Category Archives: Exodus

Fear – Exodus, Part 9

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Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand – when he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.  When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid (yârêʼ)[1] to approach him.[2]  The Greek word ἐφοβήθησαν (a form of φοβέω)[3] was chosen for this fear in the Septuagint.  This word occurs in the phrase ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον[4] μέγαν[5] in Mark’s gospel and was translated, They were overwhelmed by fear.[6]

Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat.  Now a great windstorm developed and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped.[7]  Jesus was asleep in the stern.  His disciples woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?”  So he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!”  Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm.[8]

I thought Jesus rebuked them then.  “Why are you cowardly?” He said according to Mark’s account (which I assume was Peter’s account and Mark served as chronicler, if not his scribe).  Do you still not have faith?”[9]  In Matthew’s account Jesus’ rebuke—“Why are you cowardly, you people of little faith?”[10]—came even before He calmed the storm.  (Matthew/Levi hadn’t been called yet, according to Matthew.[11])  Of course, the text doesn’t actually say that Jesus rebuked them.

He rebuked (ἐπετίμησεν, a form of ἐπιτιμάω)[12] the wind (the cause[13] of the problem, if you will), and said (εἶπεν, a form of ῥέω)[14] to the sea as He said (εἶπεν) to his disciples.  Matthew recorded what He said (λέγει, a form of λέγω)[15] to his disciples, and how He rebuked (ἐπετίμησεν) the winds and the sea.  But when I believed that my faith was the work that made me worthy of heaven—Why are you cowardly?  Do you still not have faith? and Why are you cowardly, you people of little faith?—stung like rebuke.  My opinion began to change, however, after I began to believe that his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence,[16] and that credited righteousness[17] was a functional,[18] rather than merely a formal,[19] righteousness.

My original opinion about Jesus’ rebuke was rendered absurd when I began to believe that even faith did not come out of or out from me: For by grace you are saved through faith (πίστεως, a form of πίστις),[20] and this is not from yourselves (καὶ[21] τοῦτο[22] οὐκ[23] ἐξ[24] ὑμῶν[25]), it is the gift of God.[26]  I heard the argument that this (τοῦτο, literally these) cannot refer back to faith (πίστεως) because τοῦτο “is neuter plural and ‘Faith’ [πίστεως] is feminine.”[27]  And I certainly tried to live by its consequences: “God bestows grace on those who faithfully obey His truth (Romans 6:15-18).  Man’s obedient faith does not cancel grace.  The fact is that an obedient faith allows initial grace (Acts 2:38) and permits continual grace (1 John 1:7).”[28]  My faith proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was never up to the task.  On the other hand, “Grace is feminine…And even Salvation (as a noun) is feminine.”[29]  So τοῦτο (literally these) refers to none of them or all three of them.

Though now it seems somewhat redundant and unnecessary to say that God’s grace is not from yourselves, there was a time when I needed to hear that his grace was not from works, so that no one can boast.[30]  Though now it seems somewhat redundant and unnecessary to say that God’s salvation is not from yourselves, there was a time when I needed to hear that his salvation was not from works, so that no one can boast.  Likewise there was a time when I reached the end of MY faith and needed to hear that even faith is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.[31]  It is Christ’s faithfulness, not mine, the fruit of his Spirit.

And notice how easily these lofty requirements are fulfilled when the faithfulness in question is Christ’s rather than mine: “God bestows grace on those who faithfully obey His truth.  [Christ’s] obedient faith does not cancel grace.  The fact is that an obedient faith allows initial grace and permits continual grace.”  I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.[32]  And, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις), gentleness, and self-control.[33]

I’m not thinking here of the works of the flesh,[34] but that desire of the flesh that is most perniciously opposed to the Spirit[35] even after its works are largely under his control; namely, the desire to be accepted by God as righteous by my own works on my own terms.  But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites, Jesus said to men who pursued that kind of righteousness.  You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven!  For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.[36]  I know Paul didn’t explicitly say that this is a desire of the flesh in his letter to the Galatians, so I may be giving the flesh more credit than it deserves.  Perhaps the desire to be right is nothing more than a perversion or short-circuiting of a God-given hunger and thirst for righteousness.[37]  Regardless, the fruit and the glory are God’s, not mine.

The Greek word for this “obedient faith” in the New Testament is ὑπακοή.  At the beginning and the end of his letter to the Romans Paul went out of his way to make it clear that he did not mean “my own works by my own righteousness,” in fact, he called it faith’s obedience (Romans 1:5; 16:25-27 NET):

Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith (ὑπακοὴν[38] πίστεως) among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages, but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God [κατ᾿[39] ἐπιταγὴν[40] τοῦ[41] αἰωνίου[42] θεοῦ[43]] to bring about the obedience of faith [εἰς[44] ὑπακοὴν πίστεως] – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever!   Amen.

While it is correct to translate ὑπακοή obedience relative to the Greek language, when Paul used ὑπακοή, even alone, relative to the Gospel he did not refer to “my own works by my own righteousness” any more than his use of the word θεοῦ referred to Zeus, Hera, Apollo or Aphrodite.  So I have to ask, how harshly did the Lord Jesus criticize his disciples for not demonstrating the faith He had not yet given them?  And look, I am sending you what my Father promised, Jesus told his Apostles after his resurrection.  But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.[45]

Jesus’ disciples knew, or suspected, that He was the Messiah, or Christ.  That’s why they followed Him, according to John’s Gospel account.  Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two disciples who heard what John [the Baptist] said and followed Jesus.  He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah (Μεσσίαν, a form of Μεσσίας)!”[46] (which is translated Christ [χριστός]).[47]  Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”[48]

Up to that time a messiah (Hebrew: mâshı̂yach, maw-shee’-akh) was simply a man anointed by God for a specific purpose.  Though incredulous at first that anything good could come out of Nazareth,[49] when he met Jesus, Nathaniel revealed some of his expectation regarding this particular anointed one at this particular time in Israel’s history, Rabbi, you are the Son of God (υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ); you are the king of Israel![50]  I’m not sure what Nathaniel meant by υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.  I don’t think he recognized yet that Jesus was Yahweh in human flesh.  I do think it is that particular lack of faith to which Jesus referred when He said, Why are you cowardly?  Do you still not have faith? or Why are you cowardly, you people of little faith?  I’m just not so sure any more that it was a rebuke.

The word translated cowardly in both Mark’s and Matthew’s accounts is δειλοί, a form of δειλός.[51]  Online in a section labeled HELPSTM Word-studies it reads, “deilós is always used negatively in the NT and stands in contrast to the positive fear which can be expressed by 5401 /phóbos [φόβος] (‘fear,’ see Phil 2:12).”[52]  Actually δειλός only occurs three or perhaps four times in the New Testament.  The fourth was rejected by the writer(s) of this particular definition: So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe (δέους, possibly another form of δειλός).[53]  This is quite similar to Philippians 2:12 (NET): So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe (φόβου, a form of φόβος)[54] and reverence…

In a section labeled “Forms and Transliterations” at the bottom of the web-page in the Bible Hub δέους is listed along with δειλοί: “δειλοι, δειλοί, δειλοις, δειλοίς, δειλοῖς, δειλός, δεους, δέους.”  It is a form of δέος (δειλός is from δέος in Strong’s) according to the Greek Word Study Tool,[55] but it is a form of αἰδώς[56] according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.  The NET online Bible jumps to αἰδώς if I click on awe in English.  If I click on δέους in Greek the busy signal spins perpetually.  If δέους actually is another form of δειλός, Jesus’ saying might have been translated, Why are you [awestruck]?

The problem is, the one time δειλοῖς (another form of δειλός) occurs in the New Testament it is first in the list of the damned: But to the cowards (δειλοῖς), unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.  That is the second death.[57]  And so Thayer’s Greek Lexicon reads, “δειλός, δείλη, δειλόν (δείδω to fear), timid, fearful: Matthew 8:28 [actually, Matthew 8:26]; Mark 4:40; in Revelation 21:8 of Christians who through cowardice give way under persecutions and apostatize. (From Homer down.)”[58]

Before I get too carried away by the idea that the Lord Jesus used δειλός in the same way that Homer used it, I’ll look more deeply into the context in Revelation.  But that kind of confusion could explain why Peter believed that Jesus wanted him to die[59] defending Him with a sword in the garden of Gethsemane.

The damned in Revelation were contrasted to one who conquers: The one who conquers (νικῶν, a form of νικάω)[60] will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son.[61]  The one who conquers (νικῶν, a form of νικάω) will in no way be harmed by the second death.[62]  The one who conquers (νικῶν, a form of νικάω) I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it.  I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as well.[63]

And to the one who conquers (νικῶν, a form of νικάω) and who continues in my deeds (τὰ ἔργα[64] μου[65]) until the end, I will give him authority over the nations…[66]  The one who conquers (νικῶν, a form of νικάω) will be dressed like [the few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes][67] in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will declare his name before my Father and before his angels.[68]  I have not found your deeds complete (σου |τὰ| ἔργα πεπληρωμένα[69]) in the sight of my God,[70] the Lord complained against most in Sardis.  Wake up then, and strengthen what remains,[71] He said, remember what (πῶς)[72] you received (εἴληφας, a form of λαμβάνω)[73] and heard, and obey it, and repent.[74]

Ordinarily, εἴληφας, a form of λαμβάνω, means to take.[75]  Of course, coupled with πῶς which means how, in what way (translated what), the translation received makes more sense.  How could anyone take from the Lord except to receive what He has given?  What do you have that you did not receive (ἔλαβες, another form of λαμβάνω)?  And if you received (ἔλαβες) it, why do you boast as though you did (λαβών, another form of λαμβάνω) not?[76]

Translated as remember what you received I think of the Holy Spirit and all the righteousness, both fruit and gifts, that flows from Him: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[77]  And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us.  If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.[78]

On the other hand if I think of it translated as remember what you [took], I am reminded of the law: You shall not take (Septuagint, λήμψῃ,[79] another form of λαμβάνω) the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who takes (Septuagint, λαμβάνοντα,[80] another form of λαμβάνω) his name in vain.[81]  Most in Sardis had not continued in Christ’s deeds, τὰ ἔργα μου (literally, my works, these works of mine).  They had not come into the light, so that it may be plainly evident that [their] deeds have been done in [or, by] God.[82]  They relied on their own works.  I have not found your deeds complete (ἔργα πεπληρωμένα [a form of πληρόω, fulfilled]) in the sight of my God, Jesus said.  He came to fulfill his works in and through us who believe (Matthew 5:17 NET):

Do not think that I have come to abolish (καταλῦσαι, a form of καταλύω)[83] the law or the prophets.  I have not come to abolish (καταλῦσαι, a form of καταλύω) these things but to fulfill (πληρῶσαι, a form of πληρόω) them.

One of the things the one who conquers will inherit[84] is a promise: To the one who is thirsty (διψῶντι, a form of διψάω)[85] I will give water free of charge from the spring of the water of life.[86]  The translators admitted (NET note 13) that they added the word water because it “is implied.  Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.”  So the text reads, To the one who is thirsty I will give free of charge from the spring of the water of life.  The implied direct object in this case is not water but righteousness: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst (διψῶντες, another form of διψάω) for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.[87]

Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty (διψήσει, another form of διψάω) again, Jesus, pointing at a well, told a Samaritan woman.  But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty (διψήσει, another form of διψάω) again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.[88]  So the way that righteousness, the will of God, is achieved in heaven is through free access to God’s Holy Spirit, not an occasional spurt of righteousness, but a spring or fountain springing up to eternal life, which is not so much a timeless time or place as an eternal way of life.  And so it is on earth: may your will be done (γενηθήτω, a form of γίνομαι, literally become)[89] on earth as it is in heaven.[90]

And so it was with our Lord and Savior: I will grant the one who conquers (νικῶν, a form of νικάω) permission to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered (ἐνίκησα, a form of νικάω) and sat down with my Father on his throne.[91]  For everyone who has been fathered by God conquers (νικᾷ, a form of νικάω) the world.  This is the conquering power that has conquered (νικήσασα, a form of νικάω) the world: our faith.  Now who is the person who has conquered (νικῶν, a form of νικάω) the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?[92]  If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.  And we have come to know and to believe the love [the fruit of his Spirit] that God has in us.  God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him [Table].[93]

With that in mind I want to reconsider the story of Jesus calming the wind and the waves.  I’ll use my imagination along with a psalm to get into the scene a little deeper.  When a great windstorm developed and the waves first began breaking into the boat,[94] though the other disciples may have been immediately afraid, I imagine Peter, Andrew, James and John took it in stride, for they were fishermen (Psalm 107:23-25 NET).

Some traveled on the sea in ships, and carried cargo over the vast waters.  They witnessed the acts of the Lord, his amazing feats on the deep water.  He gave the order for a windstorm, and it stirred up the waves of the sea.

As Peter gave orders to man the sail, ropes or oars, I imagine he smiled to himself that Jesus could sleep through it all.  Obviously, the Messiah wasn’t worried that He might drown in a storm on the Sea of Galilee (Psalm 107:26a NET Table).

They reached up to the sky, then dropped into the depths.

That’s an apt description of a boat riding out a storm fairly successfully.  But in the midst of an inland lake, the longer the wind blows, the more confused the waves become as they bounce back from every shore.  In the dark with no clue where the next wave would come from, it became almost impossible to head into the waves, so that the boat was nearly swamped.[95]  As the level of the water rose inside the boat, I imagine Peter’s amusement gave way to dismay, that the Messiah could sleep through it all (Psalm 107:26b-28a NET).

The sailors’ strength left them because the danger was so great [Table].  They swayed and staggered like a drunk, and all their skill proved ineffective.  They cried out to the Lord in their distress…

Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?[96] Peter roused Jesus from his slumber.  I imagine that it was Peter, telling on himself through Mark (Psalm 107:28b, 29 NET).

…he delivered them from their troubles.  He calmed the storm, and the waves grew silent.

Granted, there are more appropriate ways to cry out to the Lord at the end of one’s own faith.  I’ve certainly said worse than—Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?—but the Lord’s love is not easily angered or resentful.[97]  And with time in, living at the edge of my faith, his peace and patience work out more appropriate prayers for salvation in me.  My point in all this is that Jesus was not concerned with the fear his disciples felt during the storm.  They responded more or less appropriately to that fear according to the Scripture.

Hear how the words—Why are you cowardly?  Do you still not have faith?—sound, if they were spoken quietly with a smile and a wink as Jesus headed back to bed, rather than an imperious scowl.  Granted, the order of events in Matthew’s Gospel account lends more credence to that imperious scowl, but then in Matthew the phrase you people of little faith[98] is one word, ὀλιγόπιστοι (a form of ὀλιγόπιστος).[99]  Knowing that, it sounds more like a pet name or a term of endearment than a curse, or even a rebuke.

Where the disciples were in danger of diverging from Scripture was after Jesus calmed the storm, after He revealed that this particular Messiah was in fact Yahweh (Psalms 65:5-7; 89:8, 9; 93:3, 4 NET), who spoke to the wind and the waves and, Even the wind and sea obey him![100]  The sailors [in the psalm] rejoiced because the waves grew quiet, and he led them to the harbor they desired.[101]  Jesus disciples were overwhelmed by fear (ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν).[102]

So, when Aaron and all the Israelites…were afraid (Septuagint, ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) to approach [Moses] because the skin of his face shone,[103] they were not frightened by a strange sight.  They had seen stranger sights.  They were frightened by the implication of Moses’ shining face, that Moses was becoming like Yahweh.  The fear of becoming like God, if it is not faced, could keep one from conquering, from inheriting, and from hearing the Lord say, I will be his God and he will be my son.[104]

So that fear fully deserves its place first in the list of the damned.  Aaron and all the Israelites faced that fear, however, and drew near to Moses anyway.  Jesus’ Apostles, except for Judas Iscariot, faced it and overcame by faith in Him, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world.[105]

[2] Exodus 34:29, 30 (NET)

[4] a form of φόβος

[5] a form of μέγας

[7] Mark 4:37 (NET)

[8] Mark 4:38, 39 (NET)

[9] Mark 4:40 (NET)

[10] Matthew 8:26 (NET)

[11] Matthew 9:9 (NET) As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him.  And he got up and followed him.

[13] Now a great windstorm (λαῖλαψ μεγάλη [another form of μέγας]) developed and the waves, careening back and forth between the shores of the lake called the Sea of Galilee, were the result.

[15] Matthew 8:26 (NET)

[16] 2 Peter 1:3 (NET)

[17] Romans 4

[22] a form of οὗτος

[25] a form of σύ; of you

[26] Ephesians 2:8 (NET)

[30] Ephesians 2:9 (NET)

[31] Ephesians 2:8, 9 (NET)

[32] Galatians 5:16 (NET)

[33] Galatians 5:22, 23a (NET)

[36] Matthew 23:13 (NET)

[38] a form of ὑπακοή

[40] a form of ἐπιταγή

[41] a form of ὁ

[42] a form of αἰώνιος, of eternal

[43] a form of θεός, of God

[45] Luke 24:49 (NET) Table

[47] John 1:40, 41 (NET)

[48] John 1:45 (NET)

[49] John 1:46 (NET)

[50] John 1:49 (NET)

[53] Hebrews 12:28 (NET)

[57] Revelation 21:8 (NET)

[59] The Soul

[61] Revelation 21:7 (NET)

[62] Revelation 2:11b (NET)

[63] Revelation 3:12 (NET)

[64] a form of ἔργον

[65] a form of ἐγώ

[66] Revelation 2:26 (NET)

[68] Revelation 3:5 (NET)

[69] a form of πληρόω

[70] Revelation 3:2b (NET)

[71] Revelation 3:2a (NET)

[74] Revelation 3:3a (NET)

[75] Revelation 11:17b (NET) …you have taken (εἴληφας) your great power and begun to reign.

[77] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[78] Romans 12:6-8 (NET)

[79] http://www.ericlevy.com/lxx/?Book=Gen&Chapter=24  Point to the word with the mouse to see a popup translation; then point to “search” in the popup to see another popup with the root form of the word.

[81] Exodus 20:7 (NET) Table

[82] John 3:21 (NET)

[86] Revelation 21:6 (NET)

[87] Matthew 5:6 (NET)

[88] John 4:13, 14 (NET)

[90] Matthew 6:10 (NET) Table

[91] Revelation 3:21 (NET)

[92] 1 John 5:4, 5 (NET)

[93] 1 John 4:15, 16 (NET)

[94] Mark 4:37a (NET)

[95] Mark 4:37b (NET)

[96] Mark 4:38 (NET)

[97] 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NET)

[98] Matthew 8:26 (NET)

[100] Mark 4:41 (NET)

[101] Psalm 107:30 (NET)

[102] Mark 4:41 (NET)

[103] Exodus 34:29, 30 (NET)

[104] Revelation 21:7 (NET)

[105] 1 John 5:4 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 8

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Yahweh told Moses (Exodus 34:10 NET):

See, I am going to make a covenant before all your people.  I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation.  All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful (yârêʼ)[1] thing that I am doing with you.

The Rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose θαυμαστά here.  In John’s vision on Patmos[2] [those who had conquered the beast and his image and the number of his name[3]] sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: “Great and astounding (θαυμαστά, a form of θαυμαστός)[4] are your deeds, Lord God, the All-Powerful!  Just and true are your ways, King over the nations!”[5] It is not that θαυμαστά is all positive spin, any more than φοβέω is all negative.  John also used θαυμαστόν (another form of θαυμαστός) to describe the seven angels who have seven final plagues as a great and astounding (θαυμαστόν) sign in heaven.[6]  But I think I can feel why the Rabbis chose θαυμαστά for the revised covenant over a form φοβέω.[7]

How tragic that the once-faithful city has become a prostitute (Septuagint, πόρνη),[8] reads part of the message about Judah and Jerusalem that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah reigned over Judah.[9]  She was once a center of justice, fairness resided in her, but now only murderers.[10]  Your officials are rebels, they associate with thieves.  All of them love bribery, and look for payoffs.  They do not take up the cause of the orphan, or defend the rights of the widow.[11]

The sovereign Lord who commands armies, the powerful ruler of Israel, had a plan to rectify this situation.  But it was not a plan to redeem Israel’s officials and fill them by his Spirit with the love that is the fulfillment of the law[12]—not yet anyway.  It was a plan to remove them by death or exile in a foreign land.  “Ah, I will seek vengeance against my adversaries, He said, “I will take revenge against my enemies.  I will attack you; I will purify your metal with flux.  I will remove all your slag.  I will reestablish honest judges as in former times, wise advisers as in earlier days.  Then you will be called, ‘The Just City, Faithful Town.’”[13]

All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you,[14] He had said to Moses.

Most prophets were sent with dire warnings of impending doom in the hope that the people to whom they were sent would hear, believe and repent.  Not so with Isaiah.  His was truly a ministry that produced condemnation and death.[15]  “Go and tell these people,” Isaiah heard the sovereign master say,[16] “‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!  Look continually, but don’t perceive!’  Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind!  Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”[17]

“How long, sovereign master?”[18] Isaiah replied.

“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated, and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned.  Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down.”[19]  This devastation happened as it was written.

But Isaiah also prophesied about another time: “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.  “Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and tell her that her time of warfare is over, that her punishment is completed.  For the Lord has made her pay double for all her sins.”[20]  And Jeremiah had prophesied, The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns.  When I do, they will again say of Jerusalem, ‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells.’”[21] 

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.  It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt.  For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord.  “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord.  “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds.  I will be their God and they will be my people.

“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me.  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord.  “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”[22]

The quotation of this passage in the letter to the Hebrews reads, “And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know (γνῶθι, a form of γινώσκω)[23] the Lord,’ since they will all know (εἰδήσουσιν, a form of εἴδω)[24] me, from the least to the greatest.  For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.”[25]

To Know the Lord is how Jesus defined eternal life: Now this is eternal life – that they know (γινώσκωσιν, another form of γινώσκω) you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.[26]  When Jesus asked Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen (ἑώρακας, a form of ὁράω)[27] me?” He pronounced a blessing on those who believed without seeing: “Blessed are the people who have not seen (ἰδόντες, another form of εἴδω) and yet have believed.”[28]  But He did not indicate that Thomas or anyone who knew Him by seeing, knew Him any the less for seeing Him: they will all know (εἰδήσουσιν, a form of εἴδω)[29] me, from the least to the greatest.

The prophet Daniel had received and recorded this message from Gabriel: Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.  So know and understand: From the issuing of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince arrives, there will be a period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.[30]

If Daniel’s seventy weeks meant literal weeks then that time had long passed with no apparent fulfillment.  But if it meant seventy times seven years, that hope was still future to the rabbis who translated the Septuagint.  They lived in interesting times, after the people of Judah had been restored to their land and to their towns as The Lord God of Israel had promised.  It would be natural for them to assume, that [Jerusalem’s] time of warfare is over, that her punishment is completed, and that they looked forward to a new covenant and the coming of an anointed one.  It is not too difficult to see why the Rabbis saw that fearful thing the Lord was doing as θαυμαστά rather than φοβηθεῖσα or some other form of φοβέω.

But when the Anointed One appeared, speaking in parables, continuing Isaiah’s ministry of condemnation and death even as He inaugurated the New Covenant by his own death and resurrection, most in Israel did not pivot quickly in faith.  They didn’t recognize that their time of punishment was not yet complete, or that Jerusalem was about to be destroyed again, to pay double for all her sins.  And I don’t write this to blame them for it, but to learn from their mistakes.

I, too, didn’t understand faith[31] as “listening attentively”[32] to the Holy Spirit, remaining open and flexible and conformable to his teaching.  I thought faith was a kind of rigidity, an unwillingness to be persuaded by anything I hadn’t heard before.  And as far as I can tell, the word before meant some arbitrary time in an individual’s past or, worse, a particular period in church history.  (And I say worse because it indicates that one never even tried to “listen attentively” to the living God but only to the opinions of dead men.)

Jesus told the chief priests and the Pharisees[33] a parable about a landowner who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenant farmers.[34]  When the landowner sent his slaves to collect his fruit[35] (καρποὺς[36] αὐτοῦ[37]) from his vineyard, the tenants beat and killed them.  Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.”  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!”  So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.[38]

Jesus asked them what they thought the landowner would do with those tenants.  They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men!  Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him”[39] this fruit (τοὺς[40] καρποὺς).  Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous (θαυμαστὴ, a form of θαυμαστός, also in the Septuagint) in our eyes’?”[41]

For this reason I tell you, Jesus continued, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit (καρποὺς αὐτῆς).[42]  When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.  They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, because the crowds regarded him as a prophet.[43]  All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you, He promised Moses.

Still, I must consider that Jesus’ expectation for the Gentile churches was that they would be that people who will produce the fruit of the kingdom of God, the fruit of his Spirit, because if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.[44]  But in the definition of καρποὺς in the NET online Bible the fruit of the Spirit is not even mentioned, except perhaps obliquely: “2) that which originates or comes from something, an effect, result.”

What is specified however is this: “is used in fig. discourse of those who by their labours have fitted souls to obtain eternal life.” So while there is no direct mention of Jesus’ stated reason for taking the kingdom of God away from the chief priests and Pharisees to give it to another people, “those who by their labours have fitted souls to obtain eternal life” is spelled out in detail and attached to the word καρποὺς (fruit).  But if the fruit of the kingdom of God is nothing more than the works of “those who by their labours have fitted souls to obtain eternal life” there was no cause to seek another people.  The chief priests and Pharisees were already far more advanced down that road than any others.

I am the Lord!  That is my name!  I will not share my glory with anyone else,[45] He told Isaiah.  All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you, He said to Moses.  Paul preached the Gospel in the power of the Spirit of God.  And he watched with a profound gratitude mixed with great sorrow and unceasing anguish[46] as—The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers[47]—heard his message and entered the kingdom of God while his own people judged themselves unworthy of eternal life[48] (καὶ οὐκ ἀξίους κρίνετε ἑαυτοὺς τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς) in Paul’s words.  After he had wrestled with these things he wrote (Romans 11:20-22, 25-36 NET):

They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith.  Do not be arrogant, but fear (φοβοῦ, a form of φοβέω)!  For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.  Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.   And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.  For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.  Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?  Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever!  Amen.

Fear – Exodus, Part 9

Back to Romans, Part 70

[3] Revelation 15:2 (NET)

[5] Revelation 15:3 (NET)

[6] Revelation 15:1 (NET)

[8] Isaiah 1:21a (NET)

[9] Isaiah 1:1 (NET)

[10] Isaiah 1:21b (NET)

[11] Isaiah 1:23 (NET)

[12] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[13] Isaiah 1:24-26 (NET)

[14] Exodus 34:10b (NET)

[16] Isaiah 6:8 (NET)

[17] Isaiah 6:9, 10 (NET)

[18] Isaiah 6:11a (NET)

[19] Isaiah 6:11b-13a (NET)

[20] Isaiah 40:1, 2 (NET)

[21] Jeremiah 31:23 (NET)

[22] Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NET)

[25] Hebrews 8:11, 12 (NET)

[26] John 17:3 (NET)

[28] John 20:29 (NET)

[33] Matthew 21:45 (NET)

[34] Matthew 21:33 (NET)

[38] Matthew 21:37-39 (NET)

[39] Matthew 21:41 (NET)

[41] Matthew 21:42 (NET)

[42] Matthew 21:43 (NET)

[43] Matthew 21:45, 46 (NET)

[44] Romans 8:9b (NET)

[45] Isaiah 42:8a (NET)

[46] Romans 9:2 (NET)

[47] 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 7

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When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry.  He threw the tablets [of the law] from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.[1]  Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies.[2]

King James’ translators painted a more vivid picture of how out of control the people were running wild.  Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies).[3]  Even in this translation Aaron’s role seems potentially passive.  By conceding to their demands for a golden calf Aaron made them naked (euphemistically speaking) unto their shame among their enemies.  John Nelson Darby[4] gave this verse a different twist in his translation: Moses saw the people how they were stripped; for Aaron had stripped them to [their] shame before their adversaries.  This sounds more like Aaron as officiating priest commanded the people to strip for πορνεία,[5] the ritualized sexual worship they had practiced in Egypt.[6]

The translators of the NET do not believe that the Israelites engaged in such worship[7] in Exodus 32 (nor that the Greek word πορνεία[8] refers to it, as far as I can tell).  The note on the word translated running wild and completely out of control reads: “The word is difficult to interpret. There does not seem to be enough evidence to justify the KJV’s translation ‘naked.’ It appears to mean something like ‘let loose’ or ‘lack restraint’ (Prov 29:18). The idea seems to be that the people had broken loose, were undisciplined, and were completely given over to their desires.”  In 1 Corinthians 10:7, however, Paul’s quotation of Exodus 32:6—The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play—the note reads: “The term ‘play’ may refer to idolatrous, sexual play here, although that is determined by the context rather than the meaning of the word itself (cf. BDAG 750 s.v. παίζω).”

Whoever is for the Lord, come to me, Moses said.  All the Levites gathered around him, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”[9]

I have seen this people, the Lord had said to Moses on the mountain.  Look what a stiff-necked people they are [Table]!  So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them [Table]…[10]  With these words in his mind, though he had pleaded with the Lord to turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people,[11] when he saw their sin with his own eyes Moses formed an ad hoc militia or national guard.  Here I can see the ministry that produced death (θανάτου, a form of θάνατος)[12] – carved in letters on stone tablets[13] functioning as the ministry that produced condemnation (κατακρίσεως, a form of κατάκρισις).[14]

Though I have considered whether Moses had a change of heart, I think it was the same Spirit, who through Moses’ words caused the Lord to relent over the evil that he had said he would do to his people,[15] who spoke the words through him, Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.  And He did this for the very same reason, to spare most of the people of Israel, to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.”[16]

The Levites did what Moses ordered, and that day about three thousand men of the people died.[17]  The Levites were not included in the census of males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army.[18]  Whether their number was comparable to the other clans (50,000) or half the size of the smallest clan (16,000), their campaign was not exceptionally ruthless.  Apparently these deaths served no other purpose than to restore order, to bring a halt to the people’s play.

The deaths of three thousand men had provided no atonement (Exodus 32:30-32 NET).

The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very serious sin, but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin.”  So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold [Table].  But now, if you will forgive their sin…, but if not, wipe me out from your book that you have written” [Table].

In fact, Moses was unable to make atonement for those who sinned.  And the deaths of three thousand men were not sufficient punishment (Exodus 32:33-35 NET).

The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book.  So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about.  See, my angel will go before you.  But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf – the one Aaron made.

This is law.  This is fear-based righteousness.  It is not the fear of witnessing the catastrophic destruction of the Egyptian army.  It is not the fear of hearing a voice from something like a volcano in full ash eruption.  It is the fear of leaders (Moses and the Levites) using lethal force to uphold the law, and the fear of God as a potential enemy.

The Lord said to Moses, “Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’  I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.  Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey.”[19]

It sounds wonderful.  The Lord will lead and guide them into a land of plenty.  But the fear must be ever present.  But I will not go up among you, the Lord continued, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.[20]

Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.  Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent.  And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.  When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship.  The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend.[21]

It may not have occurred to Moses to consider his exalted position the ministry that produced death or the ministry that produced condemnation, though he seemed to recognize it in respect to the Levites who followed him.  “You have been consecrated today for the Lord,” he said to them, “for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.”[22]  But it did occur to him to seek something more from God, something we might call a ministry of the Spirit[23] or a ministry that produces righteousness.[24]

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.  But you said, ‘I know you by name, and also you have found favor in my sight.’  Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, that I may know you, that I may continue to find favor in your sight.  And see that this nation is your people.”[25]

“All things have been given to me by my Father,” Jesus said.  “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.”  Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!  For I tell you that many prophets and kings longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”[26]

And the Lord said [to Moses], “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  And Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here.  For how will it be known then that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people?  Is it not by your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”[27]

[1] Exodus 32:19 (NET)

[2] Exodus 32:25 (NET)

[3] Exodus 32:25 (KJV)

[7] Note 22

[9] Exodus 32:26, 27 (NET)

[10] Exodus 32:9, 10a (NET)

[11] Exodus 32:12b (NET) Table

[13] 2 Corinthians 3:7 (NET)

[14] 2 Corinthians 3:9 (NET)

[15] Exodus 32:14b (NET)

[16] Exodus 32:13 (NET) Table

[17] Exodus 32:28 (NET)

[19] Exodus 33:1-3a (NET)

[20] Exodus 33:3b (NET)

[21] Exodus 33:7-11a (NET)

[22] Exodus 32:29 (NET)

[23] 2 Corinthians 3:8 (NET)

[24] 2 Corinthians 3:9 (NET)

[25] Exodus 33:12, 13 (NET)

[26] Luke 10:22-24 (NET)

[27] Exodus 33:14-16 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 6

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The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go quickly, descend, because your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly [Table].  They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt [Table].’”[1]

What follows is the classic story of the jealous Jehovah dissuaded by the brave hero Moses from carrying out his “evil” wrath on the descendants of Israel.  Moses seems to me like a man who would be horrified by this reading of his story.  I think his matter-of-fact writing style doesn’t convey tone or some of the nuance that a more artful writer (Luke, for instance) might convey.

I have seen this people, the Lord continued.  Look what a stiff-necked people they are [Table]!  So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation[Table].[2]  In his response, O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, Moses’ writing style paints himself as clueless as it paints Jehovah vengeful.  Yet the provocation for Jehovah’s anger is clearly stated in the rest of Moses’ rhetorical question.  O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?[3]

Who wouldn’t be angry if his or her beneficence was credited by its recipients to their own work?  How angry should Jehovah be when we claim that his gift of righteousness through his bearing of our sins by his death on a cross and his resurrection is by our own efforts or our own intrinsic goodness?

As I read this I heard Jehovah shouting angrily, Look what a stiff-necked people they are!  So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.  But would Moses have disobeyed Jehovah’s direct command—leave me alone—spoken in anger?  Or did he hear the lamentation in Jehovah’s voice and understand that Jehovah was asking leave of Moses to stand aside and allow Jehovah’s anger to follow its natural course and burn against them and destroy them?

Why should the Egyptians say, “For evil he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth” Moses continued.  Turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people.[4]  Again, the writing here leaves the impression that Moses didn’t understand the covenant the people agreed to, Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone must be utterly destroyed.[5]  They had violated the covenant.  Did Moses expect Jehovah to violate it, too?

Moses had told the people all the Lord’s words and all the decisions.  All the people answered together, “We are willing to do all the words that the Lord has said,” and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.[6]  He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken.”[7]  By what authority did Moses declare the Lord Jehovah’s intent to honor the covenant by destroying the people who violated it evil?

I am not saying that Jehovah did wrong by declining to carry out the punishment demanded by the covenant.  Jehovah never bound Himself to that, but said to Moses, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.[8]  What I am saying is, though the collection of writings known as the Old Testament continues for many volumes, the Old Covenant as an agreement between Jehovah and the descendants of Israel to keep his commandments and receive his blessing came to its crashing conclusion right here.  When Jehovah declined to exact his vengeance on Israel according to the covenant they agreed to, when He did not purge[9] the evil from Israel by executing them but showed them mercy, He consigned all [Israel] to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[10]

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, Moses pleaded, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.”[11]  And Paul wrote the Romans (Romans 4:13-17 NET):

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith [Table].  For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.  For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.  For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants – not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”).  He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.

Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.[12]  Moses was not as clueless as his writing style made him appear to be.  As for Jehovah—and I want to say this as reverently as possible—there is always a sense of theatricality in his interactions with human beings, for He knew this particular circumstance, this particular conversation and its particular outcome before the beginning, when He created the heavens and the earth.[13]  For many years I declined to tell Him about my day, my reactions to it, the ways I thought and felt about it all.  It seemed like a waste of time.  He knew me better than I knew myself.  Eventually I realized that fact alone made the retelling valuable—for me.  As I tell Him about it He points out things that I missed or didn’t understand, about me and the things that happened during the day.

As I turn my attention to the authority by which Moses declared the Lord Jehovah’s apparent intent to honor the covenant by destroying the people who violated it evil, I am confronted with three different instances.  All three however are the same word raʽ.[14]  Yes, the Hebrew word for evil sounds like the Egyptian word for sun god.  Allan Langner[15] wrote in the Jewish Bible Quarterly,[16] “in Exodus 32:12, when Moses pleads with God…The word for evil [b’raah] can also be taken as a reference to Ra.  The verse would then read: ‘Wherefore should the Egyptians say, Ra brought them out to slay them in the mountains?’”[17]  Perhaps the Egyptians would have said that.  Perhaps Moses would have said that the Egyptians would say that.  Or, perhaps Moses said that the Egyptians would say that Jehovah had led Israel into, or for, an evil purpose.

None of this compels me to conclude that Jehovah’s apparent intent to honor the covenant by destroying the people who violated it was in fact evil.  But in the next instance—Turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil (raʽ) against your people[18]—Moses called Jehovah’s apparent intent to honor the covenant by destroying the people who violated it evil.  This was more troubling.  The note in the NET reads: “The word ‘evil’ means any kind of life-threatening or fatal calamity. ‘Evil’ is that which hinders life, interrupts life, causes pain to life, or destroys it.”  In other words, Jehovah’s apparent intent to honor the covenant by destroying the people who violated it would only be apparently evil from a human perspective, not actually evil from Jehovah’s perspective.

I did entertain the idea that Moses meant trouble as opposed to evil.  The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble (raʽ) when they were told, “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”[19]  Moses used a different word (albeit the root verb) when he complained to Jehovah about it.  Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Lord, why have you caused trouble (râʽaʽ)[20] for this people?  Why did you ever send me?  From the time I went to speak to Pharaoh in your name, he has caused trouble (râʽaʽ) for this people, and you have certainly not rescued them!”[21]  But the third instance was the kicker, if you will.

Then the Lord relented over the evil (raʽ) that he had said he would do to his people.[22]  It is simply a statement of fact, like, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.[23]  Here the Holy Spirit declared that Jehovah’s apparent intent to honor the covenant by destroying the people who violated it would have been evil from Jehovah’s perspective.  And here for Moses Jehovah Himself modeled the behavior of repentance, giving up his right of vengeance by covenant (by law) for a higher righteousness.  Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me, He said later, troubled by his own death.  Yet not my will but yours be done.[24]

This brings me back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (raʽ).  We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard, Eve replied to the serpent, but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, “You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.”[25]  Adam’s gezerah—and you must not touch it—and the alteration (whether Adam’s or Eve’s) of you will surely die[26] to or else you will die seems to imply that Adam and Eve thought the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (raʽ) was poisonous or contained some intrinsic property that caused death.

This opened the door for the serpent to say, Surely you will not die.[27]  And Eve handled and tasted the fruit with impunity.  She didn’t die.  Of course, her eyes weren’t opened and she didn’t become like a divine being knowing good and evil (raʽ) either.  But when she approached her husband with the forbidden fruit she had at least part of the assurance of the shrewdest of any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made,[28] and (with every breath she took) a rapidly increasing quantity of empirical proof that Adam, too, would not die from eating forbidden fruit.  Adam had only his memory of God’s word.  When he ate the forbidden fruit, the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked…[29]  It was unpleasant no doubt, but was it death?

My point here is that God did not give Adam knowledge of forbidden fruit when He said, You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard [Table], but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die [Table].[30]  He gave Adam knowledge of God, what God would do; namely, the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken [Table].  When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.[31]

I think it is important not to miss that distinction here as well.  When the Holy Spirit says, Then the Lord relented over the evil (raʽ) that he had said he would do to his people, He is teaching me knowledge of God rather than moral philosophy.  After this interaction with Moses, He said, I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will proclaim the Lord by name before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.[32]  There is a sense here that He said to Moses my new name is, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.

It is repeated when the event occurred: The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with [Moses] there and proclaimed the Lord by name.  The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”[33]  And for those who might rightly protest, “But the Lord is not a jolly old soul, an easy-going, devil-may-care sort of fellow,” Jehovah continued proclaiming his name: “But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”[34]

Granted, it is a long name, but it does me good from time to time to remember Him by name and repeat it aloud.  It is knowledge of God, who He is, what He is doing and will accomplish—and it is eternal life.[35]

[1] Exodus 32:7, 8 (NET)

[2] Exodus 32:9, 10 (NET)

[3] Exodus 32:11 (NET) Table

[4] Exodus 32:12 (NET) Table

[5] Exodus 22:20 (NET)

[6] Exodus 24:3, 4a (NET)

[7] Exodus 24:7 (NET)

[8] Exodus 33:19b (NET) Table

[9] Deuteronomy 13:5 (NET)

[10] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[11] Exodus 32:13 (NET) Table

[12] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

[13] Genesis 1:1 (NET)

[15] From the footnote in “THE GOLDEN CALF AND RA”: Allan M. Langner was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1948. He was Rabbi of Congregation Beth-El, Mt. Royal, Quebec, Canada, for 40 years, and is now Rabbi Emeritus.

[16] 31:1 January – March 2003, Vol. XXXI:1 (121), “THE GOLDEN CALF AND RA”

[18] Exodus 32:12b (NET)

[19] Exodus 5:19 (NET)

[21] Exodus 5:22, 23 (NET)

[22] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

[23] Genesis 1:1 (NET)

[24] Luke 22:42 (NET)

[25] Genesis 3:2, 3 (NET)

[26] Genesis 2:17 (NET)

[27] Genesis 3:4 (NET) Table

[28] Genesis 3:1 (NET)

[29] Genesis 3:7 (NET) Table

[30] Genesis 2:16, 17 (NET)

[31] Genesis 3:23, 24 (NET)

[32] Genesis 33:19 (NET)

[33] Exodus 34:5-7a (NET)

[34] Exodus 34:7b (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 5

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The next occurrence of yârêʼ[1] in Exodus is found in the song Moses and the Israelites sang…to the Lord.[2]  It was a song of praise and thanksgiving, looking back to the events when the Egyptian army chased them through the sea:  I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.[3]  The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he has thrown into the sea…[4]  The depths have covered them, they went down to the bottom like a stone.[5]  Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?  Who is like you? – majestic in holiness, fearful (yârêʼ) in praises, working wonders?[6]

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose θαυμαστὸς.[7]  One of the definitions of θαυμαστὸς in the NET online Bible is “1c) causing amazement joined with terror.”  So the word is a legitimate choice, but something in me still wonders if “marvelous in expectation” (θαυμαστὸς ἐν δόξαις[8]) carries any of the sense of the costliness of Israel’s salvation that I perceive in the linkage of fear (yârêʼ) and praise (tehillâh).[9]  I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked (râshâʽ),[10] the Lord told Ezekiel.  How much less in the death of those He had hardened and those who followed them into battle?

Though θαυμαστὸς does not appear in the New Testament in its root form, the first occurrence was Jesus’ question to the chief priests and elders.  “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous (θαυμαστὴ, a form of θαυμαστός) in our eyes’”?[11]  Whatever my concern about the costliness of Israel’s salvation, as well as my own, it is harder to miss when Yahweh Himself—not Egyptian military officers and soldiers—died for us, in our place.

After writing that I walked away.  It felt like I was straining at gnats and still not getting to the root of what was gnawing at me.  I did other things.

When I walked to the Redbox to satisfy my daily movie fix I had already decided to rent “Killing Them Softly.”  I didn’t know why.  I had avoided it because I heard it was excessively violent, and because I had worked for Linara (the only woman in the cast) on another film she co-produced with her husband.  Ordinarily, I would have run to see a movie with someone I knew in it.  But I had overheard her talking about being topless in the scene with James Gandolfini.  Between the violence and my own indecision (whether I wanted to see Linara or her breasts in action) I had put it off until that evening.

It was an underworld crime story set in the turmoil of the 2008 economic crisis and presidential election.  Brad Pitt played a mob enforcer.  Linara’s topless work had been cut, but she played well with the big boys, Pitt and Gandolfini.  There was a heavy-handed capitalists-are-like-gangsters theme, and no real ending.  It seemed primed for “Killing Them Softly 2” where the mysterious “corporate types,” who hired Brad Pitt’s character Jackie through an intermediary, would be revealed as they hired someone to kill Jackie, and possibly their intermediary.  I don’t think the movie did well enough financially to warrant a sequel however.  And then I went to bed.  But when I awoke the next morning lines from the movie were buzzing around in my head.  They actually helped me clarify what I was thinking about cultivating fear in Exodus the day before.

This is a spoiler alert for anyone who finds a movie ruined by knowing its story.

The story got started when John Amato (aka Squirrel) hired Frank and Russell to rob a mob card game run by Markie Trattman.  They thought they could get away with it because Trattman had robbed his own card game years earlier.  He withstood the enhanced interrogation techniques Dillion the enforcer used on him, but when the subject came up in another card game with his cronies he couldn’t stop laughing, and confessed the whole thing.  Everybody liked Markie so they let it slide.  Squirrel assumed that Trattman would be the primary suspect if his own card game was robbed again, that he would be killed, and then that would be the end of it.  He rightly perceived that cultivating a righteousness based on fear was more important to the powers-that-be than recovering the money.

Squirrel had an insight into mob righteousness.  He didn’t want Russell on the job because his attitude and manner would invite confrontation.  “Then you gotta…shoot somebody,” he told Frank, “and I don’t want that.  There’s no reason for that, you know?  You don’t get any more money…”  What he failed to realize was that Jackie (Dillion’s replacement as mob enforcer) was smart enough to know that Markie Trattman was too smart to think that he could get away with it twice.  Jackie immediately suspected other culprits.  And he had a firm grasp on fear based righteousness, too.

Jackie lobbied with the Counselor (the intermediary for the corporate types running things) to kill Trattman anyway and correct the real issue:  “It don’t make a bit of difference if Trattman did it or someone did it to Trattman,” Jackie explained.  “If people think he did it and he’s still walking around, you’re gonna have kids waiting in line to knock them…games over.”

Jackie even had a fear based redemption scheme for Frank.  Frank had to confess where Squirrel would be and then witness the execution, or be executed himself.  “I got to be there and everything?” Frank whined.  “Frank, you made a mistake,” Jackie explained patiently.  “Now you gotta show you understand you made a mistake.  And you gotta make things right…”

As they waited in the car for Squirrel to arrive, Frank tried to intercede for him: “Look, Jackie, he’s not a bad guy, you know?  I mean, he’s not a bad guy at all.”

“None of them are, kid.  They’re all nice guys.”

Then Jackie got out of the car and shot Squirrel with a shotgun from across the parking lot, because he liked “killing them softly…from a distance, not close enough for feelings.”  Of course, he did walk across the parking lot and finish the job up close.  And he wasn’t that far from Frank when he shot him in the head.  Ultimately, Jackie’s fear based redemption scheme didn’t fare well against the necessities of fear based righteousness.

None of this is to say that I think God is, or was, like a mob enforcer.  My question is, why did One with foreknowledge put Himself in the position to be mistaken for a mob enforcer by wicked people?  (Who among us hasn’t wished for God to get those guys, those evildoers, or wondered incredulously why He waits so long?)  The answer that comes to me is that God risked it for my benefit, that I might know the difference between fear based righteousness and Holy Spirit based righteousness (faith is integral to both: When Israel saw the great power that the Lord had exercised over the Egyptians, they feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord…[12]).

Israel, like Frank, was compelled to participate in and witness the destruction of the Egyptian army.  Then at Sinai they experienced a non-lethal fear as they stood at the base of a mountain, described as something like a volcano in full ash eruption,[13] and lived to tell the tale:  All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking – and when the people saw it they trembled with fear (nûaʽ)[14] and kept their distance.[15]  The word translated fear here was φοβηθέντες (a form of φοβέω)[16] in the Septuagint.  After Jesus calmed the storm with a word his disciples were afraid (φοβηθέντες) and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this?  He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him!”[17]

Do not fear (yârêʼ), Moses said, for God has come to test you, that the fear (yirʼâh)[18] of him may be before you so that you do not sin.”[19]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose θαρσεῖτε (a form of θαρσέω)[20] for Do not fear.  It is the same Greek word Jesus used when the disciples saw Him walking on the water and were terrified that he was a ghost:  Have courage (θαρσεῖτε)!  It is I.[21]  For yirʼâh, the fear of him, the rabbis chose φόβος.[22]  And Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, was seized with fear (φόβος).[23]

When I began this study I hoped to find a clear delineation between the fear that puts to flight and the reverence that binds and draws one to God.  A cursory look at the concordance seemed to justify that hope in the words yârêʼ and yirʼâh.  The first occurrence of yirʼâh in Abraham’s explanation to Abimelech—I thought that there would be no one here who has reverence (yirʼâh) for God[24]—was translated θεοσέβεια[25] in the Septuagint and I thought I was on the way.  It is a compound of θεός[26] and σέβομαι,[27] the reverence or worship that is negated by the ἀσέβειαν (a form of ἀσέβεια)[28] of people that brought the wrath of God in Romans 1:18.

I also expected to find that the fear of the Lord was something different, something other than a conviction to act in accordance with the word of the Lord, the functional equivalent in the Old Testament of the fruit of the Spirit,[29] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[30]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[31]  and the love of God[32] that is the fulfillment of the law.[33]  That equivalence took me by surprise and has colored everything.  The Good News Translation of the Bible captured the essence of fear based righteousness when the translators (paraphrasists?) skipped the middle man as it were in their paraphrase of yirʼâh.  Don’t be afraid (yârêʼ); Moses said, God has only come to test you and make you keep on obeying (yirʼâh) him, so that you will not sin.[34]

So this alchemist’s notion of deriving reverence (σέβομαι) for God from the human fear (φόβος) of death or punishment seems like a doomed enterprise from the very beginning, a folly of the religious mind.  It was difficult enough to title an essay “Paul’s Religious Mind,” so I did not and will not call this “God’s Religious Mind.”  But that is what I’m thinking.

Why would an Omniscient One with foreknowledge embark on such a futile course?  Again, I can only assume that it was for my benefit.  I am the one, after all (and probably not the only one), whose knee-jerk reaction to the way of righteousness (for other evildoers, of course) is swifter “justice,” harsher punishment and longer prison sentences.  But does anyone really believe that those things produce righteousness?  (Does anyone really believe that our municipal, county, state or federal governments can afford to do this anymore?)

In that light I can’t help but see the giving of the law at Sinai as a massive psychological experiment to test the power and potential of fear based righteousness.  The finding of this particular experiment was forty days.[35]  After forty days the descendants of Israel returned to the worship practices[36] they learned in Egypt.[37]  And they did this 1) after witnessing the destruction of the Egyptian army; 2) after seeing Mount Sinai…completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently;[38] and 3) after agreeing to abide by a covenant[39] that they would not sacrifice to a god other than the Lord alone [or] be utterly destroyed.[40]

[2] Exodus 15:1a (NET)

[3] Exodus 15:1b (NET)

[4] Exodus 15:4a (NET)

[5] Exodus 15:5 (NET)

[6] Exodus 15:11 (NET)

[10] Ezekiel 33:11 (NET)

[11] Matthew 21:42 (NET)

[12] Exodus 14:31 (NET)

[15] Exodus 20:18 (NET)

[17] Luke 8:25 (NET)

[19] Exodus 20:20 (NET)

[21] Mark 6:50 (NET)

[23] Luke 1:12 (NET)

[30] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[31] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[33] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[38] Exodus 19:18 (NET)

[40] Exodus 22:20 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 4

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Here I continue to see the Lord cultivating the fear that is a conviction to act in accordance with his word in Israel.  It happened at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.[1]  But the plague of the firstborn did not touch the Israelites who heard the word of the Lord and marked their doors with the blood of the Passover lamb: For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.[2]

Pharaoh got up in the night, along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house in which there was not someone dead.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!  Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave.  But bless me also.”[3]

And so the descendents of Israel (and others) left Egypt:  There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants.  A mixed multitude also went up with them, and flocks and herds – a very large number of cattle.[4]  A note in the NET reads: “The ‘mixed multitude’ (עֵרֶב רַב, ’erev rav) refers to a great ‘swarm’ (see a possible cognate in 8:21[17]) of folk who joined the Israelites, people who were impressed by the defeat of Egypt, who came to faith, or who just wanted to escape Egypt (maybe slaves or descendants of the Hyksos). The expression prepares for later references to riffraff who came along.”

In this context of cultivating a fear of the Lord that is a conviction to act in accordance with his word I begin to see a purpose for hardening Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 14:1-4 NET).

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites that they must turn and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you are to camp by the sea before Baal Zephon opposite it.  Pharaoh will think regarding the Israelites, ‘They are wandering around confused in the land – the desert has closed in on them.’  I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them.  I will gain honor because of Pharaoh and because of all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”  So this is what they did.

It happened as the Lord promised Moses (Exodus 14:5-7 NET):

When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, “What in the world have we done?  For we have released the people of Israel from serving us!”  Then he prepared his chariots and took his army with him.  He took six hundred select chariots, and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, and officers on all of them.

If I am correct in seeing this fear that is a conviction to act in accordance with the word of the Lord as the functional equivalent in the Old Testament of the fruit of the Spirit,[5] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[6]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[7]  and the love of God[8] that is the fulfillment of the law,[9] then the contemporary Gentile response to the events of Exodus is telling.  It is a clear revelation of the ασεβεια[10] in human hearts, the ungodliness (ἀσέβειαν, a form of ἀσέβεια) and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness;[11] namely, the learned consensus that the Exodus didn’t happen as described in the Bible.  It is difficult to believe that God would do such things for anyone (the descendents of Israel), let alone for everyone (For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[12]).

But orchestrating the events to cultivate such a fear could have the opposite effect, creating a fear that caused Israel to flee, in their hearts if not with their feet (Exodus 14:10-12 NET).

When Pharaoh got closer, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified (yârêʼ).[13]  The Israelites cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert?  What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’”

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint used ἐφοβήθησαν (a form of φοβέω)[14] here.  The next occurrence of ἐφοβήθησαν in the New Testament is in Matthew’s Gospel when Christ, our Passover lamb, [was] sacrificed.[15]  Now from noon until three, darkness came over all the land.  At about three o’clock Jesus shouted [the opening line of Psalm 22] with a loud voice…“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[16]  Apparently some bystanders didn’t know Aramaic (the language of Judah’s Babylonian/Persian captors and didn’t recognize the Psalm in that ancient tongue: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? [8/19/2017: For a different take on this see, DID THE MESSIAH SPEAK ARAMAIC OR HEBREW? (PART 2) BY E.A.KNAPP]).  They said, This man is calling for Elijah[17] (e.g., Eli, Eli—My God, My God).  Leave him alone!  Let’s see if Elijah will come to save him.[18]

Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.  Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom.  The earth shook and the rocks were split apart.  And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised….Now when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified (ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”[19]

I doubt that the Centurion and his companions on Golgotha saw the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place ripped, though they may have seen or at least heard the commotion afterward.  I assume they witnessed the earthquake and the tombs opening.  Whether they saw any of the dead come out of their tombs depends on how limiting verse 53 is meant to be taken, They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.[20]  I’m not sure I can make that kind of determination based only on ἐκ,[21] which can mean out of or away from.  But whatever they saw and heard frightened them like the Israelites were frightened when they looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them.

But Moses, who was privy to God’s plan, said, Do not fear (yârêʼ)!  Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.[22]  The word translated fear above was θαρσεῖτε (a form of θαρσέω)[23] in the Septuagint.  When Jesus’ disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage (θαρσεῖτε)!  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”[24]

Israel crossed the sea on dry ground.  The Egyptians were drowned when they attempted to follow.  When Israel saw the great power that the Lord had exercised over the Egyptians, they feared (yârêʼ) the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.[25]  And so, for the moment, God had successfully cultivated that combination of faith and fear that is the functional equivalent of: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,[26] and the fruit of the Spirit,[27] the desire and the effort brought forth by God for the sake of his good pleasure,[28]  because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[29]  and the love of God[30] that is the fulfillment of the law.[31]

[1] Exodus 12:29 (NET)

[2] Exodus 12:23 (NET)

[3] Exodus 12:30-32 (NET)

[4] Exodus 12:37b, 38 (NET)

[6] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[7] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[11] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[12] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[15] 1 Corinthians 5:7b (NET) Table

[16] Matthew 27:45, 46 (NET) Table

[17] Matthew 27:47 (NET)

[18] Matthew 27:49 (NET)

[19] Matthew 27:50-52, 54 (NET)

[20] Matthew 27:53 (NET)

[22] Exodus 14:13 (NET)

[24] Matthew 14:26, 27 (NET)

[25] Exodus 14:31 (NET) There are no more occurrences of ἐφοβήθη (the word the rabbis chose in the Septuagint) in the New Testament.

[26] Romans 10:9 (NET)

[28] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[29] Romans 9:16 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 3

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The Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: “Release my people so that they may serve me!”’”[1]  This is the seventh plague on Egypt.  You are still exalting yourself against my people by not releasing them, the Lord continued.  I am going to cause very severe hail to rain down about this time tomorrow, such hail as has never occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.  So now, send instructions to gather your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place.  Every person or animal caught in the field and not brought into the house – the hail will come down on them, and they will die![2]

Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared (yârêʼ)[3] the word of the Lord hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses, but those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously left their servants and their cattle in the field.[4]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint used φοβούμενος (a form of φοβέω).[5]  Jesus told a parable about a judge who neither feared (φοβούμενος) God nor respected people.[6]  But even this judge could be persuaded by a widow’s persistence.  I will give her justice, the judge said, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.[7]  But even after six other plagues happened as prophesied by Moses there were still those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously.  The rabbis used προσέσχεν[8] (hold to), they did not hold to the word of the Lord.

It caused me to consider that those who did not take the word of the Lord seriously were actually hardened.  The judge did not fear God but could be persuaded by his own inconvenience.  To lose one’s animals and slaves is a major inconvenience.  Six out of six plagues would seemingly convince one that the seventh was possible if not likely.  Reason alone would persuade one to take precautions at least at the time of day prophesied simply to avoid the greater inconvenience of losing everything.  But only those who feared the word of the Lord acted rationally.  It gave me the impression that the others believed (though did not fear) that the word was the Lord’s, and acted contrary to his word because it was his word.  They were hardened.

The hail struck everything in the open fields, both people and animals, throughout all the land of Egypt.  The hail struck everything that grows in the field, and it broke all the trees of the field to pieces.  Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was there no hail.  So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time!  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty.  Pray to the Lord, for the mighty thunderings and hail are too much!  I will release you and you will stay no longer.”[9]

Moses promised to pray that the hail cease.  But as for you, He said to Pharaoh, and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear (yârêʼ) the Lord God.[10]  In the Septuagint the rabbis used πεφόβησθε,[11] (afraid).  This form was not used in the New Testament.

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he sinned again: both he and his servants hardened their hearts.  So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.[12]  Pharaoh certainly believed the word was the Lord’s as a fact, but he did not fear that word.  Here I begin to grasp the fear of the Lord as something that is combined with factual acceptance to become New Testament faith, as opposed to dead faith or faith alone.

This fear is obviously not a flight of terror but a conviction to act in accordance with the word (Septuagint: ῥῆμα) of the Lord.  In New Testament terms it would be equivalent to the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.[13]  And this is because it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[14]  In a similar sense the New Testament meaning of the fear of the Lord is equivalent to the love of God: Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.  The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.  But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected.[15]

Luke used the phrase fear of the Lord in this association with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit: Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced peace and thus was strengthened.   Living[16] in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, the church increased in numbers.[17]  At first glance Paul seemed to use fear of the Lord in a more fearful sense: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.  Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people…[18]

If I expand the context, however, Paul spoke first of faith: For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens.[19]  While the natural person clings to this earthly tent for dear life we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.[20]  Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose, Paul continued (including by the way appearing before the judgment seat of Christ) is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.[21]  So is any of this a cause to be fearful?

Paul continued (2 Corinthians 5:6-9 NET):

Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord – for we live by faith, not by sight.  Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.

And what is this ambition to please him but the fear of the Lord?  Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we are well known to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too.[22]  For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died.  And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised.[23]

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us.  We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”  God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.[24]

So before Christ was crucified, rose again, ascended to heaven and the Holy Spirit was given to provide this love, this desire and this effort, the Lord cultivated fear to motivate his people:  The Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display these signs of mine before him, and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell how I made fools of the Egyptians and about my signs that I displayed among them, so that you may know that I am the Lord.”[25]  Perhaps more to the point was Moses’ response to Israel’s fear when God spoke the law at Sinai: Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin.[26]

[1] Exodus 9:13 (NET)

[2] Exodus 9:17-19 (NET)

[4] Exodus 9:20, 21 (NET)

[6] Luke 18:2 (NET)

[7] Luke 18:5 (NET)

[9] Exodus 9:25-28 (NET)

[10] Exodus 9:30 (NET)

[12] Exodus 9:34, 35 (NET)

[13] Philippians 2:13 (NET)

[14] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[15] 1 John 2:3-5a (NET)

[16] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the singular πορευομένη here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the plural πορευομεναι (KJV: walking).

[17] Acts 9:31 (NET) [Table] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had the singular ἐπληθύνετο here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had the plural επληθυνοντο (KJV: were multiplied).

[18] 2 Corinthians 5:10, 11 (NET)

[19] 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NET)

[20] 2 Corinthians 5:4 (NET)

[21] 2 Corinthians 5:5 (NET)

[22] 2 Corinthians 5:11 (NET)

[23] 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15 (NET)

[24] 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NET)

[25] Exodus 10:1, 2 (NET)

[26] Exodus 20:20 (NET)

Fear – Exodus Part 2

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“Why have you done this and let the boys live?”[1] the king of Egypt accused the midwives.  Hebrew women are vigorous, they answered, they give birth before the midwife gets to them![2]  Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live.”[3]  But Moses’ mother disobeyed the law.  She hid her baby for three months.  Then she set him adrift in a papyrus basket, where Pharaoh’s daughter found him and raised him as her own.

In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and observed their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking a Hebrew man, one of his own people.  He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand.[4]  Then he saw two Hebrew men fighting.  When he tried to break it up one of them said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?  Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?”  Then Moses was afraid (yârêʼ)[5], thinking, “Surely what I did has become known.”[6]

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ἐφοβήθη (a form of φοβέω)[7] here.  There are no more occurrences of ἐφοβήθη in the New Testament.  By choosing this word however they have made Moses’ fear equivalent to Sarah’s fear when she lied to God about laughing at him.[8]  It was like Lot’s fear to live in Zoar after witnessing the destruction of the surrounding cities,[9] and Isaac’s fear to acknowledge Rebekah as his wife.[10]  It was like Jacob’s fear of Bethel the morning after his dream,[11] and when he heard that Esau was coming out to meet him on his return to Canaan.[12]

When Pharaoh heard [what Moses did to the Egyptian], he sought to kill Moses.  So Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian…[13]  During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor.  They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.[14]  And God responded (Exodus 3:1-5 NET).

Now Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.  The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush.  He looked – and the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed!  So Moses thought, “I will turn aside to see this amazing sight.  Why does the bush not burn up?”  When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.”  God said, “Do not approach any closer!  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

God added, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid (yârêʼ) to look at God.[15]  In the Septuagint εὐλαβεῖτο (a form of εὐλαβέομαι) was used.  It does not occur in the New Testament but is close to εὐλαβηθεὶς, translated reverent regard in Hebrews: By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, with reverent regard (εὐλαβηθεὶς, another form of εὐλαβέομαι) constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family.  Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.[17]

The Lord said [to Moses], “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.  I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.  So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”[18]

I think the rabbis who translated the Septuagint were wise to choose εὐλαβηθεὶς (a form of εὐλαβέομαι) here rather than φοβέω, a word that connotes flight.  The NET online definition of εὐλαβηθεὶς is a continuum from caution through wariness to reverence.  For Moses was not afraid to stand and argue with God:  “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”[19] And his question prompted a couple of my own about the timing of God’s calling.  Wouldn’t it have been better to call a prince of Egypt for this diplomatic mission than a shepherd from Midian?   And certainly the moralist in me would prefer that God had called Moses before he became a murderer and a fugitive from justice.

To address my first question I turned to Paul:  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.”[20]  Paul quoted the prophetic word of God through Isaiah as a clear statement of God’s purpose and intent.  This is like an overarching theme with God.  Then Paul elaborated (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NET Table):

Think about the circumstances of your call (κλῆσιν, a form of κλῆσις), brothers and sisters.  Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position.  But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong.  God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, so that no one can boast in his presence.  He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Given my upbringing and temperament it probably bears saying that Paul did not invent rules for God to obey.  He revealed what he heard from Christ or observed of God’s behavior in Scripture.  David was the youngest of Jesse’s sons (and a shepherd, by the way), not the eldest.  Jephthah was the illegitimate son of Gilead and a prostitute.  Solomon was apparently not the eldest of David’s sons with Bathsheba,[22] and David’s and Bathsheba’s relationship began as an adulterous affair, yet God called Solomon Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord.

As for Moses being a murderer and a fugitive from justice it is clear that God was working at (what I would call) cross-purposes.  If God sent me to gain the Israelites release from Pharaoh I would hope, and even prayer, that He would grant me favor with Pharaoh.  He told Moses, So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.[23]  But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.[24]

It occurred to me years ago that one way God might have hardened Pharaoh’s heart was to grant him wealth, position, power and prestige without first humbling him to serve God.  As I imagine the scene now I see Moses, a murderer and fugitive from Egyptian justice, standing before the king of Egypt, saying, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.  So now, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.[25]  It was almost guaranteed that his heart would be hardened against such a request from such a man.  And if Egyptian justice had become forgetful of Moses’ crime as a prince in Egypt, Moses had become a Midianite shepherd.  Again Pharaoh’s heart was likely to be hardened, for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting (KJV, an abomination) to the Egyptians.[26]

I am in the heart now of the issues that Paul considered important when discussing election:  So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy [Table].  For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.[27]

What was God’s response to Moses’ objection?  Surely I will be with you [literally, I AM with you], and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they will serve God on this mountain.[28]  God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble,[29] both James and Peter quoted from the Proverbs of Solomon.

Anyone called to the salvation of righteousness in Jesus Christ might feel just like Moses.  Who am I to love [my] enemy and pray for those who persecute [me], so that [I] may be like [my] Father in heaven?[30]  Who am I to Rejoice and be glad[31] when people insult [me] and persecute [me] and say all kinds of evil things about [me] falsely on account of [You]?[32]  I’m not one of the prophets.  Like Peter I might say, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”[33]  But as He promised Moses, I AM with you, so He does not intend that I do righteousness on my own, but tapped into that infinite daily living stream of his Holy Spirit, relying on his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his  gentleness, and his self-control.  Against such things there is no law.[34]

Fear – Exodus, Part 3

[1] Exodus 1:18 (NET)

[2] Exodus 1:19 (NET)

[3] Exodus 1:22 (NET)

[4] Exodus 2:11, 12 (NET)

[6] Exodus 2:14 (NET)

[13] Exodus 2:15 (NET)

[14] Exodus 2:23 (NET)

[15] Exodus 3:6 (NET) Table

[17] Hebrews 11:7 (NET)

[18] Exodus 3:7-10 (NET)

[19] Exodus 3:11 (NET)

[20] 1 Corinthians 1:19 (NET)

[23] Exodus 3:10 (NET)

[24] Exodus 4:21b (NET)

[25] Exodus 3:18b (NET)

[26] Genesis 46:34b (NET)

[27] Romans 9:16-18 (NET)

[28] Exodus 3:12 (NET)

[30] Matthew 5:44b-45a (NET)

[31] Matthew 5:12a (NET)

[32] Matthew 5:11 (NET)

[33] Luke 5:8 (NET)

Fear – Exodus, Part 1

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In Egypt the Israelites were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them.  Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power over Egypt.[1]  The new king feared that the Israelite people might join with his enemies in time of war.  So he put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor.[2]

When he was brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams Joseph acknowledged, It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.[3]  And it was through God’s Spirit that Joseph interpreted the dreams and warned Pharaoh of seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine.  But I think I’m safe to say that Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh was not of God, because its execution differed so dramatically from the economic system God ordained for Israel in the law.[4]

So now Pharaoh should look for a wise and discerning man and give him authority over all the land of Egypt…he should appoint officials throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.  They should gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming…This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt.[5]

It seemed like a good idea to Pharaoh and his officials, so Joseph was put in charge:  I am Pharaoh, but without your permission no one will move his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt,[6] Pharaoh said to Joseph.  When the seven years of famine came Joseph sold grain back to the people.  Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment for the grain they were buying.[7]  Later Joseph said, “If your money is gone, bring your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.”[8]  When their livestock was gone the Egyptians said, Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become Pharaoh’s slaves.[9]  So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh,[10] and, Joseph made all the people slaves from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.[11]

The land must not be sold without reclaim because the land belongs to me, the Lord said, for you are foreigners and residents with me.  In all your landed property you must provide for the right of redemption of the land.  If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold.  If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers and gains enough for its redemption, he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, refund the balance to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property.  If he has not prospered enough to refund a balance to him, then what he sold will belong to the one who bought it until the jubilee year [every fiftieth year], but it must revert in the jubilee and the original owner may return to his property.[12]

If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, the Lord continued, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident.  Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you.  You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit.  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan – to be your God.[13]

If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, the Lord added, you must not subject him to slave service.  He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors.  Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale.  You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.[14]

So when a new king put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor it sounds like karma, what goes around comes around.  Karma is never mentioned by name in the Bible, but one can certainly find it there.  What I recognize as karma is codified in the law: I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me [Table], and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments [Table].[15]  I want to address it directly here because I’ve confused karma for justice, and have thought at times that God was beholden to, rather than the dealer of, karma, whether good or bad.

I don’t suspect Joseph of any particular malice.  I’m sure he thought he was doing a good job for Pharaoh.  It was just good business.  But I believe now that he was wrong, just like I was wrong to confuse the tit-for-tat of karma for justice.  The law according to Jesus was about justice and mercy and faithfulness[16] and love for God.[17]  And though visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations,[18] sounds like bad karma to me, Yahweh is the One who looked my idea of karma right in the eyes and declared, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.[19]

And so I’ll amend my original statement that Joseph’s advice was not of God.  The Egyptians were not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting to do so.[20]  Perhaps it was part of their karma from the hand of God to be enslaved by a Hebrew slave.  I don’t know.  But it came with a price for Israel, too, or an opportunity to walk a mile in the Egyptians’ shoes.  But clearly God is not beholden to karma.  To break the wheel of karma one need only look to the One who said I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.[21]

The new king of Egypt hoped that hard labor would kill the Israelites off and diminish their population.  But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread.[22]  Instant karma.[23]  So he made their service harder.  And, The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live.”  But the midwives feared (yârêʼ) God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.[24]

I was actually surprised that the rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ἐφοβήθησαν (a form of φοβέω)[25] here.  I suppose I expected something that was more clearly reverence for God.  The next occurrence of ἐφοβήθησαν in the New Testament was in response to Jesus’ telling the chief priests, elders and Pharisees that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit (καρποὺς, a form of καρπός).[26]

For me that is a sobering statement.  Am I allowing Him to justify his word in me?  Is the fruit (καρπὸς) of [his] Spirit which flows so graciously into me, flowing out in worthy proportion as his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his self-control?[27]  The chief priests and Pharisees had a different reaction.  They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid (ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) of the crowds, because the crowds regarded him as a prophet.[28]

I doubt they wanted “to reverence, venerate, to treat [the crowds] with deference or reverential obedience.”  I suspect that they feared or hesitated “to do something (for fear of harm).”  That may be what the rabbis had in mind concerning the Hebrew midwives’ motives.  Perhaps they hesitated (or feared) to kill baby boys because they thought that God would, or could, visit them with worse karma than the new king of Egypt.

And because the midwives feared (yârêʼ) God, he made households for them.[29]  Good karma followed upon their fear.  Here the rabbis chose ἐφοβοῦντο.  Jesus said, The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.[30]  His disciples did not understand this statement and were afraid (ἐφοβοῦντο, another form of φοβέω) to ask him.[31]  It was a fear that seemed like respect, but lacked the knowledge or the faith of reverence.  And the Hebrew midwives I think also exhibited that kind of fear.

Fear – Exodus, Part 2

Back to Fear – Genesis, Part 6

Back to Jephthah

Back to Romans, Part 41

[1] Exodus 1:7, 8 (NET)

[2] Exodus 1:11 (NET)

[3] Genesis 41:16 (NET)

[5] Genesis 41:33-36 (NET)

[6] Genesis 41:44 (NET)

[7] Genesis 47:14 (NET)

[8] Genesis 47:16 (NET)

[9] Genesis 47:19 (NET)

[10] Genesis 47:20 (NET)

[11] Genesis 47:21 (NET)

[12] Leviticus 25:23-28 (NET)

[13] Leviticus 25:35-38 (NET)

[14] Leviticus 25:39-43 (NET)

[15] Exodus 20:5, 6 (NET)

[18] Exodus 20:5 (NKJV) Table

[19] Exodus 33:19b (NET) Table

[20] Genesis 43:32b (NET)

[21] Matthew 11:28 (NET)

[22] Exodus 1:12 (NET)

[24] Exodus 1:15-17 (NET)

[26] Matthew 21:43 (NET)

[28] Matthew 21:46 (NET)

[29] Exodus 1:21 (NET)

[30] Mark 9:31 (NET)

[31] Mark 9:32 (NET)