Seder 51: Exodus 10 and Revelation 9:1-11---Locust Plagues

 God used the plagues of the Exodus to free the Israelites, judge the Egyptians and their gods, and send important messages to Israel, Egypt, and other nations.  

Throughout the rest of the Bible. themes and images from the Exodus are used in situations where God is judging the rebellious and rescuing his people.  For example, in the visions of the book of Revelation, imagery from the plagues of the Exodus is prominent.  

Revelation 9:1-11 describes the judgment of the fifth trumpet, which sends out a kind of locust plague, an allusion to the eighth plague of the Exodus (Ex 10:1-20).  As in the plagues of the Exodus, the people of God are protected from this judgment (Rev 9:4), and God limits the extent of the judgment---it lasts for five months (Rev 9:5).   

In other ways, this is different from the locust plague of the Exodus.  The locusts in ancient Egypt devoured plants (Ex 10:14-15), while those in Revelation 9 are told to avoid plants.  

In fact, the ``locusts'' in Revelation 9 are not insects.  They come out of the abyss or "bottomless pit," a place of confinement for evil spiritual beings (Lk 8:31).  According to traditions recorded in 1 Enoch, the Watchers of Genesis 6 are held there.  In Revelation 9:1-2, an angel temporarily releases some of the beings confined there to carry out judgment on rebellious humans.  

Revelation 9:7-11 describes the ugliness of these beings.  A misguided popular approach to interpreting this passage tries to connect it with modern military technology.  Such images would not have been meaningful to John or his original readers.  Instead, we should realize that Revelation is full of allusions to passages from the Hebrew Scriptures.  For example, ``their teeth like lions' teeth'' in Revelation 9:8 comes from Joel 1:6; "the locusts were like horses prepared for battle" in Revelation 9:7 refers back to Joel 2:4; and the comparison with the noise of chariots in Revelation 9:9 is similar to Joel 2:5.  The book of Joel likens an invading army to a locust plague, and something similar is happening in Revelation 9.  

Seder 5 Sermon: Noah and the Coming of the Son of Man

 In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on November 11, 2023, Kyle Kettering explored Jesus' teaching about his return, recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 17.

For one thing, Jesus taught that it would be impossible to predict the time of his return (Mt 24:36).  We are to live our lives in readiness for that time.  

Jesus also compared the time before his return to the time before the flood:  "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man"  (Mt 24:37; cf. Lk 17:26).  

In this saying, Jesus spoke about himself in the third person as "Son of Man," as he often did.  Kyle reminded us that the title "Son of Man" is actually a more exalted title than "Son of God" is.  "Son of God" is a term associated with a Davidic king (2 Sam 7:14).  "Son of Man" can refer to 

• a son of Adam---i.e., a human being, as in the book of Ezekiel.
• Abel, the son of Adam, who in some traditions was expected to return as a Judge (e.g., in the Testament of Abraham).
• the divine figure of Daniel 7:14ff.  

It is this third sense that is in view in Matthew 24 and Luke 17.  

In what sense will the time before Jesus' return be like the days of Noah?  Genesis 6 describes the days of Noah as a time of violence (Gen 6:11 ,13), which was a major reason for the Flood.  God's "soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence" (Ps 11:5).  The king of Tyre, a type of Satan, was "filled with violence," which led to his downfall (Ezek 28:16).   

Jesus taught in Luke 17 and in his Olivet discourse that many would be surprised and caught unawares by his return.  Luke 17 closes with the cryptic saying, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."  

Some see a reference in Luke 17:37 to God's sovereignty as expressed in Job 39:30, or to God's judgment as pictured in Psalm 110:6.  In context, Jesus is referring to the place where those taken in judgment at Jesus' return will be taken.  The Bible pictures birds of prey devouring wicked nations that are gathered against God (Ezek 39:4, 17-20; Rev 19:17-21).

As part of being ready for the coming of the Son of Man, Kyle said, we should 

• not abide violent images, music, or actions in our lives.
• speak out against all forms of violence.
• resist the increasing violence of our times. 

Seder 112: Numbers 13-14---Sending the Spies

 As Numbers 13 opens, it is the summer of the second year of the exodus and the children of Israel are camped just south of Canaan.  In Numbers 13:1-2, God instructs Moses to send a delegation of twelve leaders, one from each tribe (other than Levi), on a fact-finding mission to Canaan.  

Experienced Bible students know that more details are given in Deut 1:19-23, where Moses recalls this moment from the vantage point of 38 and a half years later.  He remembers that Israelites had requested that he authorize such a mission, and that he had been in favor of the idea. 

One textual tradition, preserved in the Samaritan Pentateuch, places Deut 1:20-23a after Num 12 and before Num 13:1.  This tradition favors a sequence of events in which Israelites had requested a fact-finding mission, Moses asked God about the matter, and God than gave his permission/approval for such a mission.  

In light of how things turned out, the advisability of the plan to spy out the land has been questioned.  Certainly there was no requirement for such a plan.  God was leading them and knew everything they would need to know about their destination.  On the other hand, the plan had considerable upside.  If the twelve leaders liked what they saw and became excited about the prospects of life in Canaan, they would communicate their excitement to their tribes, and the people might unite behind Moses. 

In Num 13:4-15, the tribes are listed in an order that intersperses sons of Leah with sons of Rachel.  The ordering may emphasize the importance of unity among the tribes.

The plan can also be seen as a kind of test.  If the Israelites were ready to enter the Promised Land, they would catch Moses' vision of the good land that lay before them.  If they were not yet ready to enter the Promised Land, they might shrink back in fear, indicating that they needed more training and preparation. 

There was plenty in Canaan to create excitement among the spies.  Early in their trip they reached Hebron, where their forefathers had spent much time.  Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were buried nearby at Machpelah (Gen 23).  It would have been a thrill to set foot in this special place where their ancestors had lived.  

This was a land where great agricultural production was possible, as evidenced by the huge cluster of grapes that the spies brought back.  

There were also challenges to be faced.  The land contained a number of warring city states with fortifications, and the inhabitants included giants who were descended from the Nephilim, the offspring of angels and people mentioned in Gen 6:4.  These giants might have the assistance of evil supernatural powers.  

Two of the delegation, Joshua and Caleb, were energized by the opportunities they saw. "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it," Caleb encouraged the people (Num 13:30).  

Sadly, ten of the twelve members of the delegation were driven to despair by the challenges ahead..  "We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them," they lamented (v 33).  In their fear they lost sight of the God who was with them.  A midrash on this verse has God saying, "How do you know how you seemed to them?  Perhaps I made you seem to them like angels."  In fact, there was widespread fear of the Israelites among the inhabitants of Canaan, a fear that was still present 38 years later (Josh 2:9).  

The negative report of the spies caused despair in the camp on the night of their return, a night traditionally identified as the Ninth of Ab, a day connected with a number of calamities in Israel's history.  The next day there were threats of mutiny, as many wanted to turn around and go back to Egypt (Num 14:2-4,10).  

Pentecost 2020: Psalm 68---Praising the Divine Warrior

Psalm 68 has been called a triumphal hymn.  It praises God as the Divine Warrior, celebrating his victories in the past and looking forward to the end of all opposition to God in the future. 

The psalm begins by quoting Num 10:35, the battle cry which which the Israelites broke camp in the wilderness during the Exodus years.  Verse 4 pictures God as the Cloud-Rider, rebutting Canaanite mythology that presented Baal in that manner.  Verses 5-6 state that from this exalted position, God acts as a defender and helper of those in need. 

Verses 7-18 recall the mighty deeds of the Divine Warrior, including the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the revelation at Mt Sinai, and the conquest of Canaan.  God is pictured as a king taking captives, receiving gifts, and sharing the spoils of battle with his people. 

God's superiority over all other heavenly beings is emphasized in vv 15-18.  The mountain of Bashan (v 15) is associated with the rebellious sons of God who came to earth in the days before the flood and fathered the Nephilim (Gen 6:1-4). 

The rest of the Psalm looks forward to God's victory over all opposition in the future.

Seder 7: Psalm 17--the prayer of a righteous man

The psalms associated with the Genesis account of Noah have tended to focus on the way of the righteous, highlighting the fact that Noah was a righteous man who walked with God (Gen 6:6-9).

Psalm 17 follows this trend.  Here David brings an urgent need before God, asserting that his cause is just.  The sages in the midrash on the Psalms thought of Proverbs 15:8:  "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him."  David's prayer is a prayer of the upright.

We also think of James 5:16:  "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

David in his prayer asks for vindication and investigation (v 2).  He asserts his loyalty to God and sincerity in following Him, and he is open to correction and guidance (as in Ps 139:23-24).  He is not bragging or being self-righteous, just speaking honestly.

David prays with great confidence, showing the close relationship that he has with God.  He is confident in God's merciful character (as in 2 Sam 24:14).

David feels surrounded and besieged by enemies (reminding us of Ps 22, and showing David as a type of the suffering Messiah).  In his suffering, he places himself in God's hands.  He is not concerned about attaining worldly riches, but is content with God's presence, both the next morning and in a future resurrection (v 15).

Seder 6: Chiastic Structure of Gen 6-9

One way to increase our understanding of biblical passages is to recognize their underlying literary structure.  One kind of structure that appears often in Scripture is the chiasm, where the first literary unit in a passage connects with the last one, the second to the next-to-last, etc..  In such a structure, there is often a unit in the middle whose message is emphasized.

Jewish biblical scholar Joshua Berman, a Bible-defending scholar whose work is always worth reading, has recognized a chiastic structure in the flood narrative in Gen 6-9.  Here it is below.  Notice that the center is in Gen 8:1.

HT:   Doug Dudis

A. Elokim pledges to Noah to destroy all flesh (6:13)

B. Flood to destroy all flesh (6:17)

C. Covenant to sustain Noah and his animals (6:18–20)

D. Command to gather food while world is destroyed (6:21)

E. Command to enter the ark + fulfillment (7:1–5)

F. Year 600 – beginning of the flood (7:6)

G. Birds enter the ark (7:8)

H. Seven days waiting for Flood (7:10)

I. Rain on the earth (7:12)

J. Birds enter the ark (7:14)

K. Hashem shuts Noah in (7:16)

L. Forty days of Flood (7:17a)

M. Waters increase (7:17b–18)

N. Mountains covered (7:19–20)

O. 150 days when waters prevail (7:24)

God remembers Noah (8:1)

O’. 150 days when waters abate (8:3)

N’. Mountaintops visible (8:4–5)

M’. Waters abate (8:5)

L’. Forty days of receding waters (8:6a)

K’. Noah opens window of ark (8:6b)

J’. Raven and dove leave ark (8:7–8)

I’. Water on the earth (8:9)

H’. Seven days waiting for water to subside (8:10)

G’. Dove leaves the ark (8:10b–12)

F’. Year 601 – the earth dries (8:13)

E’. Command to leave the ark + fulfillment (8:15–19)

D’. Commands regarding food in the new order (9:1–5)

C’. Covenant to sustain all flesh (9:8–10)

B’. No flood will destroy flesh (9:15)

A’. Elokim pledges to Noah to preserve all flesh (9:17)

Seder 5: Gen 6-7---One Pair or Seven Pairs?

One frequently-asked question about Gen 6-7 is why God instructs Noah to include a pair of each type of animal on the ark in Gen 6:19-20, then has Noah include 7 pairs of each clean animal and one pair of each unclean one in Gen 7.

Critical scholars often charge that these accounts are contradictory and result from two different accounts of the Flood being poorly patched together to form these chapters of Genesis.

Conservative scholars, on the other hand, see no contradiction here.  In one literary pattern that sometimes appears in the Bible, an instruction is described first in general terms, then repeated in more detail.  Gen 6-7 is a good example.  (Num 14:20-35 is another.)  Noah's instructions are given in broad strokes in Gen 6, then laid out in more detail in Gen 7.

A good source here:  Walter Kaiser, Hard Sayings of the Bible, IVP, 1996.

Seder 5: Considering Noah---Gen 6-7

Noah was an example of the righteous man described in Psalm 1.  As we read in Gen 6:9,

"Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.  Noah walked with God." 

We see some examples of what this meant in Gen 6-7, where Noah was obedient to the detailed instructions God gave on the construction of the ark. Noah's obedience is emphasized in Gen 6:22; 7:5,9,16.

Reflecting on Noah's situation, Heb 11:7 states,

"By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.  By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."

Seder 5 Sermon: Man's Reboot

In this strange time when our activities and physical contacts are greatly restricted, it is interesting to reflect upon the experience of Noah.

Kyle Kettering points out in his Seder 5 sermon that Noah's name means "rest" (Gen 5:29).  For the people and animals on the ark, it was a time that had some things in common with April 2020.  It was a time of turmoil for the world, and an enforced pause or rest for those on the ark.  On the ark there was rest, relief, protection.  The world was being "rebooted".

The reading in the prophets for Seder 5, in Isa 54-55, emphasizes that God's grace and compassion are unfailing (54:9-11).  He is a source of protection--vv 12-14.  He invites us to repent and come back to him (55:1-9).

Kyle also explains that Psalm 1, the psalm connected with this Seder, is linked with Noah.  Noah is seen as a prototype example of the righteous man described there who follows God rather than the world.

Noah is just one of the heroes of faith celebrated in Heb 11, one of that great "cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1).  Kyle notes that they "found relief and refuge from their struggles through their faith relationship with the one true God."  They looked ahead to the coming of the Messiah, who provides the ultimate peace, rest, and reboot for the world.  We are called to walk in their footsteps.

Seder 4: Gen 5:1-6:8

Genesis 5:1 begins by reaffirming that humans are created in the image of God and are blessed by God.  The commission that God gave to man, to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" still stands, even after the Fall.  Without the tree of life this commission is harder to carry out, but at this point God seems to be granting Adam and his descendants some pretty long lifespans.

Genesis 5 gives a genealogical listing of 10 generations from Adam to Noah.  A midrash on Ps 139:16 says that God knew about all of these in advance, with the details recorded in his book.

In the Masoretic Text these 10 generations cover a total of 1656 years, a fairly large chunk of human history.  Some of the numbers in the LXX are different, and the total number of years is about 600 years more than in the MT.  For more on the numbers, see here.

The entries in the Gen 5 list the generations in a set format with this structure:

"And X lived a years, and begot Y.  And X lived after he begot Y for b years, and begot sons and daughters.  And all the days of X’s life were (a + b) years, and he died."

The seventh entry is a little different.  With Enoch there is emphasis that he was one who "walked with God," and instead of saying "and he died" in 5:21, the text says that "God took him".  This tantalizingly brief discussion has led to lots of speculation about what happened to Enoch, including legends about his being taken to heaven, being shown wonderful things, and prophesying.  At any rate, we count him as a hero of faith (Heb 11:5).  

In Gen 6:1-8 we read about the sins of mankind increasing, leading to God deciding to send a flood as a judgment upon the earth.  These verses have also been the subject of much speculation.  Here is how Gen 6 begins:  

"When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.  And they took as their wives any they chose." 

The earliest understanding of this passage (and as far as we know, the only understanding prior to 100 AD), is to identify the "sons of God" as angelic beings who rebelled against God, manifested themselves as humans, and married human women, violating a boundary that God had put in place.  

This identification of the "sons of God" is consistent with the use of that term elsewhere in the Tanakh (e.g., Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7).  

Chapter 6 goes on to say in verse 4, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.  These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown." 

In the LXX, "Nephilim" is translated "giants".  So the implication is that the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" were giants.  The Nephilim are mentioned again in Num 13:33, and apparently one of the reasons that God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the inhabitants of Canaan was to deal with those giants (Joshua 11:21-22).  

If we had asked Jews during the time of Jesus about the meaning of Gen 6:1-4, they would have filled in some more details based on 1 Enoch 6-16.  (They didn't consider 1 Enoch to be scripture, but they believed that it contained accurate history on this point.)  According to 1 Enoch, the angels who married the human women also brought forbidden knowledge to mankind, including sorcery and how to make weapons of war.  These angels were then put in a condition of restraint to await final judgment in the future.  

We see these beliefs in a few places in the New Testament, especially Jude 6-7:

"And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day---just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire."

Jude 14, by the way, quotes a prophecy of Enoch from 1 Enoch 1.

Another place in which the I Enoch account is assumed is in 2 Peter 2:4-5:

"For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to
chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but
preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;" 

I also want to say something about Gen 6:3:  Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh:  his days shall be 120 years."  

This verse has been interpreted in two different ways.  One is that human lifespans were going to be shortened, down to around 120 years.  Another is that God was giving mankind 120 years to repent before sending the flood.