Prequel

Thought maybe it would be appropriate to backtrack and give my theory on the "epistle" to the Hebrews.
I was reading J.B. Phillips some years ago and, as he usually did, he rearranged my status quo thinking about biblical events.
  Just before Stephen makes his mark as the first martyr to the faith, there is one verse in Acts 6:7 that points out that a large number of the Jerusalem priests followed Jesus.  (The obvious reason, as my dad pointed out, was "because they knew good and well that the Holy of Holies was empty..."  I would add a corollary to that: the High Priest knew it had been empty for 400+ years.)  So what are you going to do with a company of priests that are no longer on the payroll of the Temple coffers?  Put the book of Hebrews in their hands and send them out to all the synagogues in Judea and Samaria.  If all goes well, they will follow Jesus and Stephen (and establish a precedent for Paul) by being beaten or run out of town.  The synagogue will split and a new church will be born.  Hard to imagine such a "church planting" method in our way of doing things.

Squeezing Paul

  

   I was reading in the book of Acts this week and came upon something that fascinated me.  The scene is approximately 17 to 18 years after the resurrection.  Saul (soon to be Paul), who had apparently decided that having his membership at the Jerusalem church was not for the best, has been at a church in the city of Antioch.  The time is right for the Holy Spirit to send another team on a missionary journey and Saul is paired up with the great hearted Barnabas.  Off they go and spend a lot of time traveling from one end of Cyprus to the other with a minimum of conflict. Then, after sailing to the mainland, they work their way back toward home.

   When the two men arrive in Antioch of Pisidia (not their hometown of Antioch in Syria) the writer of Acts shows us what developed as their missionary method from this point on in their journey.  When invited to give a word of encouragement, Saul elaborates on the truth of the gospel that is based firmly on the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, and son of David (Acts 13:16-41). In so doing, he repudiates his own heritage and Pharisaical preference as a son of Saul the first king of Israel.  In doing this, he casts off the burden of using the epistle of the Hebrews that was developed by the early church to be used under these same circumstances at synagogues in Judea. 

   The thing that caught my eye in Paul’s word of encouragement was that he uses the name “David” four times.  I read through the entire book of Hebrews to see how often “David” is used: two times. It is easy to discount the first usage (Heb. 4:7) as euphemistic (something found “in David” would be a reference to finding it in the Psalms) and not indicative of the writer’s attitude toward David.

   We are left with the one instance of “David” being used in 11:32. Notice that the author of Hebrews has written largely of the patriarchs and other figures in Hebrew history. When he comes to the closing part of this section, he names some of the judges and lumps David in with them, contrary to the historical order. This contrary position is made worse by the fact that David is placed in a subordinate relationship to Samuel and not included in the prophets. He is never given due honor as King David. This position could have no function other than to soften the message and make it palatable to the party of the Pharisees (note the political power of the Pharisees within the church in Acts 15:1-5).

   My point here is not to impugn the Epistle to the Hebrews as being inferior to Paul and his method.  My point is to demonstrate that Paul was being saddled with something that would not work for him in the places where he was to minister the Word (clearly an inversion of the ancient story of David being saddled with the armor of King Saul! 1Samuel 17:38-39).  The great bible scholar, F.F. Bruce, points out that this homily of Saul/Paul in Acts 13 has the same homiletic character as the Epistle to the Hebrews (NICT revised, p.25). What Bruce misses is that Paul’s rejection of using Hebrews, even though it had been so effective throughout the synagogues in Judea and possibly Samaria, is the mandate of the Holy Spirit to launch a new mission method that shakes off the work of the Jerusalem church as the guiding force for the future. Something like what Hebrews 5 describes as moving from milk to meat.

   Paul and Barnabas have a new experience based on the new approach to the gospel. The Gentiles flock to the Synagogue and many of the Jewish people side with Paul and the gospel.  Paul and Barnabas are persecuted and, in the uproar, a new church is founded.  When they move to the next city, the same thing happens (Acts 14).  The missionary team arrives in their hometown for rest, only to be confronted with Pharisees demanding foreskins.  Everyone goes to the Jerusalem church to get a judgment on whether the Gentiles are required to be circumcised.  Paul takes Titus along (Galatians 2:1-3) and adamantly refuses to have him endure circumcision.

   When Paul finally makes his case to the apostles in Jerusalem, notice the judgment given by James in Acts 15:13-21. Quoting scripture (Amos 9:11-12), James introduces the position of David as being the highest consideration.  The movement of the Holy Spirit in foreign lands is directly linked to David, not Moses. The subordination of David in the earlier church document, the “epistle” to the Hebrews, is reversed and the attitude of the Pharisees is officially declared to be untenable. Paul and Barnabas have won the day on behalf of their approach to “foreign missions.”  Paul claims his apostolic office and moves to fulfill the promise of Jesus concerning him; “I will show him the many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” (Acts 9:16)

"Flying from the scarlet city where a Lord that knows no pity / Mocks the broken people praying round his iron throne," C.S. Lewis

Jonah 4

1  But Jonah was ill and distressed beyond measure, fuming and fretting at the outcome.

2  So he prayed unto the Lord and kept saying to Him:

O Lord,

O Lord,

O Lord,

“I knew you would do this when I was still at home.  Wasn’t that what I said?  That was why I ran away to Tarshish, because I knew that, of all things, You and You alone are a gracious and compassionate God.  You are slow to get angry and full of loving kindness – even pitying those who are miserable and distressed.”

3  “And now, O Lord, I pray that you will take my life from me so that some good will come from my death; since I prefer death to life.”

4  And the Lord said, “How good of you to be so angry for Me!”

5  So Jonah walked out and left the city and camped out on the east side of the city. He made for himself a shed and sat in the scanty shade it gave so that he could watch the show of what the Lord was going to do to the city.

6  So the Lord God chose to make a gourd to climb up over Jonah’s head to give more shade to his head. And Jonah was relieved from his distress and rejoiced over the great blessing of the gourd plant.

7  Then God chose a worm to work at eating away the inside of the gourd until the dawn of the next morning. So the worm destroyed the gourd and it withered away to nothing. 

8  And so it was when the sun rose, God made the east wind particularly hot.  Jonah was overheated by the blazing sun.  Jonah felt faint as he prayed that he preferred to die.  Over and over he kept saying, “Death! Death! I would be better off dead!”

9  And God said unto Jonah, “Is it a good thing that you are angry about the gourd?” and Jonah said “I have a right to be angry, even if it kills me!”

10  And the Lord said, “You have loving kindness toward a gourd, which you did nothing to bring about and in no way caused it to grow. A gourd, mind you, which I made to last from one night to the next without any help from you. Should not I especially have pity upon Nineveh, that great city in which there are many more than 120,000 men who do not know their right hand from their left hand, along with many cattle?

World's shortest sermon.

Jonah 3

1 And that is where Jonah was when the Word of the Lord found him the second time and began to say to him,

2 "Get your things together, Jonah, and get going toward the great city Nineveh.  When you arrive there you will proclaim my message, preach unto her the sermon which I have been telling you.

3  So Jonah pulled himself together and began walking toward Nineveh following after the Word of the Lord.  Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city unto the gods.  It is questionable whether someone could walk from one end of it to the other in three days.

4  Now Jonah waited until he had come into the city about a days walk and then he cried out and said, “Nineveh has 40 days before it will be overthrown.”

5  And all the people of Nineveh trusted God and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth. All of them, from the greatest to the least of them, put on sackcloth.

6  When the word going around the city came to the king’s attention, he rose up from his throne and laid aside his royal robes. Then the king covered himself from head to toe in sackcloth and sat down in an ash pit to fast with his people.

7  When he had everyone that he needed with him at the ash pit, he spoke the following words to his nobles so that they would tell all the people, “People of Nineveh - Do not eat or drink any food or water, do not let your animals ear or drink and take your cattle and sheep out of the pastures.”

8  “Sackcloth is all that we will wear and the animals shall wear the same.  Make as much noise as you can and cry out to God. Every man is to turn away from evil and from the cruel things you do and the places you go.”

9  “Who knows whether God will pity us and look at us again so that harm will be turned away from us. Perhaps His burning anger will not consume us so that we all perish.”

10  So God saw all that they did and how they truly turned away from the path of destruction.  And God felt sorry for them because of the panic and distress that came from the proclamation He had made against them. He did not destroy them as He had declared He would.

Jonah lived in a special submarine...

Jonah 2

1 Now the Lord chose a huge fish that could swallow up Jonah and that is how Jonah came to be in the belly of the fish for three days and for three nights.

2 While he was inside the fish, Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God and this is what he said:

3          I called out unto the Lord from within my time of trouble

                        and he listened to me;

            From the very depths of Hell I hailed you.

                        You heard my cry for Help,

4          Since it was you who cast me down

                        into the depths,

                        into the heart of the sea;

                        (The flood of waters would not let me go.)

            all of your crashing waves

            and all of your rolling waves

                        washed over me.

5          That's when I heard myself say,            

            "Even though I cannot be in your presence right now,

            I will be able to feast my eyes on your Holy Temple again."

6          Unto the depths of my soul itself,

                        the waters surrounded me;

            In the heart of the great deep,

                        is where I drowned,

                            pressed to my brow,

                            the seaweed wound.

7          To the place where the mountains rest,

                        I sank that low;

            The doors in the lowest parts of the earth,

                        were closed upon me

                            by an eternal hand.

            But before my life slipped forever away,

                        You raised me up,

                            O Lord my God!

8          When my soul was shrouded within me,

                        I remembered the Lord;

            And I sent to your Holy Temple,

                        the offering of my prayer.

9 There are many who forsake kindness.

            The cause of this?

            Being all too ready to depend on lies.

10 But as for me?

            I will be singing God's praises,

            putting my tongue to good use,

               as I get ready to sacrifice and

               as I prepare to pay my vows:

            There is Salvation in the Lord!

11 So the Lord directed the fish and made him throw up at just the right place; and Jonah found himself on dry ground.