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The Standard for Ethics

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How do the laws in human history relate to ethics today? We may read of the laws of mankind from ancient times, such as the Code of Hammurabi and the Ten Commandments, combined with the laws in the Hebrew people’s teachings, the Torah. Many centuries later, Plato wrote an extensive, though unfinished, dialogue entitled Laws, which attempted to analyze legal codes of various Hellenic countries of the 5th Century B.C. In comparing these ancient codes and commentary, we find one particularly significant property in common, which is the appeal to deity in one form or other for establishing the authority of the laws. The rationale for appealing to such authority has its basis in the absolute standard of purity, without equivocation or error; otherwise, ethics and faith in God Himself have no standard but are reduced to mere relativism. Therefore, a comparison of ancient legal codes and commentary with the Bible would seem not only appropriate but vital.

Even though earlier legal codes of a Sumerian culture are also extant, these appear much more fragmented and incomplete than Hammurabi’s. The Code of Hammurabi dates back to the 18th Century B.C. under a Mesopotamian leader, probaby King Hammurabi himself, in the region of the Euphrates. Oddly, the most complete preservation of the code, the basalt stele of Hammurabi, was discovered in Susa, Iran (Persia) near the border with modern-day Iraq, and stands reassembled today in the Louvre Museum. Scholars surmise that the stele had been moved to Susa by force of war; nevertheless, other fragments found in the Near East point to the code of Hammurabi having a lasting influence across several cultures over some centuries in the overall region. The stele has a prologue and 282 legal paragraphs inscribed in cuneiform in the Akkadian (Semitic) language, followed by an epilogue, and it prescribes the legal requirements for such topics as family and civil law, business law, property law, and criminal law. The legal paragraphs are amazingly advanced in both format and concept. The casuistic style for each legal paragraph states “if” such-and-such, “then” such-and-such shall apply as to the legal remedy, and either a reward or punishment. Probably the most notable paragraph similar to a biblical nature mentions exacting punishment for the crime of violence – “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” as later cited in the law of Moses: Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21; and repeated in the New Testament in Matthew 5:38. The carved relief at the top of the stele depicts the king revering Shamash, also known as Utu, the Babylonian god of the sun and justice.

Another remarkable code chronologically after Hammurabi’s would of course be the law of Moses as found in the parchment manuscripts of the Hebrew books of instruction – the Torah, consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (written c. 15th Century BC). The earliest extant manuscripts of the Torah today, along with many other Hebrew scriptures and Jewish writings, were discovered between 1946/1947 and 1956 at the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea. They were probably copied by Essene scribes dating between the 3rd and 1st Centuries BC, with some manuscripts even earlier, and some later. The advance in scholarship and corroboration finds a remarkable similarity in the wording and clarity of translation between the previously “oldest” extant manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The law of Moses found in the Torah reveals the law code of God to His people that organizes around the Ten Commandments presented to the first generation of the liberated Hebrews who exited Egypt (Exodus chapter 20), and then a second time to the next generation as the people prepared to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy chapter 5). We may note that the Ten Commandments give four “vertical” commandments on how to relate to the Supreme Being, followed by six “horizontal” commandments on how to relate to fellow humans. The summary commandments for each of these two categories may be found in the narration and admonitions by Moses to the people. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 provides the famous “Shema,” meaning “Hear,” which states the oneness of God and the Greatest Commandment – to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. The first four of the Ten Commandments relate to honoring God as the only true and living God, the use of His name, and keeping the Sabbath, and all fall under the Greatest Commandment, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 – the Shema. The Second-Greatest Commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, lies deep in Leviticus in the context of not holding a grudge, but to love instead, in Leviticus 19:18. “Love your neighbor as yourself” provides the primary emphasis and reason for the last six of the Ten Commandments, which include:

  • Honor your father and mother.
  • Do not murder.
  • Do not commit adultery.
  • Do not steal.
  • Do not bear false witness.
  • Do not covet.

This law code includes the simple major and universal Commandments but branches out into the sacrifical system of worship and animal blood atonement for sin, as well as various cultural regulations, sacred holidays, and worship requirements that provide a type for Christ, the projected Messiah, who was to come centuries after Moses. We may state unequivocably that the law of Moses points to the Divine, and as Bible believers, we say on faith that it comes from God.

We now come to the bulwark of Western legal and political thought, the philosphers of ancient Greece, which included the Big Three: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Of these, we may focus on Plato’s final work in his old age, his dialogue, Laws. Today Plato’s discussion of laws may be criticised for its style and antiquated opinions, which at times seem to border on the naive. However, the major point comes from the statements of Plato’s character in the dialogue, the Stranger of Athens, as he propounds the divine nature of good law. “The laws of the Cretans,” he says to Clinias the Cretan, “are held in superlatively high repute among the Helenes. For they are true laws inasmuch as they effect the well-being of those who use them by supplying all things that are good. Now goods are of two kinds, human and divine” (Laws, Book I). He further expounds on humanity’s dependence on divine direction. We may wonder whether, assuming pagan gods to be nonexistent, a “divine” order or direction from the ancient Hellenic world would have any relevance, even in the 5th Century BC. The answer must come from their perspective, which would be affirmative. Although at times Plato’s Athenian Stranger mentioned God as the source for good law, we may only gather that he referred to someone in the ancient Greek pantheon. In the reading, one may find a reference to Zeus and Pythian Apollo. Now Zeus in general would be regarded in Hellenic culture as of highest rank, the deific king of Olympus. However, Apollo, a god of great influence in multiple areas of human endeavor, specifically became involved in Greek religious tradition as the source for the power of the oracle at Delphi, the ancient Greek center of the universe. There at Delphi on the Bay of Corinth, Pythia, the oracular priestess, practiced her art of divination. Belief in law from the mouth of Apollo through Pythia had great weight to the Hellenic peoples.

Our thesis, after some comparison of legal and religious cultural references, lays out the universal need for authority for objective ethical principles, which we may further focus as commandments and laws of religious importance; namely, there must be a standard by which ethics are judged that stand independent of mere opinion and relativism. Even as Bertrand Russell, a self-described agnostic or atheist, admitted, he could not definitively judge goodness and badness (right and wrong) without requisite “non-natural properties of goodness and badness” (Stanford, 2021). Therefore, we may surmise that, according to Russell, without the supernatural ethical standard, objective ethical correctness would be reduced to debate. God must exist for an objective ethical standard, and as God said, “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Remarkably, the ancient philosophers and lawgivers tended to agree on divine direction, if only ostensibly to justify the laws. Divine decree was invoked by Hammurabi, Moses, and Plato. Bible believers say that God will judge the people of the world, past, present, and future, and His judgment is right. We have His Book by which we may know His standard, in the pages from Genesis to Revelation.

For God shall bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:14

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. -Hebrews 4:13

We are fortunate to have the hope of God’s promises to believers, and may call on the name of the Lord and plead in faith for His grace and mercy, turning to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith (Romans 10:9-10; Hebrews 12:2). We are privileged to live out our faith, not under judgment, but under grace and a sound mind in Christ (Romans 8:1; 12:1-3). May the Lord’s peace be with you.

REFERENCES:

Britannica Online, britannicaonline/topic/Britannica-online. “Code of Hammurabi.” Accessed 10

February 2024.

Britannica Online, britannicaonline/topic/Britannica-online. “Dead Sea Scrolls.” Accessed 10

February 2024.

Britannica Online, britannicaonline/topic/Britannica-online. “Shamash.” Accessed 10 February 2024.

Plato, Laws. English trans. by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1926.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Russell’s moral philosophy,” under subtitle “1. The open

question argument and its aftermath: Moore’s influence on Russell,” revised 4 May 2021.

The Cost of Following Christ

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Jesus had much to say about the cost of being His disciple; in fact, true discipleship will cost you everything, and yet, the value of His grace is limitless! This quote from Jesus compares such a cost with the practicality of war:

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. -Luke 14:31-33

We also know of the cost of a stronger nation at war against a weaker power, which holds out with great resistance and perseverence, because the weaker power’s homeland means everything to the people, even life itself. The stronger power must be forced to weigh the cost, even weighing the diminishing returns from a seemingly endless war. America has witnessed this from the Vietnam War and the war in Afghanistan. Russia may be experiencing this principle in its war against Ukraine, and also suffered heavy losses in the 1980s in the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. In fact, the principle of diminishing returns goes back in history to ancient times. Aristotle referred to the fading Persian empire’s struggle against Atarneus, a stronghold town on the coast of Asia Minor (Politics, Book II, iv, 10), in which the city’s mega-wealthy financier, Eubulus the Bithynian banker, suggested to the Persian general, Autophradates, that he count the cost in time, expense, and lives to take the city. Autophradates wisely withdrew the seige from Atarneus.

Now Jesus’ example in Luke chapter 14 refers to the weaker power offering peace terms when the cost would be too great. We have therefore two examples from history: the diminishing returns of the stronger power in one example, and the likely defeat or excessive cost of the weaker power in another example. Our moral of these illustrations pertains to becoming a Christian. To be a Christian, Jesus says, you must go “all in.” The cost is your life, whether literally in the case of your martyrdom, or the cost over your natural lifetime as a slave of Christ.

Then He said to them all: 23 “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” -Luke 9:23-24

Self-denial places others ahead of yourself, and the motivation is love. The cost of discipleship is everything, but the gain is everything for eternity. Oh, the amazing riches of Christ (Romans 9:23; Colossians 1:27; Hebrews 11:26)!

Now the cost of discipleship to Jesus may be regarded, in the case of the strong Christian, as the stronger power waging war on the weaker, who may perhaps find himself casting his pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6) in the hope of saving the irretrievable, only to sink himself in the mire of the other’s depravity. Once you have laid out the gospel and your arsenal of prooftext – that is, your memorized Scriptures that show the way of repentance and salvation in Christ – it becomes necessary to “dissolve the bands” (T. Jefferson) that may lead to evil influence. As the apostle said, once you have warned the wayward one, watch that you yourself be not tempted. Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good character,” which Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:33, quoting from the Greek Poet, Menander.

In the case of an ordinary Christian, or a new Christian, or even a weaker Christian, how do you ask for peace against the stronger power? One must not negotiate with evil, especially the devil. Surrender, not to evil, but to the risen Savior. Do as Paul described in Colossians 3:1-3; namely, hide your life in Christ. As you deny self and hide your life in Christ, the Lord Jesus stands between you and evil. We are all weak in one way or other, and Jesus knows your every weakness. Call on Jesus for protection. Take that temptation to the Lord in prayer. Such is the resistance of the saved, calling on the name above all names, Jesus. As James wrote, resist the devil, and he will flee (James 4:7). Is he fleeing from your power? No, he is fleeing from you because of who is in you, Jesus, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Hell Is Real

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The Friday edition of The Wall Street Journal features an essay series, “Houses of Worship,” written by a different specialist each week on a topic of interest related to religion. On Friday, March 8, 2024, p. A13, Lance Morrow presented his article entitled “How We Think About Hell.” It seems every unpleasantry imaginable occupies our thoughts about hell, if we think of hell at all, although the plethora of concepts tend to marginalize the truth from God’s Word. Pope Francis, when asked what he thought about hell, said, “What I would say is not a dogma of faith, but my personal thought: I like to think hell is empty. I hope it is.”

Mr. Morrow went through a vivid list of observations by writers and thinkers on the topic of hell. Pope Francis described hell as “eternal solitude.” Jean Paul Sartre, the existentialist “pontiff,” commented that “hell is other people.” Great writers published their own particular twist on hell. Dante’s Inferno “set the standard,” says Morrow. Milton wrote a tortuously lengthy tome, Paradise Lost, putting words in Lucifer’s mouth: “Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell.” James Joyce’s novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, apalls the senses with the smell of rotting flesh and boiling blood of sinners, even as the fire “gives off no light.”

Then we are given a glimpse of hell on earth, such as World War I’s Battle of the Somme, which introduced mass insanity of 300,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries in a barrage of shelling, destruction of human life and limb the likes of which had never been seen before. Survivors were prone to take decades to speak of it, if at all. The butchery continued through wars and terrorism throughout the Twentieth Century and into the Twenty-first. Of course, Hitler teed up a nuance to hell on earth, delivering genocidal annihialtion to his Holocaust victims in the dehumanizing of human life as ghoulish as the hated Nineveh of the ancient Assyrian Empire.

Nowadays it seems that relativism takes the front seat of people’s concept of laying blame for sin, which is the reason for hell in the first place. But has sin become dependent on the situation? Are we no longer responsible for our actions if our psyche is the product of our genetic and social circumstances? Consequently, Morrow raised a pointed question: “Has the old idea, fire and brimstone through all eternity, gone out of business?” After all, who is responsible in Twenty-first Century thinking? Artificial Intelligence raises new possibilities of transferring blame away from a potentially punishable culprit. Do you blame the “occupant” of a self-driving vehicle when a computer glitch causes the death of a hapless pedestrian? Nevertheless, the author concludes that there is somehow a basic truth to be ferreted from human nature and our sense of justice. I would say that therein lies the problem – the finding of justice by human standards rather than God’s.

I would add that the groundwork for such dubious ideas of justice began long ago. Novels and speeches and articles over the modern era laid the foundations of relativism. Dostoevsky, Hardy, Dreiser, and Steinbeck – each contributed to the idea of the extenuating circumstance and the perpetrator as victim. Today we see this in the news as criminals are given a pass. If the criminal is a victim, then how can you punish him? Is not society itself responsible? As far back as Thomas More’s Utopia, first published in 1516, and in English in 1551, the foundation for such warped thinking had been laid.

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them?” -Thomas More, Utopia

The book had a lengthy Latin name with various English translations that could be simplified to this: On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia. We best recognize the book, of course, as Utopia, and its rather loose treatment of crime became woven into Western culture in popular works, including the motion picture, Ever After (1998). In the movie, Drew Barrymore directly quoted the above English rendition of Thomas More’s indictment of punishing thieves.

Sin as sin can only be, at its core, a simple concept that – without grace from above – predicates the inexorable conclusion: judgment. Therefore, hell becomes crystal clear in the moral code of God’s Holy Word, the Bible. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), the Eighteenth Century evangelist and author of the famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” ignited the proper fear of the Lord God in thousands of Americans’ hearts and helped bring about the Great Awakening, the great Christian revival in Colonial America. His basic examples from Scripture atested to the reality of hell, a real place of torment for those who have earned the wrath of God, not the least of which results from intransigent rebellion against the evidence of God’s existence, beginning with unbelief in the miracle of His creation (Romans 1:20) and extending to unbelief in the miraculous, incarnate Son of God.

“Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.” –John 3:18

We have the Biblical illustration from one of Jesus’ parables, “The Rich Man and Lazarus,” in which poor Lazarus dies and goes to heaven, resting on Abraham’s bosom, while the wicked rich man is tortured in the eternal fires of hell (Luke 16:19-31). Now hell was originally reserved for the devil and his angels, the fiery eternal place where Satan would be locked up as he justly deserves (Matthew 25:41). However, mankind, who is made in God’s image, was not intended for such a fate until after the Fall, when the sin of man came into being. What do we have now? We have an alternative: either to enjoy God’s grace as we look to “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2, KJV) or to face an eternity in hell. Its description leaves no doubt of its physical reality. Isaiah 66:24 describes the scorched bodies of the wicked who are the objects of God’s wrath in a place where the worms consuming them never die and the fire is never quenched; and Jesus relates this illustration from Isaiah as the place of hell, emphasizing the worms and unquenchable fire three times (Mark 9:42-48).

As mentioned, there lies before us God’s boundless grace and his unmitigated holy wrath; the choice is yours. “As for me and my house,” as Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, “we will serve the Lord.” We will turn to God’s grace freely offered, not due to our own merit, but because we look to Him in faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The Testing of Abraham — Genesis 22

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The Lord God spoke to Abraham and said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go sacrifice him as a burnt offering in the land of Moriah.” The Lord emphasized how dear Isaac was to Abraham, and this is the first use of the word love in the Bible. Abraham’s heart must have sunk. He had waited until he was 100 years old before he could have a son with his 90-year-old wife, Sarah. Isaac was the child of the promise God had given him to make a great nation through his offspring. In fact, God had told him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned” (Genesis 21:22). What could possibly come of killing his own child, now a boy or young man?

But Abraham did not hesitate. He cut up the wood for the sacrifice and left Beersheba, his current home in the south of Canaan, early in the morning. He had loaded his supplies, mustered servants and taken Isaac with him. They traveled for three days to Moriah, the mountain of the Lord close to Jeruslaem. Mount Moriah would later become the temple mount in the days of King Solomon, and eventually, it is believed, the site of Islam’s Dome of the Rock. On the third day, as the mountain came into sight, he went ahead alone with Isaac, saying to his servants, “Wait here while I go with the boy to the mountain to worship, and we will return to you.” He used the impersonal term, the boy, as he spoke of his beloved Isaac, perhaps to distance himself from the gruesome task ahead of him. How could God, whose promises he believed, now renege on the promise, and make him sacrifice his only son of the promise? This was a precedent never ventured before: a commanded human sacrifice from God Almighty. It was unthinkable. Yet the order rang in his ears to sacrifice his son like an animal for atonement and devotion to the Creator. He did not have the written law code of Moses, dictated by God Himself, saying do not murder and do not offer human sacrifice to a god. No, the law code would not come until over four hundred years later. It is possible he knew of the law code of King Ur-Nammu, who might have been contemporary to Abraham. Otherwise, he was not schooled in law, at least not in the way of the still nonexistant Hebrew tradition. But Abraham knew something about God from conversations with Him, and he thought he knew God’s nature: holy, faithful, dependable, righteous, everlasting.

God had said to Abraham, “Leave your land and your people and go to a land that I will show you, and I will make you into a great nation.” Later God told him, “Go out and look up at the stars and count them, if indeed they can be counted. So will your offspring be.” And then the book of Genesis says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Then at age 99, Abraham saw the Lord in human form – the Theophany – and heard him say, “This time next year you and Sarah will have a son.” In spite of Abraham and Sarah’s laughter, it happened, and the Lord told him to name the boy Isaac, meaning He Laughs. Now he must kill the boy and burn the boy’s body like a carcass in worship of the Living God. Had God changed His mind? No, God must be up to something he did not understand. Would he raise Isaac from the dead? God is faithful and does not do evil. God must provide him a way, and he must not try to take a shortcut or circumvent the plan of the Lord, even in this. Somewhere on that journey a resolve came over Abraham that kept him in pursuit of the Lord’s orders. It had to be faith that only God knows and that God would work out to satisfaction.

After the three days of travel, and his thinking about God’s command, the thought would be like burying his son for those three days, or counting Isaac as good as dead. Isaac was oblivious to the plan now, as they drew close to Moriah. Abraham had placed the wood load on Isaac’s back as they traveled on foot this last distance alone, unaccompanied by servants or beasts. Abraham carried the knife and the fire, probably a lit torch.

“My father?”

“Here I am, my son,” said Abraham. He had kept things impersonal in referring to his son as “the boy,” but now the words could not be withheld. He was saying what we might say: At your service, my son.

“We have the wood, the knife, and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” The whole burnt offering became codified in the book of Leviticus, far into the future, but the practice was known in Abraham’s time and before. The whole animal was consumed by the fire as a symbol of the worshipper’s total devotion, and as atonement for sin. The lamb could also be another creature such as a ram, the mature male sheep. Abraham knew this. With the thought of what he had been instructed to do, but knowing no other recourse, Abraham relied on his only hope – that God would show him what to do. “God Himself will provide the lamb,” he said to his son.

They built the altar now and arranged the wood for the fire. Then the unthinkable happened. Somehow Abraham succeeded in getting Isaac on the wood and binding him there. At some time during this last procedure, Isaac must have realized that he was the sacrifice. Did they discuss this? It is possible that Isaac as a youth was stronger than his father, but did they have a wrestling match? If Isaac consented willingly or was talked into stretching out on the altar, then he was foreshadowing the Christ, who willingly would go to His execution on the cross some two thousand years in the future. In fact, to Christians the whole incident presents a type, also known as a foreshadowing or prefiguring, for the passion of the Christ. These uncanny similarities to the Crucifixion of Jesus presented themselves:

  • Abraham, the father, prepared to sacrifice his only legally recognized son as atonement and devotion, just as God the Father allowed His only begotten Son to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Jesus is called the Lamb of God (Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29,36; Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6,8,12,13). The details for the lamb motif begin in the book of Leviticus, which outlines sacrifice for sin and devotion to the Lord. The burnt offering and the guilt offering would include, depending on circumstances, a young bull, a female sheep, a ram, or a goat. The poor could sacrifice doves or fine flour. However, the lamb became an enduring symbol of such sacrifice throughout the Israelites’ sacrificial period, from the Exodus through the First Century A.D.
  • As mentioned, Abraham spent three days traveling to Moriah, where the sacrifice would occur, and in the process his resolve to obey God placed him in the position of thinking his son was as good as dead. Christ lay dead in the tomb for three days before His resurrection.
  • Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice; Jesus was compelled to carry His own cross.
  • As mentioned, if Isaac willingly cooperated with his father, he foreshadowed the very purpose for the Christ’s coming to earth (Mark 10:45).
  • In a sense there occurred a resurrection for both Isaac and Jesus. Hebrews 11:17-18 says that Abraham believed God could raise his son from the dead; he had faith that God could do anything necessary to fulfill His promise of blessing Abraham’s descendants through Isaac, even if it meant raising him from the dead.

Let us inspect some Bible passages that support the above prefiguring list.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

    yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

    so he did not open his mouth.

-Isaiah 53:7

The above verse is from Isaiah 53, known as the chapter of the Suffering Servant. Orthodox Jews do not recognize the Suffering Servant as the Messiah, but rather picture the Messiah as a conquering Lord of righteousness. Christians reconcile the two concepts – the humble Lamb of God and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (also seen as the Son of Man) – as one and the same Person. Our point in the context of the sacrificial Lamb of God arises from God’s love, even to the point of sacrificing His only Son for the sins of the world. Isaiah 53:12 further clarifies the idea of the Messiah who is given all glory and power and honor because of His sacrifice.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

    and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

    and made intercession for the transgressors. -Isaiah 53:12

Consider the book of John, which refers to John the Baptizer as he recognized Jesus.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” -John 1:29

This provides a direct reference to Jesus the Lamb of God, the sacrifice once for all humanity, as cited in Hebrews 7:27, as well as several other references in the book of Hebrews:

He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. -Hebrews 7:27b

We may refer to the words of Jesus Himself in the Gospel of Mark, where he referred to Himself as the Son of Man, a title equated with God Himself from Daniel 7:13-14:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Mark 10:45

In the above sentence, regarded as the focal statement of the Gospel of Mark, we have the reconcilation of suffering with the power of God that rests on Jesus the Messiah, the Son of Man. Hence we understand the passage giving all power and glory and honor to the Son of Man in the prophetic passage from Daniel. He earned it!

13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” -Daniel 7:13-14

A good summary of the earned glory of Jesus, Messiah and Son of Man, which reconciles His glory and His suffering, comes from the author of Hebrews:

…let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

–-Hebrews 12:1c,2

As Abraham reached for the knife, the voice of the angel came from heaven with urgency: “Abraham, Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he said, now realizing with hope of all hopes that God was intervening.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy…. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son.” Only then did Abraham see the ram that had caught its horns in a thicket, the sacrifice provided by God. Isaac was spared!

Debaters may say, does God not know everything? Psalm 147:5 says His understanding is infinite. Jeremiah 23:24 says no one can hide from Him. How then would God not know that Abraham would do anything for Him? He did not know with the knowledge of experience! The Rev. Tony Evans wrote that God wanted to feel Abraham’s devotion. Just as God enjoys our worship and feels our devotion, so it was with Abraham. However, another reason penetrates the mystery of the sacrifice; this enactment was a testing of Abraham, God’s prophet.

Now God does not tempt people, as asserted by James 1:13. However, from 1 Peter 1:7 we understand that we are given trials which should strengthen us in our faith. By such a principle Abraham was tested, at times failing, and at times more frequently, to his credit, passing the “test.” He passed one test in a great way by first believing God, and this was credited to him as righteousness. He failed a trial of patience, short-cutting God’s promise of an heir by taking the slave, Hagar, as a second wife in order to have a son. However, even our failures can teach us. In Abraham’s case, he learned that God is faithful to His promises, even when he, in his finite human understanding, did not see how God could carry out the promise!

Therefore, we have the Lord’s assurance of our growing strength as we face our trials in faith, “looking unto Christ, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). May praise and glory be given to the God of infinite understanding, whose love for His created humanity endures forever. We ask our Eternal Father in the name of Jesus, Messiah, Son of Man, to strengthen us in His righteousness so that we endure to the end.

If You Are Thinking About Aborting Your Child — Read This

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Recently I wrote an article entitled “The Sanctity of Human Life.” I won’t repeat the Biblical arguments for avoiding abortion here, but two true accounts should give anyone pause who contemplates ending the life of the baby in the womb. We will call the unborn child in this recent story “Michael.” His mother was my wife’s friend. Each day the father would spend some time speaking to the baby in her womb, bending down to her tummy, and calling him by name, saying “Michael, I love you” and “I am looking forward to seeing you soon,” as well as other conversational words of endearment.

When baby Michael was born, the father was right there. Naturally Michael cried when he drew his first breath, but the crying continued. Finally, the father got close and said, “Michael, it’s OK, I am here with you. I love you.” Instantly little Michael’s crying stopped, and he listened! Overjoyed, the mother and father continued to soothe their newborn, who was still listening.

My point for you, if you are thinking about aborting your child, is this: He or she hears you in the womb. Your child, even now, is a living human being – not a tissue mass, and not something to be discarded. God bless you for pausing to hear this true account of young Michael.

Consider a Biblical account of another child in his mother’s womb, the prophet John the Baptizer. In Luke’s gospel, after the angel Gabriel announced that Mary would conceive the Christ Child by the Holy Spirit, she visited her relative, Elizabeth, who was in her sixth month of pregnancy with baby John. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth said to Mary,

“As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

-Luke 1:44

The child in the womb is not some blob and not some “choice.” The child is a person, even in the womb. Let us praise God the Creator for the wonders of His creation.

The Book of Genesis – The Masterful Beginning

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Genesis begins with this seminal, authoritative statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It is arguably the most famous, all-encompassing opening sentence in all of literature. It establishes God as the Creator, eternal and almighty, yet caring. He established the earth first, before the vast universe, which came later in the six days of creation. God built the universe around the earth, which is the focus of His creative power, the place where His ultimate creation, man, would reside. Much later, King David of Israel asked, “What is man that You [God] are mindful of Him?” (Psalm 8:4) The answer rests on God’s loving care for that part of His living creation that He deliberately made in His image, after His likeness: human beings.

The history presented in Genesis accounts for Adam, the first man, all the way to Jacob’s sons settling in Egypt, around 1,866 B.C., a span of about 2,100 years. Some of this history, including customs such as contracts, the Great Flood, and the names of the patriarchs, are corroborated by ancient clay tablets of Mesopotamia and Syria. The Great Flood in particular is the theme of the legend of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian account as told in a pantheistic culture. But Genesis is more than a dry history. It is divided into ten memorable accounts, each beginning with the word “account.” The accounts tell of people and events that are best described as fascinating stories of human nature as people struggle with obstacles and opposition, even as God plays a sovereign role of guiding them, answering prayers, giving visions, and making promises to a the patriarchs. Ultimately God makes covenant promises to Noah, then Abraham, and then reaffirms the covenant to Abraham’s son, grandson, and great grandson.

Genesis runs a long narrative of God’s creation of the world and all life, assesses the nature of mankind, and relates the history of a family which God calls into a special relationship for the purpose of founding a holy nation. His plan alludes to the possibility of a Messiah, a specially anointed One to bring us back from the abyss of sin and conflict against God. The subtle assumptions within single words of Genesis point to the promise of the concept of the Trinity, God as One, yet comprised of three perfectly united persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is suggested by Elohim, plural yet meaning God. God created, ba-ra Elohim, uses the plural noun with ba-ra, a singular verb. Furthermore, God’s Spirit hovered over the waters of earth, in Genesis 1:2. In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make man….” By “us” God did not mean God and angels, but God Himself with Himself.

This statement, “Let us make man in our image,” establishes mankind as the image bearers of God on God’s nascent earth. The full meaning of image bearers becomes inextricably intertwined in the Genesis narrative history as characters attempt to honor God, while others do not. The imperfections of human beings – their sins – call into question good versus evil, why God allows evil, and whether this state of affairs is a permanent problem. Is the world to be forever tainted? Genesis raises such questions and more, and has therefore been labeled a narrative text on philosophy.

Humans are unique in creation, possessing superior intelligence, a sense of what eternity means, self awareness, and the capacity to reason, create tools and subdue the earth to their purposes. Even further, humans have a moral conscience, a will to choose either good or evil, and the capacity to worship God and choose the attributes of their holy God. Such attributes include the fruit of God’s Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, which include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. In Genesis we read of such marvelous attributes and their opposite, the capacity for evil, and we discover God’s dealings with both good and evil. We learn that there exists a representive of evil, Satan, who tempted the first man and woman to sin and fall.

As mentioned, Genesis has been called a book of philosophy in literary form as the book weaves stories of families and generations. The reader asks, will Noah and family survive the Great Flood? Will Lot, Abraham’s nephew, survive the wickedness of Sodom and the judgment that would rain down on that city with fire and sulphur? How can Abraham save his precious son, Isaac, the child of God’s promise, and still obey God’s demand to sacrifice the boy? Will Jacob overcome his brother Esau’s determination to kill him for tricking him out of his birthright and stealing his blessing, and how can Jacob ever repay Esau his debt to his brother? In the next generation, how may Joseph survive slavery and prison, and ultimately, how will he find a way to forgive his brothers, especially his worst betrayer, Judah? From the answers to these questions we find dysfunctional families whom God blesses and teaches and accompanies (e.g., God was “with” Joseph and blessed everything he did). The philosophical questions are answered by the presence of God and the faith of the people whom He blesses. The people of truth and faithfulness receive honor, at times in spite of their imperfect demonstration of honor: e.g., righteous Noah got drunk and naked; faithful Abraham lied about his wife, Sarah; and persevering Jacob began as a deceiver who learned the better way, even wrestling with an angel to receive a blessing.

The longest account in Genesis (Gen. 37:2-50:26) focuses on Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob and favored above the others by his father. Joseph the Dreamer had God-inspired visions of grandeur about himself, which he naively shared with his jealous brothers, resulting in Judah and the others selling him into slavery in Egypt. God was with Joseph as he rose from slave and prisoner to ruler of all Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. Now Joseph had a chance to seek vengeance on his brothers, but he chose to forgive them! The word forgive is not even found in Genesis and seems to be a new principle. However, in order to forgive, Joseph felt compelled to exact a price: Judah’s offer to sacrifice himself – to voluntarily become a slave at Joseph’s mercy (Genesis 44:33). This is the turning point of the saga of Joseph and his brothers, the exact moment when Joseph revealed his identity and offered forgiveness.

Today we have two opposing perspectives of culture: the culture of shame and the culture of guilt. With shame there is no remedy, no remediation, no atonement; it perpetuates a permanent fallen condition that cannot be resolved. Hence a violator against correctness is “canceled” – relegated to the fixed status of outcast for his sin. The other cultural perspective is guilt for which a remedy may be obtained by repentance and the forgiving act of the offended party. Joseph, having God with him, chose this second alternative, the better way. For this reason, as well as the compelling story in itself, Joseph’s forgiving act makes his life the most prominent of the Genesis accounts. Therefore, Genesis establishes the precedent for grace: the unmerited restoration of the offender by reason of his repentance and faith. The climax of Joseph’s story provides a kind of reverse type for our restoration under the grace of Jesus. Joseph’s brother, Judah, guilty of selling Joseph into slavery, offered himself as a slave to save his innocent brother, Benjamin. In contrast, Jesus, innocent of all charges, Judah’s descendant, gave His life as a ransom for guilty souls.

Almost unwritten in the Genesis history, a moral code seems woven into the fabric of the riveting narrative long before the code is written in the Ten Commandments and the religious and ethical mandates of Exodus and Leviticus. Before Moses and the priests and the written law, Abraham tithed his booty from a righteous battle, giving it to the kingly priest, Melchizedek. Joseph answered the sexual temptress, Potiphar’s wife, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Human beings even then had what the forbidden tree foreshadowed before the fall of Adam and Eve – the knowledge of good and evil. Yet characters in Genesis did not have a written Law from God. The Mosaic Law would eventually come, when sin and righteousness would be spelled out vividly to Jacob’s untrained and pagan-influenced descendants: righteousness including “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor,” and sanctions against wickedness in X-rated explicitness.

More than philosophy, and more than a moral code, Genesis is the forerunner of the Messiah as Savior of mankind. Early in the Genesis narrative, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God predicted that Eve’s descendant would crush Satan’s head, and the devil would bruise his heel. The outcome alluded to in Genesis 3:15 gives the answer to the age-old problem of humanity’s finding redemption and restoration. The works of the devil, the heel bruising, put Jesus on the cross; the work of Jesus, the bruising of Satan’s head, was finished on the cross and by His resurrection! Redemption, the answer, came by God’s grace announced at the outbreak of the First Sin, in Genesis 3:15. Genesis became, therefore, the beginning history of God’s redemption of mankind. First, God’s plan provided for a people from Abraham, then a culture by Abraham’s descendants, then the God-ordained moral code, then a land for the people (the Promised Land), and then a kingly lineage leading to the Messiah as predicted in the prophets. Genesis laid the groundwork. The reshith, the beginning, already prepared the way for the King of Kings. Malachi, the last book of the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible and our Old Testament, concludes with a prediction of what Genesis began. Malachi ends the Old Testament saying Elijah would come before the “great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Jesus interpreted Malachi’s closing sentences, saying that the Elijah who was to come was John the Baptizer, who came to prepare the way for Jesus. As John said, this One (Jesus) would baptize the people “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” As early as Genesis, God’s Spirit and fire, representing grace and judgment, counterbalance each other as God showed two sides of humanity’s ultimate fate: grace for the faithful, and judgment for the unfaithful.

Genesis 9:4 – The Life Blood

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The Rainbow covenant that God made with Noah and his family, the survivors of the Great Flood, included a stipulation of great interest to the Abrahamic people groups and their respective faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. God commanded the abstention from the lifeblood of animals when He allowed the eating of meat in the human diet after the Flood. To Noah and his wife, their three sons, and their wives, God said: “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Genesis 9:4).

God further required an accounting from any human or animal that took another human life: capital punishment.

5 “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

6 “Whoever sheds human blood,

by humans shall their blood be shed;

for in the image of God

has God made mankind.”

– Genesis 9:5-6

Two points come to mind from this passage, Genesis 9:4-6:

  • Respect for the lifeblood of an animal whose meat is eaten by humans.
  • Accountability for the shedding of human blood by another, whether by an animal or a human.

The lifeblood sustains the life of both man and beast, sending oxygen, nutrients, and antibodies throughout the organism. The blood of both humans and animals truly sustains the life of the organism. The Hebrew Torah gives further rationale for respecting the blood of animals, whether by animal sacrifices on the altar to God, or whether by consumption of meat for food.

11 “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.”

– Leviticus 17:11-12

Deuteronomy 12:24 further prescribes how to treat the shed blood of the animal consumed for food; its blood was to be poured onto the ground, leaving the meat free of its blood. The reason for this care becomes clear from the principle of sacrificial atonement. The innocent animal sheds its blood for the life of the person offering his gift at the altar. Indeed, vicarious atonement, a life for a life, provided the forgiveness in the Israelites’ covenant with God. The covenant emphasized that sin promoted death, and without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness. The priest sprinkled the holy articles and the altar with blood from the sacrifice. In Egypt during the plagues against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the Israelites sprinkled the doorpost and lintel of their homes with the blood of the Passover lamb, which prevented the angel from killing the firstborn of their household.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. – Hebrews 9:22

Non-Christians do not understand the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross. He is called the Lamb of God, because He is the atoning sacrifice for all the sins of humanity. Our only contribution is faith in His sacrifice as Son of Man and Son of God, the sinless One who took our sins upon Himself.

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. -Hebrews 7:27

Thus the sinless Son of God offered Himself for us, conquered death through His resurrection, and gave us eternal life through His atoning sacrifice of grace and our faith in Him.

Jacob Wrestles with God – Genesis 32

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Moses is credited by most scholars, and Jesus Himself, for the writing of the book of Genesis. The Israelites heard the reading of the Torah in the days of the wilderness wanderings. When Jacob wrestled God in Genesis 32, the hearers were surely able to remember that God wrestled Jacob by the Jabbok River, because the words sounded alike. In English the wordplay might be said as God Jabboked Jacob by the Jabbok.

Jacob had struggled against opposition for most of his life, first with his brother, Esau, and then with his father-in-law and uncle, Laban. Now as he came near Canaan at a tributary to the Jordan River, the Jabbok, about twenty miles north of the Dead Sea, he had an encounter with a “man” who was really God in human form. The wrestling match lasted the evening, and Jacob was successful, for God allowed it. The lengthy wrestling match emphasized the point that Jacob’s real struggle was with God Himself, for the Lord was the true source of Jacob’s destiny. In the struggle Jacob must have realized this, for he sought a blessing. “Let me go, for it is daybreak,” said the “man.”

Jacob answered, “I will not let you go until you give me a blessing.” Twenty years earlier he had stolen his brother’s blessing, and Esau threatened to kill him. Listening to his parents, Jacob fled about 500 miles to northwestern Mesopotamia, where his mother’s family lived. Now twenty years later, he wanted a legitimate blessing from the Source of all blessings. His audacity came in desperation as one who had struggled all his life, yet with dubious success, for his reputation as the Heel Grabber – the deceiver – followed him everywhere, even in his very name, Jacob, which meant He Grabs the Heel. The Lord touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched the joint, showing He had control at will. The encounter with God had huge implications for Jacob and for humanity.

We may ask, why did they wrestle? Did God have a motive for appearing in human form? Why did they not strike one another, or box? Athletes are aware of something profoundly intimate about a physical struggle, man to man. If they are not trying to kill each other – and sometimes if they are – there is a certain bond in the common struggle. For example, in boxing, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, and Mohammed Ali and George Foreman exhibited friendships born of such sports rivalries.

No, Jacob and God in human form – a Theophany – wrestled over an issue that did not involve life or death between the two. Their motives are not discussed in Scripture, but we can look at the circumstances at hand. This could well have been an answer to Jacob’s prayer, when he asked the Lord to protect him from Esau and continue to honor His promise of blessing in the face of apparent, imminent danger.

The danger began in this way. Possibly inspired by angels that appeared to him en route to the Jabbok River, at Mahanaim, Jacob felt the urge to make amends with his brother Esau after twenty years. He sent envoys to the land of Seir, to Edom, his brother Esau’s homeland, saying he was seeking his favor. The messengers told Esau that Jacob had an abundance of flocks and herds. But when the messengers returned, they told Jacob that Esau was coming out to meet him with four hundred men! Now Jacob feared for his life as never before; hence he prayed to the Lord in earnest for protection of his life and his wives and family.

He had sent his family, flocks, herds, possessions, and servants ahead of him across the river. Now alone, Jacob encountered the “man” whom he recognized as more than a man. God showed up. We do not know what they may have said at first, or how they began to wrestle. Simply wrestling without weapons and without blows would probably signify something other than trying to kill. No, Jacob, the heel grabber, did not want to let God slip away. God condescended to show himself in a physical presence.

Now Jacob had struggled with Esau and with Laban. Laban, his father-in-law, had worked him hard for twenty years and tricked him into marrying Leah first, instead of the beloved Rachel. Talk about poetic justice – the deceiver was deceived! Jacob’s struggle with God came at the aftermath of fleeing from Laban. He was fresh from a victory of sorts against Laban, as his wealth grew enormously in spite of Laban’s opposition. For certain Jacob was aware of God’s hand in his wealth and success. He had tried superstitiously rigging the mating of his flocks and herds to maximize their numbers; however, eventually he acknowledged that the Lord had made him successful (Genesis 32:12; 33:11).

God for certain had a point to make, too. Through God alone Jacob had overcome adversity so far, and it was for the reason as big as God’s plan for the redemption of humanity. God chose Jacob to pass on the offspring and the spiritual legacy leading to the nation, the people who would bring the Messiah into the world. It can be no small plot from the mind of God that He now appeared as a man to bring about the resolve in this focal man, Jacob, to carry on God’s mission.

They wrestled; they bonded as two men in competition do, until the sun was about to rise, when the “man” said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” It is now in this fear-induced match that Jacob spoke his mind. He could not let the Lord escape him. “I will not let you go until you bless me” meant more than a perfunctory “Bless you,” and farewell. He wanted yet again to see the working of his God in his life, even as all the signs pointed to death instead. Just as a desperate father pleaded with Jesus for a miracle, he could have been saying, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

God asked him, “What is your name?” It was not a question seeking the answer but to make a change to the One Who Grabs the Heel.

“Jacob,” he replied. Then the “man” made a proclamation. “You will no longer be Jacob but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Now Israel in Hebrew probably means He Struggles with God.

Next Jacob posed the same question to his rival. “What is your name?” The reply came from God as a question, “Why do you ask my name?” The answer needed no clarification; Jacob had been calling Him Yah-weh El-o-he already – The Lord my God. This was further clarified when an angel of the Lord later said His name was wonderful, beyond understanding (Judges 13:18). God now blessed Jacob and departed. We do not know the specific blessing, but can imagine the Lord repeated what He had said twenty years before, when Jacob had his dream of the angels ascending and descending on a staircase that led from earth to heaven. That former blessing said he would produce a multitude of offspring like the dust of the earth, through which all the peoples of the earth would be blessed; that Jacob and his descendants would possess the land of Canaan; and that God would watch over him so that he would return safely from his long journey (Genesis 28:13-15).

Jacob, “in great fear and distress,” apparently needed this reassurance as he prepared to meet his brother Esau for the first time since he had swindled him twenty years before. He named the place Peniel, or Face of God, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (Genesis 32:30). With the sun rising in the sky, Jacob continued his journey, now limping from his wounded hip, and rejoined his family and the entourage.