Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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1 John 2:7-8 | Nothing New, But All is New

1 John 2:7-8 | Nothing New, But All is New

7 Brothers, it is no new commandment I write unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, this is true in Him and in you, because the darkness has passed away and the true light now shines. 

1 John 2:7-8

Given the discussion in 1 John 1:6-10 on the believer’s relationship to sin, it’s unsurprising that the next question to be answered, particularly for believing Jews, would be in regards to their relationship to the commandments. Believers in Christ are not “let off” from commandment keeping. Rather, it is only by Christ that we can be true commandment keepers (Cf. 1 Jn. 2:3).

Christ gave a new commandment, in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” The light which has shined into the darkness (Cf. Jn 1:5) is the converting light of the Gospel. This light is the birthright and experience of every true saint. When we’re converted by the heralded Gospel, we can truly say, “This is nothing new, but now everything is new.” The scales have come off, the day has dawned, the clear light is shining.

The commandment is the same as ever: love God, and love your neighbor. But there is new light shining, illuminating new glories in the old commandment. John isn’t giving a new command, but an old one which they had heard from the beginning. The phrase “the beginning” here is the same construction as in 1 Jn. 1:1, but here it is in reference to the beginning of their hearing of the Gospel which had been from the capital “B”Beginning.

The newness however, is that of a newly discerned glory. It’s as if under the OT the saints held a diamond, but in the dim light could only vaguely perceive the beauty of what they held. As soon as the rays of Gospel light caught in the prism, a new glory was revealed. This wasn’t a novel idea, nor did it just appear out of thin air. The newness is not that of recency, for it is from the beginning; it is a newness of quality.

The newly unveiled glory is that by dwelling in Christ, and thus being invited into the loving fellowship of the godhead, we’re not only receivers of this marvelous love (1 Jn. 3:1), we’re also empowered to actually love God in return and love the brethren. This is true “in Him”, because Jesus was indeed the Christ and thus enjoyed this perfect love, and now by Christ we might enjoy the assurance that God receives our love to Him (for He first loved us, 1 Jn. 4:19), and we are able to love and be beloved by our fellow saints. This is the glory which has come forth from the old commandment. All the enmity with God and our brother is settled in the substitutionary atonement of Christ on our behalf.

This is true in Christ, and it is true in us. It is only true in us, however, because we are in Christ. Thus, as John proceeds, he will show that union with Christ’s love makes enmity with one’s fellow saint an impossibility. As one ancient Christian commented: “The commandment is true in him because he loved us so much that he died for us, and it will be true in us also if we love one another.”⁠1

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1 Hilary of Arles. James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude. Compiled by Gerald Lewis. Bray. Downers Grove (Ill.): InterVarsity, 2000. Pg. 180

The Deeper Magic

The Deeper Magic

The sooth-sayers have preyed upon our desire for rest and refreshment, but they do so without obeying creation law. Magicians in lab-coats conjure up pseudo-rest in the shape of pills and treatments. Entertainment wizards leave us spell-bound through the feeble-fables they put on our screens. The witches of tyranny cackle and intimidate us to subservience, under the enchanting message that this is all “for our health & safety.” The Necromancers have convinced our nation that killing the unborn will bring us self-fulfillment.

But God carved deeper magic into stone tablets as Moses looked on, revealing the secret to true rest: “Keep the Sabbath day holy.” Here, at this table, is the pinnacle of what it means to obey that commandment. The blessing of the Sabbath is not only creation law, it was also covenant law, and then, in Christ, redemptive law.

You have no rest apart from partaking of Christ. You cannot keep the Sabbath by neglecting to partake of Christ and doing so with His body. The common American practice of “I don’t need to go to church to be refreshed, my church is out in nature” is just eating the sorcerer’s poisoned apple.

The enchantments, spells, and dark sayings of our modern wizards will leave you more exhausted, more depleted, and more empty than before. The deeper magic of creation reveals that we are restless until we rest in God. Christ is the fullness of Him that is all in all. In Christ is abundant life. In this bread is true renewal. In this wine is true reprieve. In this company of saints is true renewal. In this Word is the deepest magic, the magic that tells you your sins are forgiven, death has been conquered, and God’s gift to you is everlasting life.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

Standing Before Kings

Standing Before Kings

Life has a way of not going according to plan. Perhaps illness or injury disrupted your plans for a healthy life. Perhaps a financial calamity caused you to have to work longer hours and put off retirement for a few more years than you had hoped. Perhaps you’re still single, or childless, or grieving the seemingly premature loss of a loved one.

When faced with life’s disappointments, tragedies, and sorrows, all too many folks begin to just run out the clock. Depending on the stage of life they might drop out of college, or try to find a spark in new hairdos, cars, and tattoos, or as Piper famously put it: they spend the winter years of life collecting shells.

But running out the clock of life––regardless of how young you are when you start doing so––is the exact opposite disposition which Solomon teaches us to have: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men (Pro 22:29).” The diligent man or woman doesn’t look for the off-ramp of life, hoping simply to coast to the finish line. They are diligent, and so stand before kings, instead of standing amongst the insignificant. 

Don’t simply bleed out life. Don’t run out the clock in the hopes of sneaking off the field with a win. Rather, run up the score on the hosts of darkness. When we’re told that God has good works prepared in advance for us to do, there isn’t an expiration date on those good works. Regardless of your season of life there are sinners around you in need of the Gospel, and saints in need of consolation. Look around you, where’s the battle fiercest? Where’s the need greatest? There is your assignment.

The enchanting force of the comforts we enjoy, even the blessings which our nation has received, has lulled many into the sleep of complacency, inactivity, and spending away their years with no diligence, and therefore no legacy. God summons us to a life of diligence, yet mankind hunts for a flat spot to pitch a tent of mediocrity, laziness, and “retirement.” Don’t try to mail-in your good works or just being clock-punchers. Instead, ask as David did in the face of Goliath’s taunts: “Is there not a cause?”

The Songs of Zion

The Songs of Zion

Introduction 

A striking feature of heaven-born reformations is a restoration of Biblical worship, and from this fountain springs psalms & hymn of praise. In our time, we face a similar need to restore biblically ordered worship to the church. This means going to the Word, not our preferences, to determine how to bring the glory due His name. The overwhelming instruction in Scripture is to give glory. All too often we give mass-produced nonsense. Nowhere is this more evident than in the prevailing approach to music in our corporate worship services.

The Text

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

1 Chronicles 16:29

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 35:10 

Summary of the Text

As David brought the Ark into Jerusalem after it had been in exile for over a hundred years, (for time dwelling in the Gentile household of Obed-Edom; 1 Chr. 15:25) we’re provided with a detailed description of everything from the utensils, to the divisions of the Levites (1 Chr. 15:16-24), to the sacrifices offered. While the expected thank-offerings are made (1 Chr. 16:1-2), a new offering is described. That new offering stands out like a successful trick play at a football game. 

The chronicler describes this new offering which David arranges: a sacrifice of song. David has composed a psalm to sing and then arranges Levitical choirs to sing it. In that Psalm––among other things––the saints of God are called to “give glory” and to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” The glory can be embodied in both volume & quality (Ps. 33:3, 98:4). We’re repeatedly summoned to make a loud & joyful noise skillfully accompanied with the understanding of faith. There’s no shushing of the heavenly choir. This reformation of worship which David led by establishing the tabernacle of Zion as the center of Israel’s worship should be seen as the OT’s high-point.

Zion was the stronghold of David, which is where the tabernacle of David was erected and where the Ark was brought. The offerings in the tabernacle of David were primarily offerings of song (at David’s time, animal sacrifices primarily took place in Gibeah, until Solomon’s temple was constructed). 

Skipping ahead a few centuries, Isaiah’s vision presents a scene of redeemed and restored saints ascending to Zion with songs and everlasting joy (Is. 35:10). Though the threat of judgement loomed over Judah, the promise behind it was that God would restore His people to Zion, and they would come singing merry songs.

All of this (both David’s reformation of emphasizing song in Israel’s worship, and Isaiah’s vision of the Restored Israel) anticipates that Messiah’s courts would be filled with songs from both Jews & Gentiles. As one commentator points out, whereas the Tabernacle of Moses was filled with a cloud of smoke, the Temple of Christ is filled with a cloud of song.

The Song of Moses

After great OT victories, it is the songs that are recorded in detail, whereas the details of thank offerings are oftentimes either passed over entirely, or very briefly described. Not only that, but the battles themselves often receive only the concise description: “the Lord wrought a great victory.” When God grants victory, the people sing. The songs are recorded so that we too might join the chorus of God’s saints and remember back to Jehovah how He has delivered His people in times past in hope that His mighty arm will once more be bared to deliver us in our present conflicts and in future battles.

After Pharaoh and his army were defeated at the Red Sea, Moses & Miriam (Ex. 15:1ff) led Israel in celebratory songs of praise. Moses again leads Israel in song after the 40 years of wandering, as they look to begin the conquest of Canaan (Deu. 32:1-43). Deborah & Barak (Jdg. 5:1ff) sang of the Lord’s deliverance of His people from the Canaanites. Hannah prayed a prayer which rings with poetic glory, as she rejoiced over her rival (1 Sam. 2:1); Mary draws heavily from this prayer in the Magnificat. David’s reformation was a profound incorporation of this musical tradition as a fixed feature of the worship of the Lord. Generations later, Jehosaphat famously sent the Levitical choirs––which David had originally organized––as the vanguard in a battle with Judah’s enemies (2 Chr. 20).

There’s a curious note in Rev. 15:3 that the saints who overcame the beast sing in joy for their victory. And what they sing is an abbreviated version of the song of Moses, which is also called the song of the Lamb (Deu. 32:1-43). John’s vision invites us to see that Christ has delivered his people (from every nation) once more from Egypt (unbelieving Jerusalem), while preparing them to conquer the land (by bringing Heavenly Jerusalem everywhere they go). 

Notice the pattern. God grants a deliverance, God’s people start singing. We not only see this throughout the OT, but after Pentecost and in early church history we see songs of praise to Christ being composed (Cf. Phil 2:5-11, Col 1:15-20, 1Tim 3:16, Heb. 1:1-3, 1 Jn. 2:12-14, and 1Pet 2:21-25) and sung heartily (Cf. Rev. 5:8-14), even in the face of fierce persecution.

Mismatched Music

There’s a modern tendency, especially in Christian circles, to assume that music is interchangeable, and merely a matter of preference. None of us would dare break into a yodeled polka tune at a funeral; nor would we think a death metal song appropriate for a bridal procession. Just because you can sing Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan’s Island doesn’t mean you should.

We want our music to rhyme with the truths they proclaim. Thus joyful reverence is the tone. Trying to cram the eternal glories of the Triune God into the tin can of pop-music is a fool’s errand. Monosyllabic la-la’s set to pop melodies don’t compare to Watt’s skillful poetry paired with the harmonic glories of Bach. 

Our music, whether we acknowledge it or not, is part of a larger battle. The question is whether we will have arrows that are straight and sharp and sturdy, or else they are flimsy and blunt and bent. Is there objective truth and beauty? Or can we just slap a boring chord progression to some random assemblage of words and call it good, call it glory? As C.S. Lewis once insightfully noted that there’s a tendency for church music to be “fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music.” The brilliant ordering of notes into melodic patterns with thrilling harmonies stacked on top of profound, theologically sound poetry is an arrow in our quiver that should not be tossed aside.

With Skill and Understanding

A visitor could attend our services for a year and be unaware of our primary distinctives (i.e. Reformed, postmillennialism, etc.). But on their first Sunday they’ll be confronted with our musical priorities. But let me state explicitly what our music states implicitly. We aim to be a mighty choir belting out Psalms of God’s faithfulness and songs of God’s grace to us in Christ. We aim to bring glory to God, in the beauty of holiness.

To get there, however, we must not begin with musical literacy, that should come after. We must keep first things first. A musical reformation must begin with evangelical faith. We understand and know that the Son of God has come, and we are in Him (1 Jn. 5:20). That is the key signature that dictates the rest of our musical endeavors. While we should strive to learn our parts, raise our children to be musically skillful, it must spring from Gospel joy and every song must conclude with a faith-filled “Amen.”

The Son of David Singing the Songs of David

The pitch-note, then, of our Lord’s Day worship is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We aren’t aiming to have the Reformed Evangelical equivalent to the Vienna Boys Choir or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Nor do we want to mindlessly just go along with whatever the record companies decide we should prefer. 

Biblical worship is not a job for those people “up there” to do; whether they’re an ornately robed priest muttering Latin, or a ripped-jeans worship band with a gnarly bassist. Biblical worship is the righteous work of Christ alone. Yet since we are in Him, we come by Him to offer glory. This service of worship is the work of Christ’s body, the church. You cannot worship God rightly if you do not come to Him by the Son. We come to God, clothed in the righteousness of the Son of David to sing the psalms of David. As one hymnist said, “So come to the Father, through Jesus the Son.”

1 John 2:3-6 | Knowing that You Know

1 John 2:3-6 | Knowing that You Know

3 And by this do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and in him the truth in not. 5 However, he who keeps His word, assuredly in him the love of God is perfected; by this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides/dwells in Him is bound to walk even as He walked.

1 John 2:3-6

Christ our Advocate promises propitiatory grace to us, but many wonder how to know that they know that they know that it is really for them. One of the most common questions a pastor is asked is how someone can really know that they are saved. This has given rise in some circles to a bad habit of naval gazing. 

John raises this theme of knowing and will return to it numerous times throughout John’s epistle. This is why this epistle is often called the epistle of assurance. Here is how we know that we know Christ; and thus, we can know that all His  forgiveness and fellowship is ours as well.

The answer to how do you know if you know Christ isn’t to stare inward; John tells us that our assurance arises as we keep His commandments. In other words, it isn’t by gazing inward, but by hearing Christ’s commands and obeying. If you can’t hear His commands, or you refuse to obey them, well, then there’s your answer chump. 

John goes on to expand on what it means to keep Christ’s commands (vv7-11, 5:3), but for now the equation is simply that we can know that we know Christ by obedience to Him. Those who know Christ obey Him. Those who don’t know Christ spend too much time staring at themselves in the mirror. This is John weaving in Christ’s teaching in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

In 2:4 we have an echo of the liar of 1:8. In the prior passage, denying sin’s presence is self-delusion, and thus proof that truth doesn’t dwell within. In this chapter, the liar claims to have the knowledge which comes through close fellowship, while demonstrating through his actions that he doesn’t in fact know how Christ would have him behave. This evinces that truth doesn’t dwell in such an one (and thus is the mark of a false teacher); this sets the stage for the later discussion of anti-Christs (2:18, 22).

Of note, John makes keeping Christ’s commandments synonymous with keeping Christ’s word. A beloved confidant of the King will do as the King commands, and by this obedience it is seen that the King’s love truly rests upon and in him. God’s love is perfected, or fulfilled, in us by keeping Christ’s word. A second assurance is added here, that keeping Christ’s word shows that we are indeed in the fellowship with the Father & Son described in 1:3.

Again, declaring that you dwell in God obligates you to conform your life to His. Calvin points out that John “does not simply exhort us to imitate Christ; but from the union we have with him, he proves that we ought to be like him.⁠1” In other words, it isn’t just “grit your teeth and be like Jesus.” Rather, on the basis of our covenantal union with Him we must indeed be like Him.

This is, after all, what Christ himself taught John, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love (Jn. 15:10).” Our old covenant head (Adam) has been replaced by a new head (Christ). Just as Christ submitted to the Father’s will, and now the Father has given the government of the world into Christ’s hands, so to Christ’s own must walk in submission to His commands because of their covenantal union with Him. As A.A. Hodge once put it, “True [assurance] leads to constant aspirations after more intimate fellowship with God.”⁠2

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1 Calvin, Jean. Calvins Commentaries. Vol. XXII. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999. Pg.176.

2 Hodge, Archibald Alexander. The Westminster Confession: A Commentary. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2002.

Assurance on the Table

Assurance on the Table

The importance of the Lord’s Supper is that it is an objective truth. It is an immovable pillar in the midst of the shaking sands of our turbulent emotions, cultural upheaval, global uncertainty. Here is solid ground upon which your faith might stand, and stand firm.

A mistake that many make is to acknowledge a doctrine of salvation that is Scripturally sound: “I am saved by Christ alone;” they nod along vigorously and would gladly affirm this as true. And of course, this is marvelously and eternally true. However, when confronted with the question of their own assurance of this salvation, they go looking in all the dusty nooks and all the cobwebbed crannies of their own feelings.

The ground of your salvation and the assurance of your salvation are not in you. Just as your righteousness, filthy as it is, stained by sin as it is, is not the ground of your justification, neither are your inner feelings the ground of your assurance. Your salvation is here. Your assurance is here.

Christ saves sinners. Porn junkies, sodomites, religious hypocrites, women and doctors who abort babies, the politicians who advocate for it, liars, murderers, cheats, and idolaters. Christ came to forgive such sinners who turn in faith to him. He came not only to save sinners great and small, but that they all might rest assured in the objective salvation He won for them.

When so great a Savior is set before you, don’t draw back. Come to Him. Your salvation is a gift. Your assurance is a gift. Receive it now, with the simple faith of a grateful heart. Don’t try to gauge whether you feel assured, rather ask, “Do I believe what God says?” He says, “All who come to me, I will in no wise cast out.”

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

To the Word

To the Word

One of the hallmarks of the Protestant Reformation was the motto ad fontes, meaning: “to the sources.” This led them to read the Bible for themselves in the original languages. What they found there they could neither keep to themselves, nor keep quiet about it.

The Apostles’ Gospel of free grace, which the Reformers rediscovered, was found by reading Scripture’s witness. The Word of God was the engine for the whole project. As Tyndale discovered the glories of Scripture, he remarked, “Christ desires his mysteries to be published abroad as widely as possible. I would that [the Scriptures] were translated into all languages, of all Christian people, & that they might be read & known.”

Calvin frequently exhorted his people to read Scripture: “Thus must we also read the Scriptures. We must greedily, and with a prompt mind, receive those things which are plain, and wherein God openeth his mind. As for those things which are hid from us, we must pass them over until we see greater light. And if we be not wearied with reading, it shall at length come to pass that the Scripture shall be made more familiar by continual use.”

A later Reformer insightfully said, “a home without a Bible is a ship without a rudder and a Christian without a Bible is a soldier without a weapon.”

We’ve been undertaking to renew a fervor amongst God’s people for the regular reading of Scripture. Our BRC campaign flows from the reality that your spiritual life cannot be sustained by infrequent reading and hearing of God’s Word. The condition of our Nation is directly the result of our neglect of reading, believing, and obeying the Bible. So Augustine was once told, “Take up, and read.” The Reformation we desire won’t come apart from the conquering sword of the Word.

In an age where our phones have every imaginable translation of Scripture and even the tools to read Scripture in its original languages, we have opted for the distractions of newsfeeds, quizzes about what our spirit animal is, and all manner of other frivolities. It’s no wonder we are a skittish generation, for we have no foundation and no anchor. Our nation is a crumbling ruin, for we have sought to build on another cornerstone than God’s Word. Our nation is a ship adrift in a hurricane––without sails, oars, or a compass––for we have cast overboard the eternal Gospel declared in Scripture. The church has, all too often, treated the Word flippantly, and this shows in the fact that frequent reading of Scripture is a duty which few have fulfilled. May God forgive us for neglecting His Word, and may He renew in us a hunger for the Bible as never before.

1 John 2:1-2 – Christ Our Advocate

1 John 2:1-2 – Christ Our Advocate

My children, these things I write unto you in order that you may not sin; and if anyone perchance sin, we have an Advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also the whole world.

1 John 2:1-2

John now moves from the plural “we” to the singular “I.” This shift is deliberate, and is an example of how the Gospel is the common proclamation of the Apostolic witness, but then must be applied personally. 

This Gospel is proclaimed in order that those in fellowship with Christ might not sin. Leonard Ravenhill once pointed out, and I tend to agree, that it says if we sin, not when we sin. While there’s a tendency in some Christian circles to take a statement like that and begin assuming a sinless perfectionism (which is a doctrine which has stumbled many an immature believe and is not a millstone I want hanging around my neck), the point is helpful if rightly used. Christ has delivered us from sin, we are united with Him, and we enjoy His overcoming power. John builds this out later on in 1 Jn. 5:4. But it is here in seed form. 

The saint is delivered from sin. This should be the underlying assumption of the saint in regards to their relationship with sin. John has just stated that the presence of sin isn’t to be denied (Cf. 1 Jn. 1:8, 10); but we also shouldn’t cede territory back to sin by operating as if Sin still has dominion. Thus, the comfort for the believer is that their gracious Savior has freed them from and forgiven them for their sinful state and past sinful actions; furthermore, the comfort extends forward so that if the saint sins in the future, the Lord Jesus remains as their faithful Advocate. The Greek word here means, ”one summoned to your side”, implying coming to your legal defense.

Our Accuser is cast down, as John’s apocalyptic vision assures us. Which means you need not heed the Accuser’s voice, when the Advocate’s voice is declaring that the Gospel reckons you forgiven, cleansed, and pardoned. This forms the foundation of Christian assurance. We need not sin, because we’ve been given a new nature; but if we sin, we are no less a saint for Christ the Righteous is our eternal Advocate before the Father.

The word propitiation here is a “bible-ese” word that doesn’t often feature in modern vocabulary. But it is a word of great importance, and so is worth a brief explanation. Propitiation simply means covering. This concept comes down to us through the Mosaic Law’s emphasis on the atoning power of sacrificial blood. One theologian––remarking on this significant aspect of the Sacrificial system of the OT––gives these insightful comments: 

“We also understand the covering of sin in the sacrificial worship as a covering by which the accusatory and damnatory power of sin its power to excite the anger and wrath of Godis broken by which in fact it is rendered both harmless and impotent And understood in this sense the sacrificial covering was not merely an apparent conventional expiation of sin which would have been the case if it had been merely removed from the sight of Jehovah but a process by which it was actually rendered harmless which is equivalent to cancelling and utterly annihilating.”⁠1

J.H. Kurtz

So, in plain words, Christ being our propitiation gives us assurance that the wrath of God which sinners are justly deserving of, is covered and absorbed by Christ. Furthermore, this glory is not reserved just for the individual saint, as verse 2 goes on to expound. This covering grace is for the entire world (the word in the Greek here is kosmos). 

John asserts that Christ has not only covered our sins, but the sins of the entire world. Calvinists have the odd habit of resembling a Circus side-show contortionist when confronted with verses like this. They twitch at sounding either like a universalist or an Arminian. This verse doesn’t overthrow the doctrine of definite atonement, rather it helps establish it. That doctrine, in short, is that Christ’s blood is only effectual for atoning the elect. 

Here is why this verse is a boon, not a burden, to this doctrine. As one insightful commentary points out, “The world that Christ formed (1 Jn. 1:1) is the very world for which he died.”⁠2 Since Christ purchased the world, with His own blood, He’s King of it. Those are the rules. Jesus overthrew Satan (Cf. 1 Jn. 3:8, Rev 12:10). The Father gave the government of the whole world into Christ’s hands. In that sense, the entire cosmos is now the rightful inheritance of Christ. The atonement which covers the individual saint is here promised to the Church entire, throughout the whole world, through all time. What John is asserting here is that the propitiatory power of Christ’s blood is not restricted merely to the Apostles and their followers. Rather, this atoning blood is efficacious for all the scattered elect both in his day and in all ages to come. The Church shall one day overrun the planet. In this way, the world will indeed be saved.

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1 Kurtz, J. H. (John Henry). Sacrificial Worship in the Old Testament. Minneapolis, MN: Klock & Klock Christian, 1980. Pg. 70

2 Beale, G. K., and Benjamin L. Gladd. The Story Retold A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament. Westmont: InterVarsity Press, 2020. Pg. 454

Ben Zornes