Category Archives: Christ

Prophecy Practice: David, Jesus and the Righteous in Psalm 69, Part 1

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Save me Lord, David says, Psa 69:1.

A psalm of David. It is clear from the start of this psalm that the author is in a very bad way. I’ve just been overwhelmed Lord, things are just covering me up. I’ve been crying and waiting for God. And there are a bunch of men who hate me without cause. He says he is sinking in the mire. His feet are not on firm ground, and waters are flowing over him, Psa 69:2. He says he is worn out with crying. He throat is dray, and his eyes are failing him, Psa 69:3. Then he says,

“Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty.
I have to restore what I didn’t take away.”
Psa 69:4.

He has more enemies than the hairs of my head! I think that would be hyperbole, exaggeration, when speaking of David. Not to say that he did not have many enemies, but more than the hairs of his head?

That last quote of course is referring to Jesus

Jesus is speaking in John 15 about the persecution which is coming on Him and His followers. He says He has come and spoken to them so that they would have no excuse. But now men have seen His works and have hated both Him and His Father. So He says,

“But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’” Jn 15:23.

That is a reference to Psalm 69:4. Here is the interesting thing. The psalm is about Jesus and it is also about David, and there is not a clear dividing line. Now Saul became the enemy of David without cause, when David was not a threat to him. But notice in the very next verse it is talking David and only about David, because he says …

“God, you know my foolishness.
My sins aren’t hidden from you.” Psa 69:5,

So Psa 69:5 is CLEARLY and ONLY
about David.

David, even as a prophet of God, is acknowledging his many sins, and he speaks about all of David’s foolishness. But you can’t say that of Jesus, because he was the one without sin.

“For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.” Heb 4:15.

Of course it says that in more than one place.

“You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.”
1Jn 3:5

But Psa 69:4 could include both Jesus, and David.

This psalm is about both Jesus and David, and you have to look and think to realize what applies to which one. Would you have spotted the dual subjects by verse 5? Would you have even known there were dual subjects? How would you, could you?

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 15

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Confusion from not WANTING to believe it!

The kingdom of the saints will last forever

Scripture does say that the kingdom of the saints will last forever. That is not really an idea to contest, unless you have a very distorted view of the Bible or of prophecy. When God was promising a kingdom to David’s Son Jesus the Christ, it was said that,

“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne shall be established forever.”
2Sam 7:16

We are now translated into this kingdom, past tense.

“who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;”
Col 1:13

Heb 1:5 quotes 2 Samuel 7 as being about Jesus! Further, Hebrews says that we are Jesus “house.”

“but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.”
Heb 3:6

And Revelation talks of Jesus already being on His throne.

“He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
Rev 3:21

And that throne is forever, per Daniel 2 and many, many verses.

But the beast “conquers” the kingdom?

Huh? What? It is amazing the number of verses which we gloss over and fail to get the messages we desperately need.

There is someone called the “beast” in Revelation 13, and the “man of lawlessness,” in 2Thessalonians 2, and the foolish shepherd, or the idol shepherd in Zechariah 11, and it does indicate that for a while, it does look like, he has had the final victory over the saints, the house of God, the kingdom of God. The entire world will worship this man.

“that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2Thes 2:12

It says the same thing in Rev 13:4-5. Further it says,

“It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him.”
Rev 13:7

No it couldn’t be, I have heard it argued. NO ONE can overcome the church, so they said, and they rejected the clear meaning of Revelation 13.

Of course ultimately, the church will NOT be overcome.

The beast thinks he has won, but it is only for a short 3-1/2 years. Then at the last the faithful saints are delivered and the beast is thrown alive into hell, Revelation 19. Still the Savior says,

“… Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Lk 18:8

In other words, even our Lord questions whether there will be any faithful at the end.

Our incomplete understanding of Scripture sometimes prevents us
from seeing God’s warning to us.

We should always remember that Scripture is NOT a pick and choose buffet, but that it is all true. The challenge is to see how all the parts fit together.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 13

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Misunderstandings can cause confusion.

Now saints and the holy ones are a big subject in Scripture. The main Hebrew word is qodesh. It has the idea of setting something apart, dedicating it to a special service, or work. It can refer to special day that is set aside, as the Sabbath day, Ex 20:8. It can refer to a spirit, the living God, of whom it is said,

“Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? ”
Ex 15:11 WEB

It can refer to an assembly for a holy purpose (Ex 12:16), or a holy place (Ex 3:5), or even a holy nation, the people of God (Ex 19:6). It is the Old Testament word for the saints, those purified by the Lord,

“As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.”
Psa 16:3 WEB

And there is the phrase “holy ones.”

It might refer to a place or a thing that is holy, or even a person or an angel that is holy. The New Testament word is hagios, and it has the same range of meanings.

And certain beings come with God, both in history,
and at the Second Coming.

It is clearly angels which are spoken of iater times.

“ …Yahweh came from Sinai, …
He came from the ten thousands of holy ones:”
Deut 33:2 WEB

It is clearly not talking about men. There are “holy angels,” and one appeared to Cornelius in Acts 10:22.

But who does Jesus come with at the end of our age?

And there are some startling passages.

“… Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ”
Jude 14 KJV

The Lord is coming with His “saints”? How does this come to be? When Paul discusses this he says that those who are alive will arise to meet Jesus in the air, 1Thes 4:17, preceded by the resurrected saints of old, 1Thes 4:16. But in Jude 14 KJV it has Jesus coming with saints! What is going on here? How can this be? I never stopped to study it out as a young man, but this greatly mystified me.

Qodesh or hagios can mean EITHER a holy person
(a saint), OR a holy angel, OR
a holy thing or place.

The phrase is often just the word “holy” by itself, with the context left to determine if it is a holy thing, or person, or angel. Sometimes translations simply say “holy ones,” as many translations have it Jude 14.

So who does Jesus come with at the end?

He comes with his holy angels, and can be easily proved from verse after verse.

“… the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mk 8:38 WEB

And when Jesus comes again He will send out his angels to gather His elect, Mtt 24:31. When even some translators confuse the issues, it can muddle the thinking of many.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 11

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We have False Expectations about what will happen,
or what God will do.

Such things are all over the map, depending on what your particular beliefs are. Quite often our personal beliefs about God and the Bible are not really from Scripture but from popular summaries or narratives about Scripture. Even among Christians these things are often so. Or to put it another way, our faith is often in the doctrines and commandments of men (compare Mtt 15:9). Our faith is often not genuine Biblical faith. We are often NOT like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11), we are not searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so. Often we need to not merely confirm what an individual verse says, but also need to see how the impressions we initially receive fit with the rest of Scripture.

Sometimes we are merely unnecessarily dogmatic about what God does or doesn’t do, without really searching for possible exceptions from what we might read in one place.

These sorts of things can dumb us down in our reactions to what we hear.

The Sadducees had a “this is all about this
present world” view of Scripture.

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.”
Acts 23:8

That means they had an tremendous amount of Scripture to explain away or to deny it authenticity. These were very dark lenses through which they were reading the Bible. Hopefully you and I are not making such gross mistakes in perspective, but still, even without realizing it, we may almost unconsciously put on light blocking shades when we read certain passages, or study certain subjects, and these things often make it hard for us to see certain Bible subjects clearly.

The Sadducees approached Jesus with a question
about eternity in Matthew 22.

Seven men had at one time or another married one particular woman, but none of them had a child by the woman. One by one they all died, and lastly the woman died (Mtt 22:23-27). Then they at last sprang what they thought was a foolproof trap to show the absurdity of believing in a resurrection from the dead.

“In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
Mtt 22:28

Jesus said they were “mistaken, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God.” Mtt 22:29

Although they probably read the Scriptures everyday, they were so blinded by their own overviews of Scripture that they came to not really know the Scriptures. Their strange glasses distorted everything that they read in the Bible.

And they did not know or understand the power of God. If an almighty God can take mere dirt and turn it into something as complex as a human being, how small a thing would it be for Him to raise them from death? He went on to say that in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven, Mtt 22:30.

We need to really listen to whatever God says,

and not push our own expectations off on God.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 7

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Having our facts wrong, of Scripture, or of history

John 7 is instructive of the many ways that wrong facts or ideas can blind us. The Feast of Booths was coming up, but Jesus did not immediately go. Everyone was looking for Him, but were not talking openly about Him for fear of the Jewish leadership.

Finally Jesus showed up, speaking and teaching and calling the hand of the Jewish leaders. He said they were trying to kill Him, and this was answered immediately by saying, “You have a demon. Who seeks to kill you?” Jn 7:19-20. Still the crowd was whispering, isn’t this the one they are trying to kill? Jn 7:25 WEB.

So where did Jesus come from?

Then the crowd surmises from popular ideas:

“However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
Jn 7:27 WEB

Ah! He really came from God. So Jesus said,

28 … “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know. 29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
Jn 7:28-29 WEB

Of course Jesus speaks here of His coming from God, which it doesn’t seem is exactly what the crowd had in mind.

Then the chief priests and Pharisees sent troops
to arrest Jesus.

The crowd was debating.

“41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?””
Jn 7:41-42 WEB

So there were conflicting opinions.

Finally the officers came back empty handed. Their superiors asked why they had not brought Him in. Their answer was that there had never been a man who spoke as this man had.

The leaders were furious, and answered, are you also led astray? Have any of the leaders believed in Him? But of course majorities have never been a measure of truth. Compare the story of the true prophet of God Micaiah as opposed by the 400 false prophets in 1Kings 22, or of Jeremiah alone telling the truth in his time. In fact Jesus says,

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Lk 6:26 KJV

Nicodemus protested their condemnation without hearing Jesus answers, and they answered,

“… Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”
Jn 7:52 KJV

But the truth was,

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They thought of Jesus as from Galilee, but He wasn’t actually from Galilee. He was actually from Bethlehem, as the prophets foretold (Micah 5:2), and from God (Isaiah 40, Deut 18:15, etc.). The Pharisees, though well educated, had their facts wrong, so they were either puzzled, or reached false conclusions.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 6

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Missing the Symbolism or Over Symbolizing

Admittedly this may be difficult at times. Further, over symbolizing can be as bad for the truth as missing the symbolism.

Take Jesus speaking of the leaven of the Pharisees.

To get the context we have go back to Matthew chapter 15. In the middle of the chapter Jesus had gone from the area of Tyre and Sidon back to the sea of Galilee. Many people were coming to Him, seeking His words and seeking His healing. Jesus said in Mtt 15:32 that He felt sorry for the people. They had been with Him for three days with nothing to eat, and He was afraid they might faint on the way back with nothing to eat. The disciples asked where would they get enough to feed this large crowd in such a deserted place. Jesu asked what the disciples what they had to eat, they said they had seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Jesus took what they had, blessed it and began breaking it and feeding it to the people. In the end, with that small beginning Jesus feed “four thousand men, besides women and children,” and picked up seven baskets of left-over pieces.

Somewhere in the events that followed,

The disciples came to the far side of the Sea of
Galilee, but forgot to take along
some bread, Mtt 16:5.

Then Jesus said to them,

“… Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Mtt 16:6

The disciples began talking among themselves and thought that Jesus said this because they brought no bread.

Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said

“… Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, ‘because you have brought no bread?’”
Mtt 16:8

Jesus reminded them of the five loaves for five thousand people, and how many baskets of left-overs they had picked up! Also He reminded them of the seven loaves for four thousand and how many baskets of left-overs they had taken up!

“How is it that you don’t perceive that I didn’t speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Mtt 16:11

Jesus never directly told them He was
talking symboliclly about teachings.

But they finally got the point. That is the way it will often be with us.

“Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Mtt 16:12

Also at times it is not an either or thing,

Prophecy Principles, discusses in detail that double prophecy in 2Samuel 7.

especially with symbolic persons, places, things, or events, sometimes called types and anti-types. Sometimes a passage my have both a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. In 2Samuel chapter 7 the prophet Nathan talks about a special son of David who would build a house/temple for the Lord. It actually has a double meaning. Solomon the son of David fulfills this (1Chron 22:9-10), and built a physical temple to the Lord , and Jesus the Son of David also fulfills this (Heb 1:5), and He is in the process of building a spiritual temple to the Lord (Mtt 18:18, 1Pe 2:5, etc.).

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Most History and Most Prophecy is not Strictly Chronological!

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An audio lesson.

Scripture is often unfairly criticized for not being strictly chronological. Actually the basic format of much of prophecy bears it greatest resemblance to human converstions. God is having conversations with us about the future. And the truth is that even most of the secualar histories which we read, are not strictly chronological!

Listen to this audio lesson here, or click on the Audio Player to download as an MP3 file.

Israels Wilderness Wandering as a Type

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An audio lesson.

This shows how the historical wanderings of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, typify both our everyday Christian lives, and also our ultimate Exodus out of this world to go to what we often call “heaven,” and which Scripture often refers to as a new universe, i.e. a new heavens and a new earth!

Listen to this audio lesson here, or click on the Audio Player to download as an MP3 file.