This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of an exposition of Psalm 8 by Dr. Wellum from Sunday June 29, 2008.

This “Psalm of David” (see superscription) praises Yahweh the Lord for His creation in general and for the role He has given man in particular. The reason for this role given to “man” and “the son of man” is said to be “Because of Your adversaries/To make the enemy and the revengeful cease” (2b). For David, it is this exalted status of the “son of man” over creation and over God’s enemies that causes him to declare (both at the beginning and end of the song), “Yahweh, our Lord,/How majestic is Your name in all the earth” (vv. 1 and 9). As those redeemed for the purpose of being God’s true humanity (something they never quite lived up to), Israel was to rule over creation as a new Adam, and they were to rule over God’s enemies as well. In performing these tasks the name of Yahweh was made great among the nations.

For those weeping by the rivers of Babylon (see Psalm 137) in exile, however, it did not seem as if Yahweh’s name was being made much of in all the earth. In fact, the names Baal and Marduk (Babylonian gods) were probably on the ascendancy. The words of Psalm 8, then, would have been sung in bitter-sweet anticipation of redemption and the restoration of a proper world order; one in which “the enemy and the revengeful cease” (v. 2) and “the son of man” is seen once again as he who is crowned “with glory and majesty” (v. 5). This hope is precisely what is seen in a similar song of Asaph, when he pleads, “Let Your [the Lord’s] hand be upon the man of Your right hand,/Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself./Then we shall not turn back from You;/Revive us, and we will call upon Your name./Yahweh God of hosts restore us;/Cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved” (80:17-19).”

Israel had to wait many years before the creation and God’s enemies began to be placed once again under the feet of the “son of man.” Even after the return of a remnant to the land under Ezra and Nehemiah, they were still under the rule of an enemy nation (Persia). In many ways, we still today (as the author of Hebrews states after quoting a large section of Psalm “do not yet see all things subjected to him [that is, man/the son of man]” (Heb. 2:8). But, as the author goes on to say about Psalm 8’s fulfillment, what we “do see” is “Him…namely Jesus” (v. 9). In Jesus there is one son of man—the Son of Man—who even now is crowned with glory and honor, and who is even now “waiting…until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet” (Heb. 10:13).

Jesus is humanity as it was meant to be, and more. And beyond that, He plans to “bring many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10). Take courage sons of men, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20).

Audio from this week’s lesson: Psalm 8

~DGG

This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of an introduction to the book of Psalms by Dr. Wellum from Sunday June 15, 2008.

The book of Psalms, like any other book of the Bible, must be interpreted with a view to its place in the overarching storyline of Scripture if one is to grasp its full significance. While each Psalm is, in a sense, a self-contained literary work, the book of Psalms is not merely a collection of disparate poems, strung together without rhyme or reason. Neither is the book itself without particular salvation-historical significance in relation to the other books of the Bible.

A study of the Psalms reveals that the book was given its final and canonical form during the post-exilic era. Included are songs as early as that of Moses (Ps. 90) and as late as that of the exiles who “sat down and wept” “by the rivers of Babylon” (Ps. 137:1). The latter reveals the book’s post-exilic arrangement, meaning that the first people to actually use the Psalter to which we now have access were those who were either suffering in exile at the hands of the Babylonians, or by those who had returned to Judah under Persian rule (making them in effect exiles in their own land). When this is understood, the strong Messianic overtones of the Psalms may be read with a greater sense of the urgency with which they were first sung. Post-exilic Jews were anticipating God’s return to His people, His defeat of their enemies, His reestablishment of the Kingdom of Israel, and His reinstatement of Israel’s Davidic king. It is no wonder, then, that these themes dominate the Psalter.

That these themes are important for the book as a whole may be seen in the fact that they appear in the first two Psalms, songs that serve as a programmatic introduction to the book. Psalm 1 distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked. There is “the assembly of the righteous” (v. 6, a reference to Israel) and there are “sinners” (v. 6, a reference to enemy nations and those within Israel who rebel against Yahweh). Psalm 2 then asserts God’s sovereignty, His choosing of Israel, and a warning to the nations to pay homage to Israel and Israel’s God lest they be destroyed by the true King.

In singing through the Psalter, a post-exilic Jew would recount the glory days of the Kingdom under David and Solomon and God’s deliverance in times past. He or she would also sing of their present distress and need for deliverance in the present, and look with great anticipation to the day when God would, once again, place His King on Israel’s throne. It should come as no surprise that when this King arrived, His followers appealed to these songs frequently as testimony to the fact that God’s promises were being fulfilled. The One of whom Israel sang had appeared. The Son of David had come. The object of Israel’s praise had taken on flesh and blood.

Audio from this week’s lesson: Overview of the Psalms.

~DGG

This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of an exposition of Genesis 22 by Dr. Wellum from Sunday May 21, 2008.

In Genesis 24 and 25 the focus of the biblical narrative shifts from Abraham to the child of promise—Isaac. This transition is accomplished by an extensive account of the finding of a bride for Isaac, as well as the account of Abraham’s death and the genealogies of Abraham’s sons. A lesson that is taught throughout these chapters is the way in which God’s sovereign redemptive plan and man’s responsibility to be actively involved in that plan are two truths that work together.

If the promised son, Isaac, was to become a great nation as God had promised (Gen. 12:1ff), then he would need a wife so that the two could multiply and fill the land that God was to give them. Thus, Abraham’s servant is sent to find Isaac a wife. Abraham tells him that he is not to get Isaac a wife from the Canaanites, but rather to go to “my country and to my relatives” (v. 4). The servant recognizes that the distance between his relatives and the land in which Abraham was sojourning might make the process difficult. He states, “Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” (v. 5). To this Abraham gives the sharp reply, “Beware that you do not take my son back there!” (v. 6). If Isaac was to have a wife, she would have to, in faith, leave her home country and enter the land of promise just as Abraham had done. This is, in fact, precisely what she (Rebekah) does. The servant was led by God to exactly the right place, to meet exactly the right woman. She then leaves her family and homeland to become part of something bigger than she probably ever realized. The account of the finding of Rebekah then ends with Isaac and Rebekah meeting and marrying, and with a description of Isaac’s affections: “and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death” (v. 67).

Chapter 25 begins with yet another wedding; this time for Abraham: “Now Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah” (v. 1). Through Keturah, Abraham was given even more sons. But, as v. 5 notes, “[A]ll that he [Abraham] had” was given to Isaac.” As Abraham’s sending away of the sons of his concubines and as the genealogy of Ishmael that follows (vv. 12-18) shows, it was through Isaac and Isaac alone that the promised inheritance would come.

One cannot read these stories without a profound sense that God’s providence was governing all the affairs of his covenant partners; something that is especially evident in the servant being led directly to Rebekah. It was God who had made the promise of seed and it was God who providentially provided the means through which this seed would come. What is equally evident in these chapters, however, is the responsibility of the covenant partners to be actively involved in the fulfillment of the covenant promises. Abraham took initiative in finding a wife for his son so that the promise of a multitude of descendants might come about. In a cursed world, the initiatives and ingenuity of God’s partners were not always the wisest (e.g., Abraham taking Hagar to produce the promised seed); but, these initiatives were just as much a part of God’s sovereign plan as the promises themselves.

This theme of the responsibility of God’s people to be active in the fulfilling of God’s redemptive will is developed throughout the canon. Moses was to actively engage with Pharaoh for the deliverance of God’s people. Israel was to actively drive out the pagan nations so that they could inherit the promised land. When God’s people were in exile and the promise of restoration was made (see Ezek. 36-37 and Jer. 31, among other places), it was God’s servant (Isa. 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12) who would actively defeat their enemies and bring them back into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ultimately, this truth is seen in the life of Jesus as well. Jesus was to be “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). But, to carry out this plan Jesus still had to actively “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:51) and willingly submit His will to the will of the Father (Lk. 22:42).

In the same way, we (the church) are to actively engage in the plan of God; which is that Christ Jesus would be the firstborn of many brethren from every tribe, and tongue, and nation. We have been promised that Christ will build His church (Matt. 16:18); yet we are commanded to be actively involved in “the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12). We have been promised that Christ will indeed be the firstborn of brethren from all peoples; yet we are commanded to be active in taking the gospel “even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). May we be people who delight in God’s promises and trust in God’s sovereign plan, and who also use God-given initiative and ingenuity in seeing that plan accomplished.

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 24-25.

~DGG

This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Dr. Wellum’s exposition of Genesis 19-21 from Sunday April 27, 2008.

In His covenant with Abram, it is revealed that God’s plan to renew the cursed world would be accomplished by the multiplication of covenant-men upon the earth (Gen. 17:2, “I will multiply you exceedingly.”)—a purpose seen earlier in Genesis, both before the Fall (1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.”) and after the Fall (9:1, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”). Humans who were out of proper relationship to God because of sin would be brought back into proper relationship with God through God’s covenant partner Abraham and his descendents. The first of these descendants—Isaac—was promised in 18:10-14. But, in between the hope-filled accounts of the promise of this seed and his actual birth (chpt. 21), we are reminded that the serpent of Gen. 1-3 has a plan and people as well.

In chapter 19, the wickedness of men, specifically their sexual perversion, is highlighted in an account of the evil city of Sodom. The city had become so perverse that God intended to completely destroy it and all its inhabitants. Through the intercession of God’s covenant partner Abraham, however, at least one family was delivered (that of Lot).

In chapter 20, even God’s covenant partner is shown to be one who does “things that ought not to be done” (v. 9). Instead of trusting God during a journey to Gerar, Abraham told the people of this land that Sarai was his sister, which resulted in her being taken into the king’s harem. Thus, the one who was supposed to bear the promised seed was in danger of bearing the seed of a ruler of a kingdom of this world.

But, in the midst of all this wickedness and all of these situations that seemed to threaten God’s promises, God’s grace and faithfulness shines through—the promised seed is finally born (21:1-8). The covenant people were multiplying. Neither cities and mobs of wicked men (chpt. 19), nor the foolish decisions of God’s covenant partners (chpt. 20) would hinder God’s plan. Humans in proper relationship with God would fill the earth as God intended. God would have for Himself a people “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). But, as the rest of the biblical story makes clear, this would require a better covenant partner than either Abraham or Isaac.

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 19-21.

~DGG

This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Dr. Wellum’s exposition of Genesis 15 from Sunday April 6, 2008.

This chapter continues the emphasis from Genesis chapters 12-15 on the promise of land. In v. 1, God reminds Abram of this promise, stating, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” At the time, Abram did not have any land of his own, though he had “settled in the land of Canaan” (13:12). Neither did he have an heir to inherit what possessions he did own, namely, “livestock, silver, and gold” (13:2). Thus, his response to God in 15:2 seems legitimate: “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

God’s reply to Abram is that Eliezer will not be his heir, but that he will have his own son. Thus, the reader is informed by Moses (the author) that the promised seed of 3:15 will not be found in Eliezer’s line, but in the line of God’s covenant partner, Abram. What comes next becomes central to not only the Old Testament episode in the story of redemption but to that of the New Testament as well: “Then he [Abram] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (v. 6).

That this faith that leads to righteousness comes before circumcision (ch. 17) or the giving of the Law to Moses (Ex. 20), reveals that Abram was saved by faith, apart from works of the Law; but, it also reveals—as the New Testament authors point out—that the promise of being “heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13) is made “also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (4:16). This is because the faith that Abram had was faith in God’s promised Heir, none other than Jesus Christ. This is what Paul means when he says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham” (Gal. 3:8).

The land promised to Abram wouldn’t be inherited by Eliezer. Indeed, it wouldn’t even be inherited by Abram’s biological son, Isaac. One is, thus, left with Paul’s frequent question, Has God’s promise failed? To which Paul’s answer is necessary, May it never be! One from Abram’s line would come who would posses the land of Canaan, and not the land of Canaan only, but that of the whole world. And, if you belong to that One, then you too are “Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 15.

~DGG

This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Dr. Wellum’s exposition of Genesis 9:9-9:29 from Sunday March 2, 2008.

This passage tells the story of a righteous man—Noah—who walked with God (6:9) in a perverse generation (6:1-7); who was delivered from divine judgment (7:1-8:12); and who was then commissioned, like Adam before him, to take dominion over the now fallen creation (8:13-9:7).

The first episode of the story reveals the extent and intensity with which the sin of Adam had become the sin of the majority of mankind: “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (6:5, emphasis added). God’s pre-Fall, good and structured universe had become so distorted that even the “sons of God” (probably angels) had exceeded the boundaries of God’s structure, taking wives for themselves from “the daughters of men” (v. 2). Because of the state of His creation, the Lord determined to judge His creatures: “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals” (v. 7).

But, as is the case throughout the storyline of the Bible, God remembers mercy when He judges, and devises a plan in which a remnant of mankind and other of God’s creatures will be saved and in which man will be commissioned once again to rule creation as Adam was intended to do. In this instance, God’s judgment included devastating amounts of water (from both “the fountains of the deep” and “the floodgates of the sky” [7:11]), and God’s plan included the building of a large ark that served to preserve the remnant.

After the flood subsides, God covenants with Noah, stating, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man…and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done” (8:21). The Lord then commissions Noah, in a way reminiscent of Genesis 1:28-30, to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (9:1); also stating that all animals and plants are given “into your hand” (v. 2). By the end of chapter nine, however, one finds that Noah has not ruled well. In fact, he has allowed the fruit of the vine—one of the plants over which he was to have dominion—to rule over him instead (i.e., he got drunk).

As righteous as Noah might have been, he was definitely not the promised seed of Eve (Gen. 3:15) who would crush the head of the serpent, reverse the curse of sin, and rule properly over God’s created order. But while this particular story does not end well, it does serve—through God’s preservation of Noah’s family—to keep the larger story of God’s redemptive purposes going. In addition to this, a pattern is established in these chapters that will appear later on in the larger story of the Bible—a pattern in which people will once again be saved through a baptism of water; “not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 6:9-9:29.

~DGG

At the end of Gen. 4, two lines of descendants are in view – one evil, one good, both from Adam. Observing Cain’s line (the evil one), it is clear that the promised seed of Gen. 3:15 who would reverse the curse would not come from him. Instead, the author highlights the fact that Cain’s sons were wicked; one of whom was the first polygamist (Lamech) and followed in the murderous example of his father.

The other line that is mentioned in Gen. 4 is that of Seth. Unlike Cain and his family, who settled “out from the presence of the Lord” (4:16) and lived rebelliously, it was the men of Seth’s line who “began to call upon the name of the Lord” (4:26).

In chapter five, greater attention is given to Seth’s godly line, the recounting of which offers reminders of the way life should be and glimmers of the hope of redemption. Brief accounts of ten descendants of Seth are given, each of which follow a general pattern: length of life before children, names of children, length of life after children, mention of having other sons and daughters, and the total of years lived.

Something that stands out about all of these individuals is the long length of their lives (e.g., Adam was nine hundred and thirty years old when he died.); a detail that would have reminded the audience of Moses (the author) that long life, indeed eternal life, was what God had intended for mankind. Another reminder of the way things were supposed to be is seen in the life of Enoch, a man who “walked with God” and did not die. This was something that all of Adam’s seed would have experienced had he and Eve not sinned.

Adam and Eve’s sin had messed up everything, and it was in response to this and with the hope of redemption that Lamech (not to be confused with Cain’s son) said of his son Noah, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed” (5:29). These words mark a transition in the Genesis story and in the broader story of God’s redemptive purposes. The focus of chapters six through eleven will now be on Noah, a descendant in the godly line of Seth, “a righteous man, blameless in his time” (6:9), but a man who was clearly not the promised seed.

The line of Seth proved to be a much better lot than that of Cain. Men from his line called on the name of the Lord, some are said to have walked with God, yet all are said to have died having not granted rest from the effects of sin. The Lord was narrowing in on those through whom the promise of redemption would come, but the line was not narrow enough yet.

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 5.

~DGG

Genesis 2 ends with man and woman “naked and not ashamed.” By the middle of chapter three, however, they were hiding themselves among the trees, attempting to escape the presence of God. What happened in the course of these eight verses that caused the shift from no shame to shame is one of the most significant events in the storyline of the Bible. It is here that history moved from Creation to Fall.

This cosmic shift is, for the Christian, the explanation for the existence of evil. It is an historic account that makes sense of the world as we experience it. Man, as moral creature made in the image of God, has rebelled against his Creator, plunging himself and the rest of God’s creation over which he was to have dominion into a state of shame and curse. The one given the charge to “rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (1:28) was instead ruled over by another creature – the serpent.

As Adam’s descendants, we not only inherit the guilt of his moral failure (Rom. 5:12-14), we also find ourselves committing shameful acts similar to his. We too align ourselves with the serpent and forfeit our responsibility to take dominion over the earth.

All of us are those who do not practice what we would like to do, but do the very things we hate (Rom. 7:15). What is needed is a man who has not inherited the guilt of Adam and who can succeed where Adam failed. In Christ alone this is accomplished! “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

One day men and women will again seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. When the day of judgment comes, they will say “to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’” (Rev. 6:16). May we not be found among those ashamed in their fig leaves on that day, but may we be found among those “standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (7:9).

Audio from the lesson can be found here.

~DGG

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses begins the first book of Scripture with an account of creation that stresses the awesome nature and creative activity of the covenant God who delivered Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. In the introduction of this “first creation account” (1:1-2:3), God is presented as the One who is “in the beginning” (v. 1a), who creates “the heavens and the earth” (v. 1b), and who brings order and form to a creation that is originally “formless and void” (v. 2). The remainder of the account, 1:3-2:3, stresses the same aspects of God – His awesome nature and creative work – by describing in detail the day by day activities in which the eternal and self-existent God fashioned and ordered a “good” universe.

The interpersonal dynamics of the awesome God who creates is hinted at in this passage. First of all, God is the one responsible for the creating. Second, God’s Spirit seems to be the active force by which the formless earth is ordered (v. 2). And third, the means by which this creative activity is carried out is the divine word; a point that may be seen in the tenfold repetition of the phrase, “And God said” (1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, and 29). It is not until one comes to the New Testament, however, that one discovers the full significance of the role of the word in creation. Here we learn that the word by which heaven and earth were formed was no mere utterance with volume and pitch, but a person with DNA and a blood type. This is the Word who was “in the beginning … with God” (John 1:1), through whom “all things came into being” (v. 3). The second person of the Trinity is the creator, sustainer, and redeemer of the cosmos.

Moses and Israel were to derive hope from recognizing that the covenant God of Israel was not only the Redeemer who brings His people out of Egypt, but also the Creator who is responsible for the existence of the heavens, the earth, and all they contain. In the same way, we who are in Christ are to recognize Him as not only the Savior of our souls, but also as the One who was there in the beginning when all things were made, and who will be their in the end when all things are made new (Rev. 21:5). The Word made flesh is our only hope. He was responsible for the first creation, and He is and will be responsible for the New Creation.

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 1:1-2:3

Text for this coming Sunday: Genesis 1:24-31

~DGG