Oct 11 1Chron 28 Ezek 37 John 2,3

 Oct 11 1Chron 28 Ezek 37 John 2,3

The course of true wisdom, then, is to detach ourselves as far as possible from the world and its ways and throw ourselves heartily into the service of Christ, using well the talents which have been given to us. 

The nearer we keep to God, the more we realise the grandeur of His purpose and the perfect security of His ways. 

In this way we will be delivered from the tension occasioned by the vanity and futility of fleshly relations.

The children of God do not grope in the darkness for the way of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day, and even if we make a brief stop at the cemetery on the way, it matters not, for the faithful have the hope of the glory of God.

--B. A. WARRENDER, 'The Promise of Life in Christ'

reference to 1 Chronicles 28

David and the Reign of Solomon

DAVID NOT only proceeded to arrange for the building of the temple as regards the accumulation of materials, but he handed over to Solomon the plans of the edifice, which were themselves the exhibition of the visible hand of God. 

They were plans that David got ready, but they were not plans of David’s contriving. 

They were plans communicated to him by inspiration. 

Of this we are informed by those same records which tell us plainly of David’s faults, and which have a right to be listened to when they speak to us thus—“David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof … The pattern of all that he had by THE SPIRIT.… All this, said David, Yahweh made me understand in writing BY HIS HAND UPON ME, even all the works of this pattern” (1 Chron. 28:11, 19). 

The plans for such a building must have been very elaborate, and have involved an amount of skilled knowledge rarely to be met with in those days, and least of all, in a warrior-king like David, who had spent most of his days in the field. 

The nature of the case called for inspiration, even as regards the natural difficulties of the case—how much more the purpose of the building. 

It was to be used as a dwelling place of the divine name and honour: a place where Israel should acceptably approach Yahweh in worship. 

How could such a building be of human contrivance? 

How could man know what would please God? 

When Israel came out of Egypt, the portable tent or tabernacle of worship that went with them in their wilderness journeyings was of divine contrivance, down to the very pins for holding the cords which held the court-curtains in their place. 

How much more needful was it that an immense and solid structure like the temple should be of divine workmanship? 

These considerations become especially urgent, in view of the fact that both tabernacle and temple were but architectural parables of the final temple-state which Yahweh purposed in Christ to establish among men, as the normal and everlasting relation between Himself and the population of the earth. 

Man could only mar such a plan in any contribution to its architecture. 

Man consults only the taste for the beautiful, whereas this structure, though not lacking in the beautiful, was to embody, in allegorical architecture, the relations between God and man, which are only truly perceived from the divine standpoint. 

This is not the place to trace the allegory, but merely to point out the necessity for divine authorship of the temple plans, and to emphasise the fact that, in a certain sense, Solomon’s temple was itself the visible hand of God in the midst of the earth. ...

--Roberts, R. (2002). The Visible Hand of God (pp. 235–236). Logos Publications.

Ezekiel 37

A Transformed Nation

The previous chapter reveals that the Land and People of Israel are to be transformed and regenerated; this chapter shows how it will be brought about as far as the nation is concerned: by a tremendous political earthquake!

The prophet was transported by the Spirit to a great valley which was "full of bones". Here he had the amazing experience of witnessing the resurrection. First, he was called upon to walk around the valley and to observe the condition of the bones. And then, at the bidding of the angel, he was called upon to pronounce that these bones would live.

Ezekiel then heard a great noise which was accompanied by a tremendous shaking. Suddenly bone leapt to its fellow bone, until skeletons were formed, sinews appeared to tie the bones together, and flesh covered them until now it was a valley of dead bodies. But could such bodies live? The four winds of heaven were called upon to breathe upon the dead that they might do so; and in response, life entered into the bodies, and as living men they stood upon their feet, a great army.

It must have been a most awe-inspiring experience for Ezekiel, even though it was but a vision. He had, in fact, witnessed the resurrection as a type of the nation of Israel that will ultimately be caused to be raised from its national graves.

Ezekiel 37:1

"The hand of the Lord was upon me"—The Spirit took hold upon Ezekiel to reveal to him yet another vision relating to the restoration, which he recorded by Yahweh's command. "In the midst of the valley"— "Valley" is literally "plain". 

It signifies a wide plain, or valley between mountains. Ezekiel saw this plain filled with dry bones, as of an army that had been ambushed and slain.

Ezekiel 37:2

"Caused me to pass by them round about"—The prophet was caused to silently walk around that valley and look upon the desolate and pathetic scene before him. 

He saw the bleached bones of a great army of slain. He observed that "they were very dry", completely bleached out by the sun, thus emphasizing the state of utter hopelessness in which he found them.

Eze 37:3

"Son of man"—Ezekiel again types the Lord Jesus who applied this title to himself (Matth. 24:30), thus identifying himself with the events foretold by these prophecies. (See also Notes 35:2).

"Can these bones live?"—The question was put to the prophet, but so hopeless did the proposition seem as he viewed the bones, and yet so great is the power of Yahweh, that the prophet was hesitant to give a decisive answer. 

He recognised that if the bones were to live it could only be through the power of Yahweh. And so he replied: "O Lord Yahweh, Thou knowest." 

He stressed that only Yahweh could accomplish the seemingly impossible, and raise such dead bones to life.

Ezekiel 37:4

"He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones"—Ezekiel is addressed as "son of man," because he typed the Lord Jesus Christ who likewise used the same title. 

What he was called upon to prophesy here, will be fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. It will be Christ who will cause the "bleached bones" of Jewry to be formed first into the framework of a skeleton, and finally

Eze 37:5

"Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live"— This declaration proclaims the intention of Yahweh in relation to Israel. 

The word for "breath" in the Hebrew is ruach, often rendered "spirit." It is the spirit, or the power of the Truth believed that alone can bring "life" to Israel. 

See notes on Eze_36:26. The transforming influence of the spirit-truth will turn Jacob, "the supplanter," into Israel, " a prince with God." 

Thus Ezekiel saw the breath or spirit of God enter the resurrected bodies of Israel and so energise them. Hosea similarly predicted a national resurrection of Israel (Hos_6:1-3).

Ezekiel 37:27

"My tabernacle also shall be with them"—The Hebrew word is mishkan, and it signifies "dwelling place." 

Yahweh will dwell with His people (see Rev_21:3), not, however, by personally descending from heaven, but my manifesting Himself in the glorified company of the Redeemed that will be then made one with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

They will comprise the "people of the name" (Act_15:14; Isa_30:27). The Lord declared concerning those who overcome: "I will name upon them the name of my God" (Rev_3:12). 

The name Yahweh, therefore, will be named upon the whole family of the redeemed, who though they will comprise a great multitude without number (Rev_7:9), yet will be completely united as one (Joh_17:21). Zechariah declares: "Yahweh shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Yahweh, and His name one" (Zec_14:9). 

Why the emphasis upon "one"? Because the one family of Yahweh, though comprising a vast multitude will be completely united as one unit. Ezekiel describes how this great company, possessing the glory (Rom_5:2), the nature (2Pe_1:4), and the name (Rev_3:12) of God will enter the Temple of the age to come by "way of the east" (Eze_43:1-4).

"I will be their God, and they shall by My people"—Moses set this before the people as a promise conditional upon them keeping the Law (Lev_26:2-3; Lev_26:12), and though Israel has profaned the holy Name throughout the centuries (Eze_36:22), in that the people have disobeyed God's Law, their restoration will be both physical and spiritual. They will enter the land and obey God's laws, and be in fact His people.

Ezekiel 37:28

"The heathen shall know that I, Yahweh, do sanctify Israel"—The nations will see in Israel a completely changed and regenerated people, and will recognise in this fact, the moulding hand of Yahweh.

COMMENT ON GOG

The Amplified Old Testament Bible has this comment to make upon Ezekiel 38 : "Gog is a symbolic name, standing for the leader of the world powers antagonistic to God. "Meshech and Tubal are understood to have been the same as the Moschi and Tibareni of the Greeks — tribes that inhabited regions in the Caucasus. 

Rosh, which some would identify with Russia, must have been designated a land and people somewhere in the same quarter. 

And therefore the Gog of Ezekiel must be viewed as in some sense the head of the high regions in the northwest of Asia (Fairbairn's Imperial Standard Bible Encyclopedia). "Gesenius observes that it can scarcely be doubtful that the first trace of the Russians is here given. Hengstenberg (1802-1869) could not bear to see 'the poor Russians' ranged among the enemies of the kingdom of God. 

But the One who gave Ezekiel this vision of what was to happen 'in the latter days' (v. 16), made no mistake in such a forecast, as all the world would admit today."

reference John 2 - Wedding at Cana

THE PURPOSE TO ISRAEL, NATIONALLY: To show that Israel were spiritually bereft, and that only the Son of God, their Messiah, could supply their spiritual needs and restore them to Yahweh.

THE MEANING TO SPIRITUAL ISRAEL: To show that if we drink the "wine" of his doctrine, and become covered with the blood of his sacrifice, we can find joy in his service — a joy which will be fully realised at the glorious marriage supper

of the Lamb.

--John Ullman, Eight Signs of John, pg 11

reference John 2:19

... Heaven is God’s throne. It is the doctrine of Jesus, in harmony with that of the prophets in the Old Testament, that the Father dwells in heaven in light and glory unapproachable. “Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place” was Solomon’s prayer, and “Our Father which art in heaven” was the form of prayer given to the disciples by the Greater than Solomon. 

Many times in Israel’s history God had given proof of his possessorship of heaven and earth. He had controlled the powers of nature in the plagues of Egypt and upon other occasions, so that no reasonable doubt could be left. 

Heaven as “God’s throne” was, and is, inaccessible to man, as Jesus himself declared, “No man hath ascended up to heaven.” 

And Peter afterwards said of David: “David is not ascended into the heavens.” The Lord Jesus himself was afterwards the sole exception to the rule, as it had been declared beforehand by the spirit in David: “Yahweh saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Psa. 110). 

This, as Peter testified, was fulfilled in the ascension of Jesus (Acts 2:32–36). And Stephen afterwards, quoting the sixty-sixth chapter of Isaiah (Acts 7:49), had a vision of “the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” 

Afterwards, in Rev. 3:21, the Lord Jesus from the throne of the Majesty on high, dictated this message to the church in Laodicea: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” 

The throne of the Father is in heaven; but the throne of the Lord Jesus is upon earth, for the Lord God hath given him the throne of his father David, and he is about to return to take possession.

At first sight it seems strange to find the man of poor and contrite spirit, and who trembles at God’s word, placed in the same category as God’s throne, and the house that Israel built. 

But when we are sufficiently enlightened by the Word, we perceive the true relation. Both the movable tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness, and the immovable temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, were more than mere places of worship of the Father, either movable or fixed. As Stephen says, “the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” 

These structures represented the dwelling-place of the Father in a Man, who, in the language of inspiration, is called “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb. 8:2); and who said of his mortal body: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).

Christ is the substance represented by the “temples made with hands,” whether the tabernacle, or the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, Herod, or of Ezekiel’s visions. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” 

Much more gloriously will God be in Christ when the world is reconciled unto himself. It will be an immortal manifestation, not only in the Lord Jesus individually, but in a multitude of his brethren made “like him.” 

This is “the Father’s house of many mansions, ” or abiding-places, of which he spoke in promise to his disciples (John 14), and concerning which he said that he went away to prepare for them places therein, that he might come again and receive them unto himself in his everlasting inheritance.

--Robert Roberts, e. a. The Ministry of the Prophets: Isaiah (748). The Publishing Commitee, Christadelphian Old Paths Ecclesia.

reference John 3:6

... Paul, who says, “If the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he who raised up the Christ from among the dead shall make alive your mortal bodies by means of his spirit indwelling among you”—Rom. 8:11. “I am always bearing about the putting to death of the Lord Jesus in the body, that the life also of Jesus, (the Lamb’s life,) may be manifested in our body. 

For we, the living, are always exposed to death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” And, “he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up by Jesus, and shall present us with you,” when “mortality shall be swallowed up by life”—2 Cor. 4:10, 11, 14; 5:4.

This is the Lamb’s life—immortality of body, a living incorruptible body, evolved from the ashes of the former body by the Spirit of God, therefore a Spiritual Body, or Spirit, which are equivalent terms in the case; born from the invisible by resurrection, which is the opening of the house of death.

Thus, “that which has been produced from the Spirit is spirit”—John 3:6.

The resurrected spirit-body is one of “the invisible things” of the Aion to come, and therefore aionian, in the Common Version termed “eternal.” 

It is the aionian house—the house aionian from heaven, and in the heavens—which is explained in the words, “Our commonwealth subsists in heavens, out of which also we wait for a deliverer, the Anointed Lord Jesus, who shall remodel, the body of our humiliation, that it may become conformable to the body of his glory”—2 Cor. 5:2–4; Phil. 3:20, 21.

The beginning of the citizenship is the putting on Christ as the righteousness of the adopted. Hence it is written, “as many of you (believers) as have been immersed into Christ, have put on Christ”—Gal. 3:27. 

Christ Jesus who is in the heavens, is “put on” by individuals on earth, who “believe the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ, and are immersed”—Acts 8:12. In doing this, their citizenship begins; and it begins in the heavens, because Christ, whom they put on, is in the heavens. In so becoming citizens of Israel’s Commonwealth, their citizenship is recorded in the Every-Day Book of the Lamb’s Life—their names are borne on his breast, after the type of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel being borne on the breast of Aaron, when he wore the official breastplate on which they were engraved. ...

--Thomas, J. Eureka : An exposition of the Apocalypse. Volumes 1-5. (electronic ed.) (volpg.1.365). West Beach, South Australia: Logos Publication.