No One Knows The Hour (part 24)

Jesus, who is unmistakably speaking about the fall of the Temple and the events that will surround that fall, goes on, saying “Immediately after the suffering,” or persecution, as it can also be translated, “of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken” (24:29).  With this, Jesus is quoting from Isaiah, primarily the thirteenth chapter (with allusions to the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah and the second chapter of Joel). 

Beginning in verse nine of that chapter, Isaiah writes “Look, the Lord’s day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.  Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine.  I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin.  I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants… So I will shake the heavens, and the earth will shake looks from its foundation, because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies, in the day He vents His raging anger” (13:9-11.13). 

In this passage, as is the case in much of the work that bears the name, Isaiah is employing apocalyptic imagery.  That is, he is not being literal, but rather, he is using language that will serve to inform all who hear that the events to come are going to be world-shaking, earth shattering happenings.  With this established, one then realizes that Jesus, in fine Jewish prophetic tradition, is using such language.  For what it’s worth, it is the same type of language in use in the book of Revelation, which is also known as “The Apocalypse.”  Without digressing into that discussion, it should be noted that the very name of that work informs all who approach it that apocalyptic, non-literal language is there being used. 

Remaining focused on Isaiah and taking in the context for what is on offer in the middle of that chapter, one notes that the preface to what has been written is “This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz” (13:1).  In reference to Babylon, the Creator God is said to have revealed to Isaiah that “I have given orders to My chosen soldiers; I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, my boasting, arrogant ones” (13:3).  This God’s soldiers and warriors are the Babylonians and His anger is going to be vented against Judah, Jerusalem, and the Temple.  Those that experience the Creator God’s angry judgment (His actions to set things right according to His covenant and His larger purposes for His world), as far as Isaiah is concerned, are God’s very people.  When Judah is overrun, Jerusalem is ravaged, and the Temple is destroyed, it will be as if the stars, the sun, and the moon have ceased to give their light.  It will be as if the foundations of the earth have crumbled. 

In the thirteenth verse, Isaiah speaks of both the heavens and the earth, which Jesus can also be heard to do in just a short while, which is quite important for the purposes of this study.  This judgment from Israel’s God, of course, came to pass.  Babylon did conquer Judah, destroy Jerusalem and its Temple, and carry many off into captivity.  Quite obviously, the stars, sun, and moon did not actually cease to give light and the earth did not fall from its foundations.  When considering that Jesus’ hearers will understand the reference to Isaiah and to Babylon (and the judgment that their God brought upon His people through Babylon) that He is making, they understand that these images are not to be taken literally.  Thus the readers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are reminded that they are likewise not to take them literally when Jesus says employs said imagery.  It is the judgment of the Creator God and the earthly happenings that such judgment portends that are to be taken literally. 

Raising Lazarus For Glory (part 3)

Before one can return to the issue of Lazarus’ sickness and death and God’s glory, it is necessary to traverse the territory that is laid out before the reader with the exchanges that take place between Martha and Jesus, and Mary and Jesus.  Jesus goes to Bethany, where He encounters the grieving sisters of Lazarus, whom He loved (along with his sisters).  Upon His arrival, Martha greets Him, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will grant You” (John 11:21-22). 

There is, it needs to be said, a faith-rooted belief to be found in those statements.  Martha, apparently believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and combining that belief with some type of knowledge that part of the work of Messiah will be to restore all things, along with the general belief in the resurrection of the dead, appeals to her awareness of His powerful, healing and restoring works, in hopes that a restoration to life will be granted to her deceased brother.  Jesus responds to Martha’s faith and messianic understanding by saying, “Your brother will come back to life again” (11:23). 

Martha, who is merely reflecting the general hope of Israel in that day, which was the resurrection of the righteous dead (the Creator God’s covenant people) into their God’s good and restored creation, replies by saying, “I know that he will come back to life again in the resurrection at the last day” (11:24).  Jesus’ response to this is to flatly inform Martha that “I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in Me will never die” (11:25-26a).  An interesting statement to be sure. 

Jesus punctuates this statement of response with an inquiry, saying, “Do you believe this?” (11:26b)  With this, Jesus confirms both Martha’s belief in Him as Messiah, as well as the Jewish hope in the resurrection of the Creator God’s covenant people into a renewed created order in which the God of Israel has put down death and corruption (as they were most definitely not looking towards a spiritual, dis-embodied, heavenly existence for all eternity), defeating the evil that had been launched into the world at Adam’s fall, all of which was connected with the coming of messiah at the last day.  Martha’s enthusiastic reply is “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God (King of Israel) Who comes into the world” (11:27-parentheses supplied).   

This worldview that Martha presents is that upon which the Apostle Peter will seize in what is generally referred to as his Pentecost “sermon” in the second chapter of Acts.  As a member of the nation of Israel, Peter himself had been looking towards their God’s action in history, which would eventually culminate in the resurrection of the righteous dead into the renewed creation.  The righteous dead were the saints---those who were the Creator God’s covenant people, Israel.  In that tremendous piece of oratory, Peter said, with an ultimate reference to what had been wrought in the world via the Resurrection of Jesus, that “this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16).  Following that, Peter recounts Joel’s prophecy, which, prior to the Christ-event, was generally understood as a presentation of that which would accompany the resurrection of the righteous dead, Israel, in the last days. 

After quoting Joel, Peter would go on to speak of Jesus, saying “God raised Him up, having released Him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held in its power” (2:24).  This was what the people of Israel, Peter’s fellow Jews, were expecting to be said of all of their God’s covenant people in the last days.  Peter makes it clear that the expectation of Israel has been fulfilled in Jesus, and that He had gone down into death and had been raised up, experiencing these things as Israel’s representative.  

Do Not Fear (part 2 of 2)

In this new age, the one that has been inaugurated so that the Creator God can pour out His Spirit on all flesh as Peter will say in Acts, the prophet Joel reports that God saying, “Do not fear, My land!  Rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has accomplished great things!” (2:21)  This is an age in which the covenant God is reversing the curse that mankind brought upon His creation that had been established as very good.  The insistence of the New Testament is that the God of Israel will begin to do this through His covenant people as they are in union with Christ (confirming Jesus as King), with the beginning of that reversal pointing to a final consummation in which a great and final restoration, a final reversal, will take place.  The Creator God speaks and says, “Do not fear, wild animals!  For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass.  Indeed the trees bear their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest” (2:22). 

In this new age, the Creator God speaks to His covenant people, saying “Citizens of Zion, rejoice!  Be glad because of what the Lord has done” (2:23a).  What is it that the Lord has done?  Well, because Peter appears to link all of this with Jesus, it can be declared that He has performed a great work in and through the Christ.  Through Him then, He has redeemed a people for Himself from exile.  This is the ongoing story of Israel, as reflected by their history, and this is the continuing story of the covenant people that are formed around Jesus.  Yes, once again, a new age has been inaugurated.  This is an age in which Resurrection power has been brought to bear in the world, with Jesus being the first to thoroughly experience that Resurrection power as the first-fruits of what is to come for God’s people and God’s creation. 

In this inaugurated age, where Jesus is King, awaiting His final crowning (much like David was anointed king, merely awaiting His final crowning, though the analogy to David should not extend too far beyond form rather than substance), it is said that “The threshing floors are full of grain; the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil” (2:24).  Such language speaks to the removal of the thorns and thistles that plague this world.  It is an age in which the exile that is being experienced by the creation, ends in an exodus into becoming a promised land.  As always, the language of the prophets is provided context and depth of meaning by Israel’s narrative 

Through His prophet, the covenant God says that in this age (the one that is Peter affirms has begun with the Resurrection of Jesus) “You will have plenty to eat, and your hunger will be fully satisfied; you will praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has acted wondrously in your behalf” (2:26a).  Because of what the Creator God has wrought---the Resurrection of the Christ and the redemption of His covenant people to be set forth as royal servant ambassadors for the world---the promise is made that “My people will never again be put to shame” (2:26b).  That is, once the covenant God brings His Spirit to bear in this world, His people will never again experience the curse of exile. 

After declaring that His people will be fully convinced of His power (2:27a), which will take place by the gift of faith by the Spirit, Israel’s God repeats Himself, saying “My people will never again be put to shame” (2:27b).  The witness of Scripture affirms that there is no need to fear, for everywhere, the Word of God speaks of His faithfulness, Resurrection, redemption, restoration, renewal, and re-creation.  In Him, one may confidently trust and rejoice.      

Do Not Fear (part 1 of 2)

Do not fear, My land!  Rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has accomplished great things! – Joel 2:21  (NET)

A few verses after this, what is perhaps the most famous and well-known statement from the book of Joel can be found.  That statement is “After all of this I will pour out My Spirit on all kinds of people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy.  Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; your young men will see prophetic visions.  Even on male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (2:28-29). 

This is quoted by Peter, as reported in the second chapter of Acts, doing so in his address to the people of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.  For Peter, it seems that this vision of Joel that has now been realized, is couched in the necessity of the Resurrection of Jesus.  Based upon what would have been Peter’s worldview concerning the resurrection of the righteous and the end of the covenant people, this pouring out of the Spirit can only have taken and be taking place because the Christ had been resurrected from the grave.  Accompanying that, an entirely new age had begun. 

Along with this, one must remember, as a basic rule of exegesis, that when New Testament writers or speakers make reference to isolated passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, doing so is not an indication that they are merely looking for proof-texts for their opinions.  Rather, it is that they have entire narratives, entire sections of texts, and entire patterns of thought in mind, all couched within a comprehensive worldview that is shaped by an understanding of their God and His covenant with them. 

In many, if not most cases, when passages from the prophets or wisdom literature are quoted, or when a New Testament character or author alludes to a single verse, it is because the Christ-event, in some way and in accordance with the unified Scriptural narrative, has served to make additional or new sense of that passage.  So even though Peter quotes a selection from Joel (2:28-32), it must be presumed that his hearers would have in mind the entirety of the context from which that selection is lifted.  Again, this is a basic rule of exegesis, and all conclusions that can be derived from isolated verses must be weighed against this consideration.       

So looking back to Joel, which is entirely appropriate when hearing Peter make reference to the work, one must take notice that the twenty-eighth verse begins with “After all of this.”  Such a statement begs the question, “After all of what?”  Because what follows is clearly connected with thoughts about what the Creator God is going to do among and through His covenant people, what precedes must speak to the world in which these things will be done. 

For the prophet Joel, the indication it will be as if a new age has dawned.  It is an age in which he grips the promise of God that “I will make up for the years that the arbeh-locust consumed your crops---the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust---My great army that I sent against you” (2:25).  Here, much like Peter is calling the whole of Joel to mind, Joel calls to mind the Deuteronomic and Levitical curses that would accompany Israel’s failure to live up to the terms of their covenant with their God, which naturally calls to mind the exodus (the seminal and defining event in the history of Israel), which is set against the background of the call of Abraham, which ultimately had to take place because of the fall of Adam (thereby calling to mind the Adam story). 

Yes, because the Bible essentially presents one continuous narrative of creation, fall, cursing, God’s-single-plan-of-salvation-for-the-world, redemption, and restoration (never lose sight of this idea), one is more than justified in thinking about the curse that came upon the ground (the world/creation) because of the fall of Adam (as well as the Torah curses of Deuteronomy and Leviticus) when stories about locusts consuming crops are encountered. 

Eden's Desolation

Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns.  The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. – Joel 2:3  (ESV)

Whatever we might come to think about this particular verse, clearly, it does not present anything good.  The theme of destruction weighs heavily here.  It must be said that this book of the prophecy of Joel is full of interesting imagery, and that it is presented within the larger, ongoing story of Israel.  That story, of course, begins with the report of the activity of their God, the Creator. 

The story of judgment and redemption that it presents is unusual, to say the least.  We tend to forget about the strange method of judgment and like to focus on Joel 2:28, and its presentation of the pouring out of God’s Spirit on all flesh, for prophecy, for dreams, and for visions.  Along with that, we love to read about our God that is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster” (2:13). 

Before we get to those things, however, we trek through the presentation of the Lord’s army (2:11).  It is an unusual army indeed, as it consists of cutting locusts, swarming locusts, hopping locusts, and destroying locusts (1:4).  The coming of this army of locusts, according to Joel, is an element of the “day of the Lord” (2:1).  This day of the Lord is “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!” (2:2a).  This army of locusts is so thick that it is referred to as “blackness…spread upon the mountains” (2:2b).  Most assuredly, this is not a common occurrence, as Joel writes of them as “a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations” (2:2c).  A once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for sure.

As Joel goes about describing this awesome force for destruction that has been sent forth by the hand of God, he writes the words of our text above, saying that “the land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.”  So as we can see, Israel’s narrative is always in mind.  Now, what do we think about when we read about the Garden of Eden?  Above all else, one would think that there would be two things that would spring to mind.  The first is that of perfection, of God’s good creation.  The second would naturally be the fall of man, and Scripture’s presentation of man’s marring of God’s perfect creation through Adam’s rebellion, violating the covenant that God had made with him.  If we do in fact think such things when we read of the Garden of Eden, then an analogy (limited though it may be) should spring to mind as we read this verse, in its context of these destroying locusts.

What is that limited analogy?  The analogy, as it relates to this third verse of the second chapter, is that humanity is the locust.  Man was introduced into the garden of Eden on the sixth day of God’s restoration and ordering of an earth that had come into a state of desolation and chaos (presumably, as Israel would have insisted, because of the activities of the lesser gods of the peoples that surrounded them, thus demonstrating the supremacy of Israel’s God, the entirety of the cosmos being His Temple and realm of authority).  In each previous day of ordering and restoration, the Creator God’s work was pronounced good.  The whole of creation, including mankind, was declared to be very good.  Not only was man introduced into a land like the Garden of Eden---a land of perfection---but man was placed in the Garden of Eden itself.  He was charged with dominion over God’s creation, as beings made in the image of God, and given responsibilities that included one very well known restriction.  In this restriction, man needed merely to trust God, but alas, this proved to be too difficult, resulting in what has come to be called “the fall”. 

Through his fall that is marked out as rebellion and distrust, man introduced sin (faithlessness to God’s covenant, failure to bear the divine image) into the world.  With sin, as we are told, entered death.  The effect of sin, that being death, went well beyond an effect merely on the ones who sinned, but extended to the whole of creation itself, as the failures to bear the divine image, which included the ordering and restoration of creation in care for the temple of the Creator God, would come to bear.  God’s perfect creation was now, through no fault of its own, subject to corruption and decay.  From that point on, everything that would come to life would, without fail, eventually come to death and pass away, be it plant, animal, or human. 

Yes, the land, the creation, had been delivered over to man’s dominion in perfection, “like the garden of Eden before them.”  However, through unfaithfulness, in subjection to that dominion, the land was left “behind them a desolate wilderness” and “nothing escapes them.”  Regretfully, no part of this creation escaped the corruption and locust-like destruction brought about by man’s failure to live up to his covenant responsibility.  Thankfully, God would not leave this situation alone, but would bring redemption to His image-bearers and His creation.  He would execute His grace and His mercy, establishing His faithfulness in steadfast love, and pouring out His Spirit.  Eventually, through Christ, His kingdom, His eternal life, and His Resurrection power, God would bring about a relenting of the disaster that man had wrought upon this world.   

Opening Acts (part 2 of 2)

Peter, still speaking in the second chapter of Acts, continues the use of the pouring metaphor, saying “This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it.  So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out what you both see and hear” (2:32-33).  The correct response then, is to “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (2:38a).  The result?  “You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (2:38b). 

It is not exactly a groundbreaking idea to put forward the thought that whereas the Gospels as we know them are the story of Jesus’ ministry, that the story of Acts is that of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and thus Jesus’ ministry by a different means, that being His church by the Spirit.  We can add a unique twist in what we are here doing by pointing out the broad New Testament application, such that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit that Paul mentions in chapter five of Romans is linked to the conclusions that he is drawing from his understanding of Gentile participation in the covenant (justification) based on the believing example of Abraham, and that it is based on the understanding of that ministry of the Holy Spirit that we see recorded in Acts (though Acts would not yet have been composed and promulgated, so Paul is relying only on what he has learned) and the regular use of the “pouring out” metaphor. 

Obviously, Joel’s vision of God’s “last day” actions, so crucial to Acts two, was looked upon quite favorably.  The fact that Peter picks up on this, and that Paul, by his adoption, in Romans of the language of pouring, picks up on Joel’s language as well, allows us to grasp a yet deeper sense of somebody like Paul’s ideology concerning the “last days.”  Putting the pieces together, it is not at all difficult to see that Paul believes that the “last days” have begun in the Resurrection of Jesus, and that these “last days” have little if any comprehension of time or its duration.  Rather, the last days are those days in which God has become King, and this is marked by the expansion of His covenant people as just one piece of His plan for the restoration of creation, which is a mark of the advent of the kingdom of God. 

In chapter four of Acts, Peter, having been arrested and released, speaks to his fellow believers.  As belief is so elemental to covenant, and is quite demonstrably the key covenant marker, having been so from the earliest part of the narrative that details God’s dealings in His world, it may be useful to train ourselves to think of “believers” as “sons of Abraham.”  At the conclusion of his speech, Luke records “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously” (4:31).  Here again, we have “filled” as the metaphorical vehicle, communicating God’s gracious activity.  Luke could just as easily have again spoken of the Holy Spirit begin poured out, as it would have communicated the same message. 

Not too long after this another arrest takes place.  There is a reminder that the disciples were given “strict orders not to teach” in the name of Jesus (5:28a).  Another speech is offered to those responsible for the arrest.  In that speech, Peter (presumably, though the text says “Peter and the apostles replied” – 5:29a) says “We must obey God rather than people.  The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging Him on a tree.  God exalted Him to His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.  And we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him” (5:29b-32).  Here, it is the giving of the Holy Spirit that stands in for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.  Crucially for global Christianity, this giving is linked to obedience, which hearkens the hearer to Abraham, his belief, and his obedience that demonstrated itself as unswerving loyalty to the faithful, covenant God.

In the seventh chapter of Acts we encounter the story of Stephen.  He offers an impassioned speech that has, as its subject, God’s covenant activity beginning with Moses, concluding with “You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears!  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors did!  Which of the prophets did your ancestor not persecute?  They killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become!” (7:51-52)  Naturally, it is the poured out Holy Spirit that is being resisted.  To this Luke adds, “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (7:55).  This cannot help but also cause us to look to Romans five and Paul’s talk of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the hope of God’s glory, and peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is quite possible that Paul has this story of Stephen in mind, together with what comes before and after it in Acts, having presented, in a very Stephen-like manner, the story of Abraham.