Grafted In

I hope you all had a great Christmas.  These days between now and New Years are some of my very favorite.  Not exactly "downtime", they are nonetheless much less hectic than my usual pace.  Ahhhh!
So, the picture above is of a branch of an olive tree.  Why I chose this photo will become clear later on.

Ezra 8 is today's central text.  It begins by listing the names of the families who left Babylon with Ezra in this wave of dispersed exiles, to return to Jerusalem.  To Ezra's surprise, he found no Levites among the group. So, he sent a group of trusted men to a place called Casiphia, where some Levites were living.  It was important to take Levites (a branch of the Jewish "family"), because they were the only ones specified by God to be the ministers in the temple.

I've had a bit of confusion about the difference between priests and Levites; so, I looked it up.  In short, all priests were from the tribe of Levi (thus being Levites).  However, not all from the tribe of Levi were priests.  Levitical priests were charged with the most "holy" tasks of the Temple. They were allowed to handle sacred objects and perform sacred rituals.  Other Levites served in the Temple, doing non-priestly duties, assisting the priests.  They were still highly esteemed because of their service in the temple, but not as highly esteemed as priests.

After gathering together from Casiphia (which no one seems to know the exact location of) 38 Levites and 220 temple-helpers (adopted Levites, you might say).  This latter group was called the Nethinims, a group I'd never heard of.  So, I did a little digging around.

The name "nithinim" is a derivative of the verb "nathan", which means to "set apart" or "consecrate". It is believed that these people were descendants of slave people, captured as the Jews conquered the promised land.  See Numbers 31:47.   We find in Ezra 8:20 that, during David's reign, he had commissioned a number of these foreign people to assist the Levitical priests in the service of the temple.  Since Ezra could only come up with 38 "true Levites by birth" for the priesthood, his advisors also invited along 220 from the group with the general title of Nithinim.  Ezra was perpetuating the example set by David.

Bible scholars agree that King David was a picture (a "type") of the coming Messiah.  I've mentioned before in this blog how it is recorded in the New Testament that David was "a man after God's own heart".  It is interesting to me how these pagan slaves were more or less "adopted" in to the Levitical class and "grafted in" to serve in the temple.  When we find them in Ezra 8, there is no indication that they are now slaves, but rather, treated as family members.

All this is a picture of the gentiles in the Church of Jesus Christ.  The Nithinim are a foreshadowing of the gentile peoples who were invited in to the early Church.  You may recall that it was a rocky road to get the Jewish believers of the early Church to accept that God wanted to include gentiles (non-Jews). This was a radical change.  But, God, in His mercy and holiness, made a way of salvation for ALL people through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Paul explains this in Romans 9:33 - - -

"They are Israelites, and to them belong the glory, the adoption, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."

But, he goes on to talk about grafting in of gentiles in Romans 11:16-24.  He refers to the whole Church as an olive tree, and to the gentile members as "wild olive branches" who were grafted in.
In Romans 1:16, Paul affirms that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been made available "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (the Greeks being a prominent group of gentile people).

Peter affirms this in his first book, 1 Peter 2:10 - -
"Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

There is a passage I love - - John 15.  Here, Jesus is talking about His Church, with Himself being the "true vine" (or you might say, the tree trunk) and we are the "branches".

I'm a wild olive branch, how about you?  As someone with gentile blood, I am so glad that Jesus' redeeming sacrifice was not only for the Jews. Hallelujah!

Father, thank you for extending your offer of salvation and peace to all people.  As a "Greek", I am so grateful!  And, I thank you for this picture you paint in the book of Ezra to show that your mercy has been abundant from generation to generation, as evidenced not only here in Ezra 8 but also in the example of Ruth, Rahab and others.  When we come to you for salvation, we leave our pedigrees at the door, because we all come to you on an even footing - - - dirty sinners, in need of washing in Jesus' blood.  We praise you today for your marvelous foreknowledge, mercy and grace!  In Jesus' name, amen. 

Big House, Little House...

Good morning,

In an little while I have to take my car in for routine maintenance.  Like all things temporal it wears out over time.  The same is true of our bodies.  Paul must have intended 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 for younger folks, because we older folks experience the truth of them every day of our lives, often from the moment our feet hit the floor in the morning!

For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this earthly house we groan, because we desire to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed, after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked. 4 For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.  

NET

By trade, Paul was a tentmaker.  So, it is natural he would choose the tent as one of his analogies. Much of his daily life, the way he "made a living", was to construct these temporary dwellings.  Yet, his avocation, his true calling, was to construct Believers (by the power of the Holy Spirit).  His primary focus was on that eternal work of sharing the gospel so that people might hear the Truth and gain access to a "heavenly dwelling" (Rom. 10:17).  Although it is called "heavenly dwelling" in the NET translation, this refers not to a location or structure, but rather to the imperishable, immortal body that Believers will receive after physical death, as a result of their having accepted Jesus as Savior.

It is quite clear from this passage that, in both cases, neither the earthly body nor the heavenly body IS the person.  So often in this life we let our bodies define us, control us.  People who meet us are either captivated by our beautiful bodies .... or not.  Such a distraction!  We are not our bodies.  They are merely a "tent".  Anyone who has ever witnessed a person dying or seen a dead body knows the truth of this.  The "shell" is left; the soul has departed.

Paul is not referring to a "mansion in glory" in this passage either.  In fact, this idea of beautiful mansions where each believer will dwell has no support in Scripture. We find several references to actual features of Heaven (the throne room of God, the River of Life, the Tree of Life {with fruit}, streets of gold and precious stones all over the place.  But, actual dwellings?  No.  This misleading teaching comes from an overblown translation of the actual words of Jesus in John 13:33-37 and 14:2-3, where He states that in His father's house are many "rooms" and, in the latter passage, He goes to prepare a "place" for us.

The Greek word translated in some versions "rooms" (and in others, including the KJV, "mansions") literally means "an abode, a place of dwelling".  So, when you get to Heaven, if your immortal body is assigned one of those "little houses" which are so popular with the "millennial generation" these days...will you be disappointed?  :)

It appears from Scripture that the emphasis will be on us "dwelling" in our immortal bodies, in the presence of God.  In this sense, Believers will not be "found naked" after death, because they have an eternal destiny, complete with an immortal body, waiting for them "in the heavens" (vs. 1).  Any further "tent" or "place of abode" will be, if you'll pardon the pun, "immaterial" or "irrelevant".  Our focus will be, not on the size of a mansion, but rather on the beauty of our King Jesus.  We will not only continue to abide in Him (John 15), but we will abide WITH Him forever!  Beyond that, so much of Heaven is a mystery.  It is not useful to "pick nits" over its "physical" features.

The most beautiful gem in this  2 Cor. 5 passage comes in verse 5, where Paul assures Believers that the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts when we decided to follow Jesus, at the moment of our conversion. When we make that "spiritual transaction", God puts His Holy Spirit in us, just like we put a downpayment on a home when we ink the mortgage.  Other translations present this Greek word as "deposit" (NIV) or "guarantee" (ESV).  We'll look more deeply at that tomorrow.  It's off to the car dealer now!

Dear Father, I just want to dwell in Your presence forever, worshipping my Triune God, thanking my Jesus for all He has done for me.  The psalmist expresses my longings beautifully in Psalm 84:10 and Psalm 73:25-26.  "Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere!" And, Father, if a little singing could be thrown in there too?  To praise You in heavenly song?  Ah....Heaven!  In Jesus' name, amen.