Change Your Direction
January 14, 2024Pastor Patrick presented today's message, "Change Your Direction." A video of the message is here. The name of this series is "What Everyone Wants to Know."
A common view of the Old Testament (OT) is that perfection is sought. And that only by way of perfection does anyone "go to heaven."
That's half right. The OT, particularly the Torah, lays out what the perfect path looks like and encourages people to go down that path. But clearly, perfection is not required. There's no character in the OT who was perfect. Yet, there are plenty who were clearly blessed by God and were ultimately "gathered to their kin" in an afterlife.
This morning, Patrick tapped into the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). He chose the very last part where Jesus discusses where wise men and where fools build their houses and points out that building a house is a metaphor for building your life.
It's quite clear, to me anyway, that the Sermon on the Mount has very deep roots in the OT. It's equally clear that Jesus' sermon doesn't just reflect much OT teaching, it incorporates it and extends it, clarifies it. Matthew 5:17, "do not think I [Jesus] have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." The Law and the Prophets are OT references.
The first thing that crossed my mind was to do a full-blown study cross-referencing elements of the Sermon on the Mount with OT references. Then it dawned on me that this kind of work has to have been done already...
Here's one such study: The Sermon on the Mount and the Old Testament by Chad Richard Bresson. It's long (32 pages) but worth it. There are some interesting insights that are certainly worthy of consideration. He carefully considers the meaning of words like "fulfilled" and "perfection" and "righteousness." To find plenty of other works on the subject, search on ["sermon on the mount" "old testament"].
I'm not sure why I don't remember hearing this... The Beatitudes (eight blessings offered early in this Sermon) are, in a way, an imperative to "Be these Attitudes"! It's not exactly accurate (beatitude comes from the Latin for happy or fortunate and is often translated as blessings), but it strikes me as cool way to put it.
God has always wanted His children on the path (to use Patrick's term) to perfection (fulfillment), and that path we find available now through Jesus.
Here's an outline of the Sermon on the Mount:
- The Beatitudes
- Salt and Light
- Christ Came to Fulfill the Law
- Anger
- Lust
- Divorce
- Oaths
- Retaliation
- Love your enemies
- Giving to the needy
- The Lord's Prayer
- Fasting
- Lay up treasures in heaven
- Do not be anxious
- Judging others
- Ask, and it will be given
- The golden rule
- A tree and its fruit
- I never knew you
- Build your house on rock (today's message)
- The authority of Jesus
Bonus
Prolepsis - Is the Narrative Out of Order?
For dictionary definitions of prolepsis, click here.
In very general terms, prolepsis is when the narrative seems out of order (e.g. things being described as already occurring that have not yet occurred). This can happen within a sentence or over the course of sentences or even paragraphs. This occurs with some regularity in scripture (particularly Torah), and leads from simple misunderstandings to much larger issues such as the source or source(s) of the text (e.g. multiple authors being interspersed).
The reason I bring this up is that I've gotten a little way into reading the commentary on the Book of Joshua I mentioned last week (here, very last paragraph). Woudstra mentions prolepsis over and over both in his text and in his footnotes. My immediate and short comment would be to read the Book of Joshua carefully knowing that this happens. (As I mentioned, it happens in other Biblical books as well, particularly the Torah, so a generalized caution would be in order, too.)
Prolepsis is but one of several reasons that have led to all the discussion of scripture authorship. Is there one writer, or are there several. One such discussion goes by the name JEPD Theory or the Documentary Hypothesis regarding the Torah. You can search on either of those two titles and find more than you'll want to pursue. As for me (mostly because of the orientations of the commentaries I tend to follow), I don't overly care how the whole came to be in this regard. As long as we continue to consider it as holy texts, I think we need to work on comprehending it as written, regardless of what may have happened to bring it together.
Bonus2
The Second Miraculous Parting of Water
You'll have to forgive me for these excursions beyond the Torah proper. I can blame this on getting deeper into the Book of Joshua commentary mentioned above...
I had no idea there was a second miraculous "Parting of the Sea." This time, it was a "parting" (more of a stopping the flow) of the Jordan River in order for the Israelites to cross over into the Promised Land. The story is in Joshua 3-4.
Key elements of the story are:
1. Establishing that Joshua understood that the tasks still ahead of the Israelites depended on God's action. God helped secure Joshua's leadership role by this miracle.
2. The continual importance of the Ark of the Covenant.
3. Here's another story that includes sending in spies.
4. The provision of manna ceases; the "wilderness journey" is over.
5. The Israelites prepared for this much like they prepared for the delivery of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.
6. The waters of the Jordan River stopped flowing as soon as the Priests set foot in the water with the Ark of the Covenant.
7. This happened at about the same time of year as the Passover.
8. A stone memorial was put in place at the site, built of 12 stones, each picked up from the river by a representative (assigned by Joshua) of each of the 12 tribes.
9. Like the parting of the Red Sea, this miracle demonstrated that God was with them. (Nearly all of the Exodus and Mt. Sinai observers were dead at this point.)
10. The crossing symbolized entering into a new life (much as the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, near Jericho, has become associated with new life).
Like a junior high earth science teacher in Northfield, MN often said, "WowWee! Think of that..."