Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Apr 13 2019 - Judges 21 – No king in Israel

The last few chapters of the book of Judges make disturbing reading. In chapter 19 we read (though thankfully, you have not read) of a Levite from Ephraim who took a concubine (a woman who would be his partner but whom he did not marry) from Bethlehem. His concubine ends up being gang-raped by men from the tribe of Benjamin and dies on the threshold of the house where he is staying. In response, the Levite cuts the body of his concubine into twelve pieces sending them off to the twelve tribes of Israel. All Israel is so shocked by all this that the other tribes assembled in war against the tribe of Benjamin, slaughtered their fighting men and destroyed their cities, along with their women and cattle. Only six hundred men from Benjamin survived by fleeing from the battle into the wilderness. This is the background to Judges 21.

In chapter 21 we read of how the Israelites went about trying to ensure that the tribe of Benjamin did not die out. They needed to provide wives for the fighting men who had fled and now returned but were faced with the problem that the tribes had taken an oath that none of them would allow their daughters to marry men from the tribe of Benjamin. Their perverse solution was to tell the remaining men from Benjamin to snatch women for themselves when young girls from Shiloh came out to dance in the vineyards. The entire story is horrific and revolting. It speaks of the depravity into which the Israelites had fallen. It could hardly be argued that they were acting as a light to the nations.

The author of the Book of Judges adds his own verdict when he concludes his book by saying, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit" or, "did what was right in their own eyes" (21:25, see also 17:6; 18:1; 19;1). The reason for such anarchy and wickedness in Israel is put down to the fact that they had no king to lead them. They need a king to enforce law and order and put an end to this tribal feuding. So the Book of Judges prepares the way for the Book of Samuel with its narrative of Israel's first kings.

But, as we shall soon see, Israel's kings are by no means the solution to their problems. All too often, Israel's kings failed, either because of their own lack of obedience to God or because they lacked the ability to exercise a gracious rule over all of his people. The answer to anarchy is not any old king; it requires God's people to be governed by the right kind of king.

We recognise that the world in which we live, for all its claims to civilisation and its complex levels of government and control, is not really so very different from the world of the time of the Judges – too many still do what is right in their own eyes. What is the answer to the disorder that marks our world?. King Jesus alone can bring an end to the anarchy and disorder that mark a sinful world. He is the only hope for a disordered world; the one of whom it is written,

The government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and for ever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Father in heaven, we pray that the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ may be established in power and that your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help us to tell others about him whose government alone will bring in that kingdom of peace, justice and righteousness. Enable us by your Spirit to live day-by-day under his gracious rule that others may see something of the glory of your coming kingdom.

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Apr 13 2020 - 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 – Guidelines for worship?

Some passages in 1 Corinthians are so intimately bound up with cultural practices in first century Corinth, and with the particular issues the Corinthians raised with Paul, that it’s almost impossible for us, as outsiders, to understand the nature of Paul’s response and its relevance to ourselves. 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is, in my view, such a passage. Over the years I have read scores of commentaries, books and articles on this passage. The variety of interpretations has served not to shed light on the passage but to deepen my confusion. In my early years as a Christian I vacillated over whether my wife should wear a hat to church – though Paul is certainly not speaking about hats. Nowadays, of course, it’s more likely to be young men wearing baseball caps to church than young ladies wearing hats – times change, and so do cultural mores.

We can only speculate on the context in Corinth against which Paul wrote this passage. There may have been conflict between an ultra-conservative group who wanted women to be veiled and an opposing group who had taken Paul’s teaching that there was neither male nor female in Christ to insist that there should be no distinction in dress or behaviour between the sexes. This second group may have caused some outside the church to be scandalised.  With this speculative suggestion of context in mind, I wonder whether Paul’s response might be re-expressed in a contemporary context as follows:

I commend you for remembering the things I taught you, particularly about men and women enjoying equal standing before God through the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to understand that this does not mean that there is no longer to be any distinction between men and women in the church.

Remember the story of creation. The man was created first and was created to reflect the glory of God – glory that has appeared in all its fullness in Christ. The woman was created from the man, to reflect that glory with him. In this way they were created for each other. Together they were created to bring glory to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, in the church men should act like men and women should act like women; value what God has created you to be. Men and women should not act in a way that brings dishonour upon themselves or upon the other; value and respect one another. You each owe your very existence to the other just as you owe your ultimate existence to God.

Think about this carefully and make sure that you do not behave in ways that bring disgrace upon the church. Make sure that you always bring glory to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever we may make of this passage, Paul’s underlying principle is quite clear. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul tells the Corinthian Christians that whatever they do, they are to do it to the glory of God. If there is something that cannot be done to the glory of God then it should not be done at all. Whatever we do should be done consciously before God, with thanksgiving to him, from a sense of dependence upon him and with the desire to please him. We live because of him and are to live for him. Let’s make that our aim – the directing purpose of our lives.

Lord, help me to live every moment of this day to your glory. May what I say and do, even what I think, be an offering of praise to you. Help me to live well in my relationship with others, never despising any but seeking to encourage all in service of you. May every aspect of our lives, individually and corporately, be a sacrifice of praise and worship.

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Oct 5 2020 - Introduction to Hebrews

Who wrote this letter?

The Authorised Version (or King James Version) of the Bible entitles this letter, "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews". But the very position of this letter in our New Testaments casts some doubt upon that attribution. Paul's letters are not arranged in chronological order in our New Testaments but in order of decreasing length (while also keeping together letters written to the same destination). Hebrews is an anomaly; a fairly lengthy letter positioned after the very short letter to Philemon. This positioning suggests that those who assembled and ordered our New Testament had doubts concerning the Pauline authorship of Hebrews. The lack of explicit attribution within the text of the letter also suggests that it was not written by Paul; Paul always 'signs' his letters.

In fact, the authorship of this epistle has long been the subject of debate among Christians. Origen, a third century theologian and biblical scholar, having considered the best opinions in his own day concluded, "Only God knows for certain who wrote it." But if Paul did not write this letter, why do we consider it to be an authoritative part of our New Testament? John Calvin, who did not think that it came from the pen of the Apostle Paul, provides an answer to this question when he writes, "I class it without hesitation among the apostolical writings [i.e. the authoritative writings that make up our New Testament]… There is indeed, no book in Holy Scripture which speaks so clearly of the priesthood of Christ, which so highly exalts the virtue and dignity of that only true sacrifice which he offered by his death, which so abundantly deals with the use of ceremonies as well as their abrogation, and, in a word, so fully explains that Christ is the end of the Law."

Message of Hebrews

This letter is addressed to Jewish Christians who are suffering opposition and persecution because they have abandoned their previous way of life within Judaism to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They are being placed under pressure to abandon Christ and to turn back to their previous Jewish way of life.

The letter emphasises that the Old Testament or Old Covenant finds its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one to whom it all pointed. The New Covenant inaugurated by him is therefore superior to the Old. Those addressed in this letter are therefore urged to go on following the Lord Jesus – not to abandon the incomparable glory of the Saviour to return to the old ceremonies and shadows that he has fulfilled and swept away. Christ who suffered for them, is now with them in all his risen power. He will enable them to go on following him and living for him even in the face of opposition and suffering. To abandon Christ now would be to reject the great salvation he has won for them.

One commentator draws attention to the parallels between Stephen's defence in Acts 7 and the letter to the Hebrews. He suggests that Stephen's ministry resulted in the conversion of many Jewish priests in Jerusalem (Acts 6:7). Hebrews, he suggests, was addressed to such priests in the context of the persecution which broke out after Stephen's death – persecution which may have forced them to flee Jerusalem and perhaps Palestine.

The letter would seem to have been written before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

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Peter Misselbrook