Connect the Dots

Let's pray, then we are going to get into our study. We will be in Leviticus 23 today. Lord willing, I always have to put that little caveat.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we pray that you would send your spirit, open our hearts, our minds, so that we may rightly believe, confess, walk, do according to what you have revealed in your will.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

The Sermon Questions That Lead Into the Study

So, as is our practice, questions that came up from the sermon today, you'll note that I kind of did something insane and tried to weave together old, new gospel and epistle, and I thought the three together told a better story than just one piece of it, because there's, on the one hand, the scary words of Christ, where he says to people, I never knew you, and strive to enter through the narrow door, and the gospel solves that.

But existentially, as Christians, living out the Christian life, I don't know if you've noticed, it's just brutally hard. There's nothing easy about this. And so, as a result of it, existentially, what we experience from week to week, is anything from going from glory to glory, it feels more like getting pummeled, and being assaulted, and coming out the loser in the exchange, always and again.

And it just, there's no week where we come out of the week unscathed. It's just not happening for us. I saw that almost hand going up.

I'm sorry, I have an eschatology.

Oh, good, okay.

So Isaiah depicts, Isaiah uses children being born.

Yes.

And here's the real sticker, people, you know, if you die by a hundred first.

Yes.

And the gospels presents no marriage.

Now, yes, so here's the idea, and I've actually recently read the Concordia Commentaries on this, which are quite helpful in fleshing this out. Now, part of what Isaiah is engaging in are just basic Hebrew word pictures, and no doubt.

So, like for instance, the word picture that the man who dies at a hundred will be considered a curse. The whole point of that particular word picture is to basically say it's talking about eternal life.

You know, this is a way of talking about it. But the thornier issue comes up with what do we do in this picture of the new earth where there's family and there's descendants? And how do we reconcile this with what Christ said when Christ said that in the kingdom, that is to come, people will neither be given, you know, they won't be given a marriage.

It's just not gonna happen. So what do we do? Now, first thing, and then Jesus, you'll note, he says, instead, they will be like the angels. So let me ask you in your extensive study of scripture, and I know you study the scripture, what is the arrangement between angels?

God doesn't reveal it. So if the arrangement that humans will have in the new earth is the exact same arrangement that angels have, you can't tell me anything about that arrangement, can you?

I can, I guess, go to Rome.

But that's not what Isaiah's referring to.

So what do we do with it?

Okay, so I would point out, you rightly and correctly noted that in all of scripture, there is not one iota, there's no yod here, of even one hint at what is the arrangement? How are the angels arranged?

What type of creatures are they? Is there procreation among the angels? If so, what's the arrangement? Okay, marriage is a contract, is a covenant. And covenants assume that one party at least is potentially capable of breaking that covenant.

And they are there to protect people's and family's interests.

Listen, yes, they were, yeah, they were.

Let's talk about it.

This is a great topic, oh, I'm so excited.

All right.

Sorry, let's take a look at the arrangement between Adam and Eve, shall we? We're going to go to Genesis, we're gonna take a look first at Genesis 2 and then Genesis 3. And we're gonna flesh a few things out.

Actually, the marital status of Adam and Eve is quite important, especially as we get into the Gospels. And so we'll start at verse five. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for Yahweh Elohim had not caused it to rain on the land, but there was no man to work the ground.

Mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the earth. The Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

I always like pointing out then that since, Adam had Christ breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, the first thing that Adam sees when he becomes alive is the face of Jesus. It's the first thing he sees.

So important. Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground Yahweh made to spring up every tree that is pleasant in sight, good for food, the tree of life in the midst.

In the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. Now a little bit of a note here. The certain church fathers loved to speculate on this, and I can't say that their speculation is wrong.

When Christ is crucified, where was he placed after his death? In a tomb, which was where? In a garden. And that particular garden tomb, funny enough, was on Mount Moriah itself, and kind of a fascinating thing.

When you connect the typological dots, it suggests that where the tree of life used to stand, used to be, was on Mount Moriah. That's kind of the hint that certain theologians over the millennia have actually suggested that there's a strong possibility of it.

And I like the idea, all right? Because the place of worship of the one true God has its origin where the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life were. They were next to each other.

And that was kind of like ground zero, center of the whole universe, if you would, of the creation, because that was the place where Adam and Eve worshiped God by their obedience and hearing his word and obeying it.

And so Luther, when you read Luther's works on Genesis, he'll talk about the fact that this place, then this Garden of Eden, becomes the place of worship. This is his church, if you were. And so it's a good way to think about it.

Now, all of that being said, you can't prove, there's no way to actually prove the connection between the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life and Mount Moriah. And you are engaging in speculation.

When you do that, I have to say that. But this is just one of those things where if at the end of the world, God says, oh, and by the way, where I was crucified also happened to be where the tree of life was.

Like, same spot. I would not go, pew. I would have sat there, I'm gonna go, yeah, I thought so, you know? Exactly. Exactly, there is no tree that gives more life than the cross, which is the tree of Christ's death.

And do we not eat of the fruit of that tree every time we have the Lord's Supper? So you can start to kind of connect the typological dots here. But I'm off on a tangent. And it's not looking good for Leviticus.

I'm just saying I wanna set the expectations.

This is such a great topic.

Anyway, all right, so out of the ground, Yahweh made to spring up every tree. We got that part. And a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. Funny enough, the same church fathers and theologians who see that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil being on Mount Moriah see then that in these four rivers a type and shadow of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

That's how they view these four head rivers, if you would. The name of the first is the Pishon. And it is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havlah where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good.

Bedellium, onyx, stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of that third was the Tigris. And now this is where I have never found a satisfactory answer.

Why do they, why does this river get called the Tigris when Kik-eh-kel, it's a brutal word in Hebrew here. It's like not even close. How did the, one of those things I throw out there just because when you're reading Hebrew text or working your way through it, you sit there and go, why do they end up naming it these things?

Anyway, which flows east of Assyria, the fourth river is the Euphrates. And Yahweh Elohim took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to work and to keep it. And Yahweh God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And Adam said, yes, I understand, Lord, and please stop calling me surely.

I had to say that.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Don't throw tomatoes at me. Anyway, so Yahweh Elohim said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make for him, and this is where the Hebrew is actually quite amazing. Ezer, ki neged, his opposite.

And the Hebrew description here is actually really, the best way I can put it, it's talking like his counter-opposite physically. You know, think jigsaw puzzles, right? So there was not found a helper fit for him, and the Hebrew is really talking about one that is frontal opposite.

I will make a helper fit for him. Now, out of the ground, Yahweh Elohim had formed every beast of the field, every bird of the heavens, brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of heaven, to every beast of the field, but for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him, and there's that word again. Ezer, ki neged, this frontal opposite.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. While he slept, he took one of his ribs, closed up its place with flesh, and the rib that Yahweh Elohim had made from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

And then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Now, a little bit of note, this is the reason why humanity is called mankind.

Each and every one of us, although we have moms, Eve did not have a mother, and she was formed from man. So we are mankind, not womankind. Yeah, keep that in mind. And a little bit of note in the typology, so Adam has his side opened up, and his bride is formed from his rib.

Christ on the cross has a spear thrust into his side, and from that wound flows blood and water. You can talk then about how the bride of Christ is formed in the waters of baptism. This is how you can connect these two, but it's so vital that you keep Christ and what he's done in mind when you're reading these texts, because we know from clear passages that marriage itself, marriage itself is a picture of Christ's relationship to the church.

Ephesians says this very clearly. So therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and hold fast, cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

And notice what it says here. Now, the ESV translates Isha here as wife, which is kind of a normal thing to do. Now, a little bit of a note. In the ancient world, and we know this, we're gonna fast forward to the story of Joseph and Mary.

When Mary was found to be pregnant with Christ, what was her marital status?

Married, uh-huh, exactly.

So there you go.

Betrothed, correct, yeah.

So the idea here then, and you're right, because the law, especially, I mean, you find this in Deuteronomy 22 specifically, that if a virgin is defiled by a man and she is not betrothed, then the man is to pay a fee, a fine of certain amount of shekels to her parents, and then he is to take the woman he defiled to be his bride, and he is not permitted to divorce her his entire life.

You know, that's how that particular marriage worked. But if a virgin is betrothed and she lives in a city and she is defiled sexually, she is to be stoned to death because she did not cry for help because she lived in the city.

Crying for help would have meant that people would have heard her and come to her aid. And so the assumption then is that because she did not cry out for help, the person with whom she had intercourse, that this was consensual and something that she willingly engaged in.

However, in also Deuteronomy 22 then, when a virgin is betrothed and she lives out in the open country, if she's defiled by a man, she is guiltless because when she cried out,.

Nobody heard her, okay?

This is how Deuteronomy 22 plays out. But you're gonna note then that in the ancient Near East, when somebody is betrothed, they are already married. Marriage begins at betrothal. But there is a time during the betrothal when the future husband is to build a house.

And so his future bride will end up living with his parents for a bit of time. There's all this kind of easing into the state of marriage, if you would. And the only way out of it, once you're betrothed, is a full-on divorce.

That's the only way out of it. And so when Mary was found to be with Christ, she was betrothed to Joseph, but the marriage had not been consummated. And so what was Joseph's solution to the problem as he perceived it?

To divorce Mary quietly. And this is where the angel Gabriel comes in and says, yeah, listen, what she said about her giving birth to the Messiah, yeah, that was right.

All right. Here.

Here. Here.

And so he, you know, change of plans. The divorce is off. The marriage is still on. You know, the marriage is still valid. So then, so all of that being said, then type in shadow, looking at Eve, her status with Adam, once she's created, is she still a virgin?

Because she does not lie with Adam until chapter four. And she is a virgin, betrothed, but considered to be the wife of Adam.

This is just, of either being a dirt bag for not honoring,.

Or being a cuckold for not honoring.

So, and those are lies.

Yeah, and there was only maybe 50 families in Nazareth.

So, the public shame of his bride, to redeem, sure, angel, clue back, whack, right, who is?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, but no, you're drawing the right connections. And this really does have everything to do with the question you're answering, okay? So, let's continue. So, man shall leave his father's mother, hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed. And at this point, they are both virgins. I have to back up into Genesis just a little bit, because there is a command given by God. All right, so let me back up into Genesis one.

Let's grab this bit of context, and then we'll take a look at three real quick. Genesis 1, 26, God said, let us make man in our image. Again, this is not, God does not have a mouse in his pocket. This is the council of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Let's make a man after our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the heavens, over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female. Note that both male and female are both created in the image of God, not merely male. That's vital. And then God blessed them, and said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

So, at the beginning of creation, God creates a male and female. Chapter two gives us the finer details. And God says to them, be fruitful, multiply. Humanity has not had a problem with that command. This is like the one that's the easiest, seemed people being willing to fulfill.

Now, coming back then to the question at hand, regarding Eve's status, the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field. I'm not gonna read the whole account of the fall, but we get to when God doles out the curses.

So, God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, and above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and the dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. You shall bruise, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And this is the first gospel pointing to Christ.

He is the fulfillment of that promise from God, given when he cursed the serpent. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. Everyone says, yeah, thanks, thanks Eve. And in pain you shall bring forth your children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, which I think is a good way to translate that portion of the Hebrew. But he shall rule over you, which is all the conflict that exists in marriage. That's part of the curse.

To Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your what?

Wife. All right.

Noah, the Dove, and Creation Through Water

Now, we're gonna pick up one other bit of data before I go over to Isaiah. And we're gonna take a look at a few passages in Isaiah 60, 65, and 66. And I think I wanna go here. Hang on a second here. I'm doing this from memory.

Genesis nine?

Yeah, all right. So, the deluge, the flood itself, is type and shadow. Type and shadow of what? Well, it is a picture of baptism, but that's an incomplete answer. All right, let me back up into eight.

I'm gonna help out here. Okay, so being saved through water is kind of the big overarching detail here. But we remember that there is something else going on here. Let's see here. Let me go into seven, see if this is it.

Oh, no, it's gonna be an eight. I missed it, because I'm not paying attention. Hold on. Here it is. Genesis eight, six. At the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. He sent forth a raven.

It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from above it to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth.

So he put out his hand, took her, and brought her into the ark with him. What is this a picture of? Dove brooding over the waters.

Creation, right?

That's exactly what that is. So note then, connect your dots here with your doves. And you, Bruce, would readily be able to see this, that the earth was without form. This is Genesis one, one, void. Darkness was over the face of the deep, and the ruach, Elohim, was hovering, rachaf, was brooding over the waters, right?

So there's your first instance, is in Genesis one. Now come to Genesis eight. You have the dove brooding over the waters again. Now, coming back to your baptism typology, because that's the big level fulfillment of it, is Christ in his baptism.

Where is he baptized?

In the water.

And in his baptism, the spirit again descends. This time, a light's on Christ, doesn't brood and hover. Okay, but you're gonna note.

Finds no place to rest.

Uh-huh, you see it?

Breathe.

Right, all right? So start connecting all the dots here, and you can kind of see that there's an overarching motif. Now, sub-motif in there, then, is that God creates through water. First creation created through water.

Second creation created through water. And the deluge itself, the flood, is a picture of God's judgment of the end of the world. Okay, complete destruction of the earth, and only the righteous survive.

And the ark itself, then, is a type of Christ. Okay, it looks like a coffin, a floating coffin. And if you're in the coffin, if you're in Christ, you survive the deluge. And then, when you land on the opposite side, it's now new creation.

That's why the dove is hovering that second time. It's new creation, and what's the command of God to Noah and his family? New creation.

Uh-huh.

We're gonna change something about your diet.

Yeah, uh-huh.

But here's the command of God, Genesis 9. God blessed Noah and his sons, said to them, be fruitful, multiply.

Okay?

The New Creation in Isaiah and the Question of Descendants

Now, all of that being said, Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. God makes a new heaven and a new earth. Now, whether or not you're into, like, he totally annihilates the current universe and creates a brand new one, or purges it through fire, there's two major views on this.

That doesn't matter, okay? I care less what God's gonna do. If he wants to kill it and make a new one in one day, that's his business, all right? But the ultimate thing is, is that now, what is Isaiah picturing with the new heavens and the new earth?

Everything being restored to its original state, sans sin, and now we don't even need the sun and the moon and the stars, because the glory of God will give its light on the earth. It's not that they're not gonna be there, it's that they're gonna be eclipsed by the light that is the glory of God.

But in the midst of all of that, then, comes some really weird statements, the ones that you were hinting at, and I do recommend, if you want to spend the money on the Concordia Commentary on Isaiah, that they flesh this out in kind of interesting detail, and I'll kind of get to that.

So let's take a look. We're gonna work through Isaiah 60 first, all right? In fact, let me do this in Logos, because Logos actually shows me the heading breaks better than Accordance does.

I have a question.

Yeah.

Is that one man's opinion?

Yeah, it's gonna be a scholar's opinion, and he does a really good job. It's as accurate as his faithfulness to exegeting the text, just like your pastor, okay? So I always like to tell people, don't take my word for it.

You get to fact check me as well. So I'm waiting for this to synchronize. I'm gonna hit skip and see if it'll open up.

Concordia Commentary on Isaiah.

So why is it so conquered in the Bible?

The Book of Concord isn't in the Bible. The Book of Concord is...

Why isn't it in the Bible?

Because the Book of Concord is just a synopsis. It's a summary of scripture. That's what a confession is, okay? All right, so Isaiah 60 is where we're gonna start, because this is where the theme begins to kind of flesh out.

So I will start at verse one, because that's kind of where you're gonna... If you read Isaiah, you'll note that Isaiah 60 is where you're gonna... Actually, it's in 59, where you begin to see this turn.

In the chapters preceding this, these are the suffering servant passages of Isaiah. And so you'll see in Isaiah 53 that he had no form or comeliness that we should desire him. We considered him a curse smitten by God and afflicted.

It was the will of God to crush him and that he was pierced for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. This is the suffering servant Psalms. And the presenting problem in the Book of Isaiah very early on in the first like five chapters is that Israel is steeped in idolatry, steeped in idolatry and syncretistic worship.

And there's this lament that the righteous are growing up alongside of those who are evil. And God is saying, as part of the overarching theme of Isaiah that there's a reversal coming when the unrighteous, the idolater will no longer be permitted to be in the presence of the righteous.

And the righteous whose fortunes are bad now and are suffering, they will instead have their fortunes reversed by this incredible change brought on by God. And so in 59, 60, you begin to see the turn and you begin to see the themes that get developed out in this section of Isaiah.

So 59 through 66. But I'll start at 60 verse one. Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of Yahweh has arisen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth. Thick darkness the people's. But Yahweh will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you.

A nation shall come to your light. Kings to the brightness of your rising. And this is all pointing to Christ. This is who the subject is. So lift up your eyes all around. See, they all gather together.

They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Now, that's a weird picture. But this is a picture, we saw more of this in our Old Testament text, of the nations coming to worship Christ in Jerusalem.

But included in the picture here is like kind of the first instance, this weird thing. And that is that there's a picture of small infants being carried by their mothers to Jerusalem. That's the first instance of it.

First.

And it gets fleshed out in subsequent portions of Isaiah. Now, I'm gonna, let's see here. I'm gonna fast forward to the text I used in the sermon today, Isaiah 65. Starting at verse I think 17, yeah. Now watch what it says.

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad, rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. And this is the portion of the Concordia Commentary that will, if you read this, if not, I can actually probably copy and email this to you, Bruce, if you want.

So it'll save you some money. But I think you'll appreciate it because watch what happens next. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days. Now just let that statement kind of roll around in your mind for a second here.

Is the reason why because there will be no infants? Uh-uh, it doesn't, that's the thing, okay? So here's the best way I can describe this to you is that we are seeing, and other scholars see it as well, that in the new earth, in the new creation, there is human procreation and we have no clue how the arrangement works between men and women in the new earth.

Let me keep reading.

Okay.

No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fail at his days. Now this comes to the part where you had the question. This is clearly word picture. For the young man shall die a hundred years old, the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. Like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Now, scripture interpreting scripture, we know that this is eternal life. But this is Isaiah, Old Testament type in shadow, picture of that eternal life.

Okay, I get that. I honestly have to disagree with you. That was eternal life. I remember the great spanking of Babylon. You know, but you didn't get that.

But then you die and you have to give your house and your vineyards to your successor.

But another just died.

Exactly.

Okay, so this is where you let the New Testament text interpret Isaiah here. Okay, so that we know that in the new creation, sin and temptation are no more. All of the causes of sin and stumbling are removed and we have the perfect righteousness of Christ as he is, we will be.

So we know that for a fact. So interpreting it then, so what Isaiah is doing is in word picture, trying to describe as best as he can, something that is almost undescribable. Does that make sense? Okay, now we keep going.

They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. And if I'm not mistaken, the Hebrew here for calamity is, check this if I'm right, if I'm doing this from memory. The phrase for calamity, is that not the king of terror?

Is that not the idiom used? If it's not there, it's somewhere else in the Hebrew. You don't see it? Okay, all right.

Where Hebrew's 14th?

It's probably in another passage.

Is that the 13th or 14th?

Let's see. It's 23rd.

Yeah.

Bear children for the king of terror. Meh melech.

Yeah, it's not there, it's in another text.

I'm doing this from memory, trying to remember where I read it.

All right.

But listen to what it says. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. And then listen to what it says. They shall all be the offspring of whom? Of the blessed of Yahweh. So note, there's kind of three levels to that statement here.

And their descendants with them. So my question, is the text saying that the reason why they will not bear children for calamity is that because there will be no children. And I would say in the exact same sentence, it says the reason why they will not bear children for calamity is that they will all be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord.

Referring to the descendants. The descendants of the people on the new earth will be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord. We are the blessed of the Lord. And their descendants with them. This is a text that says in the new earth that humanity has descendants.

You just let that hang out in outer space for a second. You sit there and go, what? Before they will call, I will answer. Before they are yet speaking, I will hear. Yeah, this is paradise restored. This is a picture of paradise restored.

But now the new earth is not an earth where it's only inhabited by two human beings. This is an earth inhabited by however many people have been brought to faith in Christ over the millennia. And it says of them that they have descendants.

That they will no longer bear children for calamity. Which basically says, they're gonna bear children. So I come back to what Christ says. In the new creation, women will not be given, or they will not be given in marriage.

Humanity's relationship with each other for the purpose of procreation will be the exact same relationship that the angels have, which none of us knows any of the details about.

Yeah.

Stay tuned, is the best way I could put it. There's a part of me that sits there and goes, I don't think it's an accident that the first big blowout party of the new earth, day one, is called the marriage feast of the Lamb.