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I'm now hosting this thing on my own site.

False sons

I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

John 5:43

Pilate offers to release Christ, "The King of the Jews," but the Jews call out, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Barabbas is Aramaic for "son of a father." Rival sons stand on the judgment seat and the Jews side with and attach their identity to the false son revealing themselves as the seed of the serpent, as Jesus pointed out in John 8 - "You are of your father the devil."

Wedding wine

The miracle at the wedding in Cana in John 2 fits into the creation/exodus pattern quite nicely. This is the pattern of the whole scripture (and thus, all of creation) and shows up in little patterns all over the place.

Creation - Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.

Division - And he said to them, "Now draw some out

Ascension - and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it.

Testing - When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him,

Maturity - "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now."

Conquest - This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee,

Glorification - and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

On a side note, this is a whole bunch of wine - 120-180 gallons!

Creation structure

Mike Bull has shown how the chiastic structure in Leviticus 24 fits into the feasts of chapter 23 and into the surrounding text through the sevenfold creation pattern laid out in Genesis 1.
His book, Bible Matrix goes into this pattern in much more detail. I haven't gotten through it yet, but from what I've read it looks fantastic.

Heroes

From the introduction of Everett Fox's translation of Genesis:

A word should also be said here about hero traditions. In the great epics of the ancient world the hero often stands as a lonely figure. He must overcome obstacles, fight monsters, acquire helpers (whether women, "sidekicks," or magic objects); and his triumph in the end signals man's triumph over his archenemy, Death. Every battle won, every obstacle hurdled, is psychologically a victory for us, the audience, a cathartic release from our own frustrating battle against death.
The Bible sees things rather differently. Death is also overcome, but not only by the individual's struggle. It is rather through the covenant community, bound together by God's laws and his promises, that the heroic vision is lived out. Despite the triumphs of the characters in Genesis, it is really in the book of Exodus that the great battle scenes (the plagues in Egypt, the Red Sea) and meetings with the divine (Mount Sinai) take place. And it is therefore God himself who is most properly the "hero" of these stories. No major character in Genesis achieves success without depending fully on God, and the standards that are held up to them are ultimately seen as God's own, to be imitated by imperfect humankind.

Humble servant

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"

Luke 17:5-10

Jesus gives the work of a servant as an answer to the apostles' lack of faith. He does not say "hear and know" he says "hear and obey." The work that God gives us is good and does accomplish his purpose for it. If we have done the duty God has given us, we don't look for another reward, say of praise or position, but the work itself is the reward. It is a gift that comes down from the Father of lights to grow our faith.
So the very duty that God gives us is himself and he is forming us into the image of his son. Just as Christ "learned obedience through what he suffered," so we also are made perfect through our duty as servants and our suffering with him. Our work is not meritorious, but forming. We do not work for some thing to be held in the hand or received as a thing apart from very God. There is no salvation outside Christ, not a gift given other than his own being. When he gives us the gift of faith, he gives himself. When he gives us grace, he gives himself. When he gives us work, he gives himself and we grow into him who is our head. If his very life is our faith and our work, we should rightly say, "we are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty."

Leviticus 24 chiasm

Leviticus 24:13-23 forms a chiasm
I've modified this a little from the original posting. The "A"s didn't quite line up as well as I would like.

A. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

B. And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him.

C.  The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

D. "Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.

E. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life.

F. If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him,

F'. fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

E'. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good,

D'. and whoever kills a person shall be put to death.

C'. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native,

B'. for I am the Lord your God."

A'. So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

Love leads the way

Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle John, wrote a letter to the Philippian church exhorting them to lead lives of righteousness. Speaking of the letter previously written to them by Paul he says,

if you study them carefully, you will be able to build yourselves up in the faith that has been given to you, which is the mother of us all, while hope follows and love for God and Christ and for our neighbor leads the way. For if anyone is occupied with these, he has fulfilled the commandment of righteousness, for one who has love is far from all sin.

Blood curse

God pronounced a blood curse on the royal family of Judah in Jeremiah 22:

Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,
a vessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast
into a land that they do not know?
O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord:
"Write this man down as childless,
a man who shall not succeed in his days,
for none of his offspring shall succeed
in sitting on the throne of David
and ruling again in Judah.

This is the same Coniah (Jechoniah) that shows up in Matthew's genealogy of Christ:

and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon...and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Of course, Joseph is only Jesus' legal father, but still the inheritance comes down through the father and Joseph's line has been cursed.  In step the daughters of Zelophehad.

The names of his daughters were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the chiefs and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying, "Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers."

Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses,"The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, 'If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

and in Numbers 36:

And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers.

Mary is an heiress to the line of David also, but through Nathan, Solomon's brother, thus bypassing the blood curse and allowing Gabriel to say to Mary,

"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

There will your heart be

Vapor of vapors, says the Preacher. Vapor of vapors! All is vapor.

Ecc 1:2

Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Luke 12:33-34

The things of this world are transitory, a vapor. Not to say matter is evil; God made it and called it good. But it's not perfect. It is corruptible. To steal a dialog from George MacDonald:

"Why not lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth?" 

"Because there the moth and rust and the thief come." 

"And so we should lose those treasures!" 

"Yes; by the moth and the rust and the thief." 

"Does the Lord then mean that the reason for not laying up such treasures is their transitory and corruptible nature?" 

"No. He adds a For: 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'"

"Of course the heart will be where the treasure is; but what has that to do with the argument?" 

This: that what is with the treasure must fare as the treasure; that the heart which haunts the treasure-house where the moth and rust corrupt, will be exposed to the same ravages as the treasure, will itself be rusted and moth-eaten. Many a man, many a woman, fair and flourishing to see, is going about with a rusty moth-eaten heart within that form of strength or beauty.

Things revealed

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 29:29

God has secret things, things he has chosen not to show or explain to us. These things belong to him. This is good news for us. If he told us, it would probably explode our heads.

So, the things he has revealed he has given to us and our children. And what he has given us is amazing. He has revealed himself to us in his son and him through the scripture. The scripture is ours radically and completely. He has given it to us and in so doing, has revealed himself (and thus given himself) to us and our children. 

Why? So we may do all the words of this law. He has called us to obedience not because he wants us to follow a bunch of arbitrary rules, but in obedience he gives us himself. Obedience is absolutely fundamental not because it earns us anything, but because in laying down our lives he gives us his. It's not about keeping the law, it's about entering into life.

The incarnation of God

In Peter Leithart's forthcoming book The Four: A Survey of the Gospels he quotes N.T. Wright's summary of Jesus as the incarnation of Yahweh:

Let us suppose that this God were to become human. What would such a God look like? This is the really scary thing that many never come to grips with; not that Jesus might be identified with a remote, lofty, imaginary being (any fool could see the flaw in that idea), but that God, the real God, the one true God, might actually be like Jesus. And not a droopy, pre-Raphaelite Jesus, either, but a shrewd Palestinian Jewish villager, who drank wine with his friends, agonized over the plight of his people, taught in strange stories and pungent aphorisms, and was executed by the occupying forces.

(If anyone wants to buy this for me, maybe for Christmas, I wouldn't mind.)

Balaam's oracles

Balaam takes up seven discourses, four of them "against" Israel which points to Israel's "fourness" - that is, that Israel is the land (four corners of the earth). There seem to be hints of a creation theme sprinkled throughout. The third oracle talks a bit about plants:

Like palm groves that stretch afar,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes that the Lord has planted,
like cedar trees beside the waters.
Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be in many waters;

Day three - separating land from water and bringing up plants yeilding seed

In the forth oracle, Balaam says,

I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;

Day four - stars, sun, and moon

The war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is also restated in the forth oracle:

a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.

Pushing even farther, Moab means "from father" - Moab is the seed of the serpent

Fruitless trees

Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the King

And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:8-10)

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. (12-14)

There is a link between the leafy branches that the people cut and spread and the leafy branches of the fig tree. The people look like healthy trees, full of leaves, and from a distance seeming to carry much fruit with their crying out of praise to the King. But, as with the fig tree, the people are nothing but leaves. They put on a great show of religion, but have no faith. So, they were cursed. Within a week the crowd rejected the very Messiah they had blessed.

He ties it together the next day.

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. (20-23)

The fig tree is "this mountain", the mountain on which Jerusalem stood, which He told his disciples to pray would "be taken up and thrown into the sea".

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate." (Mat 23:37)

Because Jerusalem "would not", what they had trusted in - the oracles, commandments, temple, heritage - would be taken away. Because they were a fruitless show of leaves,

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. (Mat 21:43)

Eucharist

From David Chilton's Days of Vengeance:

The Eucharist is at the center of our life, and all of life
flows out of this central liturgy. The “shape” of the
Eucharistic liturgy, therefore, gives shape to the rest of
life, the daily liturgy we follow as we pursue our calling
to exercise dominion over the earth. The “rite of life” is
patterned after the central ritual of communion, which
is itself patterned after the liturgy of creation set forth
in Genesis 1: God took hold of the creation, separated
it, distributed it, evaluated the work, and enjoyed it in
sabbath rest. And this is the pattern of Holy
Communion, as James B. Jordan observes: “When we
perform this rite on the Lord’s Day, we are becoming
readjusted, rehabituated, retrained in the right way to
use the world. For Jesus Christ, on the night of His
betrayal, (1) took bread and wine, (2) gave thanks, (3)
broke the bread, (4) distributed the bread and wine,
naming it His body and blood; then the disciples (5)
tasted and evaluated it, eleven approving of it, and one
rejecting it; and finally (6) the faithful rested and
enjoyed it.
“It is because the act of thanksgiving is the central
difference between the Christian and the non-
Christian that the liturgy of the Christian churches is
called ‘Holy Eucharist.’ Eucharist means Thanksgiving.
It is the restoration of true worship (thanksgiving) that
restores the work of man (the six-fold action in all of
life). This explains why the restoration of true worship
takes primacy over cultural endeavors.”

The will of God

From David Chilton's Days of Vengeance, regarding Revelation 17:17:

The sovereign Lord is thus not at the mercy of the
Beast and his minions; rather, all these events have
been predestined for God’s glory, through the execution
of His decrees. For God has put it into their hearts to
execute His purpose by having a common purpose,
and by giving their kingdom to the Beast. Obviously,
it is a sin for these kings to give their kingdoms to the
Beast, for the purpose of making war against the Lamb.
And yet it is God who put it into their hearts! Some
will complain, of course, that this makes God “the
Author of sin.” The obvious answer to such an
objection is that the text says that God placed the evil
purpose into their hearts; at the same time, we are
assured that “the LORD is righteous in all His ways.” If
we believe the Bible, we must believe both Revelation
17:17 and Psalm 145:17. We must hold firmly to two
(seemingly contradictory) points: First, God is not
responsible for sin; Second, nothing happens in spite of
Him, or in opposition to His purpose.
(These seem contradictory to us because we are creatures.
Problems such as the relationship of God’s sovereignty
and human responsibility, or of God’s sovereignty and
God’s righteousness, or of unity and diversity within
the Trinity, cannot be “solved” by us because we are
not capable of comprehending God. Cornelius Van Til
writes: “Human knowledge can never be completely
comprehensive knowledge. Every knowledge transaction
has in it somewhere a reference point to God. Now
since God is not fully comprehensible to us we are
bound to come into what seems to be contradiction in
all our knowledge. Our knowledge is analogical and
therefore must be paradoxical”)
Thus, to those who fight against the Word of God,
the Biblical response is blunt: “On the contrary, who
are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing
molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make
me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right
over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for
honor, and another vessel for dishonor?” (Rom. 9:20-21).
St. Augustine observed: “It is, therefore, in the power of
the wicked to sin; but that in sinning they do this or
that is not in their power, but in God’s, who divides the
darkness and regulates it; so that hence even what they
do contrary to God’s will is not fulfilled except it be God’s
will.”

Boasting

A mighty boast got me thinking:

"I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around the world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation."

 - Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA

Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? (Isa 10:15)

God uses Satan to carry out His will (Job 1,2; 2 Sam 24:1, 1 Chr 21:1)
He used Joseph's jealous brothers (Gen 50:20)
He used Pharaoh (Ex 9:16)
He used the Pharisees (Mat 26:5, 17, 47; John 11:50-52)
He used Judas (John 13:27)
He used Pilate (John 19:10,11)

Every good work that men do has been laid out ahead of time (literally) -

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Since even boasting about being used by God is out of the question, in what shall we boast?

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

The death of death

From Athanasius' On the Incarnation:
 
“All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the
offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign
of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on
something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the
Saviour even the holiest of men were afraid of death,
and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now
that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer
terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it
underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to
deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when
they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and
become incorruptible through the resurrection. But
that devil who of old wickedly exulted in death, now
that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who
remains truly dead. There is proof of this too; for men
who, before they believe in Christ, think death horrible
and are afraid of it, once they are converted despise it
so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and
themselves become witnesses of the Saviour’s
resurrection from it. Even children hasten thus to die,
and not men only, but women train themselves by
bodily discipline to meet it. So weak has death become
that even women, who used to be taken in by it, mock
it now as a dead thing robbed of all its strength. Death
has become like a tyrant who has been completely
conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and
foot as he now is, the passers-by jeer at him, hitting him
and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and
rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So
has death been conquered and branded for what it is by
the Saviour on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all
who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as
witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, ‘O
Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy
sting?’”

Enjoyment and entertainment

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

He could have left it without form, without color or variation. He could have made it without hills and mountains and valleys. Without streams and lakes and oceans. Without trees and birds and leafy sea dragons. All those colors in the sunset really aren't necessary. All food could taste like cold oatmeal. He could have made sex feel like brushing your teeth. But he didn't.

The creation was made good. It was made to be enjoyed. This says a lot about it's creator. He is to be enjoyed, because He is good. Now, all these things are good and enjoyable because they point to a good and enjoyable God. Without God at the center, all these things become worthless and abominable. Sex sought outside of a godly marriage relationship is degraded to adultery or pornography or rape. Gluttony elevates food to a god-like mastery over the life. Entertainment is the deification of Enjoyment.

Paul exhorts the Philippians, saying,

whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

How much of what is called entertainment fits any of these descriptions? One may be tempted to include proficient, well-crafted movies or music or plays or books as "excellent", but Paul sets the mark high. The Greek word for excellence is aretē, a virtuous course of thought, virtue, moral goodness.

Is there value in entertainment? Is it more than just an "activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time"? What edification comes from tv shows created for the purpose of selling consumers to advertisers? What is commendable about learning all the stats of the coaches and players of games? Is there truth in top 40 radio? "Christian" radio?

King David declares in Psalm 101,

I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.

In his Confessions, Augustine laments his fascination as a youth with reading of the wars and murders and adulteries of the gods,

For Thou didst grant me Thy discipline, while I was learning vanities; and my sin of delighting in those vanities Thou hast forgiven. In them, indeed, I learnt many a useful word, but these may as well be learned in things not vain.

So much time is wasted in these things. Moses put it aptly in Psalm 90,

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!

Church discipline

The church in Rome wrote to the Corinthians:

Every sedition and every schism was abominable to you. Ye mourned over the transgressions of your neighbors: ye judged their shortcomings to be your own. (1 Clement 2:6)

This is profound by itself. They had such love for one another that they counted each other's failings as their own. This is a difficult thing. It is uncomfortable. It may hurt someone's feelings.

The Romans would do no less. The letter continues:

All glory and enlargement was given unto you, and that was fulfilled which is written My beloved ate and drank and was enlarged and waxed fat and kicked. Hence come jealousy and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and tumult, war and captivity. So men were stirred up, the mean against the honorable, the ill reputed against the highly reputed, the foolish against the wise, the young against the elder.

For this cause righteousness and peace stand aloof, while each man hath forsaken the fear of the Lord and become purblind in the faith of Him, neither walketh in the ordinances of His commandments nor liveth according to that which becometh Christ, but each goeth after the lusts of his evil heart, seeing that they have conceived an unrighteous and ungodly jealousy, through which also death entered into the world.

They call to repentance those that are falling away. They take seriously the warning passages in Hebrews. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?