WM 311: Rejoinder to Ward, Ross, & Meade on the LXX and Classic Protestant Bibliology

 

JTR

The Vision (10.25.24): The LORD being merciful to him

 

Image Gustave Moreau, Angels of Sodom, c. 1890, Musée National Gustave Moreau, Paris, France

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 19:1-22.

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city (Genesis 19:16).

Genesis 19 is one of the best-known accounts in Scripture of the just judgment of the LORD, as God sends “brimstone and fire… out of heaven” upon the wicked twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (see 19:24).

It begins with Lot extending hospitality to two angelic messengers. The wicked men of Sodom compassed the house and called unto Lot, “bring them out unto us, that we may know them” (v. 5).

The angels revealed to Lot that the LORD had sent them to destroy this vile city (v. 13). Still, the LORD graciously provided for a remnant, Lot and his household, to escape, “let thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city” (v. 15).

The key verse of Genesis 19 is v. 16. First, there is a mention here of Lot lingering: “And while he lingered….” But the angels, as God’s servants, take Lot and his wife and his daughters by the hand, the inspired author stressing, “the LORD being merciful unto him.” The angels then “brought him forth, and set him without the city.” This is the LORD overcoming whatever hesitation Lot registered by his lingering. The LORD literally took matters into his own hands and removed Lot from that city.

The heading over Genesis 19 for most of us would ordinarily be, “The Just Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The fitting title for this chapter, however, might well better be, “The Mercy of the LORD to Lot, a sinful man, and his household.”

There is something of a figure here of salvation, for this is what happens to every sinner who, like Lot, not only pitches his tent toward Sodom (Genesis 13:12), but who dwells in that city (14:12), and even sits in its gate (19:1), but who is chosen by divine grace for salvation.

The LORD send his messengers to call that man to come out and be separate, to leave the City of Destruction and make his way to the Celestial City (to use Bunyan’s terms).

It is “the LORD being merciful to him.” And even when he hesitates or lingers, the LORD takes his hand and brings him forth. We call this irresistible grace. This man find grace in the LORD’s sight and the LORD does magnify his mercy to that undeserving man by saving him.

The ultimate means of his mercy is the Man of Mercy, the LORD Jesus Christ. He picks us up in his nail pierced hands, brings us forth, and sets us outside the city of destruction which we deserve and, instead, directs us to the safety and well-being we don’t deserve.

All praise, glory, and honor be to Him alone, world without end. Amen.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Vision (10.18.24): Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

 

Image: Rembrandt sketch, Abraham and the Angel, creative commons.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 18:16-33.

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25b).

This is one of the most striking scenes in all of Scripture. Abraham audaciously intercedes with the sovereign LORD on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah (really for his nephew Lot, and Lot’s household). John Currid observes, “It is one of the most remarkable examples of intercession in the Bible” (Genesis, Vol. 1, 333). It includes the back-and-forth bartering or bargaining that would have taken place in the ancient bazaars or marketplaces and that continues to this day in many places.

Abraham was a man who had amassed great wealth (see Genesis 12:5; 13:2, 5-6; 14:14). He knew “the art of the deal” and, no doubt, was an excellent negotiator, humanly speaking. But what standing did he have to bargain with God?

This account is not put forward, however, to show us how to deal with God. We do not bargain with Him. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). This interaction is here to show forth the compassion and mercy of God.

Abraham asks, “Wilt thou also destroy the wicked with the righteous?” (v. 23), and then, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (v. 25). Abraham asks if the LORD will spare the city for fifty righteous, and the LORD graciously agrees (vv. 24, 26). Abraham then asks the same for forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, and finally ten, and each time the LORD agrees (vv. 26-32).

There is spiritual significance to the number ten. As one observed, “Ten is a round and complete number that symbolizes totality. Ten persons thus constitute the minimum effective social entity” (Currid, Genesis, Vol. 1, 336). There is great mercy and wide compassion in that final statement, “And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake” (v. 32).

When we look at Genesis 19, we will see, sadly enough, that there will not even be ten righteous in that city. Yet, even then, the LORD will provide for four to flee, Lot and his wife, and their two daughters (his sons-in-law take his warning as mocking, 19:14).

He is indeed a God of compassion and mercy. In the days of Noah, eight souls were preserved. In the days of Sodom, four souls were preserved.

Yet, He is also a God of righteousness whose eyes are too pure to look upon iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13). The Judge of all the earth shall indeed do right!

Here is the final good news. For the sake of but one perfectly righteous man, the Lord Jesus Christ, this same God has saved a myriad of men who deserved destruction.

Recall 1 John 2:2, “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Video & Images: 2024 Salisbury Conference: Experiencing the Word of God (October 4-6, 2024)

 

Scenes from Salisbury:

JTR

2024 Keach Conference Audio & Images (September 28, 2024)

Image: Pastors Davidson, Clevenger, Chiciudean, Meadows, Loomis, and Riddle.

The Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Virginia's 2024 Keach Conference was held on Saturday, September 28, 2024 at Grace Baptist Chapel in Hampton, Virginia. The theme was from Chapter 17 of the 1689 Confession: "Of the Perseverance of the Saints." Speakers: D. Scott Meadows, Calvary Baptist Church, Reformed, Exeter, New Hampshire & Miklos Chiciudean, Soli Deo Gloria Baptist Church, Budapest, Hungary. Messages:

Scenes from the day:

JTR

The Vision (9.27.24): Is any thing too hard for the LORD?

Image; Rembrandt, Abraham Entertaining the Angels, 1656, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Note: Devotion based on Sunday morning sermon on September 29, 2024.

Is any thing too hard for the LORD? (Genesis 18:14a).

In Genesis 18 the LORD repeats the promise to Sarah that she will have a son. Sarah laughed “within herself” as she contemplated the ridiculousness of their circumstances (v. 12). How could she have a child having already “waxed old” (v. 12)?

Laughter had also been the response of Abraham at this same prophecy (cf. 17:15-17). Both are guilty of not believing the promises of God given directly to them.

The LORD then asks a single question that gets to the heart of her unbelief: “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” We might call this a one sentence sermon preached by the LORD himself (and those are the best kind of sermons). And it is just one question. As when:

The LORD said to Adam in the garden after the fall, “Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9).

Or when Christ said to the disciples, “But whom say ye that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).

Think of the question here: Is anything too hard for the LORD? This is the same God who made the whole world in the space of six days and all very good. As Christ said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

Nothing indeed is too hard for the LORD. He is all-powerful and all-mighty.

He WILL fulfill his promise to Abraham and Sarah.

He WILL save and sanctify dead sinners and make them come alive in Christ.

He WILL work all things to good to those that love him, the called according to His purpose.

He WILL come again in power and glory and make all things right and new.

He WILL be the one before whom every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD.

One might doubt, deny, or laugh at these things, but their fulfillment does not depend on the “faith” of any man, but in the faithfulness of an all-holy, all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God to do them.

To Him alone be praise, through Christ and by the Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.20.24): The Covenant of Circumcision

 

Image: Pear tree, North Garden, Virginia, September 2024.

Note: Devotional article based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 17:

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you, and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised (Genesis 17:10).

In whom also are ye circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11).

The external token of circumcision literally marked the descendants and household of Abraham as a special people through whom the LORD was working out his special purposes (cf. Genesis 3:15).

Even before circumcision, Abraham had been justified by faith (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3).

Moses, who recorded this life of Abraham in Genesis, would later report the LORD’s exhortation to Israel, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deuteronomy 10:16).

Of course, one of the greatest controversies of early Christianity was whether or not Gentile converts to the faith needed to be circumcised to be saved (Acts 15:1-2). This controversy erupted in the church at Antioch and was settled when the apostles and elders of the church of Jerusalem determined in counsel that circumcision was not required (see Acts 15:19-20).

The same issue arose in the churches of Galatia. Paul declared in Galatians 5:6, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”

The historical Covenant of Circumcision through Abraham, established in the OT with a gracious purpose to distinguish his physical seed as a nation, was eclipsed in the New Covenant through Christ. In Galatians 3:28 Paul claimed there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, but all believers are one in Christ.  He added, “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (v. 29).

Here are at least three distinctions between the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant:

First: The Abrahamic covenant was established by the blood shed by physical circumcision. The New Covenant is established once for all, for the elect, by the shed blood of Christ upon the cross.

Second: The Abrahamic Covenant came by an outward token, the physical marks of circumcision. The New Covenant comes by an inward token, conversion, a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, regeneration. It is what we call the “circumcision… of the heart,” “the circumcision made without hands,” or being “quickened” (cf. Romans 28-29; Colossians 2:11-13).

Third: The administration of the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision came only upon the physical seed of Abraham, and the servants within his household, and then only upon the males. The administration of the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, however, comes upon all who are born again, all who are justified by faith in Christ, all the spiritual seed of Abraham, Jew and Gentile, men and women, slave and free (Galatians 3:28).

The marks of God’s work in a man’s life are not merely being cut in the flesh, but being cut in the heart.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.13.24): Thou God Seest Me

 

Image: Tomatoes ripening in the window sill, North Garden, Virginia, September 2024.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 16.

And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also looked after him that seeth me? (Genesis 16:13).

After conflict with Sarah, Hagar fled “by the fountain in the way to Shur” (16:7b). She was fleeing toward Egypt, her homeland.

In v. 7a, he read, “And the angel of the LORD found her….” This is the first time in Holy Scripture that we have a reference to this figure who is called the angel of the LORD. An angel is a servant or messenger of the LORD. But here this angel speaks as if he is God (see vv. 10-12), and his words are received as the words of the LORD (see v. 13).

Many have seen the angel of the LORD here as a manifestation of the eternal second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, the so-called pre-incarnate Christ. Calvin said, “The ancient teachers of the church have rightly understood [the angel of the LORD to be] the Eternal Son of God in respect to his office as Mediator” (as cited in John Currid, Genesis, 305).

Here, at the least, is the triune God finding someone damaged by her own sin and the sin of others, in her distress, and making himself known to her.

In v. 8 the angel of the LORD poses two questions to Hagar. It is like a spiritual exam or a spiritual inventory.

First, he asks, “whence camest thou?” Where are you coming from? What has been your previous experience?

Second, “whither wilt thou go?” Where are you heading? In what direction are you bending? What is your destination? What are your aspirations? What is your end or goal?

These are two of the great spiritual questions that the LORD is constantly asking sin-damaged refugees.

Hagar responds, “I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai” (v. 8b). She conveniently omits mention of the fact that she had despised her mistress and acted haughtily toward her, bringing, at least in part, some of this distress upon herself (cf. v. 5). We too tend to shade our answers to God for our advantage, making us appear in the best light and our adversaries in the worst.

Notice then the angel of the LORD’s response in v. 9: “Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hand.” I suppose this is not the response that Hagar wanted to hear. She wanted to hear, “Keep heading toward Egypt.” The LORD so very often asks us to do what is counter to what our flesh instinctively desires to do. She wanted to hear the LORD bless her bid for personal freedom. But the LORD calls her to submission not only to Sarai, but more importantly to his will, to his command.

The angel of the LORD continues in v. 11, “Behold thou art with child…” His name will be called Ishmael which means “God hears.” It is related to the name Samuel, which means the same thing.

There is something of a foreshadowing of the Great Commission in this. The LORD has compassion on an Egyptian servant. He finds her in her distress. He is the LORD of the nations.

in v. 13, we have the grateful response of Hagar to the LORD’s kind intervention on her behalf through his Mediator. She names or calls the LORD who spoke to her, “Thou God seest me.” Moses adds, “for she said, Have I also looked after him that seeth me?”

If not too anachronistic to assert, this has a Calvinistic flavor to it. I was looking for the God who sees me. I was searching for the God who found me. It has the flavor of 1 John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loved us.”

We can even see in Hagar’s experience a vague evangelical outline. We are like her in that we flee in our distress, wincing under the experience or our own sin and the sin of others, only to be found by the LORD, found by the Mediator.

We find the God who found us, and we say to him, as Hagar did, “Thou God seest me.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.6.24): Abraham believed God

 

Image: Pond in Louisa, Virginia, September 2024

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 15.

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Genesis 15:6 might be one of the most important verses in the Old Testament. It is the first explicit articulation of what the apostle Paul will later teach as justification by faith. Compare:

Romans 4: What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

² For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

³ For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

⁴ Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

⁵ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Were there Old Testament saints (believers)? The answer is an emphatic “Yes.” Indeed, Abraham was one. How were such persons saved? Were they saved because they were Hebrews? Because of their righteous works? No. Old Testament saints were saved in the same way that men and women in the New Testament were saved, and in the way God continues to save sinners today. By faith alone in Christ alone.

We might say that Abram looked forward to Christ, his cross, and resurrection. While we who live in the time after the incarnational ministry of our Lord look back upon what God has done for us in Christ.

Sola fide (salvation by faith alone) is present in the Old Testament, as is evident in the experience of Abraham.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

David Pitman: Burgon, Bois, and the Best Use of the LXX (RBS 2024 Breakout Session)

 

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Matthew Vogan: Robert Baillie's Defense of the Masoretic Text (RBS 2024 Breakout Session)

 

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Jonathan Arnold: Old Testament Bible Translation and the LXX (RBS 2024 Breakout Session)

 

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Peter Van Kleeck, Jr.: Augustine and the Septuagint (RBS 2024 Breakout Session)

 

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Christian McShaffrey: Why Does the Septuagint Matter Today? (RBS 2024 Plenary Lecture 4)

 

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The Vision (8.30.24): Seven Parallels Between Melchizedek and Christ

 

Image: Ripening tomatoes, North Garden, Virginia, August 2024.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 14:18-20; Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, 16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

In the book of Hebrews, the inspired author (I believe it was the apostle Paul) makes comparison between the lesser ministry of the mysterious Melchizedek to Abraham in Genesis 14:18-20 and the greater ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here are at least seven parallels that might be drawn: 

1.  Melchizedek was a priest and king.  The Lord Jesus Christ is our great Prophet, Priest, and King.

2.  Melchizedek’s name meant “My king is righteous.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the true “King of righteousness” (Hebrews 7:2).

How did Christ exercise his kingship?  As a servant.  His coronation was in humiliation on the cross.  His crown was one of twisted thorns, his scepter a reed, his raiment a purple rag.  But by his death he justified many. Indeed, he is the King of justification.

3.  Melchizedek was the King of Salem, the king of peace.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the true King of Salem, the Prince of Peace.

Our Lord is this in two ways:

First, in the ultimate sense he gives us peace with God: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Second, he gives us peace within ourselves and with others: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

The old adage is:  No Jesus, no peace; Know Jesus, know peace.

As one cheesy church sign which I once saw on the roadside in Houston, Texas several years ago put it: “If your life is in pieces, look to Jesus for peace.”

4.  Melchizedek met with Abraham.  The Lord Jesus meets with us.

He does so often unexpectedly, surprisingly, seeming to appear out of nowhere.

5.  Melchizedek was made “like unto a Son of God” (Hebrews 7:3).  The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

6.  Melchizedek represented a continuing priesthood, unlike that of Levi and Aaron.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal priest who gave himself once for sin on the cross and now ever liveth to make intercession for us (cf. Hebrews 7:25).

7.  Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek.  We give our lives to Christ with gratitude, as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2).

Now consider how great this man Melchizedek was!  Yet, the Lord Jesus is greater than Melchizedek. He is our greater Melchizedek. He is the King of righteousness and the King of peace.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

David Kranendonk: What was the Reformation Perspective on the LXX? (RBS 2024 Plenary Lecture 3)

 

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Jeffrey T. Riddle: How Did the Early Church Use the Septuagint? (RBS 2024 Plenary Lecture 2)

 

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Russell Fuller: What Exactly is the Septuagint? (RBS 2024 Plenary Lecture 1)

 

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Introduction: Reformation Bible Society 2024

 

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The Vision (8.23.24): Ten Admirable Qualities of Abraham (from Genesis 14)

 

Image: The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, engraving by Adriaen Collaert, 1584-1585, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 14.

Genesis 14:22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.

In last Sunday’s sermon from Genesis 14 I suggested at least ten spiritually admirable qualities of Abram (Abraham) which we might note and follow:

First: Unlike Lot, he did not “pitch his tent toward [align himself with] Sodom,” and so he was spared the temporal distress and humiliation which Lot endured (cf. Genesis 13:12; 14:1-12).

Who knows what pain we are spared by openly aligning with Christ rather than with the world?

Second: He had friends in the world but was not corrupted by them (v. 13).

See 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul told the Corinthians that if they had to stay away completely from worldlings they would need “go out of the world” (v. 10).

Third: He had compassion on Lot his kinsman in his distress (v. 14).

He might well have turned his back upon Lot. Matthew Henry made much of this, writing that Abram provides a model: “Though others have been wanting in their duty to us, yet we must not therefore deny our duty to them.”

Fourth: He used lawful means to defend himself by arming his servants (v. 14b).

What did his arming of his servant say about his relationship with them as their master?

Fifth: He used skill and cunning (marks of wisdom) to overcome a greater adversary and all with the Lord’s help (v. 15).

This recalls Christ’s sending forth of the apostles, telling them to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matthew 10:16)

Sixth: He communed with Melchizedek (v. 18).

This took place when the mysterious king and priest brought forth to him “bread and wine” (v. 18).

Seventh: He was blessed of God (v. 19).

Look at Psalm 1 and see a contrast between the “blessed” man (vv. 1-3) and the “ungodly” (vv. 4-6).

Eighth: He gave tithes to Melchizedek (v. 20b).

Abram was a proper steward of the things in his possession and gave the first and best to the cause of the Lord, embodied in Melchizedek.

Ninth: He was a man of his word and kept his pledge to God (v. 22):

The Lord Jesus himself would teach the importance of this in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:37). We need men and women who live with integrity, who keep their word, and fulfill their commitments to God and man.

Tenth: He kept himself unspotted from the world in his promise not to take one thread or shoelace from Sodom (v. 23).

He was committed to holiness, to being set apart from the world. He trust not in the world for material provision, but in God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle