Pete's Blog

In one previous blog entry, I introduced the category of biblical types. This morning I finished reading through Ezra. In 9:1, 2 Ezra describes how the Jews were sinning severely against God by practicing racial intermarriage. So Ezra called all the people together to address them on the issue (10:7, 8). Here's what followed:

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now then make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives." Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "It is so; we must do as you have said. But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter. Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away from us." Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them. (Ez. 10:9-15)

Let me start by saying that I don't completely understand what's going on here. Ezra's just commanded them to "Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives," yet the Jews respond that they can't do it themselves because it's raining. I guess that when Ezra commanded them to "make confession to the LORD," he meant do it corporately.

That aside, it's so interesting that the people said, "Let our officials stand for the whole assembly." It reminded me of Israel asking Moses to intercede for them:

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." (Ex. 20:18, 19)

And then there were priests who were ministers on behalf of the people before the Lord:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor . . . and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt. And he shall bring to the priest as his compensation to the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flock, or its equivalent for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty." (Le. 6:1-2, 4-7)

As I read the Old Testament, in light of the New Testament's revelation of Christ's role as mediator (1Ti. 2:5), I realize that the idea of one party going between two other parties (in the above examples) is a strong OT type that Jesus eventually would come and put Himself between His people and God.

The reason evangelism's so difficult is because it's impossible for a Christian to tear a nonchristian from their idols. As John Calvin said, the human heart is "a perpetual factory of idols." Without knowing it, nonchristians love their sin. (Fortunately, God is able to crush a man's idols and reveal Himself as the true God to be worshiped: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" [2Co. 4:6].)

Atheists, deep, deep down realize that if God exists, He's their Creator, and Creators always have sovereign rights over their creatures, so the only way to submit to their own idols (themselves) is to deny His very existence.

"[Men] by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (v. 18). "[A]lthough they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (v. 21).

A young British mother says her prematurely born son was left to die last October by doctors because he fell two days short of the minimum requirement for care.

 

Sarah Capewell's son, Jayden, was born 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy, but physicians said he needed to be at 22 weeks gestation in order to be treated, she told The Daily Mail in a Sept. 9 article. He lived for nearly two hours without medical assistance. She is seeking a review of the guidelines followed by National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in such cases.

 

Jayden, who was born at an NHS hospital in Norfolk, was breathing without help, had a strong heart rate and was moving his arms and legs after his birth, said Capewell, 23.

 

She told The Daily Mail she pleaded with a pediatrician, saying, "You have got to help." The doctor said, "No we don't"

 

While she was having contractions, a chaplain visited her to make plans for a funeral for her yet-to-be-born son, Capewell said. "I was sitting there, reading this leaflet about planning a funeral and thinking, this is my baby, he isn't even born yet, let alone dead," she said, according to the newspaper.