Storyline Biblical Theology 06 - Genesis 10-11 - Tearing the Tower Down...Brick by Brick

Dubai is one of the most amazing cities ever designed on our planet. They have developed islands that are shaped like the 7 continents of the world and islands that are shaped like a palm tree. Dubai has the tallest hotel in the world, an indoor ski slope (since they are in the desert), and much more. They are also in the process of building the tallest building in the world. It is unfinished, but apparently it will be over a half-mile high when they are done.

Why does it seem throughout history that nations want to build the largest and greatest cities in existence? It is because every nation is looking to make a name for itself – greatness! In Genesis 11, mankind is on the move out of direct orders from God to spread throughout the earth. It seems they stop and decide to develop a city with a tower in order to “make a name” for themselves. It’s amazing how many people have been taught that the tower was built to somehow reach heaven and get to God. But that is not what the passage says! The passage is saying that the people built the tower because they want to stop migrating, build a city, and make a name for themselves in rebellion to God. Their tower was to be a monument to themselves and a sign of their unmovable preservation. They even coated the tower with the same substance that made Noah’s ark waterproof. They were planning to withstand another flood of judgment from God. They were saying, “God, we ain’t going nowhere!”

As tall as their tower was supposed to be…in the heavens…Moses makes a little joke by saying, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower” (11:5). God’s greatness is so lofty that He has to come down in order to be present for our tallest of endeavors! The text says that God shows His grace to the people by halting their wicked efforts so that they wouldn’t continue to ruin themselves with their rebellion. He also judges them by confusing their one known language and somehow spreads them throughout the earth. God judges us out of His grace so that we will not stay in our sinful lifestyles. His commands are always for our good.

It’s interesting to think a little about God confusing their languages. Their rebellious unity was motivated by making a name for themselves and resulted in a confusion of languages. In Acts 2 right after the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father (when He gives Jesus the name that is above every name), the Holy Spirit indwells the apostles and enables them to speak other languages so that foreigners can be united in the Gospel of Christ. Pentecost is a reversal of the judgment at Babel! That reversal will continue for all eternity. John’s vision from God of the eternal throne of Christ is filled with images of multitudes of people from every tribe, peoples, and languages (Rev 7:9-11). God seems to glorify Himself now in the difference of languages that are all used to exalt the name of Jesus!

Moses tells us that they left the city before it was finished (11:8), but I’m afraid that we help build on to this tower daily. We add to the tower brick by brick every time we seek to make a name for ourselves rather than Christ. We all live in temptation to do this. When I was a teenager, I can remember shooting half-court shots after basketball practice. Chanting “3 – 2 – 1” and then shooting an imaginary game winning shot in order for the crowd to go wild.

Could we be guilty of building a kingdom for ourselves by not praying to God and asking Him what He would like for us to do and where He would like for us to go? Would it be possible that God could be calling us to do something different or more useful with our lives but we never ask Him? Could it be that God may even be calling some of us to spread throughout the earth for the purpose of missions and telling the world of the great name of Jesus Christ? So often we just keep thinking of a comfortable life for ourselves, what will make us happy, and whatever may give us the most money. I want to challenge us for the remainder of February to physically submit ourselves to the Kingdom of Christ by literally bowing our knee at the name of Jesus and confessing that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).

Framework Systematic Theology 05 - Doctrine of Jesus Christ - The Covenants

Hebrews 9:15 Therefore [Jesus Christ] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

I got an iPod touch for my birthday. I don’t need a bulky cassette walkman, an awkward portable CD player, a huge portable DVD player, or any holders to carry around all my music. All of that has been combined and is able to fit into my pocket with my all-in-one device – the iPod touch. We appreciate these new technologies more as we understand everything they are designed to take the place of. The same is true with the New Covenant. We love Christ and His work of salvation so much more as we understand how He fulfills the Old Covenant in His death.

A biblical “covenant” is an eternal promise made by God to His representative at that time in history about His Kingdom for Christ. How are we supposed to think about the Old Covenant as it was promised to so many different OT people? Some say the Old Covenants are now completely meaningless to us. Others say that the Old Covenants will be used again in a time like the millennium. I don’t think either of those views are true. We must understand the Old Covenants and how they were fulfilled in Christ to better understand Him and His Gospel!

What are these Old Covenants I speak of? First, the Covenant of Creation is God creating a kingdom and giving it to Adam and Eve. God is telling them to look around the garden. What they see is theirs! Now they are to be fruitful in the garden but multiplying themselves through childbirth, have everything submitting to them since they are the king and queen created in the image of God, and to practice dominion over all the creation (Gen 1:28). Adam fails to keep the covenant by not exercising dominion but being dominated by the serpent.

Second, in the Covenant of Noah we see God destroying and renewing the earth with Noah as the pioneer. God gives Noah similar commands of being fruitful and multiplying over the earth. Then, with a covenant-rainbow, He promises Noah to never destroy the earth again with water (Gen 9:8-17). God keeps His covenant, but Noah proves he is a drunken sinner.

Third, the Covenant of Abraham is the second most important covenant in all the Bible. God promises to Abraham that He will make His name great in all the earth, that He will make Him the father of the greatest nation on earth, and that He will give him land for his kingdom to dwell (Gen 12:1-3). Abraham struggles with sin and proves not to be the eternal covenant focus.

Fourth, the Covenant of Moses is when God establishes His promises through Moses and to His nation of Israelites. He commands sacrifices to be made, His law to be kept, and explains the curses and blessings for obedience and disobedience (Exodus). The Israelites continually sin.

Fifth, with the Covenant of David God is promising that this famous king’s throne and kingdom will last forever. And to go even further, God says that He will make David’s offspring a Son to Him and He will be His Father (2 Sam 7:12-17). Solomon’s sin proves he’s not the son.

Jesus said that He didn’t come to abolish the Old Covenant. In other words, God is not saying “Oops, sorry about the Old Covenant. It didn’t work. Here, try Jesus.” Instead, Jesus came to fulfill each broken Old Covenant in order to make a New Covenant that is eternally written in His blood (Matt 5:17, Heb 9:15). Jesus proves to be fruitful as He calls sinners to Himself, He will judge the earth and bring in the New Creation, He inherits all the promises of God, He obeys the law of God perfectly and becomes the sacrifices by taking on the curses of Israel and inheriting the blessings, and His Kingdom is everlasting as His throne endures forever!

When we look at the covenants of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, we are able to even more clearly understand who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He receives by becoming the New Covenant for us. Far better than any iPod, are you glorying in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as you understand what Christ has received by fulfilling the Covenants of the OT?

Storyline Biblical Theology 05 - Genesis 5-9 - "When God Pressed Reset: Corruption, Destruction, and Reconstruction"

“Whatever you do, don’t press that button!” Think way back with me and remember the original Nintendo Entertainment System. You teenagers today have it so easy with your memory cards and hard-drives which save your games for later play! On the NES, we had to pause it and leave the system on when we left the house. But the worst was when someone would press the “reset” button when you were in the middle of an important game.

Have you ever wanted to press reset on your own life? Maybe after you just made a dumb decision, or at a time you really rebelled against God…you wish you could do it all over again. Please read Genesis 5 – 9 and learn how God pressed reset with all of creation, and how the flood, Noah, and the entire narrative is written by God to point us to His Son, Jesus Christ.

This story begins with God telling us that Adam had a third son, Seth, who was very important because he would be in the line of the coming Seed who would crush Satan’s head (Gen 3:15). In the midst of the curse and sinfulness of Cain, God is showing us His powerful grace as His plan is unstoppable. I don’t know if you’re like me, but the following section is a genealogy which often bores me to tears. But then I look closer and see the repetition of “and he died” which is pointing us to the awfulness of the curse that brings not only sin but also death. This is pointing to our need of the Seed who will conquer death. God then tells us about the rebellion of all the earth and describes it as “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). So God decides to wipe out His creation and press reset by restarting it with a righteous, blameless man in the generation: Noah. We must remember that just like Abraham, Noah’s work didn’t make him righteous. It was his faithful walk with God.

God explains to Noah how to make an ark, how to waterproof it, and how to carry all the pioneers of His new world once the flood was over. These pioneers include a male and female of each kind of animal, seven of each kind of clean animal for sacrifice, Noah’s wife, his sons, and their wives. By the way, I can’t find anywhere in the Bible where Noah was persuading others to come with him into the ark. If you know where it is, please point me to it! It is an important detail to note that as the flood rose, the waters covered the highest of mountains and the tallest of trees. The flood is an act of God’s wrathful judgment on all of his creation. The waters covering everything is a picture of God’s wrath over all that is cursed. It is unfortunate that the ark is used as names for children’s preschools since all we think about is Noah as a Dr. Doolittle with all the furry animals. The ark wasn’t a zoo, it was the life-boat during a holocaust!

When the flood waters receded and God commanded Noah to leave the ark and make sacrifices to Him, God does something very interesting that should jog our memory. He blesses Noah and commands him to be fruitful, to fill the earth, and to have dominion over all the animals (Gen 9:1-2). He tells Noah that he is continuing his covenant (promise) with him, his descendants, and the animals he brought with him. What is God doing? He is restarting the new creation with His new pioneer, His new Adam – Noah! We have got to remember that God’s desires are about His plan being accomplished on earth. He wants us as a part of His plan rather than He merely blessing our own plans. God is all about His will, His gospel, His covenant. God then writes something we’d all probably leave out…Noah Gone Wild. He gets drunk and naked. This is all to point out that Noah isn’t the final Seed, but rather he too is under the curse.

But the One to come is not under the curse. The One this true story is pointing to is perfectly righteous and walking with God at all points. In fact, Jesus even says that His coming will be like the days of Noah in that He will sweep away those who aren’t walking with Him (Matt 24:37-51). Just as God sees rebellion, destroys the earth, and resets it with a new pioneer in Genesis, He will do the same thing with the final Pioneer Jesus, sweeping away the wicked, saving the faithful, and dawning the New Creation which will never be cursed again.

(I have to admit, I really enjoyed this movie "Evan Almighty." It was very entertaining and very funny. I even know some teenagers that were encouraged to read their Bible more through this movie. But I do have a BIG BONE to pick with this movie. This is a perfect example of our culture even taking spiritual stories and truthes, yet ripping God's purposes in Jesus Christ right out of them. Yes, the name of Jesus is not found in the Genesis 5 - 9 flood narrative, but now that we have the New Testament, we see that the flood was a foreshadow of the coming of Christ that would sweep away the wicked and rescue the righteous. The flood is not a story that is only about God's wrath and love, Noah's righteousness, and furry animals...utimately God uses this narraive to encourage us to serve Christ as we are awaiting Him, our Master, to return. Now, enjoy the hilarious preview, and remember that our Christ is coming!)

Framework Systematic Theology 04 - Doctrine of Jesus Christ - His Offices

(Discernment from the Spirit of God is prompting me for a disclaimer here (haha)! Please understand that I realize this opening video is very controversial. In no way do I mean it to minimize the glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ. A youth ministry put this video together as an example of how people today stereotype Jesus' life on earth. I'm using it for both humor, but also as a wake-up call for us to view Jesus rightly! Also, the picture I placed on here is our fill-out sheet (filled in for you), and the weekly quiz I give to my students. If you are brave enough, take the quiz, email me for the answers, and I'll respond. Sounds like fun. Just click the picture to enlarge it. Disclaimer closed.)

What happens when people just sit around? The majority of the time what happens is storytelling. We enjoy recounting stories from our lives with others, and we also love hearing the stories of what others have gone through. God has created us that way in His image. As for the Bible, God is not giving us a bunch of ideas and then illustrating them with stories. Rather, God is architecting and narrating the storyline of all history (His story), and then interpreting that storyline with concepts. As we are seeking to understand who Jesus Christ was, is, and will be; and what He has done, is doing, and will do…it is easiest and most biblical to understand all of this in story. We are about to take a look at the offices of Jesus Christ. The offices of Jesus Christ wrap up who He is, what He does, and how He fulfills the narrative of all OT history (2 Kings 23:2). So let us take a look at Jesus Christ as The Prophet, The Priest, and The King.

First, Jesus Christ is The Prophet. Notice I didn’t just say that Jesus was a prophet but He is The Prophet. Personally, I think it would rock to live in the OT times and to hear the prophets speak for God. The prophets of the OT were literally God’s “mouthpieces” as God would speak His Word through them to His people. It would be so awesome to sit before a man who has literally heard from God a Word to communicate to me and to fellow followers of God. I think it is very important to understand that the office of prophet is closed today to all humans except for one Man. For those who may call themselves a prophet whether preachers, teachers, pastors, evangelists, etc…they are either mistaken, deceived, or deceivers. Even from the very first book of the Bible, God told Moses that there would be one final prophet to come to whom everyone would listen (Deuteronomy 18:15). That prophet finally came and eternally fulfilled the office of prophet as He replaced every prophet who existed throughout history. Jesus is The Prophet of God whom we listen to by going to the Word of God and realizing that every word of Scripture is ultimately coming with the authority of the Word Himself, Jesus Christ. Believe Him!

Second, Jesus Christ is The Priest. Like prophets, there were many priests throughout the OT, and the priests had many functions. The functions of the priests included making sacrifices for individuals, entering into the tabernacle, and praying for the people. How sweet would it be to lay our eyes on a man called by God to make sacrifices for all your sins and to watch them be washed away as a symbol of a greater sacrifice to come? No matter what people may tell you, the office of priest does not continue today except in one Man. In fact, our eternal priest is the final High Priest which means He can enter the Most Holy Places, and He can make a sacrifice for all the people. His sacrifice is one and done. Jesus is our ultimate High Priests that wipes away the need for any other priests today. His one-perfect sacrifice is enough for our forgiveness. He alone brings us to God. He is constantly interceding for us before the Father. In fact, Jesus as our High Priest isn’t even in the lineage of OT priests who were in the tribe of Levi. Our High Priest was in the order of Melchizedek. Why was Melchizedek the priest who pre-pictured God’s Christ to come? It is because he was both priest and king (Genesis 14:18).

Third, Jesus Christ is The King. There were many, many kings throughout the OT. Some were good, many were bad, some were righteous, many were unrighteous, some were respected, and many were untrustworthy. I’m afraid that as we think of the kingly office in the OT, we may see it as a big mistake. The people asked for a king, God warned them, and then allowed Saul to become king. Was God’s plan to have a king for his people? Yes! God had already told Abraham that kings would be a blessed part of his descendants (Genesis 17:6). Having a human king is good and part of God’s eternal plan because God had already purposed the kingship of His people to be passed on and fulfilled in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the final King who rules over God’s people in perfect justice, wisdom, righteousness, love, etc. And I can’t wait for the day of glorification when I will be like Him and serve Him perfectly!