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.   

Bible 911 – Matthew

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Matthew 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? (KJV)

Matthew 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” (NASB)

First, my appreciation for The Chosen is huge. They are telling the Gospels in story form and have done a great job of weaving things together. Several years ago, I started looking at Kingdom; I chose Matthew to be my go-to Book because of the number of times he used the phrase kingdom of God/Heaven. Then I noticed how these fit in with his references to John the Baptist. So, if you take Matthew’s chronology, he may have been the last disciple called and he was not always there from Chapters 4 to 9. Like Brother Luke he had some studying to do, and like Brother John not every detail in those years of ministry is covered.

Chapter 9 is in the center of a very busy ministry time for Jesus before He sends the Twelve out on their first mission trip. Jesus healed two men in the Gadarenes, made Pharisees mad by forgiving sins and healing a paralytic, called Matthew, and His feasting frustrated Pharisees, then Jesus took questions from John’s disciples about fasting; all of this was before He healed two women.   

Back to the feast that He fearlessly attended to infuriate Pharisees. In the Pharisees minds the attendees were human flotsam, but there were still Jews in attendance. Most translations use tax collectors and sinners, some paraphrases use more edgy terms. The sinners may have been Gentiles, but the tax collectors were probably Jews that were educated and spoke more than one language. (They did have to keep records and talk to the Romans.) The practical and metaphorical references to food stuffs, drinks, meals, and feasting are extensive in the Gospels and the rest of the Bible. (This is a good homework assignment.)

To eat with someone was a BIG deal in first century Galilee and Judah. Jesus had a meal with 5,000 Hebrews, 4,000 Hebrews and Gentiles, He ate with Pharisees, in Luke 19 He ate with Zacchaeus, and in John 12 He ate with Lazarus. Jesus ate His last meal with His disciples before Passover and gave a sop to Judas Iscariot. Don’t forget about the unproductive fig tree. I feel it is a good idea to view this feast as Matthew’s going away party and an evangelism outreach. Paul picked up on that thought and knew you could eat with someone and not sink in your relationship with Jesus. Not everyone is as free as he was; plus, it is hard to evangelize people if you are never around them. To give a hungry person food is great, but taking time to eat with them would be better.

Jesus’ mission statement in verses 12 and 13 are clear. He came for the sick, He gave mercy, and called sinners to come to Him. Amen and Amen!

Father God has a sense of humor and gave me an intensify study session on food; my last three Bible 911’s (Judges, Leviticus, and 1 Corinthians) have a food connection. The last two deal with sacrifice, God’s workers, and the righteous (fellowship) meal we are to partake-in with Him.

Strong’s Greek: 2068. ἐσθίω (esthió) — To eat, consume

Matthew 9:11 Greek Text Analysis

Who Has Believed Our Report

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The iconic statement “who has believed our report” or “message” is first made in Isaiah and then repeated in John and Romans. As important as those five words are you should not miss where they are said. Those words in context are what this post is about.

Isaiah 53:1

Isaiah did not put in chapters or verses; a French printer did most of that. Paragraphs came after that and the helpful chapter and section headings are the work of publishing companies. This section of Isaiah is important, so you may need to work a little at grouping thoughts together. I like looking for, “This is what the Lord says.” So, if you start at 52:4 and go to 55:13 that may be a section. A problem with that is there are several times in this body of Scripture you will find the Lord reinforcing things He has said. These are also a nice place to put in chapter or sections breaks. Regardless of how you think the sections might read, I would suggest you read 52:4 through the end of Chapter 53 to get a little better context for this study.

Just before Chapter 53 are several “Repeats and Upgrades” that the Lord uses to get our attention for 52:13 where He talks about “my servant”. This flows into 53:1 and continues the description and work of this servant. Christians, you will see many references to Jesus here and portions of this are repeated in the Gospels, look at the footnotes if your Bible uses them.

We see this “servant” as Jesus and much of this describes His condition after the Romans laid hands on Him before He was “raised and lifted up and highly exulted” (52:13 NIV) at His crucifixion. Yes, both the Jews and Gentiles laid hands on Jesus as part of Him becoming our sin offering. Okay, those looked more like slaps and punches and not the simple touching and confessions of the Mosaic sin offerings.

The message/report, is the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5) and the righteousness that the Father wants with and for His Children, Jew and Gentile. Love God and love your neighbor is the heart of the Ten Commandments, but righteousness also has two parts. Righteousness deals with justice and right standing before God, but it also has a fellowship component and that is with God and with man. Deuteronomy 11 is about loving God and keeping His commands and He would take care of His Children, it would be a good place to read that Chapter.

Part of Isaiah’s message is this righteousness. Look at the “Repeats and Upgrades” that precede 53:1 and you will see this. The Northern Tribes did not believe God and were unfaithful to Him in how they worshipped. So, Isaiah and many of the “minor” prophets were trying to get Judah back to the Father; they would not believe his report about God.

John 12:38

John’s focus is different than the other Gospels, but that last Passover is still majority of his Book. John 12 is about Jesus getting ready to follow the example of David and ride into Jerusalem. I see this time as Jesus going to pay the Bride’s Price for His Church. John reflects on the stubborn attitude that persisted even with His message and the miracles to back up His words.

The people liked the power Jesus displayed with the healing and miracles, but their idea of Kingdom was not wrapped around repentance and righteous fellowship in God. They wanted a military leader. His sermons on the two mounts on Tuesday of Holy Week was not what they wanted. Please note that the wedding parables are given on the Mount of Olives after having answered marriage questions on the Temple Mount. All of this happened after the fig tree died.

The leaders just wanted Him to go away so they could keep the Temple (vineyard). War is messy and they had a nice deal going in Jerusalem and the synagogues. Temple tax, offerings, and sacrifices added up to a lot of money coming into the region. Plus, they could make the people feel good.

Running tally on believing the message.

  • Isaiah – The Ten Commandments and righteousness. They took Baal and the sex-oriented worship that went with him. Plus, the servant in Chapter 52 and 53 did not sound very powerful.
  • Jesus and His message to repent and the miracles to confirm the Good News. They were nice but dead Romans and no Herod would be better. They took Barabbas.

Romans 10:16

I want to say that this section of Romans that deals with several important topics goes from 9:1 to the end of Chapter 11 with the Doxology, that is open for debate. The verse is nestled in with a part of the “Roman Road” and confession because of hearing the Good News. If you have footnotes for Chapter 10, look at them; mine are from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Psalms, and Joel. Clearly these ideas are found in the Old Testament.

(A note from my reading through Acts. Saul/Paul’s part of the story begins with the testimony of Stephen and ends with Paul’s testimony. Both are to Jewish leaders and those groups were divided on what they heard.)

Paul, several times, is confronted with Jews hearing and not believing. Acts 22:18-19 is where Jesus tells Saul to leave Jerusalem. Saul is convinced that the Jews will listen to him because of who he was, he leaves. Chapter 28:24 talks about the Jewish leaders in Roman, some believe some don’t. There were many cities where Paul started talking to Jews and had to stop, then they mounted physical attacks against him. Just because we speak the Word of Life to people does not mean that they will or can hear the message. Jesus help us and send us into “the field that is ripe for harvest”.   

Counting God’s People

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Counting God’s People started as I was reading through Numbers. In Numbers, God has Moses count His people twice; once in Numbers 1 and then in Chapter 26. Many things were done with these totals, but I will focus on camp/marching order and then division of the land. These are at the beginning of their journey and then before they crossed the Jordan.

In Numbers 1 is the totals for the first census. This, I believe, was for Marching Order and camp placement around the Tabernacle. Numbers 26 is the second census; this is at the end of the journey before crossing the Jordan. Some Tribes increased and some had a decline. Ephraim and Manasseh switch places in the Family List in the second census. (Manasseh was the oldest but Jacob switched the blessing to Ephraim.)

  • Ruben – 46,500.                       43,730
  • Simeon – 59,300.                     22,200
  • Gad – 45,650.                          40,500
  • Judah – 74,600.                       76,500
  • Issachar – 54,400.                   64,300
  • Zebulun – 57,400.                   60,500
  • Joseph/Ephraim -40,500.        32,500
  • Joseph/Manasseh – 32,200.   52,700
  • Benjamin – 35,400.                 45,600
  • Dan – 62,700.                          64,400
  • Asher – 41,500.                       53,400
  • Naphtali – 53,400.                   45,400
  • First census total – 603,550.    601,730

Levi

  • Gershon – 7,500
  • Kohath – 8,600 The NIV has a footnote for – 8,300. This number evens the total to the stated 22,000.
  • Merari – 6,200

In Numbers 26 there is no breakdown of the families of Levi, just a total of 23,000. The second census was for the allotment of land for the tribe’s inheritance (26:64). The Levities would receive towns from the other tribes as their inheritance was the Lord.

Toledoth or toledot is the Hebrew term for a family list. These censuses are a toledot of God’s family through Jacob. Seth, Adam’s son, has a toledot in Genesis. Terah is at the end of this list but has his own that features Abram. Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 have the same list for the men who returned to repopulate Jerusalem and the Land. Matthew and Luke also have toledots for Jesus. 1 Chronicles has family list and some interesting narratives mixed in; these lists are just one of the things that validate the Bible as history and not a nice story.

David in 2 Samuel 24:1 orders a count of the men of Israel. David should not have done this as the people are the Lord’s; in ordering the count he was “claiming” the people as his. We know that ended with punishment and the purchase of the land for the Solomon’s Temple.