The Push for 5,000

~ Bob Hayton ~ 18 Comments

I have a special mark approaching for my blog. In October, it will be 5 years of blogging. But sooner than that, I will hit the 5,000 approved comments mark.

I’ve run the full gamut of comments over the years. I’ve seen many helped, and several ticked off. I have had hundreds of people share that my story has blessed them and that they find my blog helpful. I’m grateful that sharing my thoughts like this has been a blessing for so many. I’ve also had my share of critics and debates. In the early days of my blogs, we’d run up 50 comments plus and dozens of pages of interaction on some of my posts. Occasionally I’ve had to delete some over-the-top comments, as well, and I won’t even mention all the spam (none of the deleted comments count toward the 5,000, by the way).

I appreciate those who’ve read my blog over the years, and am thankful for all this interaction. I’ve even been blessed to be able to consider many of you as my blogging friends — and meet some of you in person.

In honor of the 5,000 mark soon approaching, I thought I’d do a push for some comments and give out a prize to the person with comment #5,000. I won’t tell you how far away from the 5,000 mark I am, but it is easily attainable by comments to this post, or some of the other recent posts. I would imagine we could hit it today or tomorrow.

The prize will be your choice of one of three books I have available to give away. To enter, just leave a comment on this or any post. If your comment is #5,000 you win. Please until this contest is over, limit yourself to one comment per post with a max of 3 comments per person — to be fair to everyone. To save the expense to me, I’m going to limit the contest to residents of the U.S.A., although I must say I’ve been blessed to have faithful readers beyond the borders of America.

Here are the three books which the winner can choose from. Click on the picture for more details. Thanks again for making this blog successful, and for taking the time to drop comments. I always appreciate the interaction.

Quotes to Note 15b: Sailhamer on How Genesis Intends Joseph’s Life As a Type of the Coming Messiah

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

I’m working my way through John Sailhamer’s The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation (IVP). I’m finding multiple nuggets of special insight and blessing; the reward for reading through this 600 page book is well great indeed.

Often the interpretation of the Joseph narratives proves problematic among pastors and evangelical theologians today. Many don’t want to see Joseph’s life as paralleling Christ’s because the New Testament doesn’t expressly indicate that Joseph’s life is typical of the Messiah. But right in Genesis, however, Sailhamer finds a warrant for seeing Joseph’s life typified as an example of what the coming Messiah-King will be like.

…special attention [is] given to Judah in the whole of the Joseph narrative (Gen 37-50). As the story of Joseph’s journey to Egypt is getting underway (Gen 37), the author interrupts the narration to insert a lengthy story about Judah and his “righteous” (Gen 38:26) descendants (Gen 38). Also, when Joseph’s brothers devised a plot to kill him (Gen 37:18), it was Judah, rather than the firstborn, Reuben, who saved Joseph from sudden death. Such “reversals” occur numerous times within the remainder of the Joseph narrative. Judah is singled out from the other brothers as the one through whom the rescue of the family of Jacob was accomplished.

…Joseph’s brothers understood his [dreams] to mean they… would bow down to him…. As the narratives unfold, that is exactly what happens…. When they bow to him, Joseph “remembers his dreams” (Gen 42:9), and with him, the reader discovers that this is a work of divine intervention. The point of the narrative is to show that these and similar events are a fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams.

The narratives that focus attention on the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams are not permitted a final word. There are still important parts of the narrative that draw our attention not to Joseph, but to Judah. That focus reaches its fullest expression in Jacob’s poem (Gen 49). The last word of the Joseph narrative turns our attention toward the preeminence of the tribe of Judah: “your brothers will bow down to you”… (Gen 49:8b). These words connecting Judah to Joseph’s dreams are… important in giving us another look at the author’s understanding of Jacob’s first words to Judah. By means of these words (Gen 49:8b), a larger lesson is drawn from the Joseph narratives. What was once true only of Joseph, that his brothers would bow down to him (Gen 37:7-10), is now to find its fulfillment in the reign of one who holds the scepter from the house of Judah (Gen 49:10)…. In drawing a connection between the Joseph narratives and the promise to the house of Judah, Joseph and the events of his life foreshadow what will ultimately happen to the king from the house of Judah, the one spoken of in this poem. The king who was to come from the house of Judah is foreshadowed by the life of Joseph. He will save his people and the nations, just as Joseph saved the families of the sons of Jacob (Gen 50:20) and the nations (Gen 47:19). Joseph, rather than Reuben, will be the firstborn among his brothers, but Judah will reign through the kingship… (pg. 327-328)

A redemptive-historical approach to interpretation such as I advocate, would already feel liberty to find divinely-intended parallels between the life of Joseph and the life of Christ. Now with Sailhamer’s work, a stronger connection is forged, and we can see that the prophetic shapers of the final canonical form of the Tanak, themselves, saw parallels between Joseph’s career and the life and work of the coming Messiah-King.

A Biblegeek’s Dream: Viewing The Dead Sea Scrolls

~ Bob Hayton ~ 16 Comments

I had the opportunity of a lifetime. Last night, fellow biblioblogger and good friend, Shaun “the Bible Geek” Tabatt and I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls! They are on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota from now through mid-October.

Words cannot describe the experience. A picture might help. Notice the smiles…

Unfortunately, they don’t allow photography inside the exhibit. But I don’t know how you’d be able to take in the exhibit with flash photography all around.

The exhibit has plenty of information and artifacts to hold your interest for 2 hours or more, easily. I felt like we were rushing and we spent more than an hour and a half. If it was just Shaun and I and no babysitters to worry about, we’d have spent all night there…. As it was we had our wives and another couple along with.

I enjoyed learning more about the history of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Duke University refused to purchase some of them when first found. And three were advertised for sale in a newspaper, if you can believe it.

The scroll jars and artifacts from 2,000 years ago were also fascinating. The coins dating back to before Christ were even more interesting. I couldn’t help but thinking of National Treasure (the movie), when we noticed the humidity and temperature gauges in the display cases.

The highlight, of course, were the scrolls themselves. They had 5 manuscripts on display. I’ve heard that a total of 15 mss will be rotated through the exhibit. Of the 5 I saw, only 3 were Biblical: Isaiah, Psalms and Genesis. The other texts were the Temple Scroll, and the Damascus document.

With my limited Hebrew (and with some help from the English translations), I was able to make out some words in the Hebrew. On the Psalms manuscript, which was by far the largest manuscript there (portions of six or seven columns), a proto-Hebraic script was used for the name of the LORD (Yahweh). On the other scrolls I was able to read the tetragrammaton (YHWH). On the Genesis scroll I was able to see Jacob’s name twice. I also clearly observed that there were no vowel points in the Hebrew script. (A point that some King James Onlyists dispute, siding with John Owen against the unified testimony of evangelical scholarship.)

The whole exhibit was exhilirating, but there was something extra special about a couple of the text choices. Isaiah’s manuscript started with 53:10. They don’t mention how Christianity interprets that text, however. Even more thrilling to me, was seeing Ps. 119:89 written there in a 2,000 year old manuscript. “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens”. These manuscripts attest that God has preserved His Word for us faithfully down through the ages on earth, even, like it is in heaven.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is widely proclaimed as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. God in His providence has given us more insight into the original text of Scripture. And while there remain some questions as to particular readings here or there, the Dead Sea Scrolls witness to the stability and accuracy of the text of the Bible. It was a privilege to see some of that in person.

For more on the Dead Sea Scrolls, you’ll want to come up to Minneapolis and visit the exhibit. Or you can learn more at some of the following links.

Housecleaning: Feed Update

~ Bob Hayton

This is just a quick update to my subscribers. Many of you still subscribe to the old feed for my blog. I will be turning that feed off soon. Please update your subscription by subscribing to this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fundyreformed.

On a similar note, many of my readers still link to my blog’s old website. If you could update the link to FundamentallyReformed.com, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for reading my blog. God bless.

Together 4 the Gospel: 2010 Conference Audio Up

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Just a quick note that the audio for Together 4 the Gospel’s 2010 Conference is now up. I am looking forward to listening to the messages. I hope that some of the breakout sessions and the interview of Matt Chandler will also be available online as well.

You can find the audio and video for streaming and download here: http://t4g.org/resources.

Back at the first T4G conference, I posted the reasons why I am enthusiastic about the idea of Together For the Gospel. You may still enjoy my thoughts from back in 2006. And don’t forget my recent post: “United by the Gospel & Together for the Gospel“. This gives additional reasons on why I think the Gospel should unify us.