The devil made you do it, but which one? There’s more to the red guy with the horns, including the fact that he’s actually seven guys with very particular specialties to boot. Or cloven hoof. The Seven Princes of Hell are a collection of fearsome foes spread across various religions
And cultures, but they find their origins in the writings of notorious witch hunter and German bishop Peter Binsfeld. Binsfeld tortured confessions out of supposed witches that turned into what he perceived as the chief villains behind witchcraft — these seven princes. Each one lorded over a specific sin and has
Made appearances across various religious texts, from the Bible to the book of Tobit. The demon princes have also found their way into literature. Works such as Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno feature the Princes in various forms. And demonology experts across the centuries
Have kept them nice and organized in encyclopedias like the 1818 Dictionnaire Infernal or Infernal Dictionary by Jacques Collin de Plancy. Descriptions differ from source to source, but a few core ideas remain the same. For instance, each Prince is his own entity, and each possesses significant power that’s been seen throughout history.
For example, Lucifer presided over pride and Satan presided over wrath. Beelzebub represented gluttony, Belphegor symbolized sloth, Leviathan was in charge of envy, Asmodeus encouraged lust, and finally, Mammon presided over greed. None of them are friendly by any means, but here are some untold truths about them.
The name “Lucifer” has many meanings and interpretations, including light-bearer, giver of light, morning star, and the super cool “lightbeard.” The story of his name comes from his creation by God himself. “Satan at that time was Lucifer, or “the daystar.” He was the brightest of the angels.”
Lucifer is often conflated with Satan, and also with Beelzebub, but they are three separate entities. And in Lucifer’s case, his name sets him up as one of the most interesting princes of hell, given the power he had before his failed rebellion. This
Failed rebellion gives another interpretation of what his name means: “he who shuns the light.” The Book of Revelations tells the story of a battle fought in heaven between Michael and his angels against the rebel future-demons and their angels. The leader of the rebels
Was Lucifer himself. Lucifer was fed up with the state of the universe. He saw himself as superior to humankind and couldn’t understand God’s love for them. So he convinced a third of the angels to side with him and rise up against the rule of God.
The war lasted for years. Lucifer turned himself into a dragon. Fellow demons Leviathan and Behemoth showed up to help, but in the end, Lucifer lost the fight and was cast out. This is where there are several versions of the story. It’s possible that Lucifer’s
Rebellion continued after his exile. Perhaps, knowing how much God loved his humans, it was Lucifer who corrupted Adam and Eve to stick it to God out of pride — his deadly sin — and envy. There’s a lot of overlap between historical accounts of witches and warlocks and the
Power of demons. Binsfeld himself was a notorious witch hunter who used confessions obtained through torture to build out his seven princes of hell. That being the case, it makes sense that outbreaks of witchcraft, if you will, are often attributed to the intervention of a demon or evil entity.
According to Puritan Cotton Mather in Of Beelzebub and His Plot, Beelzebub was behind the witchcraft in his backyard. Mather was a prominent figure in the notorious Salem witch trials. And it’s interesting that he chose to write about Beelzebub out of all the other princes of hell. It could
Be a conflation of the devil and his various monikers, but throughout history, specific demons are chosen for specific instances that back up Binsfeld’s demonic descriptions. For instance, in the Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures by Theresa Bane, Beelzebub is linked to
Divination and possession, traits that Mather and his contemporaries piled on the accused witches. On top of that, in Arabic, Beelzebub means “the patron god of witches.” Beelzebub is often conflated with Satan and Lucifer, along with the more generic “devil,” but Binsfeld identified unique characteristics in each. For instance, Beelzebub has a very specific
Connection to flies. Flies tend to show up at demonic events — they were out in force at the Amityville horror house, for example. Beelzebub is the demon most often hailed as the “Lord of the Flies.” So much so that he’s often depicted as a giant fly himself, though
There are variations on his appearance including horns, tails, goose feet, and other delights. However, it’s the connection to flies that separates Beelzebub from his contemporaries. According to the Infernal Dictionary, he has complete power over flies on earth
And uses them to ruin harvests. And he’s also the leader of the Order of the Flies, a specific entourage in hell made up of all Beelzebub’s lieutenants and underlings. And there’s a third reason he’s known as the Lord of Flies. Beelzebub, himself, was
Capable of flying. In fact, his title is sometimes translated as “Lord of Fliers” for that reason. In what has to be one of the strangest tidbits surrounding a Prince of Hell, the patron prince of sloth, Belphegor, has a curious preference when it comes to sacrifices. According to various demonic
Grimoires, Belphegor accepts human excrement as an offering. According to the Infernal Dictionary, “One renders homage to him on a toilet and […] offers him the ignoble residue of ones’ digestion.” Or, as the Encyclopedia of Demons puts it, “Belphegor accepts offerings of excrement.” Mm. Mm mm mm.”
What this has to do with his status as the nefarious figurehead of sloth is a bit befuddling, but it explains his frequent representation on a toilet himself. One such illustration appears in the Infernal Dictionary, but there are memes galore depicting the goat-horned deity in deep contemplation on the can.
While Belphegor was assigned to the sin of sloth, his abilities actually go much deeper. He was inventive enough to create devices to do his work, and even tricked humans into doing his work then claimed credit for himself. So, in a sense, sloth gave way to ingenuity. He’s slippery,
Too. Belphegor’s able to take whatever form is most beneficial for him in the moment. That meant that Belphegor could appear as anything from a young girl to a giant phallus — whatever was necessary to get the job done. When we trace Belphegor back to his origins as Baal-Peor,
He was both a sun god and a moon goddess to the Moabites who worshiped him. Again, whatever got people to do what he wanted. Call him a crowd pleaser. Leviathan is the figurehead of envy. While Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan, and the like are often conflated, Leviathan has always been a separate creature who was,
Quite literally, a monster. More specifically, a monster of the sea. In the Bible, Leviathan is the female counterpart to Behemoth, the male beast on land. If you want specifics, Leviathan is described in the Encyclopedia of Demons as: “a monstrous female sea creature three hundred miles long with
Eyes glowing as brightly as twin suns.” Although she isn’t named, Leviathan makes an appearance in Revelations 12:3, when a great red dragon with seven heads emerges from the sea. According to Howard Wallace’s article, “Leviathan and the Beast in Revelation,” this is the sea monstress fighting the war between
Good and evil, since Leviathan was known to have seven heads. Since Leviathan was a sea monster, it makes sense that the rulers of hell found a use for her monstrous size — as the gates of hell itself. Along with swallowing all those guilty of envy,
Leviathan’s gullet also served as the general entry point into eternal damnation. This concept arises through Anglo-Saxon art depicting the fires of hell spewing forth from a massive mouth. In the artistic renditions, and as a concept dating back to the middle ages, this maw is known as “hellmouth.”
The hellmouth motif can be seen in various works of Renaissance art, for instance “The Last Judgment” by Giacomo Rossignolo, as well as a slew of other examples. Asmodeus is the prince that presides over the sin of lust. There are many interpretations
And variations of this dark prince, but most agree that he looked terrifying. You may think the prince of lust would be sexier, or, if nothing else, human-like. But Asmodeus is a three-headed creature. The first head is a bull, the second is a ram or sheep, and the
Third is a fire-breathing man. Infernal Dictionary also adds that he has the foot of a goose and, because apparently all that isn’t enough already, he rides a dragon and carries a lance with a flag. Pick and choose which physical traits from which compendium, you’ve still
Got a monstrous visage that is understandably feared throughout his appearances in the Talmud. The Talmud offers one of the best stories about a prince of hell, and it occurs in the book of Tobit. As the story goes, King Solomon asked God for wisdom. Then he
Made a stupendously unwise decision. Solomon needed guidance about building the temple, so he took a rabbi’s advice and bound some demons to find the instructions given by God. There are multiple versions of this story. In one, the demon is helpful and friendly. In another,
The demon is used to build the temple. And in the third, he deposes Solomon and takes his place on the throne. In this version, Solomon unbound the demon as a sort of challenge, at which point Asmodeus literally punted Solomon across the world. This left the unwise ex-king
With the task of retaking his throne, which — spoiler alert — he does in the end. Still, for a while there, the temple was ruled by a prince of hell. It may not seem like a prince of hell thing to fall in love, but if ever one was going to,
Surely it would be the prince of lust, the three-headed Asmodeus. “My dream is of eternity with you.” According to the book of Tobit, Asmodeus fell in love with a woman named Sarah, but given that he was a horrid three-headed demon, he watched from afar, only coming
Close enough to kill her would-be husband every time she attempted to marry an actual human man. This happened seven times. Then Sarah met a man named Tobias and, ever optimistic, planned to marry for the eighth time. And this time, with the help of the Archangel Raphael,
Tobias defeated Asmodeus with a fish heart and a liver placed over burning coals. Apparently, Asmodeus couldn’t stand the smell and fled the scene in horror. While nothing explicitly says that Jesus had a specific rivalry with Mammon, it was the Christian Messiah who mentioned this particular prince by name in Matthew 6:24:
“You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” “You can’t serve God and Mammon both. Mammon being money.” The simplest interpretation is that Mammon is the figurehead of greed. There are countless references to Mammon in conjunction with capitalism,
Including links to the British empire and whether or not it was in service of Mammon. Of course, this would refer to the figurative Mammon, being the face of greed and empire, but the usage of the specific demonic entity can be seen in the Infernal Dictionary,
Which states how Mammon taught humanity to “wrest away” the treasures of the earth. Satan is by far the most common of the seven princes of Hell to be associated with the devil in general, but Binsfeld sorted him as the patron prince of the deadly sin of wrath. He was
Supposedly the primary opponent of Jesus in the battle for humanity, but Satan was so prevalent in the realm of man that his name became a common noun. In the Hebrew scripture, there was a difference between the Satan and a satan. The latter referred to a human
Adversary or obstacle, while the former was the actual prince of Hell himself. According to The Devil Made David Do It… or ‘Did’ He? by Ryan E. Stokes, early Hebrew writings didn’t necessarily subscribe to a belief in malevolent beings such as demons,
Let alone the seven princes. So when it came time to reprint the Bible, they used satan as a general term. The word often took on supernatural connotations, but the Bible doesn’t commit to Satan being a specific entity. Elaine Pagels digs even deeper in The Social History of Satan,
The “Intimate Enemy”: A Preliminary Sketch, highlighting how, at the time, Jews didn’t believe that a satan operated on his own volition, and that all of these supernatural beings were of Godly nature and therefore working according to his will.
I’m always glad when Christmas comes around, because I finally have the opportunity to sing one of my favorite hymns, and it’s only sung around Christmas. That hymn is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” It is not only my favorite Christmas Carol, but it is one of my very favorite hymns, and I’m not alone.
In 1872 the Church of England selected the four greatest hymns in the English language, and “Hark the Herald Angels” was one of those hymns. I wait all year to sing this hymn, and then I find myself singing it and humming it to myself all through the season.
It is a tribute to our Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one of the greatest treasures that the church has musically, and it is a treasure to the mind and soul of everyone who has memorized the incredible words to this hymn.
It was originally written in 1739 by Charles Wesley who wrote it as a Christmas day hymn. Fifteen years later, along came George Whitefield, the great preacher, great evangelist, and he felt that the words needed a little bit of editing, so he Calvinized it.
And fifteen years after the original work of Wesley, Whitefield brought its lyrics into the familiar form that we sing today. It needed a tune, and the years went by, and Wesley had always said it needs a kind of a somber, slow tune. But it never really caught on with that kind of tune.
And then about a hundred years after Whitefield in the mid 1800s there was a famous German Jew who was baptized a Christian, baptized into the Christian faith. This German Jew wrote a cantata in the honor of Johannes Gutenberg who invented the printing
Press, and in that Cantata there was an amazing tune, and that is the tune that since about 1850 has been associated with “Hard the Herald Angels Sing,” and that German Jew who converted to Christ was Felix Mendelssohn.
So when you get a song that has Wesley, Whitefield, and Mendelssohn, it’s going to be good; and it is good. It is the best. I know you know it, but I can’t go any further really without reminding you of the words: “Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!’ Joyful, all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies; with the angelic host proclaim, ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem!’ Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King!’ “Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord; late in time, behold
Him come, offspring of the virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King!’ “Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die; born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King!'”
And there are at least three other verses that are not in the hymnal. Great hymn. Just an incomparable hymn, and every verse ends with, “Glory to the newborn King!” Wesley and Whitefield instruct us concerning the person of Jesus Christ in this hymn.
He is the newborn King, but He is also identified as the Prince of Peace, the Son of Righteousness, the Everlasting Lord, the Incarnate Deity, and most of all Emmanuel, God with us. It’s an almost breath-taking Christology in this magnificent tribute. And, by the way, this is Christianity.
Christianity is that God, the Eternal Son, left heaven, came to earth as a baby born to a woman miraculously without a human father; born to save the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. That is Christianity, and that birth is how the New Testament begins.
So let’s go to the beginning in the book of Matthew and the very first chapter. Over the next four weeks we’re going to look at Matthew’s account of the birth of the King. Jesus asked the Jewish leaders about Messiah one day, recorded in Matthew 22. “He said, ‘Whose son is Messiah to be?’
And they replied immediately, ‘Son of David. Son of David.'” Royalty. They saw Him as a man born in the line of David. That is exactly what the Old Testament declared back in 2 Samuel, chapter 7. We are told that the greater son of David, the Messiah who will establish God’s kingdom
Will come through the royal line of David. Whoever is the Messiah, whoever is God’s anointed king must be a descendent of David. That is why Matthew begins the way he does, verse 1: “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David.”
And then you have a detailed genealogy coming all the way down to “Joseph” – in verse 16 – “the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.” The Messiah, verse 1, must be a son of David. Messiah is, in David’s line, the royal right, passing through Joseph.
Let me hasten to say this: Jesus was not related to Joseph by blood, but in Luke, chapter 1, there is a genealogy of Mary, and Mary also came from David’s line. Mary gave Jesus the royal blood, Joseph gave Him the royal right, because the royal right always came from the father.
But it’s more than just the son of David that Messiah must be. He must be the son of David. He must have the blood of the line of David coursing through His veins, and He did through Mary.
He must have the right to the throne, which He received through the fact that Joseph was His legal father in the earthly sense. But He had to be more than just the son of David, He had also to be the Son of God.
And that is the message that Matthew gives us, starting in verse 18. Not only was He in the line of David, but He is divine. Not just man, not just royal, but He is divine, He is the Son of God.
Verse 18: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall His name Immanuel,’
Which translated means, ‘God with us.’ And Joseph awake from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” Mary’s Son is God with us.
Mary’s Son is Immanuel. We are thus introduced to the incarnate God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, this account of His birth is a very critical identifying mark that sets Him apart from any and every human being who has ever been born.
He is the only one born of a virgin, conceived by God in the womb, the God-man: fully divine, fully human. But Matthew focuses particularly on His kingship, on the royal right that He has to the throne as God’s Anointed. That’s why he gives the royal genealogy at the very beginning.
And then he gives this remarkable birth that adds to His human royal line: divinity. Matthew presents to us all through his gospel Jesus as King. Let me just give you a little bit of a look at that. First of all, Matthew shows us the King revealed.
The person of Jesus Christ is always painted in royal colors. His ancestry, as we saw, is traced through a royal line. His birth is dreaded by a rival king. Wise men offer Him royal gifts. His herald, John the Baptist, declared that He is a king and that His kingdom is at hand.
His temptation reaches its climax when He is justly offered the kingdoms of this entire world. His great Sermon on the Mount is the manifesto of the King, setting forth the standards of His kingdom. His miracles are His royal credentials. His parables are called the mysteries of the kingdom.
He is hailed as son of David, but also as Son of God. He claims freedom from paying tribute to earthly kings, because He Himself is the Son of the Great King, and is Himself a King. He makes a royal entry into Jerusalem where He declares Himself to be the King.
And while facing the cross He predicts that He will rise again and He will establish His future reign. He proclaims sovereign power to command angels. Even His last words are a kingly claim and a royal command: “All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore.”
So Matthew presents Him as royalty, as God’s Anointed King, the revealed King. But Matthew also presents Him as the rejected King. The rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ is emphasized by Matthew all the way through. Before He was born His mother was in danger of being rejected by Joseph.
At His birth, Jesus faced the possibility of death. Jerusalem was troubled by His birth. Herod sought His life. In Matthew’s account, on the plains of Bethlehem, no angel choir sings. But in Matthew’s account, mothers weep as their baby sons are slaughtered in an attempt to kill the true King.
Even as a child He is hurried away into obscurity in Egypt for awhile, and then He’s hurried back up to Nazareth, and obscure town where He stays in obscurity until He’s 30 years of age. His forerunner and cousin John the Baptist is arrested, imprisoned, and beheaded.
During the time of His ministry He has no home of His own, nowhere to lay His head. He is a wanderer. His parables demonstrate the character of His kingdom age, and they are rejected by His people. In His death, He is forsaken by His people, He is forsaken by God.
In Matthew, there’s no penitent thief praying. There’s no word of human sympathy recorded by Matthew as He faces death. But Matthew does describe the reviling, the mocking, and the bribing of the soldiers to lie about His resurrection. No other gospel so chronicles the bitterness of the rejection of the King.
But, finally, Matthew’s focus is not only on the revealing of the King and the rejection of the King, but on the return of the King. No other gospel says as much about the second coming of Christ as does Matthew. It is a gospel of triumph.
The King is to be revealed, He is to be rejected, but He is to return and establish His promised kingdom and reign there forever and ever. Matthew begins at the very beginning with His birth. Just a note about the genealogy. In the genealogy you have many men listed.
But tucked into the genealogy are the names of four women in the first seventeen versus of Matthew 1. Interesting women. There is Tamar, guilty of prostitution and incest. There is Rahab, a prostitute and idolatress. There is Ruth from Moab whose whole line was cursed because it descended from incest.
And there is Bathsheba who was an adulterous woman, and whose husband was murdered out of that adultery. Those are the four women in the genealogy, which is a declaration by God that the King is a gracious King, and the King has come to identify with sinners.
The greatest credential for the King is not His genealogy, as wonderful as it is, it tells us in the royal line, it tells us He will be a gracious King. He will identify with sinners. But the greatest credential is His birth, and that’s what I read you in verses 18 to 25.
This identifies Him as having come from heaven. Now the facts are clear, you saw them there. Joseph and Mary were engaged, betrothed, not yet officially married, not yet having consummated that union. Joseph knew Mary was pregnant, and he knew that was not his child.
We are then told the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. And then Joseph is commanded to marry her and name the child, who is God with us, with the name Jesus. Those are the simple facts of this very understated massive divine work of the virgin conception
And birth of the Son of God. Now let’s look a little more deeply. First of all the virgin birth conceived – and we’ll look at verse 18. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to
Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” This is just such a simple explanation of a staggering, incomprehensible, divine miracle. The Bible does that a lot, simply states things that are beyond our comprehension. We don’t know anything about Mary really.
John 19:25 mentions her sister, who was also one who followed Jesus. That’s really all we know. We look at Luke 1 and we get her genealogy, so we know the name of the family behind her. We know she was related to Elizabeth, who was the wife of Zacharias the priest, and
They were the parents of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. We know she lived in Nazareth, which was a town in the north of Israel up in the Galilee area, a nondescript town of which it was said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” A blue collar down, insignificant religiously, insignificant historically.
That’s all we know about her in terms of biography, in terms of earthly background. We know nothing about her family, what they did. But we do know about her character, which is what is most important, because in Luke,
Chapter 1, in verse 38, Mary says in response to being told by Gabriel the archangel that she’s going to be the mother of the Most Holy Child, the Son of God. She says, “Behold, the slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”
This is a 13-year-old girl or so who sees herself as a slave of the Lord, a willing, loving slave of the Lord who wants only to do whatever the Lord asks her to do. She is a worshiper.
Over in verse 46, in response to this, she says, “My soul exalts the Lord, my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has had regard for the humble state of His slave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.” And she goes on to quote Old Testament passages in that beautiful Magnificat. She is theologically astute. She knows God, she knows the attributes of God, she knows the Old Testament.
All that she says is drawn right out of the Old Testament. She is a righteous young girl, a slave of the Lord who believes what the Lord says and wants only to do what He asks her to do. She’s a godly young girl.
Now she is, it says in verse 18, betrothed to Joseph. You have to understand Jewish marriage contracts were a little different than we have today. People get engaged and disengaged, then engaged, then disengaged, and we’ve all become pretty used to that happening.
In the Jewish plan of marriage, when you were engaged or betrothed, that was a binding legal covenant. You literally bound yourself for life to the one that you had desired to marry. You can find that back in Deuteronomy 20 in verse 7.
Betrothal was a legal contract demanding, defining two people as committed to one another for life. Betrothal was a trial period. There was no consummation during betrothal. That came after the actual marriage ceremony. There were usually several months during the betrothal period. What was that for?
Well, in some ways, the husband needed to make preparations for the wedding. That would be an extensive responsibility that he would have. But even more than that, it was a trial time to see if the person that you had committed to would be faithful to that covenant.
It was a time to prove your holiness, your virtue, and your righteousness. It was clearly before they came together that they had been betrothed. So they were set by covenant, by legal contract for a marriage. But this was the trial period to find out if the person would be faithful.
And, back to verse 18, before they came together, before they were actually married, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. The worst possible scenario was that a betrothed woman would become pregnant. That’s why you had the trial period to prove her integrity, her virtue. She was pregnant.
She was about three months pregnant, if you calculate what the New Testament says, at this time when Joseph gets the information. And by the way, she knew she was pregnant. How did she know? Luke 1:26, because the angel Gabriel came to her when they were back in Nazareth and
Said, “Behold, don’t be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God” – verse 30, 31 – “Behold, you will conceive in your womb, bear a son; you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign over the throne of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” He’s the King. “Mary said, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’
The angle answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” Nothing will be impossible with God. So she knew, she knew.
But apparently she knew before Joseph knew. Maybe she was just trying to figure out how to explain that since that had never happened. Now Joseph found out that she was pregnant. I can’t imagine the shock and devastation, because this is a virtuous girl that he knows
And loves and is committed to for life, and he finds out that she is pregnant. And according to Deuteronomy 22, verses 23 and 24, if a betrothed woman became pregnant, she was to be stoned to death. So a cloud of suspicion and shame and scandal is hanging over her head, because she doesn’t
Know how to explain this. There’s really no precedent for this, there’s no way to explain it. In all human history there’s never been a virgin birth. And now Joseph is in shock because he’s found out that she is pregnant, and he can’t understand it.
And so in verse 19, “Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.” Righteousness is a wonderful word, It embodies holiness, virtue, morality; but it also embodies compassion. Part of being righteous is being compassionate. This is a righteous man.
You might say, “Well, if he was a righteous man, he’d make a public display out of her. A righteous man would uphold righteousness, and a righteous man would make this public and say, ‘She has been unfaithful; I want to declare her unfaithfulness.
We’re going to bring her before the appropriate witnesses and we’re going to deal with thing publicly, because she needs to be a warning sign concerning this kind of sin.'” But there is inherently within true righteousness compassion and deep affection and love. He loves her, he cares for her.
He doesn’t understand what has happened, he has no explanation for it, but his heart is compassionate toward her. And so we saw the virgin birth conceived in verse 18, and now the virgin birth is confronted in verses 19 and 20. It’s confronted by Joseph. They’re betrothed.
He’s a righteous man, that is he desires to do what is pleasing to God. You could even say that he has been declared righteous by faith in God in the same way that Old Testament saints had. Certainly Mary was one of them.
He is a true Old Testament saint justified before God by faith. The justification of that man and even the transformation of that man’s heart is evidenced in his obedience to God, his desire to obey God, to marry a godly, virtuous woman. And to also demonstrate compassion.
Mary was precious to him, the girl of his hopes. But he had to do what was right. But he doesn’t want to disgrace her – back to verse 19 – wanting not to disgrace her. There’s no bitterness. There’s no anger. There’s no hostility.
There’s no desire to make a display out of her, just confusion and compassion. Two courses are really open to him at this point. The harshest would be to make a public example of her. And even though capital punishment as a punishment for sin had disappeared in the history of
Israel, there was still the threat of a public divorce, a bill of divorce, a public lawsuit against her; and she would be brought into some kind of court, and there would be witnesses coming into the court to testify against her that she was pregnant and that Joseph was not the father.
In ancient times she would have been stoned to death. But in more recent times, during the time of their life, divorce had taken the place of stoning. He could have had a public divorce and sort of exonerated himself, but he doesn’t want to do that.
“So he decided to” – it says at the end of verse 19 – “send her away secretly.” Send away is the word apoluō . It’s the New Testament word for divorce. But not publicly, not with witnesses testifying against her to justify his action, but a very quiet, very private divorce.
He wasn’t going to go through with the marriage to a woman who was unfaithful. He is devastated, he is crushed. It is all unthinkable to him, unimaginable. But he loves her, he cares for her, and so he decides that he is going to just do this very secretly.
However, verse 20 says, “When he had considered this,” – he was in the middle of considering it, meditating on it; apparently he falls asleep, mulling over in his mind what he’s going to do with this love of his life – “behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.”
I don’t understand the reality of that; I don’t know how to define that. It says a dream, and yet it says an angel of the Lord actually appeared to him in a dream. This is a supernatural experience, that’s all we can say, that’s all we need to know.
“An angle of the Lord appears to him in a dream and says, ‘Joseph, son of David,’ – again reiterating that he is in the royal line – ‘do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.'”
What an unbelievably shocking dream. You know, he probably felt like most men feel, “I’m really not good enough for her.” And then he might have thought for a moment, “Maybe she’s not good enough for me.” And now he hears from an angel that God Himself has planted a life in her womb, something
That has never happened to any woman. And now he goes back to saying, “If I thought I wasn’t worthy of her before, I’m sure not worthy of her now if out of all the world God has chosen her to be the mother of His incarnate Son.”
We think about people being engaged having a difficult time waiting until they’re married to display their affection. I think Joseph must have felt like he needed to stay away from her, because he was some kind of transcendent person beyond anything he could ever imagine himself to be worthy of.
He is told that the child in her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. He would know the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit coming on people for all kinds of reasons in the Old Testament, bringing God’s power and God’s presence into a life.
This is stunning, shocking. It’s the same message that Mary heard back in Luke 1: “The child will be produced by the Holy Spirit. This will be a Holy Child. This will be the Son of God.” So Joseph is now trying to figure out just exactly, “How do I fit into that?”
Little wonder then that when the angel said, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” Fear was the first reaction of Joseph. “Stop being afraid. You can take her as your wife. She is not so transcendent, she is not so holy, she is not elevated that she cannot be your wife.
What has been conceived in her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.” Verse 21: “She will bear a Son; and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” She will bear a Son. It doesn’t say, “She will bear you a son.” Never says that.
In Luke 1:13, the Lord said to Zacharias, “Elizabeth will bear you a son, because you are a participating father.” That is never said to Joseph. It’s just, “She will bear a Son.” This is Mary’s Son and this is God’s Son. This is not Joseph’s Son.
By the way, throughout the 2nd chapter of Matthew, Mary is identified as His mother and Joseph is never stated as His father, never. “Arise, take the young Child and His mother and flee into Egypt. Take your Child. Arise, take the young Child and His mother, go into the Land of Israel.”
This is not Joseph’s Son; this is God’s Son, this is Mary’s Son. In fact, in the 2nd chapter of Matthew, God says, “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Jesus was God’s Son and Mary’s Son, never Joseph’s Son.
The mystery of all of this is profound and confounding, and when it says down in verse 25 that he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son, I can fully understand that, that he wouldn’t want to do anything to touch her.
It was not legal to do that anyway, just because they hadn’t had the marriage ceremony. But I think it would have been hard to imagine himself even putting a hand on such a set apart and anointed life chosen by God for such singular calling. But Joseph, you do have a role to play.
Father gives the name, so verse 21, “You shall call His name Jesus Yeshua” – Old Testament Joshua – “for He will have His people from their sins.” Yeshua means Jehovah saves, Jehovah saves. That’s His name, Jesus, Jehovah saves, for He will save His people from their sins.”
There are a lot of names that are given to Jesus in the Old Testament, you’re familiar with them: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity – Isaiah 9, Servant of Jehovah, Yahweh – lots of names of Jesus. But here is a new name. His name is to be Yeshua, Jehovah saves. That’s remarkable.
Back in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, God claims some singular characteristics. He says, verse 11, “I, even I, am the Lord,” and yet in the New Testament Jesus is declared Lord. God says in the same verse, “There is no Savior besides Me,” and yet Jesus is to be named
Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. God is a Savior; Jesus is a Savior. In that same chapter, verse 13, God says, “Even from eternity I am He.” John 1:1 says that Jesus was in eternity with the Father. Verse 14 says, “The Lord is your Redeemer.”
In the New Testament, Jesus is the Redeemer. The Lord is the Holy One; in the New Testament, Jesus is the Holy Child. Things that God declares for Himself alone are also declared of Christ, which is to say that He is therefore God.
Chapter 42 of Isaiah, verse 8, “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.” That’s true. But He gives His glory to Christ, because glory to Christ is not giving glory to another. Christ is one with God. So He is the Savior.
He’s the only Savior; He’s the Savior of the world. There is no other Savior, it is God and God alone who saves His people, and He does it through the work of His Son Jesus. “There’s no salvation in any other” – Acts 4:12. Who is able to save? Who is mighty to save?
Only the virgin-born God-man, Son of David, Son of Mary. And then in verses 22 and 23 you have the virgin birth connected, connected. We saw it conceived and confronted, clarified in regard to the name as the message came to Joseph.
But here it’s connected, and it’s connected to an Old Testament prophecy: “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.'”
That is a direct quote from Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 7:14. Here Matthew shows us that the virgin birth was promised, was promised. And if you go back to Isaiah 7:14 that’s exactly what you read with the addition of just an
Opening statement: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and will call His name Immanuel. The Lord will give you a sign.” The word here “virgin” in verse 23 is parthenos in Greek, and it always means virgin and only means virgin.
It’s used about 12 or 13 times in the New Testament. It always and only means virgin. The text of Isaiah 700 years before uses the word almah , and some people say, “Well, almah can mean a young girl. A young girl doesn’t have to mean a virgin.”
Although it is used nine times in the Old Testament, eight of them, it has to mean a virgin. One time it may be just a reference to a young girl. But clearly the intent of almah in Isaiah 7:14 is to be used at virgin, because that’s
What the Holy Spirit inspires Matthew to write. The New Testament writer under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is interpreting the word almah in the Old Testament as parthenos in the New, which is virgin. And that’s the only thing that makes sense.
Critics like to say, “Well, no, Isaiah 7:14 should simply be stated, ‘A young woman will be with child and bear a son.'” There’s something missing in that. And what is it? The opening statement: “The Lord Himself will show you a sign.”
If I say to you, “A young woman is going to become pregnant and have a son,” what sign in that? That’s not a sign of anything, that happens every day. That’s not a sign of anything. But a virgin becoming pregnant and bearing a son, that’s a sign. That’s the sign of Isaiah 7:14.
“Look for a miracle. Look for a virgin becoming pregnant and bearing a son.” Even from the scientific standpoint, critics love to tamper with this, and some have suggested that Mary had a sort of spontaneous generation, a kind of parthenogenesis on her own and produced
Jesus on her own without God intervening, that there is a scientific natural explanation to this. And if you read any science, any of that – I’m reading a big long book on the history of genes; and in studying that, it’s fascinating to say that you can go back into history in
The nineteenth century, and even back before that, and people were trying to reproduce life. There were all kinds of very fine insects, and there were sea urchins, and they were trying to see if they could generate without the normal male-female coming together.
And there had been some indications in history where this could happen, and then there was Pincus and his rabbits, and there’s some machinations done with animals like that. But the problem is this: even in those cases where you have that, you have a problem.
Mary, if she spontaneously generated Jesus, could only have a daughter, because there’s no Y chromosome. Y chromosome comes from the man. That’s what’s so important about, “She will bear a son, she will bear a son.” And this son will be the one prophesized in Isaiah 7:14, “And the sign will be that she
Will be a virgin bearing a son, and you shall call His name Immanuel, which translates into God with us. She will have the Son of God.” You know, the rabbis kind of hovered around this notion that Messiah would have a unique birth. They said Messiah may not have an earthly father.
Some rabbis said Messiah will be born without defect. One rabbi said Messiah’s birth will not be like the birth of other men. One other rabbi, one other rabbi said that Messiah’s birth will be like the dew of the Lord as drops on the grass without the action of man.
The book of Enoch 150 years before Christ says, “Of the Messiah, He appears by the side of the Ancient of Days.” In other words, they even seem to acknowledge Messiah’s pre-incarnate existence. But they really didn’t understand it and they rejected, they rejected Him. “He came to His own, His own received Him not.”
But the prophecy was fulfilled. The coming of the King, the virgin-born Son of God, son of David, fulfills the sign prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Galatians 4:4, Paul puts it this way: “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son,
Born of a woman,” – born of a woman, but the Son of God. A final word, the virgin birth completed in the last two verses: “Joseph awoke from his sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, took Mary as his wife.” They had the wedding ceremony.
Kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” He got the message, believed it, and named her Son, Yeshua, Jehovah saves, because He came to save His people from their sins.
He kept her a virgin, by the way, until she gave birth to a Son, which means that He didn’t keep her a virgin after that, and that’s clear in the New Testament, because Jesus had brothers and sisters born to Joseph and Mary, and they’re named and referred to.
She was not a perpetual virgin, and she was not immaculately conceived without sin. Those are fantasies of the Roman Catholic system. She had many other children, but not until after Jesus was born did Joseph come near her. So that’s the story. That’s the story from Matthew.
Paul looks at that same story in these words: “He, the Lord Jesus Christ, existed in the form of God. Did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man.
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him, bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, those in heaven and earth, under the
Earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” The supernatural birth of Jesus is the only way you can account for His life. An unbeliever once said to a Christian, “If I told you that a child had been born without
A father, would you believe it?” The Christian answered, “Yes, if he lived as Jesus lived.” The King is revealed. His birth proves who He is. In Christ, God came to dwell with us – with the sick, to heal them; with the demonized,
To liberate them; with the poor in spirit, to bless them; with the meek, to lift them up to His kingdom; with the fearful and guilty, to free them from care and dread; with the lepers, to cleanse them; with the diseased, to cure them; with the hungry, to feed them;
But most of all, with the lost, to seek and save them. Through His poverty we are made rich. The King is born. Next week, we’re going to see who and why the wise men were. Father, thank You again this morning for an incredibly wonderful, rich time in fellowship and beautiful music and worship.
Fill our hearts with joy and thanksgiving through this season as we contemplate the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ who came to save His people from their sins. We are His people by grace, through faith, and we rejoice. May that joy be unbounded and demonstrate itself in our faithfulness to You, we pray
ARGUMENT VASKRSENJA ISUSA HRISTA Isusovo vaskrsenje jeste suštinska osnova hrišćanstva. Naša vera na ovome ili opstaje ili propada. Apostol Pavle postavio je ovu osnovu veoma rano, u svom prvom pismu Korinćanima. “Ako Hristos nije vaskrsnut iz mrtvih, onda je naše propovedanje uzaludno, i vaša vera je uzaludna. Tada smo čak i lažni svedoci Boga,
Jer smo svedočili o Bogu da je vaskrsnuo Hristosa, koga nije vaskrsnuo, ako je tačno da mrtvi nisu vaskrsnuti. Jer ako mrtvi nisu vaskrsnuti, onda ni Hristos nije vaskrsnut. A ako Hristos nije vaskrsnut, uzalud vam vera vaša, još uvek ste u gresima svojim. A i oni koji su zaspali u Hristu, nestali su.
Ako samo u ovom životu imamo veru u Hrista, onda nas treba sažaljevati više od bilo koga. Dakle, ako Hristos nije vaskrsnut onda nema ni hrišćanstva, i sve što radimo je uzaludno. Međutim, sa tako velikim ulogom ipak imamo sreće jer je vaskrsenje čudo koje ima više istorijskih dokaza od bilo koje tvrdnje o čudu.
Entoni Flu postao je deista pri kraju svog života ali dok je još uvek bio ateista, priznao je sledeće “Dokaz za vaskrsenje bolji je od čudotvornih tvrdnji iz bilo koje druge religije. Izuzetno se razlikuje i po kvalitetu i po količini…” Pre nego što pređemo na dokaze, moramo postaviti određene temelje.
Mnogi skeptici tvrde da, osim ako nemamo apsolutni dokaz, onda se vaskrsenje nije desilo i ne možemo reći da se desilo. Kao i obično, to nije tačno. Običan skepticizam i postavljanje izuzetno visokog praga neće predstavljati problem u istorijskoj odbrani vaskrsenja. Ako svi dokazi ukazuju na vaskrsenje, a neko ne misli da je to dovoljno,
Samo zato što su proizvoljno postavili prag tako da se ne može dostići, to neće opovrgnuti čitav slučaj, niti će ponuditi bolje objašnjenje za iznete dokaze niti će pokazati da dokazi nemaju zaključak da se vaskrsenje najverovatnije desilo. Možemo da nastavljamo da branimo slučaj vaskrsenja, bez da se brinemo za nekoga sa ovakvom dozom skepticizma.
To zapravo ne predstavlja problem za sam slučaj niti nudi bolje objašnjenje za dokaze. Pa, kako onda branimo slučaj i koji je cilj argumenta vaskrsenja? Cilj ne može biti pokazivanje da je vaskrsenje tačno na način kao što neko može da pokaže da se nešto dogodilo time što će ponoviti eksperiment.
Vaskrsenje je događaj koji se dogodio u prošlosti i ne može se ponoviti. Zato se zaključak može postići na način na koji se pokazuje istorijska činjenica ili na način kojim se zaključuje forenzičko istraživanje. Kao što Avizer Taker kaže, “Istoriografija ne rekonstruiše događaje. Ona ne može oživeti Cezara niti ponoviti bitku kod Akcijuma.
Istoriografija pokušava da pruži hipotetički opis i analizu nekih prošlih događaja kao najbolje objašnjenje prisutnih dokaza. Osoba procenjuje dokaze a zatim zaključuje prema teoriji koja najbolje objašnjava podatke. Ovo može da potvrdi vaskrsenje onako kako bi se pokazalo da se neki drugi istorijski događaj dogodio.
Tu predlažemo više teorija a zatim gledamo koja se najbolje uklapa u podatke. Ako teorija ne podržava podatke, ona se odbacuje kao nedovoljna i kao manje verovatna u odnosu na druge teorije koje bolje opisuju prisutne podatke. Takođe želim da kažem da jedini fer način pristupa prema vaskrsenju jeste pristup metodičke neutralnosti,
Gde onaj koji tvrdi nešto ima odgovornost da to i dokaže. Ako ja kažem da je Isus vaskrsao iz mrtvih, onda moram i da pokažem da ta teorija najbolje opisuje podatke, dok druge teorije to ne mogu. Međutim, ovo je mač sa dve oštrice. Jer ako ja prikažem slučaj, ateista ili musliman
Ne mogu samo da kažu da nisam u pravu i da Isus nije vaskrsao. On ili ona moraju da pruže kontraargumente sa boljim objašnjenjem onoga što oni misle da se dogodilo i moraju da pokažu zašto objašnjenje vaskrsenja nije u stanju da objasni podatke.
D. H. Fišer ističe da je “teret dokazivanja uvek na onome koji donosi tvrdnju, ali takođe i na onome koji opovrgava ili daje suprotstavljajuću tvrdnju.” Naravno, čovek može i da bude suzdržan i da ostane agnostik po ovom pitanju. Ali, to lično ubeđenje ne stvara objektivni argument protiv onoga koji iznosi istorijsku tvrdnju
Niti izaziva ili pobija predstavljen argument. Ako to žele da urade, onda moraju da predlože suprotstavljajuću teoriju i podrže je dokazima i verodostojnošću. Na kraju, za sam argument za vaskrsenje pomaže nam da prvo adresiramo ove tri stvari. One nisu nužno potrebne za slučaj vaskrsenja ali pomažu u celokupnom cilju.
Prvo, mogu se pružiti dokazi o postojanju Boga u vidu formalnih argumenata. Pre nego što pružimo dokaze za vaskrsenje i ustanovimo da je hrišćanstvo tačno, pomaže ukoliko prvo imamo dokaze za opštog teističkog tvorca. Kombinujući argumente iz prirodne teologije sa argumentom vaskrsenja dobijamo bolji, akumulisaniji slučaj za hrišćanski teizam.
Pošto smo ovo već uradili, naš slučaj bi ojačalo to ako već postoje dokazi da Bog postoji i da je u stanju da prouzrokuje takav događaj. Drugo, korisno je stvoriti slučaj i za pouzdanost Novog zaveta. Kad budemo prolazili kroz dokaze, nećemo da pretpostavljamo
Da je Novi zavet inspirisan ili da je precizan u svakom detalju, ili čak i u većini detalja. Samo ćemo se držati činjenica koje podržavaju naučnici i dokazi. Ali, barem bi trebalo da stvorimo slučaj da dokumenti nisu u potpunosti nepouzdani i da imaju dobar istorijski slučaj.
A pošto smo i ovo uradili, to će pomoći našem celokupnom argumentu. Treće, moramo da pokažemo da čuda nisu logični nemogući događaji, a ovo smo takođe uradili. Sada, kada smo dali dokaze za teistički pogled na svet, pokazali da je Novi zavet pouzdan i ustanovili da su čuda barem logički moguća,
Možemo nastaviti sa argumentom za vaskrsenje, uz ovo kao našu osnovu. Zatim ćemo ispratiti sa dodatnim dokazima, prikazaćemo sukobljene teorije i pobićemo prigovore koji postoje. INSPIRING PHILOSOPHY Preveo: Filip Eskić
The devil the bane of human existence. The personification of evil, appearing in some from in almost every human religion and thought. The problem of evil is a touchstone of any religion. From our direct confrontation with evil results suffering, and thus endless questions about the meaning of life.
That is why all religions have to give a proper answer regarding the origin, nature and end of evil. The general pattern in Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism is to consider evil as the effect of spiritual ignorance. But in many ancient religions, pantheistic religions and Judaeo-Christian religions evil has a face.
Anthropologists say that the story of religion starts with animism – the concept that all people, animals, plants, water, air, the world and the heaviness are all spiritual beings. Anthropologists state that this was a means for man to interpret and understand the meaning of life and the world around them.
These Ancients also often believed in evil spirts, often people who could not find rest in the afterlife spirit and that disturbing the natural order of things brought pain and was the cause of evil and pain in the world.
This system of belief still exists in some parts of the world, notably Africa, and it led naturally to the pantheism found in ancient societies like Greece and Rome. And it also led naturally to the eastern spiritualist religions as well. In eastern religions the concepts of animism lead naturally to the concept that physical
Matter was bad and the spiritual was good. In these religions pain is caused by attachment to the harsh physical world and to truly gain power and perfection is to escape physical existence. Meanwhile this animistic thought lead to the concept that beings were the cause for all the pain and destruction in the world.
In many ancient religions such as the religions of the Aztecs, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans evil was explained through the imperfections of the gods and by gods of chaos and destruction who manifested evil. In many of these ancient religions good and evil were at war with each other and this
Led to dualistic religions such as Zoroastrianism where good (Ahura Mazda) and Evil (Angra Mainyu) oppose each other. Angra Mainyu – meaning evil spirit attempts to undermine god’s creation by creating death and tempting mankind to sin. Anthropologists often state that these religions owe Zoroastrianism for the concepts of heaven
And hell and Satan, but naturally Christians, Jews and Muslims would not accept this view. This brings us to the Judeo- Christian religions Jews, Chrisitans and Muslims explain evil entering the world through the creation account but all of them view the devil very differently.
Devil comes from the Greek word diabolos, “slanderer,” or “accuser” which is a translation of the Hebrew word Satan. Judism has an unclear view of the devil and view in judism vary from just being a metaphor to being an opposer to God.
Some Jews even think of satan as being an agent of Gods or even someone who acts as a courtroom prosecutor. The word satan appears numerous times in the Hebrew bible, but often it is unclear whether it is an evil spirit or an agent of god.
Forinstance in 2 Samuel 24:1 god tells David to have a census and 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that god did it. In the book of Job Satan speaks to god concerning Job and seems to be acting as ‘devils advocate’ no pun intended.
But it is clear that satan is an evil force in other passages like 1 king 22 and in the book of samual in the from of a evil spirt harassing saul. In Christianity satan is more clearly a fallen angel and an opposer to God.
The new testament interprets passages of the old and identifies the snake in the garden as being the devil. Romans (16:20) and revelation (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). Satan acts as an antagonist to Jesus, attempting to tempt him in the wilderness and unlimitly leading to Jesus death by insiting Judis to betray him.
But in this instance satan is acting according to Gods plan possibly without knowing it. The Devil in the end times will attempt one last rebellion but will usimitly fail. The devil is sometimes called Lucifer, particularly when describing him as an angel before his
Fall, although the reference in Isaiah 14:12 to Lucifer, or the Son of the Morning, is a reference to a Babylonian king. The new testament allows for this though, as it often adds second meanings to passages outside of their original context forinstace Psalm 22 which is originally about king David,
Is interpreted to be about Jesus in the new testament. In Islam the devil is often known as Iblis. Iblis also likely comes from the same root as the word devil, but Muslim scholars often link it to an Arabic word meaning ‘without hope’.
Iblis is mentioned in the Quranic narrative about the creation of humanity. When God created Adam, he ordered the angels to prostrate themselves before him. All did, but Iblis refused and claimed to be superior to Adam out of pride.[Quran 7:12] Therefore, pride but also envy became a sign of “unbelief” in Islam.
Thereafter Iblis was condemned to hell, but God granted him a request to lead humanity astray, knowing the righteous will resist Iblis’ attempts to misguide them. To summrise devils appear in many religions in the from of evil spirits or evil in general Some religions use the devil as a metaphor for evil
Some religions believe evil is caused by the physical world and our attachment to it Judaism has varied ideas about the devil, but usually identify him as an evil spirit or a metaphor Christianity and Islam both believe that Satan is a fallen angel or angelic creature who was guilty of pride.
In Christianity the angel wanted to be as great as God In Islam the angelic Jinn wanted to be greater than man What are your thinking on the topic of satan?
This is the story of how Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world was born the story begins in a place called Nazareth Nazareth was a quiet sleepy little town where most people were farmers and shepherds in this town there lived a young Jewish woman named Mary
She was a very obedient and God fearing woman she helped her parents in the field and did her chores in the house she was kind and helpful to everyone and people liked her very much Mary was going to get married soon to a good and honest man named Joseph
A few days before Mary’s engagement she had a visitor he was a very special guest an angel sent by God from heaven the holy angel Gabriel visited her in her room and called her in her sleep when Mary opened her eyes
She saw a heavenly figure bathed in a pool of white light floating beyond her window it wore bright white robes and had big silver wings fluttering behind him at first she thought she was dreaming but later when she heard the angels voice she realised this was no dream Mary do not be afraid
I am Gabriel God has sent me to you he loves you and you have been chosen for something very special your kind heart and pure soul is of great value to the Lord you are fortunate that God has chosen you above everyone else for this special task I’m not afraid
I’m honour to know that God has chosen me to carry out his wish I am lucky to be a favour to God bless you Mary God is pleased with you I have come to tell you that soon you will have a son
He will be a great King one day and he will be loved by everyone he will be called the son of God Mary was at first shocked at what Gabriel had to say however she remained calm and listened to everything that the angel had to say then she spoke to Gabriel
But how was this possible I’m not yet married do not be afraid Mary the Spirit of the Lord will take over you and you will be blessed with a son he will be called the Son of God he will do great things for the people
He will be hailed as the king of Jews and the Savior of mankind I’m grateful for whatever the Lord has done for me I’m happy to have as a wish come true through me the Lord is with you Mary you are blessed go in peace
Gabriel then left the house of Mary and returned to heaven in a few days Mary became pregnant in those days it was very unusual for a girl to become pregnant before marriage however Mary explained everything to Joseph about the angel and God’s wish and the son they were going to have
Joseph was a good man and he accepted everything he married Mary in a few days in those days the king of the land announced a census he wanted every citizen of his country to be counted and documented since Joseph was actually from Bethlehem he had to go there to be counted
Bethlehem was a long way from Nazareth Joseph and Mary had a long and difficult journey ahead to Bethlehem there were no cars or other means of transportation except for a donkey the whole journey had to be made by foot Mary sat on a donkey and Joseph walked behind them
It was even more difficult for Mary since she was going to give birth to her baby after many many days of walking through the desert Joseph and Mary finally reached Bethlehem it was getting very dark when they reached the town they desperately needed a place to rest and spend the night
But all the inns were full and nobody would give them space to spend the night Joseph walked all over the town knocking at the doors of houses and shops one after the other but nobody would allow them to come in Mary was about to give birth and it was important
That she had a safe and comfortable place for the baby and herself Joseph and Mary kept feeling hopeless after searching for a while Joseph found an empty barn built for cows there was plenty of fresh straw there Joseph used the straw and managed to make a bed for Mary
Later in the night something magical happened Mary gave birth to a beautiful baby boy Joseph made a small bed of fresh straw in the manger and laid him there it was warm and comfortable and the baby slept happily in the manger Mary was happy that the predictions of the Angels had come true
Jesus Christ the Savior of this world was born in a humble manger that same night while Joseph and Mary were looking for a place to stay the night not very far away two shepherds were out looking for their sheep on a hill
suddenly they were blinded by a bright light from the sky they opened their eyes to find a beautiful angel in front of them with long golden hair and silver wings she wore a shimmering white and gold dress which sparkled in the moonlight
The Shepherd’s did not know how to react and were amazed then the angel spoke to them do not be afraid I have come to give you good news tonight in the town of Bethlehem a baby boy has been born his name is Jesus
He will be known as a Savior of the world you will know it is Jesus when you see a baby boy wrapped in the clothes in the manger go to the world’s and just everybody know of this happy news let everybody know that Jesus the Savior of the Jews was born today
Go in peace now and spread the good news the shepherds were happy and shocked at the same time they were overjoyed at the fact that a Savior was born and they ran towards Bethlehem to find baby Jesus
The king of the Jews who had been born in a humble manger when they eventually found the baby in the manger in Bethlehem they praised him and bowed down in worship on the night that Jesus was born three wise men were travelling on their camels across the desert
Suddenly their felt a flash of light come down on them they looked up at the sky and they saw a bright star it was a kind of star that they had never seen before the three wise men were aware of the prophecy of Jesus
They were waiting for the Star of Bethlehem to appear and when they saw it they were overjoyed it meant that the Savior of the world and the king of the Jews was born at the time of Jesus birth the country was under the rule of King Herod
Who was a very selfish and evil king when the three wise men informed King Herod of the star they had seen in the sky in what it meant King Herod was worried that he would lose his kingdom to this baby boy
He told the Wise man to find the baby Jesus and let him know where the baby was although the king informed the wise men that he wanted to find the baby so he could go and worship Him Herod was actually plotting to kill the child
He feared that Jesus would grow up to overpower him someday the three wise men followed the star for several days and found baby Jesus in the manger they were surprised to find the future king of Jews lying in a barn
They found the barn in which Jesus was born a few days after he was born finally the star stopped right over the manger they smiled at Mary and bowed down in reverence to the new baby they had brought gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh for the baby
These were very valuable gifts and only given to Kings it was highly unusual for anybody to give these precious things to a newborn baby however this was no ordinary baby and the wise men fully understood the purpose of Jesus’s birth and so now you know the story of Christmas
And how the mighty Savior of the world started his journey on earth the story shows us that great things can have small and humble beginnings
If you read your whole Old Testament, you never see a demon being cast out of anyone. Ever. How in the world when Jesus shows up and he starts doing that? Did people automatically in their heads think: “Well, this is what the Messiah is supposed to do! This is a sign of Messiahship.”
Where does that come from? Psalm 91. Which, you know, in recent days, you’ve heard this quoted a lot: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty… he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge… You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness.” In the corona environment, this passage gets quoted a lot.
And unfortunately, in some cases deeply out of context to suggest that well, you know, Christians can do whatever they want here because God will protect us and we won’t get sick and. Okay, that is not what the passage is about. The passage is much cooler than that. It’s more sinister too.
Psalm 91 is a psalm that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls in a jar with four other Psalms that are not in the Hebrew Bible. There are extra Psalms among the dead sea scrolls, we have 150 in the Hebrew Bible,
But this one that is in the Hebrew Bible, obviously, was put in this jar with four other ones. All four of those other ones are exorcism Psalm. So well, why would they lump Psalm 91 in there? That doesn’t look like an exorcism to me,
I’m, you read the whole thing and there’s no like casting devils out or anything like that. Well, if you read it in Hebrew, and you were a literate Israelite, you would know that words like pestilence (Deber). Okay, there’s pestilence there. Deber down here, Qeteb (destruction), “the arrow that flies by day.” Okay, right here.
This whole motif of the arrow flying by day and the tear of the night. Right here; Pahad. These are names and titles and epithets of Canaanite deities, all of them. To an Israelite, a Canaanite deity was a demonic, a sinister and evil spirit, you know, a power of darkness. That’s why Psalm 91 was lumped into that
Because this is a prayer of protection and thwarting of powers of darkness in ancient Jewish thought. What else is interesting is this psalm in the Hebrew Bible, you notice there’s no superscription. There’s a psalm of whoever. In the Septuagint, it’s a psalm of David. Okay, also in the Septuagint, there are certain different wordings,
The Septuagint would have been based on a Hebrew text. Is a translation of Hebrew, that don’t always align with a traditional Hebrew text. But in the Septuagint, where it’s a psalm of David, there are a couple of psalms that use specific words for the Psalms, and the hymns and the,
I want to use the word spell, because that’s what it means, or can mean, of David and Solomon. Okay, that in the poetry, the literature, they produced, some of that stuff uses vocabulary that you will find in exorcistic material in the Second Temple period. And so this answers an important question.
And here’s the question. And maybe you’ve wondered this. If you read your whole Old Testament, you never see a demon being cast out of anyone. Ever. There’s actually only two references in English Bibles to demons; Shedim is usually translated demon, which isn’t the greatest translation,
But we’ll run with it for the sake of the illustration, Deuteronomy 32. And then there’s a Psalm. Okay, but you never see a demon or a hostile evil spirit cast out of anyone. How in the world, when Jesus shows up, and he starts doing that, did people
Automatically in their heads think: “well, this is what the Messiah is supposed to do! This is a sign of Messiahship.” Where does that come from? It comes from what I just described. It comes from certain Psalms being associated with David, and a few with Solomon. In the Second Temple Period
There was the belief that David and Solomon had power over evil spirits. And so if the Messiah is a descendant, he is The David, The Son of David, he should be able to do that too. So this is something that we wouldn’t get because we’re not living in the culture.
And we’re not familiar with how Psalm 91 in particular was viewed. But when Jesus shows up and starts doing this, the bells and whistles are going off in people’s heads. This is an important thing he does to convince them that he’s the Messiah. And Isn’t it odd that Satan would choose Psalm 91
To quote to Jesus, in a temptation, and he quotes the part, down here, “he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” So what’s really going on here is Satan is fishing for information.
He’s got Jesus in front of him, he knows who he is, he knows why he’s there. His silly Kingdom of God stuff, okay. But he doesn’t know what the plan is. So he’s there to tempt Jesus. Try to shortcut the thing. And you know, the last one is the worst because it’s idolatry.
It’s just kind of a terrible attempt. But this one’s interesting because let’s say that Jesus looks at Satan and says, “Yeah, that’s a good quotation. Yep. Yep, you know, that’s a, that’s an exorcistic psalm. And I’m the son of David, and I’m supposed to be able to cast out demons.
And if that’s true, then the rest of the stuff in the song must be true too. So go ahead, it’ll take me up to the top here, I’m going to throw myself off.” What happens? Okay, let’s say the angels catch him. What is Satan learned? He can’t kill him,
So we’ll take killing the Messiah off the strategy plan. But Jesus knows, that’s exactly what needs to happen. “So I’m not going to demonstrate anything for you. You’re not going to learn anything in this conversation.” He just tells him that you hit the road, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
And that could be a reference to himself. But it could also be another way of saying; “You shall not try to convince me to let God show you the hand that he’s going to play.” He has to die. He must die. Again, it’s an interesting tit for tat conversation
between these two. And again, my take on it is that Satan actually was fishing for information. It’s not a worthless conversation. And the fact that he quotes Psalm 91 I find really interesting because of its nature. You know, the servant (Israel) out in the wilderness. I mean, let’s think of Jesus
Now as the representative of the corporate nation. Did Israel in the Old Testament pass the test of being God’s servant? Well, yes, and no. You know, they get to the promised land? Sure, after they fail, and then they wander around for 40 years. So there’s that checkered past. They don’t really complete the conquest.
They ask for a king to replace God as the one who fights for them. And then three kings later they go off and start worshipping other gods and end up in exile. So probably no, they really don’t pass the test of being God’s representative son and his servant, but Jesus does.
He passes the test. And now it’s Game on. His ministry begins.
Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Lilith, the queen of hell, mother of demons, angel of prosti.tution, killer of pregnant women and infants, Adam’s first wife, and seducer of men. We’re going to start off
By looking at a couple of allusions to her in the Old Testament. Following that, we’re going to look at early influences that originated in Mesopotamia, and finally, we’re going to look at the tide of information presented in various works published throughout the Middle Ages. Let’s get into it.
Lilith barely features in scripture: she’s absent from the Quran and doesn’t appear in the New Testament; it’s only in the Old Testament that she’s included, and even then, her inclusion depends either on the translation or on the interpretation.
In the Book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Old Testament that describes the Cosmogony (the creation of the universe) and the anthropogony (the origination of humanity), the creation of women is described twice, each with different wording,
Which has led to some interesting theories and stories that endeavor to reconcile the two. The first instance reads as follows: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
One interpretation of this passage is that God created the first man and the first woman simultaneously, which, by this reckoning, places it at odds with the second instance in which the creation of the first woman is described. Here’s the passage that describes the second instance:
“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man,
Made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.” To reconcile the two accounts, one version, such as the one given in the Alphabet of Ben Sira,
Which we’ll expand on later, explains that the woman created at the same time as Adam in the first passage is a different person than Eve, the woman created from Adam’s rib in the second passage. Moreover, this version holds that the woman created in the first passage
Is actually Lilith, making her Adam’s first wife. Again, we’ll cover this part of lilith’s story in greater detail later in the video. The other mention of Lilith in the Old Testament is given in the Book of Isaiah, though her inclusion by name depends on the language and the translation.
In the JPS parallel Hebrew and English version of the Tanakh, Isaiah 34:14 reads as follows: “And the Wild-cats shall meet with the jackals, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; yea, the night-monster shall repose there, and shall find her place of rest.”
Night monster is indistinct and ambiguous, but many other translations, either of the Tanakh or of the Old Testament, have seen various monsters and animals substituted in, including: Lilith, night specter, night creature, night hag, Lamia (a female monster of Greek origin that
Preys on children), night bird, and screech owl. This last is especially interesting because it parallels a detail of the Queen of the Night plaque, which is nearly 4,000 years old, made in ancient Babylon sometime between 1800 – 1750 BCE. It depicts a winged woman
With talons for feet standing on two lions flanked by a perched owl on either side. Who this figure is isn’t known for certain, but the list of possibilities has been whittled down to just a few candidates: Ishtar, goddess of war and sexual love,
Ereshkigal, ruler of the underworld, or the demon Lilitu, who became later known as Lilith. And this takes us into the part of the video that looks at Lilith’s origins. Lilith, a female demon infamous for preying on infants and pregnant women,
And for copulating with sleeping men, thereby birthing a plethora of demons into the world, is a central figure in Jewish demonology. You could say that Lilith, as conceptualized in Jewish lore, is but one expression of an archetype, that of the demon who targets infants and pregnant women,
That seems to rear its head across cultures and millenia, particularly in the near East. If this is tracked backwards through time, it looks as though Lilith’s origins can be connected back to ancient Mesopotamia. She briefly features in the Epic of Gilgamesh,
A Sumerian work, and she’s identified with Lilu and Lilitu, respectively, male and female spirits of ancient Babylon – both of them notorious for attacking infants and women in labour. Another figure who shares this MO is Lamashtu, either a goddess or demon, who endangered women during
Childbirth and even abducted infants as they suckled at their mother’s breast. In appearance, she was a hideous amalgamation of many animals, having the head of a lion, the talons of a bird of prey, the teeth of a donkey, a body covered in hair, blood-stained hands, and long fingers with
Long nails. Another variety of demon germane to Lilith is the Ardat-Lili, which rendered men impotent as a sort of revenge for itself not being able to copulate. Sometimes women were also targeted and rendered infertile. In appearance it looks like a wolf with a scorpion’s tail.
Much of the best known information surrounding Lilith comes from the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a work thought to have been written sometime in the Geonic period, which lasted from the late sixth to the mid-eleventh centuries CE. The third part describes Ben Sira recounting 22 stories to
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. One of these gives an alternative anthropogeny. Rather than Eve being created from one of Adam’s ribs, it describes Lilith, not only as the first woman, but also as being created from the earth just as Adam was. Unfortunately, their relationship is
Characterized by acrimony and incessant fighting, and ultimately, Lilith refuses to submit to Adam; so she invokes God’s name and flies away. Three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof, are sent after her, and they eventually catch up with her; but she negotiates
Her way out of the encounter, promising to be repelled by any amulets bearing their likeness, which is why thereafter such amulets were used to ward her off, safeguarding those she preyed on: pregnant women and infants. Furthermore, she also accedes to 100 of her children perishing each day.
Here’s a quote that describes this: “He also created a woman, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, ‘I will not lie below,’ and he said, ‘I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you
Are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.’ Lilith responded, ‘We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.’ But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the
Ineffable Name and flew away into the air…. The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea… They told her God’s word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, ‘We shall drown you in the sea.’ “‘Leave me!’ she said. ‘I was created only to
Cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’ “When the angels heard Lilith’s words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: ‘Whenever
I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.’” In one account, after the fall of man, which resulted in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden, the first man and the first woman became separated for 130 years. During that time, Lilith returned to Adam and copulated with him in his sleep; supposedly the son that resulted from their coupling turned into a frog. Another account, the one given by Rabbi Eliezer in
The Book of Adam and Eve, claims that at one time Lilith was bearing Adam 100 children per day. The Zohar depicts Lilith as “a hot fiery female who at first cohabited with man”, who “flew to the cities
Of the sea coast” when Eve was created. The cabala portrays her as the demon of Friday, who appears as a naked woman with a snake’s tail for legs. Another description maintains the nude upper body, but gives her a column of fire for legs. And in Talmudic Lore, Lilith is presented as an immortal
Demon who will continue to plague mankind until God eradicates evil from the face of the earth. Eventually, a profusion of early traditions coalesced, and from them emerged two predominant activities associated with Lilith: the strangling of newly born children and the seduction of men.
Regarding the latter, it was thought that anytime a man woke up with wet undergarments, made so by the nightly discharge of seed, it was indicative of Lilith having paid them a visit and seducing them in their sleep. And in this she was thought so prolific that a virtually infinite
Number of demonic spawn were attributed to her, said to be her brood – legions upon legions sired by unwitting men as they slept. Apparently, people were so wary of her erotic powers that in some Jewish communities it was commonplace for sons not to accompany their father’s as their
Bodies were laid to rest in graveyards, sparing them the shame of bearing witness to all their demonic half-blood siblings, those conceived when Lilith seduced the father. Because of this, In the Zohar as well as other sources, Lilith is known by many colourful appellations that denigrate
For lasciviousness and wantonness. These include: the black, the wicked, the false, and the harlot. In Zoharaistic cabal, Lilith, along with Eisheth Zenunim, Naamah, and Agrat bat Mahlaht, three angels of prostitution, was one of the consorts of Samael, a figure with many identities,
Not all of them evil, depending on the version; among them were: the great serpent with 12 wings, a prince of hell, and another name for Satan, especially in Jewish lore. As conceptualised in Kabbalism, Lilith was given preeminence, becoming the principal and permanent partner of Samael –
Basically, in effect, crowned queen of hell. And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel As always, leave your video suggestions down below
How are you saints i heard about 1200 of you i said how are you saints okay because i’ve seen about 50 of y’all getting starbucks all day so i know you’re woke uh i i i say this every tgc conference that i
Have the opportunity to teach it i i need to let you know i’m from a country called black church okay you might have heard me say that before what that means is when someone is speaking or teaching it’s not a monologue it’s a conversation okay so when when i say something that moves
You in your spirit you have the right and the authority and the permission to talk back to me you can clap you can speak in the tongue just find a translator but don’t throw don’t throw no shoes though okay you can do everything else but don’t throw your shoes
Up here unless i like them throw the other one and i’m gonna take it take it back home please turn in your bibles to genesis chapter 22. say amen when you got it sorry to get verse one it says after these things god tested abraham and said to him abraham and he
Said here i am he said take your son your only son isaac whom you love and go to the land of moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which i shall tell you
So abraham rose early in the morning saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son isaac and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place of which god had told him on the third day abraham lifted up his eyes
And saw the place from afar then abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey i and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you and abraham took the wood of
The burnt offering and laid it on isaac his son and he took in his hand the fire and the knife so they went both of them together and isaac said to his father abraham my father and he said here i am
My son he said behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt offering abraham said god will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son so they went both of
Them together when they came to the place of which god had told him abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood then
Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son but the angel of the lord called to him from heaven and said abraham abraham and he said here i am he said do not lay your hand on
The boy or do anything to him for now i know that you fear god seeing you have not withheld your son your only son from me and abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram
Caught in a thicket by his thorns horns and abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son so abraham called the name of that place the lord
Will provide as it is said to this day on the mount of the lord it shall be provided let’s pray lord i thank you for this moment thank you for your word i thank you for your spirit
I thank you for your church i thank you for our feelings and our emotions and how they are so involved in the way we read your scriptures i pray that you would do whatever it is that you want to
Do with us in this moment i pray that you would help me that you would use me that you would speak in jesus name amen this narrative opens up with the words after these things god tested
Abraham i think before we even get to the nature of the test we need to know something about the one being tested we are introduced to abram his original name in genesis 12. when out of nowhere
God calls abram an idol worshiper to leave his home leave his family leave his country and then god gives abram a promise he tells them that he will make him a great nation and that all the families of the earth shall be blessed through him we also learn some about his wife’s arrive
And how she is barren they have no children which makes god’s promise a smidge complicated because if abram is going to be a nation then abram needs a child in genesis 15 god speaks to abram again
This time he expands on his original promise he made he tells abram he’s going to give him a son but not only that god gets all built now the science guy on him and tells him to head outside
Look at the stars and that the amount of stars he sees is the amount of offspring abram will have this is a big promise because remember abram ain’t got no kids sarah’s womb is bearing barren
So abraham is like god how i know that’s going to happen this is the jhp version by the way so god backs up his promise by entering into a covenant with abel a covenant is a promise made between two parties to perform certain duties one party might promise to share their resources
Their strength and protection while the other party promises their loyalty if abram were one of us hypothetically speaking and he wanted to buy a house in 2022. he would have to get a realtor get on zillow redfin whatever’s your your thing find a house hopefully his
Credit score is in order that’s a word for some of y’all know some of y’all in the 500s god is able he’s able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we can never ask i think his lender
Would then have to give him a decent loan to purchase the house when it’s time to close on the house he would sit down with a lawyer with a realtor they would give him a big old stack of
Papers for him to sign these papers and contracts between him and the bank he’s getting the loan from the contracts have a bunch of words but the bank is basically saying hey we promise to give
You this money you promise to give us the money back if you don’t you’re going to be homeless so when you purchase a home then you are entering into a loose kind of covenant both parties
Are making a promise to do a certain thing and if one party fails to keep that promise there’s a consequence in abram’s cultural context covenants weren’t ratified by signing a bunch of contracts they were a little bit more dramatic than that what would happen is that uh they would get
Some particular animals who would be killed sliced in half laid side by side creating a path for both parties to walk through the bodies by making a covenant this way the parties were reenacting what
Would happen to them if they didn’t do what they said they would do is them saying if i don’t keep my promise to you let me be put to death like these dead animals that i just walked through to establish his covenant with abram then god has abram get a heifer
A goat a ram two birds basically the whole meat section of the grocery store and abram cuts the animals in half except the birds because that’s odd and lays them side by side usually both parties that are ratifying the covenant would walk through the animals but this time shockingly abram
Isn’t awake for the ceremony abram goes into a deep sleep similar to the one that adam went into in genesis 3 and the bible says that a great and dreadful darkness came over him but what i don’t
Want you to do is take this as a abram laying down and taking a nap taking going to bed it’s probable as some commentators say that he is made unconscious by god’s presence and as that happens god manifests himself as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch and god
Himself walks in between the dead animals god himself all alone walks in between their bodies walks in between their blood and by doing so god is saying that he is putting his very own nature on the line so as to make sure that this covenant is maintained remember
Abram asked god to give him evidence that god was going to do what he said he would do and god responded by saying if i don’t give you what i promised you the blood will be on my hands
Now that didn’t convince abram that god was worthy to be trusted i don’t know what else god could do moving forward you might be thinking okay now god then showed up as a pot in the torch and walked
Through some heifer blood sari is definitely going to get pregnant next week but nope abram and sarah just get old and older and older making god’s promise seem that much more impossible in genesis 17 when abram is 99 and sarai is 90 god shows up again adding even more specificity to
His promise he tells abram that sarah will have a son from her own womb whose name will be isaac in genesis 18 god shows up again and tells abram now named abraham that this time next year god will
Give him a son sarai now called sarah was being a little nosy don’t know if you remember the story she heard what the lord had said and the text says that by this time the way of women had
Ceased with sarah what does that mean it means sis ain’t got no time in the month no more okay her uterine lining ain’t shedding nothing but dust she ain’t used always she ain’t had kotex in her cabinet in decades and now god is saying it’s a women’s conference i can say that
Now god is saying she’s going to give birth to a son which is absolutely crazy so sarah laughs she like god must don’t know how old i am how in the world am i going to have a whole baby
This is one of my favorite parts of the bible the lord says to abraham because sarah had laughed when god said what he has said uh god says why does sarah laugh is anything too hard for the lord to which sarah responds like she ain’t talking to god i didn’t laugh
Then god was like no but you did let’s be clear but in all seriousness i think we all need to remember the reality of god and that there is nothing too hard for him all of us have something in our life where this truth needs to be applied
It may be the salvation of a family member the restoration of a marriage deliverance from addiction the opening of a barren womb the resources to adopt the power to forgive the ability to put to death your favorite sins whatever it is god can do it
Because this is the thing god is not like anyone you have or will ever know he has no limitations he is the one that made the heavens and the earth he is the one who has all power he is completely
Sovereign always strong and never tired but unbelief will move you to construct a god in your own image and therefore you will start to believe that either god has a weakness and cannot do the impossible or that god isn’t good and therefore he won’t do the impossible for you
Which isn’t to say though everything we ask of god he is obligated to do god is god so he has the right to move however and whenever and wherever he pleases but the challenge is this to believe that god is god which means god can answer my impossible prayers
And god can give me an impossible faith to still trust him if he doesn’t is anything too hard for the lord in genesis 22 or 21 the impossible happens it says the lord visited sarah as he had said and the lord did to sarah as he had promised and sarah conceived
And bore abraham a son in his old age at the time of which god had spoken god is not a liar so by quickly walking through genesis chapter 12 to genesis 21 we are clear on three things
God has promised to make a nation out of abraham that all families of the earth will be blessed through him and that god will do this through abraham seed isaac with that in mind now when we get to genesis 22 the first two verses should be shocking it says after these things god
Tested abraham and said to him take your son your only son isaac whom you love and offer him there as a burnt offering if you’re like me the first time i read this passage i was like now god
You promised this man that all nations of the earth will be blessed through his seed isaac you don’t make covenants you don’t walk through blood and became pots and stuff and now you’re telling him to sacrifice the son he done waited decades for not only that god’s promise
To abraham hinges on isaac being alive it’s crazy but what helps us to give us some pause is the beginning of this verse and how it begins by saying that this is a test the concept of testing
Is all throughout scripture usually it’s explicit like in exodus when god said he allowed israel to be in the wilderness for 40 years to test them or in luke 4 when it says that the holy spirit led
Jesus in the wilderness to be tested god tests for two reasons usually to reveal and to refine when a test is used to reveal something what is exposed is whatever is in your heart testing reveals
What you really believe if you really have faith if there are a few idols hiding in a corner somewhere a little pride that you didn’t know you had which is such a merciful thing for god to do because i don’t know if you know this we tend to think really highly of ourselves
The natural state of the sinner as described in romans 1 is that we think we are wise when we are full so we may have a self-conception that has nothing to do with reality but also we can get
Therapy we can take enneagram tests enneagram three wing four and b as be as self-aware as possible and even then it is impossible for you to discern everything about yourself so in god’s sovereign compassion he will allow your kids to act up so you can see how impatient you are
He’ll let your money get funny so you can discern your greed or your distrust in god’s provision tests reveal but tests also refine peter said in first peter 1 6 though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested
Genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire imagine who you’d be if you didn’t go through anything if your faith was never challenged if life never got hard intense if you never had any angst or confusion or anxiety about what to do or where
To go and and who to trust without the refiners fire what would the quality of your life look like i can bet that it might be easier but would it be fruitful why because tests purify your faith it is only fire that refines gold and it is only trials that will refine
You and yes i know trust me no discipline seems enjoyable at the time but it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it circling back to genesis 22 since this narrative is fr as a test we can know that whatever god is doing with abraham it will
Reveal something to him and reveal something out of him and what greater test is there for abraham than for god to tell him to sacrifice his son the son he loves note that this is the first mention
Of the word love in the bible which is really fascinating to me that it’s set in the context of sacrifice and not self-centeredness but that’s a completely different conversation anyone one thing about this test is that if you’re familiar with abraham’s story at all
If you followed his life up until this point you know that this test actually isn’t unfamiliar do you remember when god commanded abraham in the beginning in genesis 14 what he commanded him to do he told him to leave his country leave his family leave his home and go where god wanted
Him to go abraham then is well acquainted with god telling him to sacrifice stuff that he loves since abraham was called he was repeatedly tested so even though sacrificing isaac is an extreme test god didn’t start there he has been readying abraham’s faith so as the test got more intense he
Had the stamina to endure it charles spurgeon said this he said the lord knows how to educate you up to such a point that you can endure in your years to come what you could not endure today
Just as today he may make you stand firm under a burden which ten years ago would have crushed you into dust perhaps this is the reason you don’t he read anything about abraham pushing back or asking
Questions he just he just gets up and obeys verse three abraham rose early in the morning saddled his donkey and took two of his men with him and his son isaac and they cut the wood for the burnt
Offering and arose and went to the place of which god had told him in other words abraham obeyed immediately why because he had faith the writer of hebrews says that faith is the assurance of
Things hoped for the conviction of things not seen another way to see it is that faith is an inner certainty regarding things you cannot see that engages your will leading you to act in relation to what you believe i’ll say it again because y’all taking notes faith is an inner certainty
Regarding things you cannot see that engages your will leading you to act in relation to what you believe for example you ever seen one of those team-building exercises called the trust fall it’s weird basically one person stands on a platform with their eyes clock closed and
Their arms folded looks like they’re about to die beneath them behind them are co-workers or their team standing in the line with their arms out ready to catch not the bouquet but the person the reason it’s a trust fall is that the person on the platform can’t see nobody
Can’t see the people behind them so they have to trust what they cannot see but it wouldn’t be enough for them to just say they trusted their team like yeah i trust you and stay there that’s not good enough words are easy trust is actually realized when the person chooses to fall backwards
The inner certainty gave them confidence that their team would catch them even though they couldn’t see them and that certainty engaged their will which was why they chose to fall i use this example because faith cannot be separated from behavior faith is at work in abraham because
Remember god has made him a promise and isaac is a pivotal piece of that promise is isaac dies the promise does too the irrationality of it all doesn’t seem to hinder abraham though i think any
Rational person would be like um god this test ain’t it there has to be another way tell people to steal my donkeys and burn down my tents but don’t make me sacrifice my son but the thing
Is abraham isn’t like me he doesn’t barter with god he is certain that god is going to do what he said he would do because he is god so because he believes and trusts god he behaves accordingly
It says that he woke up early in the morning cut the wood that he would sacrifice his son on and he goes to the place that god told him to go to then we finally get an idea of what’s in
Abraham’s mind in verses five and six look at it it says on the third day abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar then abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey
I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you do you hear his faith somewhere in between god telling him to sacrifice isaac and him getting the wood he has concluded that after he has killed his son isaac is going to come back how does he know that
Who or what is he trusting to make him so certain it’s simple he believes god not merely the promise of god but the person of god because the promise is only trustworthy because the one who made the promise cannot lie so so it’s the very nature of god that abraham has
Considered and in so doing he has reckoned that because god cannot lie he is obviously going to do something to ensure that isaac ultimately doesn’t die the writer of hebrews said this by faith abraham when he was tested offered up isaac and he who had received the promises was in
The act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through isaac shall your offspring be named he considered that god was able even to raise him from the dead wait we are in genesis 22 right
Amen no yes okay so we are centuries before elijah raises a widow’s son from the dead we are we are centuries more for when jesus raised lazarus easter ain’t on abraham’s radar he don’t got a clue about pastel outfits and shiny white shoes there has yet there has yet to be an
Empty tomb for him to base his faith on so how is it then that abraham knew the very concept of resurrection was even possible i think that before abraham rose early in the morning while he thought
About what god was calling him to do and that it meant that he have to put his son to death i think i think abraham remembered his own body and how god had brought life from death before
So surely he could do it again unless you think i’m just making up stuff i want you to remind your romans 4 19 which says this he abraham did not weaken in faith when he considered his own
Body which was as good as dead or when he considered the barrenness of life or lifelessness of sarah’s womb the word dead here literally means corpse-like so then god had to resurrect their bodies in a real sense so as to give them the power to create life in the form of
Isaac abraham had the audacity to say that he and isaac would go worship and return because he remembered that god had did it before in 1953 this guy by the name of henry malaysian went in for brain surgery to treat his epilepsy during the procedure the doctor
Removed a piece of henry’s brain affected his memory especially his short-term memory and one recording a doctor doing a study this on netflix by the way i ain’t making it up a doctor doing a study on the brain in memory asked henry if he remembered what
He did yesterday henry said i don’t know the doctor asked him again what he did that morning henry said i don’t remember that either then they asked him if he knew what he’d do tomorrow to which henry responded whatever is beneficial you’d expect henry to have some kind of loose schedule
I’m gonna wake up i’m gonna get some coffee i’ma watch the news but he didn’t because henry couldn’t tell you what he would do tomorrow because he couldn’t remember what he did yesterday he answered the question the way that he did because the portion of henry’s brain that was
Removed affected henry’s ability to make new memories and since henry couldn’t remember the past he had no context for how to imagine his future without his memories henry had no expectation when abraham thought about the sacrifice that he had to make in the future
He remembered the resurrection in the past and that if god could do a miracle then then god could do a miracle now almost all of us have a hard time trusting god to do what he said
He would do in his word through his son and it might be because we have a memory problem how quickly we forget that he made the heavens and the earth that he split the sea and delivered his
People out of bondage how he brought life from a dead womb we forget how faithful he’s been to us and our family how he’s provided for us when we didn’t even ask how he’s protected us from all
Kinds of mess but when trials show up now all of a sudden is i don’t know if god is going to come through i don’t know if god is going to do this i don’t know if god is going to do that i don’t
Know if god is going to show up hasn’t god always showed up hasn’t god always been good hasn’t god always been faithful just because you change your mind every six seconds doesn’t mean that god does
He is the same god today as he was yesterday some of us don’t need to fast we need to remember and it isn’t isn’t this true that the word of god has provided for us 66 books worth
Of memories of who god is and how god works which will inform our faith so that we can obey without hesitation because abraham has faith in his god he is willing to sacrifice his only son the text says abraham took the word of the burnt offering
And laid it on his son isaac he took in his hand the fire and the knife and they went both of them together to the place that god had told him i want to be clear about something a burnt offering was a total sacrifice there were other offerings that would allow you
To sacrifice an animal and the priest could take a portion of it home to eat but a burnt offering was the one offering where the whole animal was totally consumed the process went something like this as described in leviticus 1 a male animal without blemish was taken
The offerer would lay his hand on the animal which was symbolic of the transferring of the offer ascends onto the sacrifice an act of atonement then they’d kill the animal blood would be collected and thrown on the altar then the animal would be cut into pieces and arranged on the wood
Then the animal would be burned and totally consumed and as the smoke of the animal rose towards heaven it was said to be a pleasing aroma to the lord and god told abraham to do that
To his son the son he loved if this were not a test god’s character would be questionable at best seeing that god himself said that human sacrifice was detestable in deuteronomy 12 and 18. but since it is a test sacrificing isaac or at least being willing to do it resolves god of any
Guilt and refines abraham of any potential sin this test solidifies abraham’s loyalty to god over and above love for his son it is clear that abraham has a deep affection for isaac god even acknowledges it by saying take your son your only son isaac whom you love
And this love is natural this love is good we should love our children they are good gifts from a creative god but how easy it is to take these good gifts and make them god isaac was special he was the promised child the seed through whom the whole world
Would be blessed abraham had parted ways with his son ishmael years earlier so this was the only son he had and maybe god knew abraham’s potential abraham was an idol worshiper before he was called so it wouldn’t have been out of character for him to worship something other than
God maybe god knew that the son he loved could become the lord he worshiped so to set him free from any inkling of idolatry god had to put him in a position to choose and he did he built the altar
He laid the wood he took some rope and wrapped it around his son’s body so he couldn’t move and i can only imagine the pain because it wouldn’t be a sacrifice if it didn’t hurt a sacrifice isn’t a sacrifice if it doesn’t cost you something
This body on this altar is his boy who he saw every day ate dinner with every night on the altar he probably looked at him and saw his own features in his face alongside fear but either way even with all the faith in the world sacrificing what you love is
Devastating but even then god must be worthy of it all and abraham knows that so with inner certainty engaging his will leading him to act in a way that is relative to what he believes he takes the knife
Ready to slaughter his son then he hears his name verse 11 abraham abraham and he said here i am he said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now i know that you fear god seeing you have not withheld your son your only son from me
If there was any doubt who abraham’s god was this moment made it clear god had refined abraham’s heart removing any other allegiances and now he’d revealed it to for god to say i know that you fear god this anthropomorphic language god knows everything so it doesn’t
Mean that god didn’t know it it means that god is affirming that abraham’s faith is real and isn’t that what we all want the affirmation that our faith is authentic because there are those who will present themselves before jesus with a bunch of evidence for why they deserve
Glory did not prophesy in your name did not cast out demons and perform miracles on your name i think some of us in this room we would say god did not preach and expose at the passage correctly
Did not tithe didn’t i go to seminary and lead worship and go on mission trips and vote though certain ways surely that’s proof of my faith all of which looks impressive it looks like power it looks like the fruit of faith but jesus turns to these kinds of people
And calls them workers of lawlessness god forbid you have to wait till judgment to find out who you really are but the irony of it is this the very act of looking to what you’ve done for jesus
As evidence of that you know jesus might be the proof that you don’t because the truly faithful ones know that they have never done anything apart from jesus so when they stand before god they stand before him like the men and the parable of the talent saying this is what i’ve done with
What you have given me and do you know what the master will say to them he’ll say well done my good and faithful servant and that is the point of everything my friends when all the tests and all the trials and all the pain and all the angst and all the discipline
And all the suffering is over the point of it all is that the god of the glory the judge of the universe the one who cannot lie seated on the judgment say will say i know that you fear god
Verse 13 and abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his stars and abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son so abraham called the name of that place the lord will provide
This moment right here is an act of substitutionary atonement instead of isaac being sacrificed the ram is killed in his place with substitution one person takes the place of another bearing the penalty that we reserved for someone else if isaac was killed as a burnt offering a few things would have happened
He would have experienced the death and thus he would have been separated from his father he also would have experienced the desecration of his body as it burned in the fire and all of this would have happened at the hands of his father it is because
God provided the ram that saved isaac from death separation and destruction but there’s a problem with all of this sacrificing the burnt offering functioned as atonement abram and isaac were both sinners and the wages of sin is dead god’s justice had to be satisfied by virtue of blood
Being spilled a life being taken either their own life or somebody else’s life so the realm was not only sacrificed instead of isaac before isaac but even then the ram wasn’t good enough why because hebrew 10 4 says it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin
Meaning that this ram though it was a sacrifice it wasn’t a sufficient one if anything this ram was a shadow pointing forward to a better sacrifice one that would not be accomplished by jehovah
Providing a ram in a bush but by jehovah jireh providing his son in the flesh and who is this son i’ll tell you first of all the son was born to a woman by virtue of a miracle
His mother wasn’t barren but she was a virgin named mary who by all accounts should not have been able to get pregnant seeing as though she had not been with a man but because nothing is too hard for the lord she conceived by the power of the spirit the son grew up
Learned obedience through what he suffered being tested by the devil to turn stones into bread and to worship and thus love anything more than god but he resisted every single time to which god publicly affirmed that his son’s faith was real by saying that this
Is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased by then or but then the scenario for which the son habit was born came to pass the night before the son had prayed to his daddy prayed to his father
Said that he wanted this cup to pass from him he was in a position where he had to choose he had to choose either his will or his father’s will and he did this son was made to carry his own wood
On his own back as he walked toward the top of a mountain and while up there this son’s body was secured to the woods so that he couldn’t move the people said if you are the son of god
Come down the cross what they didn’t understand is if he came down they would have had to go up in his place not dying for them but receiving the penalty of death that belonged to us because
It’s easy to forget that since i was born a sinner and the wages of sin is death that if jesus did my sins i would have had to pay for my own that even if i sinned once that meant i deserve the judgment
That through this death i would be eternally separated from the life of the father that i would endure the the pain and the desecration of eternal destruction and that all of this would happen at the hands of god the father but for these people to tell jesus to come down the cross
They clearly didn’t realize that if he came down there would be no substitution and that the reason he stayed is because he loved them to death maybe they didn’t remember that day when abraham was asleep and god himself walked through a line of death walked through blood making it known
That he was going to keep his promise and do you know what on the cross god got blood on his hands god became man so that he could die so as to maintain a covenant relationship with his people
There he was god in the flesh being killed like an animal being slaughtered like the animals that he walked through becoming a lamb that he promised to be and there were no rams this time there was no voice to cry out from heaven to stop it there was only silence and then those
Three hours and the dreadful darkness of god’s presence was the only begotten son whose very own father was pleased to crush him jesus became sin so that you could be declared righteous jesus died so that you could have life jesus was bruised so you could be healed jesus rose
From the dead so that you could too that is the beauty of substitution jesus is the ram and the bush and jesus is the son who returned from the dead to worship with his daddy and now it is through this son jesus that all who have faith in his name are called
The sons and daughters of abraham and look at us a people from every tribe and every tongue and every nation a church that has lasted for centuries with millions of saints that have gone before
Us and who will come after us and if you just look into the crowd don’t we look like stars what god promised to abraham in genesis 12 has been realized in us the children of the promise is there anything too hard for the lord lord we thank you for this day we thank
You for your faithfulness we thank you for your nature and how you have revealed it through christ by the spirit in the scriptures we pray god that this would be more than words that this would be
More than knowledge that it would actually inform the way we do life the way we love people the way we engage on social media the way we engage with our families and our friends in our local churches
I pray that it even changes the way we pray that we would pray with power that we will pray with confidence knowing that we are praying to a good and a faithful god we love you in jesus name amen
– We don’t often so much have Catholic cultures, but we have secular cultures with Catholic patches. And so, what I mean by that is what we celebrate, what we spend our time on, what we get dressed up for, what we prioritize in our free time is often the same things as everybody else.
Right? And so, we’ll go to mass or we’ll say some prayers, but that’s kinda the thing we do over here and then for the most part, what we’re listening to, all that, it’s really pretty much the same as everybody else, because the faith hasn’t really sunk in.
And so the image I had is, like, we don’t want… We don’t want our faith in the… Yeah, we don’t want the faith to respond to and sink into our lives like chocolate chips in some cookies, right? So it’s like, oh, here, there might be a lot of chocolate chips,
But they’re sort of scattered. You want it, like… The yeast, you want it in everything, right? And it gets in there and it’s deep and it animates everything. – Thanks so much for watching this segment from the Poco A Poco Podcast. If you wanna watch a full show, head on right over here.
If you want to support the podcast, head on over to spiritjuice.org/pocoapoco. Whether it’s a one-time gift or a monthly donation, we really appreciate your support. And also, don’t forget to tell your friends about the Poco A Poco Podcast, all right? Little by little.
I was wondering if you could clear this up for me. So… argues that Christ’s suffering was equivalent to our eternal damnation on account of the infinite dignity of Christ. So he appeals to the divine nature of Christ and that absolves the issue. But earlier this morning you mentioned that when Christ experienced the
Loss of fellowship with the Father it was through his human nature and not the divine, and so what I’m having a difficult time understanding is how we can appeal to the divine nature of Jesus in order for the sacrifice to be sufficient, while denying that it is the involvement of his divine nature.
This is a tremendous subtlety of Chalcedonian orthodoxy concerning the two natures of Christ. And that is that there is only one person who Christ is, and that is a divine person. It is the second person of the Trinity. There is no
Human person who is Jesus of Nazareth. There is a divine person who has a human nature as well as a divine nature. So it’s not that in virtue of his divine nature that Christ makes atonement; it is that you have a divine person who in his
Human nature bears our sin and punishment, and it’s the person that is divine and is the one who suffers and dies and so forth for our sins, but he does so with respect to the human nature.
