Vindication For Joy & Rejoicing (part 3)

This mention of “sorrow” should vaults the conscious reader to a recollection of the “suffering servant” of Isaiah, thus providing (along with Jesus before He would come to His time of suffering) a more fully-rounded sense of what these sorrows would and did entail.  The verses that follow remind the modern reader of the letter to the Hebrews and the great High Priest that is able to sympathize with the human weaknesses that continue to be experienced by the covenant people(4:15), the Gospel of Luke and Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem (19:41), and the Gospel of John and Jesus weeping within the story of the raising of the one whom He loved (11:35), as one finds “When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, and refrained from eating food.  I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother.  I bowed down in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother” (Psalm 35:13a,14). 

Unfortunately, Jesus did not receive complete reciprocity in these matters, and because of that He could say, “when I stumbled, they rejoiced and gathered together; they gathered together to ambush me” (35:15a).  As He would begin to undergo the various inflictions of physical brutality---the whip that would be endured as He made His way to His ultimate vindication---Jesus could maintain His reflection on this Psalm and its words in which “They tore at me without stopping to rest” (35:15b).  As He stumbled under the weight of the beam that He is reported to have attempted to carry to Golgotha, Jesus would remember “When I tripped, they taunted me relentlessly, and tried to bite me” (35:16). 

Again, it is necessary to pause to remember that this particular adversary is not death, at least not directly, but rather it is men presumably corrupted by the power of darkness, as that darkness attempted to assert its power over the one that would eventually come to be recognized and called the Son-of-God-in-power (Romans 1:4 – contra Caesar).  Jesus could cry out “O Lord, how long are you going to just stand there and watch this?  Rescue me from their destructive attacks; guard my life from the young lions!  Do not let those who are my enemies for no reason gloat over me!  Do not let those who hate me without cause carry out their wicked schemes!  They are ready to devour me; they say, ‘Aha!  Aha!  We’ve got you!” (35:17,19,21)  In all this, Jesus does not call for divine retribution against His human antagonists.  He always knew who and what was the true enemy from which He sought and hoped for vindication.  

                                

Even if He did speak such words that were, in essence, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass for Me” (Matthew 26:39b), the watchword over all of this, as Jesus endured the great painful and shaming ordeal on behalf of Israel and the creation, is “Yet not what I will, but what You will” (26:39c). The will of the Father, of course, can be found in what follows in this Psalm, which is “take notice, Lord!  O Lord, do not remain far from me!  Rouse yourself, wake up and vindicate me!  My God and Lord, defend my just cause!  Vindicate me by Your justice, O Lord my God!” (35:22-24a) 

This vindication would ultimately be the Resurrection, as Jesus would march forth from the tomb into a new world---that being the inaugurated kingdom of God on earth---in which the hosts of heaven were marshaled to witness His victorious coronation as King, and in which Jesus would honor the faithful Father for His vindicating justice, saying “I will give you thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You before a large crowd of people!” (35:18) 

Marching Up From Gilgal (part 2 of 2)

This marching up of Jesus and His brave warriors, from the place where death was given its own fatal blow, should provide the reader of Scripture with a fresh attunement to the words of the sixth chapter of Ephesians (remembering that the New Testament, with its reflections upon Jesus, only makes sense in light of the Hebrew Scriptures), and the Apostle Paul’s insistence upon taking up the armor of God, so as to do battle with the rulers, the powers, and the forces of evil that attempt their continued (and ultimately futile) stand to wreak havoc within Jesus’ kingdom of heaven that was inaugurated with His Resurrection. 

As the Lord commanded Joshua to be unafraid, in much the same way, Jesus commanded His first group of brave warriors (using the term loosely) to be unafraid of going out to preach the Gospel message of His kingdom, so as to unleash the very power of the spoken message itself (backed up by acts of self-sacrificial love) against the forces of death, informing them that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18b), and reminding them that “I am with you always” (28:20b).  Because of that authority, and the power that stands behind it, it is presumed and believed to be the case that no enemy will be able to stand. 

Returning then to Joshua, one finds that “Joshua attacked them by surprise after marching all night from Gilgal” (Joshua 10:9), and that through this, “The Lord routed them before Israel” (10:10a).  Is it not possible to see much the same thing with Jesus?  Figuratively, Jesus marched from Golgotha to the grave.  With His Resurrection however, He figuratively attacked His surprised enemy, death, that had exerted its power and authority through the kings and rulers of this world (having been exerted against Him as well), swallowing it up in victory and relieving it of its sting (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). 

In this story in Joshua, it is said that “The sun stood still and the moon stood motionless while the nation took vengeance on its enemies” (10:13a).  During the three days and three nights of Jesus’ entombment, at the very moment when a new and transformative power for life animated His body, in the few moments following the Resurrection when the groaning creation itself began to take in what had been accomplished within it, in those first declarations of a risen Lord that sprung from a once-defeated band of disciples, and as in these things the kingdom of the Creator God took vengeance on its enemies, can heaven’s response not be imagined?  Exalted language, such as the standing still of the sun and moon, would be necessary to attempt to adequately convey the significance of such things. 

It was said in Joshua that “there has not been a day like it before or since.  The Lord obeyed a man, for the Lord fought for Israel!” (10:14)  As one considers the crucifixion and the Resurrection, it would more than appropriate to reiterate that statement, as those that cast their lot with Jesus are thankful for what was accomplished once and for all time at the cross, and for the new life that was accomplished and promised because the Creator God brought the man Jesus forth from the grave.  It is then possible to reverse what was said of Joshua, and declare that because of one Man’s obedience, the Lord did indeed fight for Israel---for His covenant people.        

Marching Up From Gilgal (part 1 of 2)

So Joshua and his whole army, including the bravest warriors, marched up from Gilgal. – Joshua 10:7  (NET)

Gilgal was the place to which the Israelite nation first came after crossing the Jordan River and entering into their land of promise, doing so under the leadership of Joshua.  According to the Scriptural narrative as reported in the book of Joshua, it was at Gilgal that the men of Israel were circumcised, with this done in accordance with the terms of the Abrahamic covenant that has been effectively

re-confirmed and substantially expanded upon, through Moses at Mount Sinai.  With the circumcisions having been undertaken, “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken away the disgrace of Egypt from you’.” (5:9a)  The follow-up to that statement is that “the place is called Gilgal even to this day” (5:9b). 

The root of the word “Gilgal” is “galal,” which expresses the idea of something round, or circular, or rolling.  Because of this, the phrase “taken away” is sometimes translated or considered as “rolled away.”  The same root is to be found in the word “Galilee,” with this said to be related to the fact that the cities of the Galilee were set around the lake, in something of a circuit. 

Another word that is closely related to Gilgal is “Golgotha.”  The close relations occurs because of a shared root word.  Golgotha, of course, was the place where Jesus was crucified.  In Aramaic, the word is “Gulgoltha,” which becomes “Golgotha” in Greek.  The sharing of the root word “galal” occurs because of the occurrence of galal in the Hebrew word for “skull,” which is “gulgoluth.”  The “galal” in “gulgoluth,” presumably, is connected to the roundness of the human skull. 

Because of the close connection between Gilgal and Golgotha, together with the fact that “Joshua” or “Yeshua” is the Hebrew form of the name “Jesus,” close parallels are able to be drawn between the events that occur in connection with the place called Gilgal, and the events that occurred in connection with the place that is called Golgotha.  The natural and immediate connection to make is that just as the Creator God is said to have rolled away or taken away the disgrace of Egypt from off of His covenant people at that place, so too, within the single continuous narrative that is communicated via the Scriptures in which the ministry of Jesus and the reflections upon His ministry make sense, did He remove (roll away, take away) the disgrace of sin (failure to bear the divine image---exile from His purposes for them) from off of the new covenant people by means of the cross. 

While this should certainly be a cause for rejoicing amongst those that find themselves joining the people of the covenant through belief in Jesus as Messiah, that is not the focus of this study.  Rather, this study looks to the tenth chapter of Joshua, where “Joshua and his whole army, including the bravest warriors” (10:7a), can be found marching up from Gilgal to do battle with the five Amorite kings.

There, it is said that “The Lord told Joshua, ‘Don’t be afraid of them, for I am handing them over to you.  Not one of them can resist you’.” (10:8)  So just as Joshua marched up from Gilgal, with brave warriors in tow, so too does Jesus march up from Golgotha, with His saints, to do battle with the forces of evil.  Yes, those that have cast their allegiance with Him as King and Lord of all, go forth in the power of the Resurrection, but do so on the basis of what took place at the cross.