Tag: Bible

A Study Bible You’ll Use

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

If you are like me you have 2 or 3 study Bibles filed away on a bookshelf somewhere. They rarely get used; and when they do, they aren’t much help. I don’t know why, but study Bibles always seem better on the bookstore shelf than they actually are.

But I’ve found a study Bible I would actually use. It’s the new ESV Literary Study Bible by Leland & Phillip Graham Ryken.

I don’t own this Bible, but it is now on my wishlist. If the Bible lives up to the review Tony Reinke gave at The Shepherd’s Scrapbook, then I’m sure it is a must-have.

It stresses the literary aspect of the Bible which is so often overlooked, and it provides helpful prenotes, providing a preview of each section you are about to read.

I can do no more here than to encourage you to check out Tony’s review. Tony’s challenge is to go to your local bookstore, pick up the book and read the entire book of Job, notes and all. By then you’ll be convinced of the merits of this study Bible. He makes me want to go and do just that.

Thoughts on the Battle of Jericho

~ fundyreformed ~ 10 Comments

I recently read the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho in the new kid’s Bible storybook I’ve been promoting. In that story I read these words:

Then God made his people a promise. “I will always be with you….    If you do what I say, your lives in the new land will be happy and everything will go well.”

So Joshua gathered his army together…. They were ready to fight. But the plan wasn’t about fighting; it was about trusting and doing what God said. (emphasis added, quote from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones)

Canaan as a Type

These words spurred me to think about the battle of Jericho as it relates to the battle of our own personal sanctification. Christians for centuries have interpreted the story of Israel’s redemption and exodus form Egypt, their wandering in the desert, and their conquering the promised land in some kind of a spiritual sense. Scripture certainly presents Jesus as the archetypal Passover Lamb. The misadventures of Israel in the wilderness teach us spiritual lessons (1 Cor. 10). And the promised land is a type of Abraham’s “better” and “heavenly” country which he sought (Heb. 11). Numerous hymns have also  equated crossing the Jordan with entering our eternal rest.

Certainly a redemptive historical hermeneutic finds great significance in the story of the Israelites conquering the promised land. As my friend Nathan Pitchford has so clearly shown, the land of promise is intimately connected to fellowship with God. The land was to be the place where God would be Israel’s God and they would be His people. Fellowship was the goal of the land promise, even as later with David, God chose Jerusalem to be the city where His name would be. The OT covenants and promises became increasingly particularized and focused on the heir of David to be ultimately fulfilled with Christ.

All that is to say the possession of Canaan by the people of God was important because this land was to provide a restoration, in part, of Eden. It was to be a place where God communed with man in intimate fellowship. Such a place clearly typifies the abundant Christian life of a believer. A believer experiences fellowship with God which is truly a foretaste of heaven. Just as the land of Canaan ultimately points forward to the New Jerusalem and the New Earth (see Rev. 21), so the believer’s experience of life in Christ is the foretaste of the true essence of eternal life.

The Battle to Win Canaan

Now that we have established the typical significance of the land of Canaan, we are prepared to see how the battle of Jericho wonderfully instructs us. (And I grant I have not truly established it, rather I  explained it. This post is not a full-fledged  defense of the redemptive historical hermeneutic.) Before the Israelites could possess their inheritance, they had to conquer their foes. The battle of Jericho was the first fight to win the promised land, and it sets up what proves to be a pattern. The Israelites trust in God’s power to win each battle for them.

I hope you can see how this applies to us. In order for us to reach our inheritance — the ultimate promised land of heaven, we must trust in God to win our battles.    In Jesus (the Captain of the Lord’s hosts) must be our trust. So with ultimate salvation, we must trust in God to undertake for us and win the battle.  

But this applies to our sanctification as well. For us to enjoy the abundant life in Christ, we must fight the flesh and engage our besetting sins. We must mortify sin (see John Owen’s excellent work On the Mortification of Sin, which is an exposition of Rom. 8:13). And how do we win the battles of sanctification? By trusting in God to win our battles for us, of course. We follow in Joshua’s footsteps.

The Point of this Post

What most blessed me in thinking through all of this was an observation. Joshua and the army of Israel did not sit around on their hands and wait for the walls to fall down. They obeyed. Scripture repeatedly tells us that good works are the inevitable, even the required fruit of believers.   (See my post Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!) If we are not obeying, we have good reason to be doubting our salvation.  

Today, there are many who so stress the necessity of good works that they have redefined justification. They claim  justification is based on our good works, yet they claim such works are only done through the Spirit, and so this position still qualifies as justification by faith.  

Against the backdrop of this whole debate, the example of Jericho becomes all the more clear. If the Israelites had not obeyed by marching around the city, God would not have given them th evictory. Obedience is necessary. But obedience does not earn or obtain anything. It is only God’s grace which would topple the walls of Jericho. And certainly marching around the city did not do anything to earn the victory. God throwing the walls down earned the victory.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we face the struggles of personal sanctification, let us take heart. God is fighting our battles for us. We do need to be faithful and march around the walls of the sins in our life. But ultimately God is the one who tears down those walls and gives us spiritual victory after spiritual victory. Just like it took many years for the Israelites to conquer all of Canaan, our own struggle for sanctification is a slow process. And like the Israelites, we will never expel all of our sins. We can, however, win a victory and live a life of victory (see Josh. 21:43-45). And when we do, it is not our obedience which has won anything. It is all by God’s grace and His fighting for us. The battle is indeed the Lord’s.

So let us seek to trust our Great Captain, and follow His lead in fighting our sin. To God be the  glory, great things He has done, and will do!

(For similar posts, see My 219 Epiphany, parts 1 and 2; Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!; and Bitterness and Desire.)

More on a Christ-Centered Kid’s Book

~ Bob Hayton ~ 5 Comments

check out The Jesus Storybook BibleNot long ago, I passed along a recommendation for a new Bible Storybook called, The Jesus Storybook Bible. I called it a “storybook for preachers“, and explained why a Christ-centered Biblestory book could help many a preacher.

Well, I came across an excellent and informative interview of the author, Sally Lloyd-Jones about this book over at Eucatastrophe. I’m going to post a few excerpts here, and encourage you all to go read the interview. And more than that, you’ve got to get the book. I did, and I’m loving it. You can expect a review of it before too long.

I found it so moving when I started to discover how the Old Testament is basically one long record of failure””the failure of God’s people time and time again to live rightly, to rescue themselves””and that the stories in the Old Testament are all getting us ready for the One who is coming. They are all signposts to the True Hero, the True King, the True Prince, the True Servant, the greater David, the greater Daniel. The Rescuer.

As a child, I thought the Bible was packed with rules you had to keep (or God wouldn’t love you) and heroes setting examples you had to follow (or God wouldn’t love you). I thought, in short, that the Bible was all about me and what I should (or shouldn’t) be doing. Until I read a Story.

It’s the Story running like a golden stream underneath all the other stories in the Bible: the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. Suddenly, I realized the Bible wasn’t about me and what I should be doing at all. It was about God and what he had done. And it changed everything…

It sounds strange, but the consistent reaction from many adults is that it makes them weep. (I think that’s good? Hope so!) Parents are reading it to one another as their devotional before bed. Pastors are using it to help them with their preaching. I heard someone call it, “the storybook for preachers” [she might be referring to my blogpost here!!].

And of course families are reading it together. Teenagers and college students have told me they are enjoying it. I heard from one dad that his young boys listen to each of the stories and as they near the end of each story, they whisper just one word: “Jesus.” I couldn’t ask for a better response. May all of us to be whispering his name in all the stories of our lives!

Be sure to read the entire interview!! (The comments discuss the Christ-centered treatment of the Old Testament in more depth.)

Jesus, Our Sacrifice, Our Priest, and Our Tabernacle

~ fundyreformed ~ 3 Comments

I am remiss to say I don’t keep up with all my friend’s blogs as often as I should. And I confess I have not been reading my friend Nathan Pitchford’s recent Studies in the Gospel of John. But I have been blessed by reading his most recent study on chapter 17. It is a long post, but every inch of it is worth a spiritual mile. It is rich and precious food for your soul.

The post reminded me of the richness of our salvation and  the Glory of our Savior, as it explored  some of the riches of John 17.   And as  Nathan had promised (in a comment on my last post), his post touched  on the ultimate reasons God had for creating man. What I want to focus on in this post, is how Jesus fulfills the rich imagery of the OT sacrificial system.

I am sure he delves deeper into an explanation of this in his prior posts, but let me quote  Nathan’s first paragraph which states how John’s Gospel presents Jesus as the Fulfillment of the OT Tabernacle (think John 1:14 “dwelt” = “tabernacled”).

During the course of our journey through the gospel of John, we have also taken a journey through the tabernacle, and we have seen how all of its imagery is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the Lamb of God, offered upon the brazen altar at the entrance to the courtyard. He is the laver by which the priests were cleansed, and in him is the water of everlasting life. He is the table of the bread of the presence, nourishing those who eat of him with the true life of fellowship with God. He is the candlestick, the tabernacle’s only source of light. And now, just before he offers himself up for our sins, we see that he is likewise the fulfillment of the symbolism in the altar of incense.

The post on chapter 17 goes on to detail how Christ was both the Sacrifice (offered on the brazen altar for the sins of the people) and the High Priest (who would take of the blood of that altar and offer it before the LORD, at times on the altar of incense). We do have a full salvation, as Jesus our Great High Priest can “save to the uttermost” all who come to Him in faith. And as the prayer of Jesus reminds us, God is sure to preserve and keep His own people perfectly.

Before I bow out, and ask you to read Nathan’s post, let me quote what Nathan wrote concerning the importance of the prayer in John 17 to John’s Gospel as a whole.

…The fact that all of Jesus’ specific requests, as to what precisely his imminent death and resurrection should accomplish, are things that John’s gospel has emphasized, tells us that John must have considered this prayer so important that he intentionally designed his gospel account around fleshing out the truths which he had heard in Jesus’ prayer. This chapter is not the summary of John’s gospel, it is the fountain and foundation for everything that John wrote. Really, it would be hard to overestimate the importance of this prayer: who would know better what specific effects to look for from the most important event of all history (indeed, the event for which all of history was designed) than the one who actually accomplished this all-important event of redemption through his sacrificial death on the cross? Do we want to know what God intended for Christ’s death and resurrection to accomplish? We have no further to look than right here.

Allright, I don’t think there is any more enticement needed for you to go read Nathan’s post. Read it today on Sunday, if you can. Read it and rejoice in our Savior.

The Storybook for Preachers

~ fundyreformed ~ 9 Comments

check out The Jesus Storybook BibleThe more I learn about Pastor Tim Keller (of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City), the more I respect his opinion. So when he says of a new kid’s Bible storybook: “I’d urge ministers to buy it and read it for themselves. It will improve their preaching.” I listen up.

From what I have heard and seen about the book so far, I’d have to agree. But perhaps you’re wondering, “How can any Bible storybook help a preacher? Storybooks are just dumbed down Sunday School lessons for kids, aren’t they?”

Very often, and with many a book, sadly, I’d have to agree with your point. In fact, Kathy Keller, Tim’s wife, who has edited children’s Sunday School curriculum  and also  worked as a theological consultant for Zondervan, says the following:

It is very hard to find (or even produce) material for children that doesn’t essentially contain the message “Be good, so that God, your heavenly Father will  love you, and your earthly parents will be happy with you, too.”

In stark contrast to such kid’s material, stands Sally Lloyd-Jones’ new book: The Jesus Storybook Bible. Of this, Kathy Keller writes:

…Sally goes out of her way in the first pages of the book to reclaim the true story of the Bible: not a book of rules, nor a book of heroes, but:

The Bible is most of all a Story…It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this Story is —it’s true! There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

Tim Keller describes the book:

Sally Lloyd-Jones has captured the heart of what it means to find Christ in all the scriptures, and has made clear even to little children that all God’s revelation has been about Jesus from the beginning–a truth not all that commonly recognized even among the very learned.

This storybook in a nutshell,

capture[s] the plot line of redemption in a children’s story Bible that sings the praise of Jesus and his saving grace on every page, in every story. (—Kathy Keller)

Now, Tim Keller is Sally Lloyd-Jones’ pastor. But still  by now you should be convinced this book is different. But why should it be required reading for pastors?

Here’s why. When we step back and see the Bible as a whole, and look at all the characters and events in light of their place in redemptive history, the power of the Story shines through. Stories, especially well crafted ones, capture our imagination. They thrill even as they teach. This is why fairy tales and good fantasy literature are so enduringly popular. So looking at the Bible as a story, has practical benefits. It can thrill us anew at the wonder of God’s redemption work.

But today, pastor’s are busy preaching other things than the Gospel Story of Redemption. Often the Bible is seen as a “how-to-have-a-successful-life-manual”. Other times it is simply  a rule-book for how to please God. For others it is a theological manual or a social-remedy-guide. It is everyone’s panacea, and everyone has a prooftext for teaching anything.

So why not let the Bible speak for itself? Why not let the Biblical story shine as intended? Sometimes, I think, we would if we could just see it. There are so many other things about the Bible that are important, yet they steal our attention from Its Big Story.

So perhaps a kid’s storybook, pictures and all, might just do the trick. And let me tell you, just the two stories I read in the online sample, were enough to convince me that the book might just have that effect on me.

So check this book out. Read Kathy Keller’s full review,  and see Justin Taylor’s  brief post on it (that’s where I found out about it, and it is in the comments there  that Pastor Keller made the statement that started this post). Then buy it, and purpose to use it for yourself first, and your kids second. [Also check out the book’s  flyer.]

For more info on the  redemptive historical approach to Scripture, check out my hermeneutics topic, my friend Nathan Pitchford’s blog, or this category at Monergism.