Ben Zornes, Author at Christ Church

Kirkers Read: Invading the Land

Ben Zornes on November 13, 2018

One of the benefits of reading the Old Testament alongside of the New Testament is illustrated in this week’s reading. As you work through Joshua in the Old and Acts in the New, a few similar threads should come up. First, while Israel is commissioned to go in and take possession of Canaan, the early Church is commission to go take possession of the ends of the whole world starting at Jerusalem and going out to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Where Joshua led God’s people in a victorious military conquest, Jesus leads His people in a victorious Gospel conquest.

What reading the two testaments in parallel does is highlight that God’s redemptive purposes have not altered throughout all of human history. The early chapters of the story lead us to the “aha!” moments of the later chapters. Joshua routes pagan enemy armies; but Jesus routes the enemy within us and sends us to conquer the world with the good news of His Gospel. Jesus is a fiercer conqueror, for all who refuse to submit to His Kingdom will, in the end, feel the full wrath of almighty God.

But while some question how a good God could send His people to kill and slaughter enemy nations, we shouldn’t forget one of the key hinges of the story of Joshua. Right in the thick of the first conquest we have a pagan woman, Rahab, who by faith saw that the God of Israel was the One True God, and because of that faith is joined to God’s covenant people. Rahab, who should have been destroyed, is shown mercy. Not only is she shown mercy, but she becomes an ancestor to King David, and ultimately to “great David’s greater son.” The conquest of Canaan shows us that God’s mission was always one of reconciling fallen man––His enemy––unto Himself. Those who refused to surrender to the armies of the living God felt the edge of His sword. But those who fled to His arms, found salvation.

Kirkers Read: The Covenant Thread

Ben Zornes on October 29, 2018

As we prepare to read Deuteronomy, the last book of the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy), it is vital to hold on to the thread of covenant. Think of rock climbers who tether themselves together in order that their corporate ascent is safeguarded against dangerous falls. It is vital that we don’t minimize this theme of God’s covenant. The whole book of Deuteronomy is presented in the same treaty form which suzerain kings of the ancient near east would use; the main difference being that where ancient kings would form a treaty between themselves and their vassals/people calling the gods to be witness to the covenant and bring down judgement on those who would break the covenant, this covenant was between the people of Israel and God Himself. God was to be their king.

The reality is that from the fall in Eden onwards God dealt with man via gracious covenants. Noah, Abram, Jacob, Moses, and later David and Solomon all have this covenant between God and His people renewed. So what is this covenant? The Westminster Confession describes it as “the covenant of grace; wherein [God] freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ (WC Chapter 7.3).”

In essence, God always and only saves man through His Son the Christ. Further, man’s salvation is and always has been––even under these Old Testament iterations of the covenant of grace––a gracious gift and entirely unmerited. The covenant is recapitulated throughout Genesis, then further expanded in the giving of the Law on Sinai, and then we are brought to Deuteronomy where the covenant is renewed as Israel is about to enter the land which God had promised them. In Deuteronomy we have Moses preaching through the Ten Commandments, and reminding Israel that their salvation, deliverance and union with God is based entirely upon God’s free grace. Their obligation is––as the old Gospel song put it––to trust and obey.

Kirkers Read: The Smoking Crater of Unbelief

Ben Zornes on October 22, 2018

The book of Numbers opens and closes with a census. The Lord had brought them to the cusp of entering the land He had promised to the Patriarchs, and before they entered the land Moses recounts the ordering of the host of Israel. However, what follows is a series of rebellions, culminating in the great apostasy in Numbers 13-14. Ten of the twelve spies who had been sent to spy out the land, came back and reported that though the land was as God had promised, the difficulty in taking it would be too great. It states that they slandered the land which the Lord was giving to them (Num. 14:36).

The consequence of their unbelief is forty years of wandering, until the entire generation whose faith failed had fallen in the wilderness. At the end of Numbers we have the “re-ordering” of the tribes, as they prepare, once more, to enter the Promised Land. Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, we see that God does not fail to preserve his people and be faithful to His promise. He accompanies them, through all their wanderings as a fiery cloud above them. Paul sees this as a baptism into Christ.

In fact, Paul cites Israel’s murmurings in his lengthy argument against the Corinthian church’s division and disunity. Israel was a partaker of Christ (1 Cor. 10:1-4), however, their numerous rebellions are a warning. Paul reminds them that all the judgements that happened to Israel for their various sins were for the Corinthians admonition (1 Cor. 10:11). “Do not be like unbelieving Israel,” is Paul’s main rhetorical point. Do not murmur. Do not be idolators. Do not fornicate. Cling––in unity––to the Gospel which Paul had preached unto them.

Paul mentions that the murmuring of Israel brought the consequence of being “destroyed of the destroyer.” The Lord threatened to destroy the entire congregation as one man. Moses interceded, and while God spared the people (Num. 14:12-19), destruction met their murmuring nonetheless. Most obviously, the ten spies fell down dead of the plague (Num. 14:37). However, it is also of note that the next day Israel attempted to enter Canaan anyway. This faithless venture was met with destruction (Num. 14:45) at the hand of the Amalekites whom they had so feared. Murmuring always ends in a smoking heap of destruction.

Kirkers Read: Seeing Christ in Leviticus

Ben Zornes on October 17, 2018

Henry Law once wrote this about the book of Leviticus, “The main lesson of this Book is Christ. He is the light and luster of each part. To read aright, is to walk up and down with Him. Have we thus found? Is He more deeply engrafted in our hearts? Is He more closely enshrined within our thoughts? Has He become the mainspring of our being? Have we no longer any mind but His? Christ is the juice—the life—the heart-blood of Leviticus. If it instruct not thus, the veil is on the reader’s mind. He gropes in darkness amid glorious rays.”

We must not think that the Levitical laws were sort of a failed venture on God’s part. It’s not as if He came up with a temporary fix that didn’t quite end up working out. Rather, God, being sovereign over history orchestrated these sacrifices, festivals, and ordinances in order to reveal our need for Christ. A vital doctrine is distilled from Moses’ Law: the three uses of the Law. First, the Law is a restraint on evil; in this way the Law functions as God’s border patrol for mankind. Secondly, the bright holiness of the Law functions to reflect back to mankind his deadness & depravity; it is like a mirror which shows us the truth about ourselves. Third, it reveals Christ, the only righteous man who not only died in our place, but also imputes His righteousness to us, by faith. The whole point of Leviticus is to get Israel to see that their only hope was if God delivered them through the Messiah. That is our only hope as well.