cubits, and it is also possible that the antediluvian cu-
bit was longer than all of them. Because the cubit was gener-
ally the distance from the elbow to the fingertips, if men were
larger then (which is likely), the cubits would have been lon-
ger in our terms. But if we take the shortest cubit we know,
which was the Hebrew common cubit of 17.5 inches, the ark
was gigantic, the biggest ship ever built from that time down
to the nineteenth century AD The length of the ark was three
hundred cubits, the breadth of fifty, and the height was thirty
cubits. By the common cubit, this translates to 437.5 feet long,
almost 73 feet wide, and almost 44 feet high. The ark had three
decks (Gen. 6:16), which means it had a deck area of 95,700
square feet, an area slightly bigger than twenty standard col-
lege basketball courts. For Noah to build an ark this size to
escape from a local river flood suggests either than Noah was
a manic overachiever or that the supposition is incorrect and
the Flood was a universal one.
God said that Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives,
eight souls in all, could all come into the ark that Noah had
built, and they could do so on the basis of a covenant that God
established with Noah. The Flood that came upon the earth
was a type of Christian baptism, which is the salvation of those
within the ark and the judgment upon all who are outside. The
whole world was to be baptized in judgment, and the elect
were to be saved through that judgment.
According to Jude, these angels who did not keep their first
estate were locked up in everlasting chains until the Day of
Judgment (Jude 6). And, he goes on to say, the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah had sinned in the same way that these angels
15
SCRIPTURE STORIES
had in “going after strange flesh.” The Lord Jesus tells us that
the angels do not marry, not that they cannot. The Creator did
not intend this blessing for them, so this is what constituted
the nature of their rebellion. The left their first estate. The na-
ture of the sin was a kind of celestial perversion—intermar-
riage of distinct kinds—and the intent of the sin was to be as
God and to do so without His blessing.
The apostle Peter tells us that these rebellious angels were
locked up in a place called Tartarus, which is the deepest pit
of Hades, the place of the departed dead. And the Lord Jesus,
when He descended into this Hades, as Peter says, preached
specifically to the spirits who had been disobedient at the time
of Noah (1 Peter 3:18–20). The Lord Jesus Himself personal-
ly announced to the Nephilim that their scheme for attaining
eternal life had been finally defeated, and that He was, is, and
always will be, the only way to the Tree of Life.
When Noah was done with building the ark (which had per-
haps taken 120 years), God invited him to bring his house-
hold into the ark with him—because he was righteous. He was
told to take seven pairs of the clean animals with him, and one
pair each of the unclean animals. This reminds us that there
were details of revelation that God had given to these people
that were not explicitly recorded in Scripture until the time
of Moses, such as the distinction between clean and unclean
animals. Noah was six hundred years old when this happened,
and depending on how the account is read, he was told to enter
the ark one week before the deluge started. This they all did,
and God closed the door of the ark behind them. One week
passed. While it took great faith to build the ark in the first
16
O ur F ather N oah
place (Heb. 11:7), quite possibly the greatest test of faith was
sitting in that ark with the door closed before the rain started.
In telling this story, it might be tempting to drift toward the
language of story in the fictional sense or myth in the fantastic
sense. But this is not how the story was told to us, so we must
be faithful in how we retell it. The Flood started on a particular
day of the week. In fact, on the seventeenth day of the second
month, this glorious salvation, disguised as a great cosmic di-
saster, started.
The fountains of the great deep—vast amounts of subter-
ranean water—were broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened, and they crashed down. All the creatures that
breathed the air of that world then perished. The water cov-
ered the mountains, and the rain came down for forty days
and forty nights. The water prevailed on the face of the earth
for about five months. As the waters began to run off, the ark
finally came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Two and a
half months later, they could see the tops of the mountains.
Forty days later, Noah sent out a raven and a dove. Only the
dove returned. A week later, he sent the dove out again, which
returned with an olive leaf. He waited another week, sent the
dove out again, and this time it did not return. Noah removed
the covering from the ark, and he saw that the surface of the
ground was now dry. About two months later, the earth had
completely dried, and God told Noah to go out. This Noah did,
and built an altar on which he sacrificed from every clean an-
imal and every clean bird. God smelled the sweet savor of the
sacrifice and promised never again to strike every living thing,
as He had done. The covenant memorial of the rainbow was
17
SCRIPTURE STORIES
established, and from that time to this, our covenant God has
kept His Word.
18
From Abram to Abraham
A
fter the Flood, the sons of men attempted to recreate the
civilizational glory that had existed before the Flood. We
have to remember that we should not look at ancient civi-
lization through the lens of evolution—men gradually striving
to progress. Rather, we have learned the story of a great Fall,
in which man was created “advanced,” rebelled against God,
and then began the long, slow downward spiral of devolution.
Outside His covenant of grace, God kept placing obstacles in
front of unregenerate man so that each attempt at civilization
had less glory than the previous one. This was done by means
of judgments like death, judgments like the Flood, shortening
of lifespans, and confusion of languages. The history of man
outside of Christ is a history of deterioration and corruption.
This continued until the great reversal at Pentecost, when the
confusion of the languages was finally reversed.
19
SCRIPTURE STORIES
20
F rom A bram to A braham
the way the written records which constitute the early part of
Genesis made their way down to Moses, who was their editor.
Now his decision is not explained to us, but whatever the
reason, the day finally came when Terah, Abram’s father, de-
cided to leave Ur of the Chaldees. The intent was to come to
Canaan, but they wound up settling in Haran, which was al-
most due north of Canaan. After the death of Terah (when he
was 205), the Lord told Abram to leave his country, his kin-
dred, and his father’s house, because He would take him to a
new land. God promised that He would make a great nation
of Abram, blessing him, making his name great, and making
him a blessing to others. From the very beginning of God’s
dealings with Abram, He always was promising him that his
descendants would be great. Those that blessed Abram would
be blessed, while those who cursed him would be cursed. And
in Abram all the families of the earth would be blessed.
Abram obeyed and came down from the north, moving
south into Canaan, living as a nomadic pilgrim. In faith, he
established two altars, one at Shechem and another at Bethel.
In doing this, he was doing more than simply offering his own
personal worship—he was claiming the land for the right wor-
ship of YHWH. These were not small alcoves where Abraham
could pray privately. But at the same time, he built these al-
tars in great patience, as we shall see. Based on the number of
warriors who lived in his “household,” the entire household
was probably somewhere between three and ten thousand
souls. By establishing these altars, Abram was functioning in
the land (that was promised to him) as an evangelist. He did
not have to seize what God had promised to give him. We are
21
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22
F rom A bram to A braham
23
SCRIPTURE STORIES
24
F rom A bram to A braham
At that time, during the sunset, Abram had a deep sleep fall
upon him. At the same time, a “horror of great darkness” fell
upon Abram—a sense of the numinous, of holy dread, of ter-
ror and awe.
God promised Abram here that his seed would live as aliens
in a land not their own for four hundred years. That nation
would then be judged, and the sons of Abraham would come
up out of the land with great wealth. For his part, Abram
would live to a full old age, and four generations after Abram,
his seed would come back to this land. The reason for the de-
lay was that the wickedness of the Amorites, who were then in
the land, was not full enough to warrant their destruction yet.
At this, the sun went completely down, and a smoking fur-
nace and a burning lamp passed between the divided pieces
of the animals. This was a self-maledictory oath given by God.
He was the one who passed between the animals, not Abram.
“May all this happen to Me,” God said, “if I do not fulfill My
Word to you.”
But when Sarai saw that she was not able to give Abram a
son, she gave her handmaid Hagar to him so that she might
give him a son in that way and adopt him for her own. This
is another place in our story where it might be dangerous to
condemn Abram thoughtlessly. God had promised him many
descendants and had said they would not be reckoned through
an adoption of Eliezer of Damascus. Abram had not yet been
told that the son of promise would be born to Sarai, so Sarai
suggested this expedient. But when Hagar conceived, she
became proud and despised her mistress and as a result was
driven from the encampment. After an angel appeared to her,
25
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26
F rom A bram to A braham
they were eating, the Lord asked after Sarah, who was in the
tent. He promised her a son within the year. Sarah overheard
this and laughed in unbelief. “I am old,” she thought with-
in herself, “and my lord is old.” The Lord asked why she had
laughed, and she denied having laughed because she was now
afraid. Despite her fear, she had called Abraham lord, and
so Peter calls Christian women to surpass her holy example.
That was just a moment in this conversation, however, and the
Lord determined to show Abraham all that He was going to
do to Sodom.
After the destruction of the cities of the plain, Abraham
moved south (but not all the way to Egypt). He sojourned
in a place called Gerar, which had a king named Abimelech.
Abraham said (once again) that Sarah was his sister, and so
Abimelech sent for her. But God appeared to Abimelech in
a dream and said, “Behold, you are a dead man. The woman
you have taken is another man’s wife.” But Abimelech had not
touched her and said, “Lord, will you overthrow a righteous
nation?” His argument was that he was not wicked like Sodom
and Gomorrah were. Abimelech woke up in a fright and told
his household. They were all frightened, and Abimelech asked
Abraham why he had done this thing. Abraham explained
everything and received enormous gifts from the king. Then
Abraham prayed for Abimelech so that the women throughout
the household of Abimelech began conceiving again.
After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, a son was
finally born to Abraham by Sarah. Isaac was circumcised
according to the covenant, and when it came time for Isaac
to be weaned, a great festival was established. Ishmael took
27
SCRIPTURE STORIES
28
F rom A bram to A braham
still alive. And when Abraham reached the age of 175, he was
finally gathered to his people. His two oldest sons, Isaac and
Ishmael, came together to honor and bury their father and
ours in the cave where Sarah had been buried.
29
Moses the Christian
G
od had told Abraham that his descendants would spend
four hundred years in another nation. This particular ex-
ile began in the days of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, and
his great-grandson, Joseph. The children of Israel went down
to Egypt seventy strong, and they emerged from that land four
centuries later an enormous multitude.
But the various biblical chronologies of this require some
work to decipher. God tells Abraham that his descendents
would be afflicted in another land for four hundred years,
and that they would come back in the fourth generation. Paul
tells us that the law came 430 years after the covenant with
Abraham. And we learn in Exodus that there were just three
men between Jacob and Moses (Levi, Kohath, Amram), which
is difficult to spread over four hundred years. It is thus possible
that the affliction in Egypt was as short as 215 years, with the
31
SCRIPTURE STORIES
32
M oses the C hristian
33
SCRIPTURE STORIES
34
M oses the C hristian
35
SCRIPTURE STORIES
36
M oses the C hristian
37
SCRIPTURE STORIES
smite Egypt and that the Egyptians would keep the Israelites
from departing empty.
Egypt was one of the world’s great superpowers, to use our
modern terminology. But after God was done with them, their
nation and economy were in shambles. The original fear had
been the military threat posed to them by Israel, and this fear
was eventually realized—although in an unexpected way.
The plagues sent by the true and living God were directly
aimed at the gods of Egypt. Although Pharaoh was initially
defiant, and the children of Israel were completely discouraged
by this resistance, Moses went back to the Lord and received
divine encouragement from him. God would visit plagues
upon Egypt, and He would also harden Pharaoh’s heart so that
Egypt would be completely ruined destroyed.
The first plague turned the Nile to blood. Of course, the
livelihood of Egypt was completely dependent upon the Nile.
Ha’pi, the god of Nile inundation, was completely helpless
before God’s use of the Nile as an instrument of devastation.
The fish died, rotted, and stank, and the Egyptians had to dig
around the Nile to get water to drink. But the magicians of
Egypt duplicated the plague, turning more water to blood,
which is not what Egypt needed. Oh, great, more blood. Their
work only reinforced the judgment of God.
The second plague was a swarm of frogs, a symbol of fertility
in Egypt. They swarmed everywhere, inside and out, and Egypt
was completely covered with frogs. The magicians of Egypt
were able to duplicate this also—just what we needed, more
frogs!—but Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and promised
to let the people go for their three day festival. Moses asked
38
M oses the C hristian
39
SCRIPTURE STORIES
along the ground. Pharaoh called for Moses and did more than
relent. He confessed his own wickedness and the righteousness
of God. Moses prayed for him but knew that he was not truly
repentant. And that is what happened—Pharaoh hardened his
heart yet again.
The eighth plague was locusts, which carpeted the entire
face of the earth. They destroyed the next cycle of crops, and
the servants of Pharaoh rebuked him just on the threat of lo-
custs. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed? Pharaoh
tried to negotiate again—“Go out to sacrifice to God with just
your men.” But Moses refused, and the locusts came in a way
that the world has never seen before or since. Pharaoh repent-
ed again and promised to let the people go. So Moses prayed
for a reprieve, and it came, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s
heart again.
The ninth plague was one of great darkness for three days.
This time Pharaoh said he would let all the people go, but that
their livestock had to remain behind. Moses refused. Pharaoh
said that if Moses came to him again, he would be killed.
Moses said it was well spoken, he would come back no more.
He promised the last plague—the death of the firstborn—and
went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
The tenth plague came, but the angel of death passed over
all the houses that had the blood of a lamb on the doorposts.
There was a great cry throughout all Egypt, and Pharaoh finally
let the people go. But after they had left, it dawned on Pharaoh
that their slaves were their only remaining wealth—the depar-
ture of Israel was an eleventh plague, one that Pharaoh thought
he could reverse. So he pursued them with a contingent of
40
M oses the C hristian
chariots, and God destroyed them in the sea. Egypt was com-
pletely undone; it was left as a smoldering ruin.
The people of Israel saw all this with their own eyes, and they
danced on the far shore of the Red Sea. But it takes more than a
few seen marvels to get the slavery out of the hearts of sinners.
When the people came out of Egypt, it was Christ who de-
livered them. When Moses rejected the treasures of Egypt, it
was to follow Christ. When the bread fell from Heaven, that
bread was Christ. When the Rock split and the people drank
the water, the Rock was Christ.
The people were graciously given the law early in their time
in the wilderness. But they still turned to grumbling and idol-
atry, and God sentenced them to forty years wandering in the
wilderness. This was time enough for the generation of slaves
to harden and bring up another generation of free men and
women, children of faith who would conquer the land. The
gospel and goodness of God surrounded them the entire time,
but there are two instances of this great kindness that are worth
telling you about.
The Rock was Christ that accompanied them. And when
the people complained about not having water, the Lord told
Moses and Aaron to speak to the Rock in the sight of the
complainers, and water would come forth for the people to
drink. But Moses, exasperated with the people, called them
rebels (in the midst of his own rebellion) and struck the Rock
with his staff. He said, must we fetch water out of this Rock?
We, not God. Striking, not speaking. God in His kindness
still gave water, but Moses was kept out of the Promised Land
because of this.
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SCRIPTURE STORIES
42
The Poet Warrior
T
he story of redemption is not just a story about forgive-
ness being bestowed upon us in some heavenly transac-
tion. It includes that, of course, but we must never forget
how this salvation unfolds in the greatest story that any man
ever told. And that story includes the slaying of dragons, the
fall of ancient civilizations, and the killing of giants. It also in-
cludes the last of the great giant killers, the man after God’s
own heart, David, king over Israel.
This man is one of the most complex figures presented to us
in Scripture. We see him presented to us as a shepherd, musi-
cian, maker of musical instruments, hero, warrior, lover, turn-
coat, poet, desperado, king, nation builder, adulterer, mur-
derer, penitent, father, liturgical reformer, and man of God. A
careful examination of the life of David shows us that piety is
43
SCRIPTURE STORIES
44
T he P oet Warrior
45
SCRIPTURE STORIES
The word of the Lord was fulfilled concerning Saul, and the
Spirit of the Lord that was upon him (enabling him to serve as
king) departed from him. There is never any neutrality any-
where, and there is no such thing as a spiritual vacuum, so an
evil spirit from the Lord began to trouble Saul. At the same
time, the Spirit of Lord came upon David from that day for-
ward. The Spirit rested upon David and was absent from Saul.
Nevertheless, Saul was still the Lord’s anointed in an important
sense. After this point, the brothers of David and David him-
self were willing to go to battle for the house of Saul.
The evil spirit from God was a great affliction to Saul, and
his courtiers suggested finding a musician who was gifted on
the harp so that when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul,
the music would help. Saul approved the idea, and one of the
courtiers said that he had seen a son of Jesse who fit the de-
scription. He was cunning in his musical ability, a fine warrior,
a prudent counselor, an attractive person, and, most impor-
tantly, the Lord was with him. And so it came about that David
was chosen to serve in the court of Saul as both a court musi-
cian and an armor bearer (1 Sam. 16:14–23). The lives of Saul
and David were thus brought together—Saul, a formerly great
but now hollow king, and David, a rising warrior.
It is not surprising that David eventually came under the
hostility of Saul. But first, the famous incident with Goliath
changed the relationship between Saul and David entirely (1
Sam. 17). Israel had gone out to war against the Philistines, and
David left the court of Saul to return to his sheep at Bethlehem.
The armies of Israel and Philistia were in a standoff for for-
ty days. The Scriptures say there was fighting, but it seems to
46
T he P oet Warrior
47
SCRIPTURE STORIES
48
T he P oet Warrior
David his tens thousands. . . . And Saul eyed David from that
day and forward” (1 Sam. 18:7, 9). Although David was already
anointed, this was the day when he became greater than two
giants. The first, of course, was Goliath, but the second was
Saul. David was the greater, and Saul identified where his suc-
cessor would come from.
David had to endure many affronts and insults from the
king after this. He was cheated out of his promised bride, giv-
en Michal as a bride who had a dowry of death, was reduced
in military honor, and was attacked savagely by the king. There
was almost certainly a group at court that was hostile to David,
and who spread lies about him (1 Sam. 24:9). Another abor-
tive attempt was made on David’s life by Saul. He then escaped
formal arrest by following a stratagem suggested to him by
Michal and headed for the hills.
Saul is truly a tragic figure, and it is worth noting that two
of his children were plainly aligned with David. Although she
had her troubles, Michal was loyal to David and saved his life.
And Jonathan, son of Saul, is one of the noblest characters in
all of Scripture. In a deep irony, Samuel, a faithful prophet, had
sons who took bribes, and Saul the unfaithful king, had a son
beyond all praise.
At this point, David became an outlaw. A ragtag collection
of outcasts gathered to him at the Cave of Adullam, a group
which gradually grew into a volunteer frontier army, one
which protected the goods of outlying Israelite settlements and
resisted foreign intruders. They were an outlaw band that per-
formed some of the services that the true king ought to have
been performing. An example of this service was the protection
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interceded for the child, but on the seventh day, the child died,
and David resumed the work of governance. In the psalms we
see that David understood that he had forfeited the empower-
ment of the Holy Spirit of God for government in just the same
way that Saul had done. In Saul’s case, the Spirit was taken away,
and an evil spirit from the Lord afflicted him. David had every
right to expect the same, and his prayer went up before the
Lord—“Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” God was gracious
in this, and although He brought great affliction to the house
of David, the dynasty did not pass away from David’s lineage.
And now, with the Lord Jesus Christ seated on the throne of
David, we see that it never will—that dynasty is everlasting,
despite the sin of man.
The latter days of David were characterized by civil turmoil
and great paternal grief. A man like David, with the sexual
privileges that come with many wives, begets far more children
than he can be a father to, and as king he paid a profound price
for it. His house was filled with the kind of intrigue, treach-
ery, sexual sin, and ambition that should be banished from any
godly home. That palace is unhappy when it is filled with hun-
gry princes. And any man who seeks to have a heart after God
like David did must remember not only to imitate his great-
ness, but also to shun his failure.
One word should be said about David as liturgical reform-
er. After the Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant
and Eli died, the center of worship at Shiloh was abandoned.
Samuel would offer sacrifice in different places. A center of
worship, one of the great high places, had been established on
Mount Gibeon. When the ark was restored to Israel and David
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him a house. And when David went to sleep with his fathers,
God would establish his kingdom, and would do so forever.
Of particular importance is that though this line of David was
a sinful line, like all the sons of men, God’s promise here was
unilateral. If these descendants commit iniquity, they will be
chastised and chastened. But, God said, “my mercy shall not
depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put
away before thee.” The true saints persevere because the true
God perseveres.
We know more about the psychology of David than we do
about any other Old Testament figure because of the texture
and richness of the psalms. We are enabled to look at a life
of faith from both the outside and the inside—an exercise
filled with profit. We see his life outlined in Samuel and we
see that the incident with Bathsheba and Uriah is the hinge
upon which a great tragedy turns. We can see his triumphs
and accomplishments front and center in Chronicles. We can
see his internal life in Psalms as he pours out his heart to God
when surrounded by his enemies. We can also see his great-
ness as a prophet in Psalms, as all his words take on a higher
significance when understood as the prayers of the great Son
of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this sense, all the psalms
are messianic.
We have a great deal to learn from David. Although we
might be tempted to see him as little better than a barbarian
king, we should study him with a far greater humility of mind.
From David we learn how to fight, how to trust, how to cry,
how to pray, how to repent, how to sing, how to write poetry,
how to marry, how to reform the church, how to curse, how to
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58
Solomon in All His Glory
T
he name of Solomon is still evocative today. He is a strik-
ing picture of a man who possesses. In fact, his name is
most familiar to us as a possessive adjective—Solomon’s
wisdom, Solomon’s mines, Solomon’s wives, Solomon’s wealth,
Solomon’s temple. And this characteristic of possession is the
basis of the story we must tell about him.
He had all these possessions because of the goodness of God
poured out upon him. He truly was beloved of the Lord, and
in some measure, he kept all the gifts he was given to the very
end of his life. But in another sense, he was history’s greatest
example of the tragedy of lost opportunities. God gave him a
promise, and that promise was fulfilled—but not in the way
that it could have been. For all his possessions, Solomon fell
short of possessing what could have been his.
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Solomon was the son of David the king and Bathsheba, the
former wife of Uriah. The fact that God chose this union to
perpetuate the Davidic name and line down to the Lord Jesus
is a good example of how God’s ways of righteousness are not
the same as our ways of righteousness.
The name Solomon probably means peaceful, which is a
good description of his reign. Solomon undertook no signif-
icant military campaigns to speak of. The conquering was all
done by his father. Solomon was qualified to build the Temple
because he was not a man of blood as his father was.
Nathan the prophet had given him another name, Jedidiah
(2 Sam. 12:25), which means “beloved of the Lord.” Solomon
was born early in David’s reign in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:14), but
he does not enter the story of the Davidic dynasty as an ac-
tive participant until very late in David’s reign. This meant, of
course, that he did not assume the throne as a young man, but
rather as one approaching middle age, a man of some experi-
ence. He no doubt had had some practice in lying low while his
older brother Absalom was scheming for the throne.
What was the nature of Solomon’s rise to power? Absalom’s
revolt against his father had come to nothing, but then
Absalom’s opposition to his father was carried on by the next
oldest son, a man named Adonijah. One of the greatest bless-
ings a household can have—loyalty—was tragically missing
from the household of David. But this should not be a sur-
prise—David had not shown the loyalty he was capable of
(think of his loyalty to Saul!) to Uriah, for example.
Adonijah got the endorsements of Joab the general and
Abiathar, who was an influential priest. Adonijah went so
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Solomon saw right away what Adonijah was doing and saw
that to do this would be to give the entire kingdom over to his
older brother. And so it was that Adonijah and Joab died, and
Abiathar the priest was deposed.
Solomon did some things administratively to consolidate
his reign as well. Solomon replaced tribal boundaries with ad-
ministrative districts (1 Kings 4:7). Each district had to pro-
vide the food for the palace for a month, which was no small
burden (vv. 22ff). This centralization and increased taxation
were “tolerable” because of the widespread prosperity (v. 25).
Two percent of not very much is a pressing burden, while forty
percent of staggering wealth is thought (for a time) to be only
reasonable. But the story of Solomon’s expansion of govern-
ment is a textbook case of how to set the stage for a tax revolt
in the next generation.
Early in his reign, Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh
and brought her to the city of David. There was no Temple in
Jerusalem, and the people sacrificed in the high places still.
We are told that in the beginning of his reign, even after mar-
rying the daughter of Pharaoh, Solomon loved the Lord and
walked in the statutes of his father David. The only complaint
the prophet writing the narrative had was that Solomon sac-
rificed and burnt incense in the high places too. This was not
quite right, but God was nevertheless kind to him. There was
no other place to honor the Lord, and doing it this way was
better than not at all.
When Solomon sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings on the
altar at Gibeon, the Lord appeared to him in a dream by night
and told him to ask for anything. Solomon asked for wisdom,
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which pleased the Lord greatly. And so God blessed him great-
ly, beyond all reckoning (1 Kings 3:11–12).
It was right after this that the famous incident with the two
harlots occurred, and this established Solomon’s reputation
for sagacity in the kingdom. Two prostitutes were quarreling
over two babies, one alive and one dead. They both claimed
the living child, and Solomon suggested the expedient of
chopping the living baby in two. At this, the true mother of-
fered to give up the child, while the deceitful woman thought
the suggestion was quite equitable. Who was the true moth-
er was evident to all Israel and to every generation since. It
was evident, in fact, to everyone except for the false mother,
which is what sin does to you. When the people heard this
judgment, they feared the king, and they saw that the wis-
dom of God was truly with him.
There may have been some scoffers who said that such a
story might be adequate to awe the peasants, but it hardly
qualified someone to be considered the wisest man who ever
lived. But Solomon’s wisdom was truly stupendous—in an age
when men knew a great deal. Solomon’s wisdom exceeded
that of the Egyptians.
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even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake
also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of
fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of
Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his
wisdom (1 Kings 4:30–34)
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71
Jeremiah Hurts
the War Effort
T
hroughout the stories told in the Old Testament, we find
three kinds of figures. All of them in various ways are
types of the Lord Jesus, but no one figure portrays Him
completely. We have kings like David or Hezekiah. We have
faithful priests like Aaron or Jehoida. And we have the proph-
ets, men like Malachi, Isaiah, or Jeremiah. Our story here con-
cerns Jeremiah, who in many ways typifies the role that proph-
ets had been given.
The kings were responsible before God to see to that the true
God was worshipped, and worshipped in truth. They were to
establish the throne in righteousness, and they were to admin-
ister justice in accordance with the law of God. The priests were
responsible to conduct the worship of God. But, human nature
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being what it is, kings and priests too frequently departed from
faithfulness to God and needed to be called back. This was the
task assigned to the prophets—establishment outsiders, men
who answered directly to God. Because they came to rebuke
those in power for their abuses of power, they were frequent-
ly handled with severity. Their power was rarely institutional;
their authority came from speaking the Word of the Lord.
In the centuries leading up to the ministry of Jeremiah, the
landscape of Israel had been completely altered. The ten tribes
had come out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and they
invaded Canaan under the direction of the great Joshua. This
inaugurated the period of the judges, men who ruled a decen-
tralized but often disobedient and oppressed people. The last
of these judges was a prophet named Samuel, who was used by
God to anoint the first two kings over Israel—first Saul, and
then David.
David established Israel as a mighty nation, and Solomon
ruled over Israel in the days of her glory. But after Solomon
died, Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, refused to grant tax relief,
and the kingdom split in two as a result. Israel was made up
of the ten tribes to the north, and Judah was made up of Judah
and Benjamin to the south. The history of both kingdoms
was checkered, but Israel was worse. About a century before
Jeremiah’s life and ministry, Assyria had conquered the north-
ern kingdom. Contrary to popular assumption, this did not
cause what some refer to as the ten lost tribes. The ten tribes of
Israel were not lost at all—their nation was destroyed, and they
were taken into exile, but that did not cause those remaining in
Judah to lose track of tribal identity. Many faithful Jews from
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the Lord until shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.
During these four decades of mostly grief, he prophesied
under five kings, two of whom served only for three months
each. His ministry stretched over the reign of Josiah, Jehoahaz,
Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Far from being a perpet-
ual naysayer, Jeremiah supported the great reforms of Josiah
and was willing to encourage (unsuccessfully) the cowards
who succeeded Josiah on the throne.
Judah was surrounded by three great powers: Assyriawhich
was still a player but was in the process of collapsing; Egypt,
which had been on the scene for a long time; and the ris-
ing star of Babylon, a power that had been greatly underes-
timated in the days of Hezekiah. When Hezekiah had recov-
ered from an illness, the Babylonians sent a delegation, and
Hezekiah showed them all around, showing them everything.
This displeased Isaiah greatly, and he prophesied that the
Babylonians would capture everything and take Hezekiah’s
sons away into captivity (Isa. 39). Josiah was the great-grand-
son of Hezekiah.
But King Josiah died in a battle with Pharaoh Necho of
Egypt. His successor, Jehoahaz (or Shallum), reigned for three
months until Pharaoh Necho replaced him with his brother
Jehoiakim. Jeremiah lamented both the death of Josiah (22:10a,
15ff) and the deposing of Jehoahaz (22:10–12), indicating that
Jehoahaz was faithful like his father had been. Men with back-
bone are unlikely to be appointed to positions of responsibility
by men who want to manipulate a situation to their own ad-
vantage, so Jehoahaz did not have the opportunity to reign in
the fear of God.
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into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take
it” (38:2–3).
God commanded the nation of Judah to surrender, to
throw down their arms. This was too much for Shephatiah,
Gedaliah, Jucal, and Pashur, who petitioned the king, “We
beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weak-
eneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city,
and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto
them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but
the hurt.” He does not seek the welfare of the people, they
said. He keeps talking about what God says. The king, a weak
leader at best, said that he could not protect Jeremiah, so the
prophet was thrown into an abandoned cistern, where he
sank down into the mud, and where he would have died but
for the kindness of Ebedmelech (38:1–13). This Ebedmelech
was an Ethiopian eunuch. The king could not save the proph-
et, but one of his eunuchs could. He sought the king’s favor,
received it, and went to rescue the prophet. He went with
thirty men and a bunch of old rags, had Jeremiah put the rags
under his arms, drew him up out of the mire, and returned
him to the court of the prison (38:1–13).
After this, the cowardly king conferred with him secret-
ly (14–28). He needed Jeremiah’s words, and he could not
obey Jeremiah’s words. He was impotent, paralyzed. He told
Jeremiah to hold nothing back. Jeremiah said, “If I do that,
will you not kill me? And refuse to listen?” The king swore
(secretly), “As the Lord lives, that made us this soul,” he said,
“I will not kill you, and I will not turn you over to those who
would kill you.”
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whose words had been confirmed many times over, his word
was sought after the assassination of the puppet governor
Gedaliah. The people promised that they would abide by what
he said, but when Jeremiah told them to stay, they refused and
fled to Egypt. They did so under the leadership, it says, of “all
the proud men.” Judah was a smoldering ruin, and the hearts
of men were still proud. And then, in Egypt, exiled there be-
cause Jeremiah had spoken the truth, the people who opposed
Jeremiah had the hardness of heart to maintain that they were
in exile because they had not worshipped the queen of heaven,
one of their idols, enough.
At the end of this story, we might be tempted to offer up a
great lamentation for the prophet Jeremiah. His words were
not believed by the hearers throughout the course of his en-
tire life. But some believed, and certainly Jeremiah himself
believed. And as we read through his prophecies, we come
upon some of the most glorious words of hope to be found
in all Scripture.
In Matthew 27:9, the thirty pieces of silver that were used to
secure the treachery of Judas were subsequently used to buy
a field called Akeldama. The price was given by Zechariah,
but the glorious faith of Jeremiah is what is referred to. In
the dark days of Judah’s trial, Jeremiah bought a field with
silver, a testimony that the Jews would return and would
again buy and sell. They would return to the land, Jeremiah
said, after seventy years. Business would return to normal,
and their hearts would again return to their normal hardened
state. One of the things they would buy and sell was their
own Messiah, and then they would buy and sell a field with
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The People Had
a Mind to Work
I
n the latter part of the Old Testament, some of the charac-
ters and dates start to run together for us, and it is some-
times hard to keep the details straight. If you couple this
with the general ignorance about the secular history of this
time, the result—even for Bible readers—is a random collec-
tion of historical facts and details.
Here we will be telling the story of Nehemiah along with
some details about his contemporary Ezra. But before we can
really tell this story, we have to back up a few paces and briefly
tell the story of their surrounding times and context. As we do
this, please keep in mind that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah
were probably one book originally, and the two of them to-
gether may even have been part of Chronicles.
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The work was glorious, and God was in it. At the same time,
disputes arose among those doing the work. This is how it al-
ways is. In the book of Acts, just when God was establishing
His kingdom, a dispute arose concerning the distribution of
food. In this work, just as the wall is being completed, many
of the Jews cried out because they had been forced into a kind
of debt slavery by some of their brothers. Nehemiah was very
angry when he heard about this, and he confronted those who
were treating their brothers in such a mercenary way. His con-
frontation was received, and the people said amen, and they
praised the Lord. We are told that the people did what they said
they would do. Nehemiah’s anger was fully understandable.
How could he build a free city with slave labor? How could
the walls protect the citizenry from fellow citizens who were
willing to prey on their fellow Jews? The thing is not possible.
The next incident with Sanballat was when he heard that the
walls had been closed up, and the only thing left was the set-
ting of the gates. So Sanballat and Gershem and Tobiah pro-
posed to meet with Nehemiah in a particular village. They saw
that the key to the work was Nehemiah, and Nehemiah saw
that they meant to do him mischief. So Nehemiah sent mes-
sengers, who said, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot
come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and
come down to you?” (6:3) They were persistent, however, and
they asked this way four times. Nehemiah answered the same
way every time.
Then, because the work was proceeding so well, Sanballat
took the next step, that of slandering the motives of Nehemiah
in order to make the people fearful of working for him. He
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The Lord Jesus
W
e come now to the main point of all the stories we have
been telling, that is to say, we have come to the story of
the Lord Jesus. This is a very difficult story to tell for at
least two reasons. First, no storyteller or preacher is really suf-
ficient for the task. The apostle John once said that the world
itself could not contain the books that could be written about
this Man, and for the last two thousand years men have been
writing books about Him, and all these books have only served
to reinforce John’s point.
In telling stories about Bible characters, it is important to
note that Jesus is not just another character in a line of oth-
er characters. And yet the limited capacity of the storyteller
can too readily create that impression. The apostle Paul once
lamented, “Who is sufficient for these things?” and it was just
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this sort of thing that provoked the cry. And he was an apos-
tle. No one should think that because the story of Jesus is
being told by the same man who told the story of Moses, or
Noah, or Jeremiah, that it is the same kind of story. It cannot
be. The same finger can point at the sun, the moon, and the
stars, but we should never be distracted by the finger. In our
line of stories, we have now come to the time when we point
to the sun.
And there is a second consideration. Even though the Lord
Jesus is the ultimate point of all the stories, there are some oth-
er stories that follow this one. Every good story in the history
of the world that was ever told was somehow an intimation,
foreshadowing, prophecy, or echo of this story. And every evil
story has been a rebellious attempt to distract attention away
from this one or somehow to shout it down. So the fact that
other stories follow this central story should not be taken as
an indication that we can ever move on to other things. Stories
that follow after this story are also the work of God, but han-
dled wrongly, they too can create a false impression. We can
never really move past this. We may apply it, and we may apply
it in many different ways and in countless wonderful stories,
but if we are wise, they will all be applications. The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and it is our responsibility
here in telling this story, and in hearing it, to be faithful sons
and daughters of the prophets.
The Lord Jesus was born in the line of the tribe of Judah—
the royal tribe of all Israel. Jacob had prophesied many years
before that the scepter would not depart from Judah before
Shiloh came.
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Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand
shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children
shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from
the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he
couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him
up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiv-
er from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him
shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto
the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed
his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk
(Gen. 49:8–12).
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the magi came on the same night, this is not the case. The
magi from the east actually came sometime within two years
after His birth. By the time they had arrived, Joseph and Mary
had found a house in Bethlehem to live in and were not in the
unsettled circumstances they had been in the night Jesus was
born. We do not really know that there were three magi, but
this has often been guessed from the three kinds of gift—the
gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh.
The magi were pagan astrologers of some sort and were
probably informed not only by the star that had appeared to
them, but also by Balaam’s prophecy that a star would arise in
Jacob and that a scepter would come from Israel. Balaam was
not a Hebrew prophet, and it is quite possible that his words
were kept and recorded outside of Israel. In any case, the magi
were not led astray by what they saw, and they consulted with
King Herod upon their arrival in Judea. He was suspicious of
this auspicious birth, as evil kings always are. He lied to the
magi in order to find out more, but they were warned in a
dream to return home by another route.
In response to this, Herod ordered the execution of all boys
two years old and under who lived in the area of Bethlehem.
We too often forget that this great wickedness is just as much
a part of the Christmas story as the others parts of the story
we tell, and it underlines, in a gruesome way, our need for a
Savior and Messiah. In order to escape the evil and murderous
order of Herod the Great (who died in 4 BC), Joseph led his
small family to seek refuge in Egypt. Because Herod ordered
the death of boys two years old and under, it is likely that Jesus
was born somewhere between 6 and 4 BC
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After the death of Herod, when the Son of God, the new
Israel, was brought up out of Egypt, Joseph decided to settle in
Nazareth, a city of Galilee—instead of in Bethlehem, the city
of Christ’s birth in Judah. This was to fulfill the word of the
prophet Hosea—“When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
and called my Son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). God had done
this in a type when Israel was delivered under the leadership
of Moses, but He was now doing it forever in the person of the
Lord Jesus. Jesus came up out of Egypt because Jesus was the
new Israel.
When Jesus was twelve years old, He was left behind in
Jerusalem once after His family had gone there to worship. He
was eventually found in His Father’s house discussing theol-
ogy with the scribes. Jesus grew up under the grace of God
in a normal way, but He clearly had some intimations of who
he was (Luke 2:40, 49). He grew up in the grace of God, not
because He had sinned and required forgiveness, but rather
because grace means favor. When favor is shown to a sinner,
this means forgiveness. But favor can be extended beyond the
boundaries of forgiveness. The grace of God rested upon Jesus
as He grew up in wisdom.
Now this raises a question about the consciousness of
the boy Jesus. He clearly knew He had a special relation-
ship to His Father, and He spoke of it to His parents, but
the Scriptures also tell us that Jesus learned things; He grew
in wisdom and in stature, it says. Later, we are told that He
learned obedience through the things that He suffered. We
should not think of the Incarnation as though Jesus had two
compartments in His mind, as though when lying in the
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that the God who had abandoned Him would vindicate Him
shortly, justifying Him before all the world. He would be de-
clared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection
from the dead. And on the third day after He died, just as He
had said, in accordance with the prophetic words of the proph-
et Jonah, He rose triumphant from the grave. His body had not
suffered corruption, and He was not abandoned to Hades.
There was a great earthquake, and the stone rolled away
from the tomb. The soldiers who had been placed there on
guard were the first to know what had happened, and the chief
priests who had killed Jesus were the second group of people to
find out. But instead of repenting, they hardened themselves.
Just like Herod at the beginning of the Lord’s life, instead of
submitting to the will and purpose of God, surrendering ev-
erything, they grasped instead at their own way. The mystery
of lawlessness is indeed great.
Yet the power of the resurrection is greater still. All our sins,
compared the power of the death and resurrection, are like a
small burning ember or coal thrown into the middle of an in-
finite ocean of grace. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we not
only know the story of Him, we have also become part of His
story. Our identity as the church has become those who gather
in His name, in His authority, in His power, in his goodness to
worship Him, to approach the Father while doing so, and to do
it all in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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The Whore Becomes
a Virgin Bride
T
he next person we are considering in this series of Bible
stories is unique. The others we have treated primarily as
individuals. We will do this with Mary Magdalene as well,
but we will also spend a good amount of time considering her
typological significance. So we will treat Mary, but we will also
be considering another very important person—the bride of
Jesus Christ, the Christian church.
We should say another very important person, because
Mary Magdalene appears to have been an important person in
her own right. She is mentioned in fourteen places, and in the
majority of those places she is given some sort of significant
prominence. We are never told the meaning of this outright,
but at the same time there are some clear textual indications.
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and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came
up with him unto Jerusalem” (Mark 15:41). The same thing is
noted by Matthew. “And many women were there beholding
afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto
him” (Matt. 27:55).
Now out of all these women, Mary’s devotion to Jesus was
particularly marked. First, we see that she attended His cru-
cifixion: “And when the centurion, which stood over against
him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said,
Truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women
looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome”
(Mark 15:39–40).
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his moth-
er’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene
(John 19:25).
“And after the death of Jesus, when Joseph of Arimathea
wrapped Christ’s body in fine linen, Mary Magdalene and an-
other Mary marked the place where He was buried. And Mary
Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was
laid” (Mark 15:47).
“And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in
a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which
he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to
the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary
Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepul-
cher” (Matt. 27:59–61).
As soon as it was possible, when their Sabbath rest was over,
Mary and two other women came to anoint the Lord’s body
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with spices. “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet
spices, that they might come and anoint him” (Mark 16:1)
But when they arrived at the grave, they found they had
stumbled into a glorious pandemonium. It is hard to keep
track of all the coming and going, and still less is it possible to
keep close track of all the angels.
“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the
first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great
earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat
upon it” (Matt. 28:1–2). There had been a great earthquake,
and the angel of the Lord was sitting on the rolled away stone
(Matt. 28:2). Not surprisingly, the chronology of events after
this does require some untangling. The women saw angels
who told them to give a message to Peter that they were to
meet in Galilee.
“And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man
sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and
they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affright-
ed: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is ris-
en; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But
go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before
you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you”
(Mark 16:5–7).
So the first thing that happened was that angels gave mes-
sages to the women. Mary and the others did eventually give
the message to the other disciples, but they did not believe
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it. But Peter was curious enough and went to the tomb and
found it empty (Luke 24:12). “Then arose Peter, and ran unto
the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes
laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that
which was come to pass” (Luke 24:12).
Mary had also told Peter and John about it separately (John
20:2). “Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to
the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them,
They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we
know not where they have laid him” (John 20:2).
Mary herself doesn’t know what to think—which can be
seen in the phrase “they have taken away the Lord out of the
sepulchre.” This despite the fact that she had been given mes-
sages from angels. This can only mean that the messengers
had appeared as men, and were thought to be such, and it was
not until after they knew Jesus had risen that they conclud-
ed the young men were actually angels. So in this wrought-up
condition, Mary came back to the tomb and wept. “But Mary
stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she
stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two
angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the
feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they
have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid
him” (John 20:11–13).
Looking into the tomb again, she sees two angels, one on
either side of the mercy seat, the place where Jesus had lain.
“And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and
the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (v. 12).
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They ask why she is crying, and she says that it is because the
Lord’s body had been taken. She turns back from the tomb and
then mistakes Jesus Himself for the gardener—until He speaks
her name.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and
saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest
thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him,
Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast
laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary.
She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to
say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not
yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say
unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to
my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the
disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken
these things unto her. (John 20:14–18)
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cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there
was no harlot in this place. And Judah said, Let her take it
to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou
hast not found her. And it came to pass about three months
after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in
law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child
by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her
be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father
in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child:
and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the sig-
net, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah acknowledged them,
and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that
I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no
more. (Gen. 38:12–26)
Now this was the woman who was named in the genealogy
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Note also that both of her sons are
named in that genealogy. “And Judas begat Phares and Zara
of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram”
(Matt. 1:3).
The second woman mentioned as an ancestress of Jesus
Christ was Rahab, who did not just look like a Canaanite pros-
titute, she was a Canaanite prostitute (Josh. 6:17; Matt. 1:5).
“And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are there-
in, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all
that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers
that we sent” (Josh. 6:17). The Bible goes on to tell us that this
Rahab married a man of Israel named Salmon. “And Salmon
begat Booz of Rachab . . . .” (Matt. 1:5)
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Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles?
As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which
were not my people; and her beloved, which was not be-
loved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it
was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be
called the children of the living God. (Rom. 9:24–26)
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is in the offing. Isaac got a wife this way. Moses got a wife this
way. Jacob, whose well this was, met Rachel at a well. So imag-
ine the scandal that came from representing Jesus in just this
situation with a notoriously immoral woman (John 4:27). And
John goes out of his way to let us know that it was in fact Jacob’s
well (John 4:6). “And upon this came his disciples, and mar-
velled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What
seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?” (John 4:27).
What is the point here? The Father is seeking worshippers;
He is seeking a bride for His Son, and there is a fundamental
qualification, which prim and proper people constantly miss.
The woman who is to marry the Son of God must be unworthy,
and she must have a sordid past. Jesus did not come for the
healthy, but for the immoral. But He came, not just to save, but
to save through marriage. “But the hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God
is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24).
And so what is the conclusion? God loves disreputable wom-
en. He arranged for His Son to marry one. And this is the glory
of grace. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We are
called as parents to bring up virginal daughters, not so that we
may delude ourselves into thinking that this is what we are by
nature, but rather that we might understand through faith that
this is what we are all becoming. Virginity and chastity among
a Christian people are a glorious type, not of what we are, but
of what we will be. But we misunderstand the glory of this type
if we scorn the Rahabs and the Tamars and the Bathshebas
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129
Simon Peter
I
n the Scriptures, Simon Peter is always first in any list of the
apostles that is given. He is certainly a striking figure, and
no attempt to tell the story of the new covenant community
would be complete without him. It is hard to imagine him as
anything but a large man, but whether he was physically big or
not, he is always big in the story.
We know that his father’s name was Jonah from the way
Christ addressed him in Matthew 16:17. “And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 16:16–17).
Of course Barjona simply means “son of Jonah.” The origi-
nal Hebrew form of his name was apparently Symeon. This is
how James refers to him at the Jerusalem council. “And after
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they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and
brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God
at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people
for his name” (Acts 15:13–14). And it appears that he adopt-
ed the Greek name Simon because it had a similar sound to
his Hebrew name. We know his brother Andrew simply by his
Greek name.
Peter was from the town of Bethsaida. “Now Philip was of
Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter” (John 1:44), and
this was an overwhelmingly Greek city. But he also had a
home up in the north, in Capernaum on the sea of Galilee
(Mark 1:21ff). Like today, owning two homes indicates a
certain measure of wealth. “And they went into Capernaum;
and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the syn-
agogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doc-
trine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not
as the scribes . . . . And immediately his fame spread abroad
throughout all the region round about Galilee. And forth-
with, when they were come out of the synagogue, they en-
tered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and
John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon
they tell him of her” (Mark 1:21–30). Both Bethsaida and
Capernaum were lakeside, where Peter could work as a fish-
erman. In both regions there would have been abundant con-
tact with Gentiles.
At the same time, Simon apparently grew up in the north
because we he spoke with a thick Galilean accent, an accent
which betrayed him during his betrayal of Christ. “And he de-
nied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to
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Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and
thy speech agreeth thereto” (Mark 14:70).
We also know that Simon had been brought up in a faithful
home. We can see this in his brief reference to his background
when he saw the vision in Joppa “But Peter said, Not so, Lord;
for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean”
(Acts 10:14). His brother Andrew had been a disciple of John
the Baptist. “One of the two which heard John speak, and fol-
lowed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother” (John 1:40).
From the criteria given for selecting a replacement for Judas,
it is very likely that Simon had been affected by the ministry
of John the Baptist as well (Acts 1:22). “Wherefore of these
men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord
Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism
of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must
one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection”
(Acts 1:21–22).
What was his initial contact with Christ? The apostle John
tells us that Simon was first introduced to Christ by the agen-
cy of his brother Andrew. “He first findeth his own brother
Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which
is, being interpreted, the Christ” (John 1:41) This early contact
with Christ makes his response when Christ later called him
away from his vocation a bit more intelligible (Mark 1:16f).
“Now as he [Jesus] walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon
and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they
were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and
I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway
they forsook their nets, and followed him” (Mark 1:16–18).
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After Peter was called out of Israel, he was then called out
(again) from a larger number of disciples to be numbered
among the twelve. “And he [Jesus] goeth up into a mountain,
and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto
him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him,
and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have
power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: And Simon
he surnamed Peter” (Mark 3:13–16). He had called Peter by
this name before this, but apparently he made it formal at
Peter’s ordination.
It appears from the New Testament that this name of Peter’s
was very important. We have seen it was after he became a disci-
ple that he received (from Christ) the Aramaic name of Cephas:
Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and
I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. (1 Cor. 1:12)
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day
according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas,
then of the twelve. (1 Cor. 15:4–5)
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And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By
what power, or by what name, have ye done this? Then Peter,
filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the
people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the
good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is
made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people
of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him
doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone
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And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying,
Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared
how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of
them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of
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Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from
me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and
all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they
had taken” (Luke 5:8–9). And whatever else the resurrection
changed, it did not change this aspect of Peter’s character.
“Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It
is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did
cast himself into the sea” (John 21:7).
He was the kind of man who naturally speaks up whenever
a group is addressed. He acted as a spokesman for the Twelve
on numerous occasions. “Then answered Peter and said unto
him, Declare unto us this parable” (Matt. 15:15; cf. 18:21;
Mark1:36f; 8:29; 9:5; 10:28; 11:21; 14:29ff; Luke 5:5; 12:41).
His impulsive nature was seen in his failings as well. He was a
natural leader, both in faith and in sin. But the Lord Jesus had
greater plans for him, intending to mold him into the kind of
leader that God uses mightily in the kingdom of Heaven—the
kind of man who has died to himself and knows that he can no
longer trust that old carcass but must live in the resurrection.
Peter did not just become a leader; he became the kind of lead-
er that God uses.
Apart from the narratives in the Gospels, we know the
apostle Peter directly from three main sources. The first
would be the content of his preaching in the book of Acts.
In those messages, we see how he preached the kingdom of
God, the sovereign predestination of Christ’s murder, the res-
urrection of Jesus from the dead, and the fulfillment of Old
Testament prophecy. Reading through Peter’s sermons, it is
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die, he was told to feed the sheep of God. And this, by the grace
of God, is exactly what he did.
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The Apostle Paul
T
he apostle Paul has been slanderously reported as being
the second founder of the Christian faith. After two thou-
sand years, he is no doubt accustomed to the slanders by
now—he was the kind of man who attracted slanders—but
this particular slander has been more effective than some of
the others because of the grain of truth in it. Paul’s doctrine,
life, example, zeal and personality have been enormously in-
fluential. The passing of the years has not done anything to
make Paul less well-known. But this widespread knowledge of
Paul has also served, at least in the minds of some, to obscure
some of his contributions.
Saul of Tarsus came from what he described as “no mean
city,” born there as a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37; 21:39;
22:25ff). First, we should consider Saul’s statement about his
hometown. “But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of
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But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly un-
condemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison;
and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let
them come themselves and fetch us out. And the serjeants
told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when
they heard that they were Romans. (Acts 16:37–38)
And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the cen-
turion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man
that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion
heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take
heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. Then the
chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a
Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With
a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was
free born. Then straightway they departed from him which
should have examined him: and the chief captain also was
afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he
had bound him. (Acts 22:25–29)
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that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief
priests? But Saul increased the more in strength, and con-
founded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that
this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled,
the Jews took counsel to kill him: But their laying await was
known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to
kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him
down by the wall in a basket. (Acts 9:19–25)
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character, although Paul may have been right about not taking
him on that particular journey.
On this journey, Paul traveled back through the places
he had evangelized on the first journey, picked up Timothy,
ministered at Corinth for several years, and crossed over to
Europe for the first time. On the way back to Antioch (via
Ephesus and Jerusalem), Paul dropped off Priscilla and
Aquila as an advance team in Ephesus—for when he would
come back there.
The third journey could be considered the Aegean minis-
try (AD 53–58). The bulk of this time was spent in Ephesus,
where all of Asia Minor was evangelized. Although Ephesus
was a major city, the work Paul was doing there transformed
the city. The church grew significantly, and its presence had
a great impact on the sale of silver idols and spell books and
magic paraphernalia. One of the merchants saw the influence
that the Christian faith was having and organized a riot. The
end result of this affair was an amphitheater full of Ephesians
shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” but having no real
idea why they were there. Paul saw this rioting crowd as a good
opportunity for doing some preaching, but his friends wisely
restrained him. One comment Luke makes in passing shows
that the pagan leaders of the city were friends with Paul. They
knew his character and that these charges were false.
After he left Ephesus, Paul visited a number of churches in
Macedonia and Achaia. He then went back to Jerusalem, where
he was arrested on a trumped-up charge. He was accused of
taking a Gentile into the forbidden area of the Temple, which
was false, but the charge was enough to set off another riot.
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Rome, who had heard nothing from Judea and could not make
up their minds about him.
The pastoral epistles—the Timothys and Titus—were writ-
ten after this point, but we must reconstruct the remainder of
Paul’s life from the scarce extrabiblical material we have. It is
unlikely that the pastorals were written during the imprison-
ment that is recorded in the book of Acts. The tone of that
imprisonment is not at all like what we find the pastorals. At
the end of Acts, the tone is hopeful of release, while in the pas-
torals, Paul is resigned to his death.
Several early church documents tell us a little more. A friend
of Paul’s—a man named Clement—became a leading presbyter
at Rome. In a letter to the Corinthians in the 90s, Clement says
that Paul had been released and had gone on the missionary
journey to Spain that was mentioned in Romans. After that
trip, Paul was rearrested, imprisoned in Rome, and beheaded
under the persecution of Nero. As a Roman citizen, he would
not have been crucified.
This was the man who wrote the majority of the books in
the New Testament. He called himself the chief of sinners, and
yet God in His sovereign grace took this man, while he was in
the midst of a persecuting fury against the Church, and made
him an apostle. No one has ever been interrupted by grace in
quite so dramatic a fashion. And look at the nature of grace.
Paul was not preparing his heart to receive Jesus at all. Rather
Jesus was preparing to receive Paul into His service whatever
Paul thought about it.
Paul once told Agrippa that he had not been disobedient
to the heavenly vision that had come to him—and this was
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