THE PROPHETS OF GOD AND THEIR PROBLEMS WITH GOD

We tend to regard the Prophets and Apostles as spiritual giants. However, they struggled as we do:

·       Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:17-18)

It also seems that they had issues with God. For a while, Elijah’s presence brought blessing upon a widow of Zeraphath and her son, but her son suddenly died. Elijah, therefore, accused God:

·       “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” (1 Kings 17:20)

Nevertheless, the Lord healed the son through Elijah.

The Prophet Jonah’s issues with God were even more antagonistic. He rejected God’s calling to preach to Nineveh and fled. It even seems that he preferred death rather than service. Nevertheless, after being swallowed by a great fish, Jonah agreed to preach to Nineveh. However, the very thing that Jonah had feared came to pass. They repented and God relented from His promise to destroy Nineveh.

However, instead of rejoicing with the Lord, Jonah became angry (Jonah 4:1) and wanted to die, but God tried to teach him that he was his own worst enemy:

·       “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:3-4)

Of course, Jonah’s anger wasn’t serving him well. However, God didn’t give up on Jonah and continued to provide object lessons to expose his anger and rebellion for what they were. Overnight, He provided Jonah with a plant to shade him from the intense sun. God then destroyed the plant, and Jonah foolishly became angry at it – another teachable moment:

·       When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:8-11)

God reasoned with Jonah to win his heart through his mind. Without any clear resolution, the Book of Jonah ends abruptly with these verses. Did Jonah learn God’s lessons? Did he repent of his anger, his self-centered worldview, and his rebellion against the Word of God? We are not told. However, we do see the patience and graciousness of God on his behalf. Despite, Jonah’s rebellion, God remained faithful to His Prophet.

To win the mind is also to win the heart. Once our heart has been opened, faithfulness to our Savior must be secured by reason through our minds. This is the place of real transformation (Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:10). We too have our issues with God, and He also has to instruct and humble us.

However, we tend to think that we are miles away from the example of Elijah, who had raised the dead child. However, it is evident that this child was healed not because of Elijah’s great faith, but because of God’s faithfulness.

We despair of having faith like Elijah who had prayed for a drought, and there was drought, and who prayed for rain, and there was rain. However, we often fail to see that Elijah had accomplished what he did not by virtue of His great faith, but in accordance with the Word, the instructions of God (1 Kings 17:1, 9; 18:1, 36). He merely did what God had told him to do:

·       And at the time of the offering of the oblation [in his confrontation with the priests of Baal], Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. (1 Kings 18:36)

Instead, we wrongly conceive of great faith as a matter of intense effort to rid from our minds any doubts or feelings that might betray a lack of confidence. Instead, servants are required to be faithful to the Word of their master no matter what internal conflicts His Word might provoke. Only in this resolve does our strength rest. To go beyond His will and Word is to proceed alone.

ISAIAH’S PROBLEM WITH GOD

Isaiah didn’t seem to have any illusions about Israel’s merit or righteousness of. If he did have any illusions, God promptly dispelled them:

• “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. (Isaiah 1:2-4)

However, Isaiah had a different issue with God. He understood that God is omnipotent and could do anything He wanted to do:

• All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:6-8)

Yes, Israel was rebellious and deserved judgment. However, if God is the potter – and Isaiah was convinced that He is – the He should be able to mold Israel into anything He wanted, even into righteous children:

• Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people… After all this, O LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? (Isaiah 64:9,12)

Isaiah was perplexed why God was holding Himself back from changing His people and upset that God would “punish beyond measure,” at least according to Isaiah’s reckoning. However, God’s answer must have been less than satisfying:

• All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations-- a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick [to false gods]… I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me."  (Isaiah 65:2-3,12)

God didn’t directly answer Isaiah’s question. However, in many ways, God had answered. He had already given Israel everything that He could:

• “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He [God] dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:1-4)

God insisted that there is nothing more that He could have done for Israel, and that He was not holding-back, as Isaiah had charged.

If God is omnipotent, it is hard for us to understand why God is not more merciful towards His people. If He changed the heart of some, why could He not change the heart of all? But what is God’s omnipotence? Can He not do anything? It doesn’t seem so. While He can accomplish anything He wants, there are things that He cannot do. He cannot sin – a violation of His character. Nor does it seem that He can violate His promises. Perhaps, also, He also cannot violate His internal logic and create a stone that He cannot lift.

Jesus had petitioned the Father for something that pointed to the Father’s Self-limitation:

• Going a little farther, he [Jesus] fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup [the Cross] be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)

While God can do all things, He cannot do them in any manner. He was not able to grant Jesus His request. His righteous character prevented the payment of humanity’s in any other way. Jesus had to die! Animals certainly weren’t able to bring our forgiveness.

Let me apply this to the question of God saving all Israel. While God wants all to be saved (2 Peter 3:9), there might be a Self-limitation within His very Nature that does not permit this.

Nevertheless, God promised that He would show incredible grace to Israel, but only through his Messiah:

• "The Redeemer [the promised Messiah] will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD. "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD. (Isaiah 59:20-21)

• "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more…  (Isaiah 65:17-19)

In the end, there will be a great salvation. All those left in the end will be rescued:

• From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD. (Isaiah 66:23)

This is an indication that, in the end, our Lord will open the floodgates of heaven:

• "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other… Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.'" All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult. (Isaiah 45:22-25; 60:14; also Romans 11:12-27; James 2:13)

But God made us this way, right? Isn’t he also to blame? This is one charge that the Prophets never brought against God. Instead, they accepted what He had revealed – that the fault is all ours, and that God had done for Israel everything that He could do (Isaiah 5:2-5; Jeremiah 2:21)

Isaiah merely charged that God could correct Israel’s heart. However, he probably never received a complete and satisfactory answer, but perhaps what had been revealed to him was enough. Hopefully, it will be enough for us.

JEREMIAH’S PROBLEM WITH GOD

How can we believe in a God of the holocausts, who annihilated the Canaanites and the Amalekites? In our eyes, except for a few bad apples, our fellow human beings do not appear so evil, certainly not so evil that they deserve to die.

This is the most common challenge to our faith. We are troubled by it, but it was also troubling to the prophets of Israel. Habakkuk (1:12-17) had objected that, although his nation Israel were sinners, they weren’t bad enough to warrant the coming Babylonian destruction of their homeland! Jeremiah had a similar complaint—God’s indictment against Jerusalem was just too extreme! Therefore, God prepared for His prophet a challenge and an object lesson:

·       "Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city. Although they say, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' still they are swearing falsely" (Jeremiah 5:1-2).

Jeremiah certainly didn’t fault God’s gracious offer to forgive. Only one honest person needed to be present. The offer even seemed more than gracious! This was because Jeremiah was convinced that there were many righteous Israelites, and that God’s displeasure could only reasonably apply to the uneducated rabble. Surely, the leadership knew better and would respond to God and would then spearhead the return to God!

·       “O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent. I thought, ‘These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God.’ But with one accord, they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds [of God]” (Jeremiah 5:3-5).

We don’t see as God does. Our own people tend to look pretty good to us, especially those of Jeremiah’s own priestly clan. The prophets’ problem had been much the same as ours. They failed to comprehend the depth of Israel’s sin and rebellion against God.  As a result, God’s punishment seemed extreme and unwarranted. However, Israel’s prophets needed a crash course in human depravity if they were going to represent God faithfully, and He was glad to provide it to them. He enlightened Jeremiah regarding the rebellion of even the educated leadership:

·       "Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes. They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife. Should I not punish them for this?...The house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me…They [the false prophets] have lied about the LORD” (Jeremiah 5:7-13).

God is faithful, but Israel had been utterly unfaithful. Seen in this light, our Creator and Redeemer has every reason in the world to judge. But one disturbing thought remains: “Couldn’t this all-powerful God have changed Israel’s heart as He has our heart? Couldn’t He have made them into new creatures?”

Holding faith isn’t always comfortable. We don’t always have the answers that our restless minds crave. That’s why it’s called “faith!” Life continues to pose the ultimate question to us: “Are you willing to follow your God even when things don’t make perfect sense?” This had been Jesus’ challenge to multitudes that were following Him because of the free meals. He laid down a difficult teaching to separate those merely looking for another handout from the true seekers: “Unless you drink my blood…” (John 6). It didn’t make sense; it wasn’t the Jewish way, and many left.

God posed a similar question to Abraham when He asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Gen. 22). It seemed to go against everything God had promised Abraham--that the world would be blessed through Isaac and his seed. Abraham didn’t have the answer to this dilemma, but he knew God well enough to know that God did. We too must live with the discomfort of an incomplete puzzle. However, we’ve hopefully learned where to look for the missing pieces!

Nevertheless, it’s amusing to see how quickly our philosophical objections evaporate when we become the object of persecution. Jeremiah’s tune changed, once he realized that even his own educate family wanted to kill him:

·       “Then the LORD told me about the plots my enemies were making against me. I had been as unaware as a lamb on the way to its slaughter. I had no idea that they were planning to kill me!” (Jeremiah 11:18-19)

God revealed to Jeremiah what His prophet could never have imagined:

·       “Even your own brothers, members of your own family, have turned on you. They have plotted, raising a cry against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak.” (Jeremiah 12:6)

Pleasantness can be a ploy. Gradually, Jeremiah’s attitude changed and he began to see things through God’s holy lens:

·       “Avenge me on my persecutors… But you know, O LORD, all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight… let me see your vengeance upon them.” (Jeremiah 15:15; 18:23; 20:12)

Unless we first learn about God’s righteousness, we cannot understand His mercy. Jeremiah’s opinion of the depth of sin was beginning to change. He therefore subsequently declared:

·       The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Only when we understand the depths of human perversity are we prepared to grasp the depths of God’s mercy. Otherwise, we will regard it as a human entitlement.

The Prophet Ezekiel wrestled with a similar grievance towards his Master. The Lord had even taken Ezekiel on a spiritual journey into the heart of His Temple where Ezekiel observed abominations of the priesthood, which he had never dreamed possible. However, Ezekiel was still unconvinced about the need for God’s wrath:

·       So it was, that while they were killing them [of Jerusalem and the Temple], I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?" Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, 'The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!'” (Ezekiel 9:8-9)

God was slowly molding Ezekiel into a son of God, a man after His own heart and mind, and away from a “son of man,” like his self-righteous brethren:

·       “And if I say to the wicked man, 'You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right-- if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live. "Yet your countrymen say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. Yet, O house of Israel, you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge each of you according to his own ways." (Ezekiel 33:14-20)

God’s ways never seem just to the self-righteous. Although they might realize that they aren’t perfect, they certainly believe that their good far outweighs their evil, and that this entitles them to God’s blessings. They even feel entitled by their “good moral record” to do a little evil. However, the Prophet announced that, no matter how good their performance might have been, once they turn to sin, they deserve death.

The self-righteous cannot endure such teaching. They believe they stand by virtue of their record. Therefore, a few sins should not change anything. They failed to understand that none of us can stand before our righteous God apart from His mercy.

Repeatedly, Jesus had to teach His Apostles this same lesson. They too were convinced that the educated elite and those blessed with wealth also deserved to be blessed with eternal life. However, Jesus confounded their thinking:

·       But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:24-27)

God’s ways are not our ways. Forgiveness and reconciliation are a gift from God. Although the entire Bible rests upon this truth, it is still so radical that Israel failed to get their minds around it. However, when we fail to understand it, we fail to understand God – His righteousness and His love for His wayward humanity.

However, He wants us to understand Him as He is (John 4:23-24; 17:26; Jeremiah 9:23-24) and will not stop teaching us until we truly become men and women of God.

THE TEMPLE: OT/ NT PERSPECTIVES vs. THE RABBIS

The rabbis often denounce the New Testament claiming that it misconstrues the Old to support its own doctrines. In The Jew and the Christian Missionary: A Jewish Response to Missionary Christianity, Gerald Sigal had written:

·       Misreading the essential meaning of the Torah, Christian theology developed along lines that are at variance with the message of Hebrew Scriptures. (Introduction, xv)

For instance, in the NT Jesus likened His own body to the Jerusalem Temple, in effect, proclaiming that His body has become the actual place to meet God and find His mercy, instead of the Temple. In a revealing account, the Jewish leadership demanded that Jesus justify His authority to drive out the money-changers and animal-salesmen from the Temple:

·       Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2:19-21; John 1:14)

Jesus equated His body with the Temple. He had been hinting about this to a Samaritan woman who thought religion was just a matter of the geographical place of worship, pointing out that the Jews worshipped in the Jerusalem Temple and the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim. However, Jesus corrected her:

·       “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

According to Jesus, worship, ultimately, was not a matter of place but of truth. It is through belief in the truth that we meet God and not through a literal building.

When the Pharisees criticized Jesus’ disciples for eating standing grain on the Sabbath, Jesus retorted that priests who serve in the Temple also violate the Sabbath. If they could do it, so too could His disciples, because He was greater than both the Sabbath and the Temple:

·       He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here…For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:3-6, 8)

How could Jesus imply about Himself that “something greater than the temple is here?” He understood that the Temple was merely a symbol or a shadow of the reality – that He was the One to whom Israel must come to find mercy (Colossians 2:16-17).

The Book of Revelation claims that the New Jerusalem would not contain a physical temple:

·       And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. (Revelation 21:22; 13:6; 21:3)

Has the NT perverted the teachings of the Mosaic revelation? Moses had been given the plan for the Tabernacle (the moveable Temple) while on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 25:40; 27:8; Numbers 8:4; Acts 7:44). However, the NT interpreted this plan as symbolic (a shadow) of a deeper reality:

·       They [the Temple and its services] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things [of Christ]. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:5)

Did God simply have a preference for certain physical forms and structures, or did He command these Temple forms, because they symbolically conveyed heavenly truths? The NT writers understood that the Temple and the prescribed forms of worship were symbolic of a deeper reality. Interestingly, the OT also suggests this. Even before there was a Tabernacle, God had been Israel’s refuge and sanctuary:

·       Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. (Psalm 90:1; 71:3; Isaiah 57:15)

This suggests that the Temple was a shadow of a deeper reality, which God wanted to convey symbolically. The NT claims that God Himself would be our sanctuary (Temple). This is also true of the OT revelation:

·       “Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary [“mikdash”] to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’” (Ezekiel 11:16; Isaiah 8:13:14)

God would be a temple to Israel even in their exile. The physical Temple was therefore symbolic, suggesting that, instead, it represented a reality beyond itself. Besides, God promised that He Himself would “build” the ultimate Temple in conjunction with the New Covenant:

·       “I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary [“mikdash”] in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place [“mishkan”] shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary [“mikdash”] is in their midst forevermore.” (Ezekiel 37:26-28)

Would this be a physical sanctuary? The fact that God would build it suggests otherwise. Besides, it seems that  this “everlasting covenant” with Israel will replace the Mosaic Covenant. In fact, nowhere in the Scriptures is the Mosaic ever described as everlasting.

Of what will “my sanctuary,” which God will create, consist? First of all, it is not only associated with a new and eternal covenant, it is also a Messianic covenant, the work of the mysterious BRANCH:

·       “And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ (Zechariah 6:12-13)

It is noteworthy that the physical Temple had already been rebuilt by the Israelite exiles returning from Babylon. Evidently, this temple constructed by God would be a very different kind of temple and even a different priesthood. This Priest, the Messianic BRANCH, was also regarded by the rabbis as the promised Davidic offspring, the Messiah who would create an everlasting kingdom (Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5-6), would also be a King (Psalm 110). A single person fulfilling these two roles had been absolutely forbidden under the Mosaic Covenant (Numbers 18:7). The fact that the Messiah would fulfill both roles suggests a change in the Covenant, the Temple, its rituals and even the end of animal sacrifices:

·       “Before they call [for forgiveness as they sacrifice an animal] I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD. Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.” (Isaiah 65:24 - 66:1-3)

Since there will be no more “destruction” in the Kingdom of the Messiah, the death of animals could no longer be required. Instead, the promised Messianic sacrifice will put an end to all sacrifices:

·       Surely he [the promised Messiah] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

The Psalms also promise that one offering will put to end all subsequent offerings and the Temple system, which required them:

·       Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” [Psalm 40; LXX] When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first [covenant] in order to establish the second. (Hebrews 10:5-10)

Evidently, the Temple animal sacrifices had been a shadow of the coming reality – the offering of the Messiah Himself for the sins of the world. How else can we explain the fact that God wasn’t truly pleased with the animal sacrifices, although He had ordained and required them? They weren’t pleasing to God because they and the Temple were only symbols. Besides, the Scriptures inform us that the true offerings of Israel were to be those of the mouth and the heart:

·       For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17; Hosea 6:6; 14:2; Malachi 1:10-11)

God also desires the figurative “sacrifice” of the entire person (Romans 12:2):

·       “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings.  As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered.” (Ezekiel 20:40-41; Isaiah 66:20-21)

The Temple and its prescribed worship were only meant to apply until the Messiah (Hebrew 13:8):

·       “And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days,” declares the LORD, “they shall no more say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. (Jeremiah 3:16-17)

The Ark, which carried the centerpiece of the Mosaic Covenant, the Ten Commandments, would not be remembered or made again because this Covenant would be superseded by the New:

·       “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

The New would replace the Old. How do the rabbis answer this claim? They respond that the New is a mere remodeling of the Mosaic Covenant. Rabbi Sigal had written:

·       By any objective reading of the text, one fails to see any reference to a substitution of a new covenant which will supersede the old. (The Jew and the Christian Missionary, 70)

However, God explicitly declares that the New is “not like the [Mosaic] covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” Nevertheless, Sigal claimed that:

·       …what Jeremiah meant by it was the renewing of the old covenant, which will thereby regain its full original vigor. Jeremiah is thus able to speak of a “new covenant,” and still remain a true prophet among his people because there was absolutely no difference between the new and old. (72-73)

“Absolutely no difference?” Not according to Jeremiah! Once again, the rabbis have studiously side-stepped their promised Messiah as prophesied (Isaiah 8:13-14; 28:16; Psalm 118:22).

In contrast, the NT follows in the path laid out by the OT with a lantern in hand to illuminate what had previously been obscured by the shadows. We find that the NT fits the OT like a glove fits the hand, demonstrating the internal consistency of the entire Bible, pointing to the fact that the Bible expresses a single, although cryptic revelation by a single divine Author.

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We cannot ignore the eternal Temple described in Ezekiel 40-48. According to the NT revelation, this temple symbolizes the presence of God Himself. However, these nine chapters contain so many details that some argue that this temple must be an actual temple and not merely a symbolic non-physical one. However, even the rabbis were perplexed by Ezekiel’s lengthy description:

·       The difficulty of interpreting Ezekiel’s temple vision isn’t limited to only Christian scholars. It has also been a problem with Jewish ones as well. Michael Brown notes that Talmudic rabbis believed the images of the visions were difficult enough that the prophet Elijah would have to come and explain them.

Since the description of Ezekiel’s temple does not coincide with that of the Mosaic Temple, it has led many commentators to believe that Ezekiel’s temple must be a spiritual one:

·       Dr. Michael Brown argues for the spiritual view based upon a handful of reasons including the fact Ezekiel’s temple contradicts a lot of the descriptions in the Torah (Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers particularly) and the text suggests the prophecy will be fulfilled in Ezekiel’s lifetime (Ezekiel 40:4, 43:10,11), but wasn’t. https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/interpreting-ezekiels-temple-vision/

Besides, many of the features of the temple are supernatural. Water is flowing from the temple, and its volume increases as it flows. It nourishes trees that bear fruit every month:

·       And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12)

There are numerous reasons to believe that the temple is not a physical temple but a “temple” whose features convey theological truths. God instructed Ezekiel to describe the temple to the Israelites so that they would be ashamed. How could a mere architectural plan bring shame unless this plan conveyed theological truths and revealed the sinful intentions of the heart:

·       “As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. (Ezekiel 43:10-12)

This temple plan conveyed God’s law, and it wasn’t the same as the Mosaic Law. The whole territory would now be holy, not just the holy place itself. God’s presence would sanctify the surroundings. Consequently, this symbolic “temple” need not contradict the many prophecies listed above.

ABRAHAM AND THE NATURE OF FAITH

The simplest questions are often the hardest to answer, but they also might be the most important. For example, “What is faith?” The life of Abraham answers this question. After about ten years of sojourning in the Promised Land, Abraham had lost faith in what God had promised him – that if he would leave his family and go to a land that God would show him, He would give him many descendants (Genesis 12:1-3, 7).

However, after ten years of waiting for the promise, Abraham despaired and had resigned himself to the disappointing likelihood that his servant Eliezer would be his heir. However, the Word of the Lord came to him again through a vision:

·       And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” (Genesis 15:4)

The Lord then led Abraham outside to look at the sky and told him that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars, and Abraham believed the Word of the Lord:

·       And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

This doesn’t mean that Abraham’s faith was now filled with a glowing and unquenchable feeling of confidence. It certainly wasn’t. Even though Abraham believed, he asked God to reassure him regarding this Word:

·       But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (Genesis 15:8)

God granted Abraham his request by pledging Himself to His Word through a formal covenant. What then is faith? It is not exactly peace of mind and emotion, although this might be the result of faith. There is no indication in this account that Abraham’s faith was accompanied by a glowing, warm, and fuzzy experience. Instead, God’s covenantal pledge to Abraham was associated with a “dreadful and great darkness” which came down upon him (Genesis 15:12). Besides, the presence of God was accompanied by symbols of His wrath as He made this pledge to Abraham. (Why was it that such a great promise was associated with dread? I think that this was indicating that, in order to fulfill His pledge, the Son would have to die for the sins of the world – 2 Corinthians 1:20. Thus, God was giving Abraham a foretaste of the Gospel.)

Let me further illustrate this principle. My wife had once coaxed me to go on the rollercoaster with her. Although I believed that I would survive this ordeal, it felt as if I was going to die. This means that even when we go through times of great emotional upset, it doesn’t mean that we are not trusting in the Lord. Instead, it points to the fact that our flesh is often unwilling to comply with our renewed heart (Romans 7:24-25; Galatians 5:17). These two parts are at war. It is, therefore, important to realize that when we sin, it doesn’t mean that as a new creation in Christ, we are sinning, but rather, it is the sin that remains in us:

·       Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:20)

What then is faith?  It is fundamentally a willingness and a commitment to take God at His Word, even when it hurts and doesn’t make any sense to us. It is a matter of trusting in the Word rather than in ourselves. Abraham trusted when God tested him with His Word. He asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac, the child of the promise, as a burnt offering. Abraham must have been tormented by this trial, but he trusted in the Word of God:

·       By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead… (Hebrews 11:17-19)

After perhaps 40 years of his sojourning in the Promised Land, God had proven Himself trustworthy. His Word hadn’t failed, and Abraham was convinced that His Word wouldn’t fail this time, even if he had to put his son to death.

We too often get discouraged with the lack of feelings of certitude that we think should accompany our faith. Instead, if we regard faith for what it is, a willingness and a commitment to take God at His Word, we will not despair by looking inward to the level of our faith instead of at the Word of God. Instead, the question that confronts us is this: “Are we willing to obey even when it is not convenient and doesn’t feel good?”

However, this too is not easy. It wasn’t for Abraham. A few years later, Abraham again despaired of the Word of the Lord. Instead, he placed his trust in his own ill-advised devices and impregnated their servant girl, Hagar, in order to produce his heir. Although this didn’t thwart the plan of God, it did produce a ton of heartache.

Generally, trusting in the Word of the Lord must be accompanied by despairing of self-trust and our unbiblical devices to accomplish our goals. After all, who is willing to wait on God and His promises if we can obtain the desired results on our own! Faith in God’s Word may never be perfect. However, our trust in Him has to be greater than our trust in anything else, and usually we have to learn this trust the hard way, as Paul had explained:

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

Learning to trust in God means learning to distrust in ourselves. Abraham had to learn that his best bet was with the Word of God. Yahweh appeared to him when he was about 100 years old and still childless and promised him that in the next year Sarah his wife would give birth to the promised heir, Isaac (Genesis 18). By this time, all of his own maneuvers had failed him. He was more than ready to trust in the Word of God:

·       He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:19-21)

How did Abraham grow strong in his faith? Through the many lessons that God had taught him over the trying years of his sojourn! During this time, he learned to give the “Glory to God,” acknowledging that God will do what He has promised. As Abraham learned that he couldn’t trust in himself, his cup was emptied enough to begin to trust in God.

However, Paul’s statement is perplexing. He claimed that Abraham did not waiver in his faith. However, right after Yahweh promised that He would give them a son through his wife Sarah, Abraham traveled to Gerar, where he, once again, passed off Sarah as his sister and not his wife. Consequently, the king took her for his harem, but God intervened by tormenting the king and his nation with such a horrible disease that they could not have sex. In a dream, He then warned the king to return Sarah lest he die. After he did this, the king asked Abraham to explain his unfaithfulness. Abraham explained:

·       “And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’” (Genesis 20:13)

Consequently, it seems that Abraham did waiver in his faith. How do we explain this paradox? Let me make a suggestion. Abraham now knew better. He had to trust in the Word of God, but he had succumbed out of fear and not disbelief.

If this distinction doesn’t seem palatable, take a look at a few examples from the “Hall of Fame of Faith” – Hebrews 11:11, 27, 29. In each instance, from our perspective, it appears that these individuals had been without faith. However, our God is very gracious and sees faith where we don’t see it. Let me cite one of these verses to illustrate this truth:

·       By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

If this seems strange, it is for good reason. The original account shows us that Israel rebelled against God as the Egyptian chariots were approaching:

·       [Israel] said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?  Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11-12)

Nevertheless, in the midst of their rebellion, God graciously saw faith in Israel. Likewise, it might seem that we too waiver in our faith, but our Savior might be seeing something very different. Over the years, our Lord grew the faith of Abraham to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his son. Don’t worry that you are weak in faith. Take heart! Our Lord will restore us.