Dan Olinger

Dealing with Intimidation, Part 3: Power

September 26, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Facing a Giant | Part 2: No Panic

When, like Timothy, you’re facing a challenge that seems too big for you, it’s helpful to know that there’s no need to panic, because our Father has not given us a panicking kind of spirit.

But it’s also helpful to know what he has given us. Paul specifies three gifts from an omnipotent, gracious, knowledgeable, and sympathetic Father. The first of these is power.

God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline (2Ti 1.7).

There are two common Greek words for power. One means “authority”; it’s the word used in Mt 28.18—“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” It’s also used in Jn 1.12—“to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” That’s not the word used here, but it’s worth noting that we do have divine authority, for the reasons specified in these two verses. Our commission to go and make disciples (Mt 28.19-20) comes directly from Jesus, who does have all the authority in heaven and in earth; and because his work has made us sons of God, we carry princely authority whenever we pursue his will.

But, as noted, the word translated “power” in 2Timothy 1.7 is the other word, the word that means “might” or “strength.” As you’ve often been told, it’s the word from which we get our word dynamite—though, as has often been noted (see, e.g., D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies), you probably should ignore that fact, because since dynamite hadn’t been invented in biblical times, it has no impact whatsoever on our understanding of the biblical text.

Very commonly in the New Testament it’s used as one of the three Greek words for miracles. There’s signs, which emphasizes the meaning of the miracle—they’re not just done to entertain us, you know—and wonders, which emphasizes the effect on the eyewitnesses, and then miracles, which is our word, often translated “mighty works,” which emphasizes the power of the miracle-worker. (The three terms are used together in Acts 2.22, 2Corinthians 12.12, Hebrews 2.4.)

Interestingly, though the word power in Matthew’s record of the Great Commission is not this word, Luke’s rendering of the same commission in Acts does include it:

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Ac 1.8).

Luke had earlier noted Jesus’ promise to his disciples that this power would come upon them:

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high (Lk 24.49).

And Paul prays for the Ephesian believers that they will “be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Ep 3.16). Same word.

This is something we have. It is the strength supplied by God, manifested in us. It’s an irresistible force, an unstoppable strength; it’s the arm of the Almighty, the raw power evidenced everywhere in his creation.

In fulfillment of Jesus’ promise at the Great Commission, it’s the power that was poured out on the disciples at Pentecost, the power that turned the world upside down (Ac 17.6).

It’s what you need to get things done.

And God has given it to you.

God has given you the strength to do the hard thing, the thing that looks impossible, even though you’re “just not that kind of person.”

As long as your efforts are in the will of God, the strength is there to accomplish them.

Part 4: Love | Part 5: A Sound Mind

Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash

Dealing with Intimidation, Part 2: No Panic

September 23, 2021 by Dan Olinger 1 Comment

Part 1: Facing a Giant

As he commissions “son Timothy” (1Ti 1.18) to a daunting task—one likely overwhelming to his timid constitution—Paul begins, surprisingly, by noting what God has not given him—and us. He’ll get to what he has given us in a moment.

But God’s “stinginess” is important to our success. He has not given us a spirit of fear.

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline (2Ti 1.7).

This is not the usual word for fear (phobos); using that more common word, God has often reminded us that although we should not fear other people (Dt 31.3-6), we most certainly should fear Him (Dt 31.12-13); as Jesus put it,

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Mt 10.28).

So it would not be true for God to say that He has not given us a spirit that is able to fear, for He has. Fear can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on its object and its justifiability.

This word means something different. As the NRSV, which I’ve quoted here, makes obvious, this is the word for “cowardice”—being controlled by fear to the point that you cannot or will not do the things that you should.

Nobody likes a coward. We glorify heroes, because they do more than we expect; but we will not tolerate a coward. We don’t ask him to be a hero; we simply ask that he do right despite his fear.

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in an exercise with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office’s SWAT team. They wanted some practice clearing a fairly complex building in a terrorist scenario, and they asked for some volunteers to play the terrorists.

Well, of course.

The deputies and the volunteers met in a room and went over the procedures. Each of the volunteers was issued a handgun and blank rounds and instructed on various limits to the exercise. Then they took us to the building and told us to go inside, position ourselves however we liked, and in 30 minutes they’d be coming in.

Some of my fellow terrorists set up hostage scenarios to complicate the deputies’ situation. I decided to go off by myself. Found a room, evaluated hiding places, and eventually decided just to wait for them inside the door.

Counted my rounds. Seven. OK.

Something this SWAT team did surprised me: stealth was not on the menu.

They came in the end door of the building with a crash, a wave of shouting, and a volley of flash-bangs.

There was no doubt that they had arrived.

Then they began working methodically down the hall in my direction, coordinating movements, pronouncing rooms “Clear!” and moving precisely as planned.

It occurred to me that in a measurable number of minutes, they were going to arrive at my location—and dispose of me. Let me tell you, that was really intimidating. I was terrified.

Even in a simulation.

As they got close, I fired down the hall, and I’m proud to say that I stopped them briefly. But then I made a fatal mistake: I neglected to count my shots. On the eighth trigger pull, the “click” brought the shout “He’s out!” and down came Sennacherib’s Assyrian hordes on my little walled city.

I was surprised, on reflection, at how scared I was, even though I knew that this was make-believe and that these burly brutes weren’t going to hurt me.

Sooner or later, we all come face to face with the fact of our fear. We’re afraid of physical danger, of course, but we’re also afraid of less physical things. We’re afraid of rejection; we’re afraid of failure; we’re afraid of biblical confrontation; we’re afraid of saying the wrong thing at funerals. I’m afraid, and so are you.

But God has not given us a spirit of cowardice; He hasn’t given us a spirit that bails out in a crisis.

God has not given us a spirit that stops short of doing what we must do. Even when we’re afraid.

Part 3: Power | Part 4: Love | Part 5: A Sound Mind

Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash

Dealing with Intimidation, Part 1: Facing a Giant

September 20, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

“It’s just too much!”

We hear people say that. Sometimes we say it ourselves. Sometimes we face a problem, or a frustration, or an opposition that just seems to overwhelm us.

I had an experience like that recently.

I’m not a mechanical person—mostly because I just don’t want to be. If there’s a problem with the car, or the house, or whatever, I’d rather pay somebody else, who knows what he’s doing, to fix it than put the time and energy into doing it myself.

A while back my riding mower broke down, right in the middle of my mowing the lawn—but then, when else would it? This was beyond my knowledge set, and I made plans to take it to a shop and have it fixed.

But no one would work on it. They’re swamped; they can’t get parts lately; they don’t work on this model.

Nobody wanted my money.

Well, Dan, you’re just gonna have to knuckle down and figure out how to fix it yourself.

It took a while—longer than it would have if the guy with the wrench had known what he was doing—but I’m happy to say it’s back to its old self again, and I have all my fingers as well as my sanctification.

Thank you, YouTube.

Over the decades I’ve faced bigger problems, longer-lasting ones, intimidating ones. And so have you. Since my life has really been relatively easy, chances are you’ve faced bigger ones than I have. I know that’s true for many of my friends.

A situation comes along that you just don’t know how to deal with. You don’t have the knowledge, you don’t have the strength, you don’t have the focus, you don’t have the emotional stability.

It’s all just too much.

There’s a discussion on social media these days over whether God ever gives you more than you can handle. I think the disagreement is largely a matter of definition—what does “more than you can handle” mean?

We do have Paul’s famous observation that everything that comes your way has been allowed—filtered, if you will—by God, and that there is a way of escape (1Co 10.13), though it may be difficult to find. We have Paul’s further assertion that all things eventuate well (Ro 8.28)—though many have observed that quoting that verse at the moment of crisis is not always the best pastoral care.

But when those hard challenges come, where do we turn? What’s in our toolbox? Where’s the instructional video?

There are several instances in the Scripture where God’s people faced significant challenges. We all know about David and Goliath (1Sa 17.40-54), and Joshua’s commission (Jos 1.1-9), and Solomon’s (1K 2.1-4), and Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples (Jn 14-16).

I think we can find some useful information in a lesser-known event, another transition.

Paul’s ministry is a wonder to behold. He achieved astonishing things in his few decades of service to Christ, moving the gospel from its first location outside Israel—Antioch (Ac 13.1-3)—to the extent of the Roman Empire, the world of his day. He planted successful churches all across Turkey (Ac 13.4-16.10), all across Greece (Ac 16.11-18.18), up into modern-day Albania (Ro 15.19), the length of Cyprus (Ac 13.4-12) and Crete (Ti 1.5), and (I’m quite sure) across Spain as well. Most pastors are doing well to plant one church; Paul seems to spin them off every few weeks.

But Paul, like everybody else, has limited time. Soon he is “Paul the aged” (Phm 1.9) looking to pass off his ministry to his proteges, most famously Timothy and Titus.

We know more about Timothy than Titus. It seems that Timothy was less than a natural leader; Paul once prodded him not to let others undercut his authority (1Ti 4.12) and admonished him to take medicine to settle his stomach (1Ti 5.23).

Timothy, apparently, felt too small for the job. He didn’t think he could do what the Word of God, from the mouth of the apostle, had ordered him to do.

In his final letter, Paul urged him on:

I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands (2Ti 1.6).

And then he lifted the haze of doubt and uncertainty and timidity and fear that welled up in Timothy’s heart by saying these words:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline (2Ti 1.7).

I’d like to take a few posts to consider how we can face the giants—and win—based on this brief sentence.

Part 2: No Panic | Part 3: Power | Part 4: Love | Part 5: A Sound Mind

Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash

How to Parallel Park

September 16, 2021 by Dan Olinger 4 Comments

Seriously.

I know a lot of people who don’t know how to parallel park. Some of them won’t even try.

And as I observe my world, I realize that a lot of people I don’t know also don’t know how to parallel park. I have seen remarkable things.

Since I like to throw in a light-hearted post every so often, and since I really believe that I’ve discovered the way to parallel park accurately, first time, every time—and in remarkably tight spaces—I want to share my technique here. It really works.

The first thing you need to do is ignore what your driving instructor told you. He wanted you to look back over your right shoulder out the rear window.

As you well know, that doesn’t work at all. You can’t see what you need to see to be accurate.

Here’s what you need to do.

My instructions assume you’re driving on the right side of the road. This will work in former British colonies as well—I’ve proved it in South Africa, with a standard transmission, on a hill—but you’ll need to reverse left and right references, of course.

Pull up beside the car parked in the space in front of yours, a foot or two from it. Actually, the distance is not all that critical; if you’re farther away, your angle into the space will be sharper, but that doesn’t prevent a successful and efficient park. The key is that your rear bumper is even with the other vehicle’s.

VERY IMPORTANT THING: Look carefully around to ensure that the area is clear of things you don’t want to run into, including living persons. That liability situation is the whole reason your driving instructor told you to look over your right shoulder and out the back.

Turn the steering wheel all the way to the right, so that the rear end of your vehicle will move to the right as you back into the space.

SECOND VERY IMPORTANT THING: Don’t look over your right shoulder. Look instead in the outside mirror on the driver’s side (your left, in the good ol’ USA). This is the key to the whole operation. Note that when you’re looking here, you can’t see if someone is standing in the space you’re aiming for. That’s why you need to clear the area visually before you start.

Put ‘er in reverse and coast slowly back. As the back of your vehicle moves rightward into the space, locate in the mirror the left rear corner of the parking space. Aim the back left corner of your vehicle just inside that corner.

When the corner of your vehicle is properly aimed to hit that spot, turn the steering wheel back to the left until the front wheels are straight, and proceed slowly straight back into the space.

When your left rear tire is inside the side line of the space, and your front bumper is clear of the car parked in front of you, turn the steering wheel hard to the left to swivel the front of your vehicle into the spot.

When your vehicle’s entire left side is inside the lines of the parking space, straighten the steering wheel and stop.

Amateur level: You may need to move the car slightly backward or forward to get it completely inside the front and back lines of the space.

Pro level: Turn off the engine. You’re completely inside the space as soon as you straighten the steering wheel.

I’m telling you, this works. First time, every time.

You’re welcome. :-)

Photo by Adam Griffith on Unsplash

No Matter What

September 13, 2021 by Dan Olinger 3 Comments

I had an impactful experience recently that I’d like to share.

I’ve had a hearing problem since I was a boy and had a disagreement with a calf on the family farm; I wanted to ride him, and he disagreed. I landed on the right side of my head and heard something pop. That ear has been significantly impaired since then.

In recent years, with aging, the other ear has been declining as well. This summer I decided to get hearing aids, and I’ve been delighted with the experience; I should have done that long ago.

Six weeks later, one morning I woke up deaf. The “bad ear” was its normal self, but the “good ear” was just gone; it was now by far the “bad ear.” (I came to that realization when I flushed the toilet and heard absolutely nothing.)

Popped in the hearing aids—I’m glad I had them to fall back on—and found that when I cranked them all the way up, I could hear juuuust a little bit.

This was the first day of meetings for the returning faculty to start the school year, and I really needed to be able to hear at least some of what was going on. Made it a matter of prayer and headed off to work.

I managed to get through the day hearing enough to fulfill my responsibilities, but any of you with hearing aids knows that having them turned all the way up means that all the ambient noise is screaming inside your head all day, so it was fairly unpleasant. In fact, a colleague took me aside at one point and asked if I was feeling OK. I was surprised that my distress was noticeable and tried to make it less so for the rest of the day. :-\

That night I tinkered around with possible solutions, to no apparent effect, and went to bed.

Next morning, still deaf.

I did my usual personal devotional time, and in my prayer time I asked the Lord, if he was willing, to clear up the problem. I presented him with a couple of reasons why I thought my being able to hear would be better than the current situation—

I teach the Bible to Christian students, and they seem to benefit from it, and hearing their questions enables me to teach more effectively.
In times of worship, I’m much more inclined to rejoice when I hear the congregational singing of my church family—even though, truthfully, I don’t contribute much musical quality to it.

So I asked him to intervene.

And then.

I thought for a minute, and I told him something else.

“Father, if you don’t enable me to hear ever again, I’m going to serve you the best I can, without complaint. You have been unfailingly good to me for 60 years as a believer, and for several years before that. I trust you, and I will still trust you and serve you for every tomorrow. I’m with you.

No matter what.”

And I meant it.

That was a deeply significant moment.

I finished my devotional procedure and then, as was my custom, I took a shower. And during the shower, my hearing came back. I don’t want to get all TMI here—the queasy can look away—but the problem was a simple mechanical blockage by earwax.

So it was really no significant problem at all.

But I didn’t know that when I was praying, and I meant what I said. I will always remember the volitional significance of that experience.

And here’s what occurred to me then.

It was my ignorance that made the moment powerful. If I had known that this was just wax, and that the (completely nonsupernatural) solution was just moments away, I would never have faced the opportunity to make that significant choice.

God could have taught me that lesson by making me really deaf for the rest of my life—and that would have been fine, good even. But he knew he didn’t need to do that. All it would take was a little lump of earwax and a couple of days. And my limited knowledge. And so he did what it took.

He’s a gracious, merciful God, who brings good things even out of ignorance.

I’m all in.

No matter what.

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 10: Other Possibilities

September 9, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

We’re getting toward the end of our list of places where the New Testament quotes a YHWH passage from the Old Testament and applies it to Christ. The ones we’ve addressed so far are quite clear at both ends—that is, the NT passage is clearly citing the OT YHWH passage, and it is clearly applying it to Jesus.

I’d like to wrap up the series by listing a handful of other examples that are less certain. I’ll note where the uncertainty is. But I include them here as possibilities because they may be legitimate examples of the phenomenon we’ve been studying.

When Satan tempts Jesus to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple (Mt 4.7 // Lk 4.12), Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6.16, “You shall not tempt YHWH your God.” I think Jesus is saying that he should not tempt the Father by requiring a rescue; but there may well be a double meaning in his words to Satan, “You, Satan, should not be tempting me.” Possible; I wouldn’t say likely.

In Romans 12.19, Paul reminds his readers of the statement in Deuteronomy 32.35 that “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says YHWH.” In the context of Romans 12, he could well be referring to the Father. But the only other place where he uses the word vengeance of divine action is in an earlier epistle, 2Thessalonians 1.8, where Jesus is the one taking vengeance at his coming.

In Hebrews 10.30, the writer also quotes Deuteronomy 32.35-36, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay … YHWH will vindicate his people.” In the next paragraph, he presents as the fulfillment of that prediction (possibly paraphrasing Habakkuk 2.3) the words “Yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come.” The reference to a coming leans me toward a reference to the Son rather than the Father.

In Romans 14.11, Paul quotes Isaiah 45.23, “As I live, says YHWH, every knee shall bow to me.” Again, here the reference could be to the Father. But Paul will shortly later write that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow” (Php 2.10).

In 1Corinthians 2.16 Paul quotes Isaiah 40.13, “Who has known the mind of YHWH?” and then says, “But we have the mind of Christ.” Back in verse 11 he has mentioned the Spirit as knowing the mind of God, and he may be mentioning Christ here in a parallel sense. But maybe not.

The author of Hebrews quotes extensively from Jeremiah 31, where YHWH says that he will make a “new covenant” with his people (He 8.8-12; 10.16-17). The context quotes the words of all three members of the Trinity—the Son (He 10.8-9), then the Father (He 10.12-13), then the Spirit (He 10.16-17). Which person is the initiator of the New Covenant? (Or should this agency even be ascribed to just one of the persons?) Do Jesus’ words at the Last Supper (Mt 26.28 // Mk 14.24 // Lk 22.20) give us a basis for making him the “YHWH” who speaks in Jeremiah 31?

In 1Peter 3.15 Peter may be referencing Isaiah 8.13; commentators are divided on that. (Noted NT scholars Wayne Grudem and Thomas Schreiner both think so.) Isaiah says we should regard YHWH as holy; Peter says we should regard “the Lord Christ” as holy. The situation is complicated by a textual variant in Peter’s passage; most of the manuscripts say “the Lord God,” but pretty much all of the oldest manuscripts (fewer in number, because, well, they’re older) say “the Lord Christ.” If you’re a majority-text person—and you’re welcome to be, as far as I’m concerned—you won’t want to use this one.

In Revelation 1.7 John appears to be citing an OT text when he describes Jesus as “coming in the clouds.” He might be referencing Daniel 7.13, where one like a son of man (human in appearance) comes in the clouds to appear before the Ancient of Days. Jesus himself refers to this passage during his trial (Mt 26.64 // Mk 14.62) and applies it to himself. But it’s possible that John is referencing Isaiah 19.1, where YHWH comes on a cloud.

Maybe all of these are further examples of the Scripture calling Jesus Jehovah; maybe none of them are. But we have multiple passages where the Bible clearly makes that claim.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail”

September 6, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

In the previous post we noted that Hebrews 1 begins the author’s task of demonstrating the superiority of Christ in all things by demonstrating his superiority to the angels. He does this by citing a series of quotations from the Hebrew Scripture, what we Christians call the Old Testament. We looked last time at a quotation from Deuteronomy in Hebrews 1.6.

Just a few verses further we find another Old Testament YHWH passage (Ps 102.25-27) cited and applied to the Son:

“In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; ¹¹they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; ¹²like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end” (He 1.10-12).

The author of Hebrews, as is his custom, is quoting not the Hebrew Old Testament but its Greek translation, the Septuagint, which was in very common use in the first century. In verse 10 the Septuagint has the word “Lord” (Gk kurie), and consequently the Greek of the verse, and the English translations, have it as well. It’s proper to note that the word does not occur in the Hebrew text, having been added by the Septuagint translators. (I noted last time that the Septuagint is of uneven quality.)

So the word “Lord” (in Hebrew, either Adonai or YHWH) does not in fact occur in Psalm 102.25. But “YHWH” does occur earlier in the Psalm; in fact it occurs 8 times in 28 verses (Ps 102.1, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, and 22). As you might suspect from the frequency and extent of the appearances, the entire psalm is addressed to YHWH. And for good measure, the name “God” (Elohim) appears in verse 24.

Beyond the name statistics, however, the context—the entirety of Psalm 102—makes the impact of this application all the more impressive.

The psalm is addressed as a plea prayer, requesting deliverance (Ps 102.1-2)
- From extreme physical ailment (Ps 102.3-5);
- From psychological torment (Ps 102.6-7, 9, 11);
- From powerful enemies (Ps 102.8);
- From the wrath of the addressee, God (Ps 102.10).
The psalmist is confident that God can deliver him from such a complex, multifaceted problem because
- He is a mighty king (Ps 102.12a);
- He has an eternal reputation (Ps 102.12b);
- He is compassionate (Ps 102.13a, 14);
- He keeps his promises (Ps 102.13b);
- He does infinitely impressive works (Ps 102.15-16);
- He cares for the downtrodden (Ps 102.17-20); and
- He is the kind of person whom it is right and reasonable to worship (Ps 102.21-22).

The Psalmist climaxes his prayer by contrasting his temporality (“do not take me away at the midpoint of my life”) with God’s eternality (“you whose years endure throughout all generations”) (Ps 102.24)—and then comes the closing stanza, a hymn to the eternality and power of the Almighty and the security those who trust in him, most of which is the portion quoted in Hebrews:

²⁵Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away; ²⁷but you are the same, and your years have no end. ²⁸The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence.

Once in this Psalm the writer calls this person God, and 8 times he calls him YHWH.

The writer to the Hebrews calls him Jesus.

Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 8: “Let All the Angels of God Worship Him”

September 2, 2021 by Dan Olinger 2 Comments

Nobody knows who wrote Hebrews. Many potential authors have been suggested; my personal favorite suggestion is Apollos, “mighty in the Scriptures” (Ac 18.24), but nobody thought of him for centuries, a fact that doesn’t bring historical confidence. But whoever the author was, this epistle / sermon rings with divine authority and rhetorical beauty.

The author’s purpose is to demonstrate to Jewish believers, who were apparently wavering in their Christian faith and considering returning to traditional Judaism, that Jesus is far superior to anything in the old system. He’s superior to the angels (ch 1); to the Mosaic system (ch 3); to the Levitical priesthood (ch 5-7); and to the Old Covenant (8-10). He’s just better; there’s no reason to go back.

The author begins with a series of quotations from the OT to demonstrate that Jesus is superior to the angels (He 1.4), who in Jewish tradition were the ones who brought the Law from God to Israel (Ac 7.53).

“Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (He 1.5, quoting Ps 2.7).
“I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son” (He 1.5, quoting 2Sa 7.14, the Davidic Covenant).
“Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire” (He 1.7, quoting Ps 104.4).
“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. ⁹Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (He 1.8-9, quoting Ps 45.6-7).
“Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: ¹¹They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; ¹²And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail” (He 1.10-12, quoting Ps 102.25-27).
“Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (He 1.13, quoting Ps 110.1).

“Mighty in the Scriptures,” indeed.

It’s noteworthy that this list includes the direct statement that the Father calls the Son “God” (He 1.8). This is a clear affirmation of the deity of Christ, though it’s not an example of calling the Son “YHWH.”

Speaking of which, where is that ascription in this list?

Well, if you were paying close attention, you might have noticed that I skipped a verse:

“Let all the angels of God worship him” (He 1.6).

I skipped it because for years it was a serious interpretational problem. For centuries we had no Hebrew manuscripts that contained that verse anywhere in the Old Testament. It was in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT, in Deuteronomy 32.43, the ending of the song of Moses. But with absolutely zero Hebrew manuscripts containing it, and with the Septuagint’s reputation as of, well, uneven quality, textual scholars didn’t have the kind of evidence they like in order to view the passage as genuine.

Some suggested that it was a loose paraphrase of Psalm 97.7, but that was a stretch, for both textual and contextual reasons.

So. What to do?

And then, in 1947, a Palestinian shepherd boy was amusing himself by throwing rocks at the entrance to a cave some distance up the face of a cliff, and he was delighted when he hit his target. The rock entered the cave—and the boy heard something break.

Long story short, behold, the Dead Sea Scrolls. Which included multiple ancient copies of Deuteronomy, including several that contained the phrase at Dt 32.43—

Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: let all the angels of God worship him; for he will avenge the blood of his servants …

Whaddaya know. It’s genuine.

And so, to our point. Who is the “him” that the angels of God are being ordered to worship? You need to go back through the context quite a ways to find the antecedent, but it’s right there in Dt 32.36:

For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.

Moses orders the angels to worship YHWH.

The author of Hebrews cites the order as the Father’s statement on the incarnation of the Son (He 1.6): “Let all the angels worship him!”

As, indeed, they did:

Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. … Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! (Lk 2.11, 14).

Jesus is Jehovah.

By the way, I notice that this is my 400^th post on this blog. I can only hope that the writing has been anywhere near as profitable for you as it has been for me.

Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail” | Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 7: “The LORD Will Come in Fire”

August 30, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Isaiah is, in many minds, the premier Old Testament prophet. He writes to a nation facing imminent invasion from Assyria: in a few years Sennacherib’s forces will take all the leadership of the Northern Kingdom into exile, effectively decapitating their status as a nation. Surprisingly, Isaiah spends much of his prophecy looking beyond that to another invasion, this one by Babylon, whose Nebuchadnezzar will similarly decapitate the Southern Kingdom in three waves, the last and most devastating one bringing the complete destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 BC.

Isaiah justifies God’s devastating plan by cataloguing Israel’s sins, North and South. From the beginning God offers to reason with his stubborn people (Is 1.18), but they only harden their hearts to further stubbornness. The first section of his prophecy is dark indeed.

But Isaiah, reflecting the God for whom he is a spokesman, does not leave his people in darkness. The second part of the book begins with comfort (Is 40.1) and promises that Judah will return through the wilderness to their ancestral homeland (Is 40.3), given them by this very God and promised to them, as Abraham’s descendants, for all time. Isaiah even names Cyrus, decades before his birth, as God’s instrument to return his people to their homeland—and yes, I believe that Isaiah wrote those words (Is 44.28-45.1). This good news is to be proclaimed from the high mountains, so that all can hear and rejoice (Is 40.9).

God is just, and he is good (Ps 89.14). In wrath he remembers mercy (Hab 3.2).

The best of the news is that God’s Servant will one day die for the sins of his people (Is 53.4-8), meeting God’s justice in a way that allows mercy without compromise. What a remarkable promise the prophet pictures.

At the very end of his book he wraps up the story by promising that the mighty God will restore his people to peace in their land (Is 66.12-14) and destroy these powerful enemies that have abused and exiled them; God will rush upon the enemies with an overwhelming power, infinitely greater than even their fearsome armies:

¹⁵For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many (Is 66).

This didn’t happen in Isaiah’s time. Oh, Judah returned from captivity (Ezra 1-5), and at the command of King Cyrus (Ezra 1.1), predicted by name decades before. Messiah did die for the sins of his people (Ro 5.12, 19; 2Co 5.21). But YHWH did not come in flames of fire to incinerate his enemies.

Yet the story is not done.

Paul the Apostle writes to one of his first European churches, in Thessalonica, words that must have surprised a good number of his readers—

It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; ⁷And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, ⁸In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: ⁹Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; ¹⁰When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day (2Th 1).

Who is coming in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his enemies? YHWH, as Isaiah promised all those centuries ago? Yes, indeed; Paul calls him “Lord” three times in this passage. But not just “Lord,” the OT YHWH; he calls him “the Lord Jesus Christ.”

YHWH, the eternal and omnipotent one, is Jesus.

Part 8: “Let All the Angels of God Worship Him” | Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail” | Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 6: Excursus—Descent into Hell

August 26, 2021 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: “Prepare Ye the Way” | Part 3: “I Have Seen the LORD” | Part 4: “Call upon the Name of the LORD” | Part 5: “He Ascended Up on High”

As I noted last time, Ephesians 4.9 says that Christ “descended first” (that is, before his ascension) “into the lower parts of the earth.” This passage serves as one proof text for the so-called “descent into hell”—that Jesus’ spirit went to hell while his body was in the tomb. This view is held by various groups across the spectrum of broad Christendom.

I don’t buy it.

First, a little exegesis in this passage. The key to the verse is the phrase “the lower parts of the earth.” What is that?

The phrase is rare, but it does appear twice in the OT. In Isaiah 44.23 it appears in contrast with heaven: “Sing O ye heavens; … shout, ye lower parts of the earth.” Here it clearly means the earth as distinguished from heaven; grammarians would call this a “genitive of apposition”—“ye lower parts, that is to say, the earth.” If this is the meaning in Ephesians 4.9 (and of its source in Psalm 68.18), then Paul is simply saying that the person who came to earth is the same one that returned to heaven—and the descent is the incarnation, not the time in the tomb.

The phrase also appears in Psalm 63.9—“Those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.” There’s room for debate here, but I’m inclined to think that this is a reference to the grave—a place dug beneath the earth’s surface—rather than hell. There’s no clear indication in Scripture that hell is physically beneath the earth’s surface, and the Psalmist is likely saying simply that those who want him dead will be similarly judged by dying. If this is the meaning in our passage, then Paul is saying that the person who died is the same as the one who ascended to heaven.

In neither case is there any clear statement that Jesus went to hell.

Proponents of the view also mention Psalm 16.10, the Messianic prophecy that God will “not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” So Messiah spent some time in hell and was delivered from it.

I think not.

A key feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, one form of which is synonymous parallelism—saying the same thing twice in different words. An example is Psalm 2.4—“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” It seems clear to me that Psalm 16.10 is the same structure; “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell” is saying the same thing as “thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” Where does corruption—decomposition—occur? Not in hell, certainly; there “the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9.44). It occurs in the physical grave. And the word for “hell” in the passage (sheol) can indeed mean “the grave” (Ps 49.14).

So what is Psalm 16.10 saying? Simply that God will not leave Messiah in the grave long enough for decomposition to begin; he will resurrect him before then. As he did.

Interestingly, both Peter (Ac 2.25-31; note esp v 29) and Paul (Ac 13.34-37) confirm this understanding. Each of them preaches (at Pentecost and at Pisidian Antioch, respectively) that Psalm 16.10 was fulfilled when God raised Jesus from the grave, thereby preventing the “corruption” that certainly occurred to David’s corpse.

If any doubt remains, I’ll note that from his cross Jesus told the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me—in paradise.” It’s pretty clear where Jesus’ spirit went when his body was (briefly) in the tomb.

Part 7: “The LORD Will Come in Fire” | Part 8: “Let All the Angels of God Worship Him” | Part 9: “Your Years Shall Not Fail” | Part 10: Other Possibilities

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash