The "Desire" of Eve

Desire, in our culture it has so many different connotations. What exactly was the desire (tswqh) of Eve in Genesis 3:16? In its original Hebrew form the word tswqh is only used three times in the Old Testament twice in genesis and once in the Song of Songs. While several of the commentators agree that the desire being referred to here correlates directly to the reference also being made in Genesis 4:7. John MacArthur says it this way, “Sin has turned the harmonious system of God-ordained roles into distasteful struggles of self-will. Lifelong companions, husbands and wives, will need God’s help in getting along as a result. The woman’s desire will be to lord it over her husband, but the husband will rule by divine design (Eph. 5:22-25).” (MacArthur 2005, 18) After reading what John MacArthur had to say as well as several other commentators who share his same view point it made sense. Because, for anyone of us who has been married for any length of time can recognize the struggles that play out in our homes due to our sin natures.

However I would be doing a disservice if I did not share the rest of my findings. John H. Walton in his commentary on Genesis not only compares the two references found in Genesis he also analyzes the reference in Song of Songs. Walton says, “Song of Songs refers to the male sexual drive, a basic instinct. Genesis 4:7 refers to the basic driving instinct of sin, which is to deprave. In 3:16, then, since the context has already addressed the issue of reproduction that can easily be identified as a basic instinct of a woman…The answer is found in the woman’s instinct, her desire is to have children. The text sees that a desire as “for [her] husband” because such a desire cannot be fulfilled without his cooperation.” (Walton 2001, 228)

Both men make extremely valid points; and while I feel they each carry some truth with them. I must admit I lean more towards the view of John MacArthur, because Paul writes to us in Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” ^[1] Reminding wives that since the curse they must be mindful to follow the lead of their husbands, and not fight fro control.

MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2005.

Walton, John H. The NIV Application Commentary on Genesis. Grand Rapids,MI: Zondervan, 2001.

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^[1] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Eph 5:22.

A Brief Look at Being Made in God’s Image

When you hear someone say, “We are made in the image of God.” What do you envision? Is it something like a portly person sitting around with your legs folded, spouting off pithy statements? For others they may feel that being made in the image of God, we have somehow been endowed with super powers, making us capable of doing anything. However, I don’t believe that is what the Bible is trying to tell us at all.

As good students of Scripture we have to learn to take things in their context. From our context there are at least two ways that we can understand what this text is trying to tell us. First God created everything and is in control of everything. Please take note the when God made the animals of the land and the birds of the air, or the fish of the sea they were after own kind. Therefore by creating man to rule in dominion over creation, he made us in his own image to act as his viceroys on earth.

Another way the phrase could be looked at is when God speaks of creating us, it specifically refers to man and woman being one in different forms as God himself is. John Sailhamer in is commentary on Genesis makes a good statement about this, “Following this clue the divine plurality expressed in v.26 is seen as an anticipation of the human plurality of the man and woman, thus casting the human relationship between man and woman in the role of reflecting God’s own personal relationship with himself.” (Sailhamer 1981, 38)

After delving into this study I would agree with both options I have presented, we are both viceroys in charge of what the Lord has given us and also as man and woman we are the greatest example of his plurality that can be witnessed on earth. And as far as the creation account explaining the relationship to the woman to the man, God looked at everything else he had created and saw that it was good, but it was not good for man to be alone. So he then created woman after man to give him a companion or a help mate. It was not a sub-serviant role because we are told that he created them male and female. She is there to help complete and fulfill man since Adam was made from the ground and Eve (woman) came from his flesh. “Then the man said,“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23, ESV)

Sailhamer, John H. The Expositor's Bible Commentary- Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1981.

I AM The Bread Of Life ~ Jesus

Imagine ancient Israel in early spring time, the air is slightly chilled but not cold. There has been talk of a man in Jerusalem who is a great healer; he has healed a nobleman’s son without ever touching him. The controversy that surrounds this man is incredible; the Jews are getting upset with him because he healed a lame man on the Sabbath. Now his name can be heard amongst the chatter, it is Jesus of Nazareth. He has left Jerusalem, he is getting closer to home, nearing the Sea of Galilee (also known as the Sea of Tiberias). There is a huge crowd following him, it’s hard to make out how many people are there, but there are at least five thousand men. And some of these men have been following Jesus since he left Jerusalem; others have joined in the journey from their respective towns. They have brought no food and are getting hungry; some of these men have not eaten for as much as three days according some estimates.

Out of this large crowd Andrew locates one young boy who has five loaves of bread and two fish. Bear in mind these are not loaves of bread as we think of them; they are more like dinner rolls and the fish are small like young mackerel. The child willingly gives what he has to the Lord, and Jesus blesses it giving thanks to the Father. All the people who were there ate their fill; and when they were done Jesus told his disciples to pick up the leftovers so that none maybe lost. Shortly after this Jesus went by himself up the mountain not wanting the people to try and forcibly make him their king. That night after feeding the five thousand; the disciples got into the boat to cross the sea and go home to Capernaum, Jesus was not with them, he was still on the mountain. They had gotten roughly three or four miles out and the sea began to get rough, and in the distance they could see a figure, it was Jesus walking on the water.

The next morning the crowds came looking for Jesus and could not find him or his disciples they headed across the sea to Capernaum. Upon finding him they ask him “Why have you come here?” He replies saying “You have not come looking for me because I did miracles but because you had your fill of the loaves.” (Jn 6:26 paraphrased) He continues telling them not to work for food that will perish, but they should seek that which will endure until eternal life. Jesus continues in a conversation with the crowd about how they need the bread of God, and the people ask for him to give them this bread always (Jn 6:34)

To their request “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.^[1]” This is a very powerful statement to be made by any man. In a small discourse that takes place prior to this statement Jesus and this group were discussing the provision of God through Moses. That while in the wilderness with no major food source, readily available for a large multitude of people (the Israelite nation), God provided manna and water for those people. Dr. Towns says of the manna, “Manna was one of several types of Christ in the Old Testament. Given to Israel originally as their bread in the wilderness, God stopped providing it only after the nation crossed the Jordan River and began eating the grain of the land. It was widely known as “the bread from heaven.”” (Towns 2002, 63)

Asaph wrote of the great provision of heaven in the psalms, “and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.”[2] With this verse in particular he is speaking of the manna, while throughout the rest of the psalm he is referring to the people questioning God; and God displaying his power. As an example, most people in today’s society can go all day and not eat a single slice of bread or anything like it. In ancient Israel meat was a luxury that was not always available. Leon Morris states it this way, “We should bear in mind that for the ancients bread was the principal element in the normal diet. People did not have available the variety of foods that we take for granted, and bread could stand for prosperity (Deut. 8:9; Prov. 12:11,etc) and the lack of it for adversity (Lam 1:11).” (Morris 1989, 110-11) Now take a look at how God showed himself to the widow through Elijah and the bread she was willing to be generous with (1 Kings 17:8-16). God again provided for the physical needs of his prophet and showed his power to a gentile.

While the revealing of God in the Old Testament through Christ statement, “I am the bread of life” may be a bit of a challenge, there is great joy to be found in its meaning. Even though the nation of Israel wondered for forty years in the wilderness, God continually provided for them physically. They did not really have to believe in who God was; all they had to do was be considered as part of the nation of Israel and receive the blessed gift of the manna (or bread of heaven). However, Jesus was making a great distinction between how Moses helped them receive the physical blessing, and how he was the ultimate spiritual blessing. Tenney puts it this way, “Jesus informed the people that Moses did not give them the real spiritual bread…. Jesus did not mean that the manna had no food value; he meant it was not the means of sustaining spiritual life. He claimed to be the genuine and only source of spiritual nourishment.” (Tenney 1981, 75)

Amazingly the crowd the Lord was speaking with was either unwilling or incapable of understanding that Lord was not referring to actual bread but to himself. He speaks to them in such a way that anyone could begin to understand, he is no longer referring to a physical provision, but the greatest spiritual provision we could ever ask for. While bread provides the sustenance needed for the body, Christ himself provides nourishment for the soul. Warren Wiersbe makes a great case for this by saying, “Also, God gave the manna in the past, but the Father is now giving the true bread in the person of Jesus Christ. The past event is finished, but the present spiritual experience goes on!

Then Jesus clearly identified what the bread is: He is the true Living Bread that came down from heaven. But He came, not only for Israel but for the whole world. And He came, not just to sustain life, but to give life! Seven times in this sermon, our Lord referred to His “coming down from heaven” (John 6:33, 38, 41–42, 50–51, 58), a statement that declared Him to be God. The Old Testament manna was but a type of the “true bread,” the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Wiersbe 2007, 250)

Jesus’ statement that he is the bread of life is powerful, because he not only says it once he repeats it to his audience in a slightly different fashion to be able to make an even stronger impact. Just as Mr. Wiersbe, Dr. Towns mentions the fact of Christ speaking of coming down out of heaven. Dr. Towns says this of the bread of heaven, “The genuine bread of God from heaven is that which gives life….John Chrysostom, one of the church fathers, contrasted manna with Christ, noting that while manna brought nourishment (trophe), it failed to give life (zoe). Christ is the bread of everlasting life.” (Towns 2002, 63)

For the Jews to hear these statements not once, but twice it had to infuriate them. Because they understand that God is the author and sustainer of life and outside of him there is no life. To drive home the point that life is not found on earth but given from heaven John Calvin has this to say, “He frequently mentions his coming down from heaven, because spiritual incorruptible life will not be found in this world, the fashion which passes away and vanishes, but only in the heavenly kingdom of God.” (Calvin 2005, 261) So in Christ saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”^[3] His listeners must be thinking to themselves, “This man is crazy the Law prohibits us from drinking blood or even eating meat with blood still in it.” For the Jews the power of life was found in the blood that is the primary reason they would not embalm. However, Christ was not telling them to be cannibals; he was telling them that they would perish if they did not accept his redemptive work on the cross.

Just like the Christians of the first century, believers of every generation since have heard these words and made the active choice to eat of “the bread of life.” Jesus has kept his word and provided for his people.

Bibliography

Calvin, John. Calvin's Commentaries. Vol. 22. 22 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005.

MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2005.

Morris, Leon. Jesus is the Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989.

Tenney, Merrill C. The Expositor's Bible Commentary - John. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Vol. 9. 12 vols. Grand Rapids,MI: Zondervan, 1981.

Towns, Elmer. John Believe and Live. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002.

Walvoord, John F, Roy B. Zuck, and Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Exposition of the Scripture. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary. Colorado Springs,CO: David C. Cook, 2007.

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^[1] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 6:35.

[2] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ps 78:24

^[3] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 6:53.

 

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The Resurrection is the Greatest Sign

If you want to truly call yourself a student of the Bible I see no way you can get around the fact that the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest sign of the gospel. Even though this is not a sign Jesus does himself it is a sign acted out upon him by the Holy Spirit through the guidance of the Father. We can easily validate this as being the greatest sign that Christ chose to give us, because he tells us so. In chapter two of John’s gospel he has just cleansed the temple and the Jews wanted an explanation. “So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²² When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” ^[1] He made sure to give them sign that was beyond adequate.

The Jews were always looking for Jesus to provide a sign of some sort for the things he was doing or to prove he was the Messiah (or Christ). Warren Wiersbe sums it up well by saying, “Often, during His ministry, the leaders asked Jesus to give them a sign; and He refused to do so, except for the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39ff). The “sign of Jonah” is death, burial, and resurrection.”^[2] This sign is even greater than the rest; it shows the culmination of his power. Sadly however some commentators chose not to recognize his resurrection as a great sign. While some struggle with believing Jesus is as powerful as he claimed to be. As believers we can trust that as Leon Morris says, “He is such a great person that even death gives place to him.” (Morris 1989, 118) Meaning that death has no control over Jesus, he told his disciples that even though he will lay down his life he has the power to take it back up again.(Jn 10:17)

One major thing we have to remember, while we may regret the fact that Jesus had to die such a brutal death on our behalf, if he had not died he could not have risen to be by the Father’s side. The great gift we receive by his death and resurrection is His Holy Spirit as Dr. Towns states, “But in the center of hatred, Jesus reminds them that they will be sustained by the Holy Spirit’s presence.” (Towns 2002, 159). His resurrection continues to be a sign, strengthening us today and giving us hope for the future.

Bibliography

Morris, Leon. Jesus is the Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989.

Towns, Elmer. John Believe and Live. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002.

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^[1] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 2:18–22.

^[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996), Jn 2:12.

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God vs. Satan- an Essay on Dualism

Dualism is nothing new it has existed for centuries, it was once highly embraced by Mani and taught by him and later declared a heresy. A popular form of dualism has taken root in eastern philosophy; it’s commonly referred to as the “Yin-Yang” meaning that good and bad are equal opposing forces. If this were true that would mean that God is not God and fully in control, because he would share the same amount of power with Satan. God far surpasses Satan on so many levels; God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent; while Satan is incapable of any of these qualities. God is the creator He has no beginning while we know that Satan was created by God. Dr. Towns says this about Satan’s abilities “Satan’s inability to create or be original, offers some insight into the mental capacity of Satan.” (Towns 2008, 2002, 380)

For whatever reason in our society today people either deny the existence of Satan or they will deny the fact that he is a fallen angel. Ezekiel 28:13-19, and Isaiah 14:12-15 also in 2 Peter 2:4 these scriptures speak clearly of Satan, these passages give us a good understanding that Satan was an angel who swelled with pride and thought he may over take God. In His perfect righteousness God could not allow Satan to challenge him, so He cast him out of heaven. God executed his judgment of Satan on several levels, he was first confined to the earth (Rev 12:12-17), then he will be confined for the millennium (Isa 24; Rev 20), his final judgment is being cast into the lake of fire and sulfur. (Rev 20:10)

There are several stances that have been taken to try and prove that the writers of the OT books Isaiah and Ezekiel were not writing prophetically of Satan, but rather of kings of their age or ones to come. To them I say how could the king be in the Garden of Eden (Ez 28:13), or told he was an anointed guardian cherub (Ez 28:14)? Isaiah speaks of the audacity of Satan in chapter 14:14, where Lucifer feels he can be like God himself. Dr. Towns states this clearly, “The ultimate desire of Satan was to take God’s place.” (Towns 2008, 2002, 362) As I have stated previously Satan does not possess the immutable characteristics of God, he lacks omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. I strongly feel that one of the greatest sources of Scripture to point out all the ways Satan is lacking is the Book of Job particularly chapter one. The fact that Satan was on the earth and had to leave it to enter in to the presence of the Lord shows he is not omnipresent. When the Lord has to mention to him have you considered my servant Job (Job 1:8) shows that he is not omniscient or the Lord would not have had to tell him of Job. The Lord also sets limits to the things Satan could do to Job, if he were omnipotent there would be no equal or greater force to stop him from doing what he wills.

Satan was originally created as an angel; their primary purposes are for the glory of God. While the word angel technically means a “messenger”, Dr. Towns says this of his origins, “Satan was also originally created as a being with power and personality and the freedom of choice. He was an angel with apparent honor and leadership in heaven. When Satan’s pride blinded him and led him to exercise his will in rebellion against God, he was cast out of heaven (Isa 14:12-15, cf. 2Peter 2:4; Jude 6)” (Towns 2008, 2002, 361)

When we chose to yield to sin we may blame Satan, however we may be giving him credit where it is not due. After the fall of Adam we are all indwelt with a sin nature that makes us all chase after our own longings. Satan merely takes our own inclinations to sin and sets us up in the perfect situations to give in. While God can understand a persons inner motivations Satan is only capable of gleaning information we make available to him, “This means Satan cannot read the thoughts of men, but he can predict their thoughts and actions based on his knowledge of their sinful nature.” (Towns 2008, 2002, 382) So while we may be tempted to sin we are never flung into it. Paul clearly tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 we always have a way of escape.

Let these things resonate deep within you, and the next time someone tries to tell you that God and Satan are equal tell them, “Not a chance”. Then explain why.

Word Count: 784

Towns, Elmer. Theology for Today. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008, 2002.

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