Bible

Reading Bruce Waltke's commentary (paid link) on Genesis, he has a fine couple of paragraphs on page 264 where he explores how the sign of circumcision relates to baptism today. I agree with nearly everything he says, and it's so helpful that I thought I'd put it here in case it's helpful for some:

Last Sunday, I explained that Sarai and Abram attempted to solve the problem of their childlessness through Sarai offering her maid, Hagar, to Abram as a second wife.

I said that, even though we find this unacceptable today, in that day and age this was a socially acceptable way to raise an heir.

The problem with doing this was not that it was socially unacceptable but that it did not arise out of their trust in God.

I'm studying Genesis 15, in preparation for this Sunday's sermon.

Yet again Bruce Waltke (paid link) is very helpful.

Here is one paragraph (from pages 239-240). The details he highlights probably won't make it into the sermon, unless they're crucial to the flow of thought in the chapter. But it's important that we see how the promises God makes Abraham in chapter 15 are precisely those that he needed after the events of chapter 14, redefining his protection, his reward and his allies.

Back in February, we looked at the story of the baptism of Jesus in Matthew's gospel. ("We", as in "Kemsing Church").

We noted that we don't need to work out how to understand what went on there. God himself explains it for us. He does so with a sight (heaven opens and a dove alights on Jesus) and a cry ("this is my beloved son"). So the baptism shows us Jesus as the Son that God the Father loves, the one on whom the Spirit rests to achieve God's purposes on earth.

As we reach Matthew 27:45-50, we are at the end of Jesus' public ministry. Here again, we have a sight and a cry.

There is a real danger that we are so familiar with John the Baptist fulfilling Isaiah 40:3 that we lose sight of the staggering implication this has for Jesus.

So France (paid link) comments:

R T France (paid link) is characteristically helpful as he discusses what the phrase "kingdom of God" (Mark and Luke) or "kingdom of heaven" (Matthew) means:

Jesus warns the 12, as he sends them out in Matthew 10, that if they speak to others of him they will be opposed. The warning is given in the context of their mission during Jesus' earthly ministry, but many of the details in there make fuller sense in the period after his ascension. Jesus taught them with the deliberate intention of preparing them for more than just that one mission, and Matthew recorded those words with the Great Commission at the end of his gospel in mind.

Jesus... born in a manger.

From Peter Leithart's blog post entitled "Oxen and Mangers"

Yahweh appears to Job in a whirlwind and challenges Job by reminding Him of His infinite creative power. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” He asks. “Who set its measurements? Where were you, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:1-7).

Yahweh’s infinite liveliness and power continue to energize everything. “Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?” He points to the most powerful herbivores He can find: “Who set the wild donkey free?” and “Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Can you control him so that he spends the night at your manger?”

Yahweh can, and He has in the incarnation of the Son. Israel is a wild ox. He has the strength of an ox to break the bones of his enemies. Joseph is a wild ox, with horns that push the people to the ends of the earth. Jesus is born as the true Israel, the new Joseph, the untamed wild ox, who spends the night in the manger.

This is the Christmas gospel, the good news of an infinite and infinitely uncontrollable God, who has been domesticated in a manger.

Many of us have been taught many times over that the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh pointed respectively to Jesus royalty, his priestly role or his divinity, and his forthcoming death and burial.

R T France (paid link) would caution us here, and helpfully allows the rest of the Bible to tell us what they signify. Letting Scripture interpret Scripture is always a far safer bet than guessing or importing symbols from elsewhere. So here is what he suggests:

Helpful words from R T France (paid link) on the visit of the Magi. The star's role changes as they leave Jerusalem for the final leg of their journey to Bethlehem:

“Whereas hitherto Matthew has described them as travelling to Jerusalem because they saw the rising of the star, not as actually led by it, his words here indicate that the star now first moved ahead of the magi and then stopped … in a position which indicated the location of the child. What sort of phenomenon gave this impression to expert observers as they travelled south from Jerusalem must be a matter of conjecture. They already knew from Herod that Bethlehem (a mere five or six miles from Jerusalem) was their destination, so that they did not need the star to tell them that; their extravagantly expressed joy is hard to explain unless the star somehow indicated the actual house rather than just the village as a whole. It seems, then, that the star’s movement gave them the final supernatural direction they needed to the specific house ‘where the child was’.” (Page 74)