Two days ago I mentioned that David was fulfilling a command instituted in Deuteronomy 12 that stipulated that Israel would worship in one central location, Jerusalem. He joyfully brings the holy Ark of the Covenant into his home city to make it the Holy City. The Ark of the Covenant is fulfilled in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary; we are called to bring her into our home, like David did, for her to show us the way to follow Jesus. This is what Jesus wants us to do, and as Jesus honors His mother and fulfills the fourth commandment, we imitate Him.
Some of the very last words that Jesus said right before He died on the cross were spoken concerning His mother. “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19: 26-27). Jesus gives every beloved disciple to His mother, and she takes us as her own. Since she is now our God-given mother, we are required to obey the fourth commandment and honor her. Jesus also gives his mother to every beloved disciple in order for us to take her into our home. Jesus gives us the true Ark of the Covenant, and faithfully bringing her into our home will bring us closer to Christ.
Why was Jerusalem stipulated in Deuteronomy as the sole place of worship? Many new laws were added in Deuteronomy which were never seen prior, and one of those laws was the necessity for a central place of worship. Why are laws given? “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made” (Galatians 3: 19). There had to be a singular, central location of worship because the people were continually going after false gods. They had been led out of Egypt in the Exodus, but they were still Egyptian at heart. I think Scott Hahn said it something like this: “God could take them out of Egypt, but He couldn’t take Egypt out of them.”
Why was Egypt so difficult to get out of the hearts of the Israelites? Didn’t the Israelites hate the Egyptians who were their taskmasters? We tend to forget that the Israelites were down there some 430 years; in comparison, the USA has only been a country for just over 230 years. The Israelites had been there so long, they either thought of themselves as Egyptian, or they simply assimilated much of the culture of the Egyptians, particularly their polytheistic religion. As soon as they think Moses has died on Mount Sinai after forty days, they immediately worship the Golden Calf, an old Egyptian god named Apis. A year later, the people are worshipping goat demons; after forty years of wandering in the desert, as the second generation is about to enter the Promised Land, they sin again with false gods, and that is why the book of Deuteronomy with all its new laws is given.
God is a loving Father who gives His children what they need to come back to Him. The more they sin, the more laws He gives to help keep them from drifting too far from Him. One of their main and constant sins was the worship of false gods; they would worship these false gods all over the place; to help prevent them from doing so, they were only to worship in one place; that place was Jerusalem.
When the ten northern tribes separate themselves from Judah during the reign of David’s grandson, Rehoboam, the main problem with this separation of Israel and Judah is that the Israelites no longer come down to Judah to worship in Jerusalem. They start building shrines all over Israel, and they forsake the true God. Their sins are so great and so many, that eventually, after much warning, God sends the Assyrians to come and destroy Israel in 722B.C.
What does all this mean for you and me today? The temple in Jerusalem, according to Jesus, was a symbol of His body; His body is the true temple, the true place of worship. Since we are baptized into Jesus’ body, we too become God’s holy temples. We must only worship the One, True God and not go after other gods. The other gods that the Israelites went after were primarily fertility cults and prosperity cults; they sought the goods of this world: money, power and pleasure. The question we need to ask ourselves is: do we have any side altars to any of these worldly goods set up in our hearts? Do I have an inordinate attachment to money, power or pleasure? Is my heart filled with God and His life, or is it “filled” with the pursuit of happiness which this world gives?
The other question we can ask ourselves is do we have a true devotion to Mary? Do we love and honor her as our mother as Jesus does? She is the Ark of the Covenant and is the precious container which houses the presence of God; she is our Christ-given mother. Do I bring her into my home and welcome her as my mother? Do I seek her aid as I would seek the aid of my own earthly mother when I was a child in need? No one has ever gotten as close to Jesus as Mary is; she knows the way to Him, and she knows better than anyone how to please Him. Do I rely upon her constant motherly help to overcome the temptations to worship false gods? Do I cherish her as my mother and queen who will lead me ever nearer to her Divine Son? Do I rejoice at her coming into my life and home as David rejoiced when he took the Ark of the Covenant into his home town? Never fear of drawing too close to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for she only seeks to bring us to her Divine Son, the True Temple within which we worship.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label David. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David. Show all posts
1.29.2008
Jesus, the New David, is the Sower of His Life In Our Tree of Life, Our Heart
In tomorrow’s first reading at Mass, David seeks to fulfill the prophecy from Deuteronomy 12:8-14 by building a temple for God’s house. God is very pleased with David’s actions and replies through the prophet Nathan saying: “I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you” (2 Samuel 7: 11). Establishing rest from one’s enemies was a prerequisite for establishing Jerusalem as the sole place of Israelite worship; God will complete that task of providing rest round about Jerusalem. David wanted to build God a house, so God is going to make David a house, which is a kingly dynasty. God ends saying, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).
Because of David’s goodness and his trust in God, God is establishing David’s kingship forever. God does this by entering into a covenant with David as the responsorial psalm says in this Mass: “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all ages” (Psalm 89:3-4). Covenants cannot be broken, so God is absolutely required to make good on His covenantal promise: David’s dynasty must endure forever. God did make good on it by sending His own Son, Jesus, who will reign forever in heaven as the King of David.
We get a hint of how God will fulfill this oath through His own Son when he says: “He shall cry to me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock that brings me victory!’ I myself make him firstborn, Most High over the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:26-27). Jesus is the one God sends to fulfill His covenant with David; Jesus calls His Father, “Father,” of course. Jesus is called the firstborn, but of course He was begotten not made; Jesus was born as a man through Mary, but as God He was not born. Yet, He is still called the firstborn.
Jesus is a new David, and as David established peace around about Jerusalem by defeating all his enemies, so Jesus establishes peace round about each one of us by conquering all our sins. As the temple was the center of Jerusalem and what made Jerusalem holy, so our hearts are our center and the place where Jesus dwells. Jesus gives us a new heart that loves, trusts and obeys Him and is able to be set free from the slavery of sin. Jesus gives us a heart that seeks to please Him, a heart of flesh that has God’s laws written upon it, a tree of life that keeps us alive in relationship to Him.
This ties into the gospel reading for today’s Mass; it is the parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. Jesus is the sower who seeks to plant His seed which is His Word in good soil so that His seed bears much fruit. Jesus still sows His seed everywhere, but many of those places do not well receive His seed. There is the path, the rocky ground, and the ground covered with thorns; the path is hard, trampled ground where nothing has a chance to grow; the rocky ground are those who initially rejoice in the God’s word but only receive it shallowly, having no roots, the plant soon dies; the thorn-covered ground are those who receive God’s word, but the thorns of “worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit” (Mark 4:19).
“But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20). Jesus seeks our hearts; He seeks to be loved by you and me; Jesus wants to give us a new heart that is the rich soil that will receive His seed fully and provide a good environment for growth. He seeks to give us abundant life through the good reception of His grace. He desires our heart; He desires our heart to desire what He desires; He wants to be of one mind and heart with us. The heart is our tree of life; when we eat of the tree of life, when we love, trust and obey God in all things, we are fully and truly alive in relation to God. Our relationship daily deepens, and it can be said more correctly as each day passes that we are another Christ. The good fruit we bear is Christ; He is the vine and we the branches, so we bear the fruit of that divine vine. Christ was a self-sacrificing lover, so becoming another Christ means that we are transformed into a self-sacrificing lover like Him. We eat the tree of life so that we may be empowered to lay down our life and be crucified to our death on a tree. Jesus did not suffer and die so that we don’t have to; on the contrary, Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we have the power to sacrifice ourselves.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Because of David’s goodness and his trust in God, God is establishing David’s kingship forever. God does this by entering into a covenant with David as the responsorial psalm says in this Mass: “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all ages” (Psalm 89:3-4). Covenants cannot be broken, so God is absolutely required to make good on His covenantal promise: David’s dynasty must endure forever. God did make good on it by sending His own Son, Jesus, who will reign forever in heaven as the King of David.
We get a hint of how God will fulfill this oath through His own Son when he says: “He shall cry to me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock that brings me victory!’ I myself make him firstborn, Most High over the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:26-27). Jesus is the one God sends to fulfill His covenant with David; Jesus calls His Father, “Father,” of course. Jesus is called the firstborn, but of course He was begotten not made; Jesus was born as a man through Mary, but as God He was not born. Yet, He is still called the firstborn.
Jesus is a new David, and as David established peace around about Jerusalem by defeating all his enemies, so Jesus establishes peace round about each one of us by conquering all our sins. As the temple was the center of Jerusalem and what made Jerusalem holy, so our hearts are our center and the place where Jesus dwells. Jesus gives us a new heart that loves, trusts and obeys Him and is able to be set free from the slavery of sin. Jesus gives us a heart that seeks to please Him, a heart of flesh that has God’s laws written upon it, a tree of life that keeps us alive in relationship to Him.
This ties into the gospel reading for today’s Mass; it is the parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. Jesus is the sower who seeks to plant His seed which is His Word in good soil so that His seed bears much fruit. Jesus still sows His seed everywhere, but many of those places do not well receive His seed. There is the path, the rocky ground, and the ground covered with thorns; the path is hard, trampled ground where nothing has a chance to grow; the rocky ground are those who initially rejoice in the God’s word but only receive it shallowly, having no roots, the plant soon dies; the thorn-covered ground are those who receive God’s word, but the thorns of “worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit” (Mark 4:19).
“But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20). Jesus seeks our hearts; He seeks to be loved by you and me; Jesus wants to give us a new heart that is the rich soil that will receive His seed fully and provide a good environment for growth. He seeks to give us abundant life through the good reception of His grace. He desires our heart; He desires our heart to desire what He desires; He wants to be of one mind and heart with us. The heart is our tree of life; when we eat of the tree of life, when we love, trust and obey God in all things, we are fully and truly alive in relation to God. Our relationship daily deepens, and it can be said more correctly as each day passes that we are another Christ. The good fruit we bear is Christ; He is the vine and we the branches, so we bear the fruit of that divine vine. Christ was a self-sacrificing lover, so becoming another Christ means that we are transformed into a self-sacrificing lover like Him. We eat the tree of life so that we may be empowered to lay down our life and be crucified to our death on a tree. Jesus did not suffer and die so that we don’t have to; on the contrary, Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we have the power to sacrifice ourselves.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
1.28.2008
Jesus as New David, New Isaac, New Melchizedek and Mary as True Ark of the Covenant
Tomorrow’s first reading contains a number of interesting elements. David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and he acts in some rather strange and unusual ways. Here is a portion of tomorrow’s reading:
“Then David, girt with a linen apron, came dancing before the LORD with abandon, as he and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn. The ark of the LORD was brought in and set in its place within the tent David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. When he finished making these offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. He then distributed among all the people, to each man and each woman in the entire multitude of Israel, a loaf of bread, a cut of roast meat, and a raisin cake” (2 Samuel 6:14-15, 17-19).
What are the atypical actions: he is wearing a linen apron, he is dancing with abandon before the Lord, he is offering sacrifices, he blesses the people, and he gives food to the people. The linen apron seems to have a connection to what a priest would wear; his joy before the Lord shows a love of God; and he offers sacrifices and blesses as a priest would. The translation of the Hebrew of the food David gave is challenging. The bread is clear, but the rest is not so clear. Instead of a cut of roast and a raisin cake, it could be understood to be wine. If that is true, David gave the people bread and wine.
At first, there seems to be no precedent for David’s behavior here in this story. He, the king of Jerusalem, acts like a priest and gives the people bread and wine. But, alas, there is a precedent: Melchizedek. Melchizedek was priest of God Most High and the king of Salem/Jerusalem who offered bread and wine. He was not a Levitical priest, for Levi had not even been born yet; rather, he was a priest/king of Jerusalem who blessed Abraham after Abraham had gained peace from all his enemies round about Jerusalem (Genesis 14).
David has just or is completing the process of gaining peace from all his enemies round about: “Now when the king dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent’ ” (2 Samuel 7:1-2). After the second generation of the Israelites who were set free from Egypt sinned again at the end of the forty years of wandering, God gave them a new set of laws, a second law called Deuteronomy. Only in this other law is it mandated that there be one place of worship in the Promised Land. Following is the passage:
“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you. But when you go over the Jordan, and live in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you live in safety, then to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, thither you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at every place that you see; but at the place which the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you” (Deuteronomy 12:8-14).
God’s plan as set forth in Deuteronomy is that there will be one place to worship Him. David understands that that one place is in Jerusalem, and it will take place when the Israelites have peace from their enemies living round about them. David has just fully taken over the Promised Land and established his base in Jerusalem, so his next step is to fulfill Deuteronomy and establish Jerusalem as the center of Israelite worship. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to town, and rejoices greatly before the Lord.
Not only is David fulfilling Deuteronomy, but he is also fulfilling Genesis 14-22. David is a new Melchizedek: he is the priest/king of Jerusalem who offers bread and wine and gives a blessing after peace has been obtained from the enemies round about. In some respect, David could be said to be a new Isaac: he offers up his whole self as he dances before the Lord with abandon, and he offered sacrifices as Isaac offered himself at first and instead sacrificed a ram in his place. In response to Isaac’s self-offering, God blessed Abraham and Isaac and all the nations of the earth; likewise, David blesses the people. Jesus, then, comes to fulfill the Old Testament, and He is a new Melchizedek, a new Isaac, and a new David; he is the priest/king of Jerusalem who makes a sacrifice by offering up Himself, and He blesses the people with His offering of bread and wine.
The gospel passage fits in with the first reading; it ends with, “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). Obedience to God makes us God’s children and family; Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and David were all obedient to God and thus were His chosen people. Mary is the one who is obedient more than anyone else in the entire human race; that is why she is Mother of God, because of her obedience to Him.
The Ark of the Covenant, the item which makes the temple holy, the sacred home that David is rejoicing before as he brings it into Jerusalem, is a type or symbol of Mary. It held the Ten Commandments, the Manna, and Aaron’s rod; the first is the word of God, the second is the bread of heaven, and the third is the priest’s sign of authority and leadership. Mary was home to the Word of God, the Bread of Heaven, and the High Priest and God Himself. Mary is the True Ark of the Covenant. Another parallel is that before David brings the ark into Jerusalem and leaps before it, it spends three months in the hill country; Mary spends three months in the hill country with her cousin Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother's womb upon hearing the voice of Mary.
The holy items of God are what made the Ark holy, and the Ark is what made the temple holy; likewise, Jesus is who makes Mary holy, and Mary is who makes God’s home, earth, holy because of who she carries within her. In a similar manner, each of us is to be a mother to Christ, bringing Him within ourselves and making the world holy. Also, each of us is to be spouse and bride of Christ, becoming one mind and heart with Him, becoming one flesh with Him, becoming another Christ. Christ within us makes us holy and we become partakers of the divine nature, which is to say that we become self-sacrificing lovers as He is. As self-sacrificing lovers, we bring His presence to the world, which brings peace from our enemies round about. World peace is only found here.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“Then David, girt with a linen apron, came dancing before the LORD with abandon, as he and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn. The ark of the LORD was brought in and set in its place within the tent David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. When he finished making these offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. He then distributed among all the people, to each man and each woman in the entire multitude of Israel, a loaf of bread, a cut of roast meat, and a raisin cake” (2 Samuel 6:14-15, 17-19).
What are the atypical actions: he is wearing a linen apron, he is dancing with abandon before the Lord, he is offering sacrifices, he blesses the people, and he gives food to the people. The linen apron seems to have a connection to what a priest would wear; his joy before the Lord shows a love of God; and he offers sacrifices and blesses as a priest would. The translation of the Hebrew of the food David gave is challenging. The bread is clear, but the rest is not so clear. Instead of a cut of roast and a raisin cake, it could be understood to be wine. If that is true, David gave the people bread and wine.
At first, there seems to be no precedent for David’s behavior here in this story. He, the king of Jerusalem, acts like a priest and gives the people bread and wine. But, alas, there is a precedent: Melchizedek. Melchizedek was priest of God Most High and the king of Salem/Jerusalem who offered bread and wine. He was not a Levitical priest, for Levi had not even been born yet; rather, he was a priest/king of Jerusalem who blessed Abraham after Abraham had gained peace from all his enemies round about Jerusalem (Genesis 14).
David has just or is completing the process of gaining peace from all his enemies round about: “Now when the king dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent’ ” (2 Samuel 7:1-2). After the second generation of the Israelites who were set free from Egypt sinned again at the end of the forty years of wandering, God gave them a new set of laws, a second law called Deuteronomy. Only in this other law is it mandated that there be one place of worship in the Promised Land. Following is the passage:
“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you. But when you go over the Jordan, and live in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you live in safety, then to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, thither you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at every place that you see; but at the place which the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you” (Deuteronomy 12:8-14).
God’s plan as set forth in Deuteronomy is that there will be one place to worship Him. David understands that that one place is in Jerusalem, and it will take place when the Israelites have peace from their enemies living round about them. David has just fully taken over the Promised Land and established his base in Jerusalem, so his next step is to fulfill Deuteronomy and establish Jerusalem as the center of Israelite worship. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to town, and rejoices greatly before the Lord.
Not only is David fulfilling Deuteronomy, but he is also fulfilling Genesis 14-22. David is a new Melchizedek: he is the priest/king of Jerusalem who offers bread and wine and gives a blessing after peace has been obtained from the enemies round about. In some respect, David could be said to be a new Isaac: he offers up his whole self as he dances before the Lord with abandon, and he offered sacrifices as Isaac offered himself at first and instead sacrificed a ram in his place. In response to Isaac’s self-offering, God blessed Abraham and Isaac and all the nations of the earth; likewise, David blesses the people. Jesus, then, comes to fulfill the Old Testament, and He is a new Melchizedek, a new Isaac, and a new David; he is the priest/king of Jerusalem who makes a sacrifice by offering up Himself, and He blesses the people with His offering of bread and wine.
The gospel passage fits in with the first reading; it ends with, “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). Obedience to God makes us God’s children and family; Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and David were all obedient to God and thus were His chosen people. Mary is the one who is obedient more than anyone else in the entire human race; that is why she is Mother of God, because of her obedience to Him.
The Ark of the Covenant, the item which makes the temple holy, the sacred home that David is rejoicing before as he brings it into Jerusalem, is a type or symbol of Mary. It held the Ten Commandments, the Manna, and Aaron’s rod; the first is the word of God, the second is the bread of heaven, and the third is the priest’s sign of authority and leadership. Mary was home to the Word of God, the Bread of Heaven, and the High Priest and God Himself. Mary is the True Ark of the Covenant. Another parallel is that before David brings the ark into Jerusalem and leaps before it, it spends three months in the hill country; Mary spends three months in the hill country with her cousin Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother's womb upon hearing the voice of Mary.
The holy items of God are what made the Ark holy, and the Ark is what made the temple holy; likewise, Jesus is who makes Mary holy, and Mary is who makes God’s home, earth, holy because of who she carries within her. In a similar manner, each of us is to be a mother to Christ, bringing Him within ourselves and making the world holy. Also, each of us is to be spouse and bride of Christ, becoming one mind and heart with Him, becoming one flesh with Him, becoming another Christ. Christ within us makes us holy and we become partakers of the divine nature, which is to say that we become self-sacrificing lovers as He is. As self-sacrificing lovers, we bring His presence to the world, which brings peace from our enemies round about. World peace is only found here.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.10.2007
Canaan Stole Shem's Promised Land
Continuing the discussion from two days ago, Ham attempted a takeover of the family by sleeping with his mother, and Canaan was the fruit of his action. Noah curses Canaan, and then he blesses Shem in the very next verse: “Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave” (Genesis 9:26).
The blessing is a big deal; later, we see Esau and Jacob doing whatever they can to get the blessing from their father, Isaac. Shem gets the blessing, and then we no longer hear of the blessing until 290 years, ten generations, later when Abraham gets blessed by Melchizedek saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19).
Melchizedek is probably not a person’s given birth-name but a title-name. The letter to the Hebrews says of him that, “He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace” (Hebrews 7:2). So if Melchizedek isn’t his birth-name, who is he? Hebrews is not arguing that Melchizedek had no genealogy but that he did not have the correct Levitical genealogy required to be a Levitical Priest. The argument is about which is the enduring priesthood, and the answer is the bread-and-wine priesthood of Melchizedek.
Since Melchizedek is someone other than Melchizedek, and he is someone who possesses the blessing, could he be Shem, the last one we heard about who was blessed? Shem lived 210 years after the birth of Abraham, so he was around.
I’ll tell you what I think. Shem was blessed and given the inheritance, but the Canaanites and the Hamites continued to try to take over his inheritance. Shem’s descendants moved away to avoid the conflict, leaving Shem mostly on his own but still the king of Salem. Shem’s inheritance, the land promised to him, is taken by the Canaanites and becomes known as the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is really Shem’s rightful inheritance stolen by Canaan and his family.
Abraham is called back to this land by God to retrieve it for God’s chosen people. As soon as Abraham defeats the four kings who had defeated the five kings in that region, becoming a sort of king of kings in what later will be called Israel, Melchizedek comes out to bless him. When Abraham reasserts authority over his family’s rightful inheritance over against the Canaanites, it is then that the ultimate family father, Shem, comes out to pass on the family blessing and inheritance. Abraham comes to set his people free and to regain the lost inheritance, and so he is blessed and made the new head of the family of God by the former head, Shem.
The Promised Land was controlled by the Canaanites because they had usurped it from Shem’s family. Abraham reasserted his familial claim, and so was made the family’s new head. This is all symbolic and a representation of the battle between humans and demons. The demons are jealous of us and seek to keep us from our God-given inheritance, heaven. The Promised Land is one of the strongest symbols of heaven, and through the disobedience of our first parents and the deceit of the devil, we lost our inheritance.
We have been trying to regain it ever since; this is represented in the Old Testament by the continual quest for the Promised Land. Abraham was the first one to reclaim it; David is the next one to get peace from his enemies round about, and then God makes a covenant with him promising that one of David’s descendants will reign on his throne forever. Jesus is the fulfillment of these prefigurements, for He definitively retakes heaven and opens its doors for all who are united to Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
and let Canaan be his slave” (Genesis 9:26).
The blessing is a big deal; later, we see Esau and Jacob doing whatever they can to get the blessing from their father, Isaac. Shem gets the blessing, and then we no longer hear of the blessing until 290 years, ten generations, later when Abraham gets blessed by Melchizedek saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19).
Melchizedek is probably not a person’s given birth-name but a title-name. The letter to the Hebrews says of him that, “He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace” (Hebrews 7:2). So if Melchizedek isn’t his birth-name, who is he? Hebrews is not arguing that Melchizedek had no genealogy but that he did not have the correct Levitical genealogy required to be a Levitical Priest. The argument is about which is the enduring priesthood, and the answer is the bread-and-wine priesthood of Melchizedek.
Since Melchizedek is someone other than Melchizedek, and he is someone who possesses the blessing, could he be Shem, the last one we heard about who was blessed? Shem lived 210 years after the birth of Abraham, so he was around.
I’ll tell you what I think. Shem was blessed and given the inheritance, but the Canaanites and the Hamites continued to try to take over his inheritance. Shem’s descendants moved away to avoid the conflict, leaving Shem mostly on his own but still the king of Salem. Shem’s inheritance, the land promised to him, is taken by the Canaanites and becomes known as the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is really Shem’s rightful inheritance stolen by Canaan and his family.
Abraham is called back to this land by God to retrieve it for God’s chosen people. As soon as Abraham defeats the four kings who had defeated the five kings in that region, becoming a sort of king of kings in what later will be called Israel, Melchizedek comes out to bless him. When Abraham reasserts authority over his family’s rightful inheritance over against the Canaanites, it is then that the ultimate family father, Shem, comes out to pass on the family blessing and inheritance. Abraham comes to set his people free and to regain the lost inheritance, and so he is blessed and made the new head of the family of God by the former head, Shem.
The Promised Land was controlled by the Canaanites because they had usurped it from Shem’s family. Abraham reasserted his familial claim, and so was made the family’s new head. This is all symbolic and a representation of the battle between humans and demons. The demons are jealous of us and seek to keep us from our God-given inheritance, heaven. The Promised Land is one of the strongest symbols of heaven, and through the disobedience of our first parents and the deceit of the devil, we lost our inheritance.
We have been trying to regain it ever since; this is represented in the Old Testament by the continual quest for the Promised Land. Abraham was the first one to reclaim it; David is the next one to get peace from his enemies round about, and then God makes a covenant with him promising that one of David’s descendants will reign on his throne forever. Jesus is the fulfillment of these prefigurements, for He definitively retakes heaven and opens its doors for all who are united to Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
12.08.2007
The Quest for the Promised Land: Part 1
The question I will address tonight is why does God promise to give Abraham and his descendants the Promised Land? This question ties together with another question, why is there this never-ending quest for the Promised Land?
To examine the first question, we have to start by looking at who occupies the Promised Land. It is known as the land of Canaan. Who are the Canaanites? Where did they come from? Who was Canaan? We have to look back to Genesis 9:18 where Noah’s three sons are mentioned for the first time after getting out of the ark: “The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.”
A few verses later it says, “Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent” (9:20-21) The sense of the Hebrew word translated “uncovered” means one’s private parts are exposed. The passage continues with the second mention of Canaan: “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside” (9:22).
What is the big deal? Noah gets so angry with Ham for seeing his nakedness that he proclaims: “Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers” (9:25). Noah curses his grandson! Whoa! Either Noah is some ultra-sensitive wacko who is both extremely insecure about his own son seeing him naked and highly vindictive to the merely guilty-by-association, or there is something going on which is more than meets the eye. Let’s see what it was that Ham saw.
Our clues lie in Leviticus 18. This chapter opens up with God warning the Israelites not to do what the Canaanites do: “you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes” (Lev 18:3). “Ok, ok,” we could respond to God, “we won’t do what they do in Canaan. We will follow you, O Lord.” We would be wondering, “What exactly do they do in Canaan?”
God continues: “None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness” (18:6-8). Seeing one’s nakedness is to have sexual relations with them. When Ham sees his father’s nakedness, that is an idiom saying that he had sexual relations with his mother.
Ham sinned with his mother when she was not protected by her drunken husband, but why is Canaan cursed? Why isn’t Ham cursed? Canaan was the fruit of the union of Ham with his mother. The Canaanites’ religion was based in cult prostitution and incest; it was an incestuous fertility cult. A people celebrates their beginning and origin, so the Canaanites celebrated their incestuous coming-into-being in their worship. This is why God warned the Israelites before they entered into this land.
Why would Ham do that? It was an attempt to take control of the family and lay claim to a double portion of the inheritance. Normally, that automatically goes to the first-born son. Shem was the first-born, and Ham wanted what was due Shem. The mentality seems to be: whoever is sleeping with the mother of the household is the head of the family.
Absalom did a very similar thing to his father, David. David had many sons, and Absalom wanted to be his successor instead of any of his brothers. “Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, ‘Give your counsel; what shall we do?’ Ahithophel said to Absalom, ‘Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.’ So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof; and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel” (2 Sam.16:20-22).
Another one of David’s sons, Adonijah, tries to take over as the next king. His plan does not work and Solomon is anointed as the new king. A little later, Adonijah asks his brother Solomon, the new king, to give him one of David’s wives, and Solomon responds: “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother, and on his side are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah” (1 Kgs 2:22). If Adonijah has as wife one of his father’s wives, he could try again to take the kingship.
Earlier, Jacob’s first-born son, Reuben, does the very same thing, going into Bilhah, one of his father’s concubines (Gen 35:22) Although Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn, the son of Leah, his first wife, Jacob did not fully consider Reuben the first-born. Jacob was tricked on his wedding night by his father-in-law; he thought he was marrying the love of his life, Rachel, but Leah was given him instead. He loved Rachel, so he ended up marrying both. The two women had a baby competition, and to try to get ahead, they use their maids to have more children. Jacob had his twelve sons through four women.
The inheritance was going to go to Joseph since Jacob considered him to be his first-born, being the first child of the one he considered his real wife, Rachel. Bilhah was the maid of Rachel by whom Jacob had two sons. So Reuben tried to take what he considered rightfully his (the inheritance) by sleeping with the mother of the competition. Before Jacob dies, he blesses his sons; to Reuben he says: “Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, pre-eminent in pride and pre-eminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have pre-eminence because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—you went up to my couch!” (49:3-4)
Canaan is the result of Ham’s attempt to take over control of the family. It is his descendants who live in the Promised Land. I will have to continue the explanation tomorrow.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
To examine the first question, we have to start by looking at who occupies the Promised Land. It is known as the land of Canaan. Who are the Canaanites? Where did they come from? Who was Canaan? We have to look back to Genesis 9:18 where Noah’s three sons are mentioned for the first time after getting out of the ark: “The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.”
A few verses later it says, “Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent” (9:20-21) The sense of the Hebrew word translated “uncovered” means one’s private parts are exposed. The passage continues with the second mention of Canaan: “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside” (9:22).
What is the big deal? Noah gets so angry with Ham for seeing his nakedness that he proclaims: “Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers” (9:25). Noah curses his grandson! Whoa! Either Noah is some ultra-sensitive wacko who is both extremely insecure about his own son seeing him naked and highly vindictive to the merely guilty-by-association, or there is something going on which is more than meets the eye. Let’s see what it was that Ham saw.
Our clues lie in Leviticus 18. This chapter opens up with God warning the Israelites not to do what the Canaanites do: “you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes” (Lev 18:3). “Ok, ok,” we could respond to God, “we won’t do what they do in Canaan. We will follow you, O Lord.” We would be wondering, “What exactly do they do in Canaan?”
God continues: “None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness” (18:6-8). Seeing one’s nakedness is to have sexual relations with them. When Ham sees his father’s nakedness, that is an idiom saying that he had sexual relations with his mother.
Ham sinned with his mother when she was not protected by her drunken husband, but why is Canaan cursed? Why isn’t Ham cursed? Canaan was the fruit of the union of Ham with his mother. The Canaanites’ religion was based in cult prostitution and incest; it was an incestuous fertility cult. A people celebrates their beginning and origin, so the Canaanites celebrated their incestuous coming-into-being in their worship. This is why God warned the Israelites before they entered into this land.
Why would Ham do that? It was an attempt to take control of the family and lay claim to a double portion of the inheritance. Normally, that automatically goes to the first-born son. Shem was the first-born, and Ham wanted what was due Shem. The mentality seems to be: whoever is sleeping with the mother of the household is the head of the family.
Absalom did a very similar thing to his father, David. David had many sons, and Absalom wanted to be his successor instead of any of his brothers. “Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, ‘Give your counsel; what shall we do?’ Ahithophel said to Absalom, ‘Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.’ So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof; and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel” (2 Sam.16:20-22).
Another one of David’s sons, Adonijah, tries to take over as the next king. His plan does not work and Solomon is anointed as the new king. A little later, Adonijah asks his brother Solomon, the new king, to give him one of David’s wives, and Solomon responds: “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother, and on his side are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah” (1 Kgs 2:22). If Adonijah has as wife one of his father’s wives, he could try again to take the kingship.
Earlier, Jacob’s first-born son, Reuben, does the very same thing, going into Bilhah, one of his father’s concubines (Gen 35:22) Although Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn, the son of Leah, his first wife, Jacob did not fully consider Reuben the first-born. Jacob was tricked on his wedding night by his father-in-law; he thought he was marrying the love of his life, Rachel, but Leah was given him instead. He loved Rachel, so he ended up marrying both. The two women had a baby competition, and to try to get ahead, they use their maids to have more children. Jacob had his twelve sons through four women.
The inheritance was going to go to Joseph since Jacob considered him to be his first-born, being the first child of the one he considered his real wife, Rachel. Bilhah was the maid of Rachel by whom Jacob had two sons. So Reuben tried to take what he considered rightfully his (the inheritance) by sleeping with the mother of the competition. Before Jacob dies, he blesses his sons; to Reuben he says: “Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, pre-eminent in pride and pre-eminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have pre-eminence because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—you went up to my couch!” (49:3-4)
Canaan is the result of Ham’s attempt to take over control of the family. It is his descendants who live in the Promised Land. I will have to continue the explanation tomorrow.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
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