Seder 24: Psalm 87---Praise to Zion, Mother of Nations

Psalm 87, a hymn of praise to Zion, may be associated with Israel's pilgrimage festivals, when people from all nations came to Jerusalem to worship God.  

Verse 3 declares, "Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God."  Here the words of the prophets may be particularly in view, in passages like Isaiah 2:1-4; 26:1-2; 60:15-22; 61:1-7.  Such verses picture Zion's restoration and people from all nations coming to Jerusalem to worship the true God.  

A representative sampling of the nations from which people flock to Jerusalem are listed in verse 4.  "Rahab" is listed here as a way of referring to Egypt (see Ps 89:10; Isa 30:7; 51:9).  Rahab is the name of a mythical sea monster, and God's victory over Egypt at the Red Sea can be pictured as a victory over that sea monster and the forces of chaos.  

When people from the nations submit to the God of Israel, they are counted as citizens of Zion.  In the Septuagint, verse 5 speaks of "Mother Zion."  It's possible that Paul is thinking of this verse in Galatians 4:26 when he speaks of "Jerusalem above" which is "our mother."

At the festivals in Jerusalem, singers and dancers declare, "All my springs are in you" (verse 7). They are celebrating at the place from which living waters flow (Jer 2:13; Isa 12:3; Eze 47; Rev 22:1-5).  

Seder 162: Deuteronomy 33-34---Blessings for the Tribes of Israel; Death of Moses

 At the end of his life, Moses conveys blessings on the tribes of Israel.  It is natural to compare these blessings in Dt 33 with those given by Jacob in Genesis 49.  

The statements in Genesis 49 are sometimes personal, directed at specific deeds of Jacob's sons.  Here I am thinking particularly of what Jacob says to Reuben, who had slept with his wife Bilhah (Ge 35:22; 49:3-4); and what he says to Simeon and Levi, whom he rebukes for their role in the massacre at Shechem (Ge 34:25-31; 49:5-7).

On the other hand, the blessings in Deuteronomy seem to be more general and eschatological, looking beyond the problems foreseen in Dt 31-32 to a time of abundance in the Promised Land.  There is nothing negative in the pronouncements of Deuteronomy 33.  An eschatological thrust is evident, for example, in verse 19:  "They shall call peoples to their mountain; there they offer right sacrifices."  This verse is part of the blessing of Zebulun and Issachar, but can be seen in reference to Israel's role in bringing blessing to the nations, as in Isaiah 2:2-3.

The order in which the blessings are recorded is different in the two chapters.  Daniel Block suggests that the order in Dt 33 may be roughly geographical according to where the tribes are destined to live in the Promised Land.  Perhaps God had let Moses know something about this in advance.  It is also the case that since this section became part of the text after Moses' death, a later writer may have arranged the blessings in this way.

"Let Reuben live, and not die," Moses says in Dt 33:6.  When Moses gave the blessings, he was standing in the territory that Reuben would come to occupy.  On the eastern boundary of Israel's holdings, this tribe would be vulnerable to enemy attacks.  Perhaps this blessing reflects that concern.  

No blessing of the tribe of Simeon is included.  That may just be a random omission, or it may reflect the diminished state of the tribe of Simeon by that point.  The division and scattering that Jacob had mentioned (Ge 49:7) seems to have come about, exacerbated by the tribe's role in the sin at Baal Peor (Nu 25:14).  Simeon's holdings in the Promised Land would be within the territory of Judah.  

The tribe of Levi, on the other hand, had been scattered and divided in a good way.  This tribe had distinguished itself by helping Moses stop the golden calf incident (Ex 32) and ending the sin at Baal Peor (Nu 25).  The priestly tribe now had an important role in serving at the tabernacle and teaching the other tribes.  Moses gives his own tribe one of the longest blessings in the list (Dt 33:8-11).

In both Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33, Joseph is promised great prosperity.  The blessings for Joseph in the two chapters are similar. 

The high point of Genesis 49 is the blessing of Judah, which includes a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.  Kevin Chen sees a hint of a messianic prophecy in Deuteronomy 33: "Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people.  With your hands contend for him, and and be a help against his adversaries."  Chen suggests that "bring him in to his people" may mean "bring the Messiah to his people," with the remaining pronouns in the verse also referring to the Messiah.   

There is more pronoun ambiguity in the blessing of Benjamin in 33:12, where the image could be one of Benjamin dwelling between God's shoulders, or one of God dwelling between Benjamin's shoulders, a possible reference to the temple that would be built later at Jerusalem.  

Deuteronomy 34 pays tribute to Moses at his death.  Verse 10, which was presumably written centuries later, emphasizes Moses' uniqueness.  Up to the point of that writing, the Messiah (the "prophet like Moses" of Dt 18:15) had not arrived.  This note at the end of the Pentateuch indicates that the Pentateuch does not tell the whole story of God's plan.  There is much more of the story ahead.  

In a short teaching at Church of the Messiah on October 14, 2023, Jack Starcher suggested that although God did not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land physically at that point, perhaps he did so later at the Transfiguration.  Sometimes when God answers "no," Jack said, he answer is more specifically "not yet."  Did God eventually reveal more of himself to Moses at the end of his life, in response to Moses' request in Exodus 33?  

Seder 92: Psalm 99---Yahweh Rules all Nations from Zion

 A major theme in Psalms 93-100 is God's rule over all the earth.  We see this theme in Psalm 99, which begins, "The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!"  

A midrash on this verse observes that when Israel is in exile, the nations are calm and self-satisfied; but when Israel is restored, the nations tremble.  The implication is that this verse points toward a future time when Israel is restored and Yahweh rules all the earth from Zion---see verse 2.  

Verse 1 continues, "He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!"  The imagery of the earth quaking reminds us, for example, of Zech 14:1-9, a prophecy of God's intervention to rule the earth.  

Under God's rule, righteousness, justice, and peace are established---v 4.  We are reminded of Isa 2:1-4, for example. 

The proper response of all people to the rule of the holy mighty God is worship and praise.  God's people are to lead the way in doing this (vv 5,9).

God's rule has been good for Israel.  He revealed his Torah to them (v 7), and responded to the prayers of his servants (v 6).  He rules with both mercy and justice (v 8), as described in Ex 34:6-7. 

Seder 44: Gen 50---The Deaths of Jacob and Joseph

 So great was the respect of the Egyptians for Joseph and his family that they embalmed Jacob's body and mourned his death for 70 days (Gen 50:1-3).   God had promised to make Abraham's name great (Gen 12:2), and we see here further fulfillment of this promise.  

Even so, Joseph's request that he go to Canaan to bury his father was a sensitive one (vv 4-6).  Some interpreters--e.g., Rashi---have proposed that Jacob had Joseph swear to take his body to Machpelah (Gen 47:31)  in order to give Joseph more leverage with Pharaoh.  It has also been proposed that this request caused the Egyptians to begin to question the loyalties of Joseph and his family, a first step toward the enslavement that came later.  The request reminds us of the later even more difficult requests that Moses and Aaron made to a later Pharaoh.

An impressive funeral procession, including Egyptian dignitaries along with Israel's children, traveled to Canaan for the burial.  We are reminded of prophesied times when the nations will accompany Israel to Zion to worship the true God (Isa 2:1-4; Zech 8:20-23; Zech 14:16).  

The procession was also a sort of Exodus, with Egyptian horsemen and chariots as part of the entourage.  We do not know the location of the threshing floor of Atad---which side of the Jordan it was on depends on the vantage point of the writer---but if Atad was near the Jordan, then the route followed by the procession  bore some resemblance to the actual exodus route.   

With Jacob gone, Joseph's brothers worried about what steps he might take against them.  They still felt guilty about selling Joseph into slavery.  They needn't have worried.  Joseph had always shown himself to be concerned about what God thought (Gen 39:9), not about what any human being might think.  Joseph repeated what he had told his brothers 17 years before (Gen 45:5-8).  God had worked out events in order to save many lives and further his plan.  

Early in the book of Genesis, brothers Cain and Abel had been unable to get along.  At the end of the book of Genesis, we see reconciliation among brothers.  

Joseph was about 56 years old when his father died.  He went on to live another 54 years.  Commentators point out that in ancient Egyptian culture, 110 is considered to be an ideal lifespan. 

We might imagine that since the patriarchs lived long lives---Abraham lived to be 175, Isaac 180, Jacob 147, Joseph 110---that people typically lived longer lives then.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.  In his commentary on Genesis, John Walton points out that evidence from Egyptian mummies indicates a life expectancy of 40 to 50.  The long lives enjoyed by the patriarchs were part of God's blessing to them.  

When Joseph died, he asked that his bones be taken back to Canaan when the Israelites returned there.  In doing so, he showed faith in God's promises (Heb 11:22).  This time there was no big funeral procession to Canaan, a possible indication that Joseph's influence and prestige had already waned a great deal by then.

Kyle Kettering gave a message on Seder 44 at Church of the Messiah on Feb 13, 2021.

Seder 14: Sarah and Hagar in Gal 4:21-31

There are at least a couple of New Testament passages that refer to both a section from the Pentateuch and the corresponding reading from the Prophets in the Semiseptennial Cycle (see chapter 10 of  Lois Tverberg's Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus for further discussion).   One of those is Gal 4:21-31, where Paul presents an analogy involving Sarah and Hagar from Gen 16 and 21 and also quotes Isa 54, which is linked with Gen 16 in Seder 14.

To understand Paul's analogy, it will help to review the probable historical setting of the epistle to the Galatians.  Here I will follow the work of Mark Nanos and the insights of the scholars in the "Paul within Judaism" school of interpretation.

The primary venues for Paul's preaching of the Gospel were Diaspora synagogues (see Acts 13-14, e.g.).  These were the places where he could find the people who were most interested in the message of the Bible.  He announced in the synagogues that the promised Messiah had come and inaugurated the Kingdom of God.

His audiences consisted of (1) Jews and (2) Gentiles who were interested in the Bible, in adopting some parts of the Torah, and in supporting the synagogue.  These Gentiles were known as "God-fearers."  Synagogue communities didn't make great demands upon these Gentiles, but on the other hand didn't accept them as full-fledged members.  Socially they were on the fringes of synagogue communities.

After Paul visited a particular synagogue, a subgroup of Christ-followers---people who accepted Paul's Gospel message---formed within that synagogue community.  Within that subgroup the Gentile God-fearers were full-fledged members.  On the other hand, more was required of them by the Christ-followers.  They were expected to completely renounce the pagan activities that were expected of Gentiles in the Roman Empire, the everyday ways of honoring the many gods that were all around them in the Greco-Roman world.

Outside the community of Christ-followers, the Gentile Christ-followers didn't fit in.  They weren't completely accepted by other Jews in the larger synagogue community, and their Gentile friends and relatives didn't like the fact that they had begun ignoring their civic duty to honor the gods.

In Galatia, some Jews (Nanos uses the neutral term "influencers" to describe them) were promoting a way for the Gentile Christ-followers to resolve their precarious social situation.  Rather than sitting on the fence, why didn't they just go ahead and become full proselytes to Judaism?  (For males, this would mean, in particular, being circumcised.)  Then they would be fully accepted by the whole synagogue community and would have a legitimate reason to neglect the gods.  (In the Roman Empire, Jews were exempt from obligations to the gods.)

The influencers may have told the Gentile Christ-followers that in their present situation, they were sort of in the position of Ishmael in the family of Abraham---blessed to some degree, but outside of the chosen people.  Becoming full proselytes would give them the status of Isaac.

Paul strongly objected to the message of the influencers.  The Gentile Christ-followers were already full-fledged subjects of the Kingdom of God.  God had shown that by granting them the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:1-11).  They had been accepted by God on the basis of faith, as Abram had before the covenant sign of circumcision had been introduced (Rom 3-4).  For them to go on and become proselytes would be like denying what God had already done in their lives.  They were already part of God's New Covenant people.  They didn't need to do anything additional to earn covenant status with God.

Also, Paul believed that the days spoken of by the prophets had arrived when people from the nations would seek the God of Israel (e.g., Isa 2:1-4; Zech 8:20-23).  The prophets pictured people from all nations following God, not people giving up their national identities to follow God.  He wanted to follow God's will as revealed to the prophets.

In his analogy in Gal 4:21-31, Paul turned the tables on the influencers.  He told the Gentile Christ-followers that they already had the status of Isaac, the son of promise.  They were part of the New Covenant community, associated with Mt Zion and the future heavenly Jerusalem.

But if they through human effort decided to join the Sinai covenant, they would be like Ishmael, born through human effort, and connected to the present earthly Jerusalem, which was enslaved to Rome.

In Gal 4:27 Paul quoted Isa 54:1, seeing the prophecy as addressed to Sarah.  Just as Sarah could rejoice when Isaac was born, the Gentile Christ-followers could rejoice because they were the true children of Abraham through faith in Jesus the Messiah.     

In a sermon on Seder 14 on June 20, 2020, Kyle Kettering shared further thoughts on Gen 16, Isa 54 ,and Gal 4.