Stones and Rocks

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I am layering this post on top of Stone, Rock, and Cornerstone. Rocks have been used for thousands of years to make stone building, jewelry, and weapons. In Genesis we find Jacob using rocks to make memorial stones and piles of stones to bear witness to oaths and treaties. (O, rocks and stones listening to us and then being used to testify about our words; that certainly could be used in creative writing:) The brick pits of Egypt are certainly mentioned, but we miss the fact that some of them worked with jewels when they made Aaron’s priestly garments.

God commissioned a pile of rocks from the Jordan be used as a memorial for teaching His people. He also had definite rules how to handle rocks that were to be used in His worship; no working them with tools, especially metal ones. Metal tools were for war, not for building an altar for God. The altar in Solomon’s Temple was made of olive wood. The blocks for the foundation and walls were worked with tools, but not at the building site. (See 1 Kings 6 and 7) Yes, there seems to be a difference between etz (wood) and rocks.

I started comPILING this post after reading about David and Jonathan by Eben-haezel or the Rock of Ezel, 1 Samuel 20:19. Both of those men had rocks and stones as important parts of their stories. There are many places in the Bible where rocks and stones are important parts of the stories. An example of a type of rock is found in Joshua 5:2 when flint was made into knives for circumcision. A hard, sharp rock for hard attitudes; ever male young than thirty-eight years old had to circumcised. They did not do that while they wandered in the desert, that can open up many questions. Here are a few references to look at.

Easter is in just a few days, so I will take this time to make the case for Jesus, the Rock of our Salvation, becoming our Cornerstone, and the Stone the builders rejected. Rocks are called stones after man has used them for something. Jesus went from our Rock to the Stone after He was beaten and nailed to the cross for us. He is what we have to build our lives on, but the chief priest used Him and then threw Him away.

Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus

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As I read 2 Timothy this morning, I thought it would be good to write what I have learned about these terms – Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus. To be perfectly clear, Jesus is the Christ/Messiah. He was born of the Virgin Mary, was killed on Good Friday for our sins, and rose in victory on Easter morning. He has sent His Spirit to those who chose to believe and would have everyone repent and follow Him.

In a little naivety I thought this would be an uneventfully study. I was almost correct. First, Jesus is His name. There are a few variants of that name in Hebrew and in Greek, like Joshua and Justus. Christ (Greek) or Messiah (Hebrew) is a title that connects to God. So, Jesus Christ could be understood as the Man-God while Christ Jesus should be thought of as God-Man. I looked for my reference on that and could not find it, I thought it was from the Vine’s Dictionary in my Strong’s Concordance.

Then I went to step-two in the study and was going to list Scripture verses. My reading this morning was in the NIV. The references I started to compile were in the KJV. I soon found out that the editors of the KJV seemed to have followed the 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV). The Greek Interlinear in Bible Hub is in agreement with the NIV and NASB and many others. I will offer what may have happened and some other things I noticed.

  • The Gospels and the Letters from Hebrews to Revelation use Christ or Messiah when referring to the One who will redeem mankind.
  • Jesus (by itself) is used in the narratives of the Gospels.
  • Paul in his Letters use Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. He is specific when he uses them. I have found that reading Man-God where Jesus Christ is written and God-Man where Christ Jesus is written adds to the understanding of the text.
  • If you use BibleGateway you will see different totals in the numbers of times the terms are used between translations. The first thing to remember is that some of them use headings in their writing and this can add up quickly. Even the 1599 Geneva has commentaries, and they use the terms Jesus and Christ in them. I did read that one reason for the King James being written was to get rid of those Commentaries. The English Crown did not like them.
  • I may not be perfect in my observations; I looked through several translations.

Was there anything nefarious going on, no. I believe it was a matter of keeping it simple for the readers (not sure on that point). Society was coming out of the Dark Ages and being able to read God’s Word in your own language and home was a big deal. We take so much for granted.   

In 2 Timothy Paul uses Christ Jesus the most and Jesus Christ only in 2:8. Paul had been in prison for a while and I think it shows in how he wrote to Timothy and where his thoughts were.

Judas, Adonijah, Absalom, Man of Lawlessness

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This post comes from my year-through the Bible readings near Easter that included 2 Samuel and 2 Thessalonians. If 2 Samuel was given a modern genre, I think it would be a soap-opera drama. Like all Scripture it was included for instruction. This time when I read through 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, I asked myself if Absalom and Adonijah were types and shadows of someone to come and why was this story included in the Bible.

With Holy Week approaching I went to the person who betrayed someone for monetary gain, Judas. I have a post called Judas in the Old Testament that contains mostly sections of Psalms that relate to how Judas acted. Types and shadows can be hard and may not be agreed on by everyone. Like Absalom and Adonijah, not everything they did may fit 100% with Judas. Yes, I did leave myself a bit of an open door. Joseph’s brothers taking money (Genesis 37:28) is more like Judas than Absalom and Adonijah.

Good studies generate answers, but should also create questions. So, is all of this written in stone in my thinking? No, there are questions and “what if’s” that have come along. That is where 2 Thessalonians comes in, which then took me to Revelations and Genesis. First a little history from 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles and some thoughts on human nature.

In 2 Samuel 3:2 and 1 Chronicles 3:1 we find lists of David’s children. The only timestamp I can find is that these narratives took place in the thirty-three years of David in Jerusalem. Adonijah’s story is at the end of that time. By my count there are twenty children and seven wives listed by name. How many concubines did he have, who knows? According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, concubines were not “wives” but shared the same privileges as one; that was a messy business. So, you have twenty-seven egos and David’s wishes combined with customs and traditions put on display for millions of people to view. A reason for all of this is to show that the progenitor of the Messiah was very human and needed a Savior.

Bathsheba/Bathshua, Solomon, and Nathan are important in the histories of Mary and Joseph. Bathsheba and Solomon are part of the Adonijah story in 1 Kings. Here are the first six children in order minus their mothers. (That’s six wives in seven years.) I would think the mom’s may have had their hands involved in these dramas. David’s extended family (Joab) provide their own drama in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.   

  1. Amnon (2 Samuel 13 is the start of this soap opera with Absalom.)
  2. Kileab
  3. Absalom
  4. Adonijah (1 Kings 1)
  5. Shephatiah
  6. Ithream

David’s extended family

This was not in my original thinking for this post; this comes from questions and thoughts during my studies. It seems to be popular these days to bash Father Jesse and David’s brothers. Much of the drama in 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles come from his sister’s families; the brothers are all but forgotten.

Zeruiah was David’s aunt, she had three sons Abishai, Joab and Asahel. Joab is a main character in several stories, and he is not a cheery personality in them. Zeruiah, however, is a true standout from the norm. First, she has no husband listed. Abigail, her sister, is married to Jether (a non-Hebrew) and had Amasa (Joab killed his cousin). Jesse was a leader in Judah, so who did Zeruiah marry? David was very conscious of his cousins and their “power” in the family/tribe/community. Normally, listing children by their mother’s name (sons of Zeruiah) was not a good thing; of course, the husband may not have been living. See 1 Chronicles 2:10-17.

Joab is hard to read, he has an agenda, but. He is leader of the army, seems to be for David most of the time, but has no problem eliminating anyone who might stand in his way. With friends and family like him, who needs enemies. He is very easy to think of as a Judas-type, but not in this post.

Judas and his types and shadows have received a lot of my ink in past years. I have heard even more from pastors and teachers, he is never portrayed as a nice guy, but some have edged very close to making excuses for his actions. One person even thought that since God is love, Judas would be forgiven in the end. How special was Jesus? He dealt with Judas for years, even though He knew what he would do.

For some reason I never thought of Judas as just one character in a long line of deceivers and betrayers, he was always an endpoint. 2 Thessalonians and the man of lawlessness is what put Judas in his proper place. I have had a shift in thinking on Absalom and Adonijah. Adonijah and Judas betrayed the promised heir to the kingdom; Absalom, like Satan, went after everything by trying to displace the true king. For me, that adds to the parable in Matthew 21:33, the Parable of the Tenants. Now Judas joins the corrupt priest, who bought the high priest position from Herod, in monetizing the sacrifices to God.

As bad as I have always considered Absalom, now to see him as a type of Satan, he is horrible.

  • He was goodlooking and high favored.
  • He stole most of the people’s hearts from the king by lying.
  • He would have killed his father and anyone that got in the way.
  • He destroyed the lives the ten concubines. I will do some projecting here; the Law, the Ark of the Covenant, and the worship of Yahweh would have been slowly destroyed or allowed to disappeared.

Now I am wondering if Satan tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden was his first open act of rebellion that then went into angels or just one of many.

Where does Judas fit into other parables of Jesus? Is he the bird in the mustard tree? Can you see him as a weed in the wheat field? Judas, Adonijah, Absalom, and the Man of Lawlessness now have a few more layers to their stories.

The Tree That Will Prosper

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The Tree That Will Prosper comes from my reading of Jeremiah 17: 7-8. This word from the Lord starts in verse 5 and together they repeat the thoughts in Psalm 1. Psalm 1 starts with the positive and goes to a negative, while Jeremiah begins with the negative and ends with the positive. I used the wordsearch in BibleGateway and found Psalm 104:16 (This is a good natural science psalm) as another reference to trees planted by the Lord being well watered. This brief look with focus on the tree and the prospers/blessed.

Tree

Etz is the main Hebrew word for tree and wood. There are other words that were added for these things, especially wood or lumber. Since certain vines have a woody stem, they may also be an etz.

As I have thought about this post, I have remembered that it is important to “not miss the forest for the trees”. Father God used etz, of various kinds, in His interaction with man. The Holy Spirit will use that imagery and metaphorical symbols to teach us about God and His activity with us. The “forest” is Father God, His love for those who are called and chose to follow Him, and the righteous relationship He wants with us.

Trees/wood are an important feature in the Bible. Etz starts in Genesis with the garden they were a part of and go all the way to the garden in Revelations where they are for the healing of the nations (both of those trees are by water). Along the way trees and wood serve noble, common, and ignoble purposes. Again, see the Forest and learn from the trees. I will list a few, and these are in no particular order:

  • Noah’s Ark was wood and pitch. Noah also planted grapes and problems occurred because of the fruit. Please note that Noah used wood to save mankind, his descendants used bricks made of clay and sealed with pitch to save themselves.
  • The Ark of the Covenant. The chest and poles were wood covered with gold. Many of the other things Moses made were wood covered in gold. The Mercy Seat was pure and it was gold.
  • Abraham cut wood and Isaac carried it to Mount Moriah.
  • Joshua and others hung enemies on trees (Joshua 10:26).
  • The Romains hung Jesus on wood.
  • The Root of Jesse and the Root of David. Roots, like certain vines, are woody but they are not good for structural lumber, but the plant will not live and grow without them.
  • Grapes. There are good and bad things associated with this woody vine. Why were Nazirites forbidden to do anything with this etz? Do a wordsearch in the KJV and you will find “vine tree”.
  • Fruit trees. Figs and dates were the main food trees, but there were others. 

 Strong’s Hebrew: 6086. עֵץ (ets) — Tree, wood, timber  My paper Strong’s/Vine’s Concordance was a great help with this study and it gives a slightly different look than the on-line version.

Muse Moment – Psalm 1 is “the beginning” of Jerusalem and Jeremiah 17 is “the end” of Jerusalem; other things that might take the place of Jerusalem for this musing: David’s “first-line” of kings, the first Temple. Jerusalem’s water supply and its pools would be a good study.

I grew up in south Louisiana, my paradigm of a tree planted by water is possibly different than yours. My point, think about what David grew up with. It was not the boreal or hardwood forest much of the world will imagine. So, joining a man/tree with being blessed/water may need more thought. (Modern Israel found out by accident that water supplied underground to the roots of trees is more productive than dumping water on top of the ground.)                                           

Prosper/Succeed – Blessed

Strong’s Hebrew: 6743. צָלַח (tsalach) — To prosper, succeed, advance, thrive

The form of the above word that is in Psalm 1 is Hebrew Concordance: yaṣ·lî·aḥ — 3 Occurrences

The three times it is used proved to be helpful and added a good twist to this study. If you take those three usages and add Jeremiah and put them in a chronology order they show a positive, negative, and practical application of the term. Psalm 1, Proverbs 28:13 (vs 14 talks about blessed), Jeremiah 17(not one of the three), and Nehemiah 2:20 are the verses I considered, in order.

  • Psalm 1 is a positive thought. (David)
  • Proverbs 28:13 is a negative thought. (Solomon as copied by Hezekiah’s men. Pr. 25:1)
  • Jeremiah 17.
  • Nehemiah 2:20 is a practical application of prospering. Nehemiah is dealing with an enemy (Sanballat) while claiming God’s blessing. The proof of that prospering/blessing is a finished wall in a record time.

David is the first one to use this form of the word tsalach. 2 Samuel 7:28 is part of David’s prayer and it speaks of blessings. He did prosper, he was blessed, and he sinned and paid a heavy price for that sin. David got “pruned” in the natural, but he turned to God and asked for forgiveness.

Be “The Tree That Will Prosper” by repenting and accepting the grace of the Father from the finished work of Jesus on the cross (etz). Ask for the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). Find a “stream” put down your roots and be used to heal the nations.

Bible 911 – Romans

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Romans 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) KJV

GOD HAS A PLAN! In that plan He has used His creations. He chose Noah to repopulate the earth. God used Abram and Sarai to show us faith. He drew Moses out of the water and to the Fire. He selected David while he was watching sheep. Jesus came to earth and died for our sins. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the Disciples and started the Church. Jesus also picked a Benjamite named Saul to go to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:8). Father God wants us to take His Word to this world.    (See Galatians 1:15 and Ephesians 1:4-14)

An op-ed. Father God loves righteousness and justice. He loves us and this world. He wants to have a righteous relationship (we are talking to and seeking Him) with us. He does not need to be corrected. Our opinions are not greater than His plan, your way needs to fit into His. You may not understand or agree with His plan, but He is still in control. Stop blaming God the Father when your plans are interrupted, no matter how good you think they are (Acts 22:18-19).

Peter had to tell Jesus how things would happen to make him happy. Peter was wrong and did not see the plan of God standing in front of him. After that Peter started a fight, that in the natural he could not win. Lied three times. Went back to his old life of fishing, and had to be asked three times if he would finally follow God’s plan. Which was to love Jesus and take of Jesus’ Sheep.

In the exodus, Moses told the people to love God and serve Him only. The end of Deuteronomy gives the blessings for remaining true to God and then the curses for choosing to follow other gods. How many times from Judges to Jeremiah did Israel not follow that command? His chosen people, the descendants of Abraham and Sarah could have had a righteous relationship with Father God and been protected and made prosperous. Instead, they followed their wants and sacrificed and had fellowship with demons. Christians, we need to learn and not follow that behavior pattern. Who are we glorifying in our actions, programs, and building projects?

I stopped a minute after writing that last paragraph and I believe the Holy Spirit reminded me that God is the Judge of His Body, not us. We need to examine ourselves and remove the logs from our eyes first, then maybe we will see the little splinters in our brothers and sisters’ eyes.

When Jesus taught about His kingdom, he was also showing you parts of the plan. Read Matthew 13 and see His plan in the parables. The Parable of the Seeds speaks very well to Romans 9. The Parable of the Weeds reminds us that not everyone is producing the fruit of God, He will take care of them. I think it is fair to note that the majority of the “seeds” hit good soil, and those weeds are not the entire field.

Doctrines – Of Course

Has religious-man taken Romans 9 and 10 given names to what Paul is talking about and used a lot of ink and paper to expound their thoughts? Of course we have. Am I going to go over all of that? Of course I am not. I do appreciate the effort and study that has been done. You need to know and be able to explain your beliefs.

A quick look at that choosing: Seth to Terah, Abraham to Jospeh, Moses to Jesse, David to Jesus, and all that time God mentioned Gentiles and how He was going to include them. Our mission is to take the Gospel of Jesus to the world and He is responsible for the rest.