Sermons

The War Against God – Joel 3

June 4, 2021 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

There is a long sustained war between the City of Man, and the City of God. In times of general darkness and discouragement, Saints of both testaments have needed to be encouraged. Joel’s prophetic vision concludes with words of assurance, intended to rally the hope of God’s people. Despite all the flexing of the City of Man, its efforts will always turn to dust, it will be like a wave crashing on the rocks.

The Text

Joel 3

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. [ . . . ]

Summary of the Text

The day of the Lord––described in Joel 2:1-11––would come in the form of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions. The day of the Lord would be a horror to the unrepentant, but to the repentant they would be equipped to follow in His train.

The remnant (2:32) would be brought home by God’s own hand from all their various exiles (v1). But all the nations would also be brought to the valley of Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 20), and then they would be made to give an account for how they treated the Lord’s people and His temple (vv2-6). The Lord will gather His people again, while avenging the nations for their sins (vv7-8, Cf. Ps. 62:12). Then the Lord throws down the gauntlet, challenging all the nations to prepare for war with Him (vv9-10, Cf. Is. 2:4)). All nations must assemble themselves before the Almighty in the valley of Jehoshaphat to face the Lord’s judgement––שפט (vv11-12).

God’s harvest-time has come, and the valley shall be filled with the multitudes of those whom the Lord shall slay (vv13-14, Cf. Rev. 14:15, 19-20). Once more, cosmic signs shall accompany these earthly events (v15); the Lord will roar––shaking heaven and earth––and His people will take courage from all this vindicating grace (v16). In this way, God will cleanse Jerusalem, and no strangers will claim residence in the holy hill of the Lord (v17).

Then blessings shall flow down upon Judah out of the Lord’s house, watering even the arid valleys (v18). Egypt and Edom shall be left desolate for their murderous treatment of Judah (v19). The final word on the matter is that Judah and Jerusalem shall stand fast because the Lord will cleanse them from all their bloodguilt (vv20-21).

The Invaders Become the Invaded

Joel has addressed the indifference shown in response to the invasion of locust (Chapter 1). He has warned of a coming invasion of foreign armies to arouse the people to repentance (Chapter 2). But now, after outlining the wonderful outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord, the tables turn. The Day of the Lord comes, and the invaders suddenly become the invaded. The remnant upon whom the Spirit came (in 2:28), shall endure for endless generations (3:20).

God gathers in all His people, from the midst of the nations which have exiled them, enslaved them, or otherwise scattered them. But the nations are summoned as well. Joel tells us that this summons will happen “in those days” (3:1). The Spirit is outpoured resulting in the scattered sheep being gathered in, while at the same time all the nations are brought to face the Lord’s judgement.

This is the wonder of Pentecost. God’s conquest begins in earnest. Joel seems to have Isaiah 2 in mind, which explains why Peter slightly merges the two passages in his Pentecost day sermon. From this we can see that the outpouring of the Spirit, in Peter’s mind, also commenced the Messiah’s conquest of the whole world. Those who have sought the downfall of the Kingdom of God will face the inevitable downfall of the Kingdom of Man. Those who have persecuted the righteous will themselves face the fierce wrath of God.

Sons of Abraham & Sons of Satan

But God has two ways of destroying His enemies. One is that of the final judgement of death in their sins. God, though long-suffering, will one day bring the wicked down to hell, and so they will receive the reward for their evil works.

But the other way He destroys His enemies is by overthrowing them through conversion. This is where we must look at such texts with the eyes of faith. Not all Israelites are Israelites indeed (Rom 9:6).

We see Jesus telling the unbelieving Jews that if they were in earnest Abraham’s sons they would have done Abraham’s works of faith (Jn. 8:39); but their desire to kill the Son of Man––in spite of the signs He had shown to verify Himself as the Son of God––revealed that their true father was Satan (Jn. 8:44a). By contrast, throughout Jesus’ ministry He restricted His ministry to the house of Israel (Mt. 15:24); but there’s one moment which Jesus sees as the climactic moment of His ministry: when the Greeks come to Philip and ask, “We would see Jesus (Jn. 12:21).” Jesus takes this moment as the cue that “the hour had come.”

Later, at Pentecost (which I take to be the Day of the Lord), the foreign tongues were a sign that God had brought judgement upon Jerusalem (Deu. 28:49). The book of Acts makes it clear that the “people of God” were no longer restricted to mere ethnic lineage. While a great number of the priests believed in Christ (Acts 6:7), many times the rulers of the Synagogues were the Apostles’ fiercest opponents. But running parallel to this dividing line between Jews, we simultaneously have the identical dividing line running between the Gentiles. The Spirit falls upon the Roman centurion Cornelius (Acts 10), the Ethiopian eunuch believes (Acts 8:29-40), as well as the entire household of Lydia and the Jailer of Philippi (Acts 16), and story after story of the heathens being converted and receiving the gift of the Spirit (Acts 11:18, 18:25, 19:2); but there were also Pagans who fought the Gospel ferociously (Acts 19:21-41). So we had four categories: godly Jews and unbelieving Jews, as well as unconverted pagans and converted pagans.

If we place the events of Revelation in the first century, this helps us make better sense of what is going on there. It is truly end of the world stuff, but it is largely the end of the world for unbelieving Israel. John makes two particularly forceful references to Joel’s prophecy, which illustrate that true Israel isn’t traced by geography or lineage, but by the presence of the Spirit. In Revelation 14:15, 19-20 John borrows the harvesting imagery of Joel 3:13 to describe the slaughter coming upon Jerusalem (Josephus records that over a million were killed in the siege, and another 100k were enslaved). In Revelation 16:14, 16 John cites the Lord’s summons to judgement from Joel 3:2. The sum is that Jerusalem has become Babylon, but true Zion shall endure forever, for the Lord shall ever be the deliverer of His people, even if they are Babylonian by descent.

Affliction and Avenging

Calvin makes a wonderful observation about Joel’s prophetic vision: “The Prophet intimates that the favor of God had been so hidden during the afflictions of the people, that they could not but think that they were forsaken by God.” We often think that affliction must mean that God’s favor has abandoned us. But Joel makes one thing clear, though hard times come, it all works for the deliverance of God’s people. Their afflicters will not be let off easy, but God will avenge His people. The remnant might seem small, but faith teaches us to not reckon deliverance by a head count.

This is applicable in numerous practical directions. When a bill comes in that is more than you can afford to pay, do you view it as an opportunity for God to showcase His provision? When you think there is no way you’ll be able to complete an assignment or a project at work on time, do you trust God to grant you the endurance to persevere and see it through? When you face a besetting temptation, and feel spent in the battle of resisting it, do you trust that God will uphold you in the fight?When you see the general apostasy of the church, and the all out sprint into every manner of vileness which our culture seem hell bent to pursue, do you see that God has things right where He wants them? The Christians in the gladiatorial arena were right where God wanted them. The Christians in Chinese and Canadian jails are harbingers that God is about to overthrow the wicked. God is about to bare His arm for deliverance. When we think of God the judge, we shouldn’t envision a somber, black-robed figure; we should think of Samson, with a jawbone of a donkey, slaughtering rank after rank of Philistines.

Joel reveals the truth that God loves plot twists. The wheat and wine were cut off by the locust, but now, wholly unexpectedly, a harvest of Gentiles converts is come (Cf. Is. 2:2-3). The meat and drink offerings which were lost, are now restored in the form of worshippers from all nations. The reprobate shall be cast down, the elect of the Lord alone shall walk in the City of our God.

When the Lord Jesus announced that His hour had come, He is telling us that the trap had been laid. The Enemy took the bait. The evil powers (both earthly and supernatural) killed the Prince of glory (1 Cor. 2:8), and as a result, God overthrew the Prince of the air. Now the remnant is swelling into a great army, marching––as Jehoshaphat of old once did––with songs of praise as our weapons of war, and with the sharpened sword of the Word we strike down our enemies. Here is what our songs proclaim, here is what the razor blade of the sword of Word declares: Sin is cleansed away. Death has lost its power. Judah shall dwell forever. The hour is come. All are welcome. God’s harvest is begun.

The Day of the Lord – Joel 2

May 24, 2021 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

We’re in dire need of a revival. Evangelicals need to be born-again. The Pentecostals need to be Spirit-filled. The Reformed need a reformation. The Methodists need a Great Awakening. Joel lays out for us what such a Heaven-born revival consists of, what God’s people should do to ready for it, and the consequences of indifference towards the coming Day of the Lord.

The Text

Joel 2

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; [. . .]

Summary of the Text

After imploring the priests and the people to mourn and fast (1:14) in response to the locust swarms devastating the land––cutting off the ingredients for the meat & drink offerings (1:9)––Joel then invites his audience to look through the locust plague, and discern the cosmic implications.

There are two trumpet blasts in this text (v1 & 15). The first describes the day of the Lord as a marauding army and the right response to it (vv1-14); the second trumpet blast describes how a contrite people will enjoy the relenting of God, and experience the Day of the Lord as a day of the Spirit outpoured (vv15-32). The Day of the Lord is first described as a day of horror, and thus an appeal to repent is made. But then for those who repent, the Day of the Lord is described as a great deliverance.

The warning trumpet should be sounded, for the day of the Lord is near (v1). This is the Helms Deep of the OT. It is a day of unrivaled darkness (v2), Eden turns into Mordor, and none can escape (v3). The locust swarms give way to an invading army: swift as horses (v4), determined, well armored (v5), fierce and fearful (v6), disciplined and indefatigable (v7); they move with remarkable coordination and are not deterred by pain (v8); this invasion will be total, leaving no place to hide (v9); these events shake the earth and throw the heavens into turbulence (v10). This is Lord’s army and has come at His command (v11). The prophet closes this description of the coming day of the Lord with the rhetorical question: “Who can abide it?”

The Lord Himself then speaks to the people to describe the right response to the news of this coming day of judgement: “turn to me (v12).” This returning is to be entire, heartfelt, and accompanied with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and lest they think they can go through the motions of mourning, He admonishes them to rend their hearts and not their garments (v13). This repentance is founded upon God’s covenant mercies (v13, Cf. Ex. 34:6-7). Repentant sinners hope for a repentant God. But should God relent from His wrath, and leave the blessing of the restoration of the meat and drink offerings, it will be purely from His great mercy (v14).

Now the second trumpet blast sounds. All the residents of Zion––the elders and infants, the bridegroom and his bride––are summoned to solemnly assemble (vv15-16, Cf. 1:14). Joel paints a touching picture of what this repentance should look like: priests and people in the temple courts, with the priests crying out on behalf of all the people, “Spare thy people, O Lord (v17).” If Judah responds with this sort of total repentance, the result will be God’s aroused jealousy and pity (v18). What will follow is His restoration of the Deuteronomic blessings: bountiful crops, reproach removed, and the invaders driven back (vv19-20). The land shall be refreshed, and all which the locust had eaten would be restored (vv21-25). The people would enjoy the Sabbath rest of the Promised Land once more, and offer thankful praise without shame, all so that it might be known that the Lord is in their midst (vv26-27).

After this, the Spirit of God would be poured out upon all the people (vv28-29). The Cosmos themselves would reverberate to this radical turning of the redemptive tides (vv30-31). The repentant people, being restored to communion with God, are assured that the Lord shall ever be their Deliverer, and any who call on Him shall enjoy this salvation (v32).

The Layers of Prophecy

One of the key tactics of the prophets is how they look through current events. The immediate tragedy of swarming insects was just a forerunner of a greater day of judgement which awaits. Think of it as standing atop a high hill and being able to see the next ridge, and beyond that a higher mountain, and further still the snow-capped peaks.

Joel has rebuked the people for failing to respond appropriately to the locust swarm (the first ridge). He then employs the locust as a portent of coming invaders (the higher ridge). The prophecy then concludes with a Messianic crescendo foretelling the downfall of all God’s enemies, and Zion enjoying His blessed reign (the snow-capped peaks).

So the people ought to have responded to the locust with full-throttled repentance. In order to stir them up to this, Joel warns that an army––fiercer than the swarms they just endured––will soon invade (likely the Assyrians, Cf. v20). Looming behind this is an even greater “Day of the Lord” which will be experienced one of two ways: either great blessing, or great ruin. All of it hinges on the sort of repentance which fills the people. Is it heaven-born sorrow––which God alone gives––or just earthly sorrow?

Innovation is often mistaken for repentance. But just because we’ve made some innovations culturally, doesn’t mean we have repented. Repentance is a returning. Returning to God’s Word. Our modern debates within Christendom center––as they always do––on the authority of God’s Word. The rejection of God’s word as the standard for justice, in favor of embracing Marxist and humanist definitions of justice indicates that we are not truly interested in righting wrongs. Those loudly ringing the bells of social justice are offering a semblance of repentance, but it is mere innovation. Giving minority families $500––of tax-payer money––a month, might seem a noble way to right past wrongs, but is socialism true justice? Most Americans agree that abortion should be illegal after the 1st trimester; so if we pass a law that is based on our national “consensus” have we repented of the evil of the slaughter of the unborn? All these sorts of things are mere innovations. It is not reformation, which would be a humble return to God’s Word.

The Sermon at Pentecost

This text from Joel was the text which the Apostle Peter went to in Acts 2:17 (Cf. Is. 2:2) to describe the day of Pentecost. Peter insists that what Joel prophesied had come to pass in this marvelous outpouring of the Spirit. Pentecost wasn’t innovation, this was a return to what God had promised He would do when Messiah came. Consequently, Peter informs us how to read Joel. The Day of the Lord had come.

God’s compassion forms the basis for Joel’s vision of the future blessing of the outpoured Spirit. An army of destruction comes, but those whom God mercifully humbles and brings to repentance––the first fruits of the outpouring of the Spirit––will enjoy deliverance. The fire fell, and now empowered a nation of priests for prophetic service in a new temple, the church (Cf. Num. 11:16-30). So, Peter tells us that the Day of Pentecost was the Day of the Lord, commencing with the outpouring of the Spirit, and culminating in the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem.

A Prophetic People

Joel’s vision is of a prophetic people. To quote Spurgeon: “Unless we have the spirit of prophecy resting upon us, the mantle which we wear is nothing but a rough garment to deceive.” The Spirit emboldens us to proclaim that Jesus is Lord (Cf. Rom. 10:13). When the Spirit applies what Christ purchased, the result is a new heart. A heart assured that sin is forgiven.

This promise is for us and our children. Notice that Joel’s solemn assembly of repentance includes the child on the breast, as well as the most learned of elders. All receive the Spirit’s clarity. Dreams, in the OT, are indicative of clarity, and men of God are given the Spirit to see the dreams clearly and speak their meaning plainly. The Spirit comes upon us, and we walk in the clear light of day (Cf. 1 Jn. 1:7).

A mom no longer riddled with shame will be bold in teaching her children to follow Christ. A formerly resentful teen will no longer cower before his peers. A businessman whose confidence is in Christ’s work and not his own will freely speak up about Jesus in his workplace. This is because the Spirit gives boldness.

A Swarm of Locust – Joel 1

May 19, 2021 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

The phrase “senseless tragedy” is often employed when describing some crime or calamity. But as Christians, no tragedy is senseless. How are we to understand national tragedy? Can we call COVID-19 a judgement? If so, what are we to make of it? Joel gives us the pattern for how to respond to such tragedy, by his response to a swarm of locust.

The Text

Joel 1:1-5

The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. […]

Summary of the Text

After the brief personal introduction (v1), Joel invites the old men to give their assent to the uncommon magnitude of the tragedy that has befallen Judah, and then commands them to tell of this tragedy to future generations (vv2-3). Typically this command to tell future generations is in regard to great deliverances by the Lord’s hand (Cf. Ex. 10:1-2, Deu. 6:7, Josh. 4:6, Ps. 44:1), but here the devastating tragedy is to be retold to children’s children. The plague is then described in vibrant simplicity: the land has been devastated by wave after wave of locust (v4). A plague which had once been part of their deliverance, was now a plague come upon them for their chastisement.12

The drunkards are implored to weep, for their source of pleasure is cut off, and now must face the world (v5). The locust are likened to a foreign nation, fierce as lions (a theme then developed in 2:1-11 and then employed by St. John’s Apocalyptic vision); and the ruination the locust swarms brought was total (vv6-7).

The nation of Judah (often likened to a virgin, Cf. Amos 5:2) is to lament like a bereaved virgin (v8). The reason for the lamentation is that the locust swarms have utterly consumed the elements of the meat and drink offerings (vv9-10). The farmers and the priests are both exhorted to mourn, for the livelihood of the one and the ministry of the other are cut off (vs11-13).

The response to the tragedy should not be passivity. Rather, in the midst of the mourning, the priests should gather the elders and call a fast (v14). Joel provides a prayer for the nation to pray (vs15-18). The locust plague heralds that the Day of the Lord is soon at hand, and that Day will bring an even more severe judgement (v15), the rites of worship are unable to be performed, and joy and gladness along with it (v16), the Promised Land, which ought to be a land of rest, is laid desolate (v17), the flocks groan in the pangs of starvation and drought, and winnowing must follow (v18). Joel then speaks for himself (v19), demonstrating the spirit of true contrition. While the devastation was total––even the wild beasts who receive their meat and drink from the Lord (Cf. Ps 42:1, 104:21) were touched by this devastation (v20)––from the Lord alone could there be restoration (Cf. 2 Chr. 20:12).

Meat & Drink Offerings

Leviticus 2 gives the prescriptions for the meat offerings. For the grain/meat offering, the worshipper would bring fine flour, oil, and frankincense. The priest would take a portion of these elements and burn them, while the rest would be a portion for the priests.

The drink offering (Lev. 23:16, Num 15:6-7) varied in amount (between a quarter to half a hin––which is a little more than our modern gallon). It was never offered on its own, but always accompanied other offerings, and was explicitly only to be performed once Israel entered the land (Lev. 23:10). The wine could only be enjoyed once Israel entered her rest.

When examining the Mosaic offerings, the propitiatory nature of the sacrifices is often prominent. However, what ends up in our peripheral vision is that because our sin has been covered we’re enabled to meet with God (Ex. 29:42). So to, Christ’s sacrifice––which cleanses us from sin & guilt––enables our fellowship with God, and with God’s people (Cf. Heb. 10:18-25, 1 Jn. 1:3 & 2:1-2).

Invitation to Mourn

The locust swarm, and subsequent famine, directly impacted this important symbol of faithful worship. In light of this devastation, Joel invites all the people of the land to mourn and lament. While the mourning over the fact that the sign of communion with God was cut off, Joel is eager that they not neglect what the sign pointed to: their covenantal union with God by His free grace. Whether it be in the sacraments, or in our corporate or individual worship & piety, we can often perform all the external duties without having done so out of true faith. This is how we can make sense of what blind unbelief calls “senseless tragedy”; tragedy comes in to waken, disturb, and rattle us.

National lamentation is a bitter pill that only God can prescribe, and which we desperately need in our own time, in order to heal our cancer of proud self-sufficiency. Edward Topsell put it this way, “Oh how stubborn is the conceit of our hard hearts, which will not be taught till they smart, nor yet be instructed till they be corrected.” Tough cuts of meat often need to endure a salty brine to make them tender. While specific sins are noticeably unmentioned, the sin which Joel seems to be confronting throughout this book is that of heartless worship. As Calvin put it, “[Joel is] reproving the hardness of the people, because they do not feel their plagues.” They have become like Pharaoh. Stubborn nations and sinners often need a salty brine of suffering in order to soften their hearts. But national tragedies should bring about national lamentation and thus, in the end, national repentance and reformation.

But the plague of locust isn’t merely an event that happened and that Joel is simply responding to. He’s not using the locust swarms as a helpful sermon illustration. Rather, Joel wants us to see that the tragedy transpired at Yahweh’s command and according to His purpose, and, as such, are revelation. Swarms of locust are Divine revelations. God was saying something to Judah through clouds of insects.

When God Shuts the Temple

So what was God saying? We get a main clue by what Joel highlights as worthy of great mourning. The wheat, oil, and new wine were cut off. As a direct result, the rites of worship in the temple would also be unable to be performed. God is the one who sent the swarms, and so it was by His hand that the meat and drink offerings were suspended. God, who commanded Israel to commune with Him and meet with Him by these offerings, put His foot in the side of these offerings. The God of the offerings cancelled the offerings.

When man is in rebellion to God, the primary symptom is various attempts to invert the Gospel. Man tries to make God palatable to man, instead of making man acceptable to God through Christ. We have churches ordaining women to offices which scripture explicitly state are reserved for men. We have churches repenting for sins conjured up by the woke-craft of Marxist mobs. We have churches providing cover for sodomy and all other varieties of sexual pollution. They do it all in an attempt to make God palatable to man, instead of bringing man to God.

But closer to home, many “Bible-believing” churches have an orderly worship service, a liturgy based on biblical principles, they have bread and wine on the table, and water in the baptistry, and yet they are tombs. God has seen fit, this year, to empty many such churches. God shut the temple. God shut the church. God cancelled the meat and drink offerings.

Faithful mourning, as Joel demonstrates, can only come from loving what God loves and hating what He hates (Cf. 2 Cor. 7:10-11). This pandemic we face should bring us up short. God hates false religion so much that He cancelled church. God hates pretentious and presumptuous worshippers, and so he sent them to cover their faces and hide in their houses. God hates faithless worship, and our confessional standards, our orderly liturgies, our commitment to solid doctrinal teaching won’t save us.

May the Smoke Ascend

But this is why Joel invites Judah to mourn. We mourn that God has withdrawn Himself, and we plead with Him to relent. True mourning longs for the glory to be restored. For the smoke to ascend once more.

When Christ ascended, He brought us with Him. Our worship is the offering of ourselves, and it is in our worship that we ascend to God by Christ as a sweet savor. But if our worship is all tidy and in order, but our hearts are full of bitterness, our minds are polluted with lust, our hands are covered with the blood of hatred towards our brother, God will look on it all and say, “Time to shut it down.”

Only through Christ, can our worship be made right. He has entered the holy place in the heavenlies, that we too might enter in and offer right worship. We are to be the offering which ascends to God in Christ. We are to come to God, not try to get God all trimmed out with all the things that are palatable to our culture or our tribe, chanting the right slogans the whole way. The only way to enter in, the only way to ascend with the smoke, is to look to Christ. To put it another way, clouds of grasshoppers should make you look to Jesus.

Jesus is Coming

March 29, 2021 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

The danger of clichés is that they are usually quite right. To illustrate this, one French poet remarked that, “The first man who compared a woman to a rose was a poet, the second, an imbecile.” Because clichés are often right, they too easily get consigned to poster-board behind the goalposts of a televised football game. What should shake the foundations of darkness is met with an eye-roll.

The Text

And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
Zechariah 9:8-10

Summary of the Text

Judah was once more enduring an occupation by foreign nations (Zech. 9:1-8). Zechariah assures the returning exiles that God was soon to come and would cast out those powers (9:4), and would see to it Himself (9:8). The assurance of this promised deliverance would be that Messiah would enter Jerusalem upon the foal of an ass, with rejoicing shouts filling Zion (9:9); Zechariah also elaborates on Isaiah’s earlier prophecy of the Messiah entering Zion endowed with salvation (Is. 62:11). This joyful entrance would result in the expulsion of the foreign forces while establishing peace with the heathen (9:10). Messianic texts like this one convinced godly Jews to conclude that under Messiah’s reign, the boundaries of the promised land would be universalized. To the ends of the earth, enemy nations would either crumble or convert.

Riding Upon A Donkey

Roman generals were accustomed to enter a city either on a donkey or upon a horse, signifying peace with the former and as a conqueror in the latter. So some point to this easy explanation. However, at one point in Biblical history, riding an ass was for the illustrious (i.e. Balaam, the early Judges of Israel, etc.). By the time of Zechariah’s prophecy riding upon an ass was a sign of lowliness.

We don’t necessarily have to choose sides here. Was Jesus coming like an ancient judge (i.e. Samson, Gideon, Barak)? Was Jesus taking a Roman custom and using it for his own purpose? Was Jesus coming in humble lowliness to defeat the dragon alone? The answer can be yes to all three.

But the full sum of the picture should be guided by what the text explicitly states. Matthew tells us that Christ riding into Jerusalem was the prophetic sign which Zechariah foretold come alive and fulfilled (Mt. 21:4-5). Which means that Christ’s entrance wasn’t a publicity stunt, it was a fork in the road. Either Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah as attested by His many signs, this being perhaps the most public, or He wasn’t. The gears of war which occupied Israel were soon to be overthrown. The Messiah is described as being just, having salvation, and lowly. Whatever other symbolism might be involved, Jesus riding upon the ass was a claim to be the Messiah.

His kingdom was not of this world, but by His sufferings, He would conquer all the kingdoms of this world. Yes, Israel was once more occupied by a foreign power. But the foreign power which Jesus had come to defeat was the spiritual principality of Satan’s kingdom.

Our Evangelical Heritage

Perhaps no motto shaped 20th century American Evangelicalism than the statement: “Jesus is coming soon.” In the late 1800s a new end-times position rose to popularity. It hinged on a belief that the world was on the verge of an apocalyptic end. One sign of this would be growing apostasy, followed by Jesus secretly rapturing true Christians. At the same time, many of the mainline denominations––which held to the more prevalent postmillennial view––were being duped by various errors: German theologians’ Higher Criticism, the implications of embracing Darwin’s theory of the origin of species, and a Gospel that was neutered into merely a “neighborhood clean up”.

The premillennialists saw that the authority of Scripture was under attack, the Gospel was at stake, and Christian morality would be compromised by these threats. Their defense of Scriptural authority was truly heroic. They sought to return to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and thus this movement came to be known as Fundamentalism, while many leaders in the movement––J. Greshem Machen, as a prime example––sought to retain the more historic term: Evangelical.

The engine driving much of the modern Evangelical fervor was that conviction that “Jesus is coming.” This sentiment motivated the Evangelicals to fight against the looming darkness so as to be found faithful when Christ came. A noble aim, even if situated atop flimsy exegesis. It’s like the Algebra student who, despite faulty steps to solve the problem, comes to the correct answer. The thing which marked 20th century evangelicals was urgency in light of Christ’s imminent return.

Jesus IS Coming

The reality is that Jesus is coming. Our evangelical heritage got that right. Indeed that sentiment outdates 20th century Fundamentalism, and was expressed during the Reformation by the emphasis on living coram Deo.

The true saint, in any age, waits expectantly for Christ’s coming, whether it be in revival, in death, or in the final judgement. Note the rejoicing of the Palm Sunday crowds, and the substance of their song: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Jesus is coming, and their response was the right one, joyfully receiving Him as the Messiah which He claimed to be.

The Christ we preach is ascended to the right hand of the Father. He isn’t playing video games with Cheeto-dusted fingers, until His dad tells Him to come get us. Jesus is not a dispassionate observer of human history. Rather, Christ is ruling the world. He is present and involved in the affairs of history. Jesus is not disengaged from the affairs of history. He is holding the scepter of the universe.

So we rightly join the Palm Sunday crowds in declaring Jesus is coming. He is coming to cleanse the temple. He is coming to make dry bones come alive. He is coming to topple tyrants. He is coming to mend the brokenhearted. He is coming to humble overbearing husbands and rebuke sniping wives. He is coming to rescue prodigal sons. He is coming to defeat His enemies.

He comes in fire and fury. He comes in gentle words of redemption. He comes to usher saints to their eternal rest in His presence. He comes to undo the wicked and their evil designs. Neither you nor I can stop Him. Congress can’t pass bills to halt the advance of His Kingdom. Jesus is coming.

The Kingdom is Christ’s

Ezekiel was given the vision of God’s throne, and it rested upon wheels within wheels (Ez. 1:15-28). The implication being that God’s authority was swift, immediate, and universal. Christ’s authority is not like a bureaucracy of committees, where we need to wait until the regularly stated meeting to take up the business of motioning and seconding to take up this or that question at the next stated meeting. No. When Christ comes, it is as King, endowed with salvation, so as to overthrow the wicked and establish peace.

We’re at the point where a generation will be saturated in their sins (both real and imagined). But there’s no way to be saved, forgiven, atoned. You can’t grovel enough, no one is righteous enough, no one has enough intersectionality points to escape the coming mob. Sooner or later your tweets will be found out, your unorthodox opinion on some vital matter will be discovered, and the pitchforks will come for you. We are a generation laden with guilt and shame. But the black midnight of this generation’s soul, is just the sort of moment in which Jesus will come. His Holy Spirit will convict of true sin, reveal the righteous Judge who comes endowed by the Father with the power to save. Jesus is coming, and when He comes we shall be turned. The enemies will be driven from our midst and we shall be free.

Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem is a claim to be the Messiah, who would not only overthrow evil nations but would overthrow the evil which dwells in you, and then would establish His dominion upon every inch of this world. You must either receive Him as the Lord of all the earth, or reject Him. You must either throw wide the gates of faith to have Him rule in your heart, in your family, in your business, in your temptations; or you must close the doors. But the Gospel which the church has faithfully preached through her many windings, is this: Jesus is coming indeed (Ps. 50:3).

Sons & Daughters

January 25, 2021 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

Sons & daughters, hang with me here, are different. If you hand a girl a nerf gun, she’ll wrap it in a blanket and put it to bed. If you hand a doll to a boy, somehow he’ll turn it into a gun. As fathers and mothers, you are called to raise your sons and daughters in the fear and admonition of the Lord. But while the Lord admonishes certain things to all people––male or female––He admonishes certain things for boys who are to become men, and girls who are to become women.

The New Testament does not lift the requirements put upon parents to raise their children in the context of being faithful to God’s covenant promises (Deu. 6:4-9). Parents were told to teach their children diligently to love the Lord wholly; and of vital importance is that the words of the Lord are to be in your heart (Deu. 6:5). There is no substitute for genuine faith, and all your other efforts to raise your children will be futile if not springing from true faith in God. The NT does not exclude children from instructions to walk in the Lord’s ways, they are included: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth (Eph. 6:1-3).”

The Text

Psalm 144:9-15

I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.

Summary of The Text

The first half of this Psalm deals with David at war (vs1-8), and the second half deals with David at peace. But underneath it all is God’s favor, and thus His strengthening blessing. God strengthened David’s hands (v1) to war against “strange children (v7)”; or (בְּנֵי נֵכָֽר) sons of foreign gods. But it is also God who establishes the peace and prosperity of a kingdom.

After blessing God for granting him might and victory in battle, David sings a new song of praise (v9). Salvation is from God (v10), and so he requests continued deliverance from “the hand of strange children” (v11).

This deliverance is requested so that peace might be enjoyed by the nation. This peace is presented in terms of familial prosperity. God’s favor in conflict brought strength for battle against enemies, but God’s favor in peace looks like happy households. We battle to defend the home, so that the home is a place worth defending.

The olive plants around the table (Ps. 128:3) are intended to grow into masculine strength and feminine glory respectively. By God’s favor in deliverance, Israel’s sons might grow up into sequoias, and their daughters might be the family’s hidden ornaments knitting the family together like polished cornerstones (v12). Garners are filled, the table is laden, the flocks are fertile, the oxen are hardy, and there are no “mostly peaceful protests” (vs13-14). This is true happiness, but it is only because God is their Lord (v15).

Sons of Courage

Children are a blessing from the Lord, but not an automatic blessing. After all, “A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him (Pro 17:25).” The greatest folly which a son can disappoint his parents with is a lack of courage. Boys are to be raised to die. They need to learn to be ready to die in battle protecting their treasured wives, daughters, and mothers; or else to die in backbreaking provision for the household.

When sons are coddled, or left without the discipline of clear instruction, they turn into self-preserving cowards. They want all their appetites satisfied, and will not be troubled to sacrifice their lives in any way. As a result, a nation full of such men will have no spine to fight the battles necessary to preserve the nation.

Sons need straight lines. Go take that hill. Go conquer that enemy. Go obtain that treasure. Go rescue that damsel.

Sons are to be raised to be men who can rule kingdoms, take dominion, and build wealth. To do this, they must first learn to take dominion of their appetites.

If a son is tending towards fear, it is likely that dad needs to take the time to do some scary things with the son. Hike a perilous trail. Camp without a tent. Ride a bike through a BMX course. Slide on the mattress down the stairs. The point is not just to get your son to be an adrenaline junkie; the point is to get him to face a fearful thing and then praise him for his courage. Along with this, sons need to be taught to fail, and how to get back up from the failure.

Daughters of Chastity

While sons need straight lines, daughters need circles. Circles of safety. Circles of companionship. Circles of security. Circles of industry.

In Titus 2:4-5, we are told how older women are to instruct young women, “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Whereas sons are raised up to die, daughters are raised up to give life. She gives life by following the Apostle’s instructions to be “into husband, and into children.” This chastity is to recognize that her privilege is that of bearing life, bringing life, and sustaining life. The home which she keeps is the incubator of life, and she does all this in order that God’s Word be honored.

Daughters are to be raised to be queens of nations, industrious in their creativity, and give nurture and refreshment. To do this, they must first learn to take dominion of their emotions. Daughters are to be like palatial cornerstones, which bind the four walls together; if she is without the discretion to see that she is intended to aid in binding a household together, she is like a jewel in a pig’s snout (Pr. 11:22).

Daughters need to learn that their feelings aren’t in charge of them, they are in charge of their feelings. If a daughter is being a roller-coaster ride of emotions (zany silliness one minute, weepy sobs the next); it is incumbent upon the dad to set aside time to do something, really anything, with her, expressing to her how much he enjoys being with her. She needs a circle of safety from her father; his presence (along with the knowledge that his presence is full of delight in her) is teaching her that he is a surety, and she need not seek far and wide for security.

Fathers, Mothers, Sons, and Daughters

Your father points, your mother encircles. Children need direction and they need nurture. Sons which never grow up into sturdy oaks are the result of some combination of a pampering mother and an ambivalent father. Daughters which don’t become finely crafted palace ornaments are the result of fathers who aren’t affectionate towards them, and mothers riddled with envy and rivalry.

Mothers, you must not raise your sons to be safe. You are a mother, not a smother. You must raise your daughters to be loving wives, and loving mothers, and thus you must model this in your own marriage and parenting.

Fathers, you must not raise your sons to be self-indulgent. You are teaching them to be warrior-poets, not black-holes. Teach them to make, not take. You must raise your daughters to know and understand that they are rare treasures, which you prize highly.

Give clear instructions, not vague suggestions from the other room. When correcting children, you’re not dealing out punishment, you’re giving discipline; and you should not discipline because you were embarrassed. Always accompany that discipline with instruction as to what the sin at the root of their disobedience is, have them seek forgiveness, and the give it readily. And all around it, let your favor and joy and delight in your children be known to them in every manner possible: time, affection, words, and generous gifts.

A Happy People

We talk of our rights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We will not be a happy people merely by economic prosperity. Better is a crumb in peace than a feast with contention (Pro 17:1). However, a happy home is a blessing indeed, a prosperous home is a blessing indeed, a nation at peace is a blessing indeed. But the closing lines of this Psalm are not either/or; rather, it is intended to draw out how much more happy a people is who enjoy the electing grace of God upon them.

Happy is the people who are in such a case, but that happiness is exponentially heightened when the bedrock underneath, the waves washing overtop, the air all around is God’s favor. This favor is not found anywhere other than in His beloved Son.

God will not look with favor on a people who are not in Christ. So turn to Christ, both you, the wife of your youth, your sons, your daughters, reckon yourselves in Christ, and enjoy the favor of God. God who forgives your sins. God who grants everlasting life. God who also gives sons like oak, daughters like beautifully carved palatial adornments, garners full of the fruit of hard work, and city streets empty of complaining.

Fathers & Mothers

January 18, 2021 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

The US Congress recently introduced the rules for their new legislative session. They struck gendered familial terminology (i.e. father, mother, son, daughter, etc.) from the House’s rules for legislators. The recent events of our nation reveal our void of fathers and mothers. This is just one more effort by the godless to further erode the biblical structure for families. As Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

So it is vital that we understand both how God made the world, and then as those who are in Christ, strive to live in this world according to our assigned duties.

The Text

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named Eph 3:14-15

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Galatians 4:26

Summary of the Text

When we think about Fatherhood and Motherhood we need to sweep out the clutter. These roles are not optional add-ons which you can discuss with the dealership. They aren’t social constructs which support the oppression of victims. They aren’t the evolutionary development of our species ability to babble some sounds and then linking them with our immediate ancestors. They aren’t interchangeable parts of machinery.

What we see as society rejects the biblical order for family is not an absence of fatherhood and motherhood, but we get mangled fatherhood and motherhood. We get satanic fatherhood, and tyrannic motherhood. We get State-run protection and provision and State-run nurture and rearing. All because those with their hands on the wheel of society are of their father the devil (Jn. 8:44).

Your father and mother are earthly shadows of cosmic realities. That cosmic reality is if you are in Christ God is your Father, the Church is your Mother. That is the evident in these two texts from the pen of Paul.

In Ephesians 3:14-15, Paul bends his knee to God the Father; every family derives its name from God’s Fatherhood. You don’t have family without fatherhood, and you don’t have any of it without God the Father and Creator. In Greek, you can’t say family (patria) without saying father (patera). In other words, God’s Fatherhood fills the world and fills our earthly families as the inescapable reality. In Him we live and move and have our being.

Furthermore, God has taken a bride for His Son, our Lord Jesus, and she is our Mother. Paul, while making the case that we are delivered from the bondage to sin which the mosaic Law revealed, he uses the imagery of Hagar and Sarah. Two mothers: one a slave, one a free-woman. Which one is your mother? Mother Kirk is a fertile mother, because she is marked by grace and thus life springs from her; whereas Hagar (the bond-woman/Sinai), brings bondage and death (Gal. 4:26).

To repeat, God is Father, and thus we have fatherhood; for those in Christ God is their Father, the Church is their mother. For those not in Christ, the devil is their father, and the death of Sinai’s law is their mother. As always it isn’t whether you will have Father & Mother, but which one you will have.

Children of Promise

Children who grow up without parents or with unmarried parents are faced with a deck of statistics stacked against them. With few exceptions, their lifetime income is significantly lower; their education level will not go as high; their likelihood of being abused and then abusing in turn shoots through the roof; their prospects are bleak by almost every metric. Children were not intended to exist in a covenantal void. Scripture is concerned with bastard children, which is why it placed heavy penalties on rape, pre-marital sex, and adultery (Cf. Lev. 18), as well as provision for the care of fatherless children (Deu. 16:11, Ps. 68:5).

So, if you are a father or mother, you must not think of your duty (as father or mother) as being in a separate container from your marriage vows, and the consummation of those vows. You are a husband and a wife first. The potency of this covenantal love produces children. Your children are children of a promise, even as the whole family of believers are children of the Promise.

Covenant Duty of Fathers and Mothers

So Fathers are first husbands which are called to be faithful to their promise of loving and cherishing. Mothers are first wives which are called to faithfully fulfill their vow to submit and obey.

A father which exhibits for his children that he doesn’t beam with delight over their mother (Is. 62:5), isn’t attentive to her (1 Pt. 3:7), doesn’t shower her with love (1 Ti. 5:8) will teach them to railroad her (Pro. 10:1). Husbands love their wives practically by full bank accounts, full cupboards, full closets, and full wombs.

Mothers which run down their husband in front of the kids (2 Sam. 6:16-23), swerving the opposite direction he is leading (Eph. 5:22), or criticizing his leadership at every turn (Pro 21:19) is teaching her children to be lawless rebels. Wives respect their husbands by bearing his name, and being his glory; she demonstrates this respect practically by not being an indecipherable code to get into, but by being ready for him and responding to him in all spheres of their relations (sexually, directionally, financially). So while husbands are called to fill, wives are are called to receive and be filled.

Lazy, inattentive husbands and bitter, nagging wives are teaching the children more than just how to be unpleasant humans. A sin-riddled marriage is presenting a false Gospel, and a marred understanding of God the Father, Christ the Son, and His Bride.

It’s vital that we see that Fathers and Mothers are cosmic categories. Husbands show their children how Christ laid down his life for the church. Wives show their children what joyful obedience to Christ should be. Not only are you teaching them about Fatherhood and Motherhood, but also the glorious Gospel of sacrificial love, responded to in joyful response.

Covered in Sawdust & Flour

These covenantal duties are not pie-in-the-sky intangibles. Rather, these spiritual duties are earthy, and are covered in sawdust and flour.

In Scripture, fathers name; a fathers’ word carry great weight. Fathers provide and protect. Fathers represent God to their families and their families to God. Father’s correct and teach. Fathers sacrifice and intercede. Fathers rule and lead. Fathers head their home.

Mothers respond to this headship by being fruitful. Indeed without the Father, she cannot bear fruit. As the one who bears and nurtures new humans she is to be held in high honor. They are to be fountains of the sort of wisdom which might be worn proudly around the neck of their offspring (Pr. 1:8-9). They are to be industrious, and laugh at all the troubles which are around the bend (Pro. 31:25). Mothers give glorified life and nourishment that is provided by the Father. Fathers face outward, Mothers face inward.

Adopted as Joint-Heirs With Christ

In Reformed theology we generally emphasize justification and sanctification. We blast through the mega-phone that you are not saved by your works of righteousness, you are justified in God’s sight only because of Christ’s righteousness and death in your place. We exhort each other to holiness and growth in sanctification because God has set us apart to be a holy people. But we must not gloss over the fact that one of the terms which is frequently included in NT descriptions of salvation is adoption (Gal 4:4-7).

God the Father, by the redeeming work of His Son, has delivered you from bondage to the law of sin and death. This isn’t like one cruel slave-master defeating another cruel slave-master, and your just caught in the crossfire. Rather, Paul tells us that you are no more a servant, but a son. In other words, you now have a share in the inheritance which belongs to Christ Jesus: resurrection life, everlasting joy, unending glory. You have been adopted as sons. Your Father in Heaven has given to Mother Kirk the Bread of Life and the Wine of Relief, and she has spread a table for the nourishment of her children. The children of grace and glory.

Great David’s Greater Son

December 7, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

When you are waiting for something, how you wait is just as important as the waiting. How do you wait? Long waiting can turn into gloomy waiting. Despondent waiting. Mournful waiting. Waiting that is very pious about the fact that it is waiting. But godly waiting is marked by the nature of what we are awaiting.

The season of Advent is often painted in the dark hues of solemn waiting. And I grant, Advent is a season of waiting, hoping, longing. But this longing, as our fellow saints of the Old Testament demonstrate in the Psalm before us, need not have too much starch in the collar. The expectation of Israel was jovial, gilded with glistening gold and silver, clothed in royal red and priestly white, and vigorously dancing.

The Text

LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions: How he sware unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. [ . . . ]
Psalm 132:1-18

Summary of the Text

This not a Psalm of David; rather it is a Psalm about David. As one of the Psalms of Ascent, it would have been sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for their holy feasts. The first stanza of the Psalm is a petition for the Lord to remember David and all his afflictions, but more specifically his restless desire to build a house for the Lord and the ark (vv.1-5).

The second stanza is a meditation on the worshippers and the sanctuary being made ready for joyful worship at the Lord’s footstool, and a request for God to be seated on His throne (vv6-9). We then come to the hub around which this Psalm turns. The worshippers petition God––for David’s sake––to not turn away the face of the anointed (the Messiah/Christ). The Lord’s response is that He will by no means turn away from what He swore to David: “Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.” David’s children, in light of this promise, are called to keep God’s covenant, and evermore shall David have an heir (vv10-12, Cf. 2 Sam. 7:12, 2 Chr. 6:10).

The reason for this arrangement is that God has chosen Zion as His resting place (in answer to their request of vs 8). Because God rests in their midst, blessings abound: bread for the poor, garments for the priests, boisterous songs from the lips of the saints, a fruitful King––from David’s line––Whose lamp won’t be extinguished, Whose enemies will be brought to shame, and Whose crown will never tarnish (vv13-18).

Gabriel’s Word to Mary

Two threads of waiting laid down here in this Psalm are taken up again and woven together in the nativity story. When the angel Gabriel is sent to Mary that she would bear the Messiah, it is framed in terms of God’s promise to David which we find in poetical form in this Psalm.

Gabriel comes to a virgin, espoused to a man named Joseph who was of the house of David (Lk. 1:27). The angel informs Mary that she had found favor with God (Lk. 1:30), she would conceive and bring forth a son who would be named Jesus (Lk. 1:31); this son would be great, and what the Lord swore to David in Psalm 132 would be fulfilled in Mary’s son (Lk. 1:32). Her son would eternally reign over the house of Jacob, and would rule over a never-ending kingdom (Lk. 1:33).

In short, the tidings which Gabriel brought were royal tidings. To put it another way, the prayers of godly saints––epitomized by the poetic words of Psalm 132––for God to restore Israel by fulfilling His oath to raise up from David’s line a king to David’s throne were being answered by the Son of God becoming a Son of David.

Christ Came to be King

Israel is not right except a Son of David is sitting on the throne. As Trufflehunter the Badger would tell you, any other arrangement is how you get a hundred years of Narnian winter, presided over by White Witches.

King David was a remarkable king particularly for his zeal for the worship of God. He longed to restore the Ark of Covenant to Zion. He danced like a fool when it finally was brought to its resting place. His life’s goal, which he vowed to perform, was to build a house for the Lord, a house in which true worship of the Living God might be done.

David swore to build a house for the Lord, and then the Lord swore to put a son of David on the throne. So when the Advent of the promised Christ is given, we should not be at all taken aback when the language is that of a King. Christ came to be a King over Israel, and the scope of Israel’s borders were now global (Cf. Ps. 72:8, Hag. 2:7).

As that wonderful line from the carol puts it, He was “born a child and yet a King.” The story of the Old Testament was God calling the patriarchs, then Moses, then David to build a house for God. The Patriarchs were a house of people. Moses erected a tent to be a dwelling place for God’s presence amidst His people. David made preparation for God’s temple to be a house of praise, and his son Solomon executed that task of building a glorious temple for the God who filled heaven and earth.

With the coming of Christ, the Son and rightful heir had come to inherit the household (Cf. Heb. 3:1-6). So the coming of the Christ child is not quaint. It is not a squishy message of how sweet and innocent babies are. It is not a cutesy story of human brotherhood. It is a flag planted on this world, claiming it all for the rightful King. The true king has returned, and winter meets its death.

From Affliction to Coronation

So note the progression of this Psalm. David in affliction to great David’s greater Son’s coronation. A coronation which spills over, like a plate of Christmas cookies, with blessings. A kingdom, ruled by an eternal King. A horn which buds (Cf. Lk. 1:68-69). A King Whose enemies are defeated.

This is why Advent is not a moment for dour pseudo-piety. These weeks leading up to Christmas morning are days of longing. Longing for a King. Yearning for the worship of Jehovah to fill the earth. Making a ruckus so that the whole world, which rightly belongs to Christ, might hear and heed and come into the household of God.

Our awaiting the Lord’s coming is marked by hope. And true, evangelical hope is certitude. It isn’t a nickel in the fountain, not a make-a-wish, not a wing and prayer. Our longing for deliverance is to be marked by joyful worship.

The reason we rejoice is that God has sworn to David, and in Christ that promise of God’s kingdom come to earth commenced its fulfillment. Now, after living and dying and rising, Christ is seated on the Father’s right hand; and, as Gabriel promised Mary: of His kingdom there shall be no end. The King has come to set things right. After all, He wears both priestly garments and royal robes. Your sins are forgiven, your enemies defeated.

But Christ too, like a true son of David, came first in affliction and humility. Like David, who was zealous for true worship of Jehovah, Christ was zealous for the house of God and by Him we now offer acceptable worship to the Living God. But Christ’s earthly humiliation, which began at Bethlehem, is now exaltation. The horn of David blossoms in the house of God.

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The Sure Incarnation

December 1, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

This Psalm has three layers to it. The first is the one on the surface. David recounts a deliverance from one of his many trials, and his response of praise. The second layer is that David’s sufferings reflect the common plight of Israel as whole. Her history of exiles and returns, persecutions and deliverances, separation from and the reunion with Jehovah lie just beneath the surface of David’s story. But as we go deeper we see that David’s story, which is Israel’s story, is really the Messiah’s story.

The Text

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. […]
Psalm 40

Summary of the Text

In the midst of his distress, David waited for the Lord (קַוֺּה קִוִּיתִי יְהוָה), crying out to Him; God heard his plea and brought him out of the pit (vv1-2). This deliverance springs forth into songs of thanksgiving, and fortifies his faith in God, rather than trust in proud man (vv3-4). This song of praise rehearses God’s marvelous works, which are innumerable (v5); and this gratitude for past mercies is the bedrock for present faith, which understands the true nature of sacrifice and offerings: obedience. The call to obedient service is pictured by the bond-servant’s ear being pierced (v6, Cf. Ex. 21:6).

Now, though he is king of Israel, David comes to the command of the Lord as a bond-servant would obey the master’s will with joyful delight (v7; Cf. Deut. 17:18-19). As king, he is steward of God’s law, and will preach righteousness in the congregation, without skipping a part (vv9-10).

Having presented himself in grateful service to the Lord, and obeyed the Lord’s command, he asks of the Lord a two-fold request: withhold not tender-mercy and let God’s lovingkindness and truth continually preserve him (v11). The reason for this request is “innumerable evils” (echoing God’s innumerable marvelous works in verse 5) surround him, and his iniquities abound to the point of despair (v12). Thus, he makes a plea for deliverance from all evils inward and outward (v13).

The prayer goes on to request the undoing of his enemies; that shame and desolation would come upon them (v14-15). In contrast, those who seek God (not man v4) as their salvation shall be vindicated, and thus their love breaks forth in song: “The Lord be magnified (v16).” The concluding verse highlights David’s humility, and his boasting in the truth that God thinks about him; the end of the psalm echos its beginning: waiting patiently for the Lord (v1) while petitioning God to not tarry (v17).

Obedience is True Sacrifice

This psalm draws a contrast between David’s response to God’s law with Saul’s famous––very pious––disobedience. In 1 Samuel 15:22-23, we’re told of how Saul’s kingdom came to be doomed; this is how it came to be that David was anointed as king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:13). We should also note that the strong allusion to David’s anointing (מָשַׁח), which is where our word Messiah is derived from.

The nub is that obedience to God’s Word was more important than vainglorious exhibitions of spirituality. Saul made sacrifices to seem very spiritual; but he disobeyed the primary task he’d been assigned (Cf. Ex. 17:8-16, Num. 24:20, Deu. 25:17-19). The Psalm reinforces this, that sacrifices aren’t what please the Lord in the first instance. Obedience, from the heart, is His delight. He doesn’t want the blood of dumb animals, He wants the life of the worshipper (Rom. 12:1). So as king, David knows that deliverance is of the Lord for those who delight in His law and obey it by glad trust in God’s will.

Messiah in Our Midst

In Hebrews 10, we find a large portion of this Psalm (vv6-8) cited. We don’t typically think of Hebrews as being a book for Christmas messages, but the underlying doctrine of Christmas is God sending the Messiah in the flesh. This is the point made in Hebrews. Christ coming in a human body was a setting aside of the sacrificial system, because His body was offered that we might be sanctified once for all (Heb. 10:10).

David anticipates that when Messiah came, He would do so in a human body. At first blush, however, Psalm 40 and its citation in Hebrews 10 seem at odds with each other. The hebrew refers to having His ear pierced (or dug open) as a bond-servant (Ps. 40:6); but Hebrews 10:5 cites the LXX, which renders it, “a body hast thou prepared for me.” What are we to make of this? As with most of these seeming contradictions, we don’t need to make them enemies, because they are friends. As a servant, Christ obeyed by taking to Himself a body. Further, He came when told, obeyed by becoming the fulfillment of the entire sacrificial system.

The ear of the bond-servant stood for the whole body of the bond servant; what we might term a synecdoche (i.e. hired hands, boots on the ground, nice set of wheels). So the apostle applies this text to the Messiah’s incarnate ministry. Christ came in the flesh in order to set aside the levitical priesthood which presided over a temporal sacrificial system, so that He might preside as a heavenly priest over an eternal sacrificial system (Heb. 10:11-14).

Not a Disembodied Incarnation

The doctrine of the incarnation is not an insignificant one. Man, left to his own imagination, tries to grab hold of all the stuff, or tries to escape stuff. At Christmastime, we celebrate the Incarnate Lord. God made flesh. The Logos manifest unto us. Heaven come to earth.

Earth is to be redeemed. Creation is to be saved, not discarded. Our bodies are planted like seeds, only to spring forth at the resurrection into everlasting glory. Some pagans sought to escape from the material world through their vain imaginations. Still others sought to hold onto the world.

One is too thick. The other too thin. Vain philosophies sought to escape the material realm through rationalistic knowledge. Whereas certain strains of paganism could not resist making all the stuff objects of worship. What we teach is that Christ came, in the flesh, to redeem creation, and thus ultimately to resurrect the whole thing into greater glory.

The practical application of this is do not shy away from all the gifts…and fudge…and wrapping every imaginable food in bacon…and more fudge. Recognize that all these gifts and blessings are shadows of the blessings which they will become in the resurrection.

These earthly blessings which Christ came to redeem, are not the destination, but they are appetizers to the main course. Earthly glories are like an elevator, they can only go to the top floor, and no further. But that desire for them to go further, that ache for glory that remains, is found in this doctrine which is presented to us in the form of a babe in a manger who later died on the tree, and then rose in the body to the Father’s right hand.

Christ took on flesh, because how else could He be true Israel. “Lo, I come!” are Christ’s words of submissive obedience to the will of the Father; obeying in Adam’s stead, in Israel’s stead, in Great David’s stead, in your stead and my stead. Indeed Christ preached righteousness in the midst of the congregation of Israel, because He was the righteousness of God, He was true Israel, He was the Prophet like unto Moses, He was great David’s greater Son. He came and delighted to do the Father’s will, by taking on flesh and obeying for us, dying for us, and rising for us.

Feet on a Rock

Christ, our Messiah, came to set your feet on a rock. He came, as the bond-servant king so that you might no longer be facedown in the mud of your sin, but stand erect and bold, fearless before the face of man and face to face––without any shame––with God Himself. He took on all your sins, which were as many as the hairs on your head, and bore them all away, so that you might be forgiven for every last one.

This cannot happen without God coming in the flesh, proclaiming in the midst of the congregation the righteousness of God. He came into our midst, as was foretold. And this is the ground of our salvation. This is the only place to find firm footing for faith. The Son of God became a son of man so that He could die in place of sinful man, and that you might also be risen with Him to a glorified earth. An earth which will be “more real” than this one. So celebrate with the stuff––here in the shadowlands––knowing that in Christ it shall all be made more itself at the resurrection.