Okay, how to interpret the Bible? Part three, well maybe we're about part four today. Well, we talked about the Bible as a historical document, we want to talk about thinking about what it was saying the first author and the first hearers, what the author wanted the original hearers to respond to, how they wanted them to respond, then the whole ask, what does the text talk about, tell us about God, and people just forget that so often. But we need to keep that in mind. Number four, the center of the whole Bible is Christ. Number five, there's salvation history, and we talked about dividing the whole Bible into several stages in salvation history. So, we're going to talk about more about Christ and the Old Testament this week, no classes next week, no classes January 1st, and then I think I'll still be on Christ and the Old Testament January 8th, so that's where we're going. Okay, so now, big picture number five, and I want to spend just some time walking through themes in the Bible today, and the idea is all history can be divided into some ages or eras or epochs in salvation history. I realize that sometimes people have called these dispensations in the past, and I don't mind that word either, dispensation meaning a way of God relating to his people. But coming along with that word dispensation, sometimes it was a whole system of interpreting the Bible, and I don't appreciate some of that, and I don't agree with all of it, but I don't, by saying this, I don't mean to say I'm a dispensationalist and a classic sense. I don't really want to get into that right now. So everybody, all Christians throughout history have agreed that there are different ways that God works at different times in history, and we can trace those ways, and think about them, and what I wanted to do last time was talk about the way that God worked with Adam and Eve before the fall, and then after the fall until the time of Abraham, and then began to call people with Abraham, et cetera. So I'm going to put this timeline up on the board again, and say, if you can keep this timeline in your mind, Old Testament, New Testament, and here's Jesus' life and death, and here we have creation and fall, where Adam and Eve are sinned in Genesis 3, and then we have Abraham, and David, oh, made a mistake already. We need Abraham, and then Moses, and then David, and then David, and then there's an exile here, where the people are carried off to Babylon, and then we have Christ and Jesus' resurrection, and he has ascension back up to heaven, and then he pours out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2, and this is the beginning of the New Testament church age, and so from Pentecost until the day Jesus returns, Christ's second coming here, this whole period of time is the church age, and that's what we live in now. I believe when Jesus comes back, then there's going to be a thousand-year period of time called the millennium, where Jesus will reign as King over the earth, as King from Jerusalem, and the Latin word millennium means a thousand years, and then we have a rebellion and a battle against Satan, and his forces that he's gathered from around the earth, and then finally a final judgment and new heavens and new earth, and we go forward in the eternal state with God forever. So that's the picture. Now, as we look at that picture, last week, I said that, and this is right where we ended last week, we are at the same point in salvation history, if we call all that salvation history, not military history, not economic history, not political history, not art history, not history of music, it's salvation history. We are at the same point in salvation history as the people in the early church. They were right there on the timeline, we were right here somewhere on the timeline in 2005, but we're in the same period of God working. And so there are more differences between the way the Bible applied to the church in Corinth, or Thessalonica, or Ephesus, and the Jewish people during Jesus' ministry a few years earlier. See, those people read the beginning of the church age. There are more differences between them, and this period where they were still under the mosaic covenant, the old covenant. More differences between them in the first century, and Jesus' earthly ministry time, then there are between those people and us. We're two thousand years later almost, but we're at the same point in God's working with His people. No, this is, now we start new. When we get this timeline in mind, then it helps us when we do topical studies of what the whole Bible teaches about A or B or C or D, it helps us, and I tell students to do this, to think, how would that topic be different in the time before the fall, back here in Genesis 1 and 2? And how would that topic be different in the eternal state, in the New Heavens and New Earth after all sin is taken away? And when we ask that question about various topics, it helps us to filter out the effects of sin and to understand the effects of sin in this present age. I'll give you an example. I'm going to skip to the second one first. It's Untouched Nature, the ideal. There are many people today who are zealous environmentalists, and I think it's right that we protect the environment, we care for it, and we be good stewards of it, because God has placed us on the Earth to be good stewards. But along with that zealous environmentalism often goes an idea that the best kind of world you could ever get is nature in its untouched core, in its untouched state. Just let everything be natural, and then we'll all be healthy and happy, and we'll live forever, and we won't get diseases, and things like that. So it's kind of a back-to-nature viewpoint. People have had that throughout history, and I've mentioned a long time ago, I guess. I had a discussion with a member of the Mosquito Control District governing board in Libertyville Township, where we lived in Illinois, and he was a back-to-nature fan, and he thought, just let the mosquitoes be, and then we've got birds eat mosquitoes, and I was telling him that the mosquitoes were eating people, and I didn't really like it. They weren't quite eating people. They were making outdoors miserable, but he thought that this world left alone is the best there is. And I have in my brain this history of salvation picture that says, no, this world is not the best there is, because Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden is the best there is in terms of natural world, but when the fall came, and Genesis 3 came, then God said in Genesis 3, to Adam, cursed is the ground, because of you thorns and pistols it will bring forth for you. In the sweat of your brow, you will eat bread, and I think God altered the course of nature so that it isn't functioning in the best way, in the way it really is intended to be by God. And so there are famines, and there are droughts, and there are floods, and there are hurricanes, and there are thorns and pistols on the Boganvillea that you try to prune, and just things are hard for us. We have to work to get food from the earth. That's not the way God created it to be, and when I factor in the fall, and the fact that Paul says in Romans 8, when Christ comes back, then creation will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God, then I think what happens when Jesus comes back suddenly, the course of nature is going to be changed, and all of those things that make it
that struggle against us, those are going to be overcome, and there won't be any thorns anymore, and pistols that came with the curse, and I don't think honestly they're going to be any mosquito bites that sting us, and if you've lived in Minnesota or Wisconsin, you know what I mean. Now, how do mosquitoes live? I don't know. I think God's going to figure that out. I can't figure that all out, but I think that asking what happened before the fall, and what happens after Jesus comes back, that helps me approach nature rightly, and I say, you know what, there are some things that we should correct in nature, so I think it's right to take the weeds out of your garden, or take the weeds out of your pesticides to remove weeds from the crop land, and so we can grow better crops and things like that, and so I am in favor of developing the earth and sub-doing it and overcoming the effects of the fall. That's one example, sub-doing the earth in general. I don't think, again, that untouched nature is the ideal because I go back here and I see that God said to Adam and Eve, fill the earth and sub-do it, and have dominion over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. That means there to develop it and make it useful for human beings, and therefore these people that think that millions of untouched acres, oh yeah, I know, it comes to play right now in what the US Senate is debating today, and that is Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, where I don't know, something like 1 1,000 to 1% of these millions of acres, millions of square miles in Alaska, on which zero people live, just some caribou, that 1 1,000 to 1% or something like that, I did a graph in a map of this long time ago in this class, that that could be used to produce as much oil for the United States as Iraq now produces. And the Senate is trying to overcome some opposition by people who don't think we should touch it because it's nature, and my view is, no, when I go back to Genesis, God told us to do the earth and make it useful, it's there for us, we could use it responsibly, but we should use it. And so I don't follow this untouched nature, and I think we should sub-do the earth. Health and sickness, here's another one. You'd get verses like, Psalm 119 is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes, and there is benefit that comes to us spiritually from illness sometimes, and so, but there's a distortion of that that sometimes people say, well, I guess sickness is good, and they're even sometimes hesitant to pray for healing, that God would make them well, and so I say, well, wait a minute, that isn't the way God created us, sickness and aging and death have come with the fall, and in fact, in the New Heavens and New Earth, after Jesus comes back, we get resurrection bodies that aren't sick anymore. Therefore, I think it's pleasing to God for us to seek to maintain our health and have healthy exercise in eating habits and to pray for healing when we're sick and things like that. Wealth and poverty is poverty more spiritual, is it ultimately something that's the best for us or at least for other people. Now, I realize that James says that God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith, and there's the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him, and so I realize that, and Jesus said, blessed are you poor, and there's a lot of teaching in the New Testament about God's care for the poor, and how they often are very near to God and strong in faith, and those of you who have visited third world countries and churches in third world countries, you know that their faith is remarkable and we're thankful for that, but that can lead us to a mistake, a mistake of thinking, well, poverty is a better thing than well overall, and then you get this anti-productivity, anti-any material goods, all anti-business, all that, and I say, no, I realize that God brings blessings to those who are poor, but ultimately that's not the ideal. The ideal is, when Jesus comes back, there's going to be an abundant earth that's going to the desert, it's going to blossom like the crocus, or the rose, says in the Old Testament prophets, and the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the hills will be bursting forth with all these crops, and there'll just be an abundance, and that's what started out in the Garden of Eden. It was interrupted by all these ages of sin, but it's coming back in the future, and so I say, all other things being equal, it's better that we seek to increase material possessions on the earth and help to overcome poverty, not just to say, well, okay, that's spiritually good for people. You see what I'm going on this? Before the fall, and after Jesus comes back, shows us what God's best purpose is, and that helps us to have something to aim for, to pray for, to work for, to try to develop on the earth now. Equality of possessions. Sometimes there's been some Christians publishing books and saying, well, we should all have aim for equal possessions of all people around the world, so everybody should live on $2,683 a year, because that's how you take the total gross domestic product of all the nations of the world, and divide it by the people of the world, and that's your share. And I read about a university professor who was a Christian in the Midwest, and his wife who was an editor at a Christian publisher in the Midwest, and they had pretty significant income between them, and they thought, no, we should not do this, we should only live on our fair share of income in the world, and so they quit both their jobs and moved to California where it was warmer, and they raised all their own vegetables and things like that, and so they were trying to live on their fair share of the world's income. I thought it was a dreadful mistake, because they were being productive in that he was a biology professor, and he was teaching people about how to overcome poverty and subdued the earth indirectly anyway. I think he made a dreadful mistake, but it was saying, oh, everybody should just share equally in all the possessions of the earth, and I look at, again, I look forward to the new heavens and new earth, and I say, you know what? Jesus says, you've been faithful over little, I'll set you over much, you will have authority over 10 cities, and then the servant who brought back five talents, you will have authority over five cities, and so there are different amounts of stewardship in, after the final judgment, in the new heavens and new earth, different levels of responsibility, different levels of reward, and there is no sin here, so that differing levels of stewardship, and therefore I think differing levels of possessions, they're not inherently wrong in themselves, they're just part of how God has made the human race to be, and so looking in a situation where there's no sin helps me understand that our goal today shouldn't be equality of possessions, for all people, yes we should overcome poverty, and I've talked about that, and I'm going to be working more on that, but this is a mistake, just from just looking at the whole history of salvation. The idea of authority, I don't know if you've seen these billboards that Benetan put up a couple of years ago, all it said is you're driving down the freeway, big billboard, it said, resist authority, I think that must have come from some ad designer who was in my college graduating class, because I went to college in 1966 to 1970, and that was the whole mindset, that all authority is evil, it's wrong, and there's always, and you get all these examples of people who have misused authority, and tyrants, and dictators, and all of this, and I think, well, you know what, I could go back here in creation, and I think there are 10 or 11 reasons that I could show in Genesis 1 and 2, where God gave Adam a leadership role, and authority in his family, that he didn't have, that Adam has husband, had a leadership role, I can even go back before creation and say, you know what, in the Trinity, among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, before creation, there was authority, the Father chose us in the Son, Father predestined us in the Son, Ephesians 1 and 4, he predestined us to be conformed to the image of the Son, that's the Father initiating, choosing the Father created through the Son, so the Father has authority in the Trinity, that the Son doesn't have, and that the Holy Spirit doesn't have, and then I look forward into the millennium, and I see Jesus himself, in 1 Corinthians 1528, he is going to be subject to God the Father, when all things are subjected to him, then he himself will be subject to him, who's subjected all things to him, 1 Corinthians 1528, so again, there's authority between the Father and Son in the Trinity, and it's going on for all eternity future, the Father has a leadership or authority role in the Trinity, that the Son doesn't have, that's why the Father sent the Son into the world, the Son didn't send the Father, things like that, so I say no, I realize there are abuses of authority, but when I look back at creation before there was sin, or even before creation, and I look way on into the future when there's no sin, authority still exists in interpersonal relationship, so the idea is not wrong in itself, there are abuses of authority, but the idea is not wrong in itself, or I could go on with a list of 15 or 20 of these topics, but here's one more lying and telling the truth, and I've just been reading through Genesis now, and coming to how there's all this deception with Jacob and his life, and deceiving his Father, and getting the blessing, and then Laban deceives him, and then Rebecca deceives her Father, and then Joseph's brothers deceive their Father, it's just one thing after another, and you begin to think, well, maybe it's just right, all this deception and lying and falsehood, and then I say, you know what, no, the ideal is the character of God, and what exists in the New Heavens and New Earth over here, and you don't have lying there. In fact, I think liars are among those excluded from the from the heavenly city, in the book of Revelation, and I look back at the character of God, and I say, God is a God who doesn't lie, and so I am not willing to say that telling a falsehood is sometimes good. I know that we can get it, we did talk about this maybe several months ago in this class, and I know there are all sorts of hard situations, and situations where silence is an option, things like that, but in itself, lying and telling the truth, when I sort out, when I just don't get my eyes off this narrow focus on a sinful fall in world, and I look at what God intended the world to be, and what it's going to be in the future, that helps me with hundreds and hundreds of topics. That's the only point I wanted to make there. I want to ask about that a little bit, is that in my making sense, you sort out the effects of sin, and it really clarifies your vision, and I think that Christians, because they have this, we have this perspective on the world, it helps us see more clearly what the world should be, okay? Yeah.
I think it's always wrong to affirm X when X is false. Always in every circumstance, forever and ever, amen.
Is that clear?
Yeah, no, I've wanted to be clear, and that's, and it takes a whole hour to unpack, what about rehab, and what about trying to save the Nazis, who are, I'm saying the Jews who are hiding from the Nazis in the basement, and I understand all those questions, I could deal with them, but in general, don't lie. Sometimes you should be silent. There's other stuff that goes along with that, Shantel.
No. People have the right to what they own, and what they have earned.
Shantel is wondering if the Mexicans have the right to what we have. You mean people from Mexico should oh, oh, oh yeah, no, not all, but that's another question. It's good to follow the law and have laws that are workable. I won't say anything more. Okay. All right, big picture,
big picture number six themes. This is a little bit of a development from what I was saying a few minutes ago. Just these big broad brush ideas of how to interpret the Bible. Here's another idea. Because the Bible is a unity, there's one divine author, though many human authors, there are many themes that develop and grow from Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, for each significant element in any text it's helpful to ask where did this theme start in the Bible, and how did it develop, and where is it going to end in the Bible? I find that this kind of study, if you're saying, how can I grow in my knowledge of the Bible? This kind of study of tracing themes from Genesis to Revelation, again and again and again, this is a huge help in gaining a perspective on how the whole Bible fits together. And in fact, God works by gradually unfolding his plan through history. Of course, an obvious way we think about it, Christmas is that he gradually unfolded his plan to bring a Messiah who would save the Jewish people and ultimately be a blessing to all nations, including those of us who are Gentiles. But that's just one aspect or one big part of that, and there are many themes, and so those little squiggles on the chart are saying, look, you could take a theme, you could take a theme like, oh, the theme of wealth and poverty, and you could trace that throughout the Bible and see what happened to it, or you could take the theme of sickness and health, and trace that throughout the Bible and say, what does it happen, how does it change from age to age, or you could take many other themes? And so I want to give some examples, and the one to start with is the Christmas story in Matthew 2, especially the story of the wise men. Somehow, can you read this from the back? It seems like, is it not as bright today? What happened? What? Something in the bulb is up there. Would anybody like to climb up there and fix it? Okay, there's something wrong with the projector. So, if you can't read it, listen, so I'll read it out loud. This is what people used to have to do before projectors. Anyway, listen, well, the Bible is red, but now I want to take this story of the wise men and then trace some themes, where they start and where they end in the Bible. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, no, now these are, they may have been astrologers, they may have been, people aren't sure exactly what mad giant were, but they were leaders, they were respected people, they were insightful, influential people, and they were wealthy people because the gifts they brought. Anyway, there are some kind of people and some kind of leadership or prominence from Israel? Are they Jews?
No, no, they come saying, where is he who's been born King of the Jews? They're not Jews. They're Gentiles. They're prominent leaders, wealthy leaders among the Gentiles, and they come to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born King of the Jews? Well, we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the King heard this, when he heard this, he heard, where is the person who has been born King of the Jews? Herod the King doesn't really appreciate the idea that someone else has been born King of the Jews. He heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him, it assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, or from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word that I too may come and worship him. He doesn't want to worship him, he wants to put into that. Okay. And after listening to the King, they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and mirrored, and being born in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now we can read this, we can see Christmas carols about it, we can think about it, and hear their worshiping Jesus who's the newborn King. But I think we get deeper appreciation of this story if we pick out some themes and start back in Genesis and see if we can trace these themes from Genesis to Revelation. So here are some themes that I want to trace. One is the birth of a special child descended from David, from Abraham, from Eve, ultimately. There is the birth of the promised offspring or seed of the woman, Genesis 315, and he has come to bruise the head of the serpent. So what I'm saying here is if we trace this theme back all the way to Genesis 3, we see that God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman. That's Eve, between your offspring and her offspring. And then it says he will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. And there's a very faint hint that God is promising that there is an offspring or a seed of the descendant of the woman who is going to come and defeat Satan. Bruzum in the head means a fatal blow. It's going to decisively defeat him. Though he will be wounded in the process. Bruzum in the heel means a blow that's not ultimately
meaning his defeat, but there's a significant harm that comes. Well, where is this? We go on, Adam and Eve have a child. There's a special child able. Is he the promised offspring of the woman who will destroy the serpent? No. Cane killed Abel. And he wasn't the one. Was Cane? No, because Cane was sinful. What about Seth? Then Eve says I've gotten another man from the Lord to replace the one that was taken. Is Seth the Messiah? No, he's not the Messiah. Well, it goes on and on. Who is the Messiah? Who is the Messiah? Finally, God says to Abraham, it's going to be your descendant, Abraham. But Sarah has no children. So Abraham waits and waits and waits and waits. And when Sarah is 90 and Abraham is 100, then Isaac is born. Is he the one? Is he the seed of the woman who will bruise the head of the serpent? Well, it's either going to be him or it's going to be some who've come from him. And it's not Isaac. Well, is it Jacob? No, it's not Jacob, but it's a descendant of Jacob because God renews the promise that through him and through Abraham and Isaac and then through Jacob, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. People are carried off into Egypt. It looks like is everything lost? Are they going to be destroyed? And the Pharaoh is hostile to the people and he oppresses them and he decides to do what to all the male children of Israel. Put them to death. Well, you can see a satanic plot behind Pharaoh's plan. He tells the midwives when all these Hebrew children are born, put them to death. And Moses is born and his parents see that the child is attractive. He's handsome. He's beautiful. And they want to protect him. And so they trust in God. And his mother puts him in this little raft and kind of puts him out on the water and trusts him to the Lord and God intervenes and protects him. So again, here's a special child being born. Is it Moses? Is he the Messiah? No, he's not, ultimately, but it kind of gives us a hint that God's going to bring somehow a special child who will be born through God's intervention protected by God, even the enemy will try to destroy him. And eventually, then, you go off, the people go off into exile. It looks like there's is there anybody left in Israel and the people are unfaithful. Is there anyone left? And it just, it's down to a tiny, tiny, tiny room into people who are faithful. Where is God's promise? Is it going to be fulfilled? And then suddenly, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and says, you're going to bear a son. And she bears this son in a miraculous way. So here, finally, is the birth of the special child descended from David, descended from Abraham. God also promised to David, one of your sons, coming from your flesh, will sit on your throne forever. And so the birth of a special child is fulfilled in Jesus and he truly is the one who is going to fulfill the prophecy that he will bruise the head of the serpent and destroy him forever. What happens then is there's, I suppose we could trace this idea of a new birth that then from Christ, many thousands are born spiritually and the church explodes as God works miraculously throughout the ages until there'll be a great multitude whom no one can number from every tribe and nation of people in Tongue. And the promise to Eve, the promise to Abraham, the promise to David, that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham's descendant, it is now coming to fulfillment in the birth of Jesus.
The next theme, threats from an evil ruler who seeks to kill the child while I mentioned that with Pharaoh seeking to put Moses to death, the Hebrew children, I suppose you get it even with came killing Abel. He's putting to death the one through whom it might be that God will fulfill his promise. And so there's the evil one opposed to God's people throughout history and fighting against them. And so in a way all the wars were the flistings are fighting against the people of Israel and trying to destroy them in a way or a Pharaoh chasing in his chariots and trying to pursue them to the Red Sea in a way it's threatening. It's it's Satan trying to destroy the promise of God that this Messiah is coming but God always protects his people through those things and the threats come to nothing and God triumphs. Number three God establishes his king on the throne the throne of David and there's that promise that from David's own flesh someone would come who would reign over the over gods people forever and here the wise men come and say where's he who has been born what of the Jews? King of the Jews so here's the king the true king greater king than David greater than Solomon greater than the kings who went astray he's the king who will reign forever. There's another theme here number four the leaders of the nations beyond Israel come to worship the newborn king. You see back here get another color back here there was a fall and very few were faithful and then God God called Abraham and it was the Jewish people in particular that God worked through and so they were gods chosen people they had the sign of circumcision and all who were descended from Abraham then and then from Isaac and from Jacob and then from the 12 tribes of Israel that those those grew into a great nation and then diminished in the exile so there were fewer and fewer but it was still the Jewish people and God was working through the Jewish people but God had promised to Abraham I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and then he then he said to Abraham through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed well what's this deal only the Jewish people why only the Jewish people just a few out of the history of the world what's going on where's this promise that through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed occasionally there are others brought in there are Gentiles brought in to the people of Israel who were some Gentiles who were saved in the Old Testament a few Ruth all right Ruth a Moabitis who comes and she's joined to the people of God there's one Rahab Rahab so Rahab when when the people came in under Joshua here's here's Rahab a Canaanite woman and she becomes and we had Ruth and she becomes joined to the people of God so there's a Gentile a Gentile saved anybody else
yeah Nebuchadnezzar who in Daniel four has this he's humbled and then he knows that the most high rules over the kingdom of men gives it to whom he will it looks like there's a true salvation true repentance on his part so so a few people a few Gentiles come in but very few through the history just hints hints well how can all the nations of the earth be blessed all of a sudden when Jesus is born these wise men come from the east and their Gentiles and they're coming to worship the king in Israel they're coming to worship not just the king of Israel but the one who's going to be king over all the nations and so we get a hint that this one who is born is going to bring salvation to the Gentiles and we think about wise men we should think wow it's not just Jewish people anymore God is giving a sign that he's expanding salvation to people beyond to all nations of the earth and then you know what they bring gifts they bring gifts from the wealth of the nations to offer in worship to this king of Israel and there is a theme in the Bible about the wealth of the nations being brought to being brought to the leaders of Israel so that they can use it for the glory of God and thank him for it I think ultimately it starts way back here where God told Adam and Eve to subdue the earth and make it useful to them so the wealth of the earth was to be there as they were to use it and be blessed by it but then things went bad with the fall and it was hard to get food from the earth but Abraham you get this idea when Abraham journeys to the promised land and he doesn't know where he's going God calls him and then God blesses him with flocks and herds and all sorts of wealth and it happens to Isaac it happens to Jacob and so the wealth of various parts of the earth are coming to they're coming to be presented to those who have been chosen by God you get it to coming to a huge kind of fulfillment under King Solomon just after David where what happens is Solomon is raining and he's got the greatest wisdom of any king on the earth and over many nations there comes this awe of Solomon and they begin to bring their wealth of the nations to him and in 2 Chronicles 9 it says all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon the kings ships went to Tarshish and came bringing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks those were kind of unusual things they have around your house and they were symbols of great wealth thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom and all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put into his mind every one of them brought his present articles of silver and gold garments, merch, spices, horses and mules so much year by year and the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Sheffala all this wealth of the nations is coming to be presented to the king who reigns in Jerusalem the king of Israel what's going on here it's like Solomon is given an initial picture of the fulfillment of God's purpose that mankind would rule over the earth and the wealth of the earth would be given to God's people but Solomon Solomon has a major hint of it because there's such wealth flowing into his kingdom here now Solomon's kingdom fades it's divided and the people are impoverished but and they go off into exile so Solomon wasn't the true fulfillment he wasn't the true Messiah but but what is happening now when the wise men come to Jesus baby Jesus in Bethlehem they present him gifts gold and frankincense and mur these wise men are in a sense bringing the wealth of the nations to worship the king who is now going to reign over God's people and you know what that looks forward that looks forward to more of this happening i think in the church age when Paul takes a collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem i think he's got this in mind he's looking forward to something greater but from all the places where he's planted churches he takes an offering he brings it to Jerusalem so that the in a way that the wealth of the nations is flowing again to Jerusalem to to to help God's people but it's going to be fulfilled in much greater sense in the age to come when in Revelation 21 the gates of the city are not shot they remain open and the kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into the heavenly Jerusalem i think when the wise men are bringing gifts to the baby Jesus they are showing a foretaste of all the wealth of the nations finally coming to rest of the feet of Jesus and being used to honor him when he reigns as king over the whole earth and there's just a hint does that make any sense this idea of tracing themes um is that fun i i i i i think it's exciting you want to ask about that at all yeah um it doesn't say three it names three gifts all better if there are more yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah what's your name way in the back yes good the offering i'm going to repeat for the tape here the offerings that we give on Sunday morning in a way when God has blessed us with wealth we're giving it to the Lord and then it's flowing forth in emissions throughout the world and so the blessing isn't just i mean it isn't just for us to it's for us to give to others and make use of um ultimately giving it back to the Lord so that's in a way an anticipation of all the wealth of the earth coming to the feet of Jesus as well it's good yeah yeah joe
i thought about the star i mean one thing God created the stars and i go way back here okay so we're going to trace stars throughout the bible and i probably should do a concordant search and think more about it but he rules over the stars he he names them he sets them in place so when the star goes before at least we should say hey there's only one person in the whole universe that can make this happen and that's the one who created them and that's God himself so here we see God himself coming and directing the kings of the nations to worship the king in Jerusalem and to bring the wealth of the nations to the king in Jerusalem at least that uh do you think that they're right I don't know doesn't doesn't say others may have i mean just like we see something bright in the sky and they're saying what's that you know what oh baby it's a satellite oh maybe it's Mars i don't know and and they were given the understanding by God of what it meant and so there's the event and there's there's God's understanding of it and they at least knew what it meant and they followed it it must have been very specific to guide them right to the place where Jesus was i don't think you can get astronomical charts and history and things and find anything like that so yeah okay so what we're seeing is God gradually unfolds themes throughout the history of the bible um i got two more minutes i'll do one oh no we're supposed to sing aren't we okay stealing the storm at sea got other themes there i'll pick up on that next time and then i want to look at some old testament probably be January 8th look at some old testament passages uh and see how we can see them looking forward to the Messiah let's uh let's uh here we go this is uh shepherds in Bethlehem all right and uh and the wise men coming as well so we stand up and sing