Slip-Sliding Away

1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. – Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV

As the author of Hebrews made clear in the opening of his letter, angels were “ministering spirits” sent by God “to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14 ESV). It was an angel who declared the coming of the Messiah to a young Hebrew girl named Mary.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” – Luke 1:30-33 ESV

It had been a host of angels that declared the birth of the Messiah to a group of trembling shepherds outside the town of Bethlehem.

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:10-11 ESV

And 30 years later, it was two angels who encouraged Jesus’ stunned disciples as they stood on the outskirts of Jerusalem, staring into the sky where their Lord and Savior had just disappeared out of sight.

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” – Acts 1:11 ESV

Angels were messengers but they weren’t the Messiah. As ministering spirits, they could encourage, inform, and deliver good news,  but they were unable to provide forgiveness from sin or victory over death and the grave. Both Paul and Peter described the essential role that angels played in the deliverance of the Mosaic Law.

Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. – Galatians 3:19 NLT

The Jewish people believed that angels were present when God gave Moses the law on Mount Sinai and they base this belief on a verse found in the Torah. In this passage, Moses records his recollection of that day.

“The Lord came from Sinai
    and dawned over them from Seir;
    he shone forth from Mount Paran.
He came with myriads of holy ones
    from the south, from his mountain slopes.” – Deuteronomy 33:2 NIV

And centuries later, Stephen preached a sermon to a gathering of Jews in the city of Jerusalem, in which he reminded them of the role that God’s ministering servants had played on that memorable day.

“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.” – Acts 7:37-38 ESV

And as Peter wrapped up his sermon, he confronted his unbelieving Jewish audience about the danger of dismissing the message concerning the new covenant. They were running the risk of rejecting God’s message of hope and deliverance yet again.

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” – Acts 7:51-53 NLT

This bold declaration by Stephen was not well received. The angry mob, offended by his words, dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death. As Stephen made clear in his sermon, the Jews had a habit of killing the messenger. Over the centuries, they had shown their predisposition for rejecting the word of God delivered through His messengers. The law had been delivered to Moses through the mediation of angels, but the people had ended up rejecting it. The prophets had delivered God’s call to repentance, but the people had rejected it. And Jesus, the penultimate messenger from God, had delivered the news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone. But they had not only rejected His message but they eventually killed the messenger.

In the book of Hebrews, the author is writing to Hebrew Christians who find themselves under pressure to reject the good news regarding Jesus and return to their former status as covenant-keeping, law-abiding Jews. But He warns his readers against slipping away from the truth regarding salvation. That message of salvation came from the lips of Jesus Himself and was fulfilled by His bodily sacrifice on the cross. Jesus had clearly taught, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ESV).

He claimed, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9 ESV). He had told Martha, just before he raised Lazarus from the dead, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26 ESV). And Jesus told Nicodemus, the Pharisee, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).

So, the author tells his readers, “…we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard” (Hebrews 2:1 ESV). The message of Jesus, carried on by His disciples after His ascension into heaven, had been circulated among both Jews and Gentiles, resulting in many people coming to faith in Him as their Savior. But there was always the real possibility of drifting away by those who had embraced the good news of the gospel.

The Greek term the author uses is pararreō and it means to “let slip, glide by.” Rather than remain anchored to the truth regarding their salvation, they were beginning to drift away, carried by a current of moral subjectivity and doctrinal heresy.

In chapter six of this same letter, the author reminds his readers, “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary” (Hebrews 6:18-19 NLT).

We will not drift as long as we remain firmly attached to the truth of the gospel. Those who fled to Jesus for refuge from condemnation and the penalty for sin can have great confidence that He will one day return for them. Drifting always begins with doubt. When our assurance weakens, the likelihood of our drifting increases.

That church’s experience 2,000 years ago intersects our lives in this way: drifting is the besetting sin of our day. And as the metaphor suggests, it is not so much intentional as from unconcern. Christians neglect their anchor—Christ—and begin to quietly drift away. There is no friction, no dramatic sense of departure. But when the winds of trouble come, the things of Christ are left far behind, even out of sight. – R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews

The author compares the message concerning Jesus with “the message declared by angels,” which refers to the Mosaic law. Look closely again at the words of Moses recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

The Lord came from Sinai and revealed himself to Israel from Seir. He appeared in splendor from Mount Paran, and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. With his right hand he gave a fiery law to them. – Deuteronomy 33:2 NET

The author of Hebrews says that message, the law, proved to be reliable. What it said about sin and punishment was accurate, just, and righteous. It revealed that all men are sinners and incapable of living up to God’s holy standard. So, the author asks, “So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?” (Hebrews 2:3 NLT).

This passage is not suggesting that Christians can lose their salvation. It is talking about drifting away from the truth and the hope found in the gospel. It is talking about allowing doctrinal drift to subtly creep into your life, causing you to doubt the veracity of God’s promise of eternal life through faith in Christ.

The message of salvation declared by Jesus was carried on by the apostles. It was supported by signs and wonders. It was proven by the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the church. But despite all this, there is always the temptation to lose our grip on the solid rock of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The issue has to do with doctrinal drift that begins with doubting the promises attached to the gospel message.

When we begin to wonder if faith alone is enough, we will begin to add to the gospel. This usually begins when we allow present circumstances to define the veracity of the gospel message. If things don’t appear to be going quite the way we expected, we begin to wonder if something is missing. We question whether there is more that we need to be doing. Difficulties can bring doubt. Doubt can lead to drift. Drift can result in shoddy doctrine. And we end up neglecting or discounting the “great salvation” made possible through faith in Christ. As soon as we start doubting our salvation, we will find ourselves prone to doctrinal drift, a subtle, but dangerous unmooring of our faith in the one thing that can truly provide us with hope. It doesn’t mean we lose our salvation, but we will most certainly lose our ability to enjoy peace in the storm, joy in the midst of sorrow, hope in spite of setbacks, and assurance in the face of uncertainty.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Better Than…

7 Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,
    and his ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
    the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

10 And,

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
    like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
    and your years will have no end.”

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,

“Sit at my right hand
    until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? – Hebrews 1:7-14 ESV

For the author of Hebrews, the theme of his letter is simple, yet profound. He spends the vast majority of his treatise supporting his premise that Jesus is superior to anything that has come before Him, including every aspect of the Levitical system. He is attempting to dissuade the Jewish audience to whom he wrote from abandoning their faith in Christ and returning to their former dependency upon the Mosaic Law and their vain attempts to earn favor with God through human effort. At the core of his message is a warning to avoid any attempt to supplement their faith in Jesus.

These Jewish converts to Christianity were under a lot of pressure from their Hebrew peers to return to Judaism. But to do so would require these new Christians to demote and devalue the worth of Christ and His gift of salvation. It was only natural for these Jewish believers to hold their former faith system in high esteem. After all, they had spent the majority of their lives attempting to keep the Mosaic Law and fulfilling the various sacramental and sacrificial requirements placed upon them by God. Yahweh had clearly told them, “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6 ESV).

These people had been raised to believe that their obedience was the key to their ongoing relationship with God. Strict adherence to His laws and a faithful commitment to the covenant they had made with Him were essential to remaining in good standing with Yahweh. But when Jesus appeared on the scene, all of that had changed. He offered another way and, according to the author of Hebrews, a superior way. In fact, he will spend the rest of his letter comparing Jesus to every other element of Judaism that they tended to revere and to which they were tempted to return.

He began his letter with an unapologetic defense of Jesus superiority, even placing Him on a higher plane than the angelic beings. These divine creatures had played a significant role in the history of the people of Israel. They had served as God’s messengers and even as agents of destruction. But the author wants his readers to understand that Jesus, as the Son of God, was far superior to any angel.

Angels are ministers. They are servants of God. Like the wind, they blow according to His will. They are worshipers and are never to be worshiped by men. But the Son of God is different. As the author expressed earlier, “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God” and “he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command” (Romans 1:3 NLTa).

He holds a “place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven” (Romans 1:3b NLT), and as a result, “the Son is far greater than the angels” (Romans 1:4 NLT).

Using the Old Testament Scriptures as a proof text for his thoughts, the author of Hebrews presents the Son of God as having a royal pedigree, ruling over an everlasting kingdom that is marked by righteousness. He is eternal, having always existed as God and having no beginning or end. Rather than having been created, He is the creator of all that exists. And, as God, His nature is unchanging. The fact that He came to earth and took on human flesh in no way diminished or altered His divinity in any way. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, ruling in righteousness over all that exists.

For the writer of Hebrews, the deity of Jesus is essential and non-negotiable. He is the Son of God and, as such, He shares the nature and character of God. He is royal, immutable, all-powerful, sovereign, righteous and, ultimately, the victor in the battle over sin, death, and Satan.

Part of what the author is attempting to do is promote the superiority of the new covenant over the old one. And since the average Jew believed the old covenant was brought to them from God by angels, they held angels in high regard. But the point of this letter is to establish the superiority of Christ in all things. He is greater than angels. The new covenant in His blood is superior to the old covenant which was based on works. His service to men through the offering of His life as a payment for sin is far superior to any service the angels may offer up.

The angels, while important, pale in significance when compared with Christ. In fact, they exist “to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14 ESV). In other words, they exist to serve God’s people, and we serve Christ. He is the head of the body of Christ. He alone deserves our worship and full attention.

Angels could bring “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10 ESV). But they could not save anyone. They could announce the arrival of Jesus on the scene, but He would still have to sacrifice His own life to make salvation possible to men. And while angels were the ones who told the women at Jesus’ empty tomb, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6 ESV), they were simply messengers of some very good news. Without Jesus, there would have been no news at all.

Apart from Jesus, salvation would be impossible for all men. Had Jesus not died and rose again, there would have been no victory over sin, Satan, and the grave. But Jesus DID come. He DID die. He WAS resurrected from death to life. He HAS ascended back to heaven. And He WILL return one day.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Our Incomparable Savior

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son,
    today I have begotten you”?

Or again,

“I will be to him a father,
    and he shall be to me a son”?

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God's angels worship him.”

7 Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,
    and his ministers a flame of fire.” – Hebrews 1:5-7 ESV

For the author of Hebrews, it seemed important to establish Christ’s uniqueness and complete sufficiency. Writing to a Jewish audience, he wanted to ensure that they understood that Jesus was much more than just a man, so he presented seven facts concerning Jesus. 1) He was appointed the heir of all things by God. All that belongs to God, which includes everything, belongs to Jesus as His Son. 2) He created the universe. All that exists in time and space was made possible by Jesus as the second person of the Trinity. Paul wrote to the believers in Colossae:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. – Colossians 1:15-17 ESV

Jesus wasn’t created by God. He is the God who created all things. 3) He is the radiance of the glory of God. In His incarnation, Jesus made God visible to man. During His incarnation, He shone forth the glory of God; but in a veiled sense. Yet His words and works revealed the power and majesty of God to man. 4) He is the exact imprint of God’s nature. In seeing Jesus, men were able to see the nature of God revealed. He made God’s goodness, wisdom, glory, and righteousness visible to men. 5) He upholds the universe by the word of His power. His very word sustains and maintains the universe. His word has power beyond that of any other source. 6) He made purification for sins. By sacrificing His own life, Jesus made it possible for mankind to experience both the cleansing from and removal of sin and its deadly consequences. 7) He sat down at the right hand of God. Having faithfully and obediently completed His God-appointed task, Jesus ascended back to heaven and retained His rightful place next to God the Father, where He rules and reigns at this very moment.

All of this puts Jesus on a different plane than anyone and everything else. There is nothing that can compare with Him, including angels. These heavenly beings, who played a vital role in the history and religious understanding of the Jews, were not to be compared with Jesus.

In Judaism, angels were viewed as divine messengers from God. In fact, the Jews closely associated angels with the giving of the Law of Moses. We read in Deuteronomy 33:

The Lord came from Sinai and revealed himself to Israel from Seir. He appeared in splendor from Mount Paran, and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. With his right hand he gave a fiery law to them. – Deuteronomy 33:2 NET

Paul tells us that the law “was administered through angels by an intermediary” (Galatians 3:19 NET). So angels were venerated by the Jews, and it would seem that there were some in the early days of the church who took the veneration of angels and turned it into worship. Paul warned about it in his letter to the church in Colossae:

Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. – Colossians 2:18-19 NLT

The author of Hebrews wants us to understand that angels, while superior beings in many ways are not to be compared with Jesus. And to support his point, he provides four Old Testament passages as evidence. Quoting from Psalm 2:7, he asks if God had ever said to any angel, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you?” And the answer is no. The Jews in his audience would have understood this Davidic psalm as speaking of the Messiah. And while angels were often referred to in the Old Testament Scriptures as “sons of God,” no angel was ever called “the Son of God.”

Quoting from 2 Samuel 7:14, the author asks whether God ever said of any angel, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (Hebrews 1:5 ESV). Again, the Jews would have recognized this as a promise of God given to David the king. It was a Messianic passage, partially fulfilled in the life of Solomon, David’s son, but ultimately fulfilled in Christ, “who was descended from David – according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3 ESV). Using Deuteronomy 32:14 as his reference, the author reminds his readers that God said even the angels would one day worship Jesus.

Finally, using Psalm 104:4, the author presents angels as nothing more than divine messengers. The psalmist compares them to wind, invisible and at the mercy of a far greater power. There were created by God and were designed for His glory, not their own. Like flames of fire, they sometimes brought illumination and, at other times, judgment. But they were never meant to be worshiped.

In the book of Revelation, John was visited by an angel and given words from God that he was to write down. John's response was to fall down and worship the angel, but he was told, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God” (Revelation 19:10 ESV). And then the angel gave John an important point of clarification: “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10 ESV). All that John was being shown in his vision concerning the end times revolved around the person of Christ. In fact, in the very next verses of John’s revelation, we read:

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. – Revelation 19:11-16 ESV

Jesus is superior to angels. He alone is to be worshiped and revered. It is He who sits at the right hand of God and who will one day return as the King of kings and Lord of lords. There is nothing and no one to compare with Jesus. He alone is worthy of our praise, worship, glory, honor, and love.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Mercy Seat

10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.

17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. 21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. – Exodus 25:10-22 ESV

After communicating His command that the people build a sanctuary as His dwelling place on earth, God provided detailed plans for every aspect of its construction, but He didn’t begin with the structure itself. Instead, He focused His attention on the three pieces of furniture that were to occupy the inner recesses of the tabernacle.

The very first item He described was the Ark of the Covenant. This was to be a rectangular box constructed from acacia wood and overlaid with gold. It was to be carried by two gold-covered poles that were inserted into golden rings affixed to its side. Inside this coffin-like container, Moses was to place “the testimony” or stone tablets that God would eventually give him.

But why did God begin with this particular piece of furniture? If the sanctuary was to be His dwelling place, why did He focus His attention on this ornate box? It was because the Ark of the Covenant would be the most important fixture in the entire Tabernacle.

“It was the exact place where God descended to dwell with his people, which of course was the purpose of the building. The very center of God’s presence was the ark of the covenant, which was located in the Holy of Holies – the innermost tent in the tabernacle. By starting with the ark, God was working from the inside out. He was putting first things first, beginning with the holy place of his dwelling.” – Philip Graham Ryken,  Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory

On top of the Ark of the Covenant, Moses was to place the Mercy Seat. This was to serve as the lid for the Ark but, more importantly, as a “throne” for God’s presence. God informed Moses that this “seat” would be the actual place where His presence came to dwell within the Tabernacle.

“…you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.” – Exodus 25:21-22 ESV

“The purpose of the ark was to contain the tables of the law, ‘the Testimony.’ But more than that, it represented the presence of God in a very special way. God promised that He would appear in a cloud upon the mercy seat which was on the ark in the most holy place. Into that place, ‘the Most Holy Place,’ the high priest would enter one a year to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat in order that the sins of the people might be atoned (Lev. 16).” – Maxie D. Duncan, Exodus, The Preacher’s Commentary

Little did Moses know that he was being commanded to construct a miniature replica of God’s throne in heaven. On top of the ark, he was to place two gold Cherubim or ministering angels, whose wings were to spread out over the Mercy Seat. This description matches the one provided by the apostle John in the book of Revelation when he was given a vision of God’s throne room in heaven.

…a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!” – Revelation 4:2-8 ESV

And the prophet, Ezekiel, was given a similar glimpse into God’s throne room, where he saw the same scene, complete with Cherubim spreading their wings before God’s presence.

““above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” – Ezekiel 1:26-28 ESV

The Mercy Seat was intended to be God’s throne on earth. It was there that He would come to dwell among His people, sitting above the Law He had given them. And it was there that, once a year on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would come to offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people.

“Each year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood of animals sacrificed for the atonement of the sins of God’s people. This blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. The point conveyed by this imagery is that it is only through the offering of blood that the condemnation of the Law could be taken away and violations of God’s laws covered.” – gotquestions.org

The Law, holy and righteous, would condemn the people of their sins. But the blood of the sacrificed animal, when sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, would atone or pay for those sins and purchase the people’s redemption. They would receive mercy rather than wrath. They would enjoy God’s forgiveness rather than condemnation. And all of this was to point to the greater sacrifice to come: Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God. The apostle Paul explains how Jesus became the ultimate expression of God’s gracious gift of redemption from sin and death.

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. – Romans 3:21-26 NLT

And the author of Hebrews echoes Paul’s words when he writes of Christ’s atoning work on the cross that secured God’s mercy for sinful mankind once for all time.

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant. – Hebrews 9:11-15 NLT

The Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle was meant to foreshadow the future sacrifice of Christ that would atone for the sins of mankind. This simple, yet ornate, piece of furniture was to illustrate the unwavering righteousness of God through the presence of the two tablets of the Law. The golden cherubim were to be a reminder of God’s holiness and His worthiness to be worshiped by all His creatures. And the Mercy Seat was to be the very place where God’s presence came to dwell among His people and where their sins would have to be atoned for each year. They were an unworthy people who were incapable of keeping God’s holy law. But, in His grace and mercy, God had provided a means of receiving atonement and forgiveness. Not only would He grace them with His presence, but He would bless them with His merciful and undeserved removal of their guilt and condemnation. And it all pointed to Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. – Hebrews 9:24-26 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A Divine Intervention

1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. – Genesis 6:1-8 ESV

Once again, Moses reveals that mankind was keeping the divine mandate to “multiply and fill the earth.” They were doing what God had commanded them to do. But the problem was that, because of the fall, mankind was no longer able to bear God’s image as He had intended. They had become damaged goods. Like a dirty mirror, their ability to accurately reflect His divine glory had been marred. Yet, according to chapter five, there was a still remnant of individuals who still chose to worship God. The ungodly line of Cain was balanced out by the more faithful line of Seth, illustrated in the life of Enoch, a man who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:21 ESV).

The genealogy of Adam, recorded in chapter five, provides an explanatory backdrop upon which to view the dark and depressing events of chapter six. Moses ends the genealogy with an introduction to Noah, who will play a major role in the next phase of God’s pre-ordained plan for mankind. Noah is not just one more name in a long list of Adam’s descendants. He is the whole point of the genealogy. Moses wants us to know that God planned for the coming of this one who would play the role of “savior,” bringing rest to those who had grown weary living under the curse that God had imposed because of Adam’s sin. Even Noah’s father somehow recognized that his infant son would play the role of a deliverer.

“Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” – Genesis 5:29

When pronounced in Hebrew, Noah’s name sounded like the Hebrew word for “rest” or “comfort.” Lamech believed that his son would bring some form of relief from the constant struggle of attempting to eke out a living from the ground that God had cursed. He and his fellow inhabitants of the earth were looking for some form of salvation from the divine condemnation under which they suffered.

But even under the curse, mankind seemed to flourish. They continued to procreate and produce more of their kind. Moses declares that “man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them” (Genesis 6:1 ESV). Due to the extended life spans experienced prior to the flood, the reproduction cycle of humanity was greatly extended. As a result, they were able to “fill the earth” in a relatively short period of time. The lines of Cain and Seth both expanded rapidly, creating a perfect storm. These two divergent branches of Adam’s family tree would soon find themselves interacting with one another. The godly and the godless would inevitably end up crossing paths and even intermarrying with one another.

The next section of chapter six has developed a controversial reputation. In it, Moses states that “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose” (Genesis 6:2 ESV). There are those who interpret this verse to mean that fallen angels procreated with the daughters of men. They arrive at this conclusion because every other time the phrase, “sons of God,” is used in the Old Testament, it refers to angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). Proponents of this view also claim that the New Testament books of 2 Peter and Jude provide support for their assertion.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly… – 2 Peter 2:4-6 ESV

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. – Jude 6-7 ESV

But it would appear that these two passages refer to the original fall of Satan and the angels who joined him in his failed coup attempt against God. There is no other reference in the Genesis passage to angels. In fact, the very next verse reflects God’s anger with mankind, not angelic beings.

“My Spirit shall not abide in man forever…” – Genesis 6:3 ESV

It seems much more likely that “the sons of God” and “daughters of men” are intended as references to the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain. These two branches of Adam’s family tree had begun to merge through intermarriage, and the result was a further degradation of the spiritual seed of Seth. The appearance of men like Enoch became increasingly rarer. And God’s anger with mankind is reflected in His decision to dramatically shorten the average lifespan. The reference to 120 years, found in verse 3, is most likely a warning concerning the pending judgment of God. It refers to the length of time before God would destroy the earth with a flood. And as a result of this cataclysmic event, human lifespans will begin to drop precipitously.  No longer would humans live for seven to eight centuries. These protracted periods of existence had produced many children, but few faithful followers of God.

And it seems that with the longer lifespans, humans had enjoyed prolonged growing periods. Each stage of life, including adolescence, lasted longer in those days. As a result, men not only lived longer but grew larger. That seems to be the best explanation for Moses' reference to the Nephilim. These were so-called “giants” who intermarried with the daughters of men and became “the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown” (Genesis 6:4 ESV). There is only one other reference to the Nephilim in the Bible and it is found in Numbers 13:33. While some assert that the Nephilim were the offspring of angels who procreated with humans, this seems unlikely, since the Scriptures seem to teach that angels do not marry or reproduce (Matthew 22:30).

The entire focus of this passage is on humanity and not on fallen angels or some antediluvian super-species. Verse 5 clearly states the problem.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. – Genesis 6:5 ESV

This isn’t about disreputable angels performing despicable acts with human beings. It’s not about a race of superhuman X-Men polluting the DNA of humanity. The problem is wickedness – pure and simple. The wickedness of man was great in the earth. And this wickedness included attitudes as well as actions. In fact, “everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5 NLT).

And what follows is one of the saddest statements found in Scripture.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. – Genesis 6:6 ESV

With this emotionally charged statement, Moses attempts to describe God’s sorrow over the state of His creation. Humanity’s downward spiritual spiral has come to the point of no return. God is not second-guessing Himself. He is not questioning the goodness of His original creation of man. At that time, He had declared all that He had made as “very good” (Genesis 1:31), including Adam and Eve. But their rebellion had brought death into the world. It had permanently marred their relationship with God and damaged the entire creative order. And the longer man lived and the more of his own kind he created, the worse the situation became. Until God intervened.

“I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” – Genesis 6:7 ESV

The one who had created it all would choose to destroy it all and start over. God would begin again. The Creator would re-create. The life-giver would choose to destroy all life and then reanimate and rejuvenate His creation once again. But His destruction would not be complete. He would graciously spare some. God would preserve a remnant of His creation in order to fulfill the plan of redemption He had developed long before He pierced the pre-creation darkness with the light of His glory. God would use a man named Noah to act as His agent of redemption and recreation. In the midst of all the moral darkness and spiritual apathy of his age, this one man found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He would become the vessel through whom God was spare a remnant of fallen humanity and carry out His grand plan of redemption.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

New English Translation (NET)NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

The Inevitable and Inescapable Judgment of God

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. – 2 Peter 2:4-10a ESV

Peter has made it clear that those who heretical doctrines and lead God’s people astray will not go unpunished. God’s track record of disciplining the rebellious, ungodly and immoral is well established and the false teachers will suffer a similar fate.

God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed. – 2 Peter 1:3 NLT

To prove his point, Peter reached back into history and brought forward three significant examples of rebellion against God that each ended poorly for all those involved. And he presented the various scenarios by utilizing a conditional statement, each sentence beginning with the word, “if.”

…if God did not spare angels when they sinned… – vs 4

…if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah… – vs 5

…if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction… – vs 6

In Greek, these sentences are in the first class condition, which assumes for the sake of argument, that what Peter has written is true. You could replace each “if” with the word, “since.” Peter is not questioning whether these events happened. Instead, he is claiming that they did and, as a result, they provide proof of how God deals with the rebellious and unrighteous.

Peter begins with a case that involved angels, heavenly beings created by God who determined to rebel against His authority. Some scholars believe that Peter was referencing the same event described in the book of Jude.

…the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day… – Jude 6 ESV

And many of the same scholars believe this brief verse was an allusion to the fall of Satan from his place of glory and prominence in heaven, as described in the book of Ezekiel.

On the day that you were created
    they were prepared.
You were an anointed guardian cherub.
    I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
    in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
You were blameless in your ways
    from the day you were created,
    till unrighteousness was found in you.
In the abundance of your trade
    you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
    and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
    from the midst of the stones of fire.
Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
    you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
    I exposed you before kings,
    to feast their eyes on you. – Ezekiel 28:13-17 ESV

In the book of Isaiah, there is another reference to this angelic rebellion against God, led by someone designated as “Day Star, son of Dawn” (Isaiah 14:12 ESV).

“How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
    ‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
    I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
    in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.’” – Isaiah 14:12-14 ESV

Peter appears to be picking up on this story of Satan’s fall from grace, prompted by his ill-fated decision to make himself like the Most High. Evidently, Satan convinced a host of angelic beings to join him in his rebellion against God and, as Peter points out, God punished them all. And Peter’s inference is quite clear. Since God did not refrain from judging angels who bought into the lie of Satan and attempted to overthrow Him, He most certainly would not spare human beings who chose to follow the lies of the false teachers and reject the truth of His Word.

The second conditional statement involves the destruction of “the ancient world” at the time of the great flood. Peter is clearly referring to the story found in the book of Genesis.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. – Genesis 6:5-8 ESV

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, the state of affairs on earth had degraded to the point where God was no longer willing to put up with mankind’s sinful disregard for His glory. They had completely abandoned their God-ordained mandate to be His image-bearers. And, once again, Peter points out that God did not spare them. Their rebellion against God resulted in their destruction at His hands, and His divine judgment took the form of a worldwide flood that destroyed all humanity – except for Noah and his family.

Peter brightens the dark news with a reminder that God spared Noah because he was “a herald of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5 ESV). Through his faithful fulfillment of God’s command to build the ark, Noah proclaimed the righteousness of God to his unbelieving neighbors. By obediently constructing the massive boat that God had ordained, Noah was “preaching the gospel” to those facing God’s wrath. Noah’s actions display his faith in the undeserved and unmerited salvation that God had ordained and, as a result, he and his family were spared. It seems evident that Peter was reminding his readers that they too had been spared from God’s judgment by placing their faith in the unmerited salvation provided by God through Jesus Christ. He had become their ark of sanctuary and salvation. But just as Noah’s unbelieving neighbors had ridiculed his ark, the false teachers of Peter’s day were attempting to downplay the judgment of God and minimize the saving nature of Jesus Christ.

The third conditional statement involved the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, two ancient cities that suffered the righteous judgment of God for their blatant and egregious immorality. Peter reminded his readers that God refused to spare these two cities, choosing instead to turn them both into a heap of ashes. And Peter doesn’t hide the point of this story.

He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people… – 2 Peter 2:6 NLT

The people who lived in those two cities got what they deserved. But, once again, Peter points out that God spared one man and his family.

God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. – 2 Peter 2:7 NLT

Lot was the nephew of Abraham. And while he had made some poor decisions in his life, Peter makes it clear that Lot was “a righteous man” who was grieved over the immorality and decadence of his neighbors in Sodom. Yet, against his better judgment, he had chosen to remain within the walls of the city. He had compromised his convictions and, as the story recorded in Genesis makes clear, he exposed his daughters to the effects of Sodom’s immoral culture. But Peter wanted his readers to know that God still spared Lot. He rescued this righteous, yet flawed man, providing him with a way of escape and sparing him from the judgment to come. And that is the hope of every follower of Christ. While the world in which we live faces the coming judgment of God, we have been exempted from that inevitable fate because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, false teachers would have us believe that a loving God would not destroy mankind. Instead, they would refute the reality of sin and reject any need for a Savior.

But Peter’s whole point in retelling these three stories was to remind his brothers and sisters in Christ that God cannot and will not spare the unrighteous and ungodly. The rebellious, ungodly, and immoral will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But God will rescue those who remain faithful to Him.

…the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials… – 2 Peter 2:9 ESV

God spared all those angels who refused to join in Satan’s rebellion. God rescued Noah and his family from the deadly effects of the flood. And He graciously removed Lot and his two daughters from the city of Sodom before His righteous wrath was poured out on its immoral inhabitants.

Peter has in mind two groups of people: Believers and unbelievers. And his primary point seems to be that there are two kinds of suffering. The temporal suffering of God’s children as they experience the trials associated with life in a fallen world, and the eternal suffering of all those who reject Jesus Christ as the sole source of salvation and the means of reconciliation with a holy God. Peter points out that the unrighteous will be kept “under punishment until the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9 ESV). In other words, they will remain under God’s holy and righteous wrath until the final judgment comes. This doesn’t mean that all unbelievers always get their just desserts in this life. Many of them seem to prosper while God’s children suffer. But while they may appear to be living the good life now, they remain under God’s pending and inescapable judgment to come.

One day, their temporal joys will be replaced by eternal suffering. And Peter adds that God’s judgment lies “especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority” (2 Peter 2:10 NLT). This appears to be a direct attack on the false teachers who Peter will go on to describe in highly unflattering terms:

They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. – 2 Peter 2:14 NLT

These people were immoral, ungodly, and rebellious. Like Satan and the angels who follow him, they despised the authority of God. Like the people of Noah’s day, their wickedness was great. And like the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, their love of immorality was insatiable and incorrigible. Yet while the wicked may appear to live charmed lives, they will all one day face the righteous judgment of God. But, as Peter points out, the Lord will rescue the godly.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

New English Translation (NET)NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

The Risen Lord

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. – Luke 24:1-12 ESV

According to Luke, a group of women had “who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee” (Luke 23:55 NLT), had watched Joseph and Nicodemus as they buried His body. Because the Sabbath was about to begin, they went away “and prepared aromatic spices and perfumes” (Luke 23:56 NLT), with the intention of returning once the Sabbath was over.

Early on Sunday morning, the women returned to the garden and the tomb of Jesus. Luke reveals that the group was made up of Mary Magdalene, Salome, Mary the mother of James, and a few other unnamed women. In his gospel, Mark dispels any thought that they were expecting to find an empty tomb and a risen Lord. He indicates that they had “bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him” (Mark 16:1 ESV). In the frenetic moments after Jesus' death, Joseph and Nicodemus had been the only ones who had done anything to prepare the body of Jesus for burial. According to John, Nicodemus had brought “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight” (John 19:29 ESV) with which to anoint the body. But none of Jesus’ followers had been able to participate in this final expression of grief and honor. So, these women made their way to the tomb with that end in mind, and they had even discussed who they could get to roll away the stone so they could gain access to the body. They were fully expecting to find a dead man, not a risen Savior.

But they were in for a surprise. When they arrived at the tomb, they witnessed a life-altering, world-changing event of truly epic proportions. And their sober and somber expectations would be radically realigned by what they saw.

As they walked up to the tomb, burial spices in hand, the ground shook violently, and an angel descended from heaven. This divine emissary promptly had rolled away the massive stone that had sealed the tomb’s entrance, breaking the seal placed on it by Pilate (Matthew 27:64-66).

The angel’s supernatural strength and dazzling appearance left the guards in a state of shock. Matthew describes them as becoming ‘“like dead men.” They had been tasked with preventing the followers of Jesus from stealing His body, something the Jewish religious leaders feared they would do so that they might claim He had risen from the dead. But rather than a rag-tag group of Galilean disciples, these battle-hardened soldiers were confronted by an agent of God Almighty.

The women, having witnessed this remarkable event, still made their way into the tomb and were perplexed to find it empty (Luke 24:3-4). The body was gone. Luke records that the angel who rolled away the stone was accompanied by a second angel. And these two heavenly beings confronted the women, asking them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5 ESV). But before the women could respond, the angels informed them, “He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:6 ESV).

They had come seeking and expecting to find a dead man. But, to their shock and surprise, they were informed that the one they sought was alive. This entire encounter must have left the women dealing with a strange mixture of elation and confusion. Could it be true? Was Jesus really alive? This news was too good to be true. But the angels didn’t give the women time to dwell on the shocking nature of their announcement. They commanded them, “go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you” (Matthew 28:7 ESV).

Matthew reports that they did as they were told “with fear and great joy” (Matthew 28:8 ESV). And as if this news was not enough to elevate their endorphin levels and raise their heart rates, their journey to tell the disciples was interrupted by a personal encounter with Jesus Himself. Matthew records that “Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’” (Matthew 28:9 ESV). This totally unexpected reunion with their formerly deceased friend and master was too much for them. All they could do was bow down and worship Him. And Jesus calmed their fears, telling them to take the news of His resurrection to His disciples and to request that they meet Him in Galilee.

When reading the various gospel accounts of this event, there seem to be contradictions. Was there one angel or two? Did Mary Magdalene arrive at the tomb on her own or with the other women? But by piecing the various gospel accounts together, you arrive at a credible chronology that provides an accurate accounting of the order of events.

First, Luke records that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome started for the tomb (Luke 23:55-24:1). When they arrived, they found the stone rolled away (Luke 24:2-9). According to John’s account, Mary Magdaline was the first to arrive at the tomb and find it empty. She ran to tell the disciples the news (John 20:1-2). It was Mary the mother of James, who arrived next and encountered the angel (Matthew 28:1-2). She ran back to tell the other women who were bringing the spices they had prepared to anoint the body of Jesus.

In the meantime, Peter and John arrived on the scene, discovered the tomb empty, just as Mary Magdalene had said, and then departed (John 20:3-10). The disciples had evidently outrun Mary Magdalene, because she returned to the tomb, weeping, still unaware that Jesus was alive. All she knew was that the tomb was empty. But she was greeted by the two angels and then Jesus Himself (John 20:11-18), who told her to tell the disciples (John 20:17-18). According to Luke’s account, Mary the mother of James returned with the women (Luke 24:1-4), saw the two angels, and heard their message (Luke 24:5; Mark 16:5; Matthew 28:6-8). It was while they were on their way to find the disciples that these women had their encounter with the risen Jesus (Matthew 28:9-10).

What an incredible morning! What a shocking sequence of events. None of these people had expected this to happen, even though Jesus had repeatedly told them He would rise again on the third day. He had tried to assure them that His death would be followed by His resurrection, but that part of the story had never registered with them. Until now.

He was alive. As the angel had said, “He is not here, but has risen.” The tomb was empty. Jesus was alive and well, and they were witnesses of that incredible fact. The one whom they had watched die a brutal death on the cross, just three days earlier, was fully alive. The women had touched His feet. They had heard Him speak. And He had promised to meet them in Galilee. All of this was beyond their wildest imaginations. Their sorrow had suddenly been turned to joy. Their weeping had turned to laughter. Their disappointment and disillusionment had given way to hope and happiness.

Jesus had won a stunning victory over death. He had conquered the grave. And His actions would leave His enemy, Satan, reeling from the shock of it all. The high priest and the Sanhedrin would refuse to believe it. But it was true. He was alive. And, as the apostle Paul reminds us, that irrefutable news is good news to all those who place their faith in Jesus Christ.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 NLT

A new day had dawned and things would never be the same again. As the old hymn so aptly puts it:

Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus, my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

God of the Living, Not the Dead

27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question. – Luke 20:27-40 ESV

The spies of the scribes and chief priests failed to entrap Jesus with their question and, instead, they were left speechless by His response.

…they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. – Luke 20:26 ESV

This left the door open to the Sadducees, another religious sect in Israel. These men shared membership in the Sanhedrin with the Pharisees but held opposing views on a number of important doctrines. While they held a conservative view of Scripture, insisting on a literal interpretation of the text, they were the religious liberals of their day when it came to the afterlife, the doctrine of the resurrection, and the reality of angels. They rejected them all. For them, this life was all there was, and it was to be lived in strict adherence to the written law as found in the Torah. They were elitists who rejected the oral law of the Pharisees, the “traditions of the elders” that contained hundreds of additional laws or addendums to the written law. But while they were not exactly bosom buddies with the Pharisees, they shared one thing in common with them: A hatred for Jesus. So, in this passage, they come to Jesus posing a question intended to expose Jesus’ heretical views on the resurrection.

Their question is a lengthy one, presented in the form of a short story. It’s a fictitious scenario involving what was called the Levirate Law, part of the Law of Moses found in the book of Deuteronomy. This law ruled that when a man died, leaving his wife a widow with no children, one of his brothers was obligated to marry the woman. The intention behind the law was to carry on the deceased man’s name and ensure that any inheritance he might have had remain in the family.

The law stated, “If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law. The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:5-6 NLT).

These Sadducees had purposely created a highly unlikely scenario where the woman ends up marrying seven different brothers, each one dying before they could father a son with her. And their story ends with the woman’s death, having been seven times a widow and childless. This complicated and completely contrived tale had a purpose behind it. Luke makes it clear that the real point behind their question was the resurrection. They were not interested in hearing Jesus’ interpretation of the law but they simply wanted to expose His views concerning the resurrection. This is why they ended their story with the pointed question: “So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her!” (Luke 20:33).

They think they have Jesus trapped. Since the Torah did not explicitly teach about the resurrection, they did not believe in it. So, their little story was designed to expose the fallacy behind the doctrine of the resurrection. In their minds, they had shown that the very concept of the resurrection would conflict with the law itself. How could a woman have seven husbands in heaven?

But Jesus exposed the flaw in their thinking and the problem in their lives. According to Matthew’s gospel, Jesus responded to their question with a rather blunt and far-from-flattering statement.

“Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” – Matthew 22:29 NLT

This would have been like a sucker punch to the stomach. Jesus had caught them off guard and had wiped the smug look of satisfaction off their faces with one simple sentence. These men prided themselves on their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, and yet Jesus accused them of being unfamiliar with God’s Word and His power. They were intelligent yet ignorant. In all their study of the Scriptures, they had overlooked God’s power on display. They had relegated all they knew about life to the here-and-now and rejected the idea of a hereafter. So, Jesus rocked their religious sensibilities by informing them that the resurrection will render marriage unnecessary.

Jesus rendered their convoluted scenario pointless and irrelevant. In her resurrected state, the woman would not be married to any of the brothers.

“Marriage is for people here on earth. But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. And they will never die again.” – Luke 20:34-36 NLT

This statement by Jesus must have caught the arrogant Sadducees completely off guard. And it may be just as shocking to some who are reading these words right now.

It’s likely that your concept of heaven has always included marriage. You have assumed that if you are married here on earth, you will be married in heaven. But what would be the purpose of marriage in heaven? As an institution, it was designed to illustrate the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church. It was intended to be a physical representation of a spiritual reality.

In heaven, the union of Christ and the Church will be complete. There will no longer be a need for a symbol of that union. And while we may find that idea disturbing and possibly disappointing, we have to remember that our condition in our resurrected state will be one of perfection. We will be like Christ and have perfect fellowship with God the Father. Our primary relationship will be with Him. There will no longer be the need for another person to complete or complement us.

But Jesus knew that behind their question was their view concerning the resurrection, so He cut to the chase and took it head-on.

“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.” – Luke 20:37-38 NLT

Once again, Jesus questions their knowledge of the Scriptures, letting them know that in spite of all their study, they had missed a key point. When God spoke to Moses about His relationship with the great patriarchs of the Hebrew people, He used the PRESENT tense.

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” – Exodus 3:15 ESV

These words were spoken long after all three of these men were dead and gone, and yet God refers to His relationship with them in the present tense. He was still their God. Jesus made it clear that this was not a grammatical error but a theological truth. There is an afterlife, and there will be a resurrection. The Sadducees’ problem was that they tended to study the Scriptures with a biased view and a limited understanding of the power of God. The idea of the resurrection was impossible to them. It was inconceivable. So, they simply refused to believe in it. In establishing their doctrinal views, they had unknowingly limited the power of God. When they couldn’t comprehend something, they simply eliminated it from consideration. But Jesus made it clear that the resurrection was not only possible, but it was also undeniable and inevitable, because of the power of God.

For the Sadducees, life had become all about what they could see and explain. Their view was limited and restrictive. They had no room in their theology for an afterlife because it made no sense to them. So, they put all their eggs in one basket, concentrating all their efforts on making the most out of this life. In doing so, they missed the whole concept of the afterlife, of heaven, and the resurrected state. For them, this earthly life was the only life. Nothing more, nothing less.

And sadly, there are many who live with that same restrictive mindset today. Even those claiming to be Christ-followers live as if there is no eternal life, focusing all their attention and energies on making the most of this life. They simply ignore what they can’t see or explain. And yet, God’s Word encourages us to run the race of life with the end in mind. We are to set our affections on things above, not the things of this earth. We are told to consider ourselves as strangers and aliens here, always remembering that this world is not our home. We are simply passing through on our way to somewhere better. There is an afterlife. There is an eternal state. This is not all there is. And we should live with that reality in mind.

We worship a God of the living. The power of God assures us that the dead in Christ are not gone. They are experiencing the joys of heaven, and one day we will see them again. It is just as Jesus promised:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16 ESV

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

A False Assumption and a Faulty Conclusion

18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” – Mark 12:18-27 ESV

Driven by their mutual hatred for Jesus, the Pharisees and Herodians had set aside their long-standing differences and joined forces in a vain attempt to bring His ministry to an end. But they had failed. They had tried to expose Jesus as a political insurrectionist who stood opposed to the Roman government and its excessive taxation of the people of Israel. But these men had misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom. It was not of this world. He had not come to free Israel from slavery to Rome, but from slavery to sin and death. And His mission was spiritual in nature and not political. 

When the Pharisees and Herodians returned to the Sanhedrin and reported the results of their less-than-successful mission, they were replaced by a contingent of Sadducees. These men would form the second phase of their well-orchestrated attack on Jesus. The Sadducees were a powerful religious/political sect made up of the wealthy and influential upper class of Israel. They held the majority of the 70 seats in the Sanhedrin and controlled much of what happened in and around the temple. Their aristocratic mindset caused them to disdain the common man and to elevate themselves as members of the religious and political elite.

In order to preserve their superior status within the nation, the Sadducees had become reluctant partners with Rome, willingly accepting their presence as a necessary evil. Compromise with Rome allowed them to maintain their control over the nation of Israel. The Sadducees were essentially a political party that dabbled in religion. And while they expressed strong belief in the books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy), they rejected many of the established doctrines of the Hebrew religion.

For instance, they denied any resurrection of the dead. And this led them to reject the concept of an afterlife. They had concluded that the soul perishes at death, so this eliminated any idea of rewards or penalties. Therefore, in their theology, there was no heaven or hell. And to top it all off, they discounted any belief in an invisible spiritual realm populated by demons and angels. In a sense, they were the religious progressives of their day, espousing liberal views on a wide range of important doctrines that put them at odds with the more traditional Pharisees.

But since the Pharisees and Herodians had failed in their mission to entrap Jesus, the more liberally minded Sadducees were given their chance. And they approached Jesus with a very carefully concocted and convoluted story that was meant to expose His more conservative and antiquated religious views. These men knew that the majority of the peasant class also clung to the more traditional views on the doctrines of the afterlife and resurrection. So, they made up a hypothetical story that was meant to reveal the absurdity of these beliefs.

But like the Pharisees and Herodians who preceded them, the Sadducees were going to meet their match in Jesus. While they viewed Him as nothing more than an uneducated peasant from the backwater village of Nazareth, He would prove to be far more knowledgeable of the Scriptures and more than able to defend the doctrines of the resurrection and the afterlife.

And it is important to remember that Jesus had made many comments about eternal life. In fact, Jesus had told Nicodemus, a member of the Pharisees, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV). He had offered the Samaritan woman water that would permanently satisfy her thirst and provide her with eternal life.

“…whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – John 4:14 ESV

And most recently, Jesus had told Martha, the sister of Lazarus, that her dead brother would rise again.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” – John 11:25-26 ESV

These statements, and others like them, would have made their way back to the Sadducees. Jesus’ persistent claims regarding eternal life and the resurrection of the dead would have infuriated them. So, they decided to use their superior intelligence and vast knowledge of the Scriptures to expose Him as an uneducated fool.

They set up their trap by recounting a well-known law of Moses.

“Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.”  – Mark 12:19 NLT

They were referring to the levirate law, as outlined in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. This law required that the brother of a man who died without a male heir was obligated to marry his brother’s widow. The primary purpose of the law was to preserve the name of the deceased and to prevent the widow from becoming destitute.

But in an attempt to expose the ridiculous nature of belief in the resurrection, they created a convoluted and highly unlikely story. It involved a woman who ends up marrying seven different brothers, each of whom dies unexpectedly and prematurely, leaving her a widow without a male heir. Their strange tale ends with the death of the woman who had the unfortunate burden of being widowed seven different times. And they summarize their story with a question:

“So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.” – Mark 12:23 NLT

You can almost see the smug expressions on their faces as they drop this bombshell on the unsuspecting Rabbi from Nazareth. They had Him. There was no way He would be able to answer this confusing conundrum and maintain His naive belief in the resurrection.

Little did they know that their whole story was built around a false premise. Jesus was about to expose their ignorance regarding the doctrine of the resurrection and it was because they did not understand God”s Word.

“Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.” – Mark 12:24-25 NLT

Jesus gave them a one-two combination that must have been a devastating blow to their overinflated egos. First, He accused them of not knowing the Scriptures. Then He added that they had no idea of the nature of God’s power. Because they could not fathom the idea of life after death, they had simply discounted it. And in spite of all their careful study of the books of Moses, they had been unable to appreciate the fact that nothing was impossible for God. They worshiped a God of limited power whose only interactions with mankind were relegated to this life.

They were trying to take an earthly-oriented law and apply it to eternal matters. But it was as Jesus had told Nicodemus: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12 ESV). These men were incapable of understanding eternal truths. They were trying to comprehend the ways of God by looking through the cloudy lenses of their earthly perspective. And, had he been around, the apostle Paul would have told them, “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!” (Romans 11:33 NLT).

Their limited understanding had led to a limited view of God. They could not conceive of an afterlife because they viewed it as implausible and impossible. They were intimately familiar with death and probably feared it. And since they could not see what lie beyond the grave, they simply refused to acknowledge that anything was there. This life was all there was. But the whole story they had concocted had been based on misconceptions and misinterpretations of the Scriptures. Jesus informed them that there would be no marriage in the afterlife. So, it really didn’t matter how many husbands the fictitious widow had in this life. There will be no marriage because there will be no need to procreate. By virtue of His vast power, God will give resurrected and glorified bodies to all those who live in His eternal Kingdom. Men and women will no longer be expected to bring new life into the world. Their God-given order to fulfill the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply will no longer apply.

And Jesus adds another not-so-subtle point of clarification that was meant to blow holes in one of the Sadducees' other errant beliefs. He states that, in their eternal state, men and women will be much more like angels than human beings. They will be divine creatures who have the capacity to live in unbroken fellowship with God the Father for eternity. And like the angels, they will focus all their time and energy on His glory and offering Him their ceaseless praise.

Jesus ends His response with a lesson on the Old Testament Scriptures. He takes them back to the writings of Moses, recounting the story of the burning bush as recorded in the book of Exodus. It was there in the Midianite wilderness, that God appeared to Moses and called him to be the deliverer of His people. Out of the burning bush, God had declared to Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6 ESV). By the time Moses had come along, all three of these men had been long dead, and yet God refers to Himself as their God – present tense, not past tense. Jesus was trying to reveal to these so-called experts in the Pentateuch what they had missed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not gone, they had just been relocated. They were in the presence of their God.

Like the Pharisees and Herodian before them, the Sadducees failed. They proved no match for Jesus, the Son of God. They had put all their hope in this life, so when Jesus appeared offering the gift of eternal life, they could not bring themselves to believe what He had to say. But the doctrine of the resurrection was a central tenet of Jesus’ teaching. And it would be His own resurrection from the dead that would give His offer of eternal life validity. The apostle Paul summed it up well.

…if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. – 1 Corinthians 15:13-20 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. – Jude 1:9-11 ESV

You don’t have to be a theological scholar to recognize that Jude has a strong dislike for the false teachers about whom he is writing. You won’t find any grace or kindness in his words regarding them. He doesn’t paint them as well-meaning, but misinformed individuals who hold a slightly different view than his. He isn”t accommodating or concilatory. He shows no interest in compromise or making concessions. The issues these individuals are addressing are not up for debate and are not subject to their own personal opinions or views.

Jude saw their intentions as anything but well-meaning. In fact, he paints them as spies, describing them as having “crept in unnoticed” with the sole into to “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4 ESV).  These people were not to be trusted or tolerated. And Jude leaves no doubt as to the reason for his dislike for and disdain of them.

…these people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings. – Jude 1:8 NLT

It seems that these individuals displayed a certain sense of super-spirituality, claiming to have received visions from God to back up their false teaching. And yet, Jude points out that their lives were marked by immorality, rebellion against authority, and a rejection of the supernatural. That last point is somewhat cryptic and difficult to understand, but Jude seems to be picking up on something that Peter dealt with in one of his letter.

He [God] is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.

These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. – 2 Peter 2:10-11 NLT

It would appear that these false teachers were guilty of rejecting certain ideas concerning the supernatural realm, including the presence of demons or fallen angels. They scoffed at the idea, labeling it as nothing more than superstition. And yet, Peter made it clear that God took the presence of demons seriously.

For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. – 2 Peter 2:4 NLT

And as Peter pointed out, even good angels refuse to speak a negative word regarding their fallen counterparts. As spiritual beings, they had a serious and reverent regard for the supernatural. But that was not the case for these false teachers. They thought they knew better. They saw themselves as smarter than angels.

But, to put it bluntly, the false teachers were nothing more than religious rebels, attempting to force their particular point of view on the unsuspecting believers within the local congregation. They had an open disregard for God’s point of view. And it appears that they treated the supernatural with disdain.

At this point, Jude uses what appears to be a well-known story regarding Moses, which is not recorded in the Bible. It is likely based on oral tradition and had been handed down among the Jewish community over the centuries. It was actually recorded in the apocryphal book, The Assumption of Moses. Jude’s use of this story shouldn’t necessarily be taken as proof of its authenticity. He was simply using its familiar details for the purpose of proving his point.

So that we might better understand the nature of Jude’s use of this story, William John Deane provides this commentary.

Taking into consideration the circumstances of the burial of Moses, we see that it was intended to be a secret transaction. The Lord, we are told (Deut. xxxiv.6), "buried him in a valley of the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Doubtless there was a good reason for this secrecy. The, proneness of the Jews to idolatry, the likelihood that the body of their great leader might become an object of adoration, even as the brazen serpent drew their hearts away in later time, the tendency to follow the creature-worship and to pay that undue reverence to relics which they had seen in Egypt, -- these considerations may have led to the concealment of the body of Moses. And the devil wished to frustrate this purpose. He saw an opportunity of using the mortal remains of Moses to draw away the Israelites from true religion. He would have no mystery about the burial. The people should be shown their leader’s resting place; of the result he had no doubt whatever. And Michael, the appointed guard of the grave, as the Targum says, resisted this evil attempt of Satan, and firmly carried out the purpose of God. Using the words which God Himself had employed when the wicked spirit endeavoured to withstand His act of clothing Joshua, the high priest, in festal garments (Zech. iii.), Michael answered, "The Lord rebuke thee." And in the unknown spot the body rested; or, at any rate, it was seen no more till it appeared to the wondering three on the Mount of Transfiguration fourteen hundred years later. – William John Deane, Pseudepigrapha

Jude is not validating the veracity of the story as much as he is using it in order to expose the sins of the false teachers. In the story, the angel Michael does not treat Satan with contempt or derision. He doesn’t speak with contempt, but simply says, “The Lord rebuke you.”

Jude is pointing out that the supernatural realm exists. And yet, “these people scoff at things they do not understand” (Jude 1:10 NLT). The Greek word translated as “scoff” is blasphēmeō, and it refers to irreverent or reviling speech. They were treating the things of God, the unseen and inexplicable things of God, with an air of arrogance and open disregard. And when they spoke, they did so in ignorance.

Jude compares the with dumb, unthinking animals who “do whatever their instincts tell them” (Jude 1:10 NLT). In other words, they were driven by their passions and controlled by their natural, fallen instincts. And Jude compares them to two notorious characters from history: Cain and Balaam. Both of these men had less-than-stellar reputations. Cain, driven by jealousy and the desire for revenge, committed the first murder, killing his own brother, Abel. Balaam, a prophet, disobeyed the expressed will of God and provided the enemies of Israel with a plan for causing their downfall. And what he did was driven by his desire for money. He sold out the people of God for personal gain. Both men were controlled by their sinful desires.

And, by comparison, so were these false teachers. And their actions were going to result in their own destruction. They were headed for a fall, because they were standing in opposition to God Himself. They were guilty of rebellion against God and, as a result, they would perish, just as Korah had. This is another reference to a well-known historic event recorded in the book of Numbers. Korah led a rebellion against Moses, claiming, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:3 ESV). Korah disrespected Moses’ God-ordained leadership role and tried to usurp his authority. But God stepped in and destroyed Korah and all who joined his rebellion.

Jude is making it quite clear that the future for these false teachers will be unpleasant. If they continue down the path they have chosen, it will not end well for them. And he wants his readers to understand the danger in following the teaching of these misguided and self-obsessed individuals. They do not represent an alternative form of leadership. Their teaching is not to be treated as an acceptable option or viewpoint. It is to be rejected at all costs. They were to be seen as a danger to the faith community and a threat to the integrity of the gospel message. And they were to be avoided at all costs.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Good News and Bad News.

6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” – Revelation 14:6-13 ESV

John is shown yet another vision or scene. He starts out this section with the familiar “then I saw”, which in Greek is kai eidon. It signals a change in content marked by a change in what John is seeing. He sees “another” angel, which means another of the same kind. This is another and different angel other than the seven introduced in verse 2, and it will be the first of six angels introduced in the rest of this chapter. This angel is described by John as flying in mid-heaven and proclaiming “an eternal gospel.” When we hear the term “gospel”, we most often associate with good news and the proclamation of salvation made possible through Jesus Christ. But in this context, it has to do with God’s coming salvation, but His judgment as well. It is eternal in that the impact of its message is ageless and not restricted by time. It was good news to the believers living in John’s day and remains good news to all of us hearing its message today. The angel is proclaiming the good news “to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people” (Revelation 14:6 ESV). He is flying through mid-heaven, so evidently, as he circumnavigates the globe, all on earth will hear what he has to say. And the content of his message is very specific, leaving no doubt as to what God demands.

“Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” – Revelation 14:7 ESV

He calls on the people of earth to fear God. They are to reverence Him for who He is. He is God Almighty, the God of the universe and the creator of all things. In his book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote of the kind of fear this angel was demanding.

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV

Notice that the fear of God is accompanied by obedience to His commands. This angel is letting the inhabitants of the world know God demands obeisance and obedience, reverence and submission to His will. And that will require that they give Him glory, repenting of their wrong perceptions regarding Him. They must turn from worshiping the Antichrist and acknowledge God as the one true God, who alone is worthy of glory and honor. They must worship Him alone as their God. And the motivation for their worship is His coming judgment. And as we will see in the remaining chapters of John’s book, there will be those who hear and heed this message, bowing down before God in worship.

Who will not fear, O Lord,
    and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
    All nations will come
    and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed. – Revelation 15:4 ESV

But there will also be those who refuse to listen to the angel’s message, rejecting his call to worship the one true God.

…and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. – Revelation 16:9 ESV

People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. – Revelation 16:11 ESV

…and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe. – Revelation 16:21 ESV

As has been the case throughout the centuries, the good news regarding God and His offer of salvation from the wrath to come will be rejected by many. They will curse Him rather than repent and turn to Him. Instead of worshiping and glorifying Him, they will utter blasphemous curses against Him.

This angel is followed by a second one who is proclaiming yet another message.

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” – Revelation 14:8 ESV

This is a message of premonition, revealing what is about to happen. As of the moment John heard this angel’s message, Babylon had not yet fallen. But it would. It was inevitable and unavoidable. God was going to judge Babylon. And that begs the question: What exactly does the angel mean by “Babylon”? Is it the literal city of Babylon or a more figurative reference to something else? The answer is probably, “Yes.” It appears that during the period of the tribulation, the ancient city of Babylon will be restored and reassert itself as a global player during the end times. It will also become synonymous with the political and religious powers of the day. Throughout the Scriptures, the name, “Babylon” has become closely associated with ungodliness and rebellion against God, ever since the fall of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). 

God announces the coming destruction of Babylon. Not only will the city itself be destroyed, but all that it represents, including the religious and political systems that arise out of the city. The angel describes Babylon as an immoral woman, who has seduced the people of the world, enticing them to commit spiritual adultery against God. Chapter 17 will deal with the guilt and well-deserved destruction of Babylon in greater detail.

“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” – Revelation 17:1-2 ESV

Then John sees yet another angel, whose message is directed at all those who chose to take the mark of the beast or Antichrist and worship him. And it is difficult to see the content of this message as good news, because the angel clearly states to all who bear the mark of the beast, “he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:10 ESV). As bad as this sounds, it is not a reference to hell or the Lake of Fire. This is going to be some form of temporal punishment meted out by God on all those who rejected His offer of salvation and turned to the Antichrist as their false messiah. These people will suffer unparalleled pain and suffering and it will be in the very presence of Christ and the holy angels. Their suffering will take place while they are forced to look on the one who offered His life as a sacrifice for their sins. But they rejected Him.

John is told that their torment will be eternal, “forever and ever.” They will have no rest from their punishment. And this stands in direct contrast to the statement made by Jesus. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 ESV). Jesus came to earth, offering weary sinners with eternal rest and comfort. And the first angel offered them a form of rest, complete with “springs of water”, but they refused. Now, they will “have no rest, day or night.”

But this angel has a call to all of those who have placed their faith in Christ during the great tribulation. This includes the 144,000. They are to remain faithful to the end. All of this is to be good news to them, because it reveals that their God is going to deal justly and righteously with all the injustice in the world. Their suffering will soon end. Their persecution as a result of their faith will be eliminated once and for all. The tables will turn. So, they are called to endure. To remain strong and not lose faith. God is going to act on their behalf.

Finally, John hears a voice from heaven, proclaiming a message to all those who will suffer and die during the great tribulation. He is told to put this message in writing, so that it will last.

“Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” – Revelation 14:13 ESV

This is both a warning and a blessing. John is being told, in no uncertain terms, that there will be many believers who die in the remaining days of the great tribulation. They will die as a result of their faith in Jesus. Their faithfulness to Him will merit the wrath of the Antichrist. Their refusal to accept the mark of the beast and to worship the Antichrist will bring about not only their persecution but, ultimately, their deaths. But they are told that they will be blessed. They will receive rest from their labors. This is not saying these believers will receive blessing or salvation because of their labors. It is not promoting a kind of works-salvation. It is simply saying that their efforts to remain faithful on this earth during the dark days of the tribulation will be followed by the blessing of eternal rest. Their good deeds will follow them in the sense that they are the proof of their salvation. Jesus refers to this in His Olivet Discourse.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” – Matthew 25:24-40 ESV

These believers, living during the final days of the tribulation, will exhibit their faith through acts of kindness to others. They will reveal their transformed hearts through clear signs of transformed living. Even at the risk of great persecution, they will show love to others. It is not their acts of kindness that will save them, but those acts will be the proof that they have been saved. And their visible expressions of love for others will be tangible proof of their love for Christ.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)  Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Holy, Holy, Holy!

1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.” – Revelation 4:1-11 ESV

When reading the book of Revelation, it is easy to become so enamored with all the fantastic imagery that we lose sight of the real message being communicated. The book becomes little more than a giant puzzle to be put together, full of countless riddles to be solved and complicated metaphors to be deciphered. As we will see in this chapter, John is going to struggle to describe what he sees. He is being given a glimpse into the distant future and into the heavenly realm, where he sees things never-before seen by the eyes of men. In many cases he will be attempting to describe the indescribable and will find himself hampered by the inadequacies of human language in his efforts. He will repeatedly use the word “like” in an attempt to describe what he is seeing.

…the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet… – vs 1

the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. – vs 8

As John is transported by the Spirit into heaven, he is given the incredible privilege of seeing God Himself, seated on His throne. He immediately begins the difficult task of trying to put into words the indescribable nature of what he is seeing.

And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. – vs 3

Even the sounds he hears prove difficult to describe. He is surrounded by the supernatural and the sights and sounds he encounters are like nothing he has ever experienced before. He describes hearing a voice speaking to him like a trumpet, but he clearly heard the words, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this” (Revelation 4:1 ESV). Perhaps John used the description of a trumpet in order to convey the sheer power of the voice that he heard, but the important point is that John was being invited into the heavenly throne room. He is being given a one-in-a-kind privilege to experience a vision of God in all His indescribable glory. And it leaves John struggling to communicate the remarkable nature of it all. He is mesmerized by the many colors he sees. John mentions seeing two stones, one being like jasper and the other like carnelian. One is white and the other is red. Perhaps these two stone represent God’s holiness and wrath, His righteousness and judgment. That would seem to fit the scene that John is witnessing, because He is viewing God as seated upon His throne, representing His sovereignty over all things. And the rest of the book will reiterate this image of the throne 45 times. God is about to reveal to John “what must take place.” He is going to show John all that is going to happen in the future, regarding the earth and its inhabitants. And God appears seated on His throne, revealing His rule and reign over all the world and all that it contains. 

John sees something encircling the throne of God that appears to be like a rainbow, but it is green in color, like an emerald. We are not told the meaning behind this vision, but it could be that the rainbow represents the mercy of God, much as it did when God gave it to Noah as a sign immediately after the flood that destroyed the world. God’s holiness and judgment are always accompanied by His mercy. But it is interesting to note that this rainbow appears before the coming storm of God’s judgment, not after it.

John also sees 24 thrones positioned around the throne of God, on which were seated 24 elders. We are not told who these individuals were. And there has been much speculation over the years as to their identity. Some have determined them to be angels, while others have described them to be men. They are clothed in white, a symbol of purity, and they are wearing golden crowns on their heads. The Greek word John uses for “crown” is stephanos and it usually referred to a kind of wreath that was used to reward those who were victors in battle or in an athletic competition. While it is not clear who these individual are, it seems obvious that they are intended to be representative of something. It is likely that they are meant to stand for the entire body of Christ, much as the Old Testament priesthood had 24 orders, each represented by a single priest.

John describes hearing the sounds of thunder and seeing flashes of lightning emanating from the throne. Once again, this imagery suggests the power and sovereignty of God. It is reminiscent of the scene on top of Mount Sinai, when God appeared before the people of Israel.

16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. – Exodus 19:16-20 ESV

In front of the throne, John saw seven torches of fire, which he describes as the seven spirits of God. He also saw what appeared to be a sea of glass, like crystal in appearance. Once again, there is much debate as to the exact meaning of these images. But we have heard him mention the seven spirits of God before. In chapter one, John addressed his letter as having come from “him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:4-5 ESV). Based on this context, it appears that the seven spirits are a reference to the Spirit of God, with the number seven representing His perfection and completeness.

The sea extends before God’s throne and may represent a kind of barrier that separates the holy, transcendent God from sinful mankind. It is crystal clear, a representation of His holiness and purity. Everything John sees is symbolic, and while we may not know the exact meaning behind each item, it is clear that John is trying to describe the remarkable holiness of God. This entire scene shouts God’s holiness. In fact, John describes seeing “four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (Revelation 4:8 ESV). It would be easy to spend all our time attempting to determine what these beasts are, and neglect to notice what it is that they do. They are worshiping God, night and day. Yes, the are fantastic in nature. They are “full of eyes in front and behind” (Revelation 4:6 ESV). It is hard not to notice that one looks like a lion, another like an ox, the third like a man, and the final one like an eagle. But before we get too absorbed into trying to decipher who they are or what they represent, let’s take notice of what it is they are doing, night and day. They are worshiping God, by giving Him glory, honor and thanks. And when they do, the “twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever” (Revelation 4:10 ESV). And the 24 elders take off their crowns and cast them at the feet of God, exclaiming, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11 ESV).

Who are these four beasts? We don’t know. Perhaps they symbolize all of God’s creation, with the lion representing the wild beasts, the ox standing in for domesticated animals, the eagle symbolizing all flying creatures, and the man representing humanity. And they are all giving God glory. Why? Because He created all things, and it is by His will that they exist. God is sovereign over all His creation. And the rest of the book of Revelation is going to reveal the extent of that sovereignty as God reveals those things “that are to take place after this” (Revelation 1:19 ESV). Remember, John was invited into the throne room of God in order that He might see “what must take place after this” (Revelation 4:1 ESV). The incredible scene John witnessed in the throne room of heaven was the prequel to the main event. It simply set the stage for what was to come. By transporting John into the presence of God, he was given a stark reminder that all that he was about to see was the work of God. The incredible nature of all that was going to take place in the future was going to be the handiwork of a holy and righteous God who reigns in power from His heavenly throne room. Chapter four is a transitional chapter, moving us from what is, the current church age which will culminate with the rapture of the church, to the future judgment of God coming upon the world. It is essential that the rest of this book be viewed through the lens of God’s holiness and righteousness. As difficult and disturbing as the content of the rest of the book may be, we must never lose sight of God’s holiness and sovereign right to rule over His creation as He sees fit. He is holy, holy, holy.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)  Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

The Silence Is Broken.

Luke 2:1-38

“The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” – Luke 1:11 NLT

For four hundreds years, the people of Israel had endured a communications blackout from heaven. God had gone silent. There were no prophets speaking, no miraculous manifestations of God taking place around them. It was a dark time. And yet, God while silent, was not absent. He had been working behind the scenes for generations, preparing the way for His solution to mankind's problem. He was orchestrating events in such a way that every detail of His plan came together perfectly – at just the right time and in just the right way. The Jews were living under the heavy-handed rule of Rome. And yet, God was going to use the very Emperor of Rome, Augustus, to decree that a census be taken throughout the Roman Empire. Coincidence? Not hardly. This royal census was going to require every person living in the empire to return to their ancestral home towns in order to register. That included Joseph, who just happened to be a descendant of King David. So he was required to take his wife-to-be, Mary, now well into her pregnancy, carrying the life of the future Messiah in her womb. to Bethlehem.

While there, Mary's due date arrived and she gave birth to Jesus. This earth-shattering event took place in relative obscurity and would have been completely overlooked had it not been for the announcement of His birth by angels. But who did God choose to make this announcement to? Shepherds. Lowly, ordinary, blue collar shepherds. These men were the low of the low in Hebrew culture. They were looked down upon and despised by the average citizen. No one wanted their son to grow up to be a shepherd. And yet, God chose a group of these men to break His 400-year self-imposed silence and reveal the birth of His own Son. The Messiah had arrived. He was here. The one for whom the Jews had long been awaiting had finally come.

Eight days later, at the circumcision of Jesus, two other obscure individuals are used by God to confirm the arrival of the Messiah. Simeon and Anna, both godly, devout Jews, had been waiting anxiously for years for the Messiah to come. They both happened to be at the Temple on the day that Mary and Joseph brought him to be circumcised. And both praised God this remarkable answer to their prayers. "I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!" (Luke 1:30-32 NLT). They recognized that they were looking at the Savior of the world, in the form of a sleeping infant, held tightly in His mother's arms. What a fascinating manner in which to introduce the Messiah. Obscurity, anonymity, infancy, and relative poverty. Apart from the angels, there were no bells or whistles, no pomp and circumstance, no red carpets or media circus that accompanied the arrival of the most significant person to ever be born. And yet, Simeon reminds us, "This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but he will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him" (Luke 1:34-35 NLT).

The Messiah had come. The silence was broken. Salvation was near.

Father, this story never gets old. What a remarkable chain of events. What an amazing reminder of Your sovereign will and Your ability to orchestrate even the plans of the godless to accomplish Your divine plan. This passage reminds us that salvation had an arrival date. The silence and darkness was shattered on a specific day by the singing of angels and the birth of the Light of the World. Thank You for salvation. Thank You for Jesus. Amen.