And Enoch walked with God...

The following quote by Dods is about the genealogy in Genesis 5. Each generation follows a depressing pattern: "Thus all the days of "x" lived were "y" years and he died." The author of Genesis emphasizes through this pattern that even in the godly descendants of Seth, the Adamic curse is fulfilled and each one dies. However, there is one break in the pattern, one glimmer of hope, in Genesis 5:24, "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." Marcus Dods reflects on Enoch's walk with God.

Only once is the monotony broken; but this in so striking a manner as to rescue us from the idea that the historian is mechanically copying a barren list of names. For in the seventh generation, contemporaneous with the culmination of Cain's line in the family of Lamech, we come upon the simple, but anything but mechanical statement: "Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him." The phrase is full of meaning. Enoch walked with God because he was His friend and liked His company, because he was going in the same direction as God, and had no desire for anything but what lay in God's path. We walk with God when He is in all our thoughts; not because we consciously think of Him at all times, but because He is naturally suggested to us by all we think of; as when any person or plan or idea has become important to us, no matter what we think of, our thought is always found recurring to this favorite object, so with the godly man everything has a connection with God and must be ruled by that connection. When some change in his circumstances is thought of, he has first of all to determine how the proposed change will affect his connection with God--will his conscience be equally clear, will he be able to live on the same friendly term with God and so forth. When he falls into sin he cannot rest till he has resumed his place at God's side and walks again with Him. This is the general nature of walking with God; it is a persistent endeavour to hold all our life open to God's inspection and in conformity to His will; a readiness to give up what we find does cause any misunderstanding between us and God; a feeling of loneliness if we have not some satisfaction in our efforts at holding fellowship with God, a cold and desolate feeling when we are conscious of doing something that displeases Him. This walking with God necessarily tells on the whole life and character. As you instinctively avoid subjects which you know will jar upon the feeling of your friend, as you naturally endeavour to suit yourself to your company, so when the consciousness of God's presence begins to have some weight with you, you are found instinctively endeavouring to please Him, repressing the thought you know He disapproves, and endeavouring to educate such dispositions as reflect His own nature.

It is easy then to understand how we may practically walk with God--it is to open to Him all our purposes and hopes, to seek his judgment on our scheme of life and idea of happiness--it is to be on thoroughly friendly terms with God... Things were not made easy to Enoch. In evil days, with much to mislead him, with everything to oppose him, he had by faith and diligent seeking, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, to cleave to the path on which God walked, often left in darkness, often thrown off the track, often listening but unable to hear the footfall of God or to hear his own name called upon, receiving no sign, but still diligently seeking the God he knew would lead him only to good. [Book of Genesis, pp. 51-53]

As quoted by Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis, pp. 175-176.

Cain's Legacy and Christ's Cure

Allen P. Ross, on page 162 in his commentary Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis, explains Genesis chapter 4:1-16 by quoting Gerhard von Rad concerning Genesis 4:10. Gerhard von Rad points that Cain's rebellion continues to this day.

At the beginning of Passiontide it is fitting to say a word about the extent of the damage done by man. Man approaching the cross is a brother-murderer from the very beginning. The interpreter may also properly sketch out the lines of cultural history--the division of humanity into various states of life, the existence of two altars. And Cain continues to travel the road he has taken--founding cities and the musical arts, developing the art of forging so that the sword comes to be regarded as an approved implement--and the song of Lamech madly celebrates the native force and the boundlessness of revenge (Gen. 4:17-24).

But the sermon should center on verse 10; as far as human understanding is concerned, inconceivable and inexpiable is the accusing cry of the blood of our brother Abel, a cry that ascends to God day and night. This should be the starting point for the dispelling of manifold and familiar misunderstandings: Abel's blood, even the best and dearest, never brings salvation in the presence of God; instead it increases the burden of the curse. But Christ's blood "speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel" (Heb. 12:24). Thus the Bible speaks of two kinds of blood and their voices before God: one of these is millionfold, and its message is accusation, while the other is the blood of the One, and it brings healing. [Biblical Interpretations in Preaching, p. 22]

Grace Covers the Sinners' shame

Allen P. Ross, on p. 149 in his commentary Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis, quotes Marcus Dods about why God chose to cover Adam and Eve with animal skins.

It is also to be remarked that the clothing which God provided was in itself different from what man had thought of. Adam took leaves from an inanimate, unfeeling tree; God deprived an animal of life, that the shame of His creature might be relieved. This was the last thing Adam would have thought of doing. To us life is cheap and death familiar, but Adam recognized death as the punishment of sin. Death was to early man a sign of God's anger. And he had to learn that sin could be covered not by a bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by and that would grow again next year, but only by pain and blood. Sin cannot be atoned for by any mechanical action nor without expenditure of feeling. Suffering must ever follow wrongdoing. From the first sin to the last, the track of the sinner is marked with blood. Once we have sinned we cannot regain permanent peace of conscience save through pain, and this not only pain of our own. The first hint of this was given as soon as conscience was aroused in man. It was made apparent that sin was a real and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be restored. The same lesson has been written on millions of consciences since. Men have found that their sin reaches beyond their own life and person, that it inflicts injury and involves disturbance and distress, that it changes utterly our relation to life and to God, and that we cannot rise above its consequences save by the intervention of God Himself, by an intervention which tells us of the sorrow He suffers on our account. For the chief point that it is God who relieves man's shame.[The Book of Genesis , pp. 25-26]

Jonathan Edwards on the Saints in Heaven

Here is another great quote on heaven by Jonathan Edwards.

Every saint is as a flower in the garden of God, and holy love is the fragrancy and sweet odor which they all send forth, and with which they fill that paradise. Every saint there is as a note in concert of music which sweetly harmonizes with every other note, and all together employed wholly in praising God and the Lamb; and so all helping one another to their utmost to express their love of the whole society to the glorious Father and Head of it, and to pour back love into the fountain of love, whence they are supplied and filled with love and glory. And thus they will live and thus they will reign in love, and in that godlike joy which is the blessed fruit of it, such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath ever entered into the heart of any in this world to conceive (cf. 1 Cor. 2:90). And thus they will live and reign forever and ever. (p. 296, Charity and its Fruits)

John Frame on the biblical world view

I am reading John Frame's The Doctrine God. The book is written in this century, so it is a rare read for me. It has won awards and comes highly recommended so I have high expectations. On page 25, I have already found a good quote about the biblical world view.

Thus we learn something very important about the biblical worldview. In Scripture, the personal is greater than the impersonal. The impersonal things and forces in this world are created and directed by a personal God. According to naturalistic thought, all persons in the world are the product of impersonal forces, and they can best be understood by reducing them to impersonal bits of matter and energy, or by making them aspects of an impersonal oneness. In these views, persons are reducible to the impersonal. But in the biblical view, the impersonal reduces to the personal. Matter, energy, motion, time, and space are under the rule of a personal Lord. All the wonderful things that we find in personality--intelligence, compassion, creativity, love, justice--are not ephemeral data, doomed to be snuffed out in cosmic calamity; rather, they are aspects of what is most permanent, most ultimate. They are what the universe is really all about.

Edwards on the Citizens of Heaven

This is just a short snippet of Jonathan Edwards's description of heaven in his sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:8-10, named Heaven is a World of Love

That God who so fully manifests himself there [heaven]is perfect with an absolute and infinite perfection. That Son of God who is the brightness of his Father's glory appears there in his glory, without that veil of outward meanness in which he appeared in this world, as a root out of dry ground destitute of an outward glory. There the Holy Spirit shall be poured forth with perfect sweetness, as a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal(Revelation 22 at the beginning); a river whose waters are without any manner of pollution. And every member of that glorious society shall be without blemish of sin or imprudence or any kind of failure. The whole church shall then be presented to Christ as a bride clothed in fine linen, clean and white, without spot or wrinkle. "Christ ... loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25-27). In that world, wherever the inhabitants turn their eyes they shall see nothing but beauty and glory. In the most stately cities on earth, however magnificent the buildings are, yet the streets are filthy and defiled, being made to be trodden under foot. But the street of his heavenly city is represented as being as pure gold, like unto transparent glass (Rev. 21:21). That it should be like pure gold only does not sufficiently represent the purity of them; but they are also like the transparent glass or crystal. (pp. 282-283, Charity and Its Fruits)

Genesis 2:7 -- We are God's art work.

Allen P. Ross in his commentary on Genesis expands on the word "formed" in Genesis 2:7.

The Lord God’s creative act is here portrayed with the word yāşar, “formed.” The term signifies that this act creation was by design, an idea demonstrated by the use of a related noun later in the book: “Every intent [yēşer] of the thoughts of his heart was evil” (6:5). The idea of intent or design in forming the man can also be illustrated by the participial use of this verb, which means “potter” (yôşer; Jeremiah 18:2-4). Besides stressing that humankind is a work of art according to the design of the Creator, the passage also explains that humankind is earthly. The whole act is clarified by the notice that the Lord God used dust from the ground to form man. The paronomasia in the line underscores this fact: “The Lord God formed the man [hā’ādām] from the dust of the ground [hā’ādāmâ].” “Man” [ādām] in this section thus refers to the first human, but then also to humankind. Since the first man came from the ground, he and all human beings are inseparably bound to it (see Job 4:19; 10:9, Isa. 29:16) Moreover, the allusion to this passage after the fall retains the proper perspective: “dust you are” (Gen. 3:19). (Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis, p. 122.)

Wayne Grudem on What We Will do in Heaven

Dr. Grudem comments on why we have resurrected bodies in heaven. He asserts that we will continue to work in heaven. Music, art and technology will exist in heaven. We will have stuff that we enjoy doing in heaven because it will glorify God. This is from his Systematic Theology

While we may have some uncertainty about the understanding of certain details, it does not seem inconsistent with this picture to say that we will eat and drink in the new heavens and new earth, and carry on other physical activities as well. Music certainly is prominent in the descriptions of heaven in Revelation, and we might imagine that both musical and artistic activities would be done to the glory of God. Perhaps people will work at the whole range of investigation and development of the creation by technological, creative, and inventive means, thus exhibiting the full extent of their excellent creation in the image of God. Moreover, since God is infinite and we can never exhaust his greatness (Ps. 145:3), and since we are finite creatures who will never equal God’s knowledge or be omniscient, we may expect that for all eternity we will be able to go on learning more about God and about his relationship to his creation. In this way we will continue the process of learning that was begun in this life, in which a life “fully pleasing to him” is one that includes continually “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). (Systematic Theology, p. 1162).

Jonathan Edwards on Spiritual Warfare

This portion of a Jonathan Edwards's sermon is taken from the book Charity and Its Fruits

There are many things which do greatly oppose the grace which is in the heart of a Christian. This holy principle has innumerable enemies, as it were, constantly watching and warring against it. The Christian is encompassed around with enemies on every side. Being a pilgrim and a stranger in the earth he is, as it were, in an enemy's country. There are thousands of devils that are bitter enemies to the grace which is in the heart of a Christian, and do all in their power against it. And the world is an enemy to it. It abounds with persons and things that make opposition to it. And the Christian not only has many enemies without, but multitudes within his own breast which he carries about with him, and of which he cannot divest himself; many corruptions which have footing in his heart, which are the worst enemies of grace, and are under the greatest advantages of any in their warfare against it. Those enemies are not only many but exceedingly strong and powerful, and bitter in their enmity, implacable, irreconcilable, mortal enemies, seeking nothing but the utter ruin and overthrow of grace. And they are unwearied in their opposition. So that the Christian, while he remains in this world, is represented as being in a state of war; his business is the business of a soldier. Many are the powerful and violent assaults which the enemies of grace make upon it; they are not only constantly besieging it, but sometimes they assault it as a city which they would take by storm. They are always lurking and watching advantages against it, but sometimes they rise up in a dreadful rage against it. Sometimes one enemy, and sometimes another, and sometimes all together with one consent besetting it on every side, covering it like a flood, ready to overwhelm it and as though they would swallow it at once. Sometimes grace in the midst of the violent opposition of its enemies, besetting it with united strength, is like a spark of fire encompassed with swelling billows, or raging waves, which appear as if they would swallow it up and extinguish it in a moment. Or like a jewel of gold in the midst of a furnace of raging heat, enough to consume anything but pure gold, which is of that nature that it will not consume in the fire.

Jonathan Edwards on Grace at Conversion

Jonathan Edwards is preaching in this sermon about how all the spiritual gifts are interrelated.

A convert at the same moment that he is become such is possessed of all holy principles, all gracious dispositions. There is a seed of every kind of holy behavior towards God, and towards men. There are as many graces in a true Christian as there are in Jesus Christ himself; which is what the evangelist John means in John 1:14-16, "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us....and of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." And it cannot be otherwise; for they are renewed after Christ's image, as Colossians 3:10, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created them. But that is no true image or picture of another which has some parts wanting. An exact image has part answerable to part; the copy answers the original throughout in all parts, though it may be an obscure image, and not represent any part perfectly, as grace answers to grace. Grace in the soul is a reflection of Christ's glory. It is a reflection of his glory, as the image of a man is reflected from a glass which exhibits part for part (2 Cor. 3:18)

(pp. 245-246, Charity and its Gifts)
Edwards is talking about how the Christian is fully equipped at his conversion with all the spiritual gifts and character to live as a Christian for God. Edwards later on in the sermon compares a Christian conversion to a birth. A healthy baby has all the basic parts of a full grown adult. It just needs to grow and be nourished. Since we have the Holy Spirit within us, God is fully in us. We have all the grace we'll ever need at birth, we just have to grow into it.

Piper quoted Jonathan Edwards on the Beauty of Holiness

The Desiring God National Conference was very good. However, I underestimated the richness of John Piper's quote of Jonathan Edwards on sanctification. Piper did preface the long quotation by talking about how amazing it was, but I needed to read it to get the full effect. Read and drink deeply.

We drink in strange notions of holiness from our childhood, as if it were a melancholy, morose, sour, and unpleasant thing; but there is nothing in it but what is sweet and ravishingly lovely. ‘Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all other beauties. ‘Tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth. . . . ‘Tis of a sweet, pleasant, charming, lovely, amiable, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature. ‘Tis almost too high a beauty for any creatures to be adorned with; it makes the soul a little, sweet, and delightful image of the blessed Jehovah.
Oh, how may angels stand, with pleased, delighted, and charmed eyes, and look and look, with smiles of pleasure upon their lips, upon that soul that is holy; how may they hover over such a soul, to delight to behold such loveliness! . . . What a sweet calmness, what a calm ecstasy, doth it bring to the soul! How doth it make the soul love itself; how doth it make the pure invisible world love it; yea, how doth God love it and delight in it; how do even the whole creation, the sun, the fields, and trees love a humble holiness; how doth all the world congratulate, embrace, and sing to a sanctified soul! . . .
It makes the soul like a delightful field or garden planted by God . . . where the sun is Jesus Christ; the blessed beams and calm breeze, the Holy Spirit; the sweet and delightful flowers, and the pleasant shrill music of the little birds, are the Christian graces.
Or like the little white flower: pure, unspotted, and undefiled, low and humble, pleasing and harmless; receiving the beams, the pleasant beams of the serene sun, gently moved and a little shaken by a sweet breeze, rejoicing as it were in a calm rapture, diffusing around [a] most delightful fragrancy, standing most peacefully and lovingly in the midst of the other like flowers round about.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/act-the-miracle-future-grace-the-word-of-the-cross-and-the-purifying-power-of-god-s-promises

Jonathan Edwards on Hope and Holy Practice

Jonathan Edwards preaching on 1 Corinthians 13:6.

It is so also with a true and gracious hope. This also tends to holy practice. A false hope has a tendency which is the reverse. It tends to licentiousness, to encourage men's lusts, and flatter and embolden them in sin. But a true hope not only does not tend to harden men in sin, and make them more careless of their duty, but it tends to stir them up to holiness of life, to quicken them to duty, to make them more careful to avoid sin, and more diligent and strict in serving God. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). A gracious hope has this tendency from the nature of the happiness hoped for. The happiness which a gracious person wishes is that which consists in holiness. But the more a man seeks and the more he hopes for such a happiness, which consists in holiness, the more does it quicken and enliven a disposition to holiness. And it also has this tendency from the respect it has to the Author of the happiness hoped for; it hopes for it from God, as the fruit of his undeserved and infinite mercy; and therefore it stirs up thankfulness, and engages the heart to seek what to render for such a wonderful benefit promised. It has also this tendency by its regard to the means by which it hopes to obtain it. A true hope hopes to obtain happiness in no way but the way of the gospel, which is by a holy Savior and in a way of cleaving to and following him. It has also this tendency by the influence of that which is the immediate source of a gracious hope, which is faith in Jesus Christ; for a true Christian hope is the immediate fruit of faith. But faith tends to practice and works by love, as has been already shown.

Charity and Its Fruits, p. 219

Marilyn and I are attending the Desiring God Conference.

We are having a great time at the conference. The speakers are great. We had a humorous interaction. We sat down during a break to drink coffee at the Conference bookstore. Marilyn said, "Bibles are cheap here. I bought a lighter bible for $6 to carry around."
I replied, "Cool, I did too, an ESV for $5! Can I see your new bible?" Marilyn handed me her new bible. I said, "Oh, I didn't know you wanted an HCBS version."
Marilyn replied, "I thought that was a publisher."
I said encouragingly, "It is both. It is a really good translation. I just talked to the guy at their booth."
Marilyn said, "I wanted an ESV." After few minutes she got up quietly, and walked away without saying anything.
After I finished my coffee, I looked for her and then decided to go into the next session. We agreed where to meet earlier. Marilyn came in a few minutes later. She said smiling, "I got a nice ESV for $8."
I queried, "Did you exchange the HCBS?"
She said, "No. Happy Birthday!" She smiled and handed me the HCBS bible.
I just said cool and eagerly opened my new HCBS bible.

Chesterton on Art, Work and Play.

I like collecting quotes about the theology of work. I came across this quote on a Facebook post from the G. K. Chesterton society. As usual, Chesterton writes profoundly with a unique view point. I extended the Facebook quote. They took out the reference to God for some reason. However, the whole paragraph makes much more sense when one puts God into the picture.

God is that which can make something out of nothing. Man (it may be truly be said) is that which can make something out of anything. In other words, while the joy of God be unlimited creation, the special joy of man is limited creation, the combination of creation with limits. Man's pleasure, therefore, is to possess conditions, but also to be partly possessed by them; to be half-controlled by the flute he plays or by the field he digs. The excitement is to get the utmost out of given conditions; the conditions will stretch, but not indefinitely. A man can write an immortal sonnet on an old envelope, or hack a hero out of a lump of rock. But hacking a sonnet out of a rock would be a laborious business, and making a hero out of an envelope is almost out of the sphere of practical politics. This fruitful strife with limitations, when it concerns some airy entertainment of an educated class, goes by the name of Art. But the mass of men have neither time nor aptitude for the invention of invisible or abstract beauty. For the mass of men the idea of artistic creation can only be expressed by an idea unpopular in present discussions—the idea of property. The average man cannot cut clay into the shape of a man; but he can cut earth into the shape of a garden; and though he arranges it with red geraniums and blue potatoes in alternate straight lines, he is still an artist; because he has chosen. The average man cannot paint the sunset whose colors be admires; but he can paint his own house with what color he chooses, and though he paints it pea green with pink spots, he is still an artist; because that is his choice. Property is merely the art of the democracy. It means that every man should have something that he can shape in his own image, as he is shaped in the image of heaven. But because he is not God, but only a graven image of God, his self-expression must deal with limits; properly with limits that are strict and even small. G.K. Chesterton: The Enemies of Property (What's Wrong with the World).

Jonathan Edwards on the Disposition of a Minister/Pastor

In his sermon, Charity Contrary to a Selfish Spirit: 1 Corinthians 13:5, Edwards explains how a minister of the gospel that is controlled by Christian love should be disposed to their flock.

A Christian spirit will dispose ministers not to seek their own, not merely to seek a maintenance, aiming to get whatever they can out of their people to enrich themselves and their families, and to clothe themselves with the fleeces of their flock. But a Christian spirit will dispose them mainly to seek the good of their flock, to feed their souls as a good shepherd feeds his flock, and carefully watches over it, to lead it to good pasture, and defend it from wolves and other beasts of prey. (p. 170, Charity and its Fruits).

Compare this attitude to the attitude of TV Preachers.

C. S. Lewis on The Resurrection

In his book, "Miracles", C. S. Lewis makes the following assertion.

The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reports in the Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences were the "gospel" or good news which the Christian brought: what we call the 'gospels,' the narratives of Our Lord's life and death, were composed later for the benefit of those who had already accepted the gospel. They were in no sense the basis of Christianity: they were written for those already converted. The miracles of the Resurrection, and the theology of that miracle, comes first: the biography comes later as a comment on it. Nothing could be more unhistorical than to pick out selected sayings of Christ from the gospels and to regard those as the datum and the rest of the New Testament as a construction upon it. The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection. (C.S. Lewis, Miracles. pgs. 143,144).

In the first sermon in Acts, Peter focused on the resurrection.

Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:29-32 ESV)

Paul preached the resurrection so often, his hearers sometimes thought he was talking about two deities:

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection." (Acts 17:17-18 ESV)

Later in Acts 17, as Paul preached, We see some of the philosophers of Athens, like the liberal Christians today, reject the resurrection,
"Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this." (Acts 17:32)

I wrote once on an old website that no one preaches the Resurrection anymore. One person responded that there is nothing about the resurrection to preach. However Paul celebrates the resurrection,

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:19-21 ESV)

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11 ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.(Romans 6:4-5 ESV)

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. (2 Corinthians 13:4 ESV)

Understanding the power of the resurrection is key to living a resurrected life.

B. B. Warfield's Defines Vocation

BB Warfield in his great sermon “The Religious Life of Theological Students” defines the doctrine of vocation as the following:

`Vocation'—it is the call of God, addressed to every man, whoever he may be, to lay upon him a particular work, no matter what. And the calls, and therefore also the called, stand on a complete equality with one another. The burgomaster is God's burgomaster; the physician is God's physician; the merchant is God's merchant; the laborer is God's laborer. Every vocation, liberal, as we call it, or manual, the humblest and the vilest in appearance as truly as the noblest and the most glorious, is of divine right." Talk of the divine right of kings! Here is the divine right of every workman, no one of whom needs to be ashamed, if only he is an honest and good workman. "Only laziness," adds Professor Doumergue, "is ignoble, and while Romanism multiplies its mendicant orders, the Reformation banishes the idle from its towns."

Mark 6:48c: He meant to pass by them...

Grudem in the study notes for the ESV Study Bible comments on that strange phrase in Mark 6, "He meant to pass by them."

Mark 6:48 The fourth watch is the time between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. The Sea of Galilee is 696 feet (212 m) below sea level, resulting in violent downdrafts and sudden windstorms (cf. 4:37). Jesus sees their need and walks on water toward them (see Job 9:8; Ps. 77:20; Isa. 43:16). He meant to pass by them, not so that they would fail to see him (in which case he would have stayed farther away from them), but so that they would see him “pass by” (Gk. parerchomai), walking on the water, thus giving visible evidence of his deity (and thus answering the question they asked after he stilled the sea in Mark 4:41: “Who then is this … ?”). The passage echoes the incident where God “passed” before Moses (the same verb, parerchomai, occurs in the Septuagint of Ex. 33:19, 22; 34:6), giving a glimpse of his glory. But it also echoes Job 9, where Job says that it is God who “trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8; the Septuagint has peripatōn … epi thalassēs, “walking on the sea,” using the same words as Mark 6:48, peripatōn epi tēs thalassēs) and then also says, “he passes by me” (Job 9:11, Gk. parerchomai). There is an implicit claim to divinity in Jesus’ actions.

Mark seems to use the same phrasing in Mark 6 as the Septuagint does for several passages identifying God in the Old Testament. God is pleased to give us short glimpses of his glory as He passes by. He does this to encourage us in our struggles as He did for the disciples as they struggled against the waves.

Adam's Role in the Garden of Eden

I don't understand Covenant Theology so I am reading an introduction named, A Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored by Michael G. Brown and Zach Keele. Genesis 3 is a pivotal chapter for covenant theologians. The authors explain Adam's role in the garden of Eden in the following quote. This explanation is new to me.

That the first Adam failed in his responsibility to carry out judgment on the serpent is further elucidated in verses 23-24, which tell us that the Lord relieved Adam of his priestly duty of protecting the holiness of the garden and gave it to the cherubim with the flaming sword. In Genesis 2:15 we are told that “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work and keep it.” In order to reach the goal of the Tree of Life, Adam was to remain obedient in these covenant responsibilities. He was not only to take care of the garden as a gardener but also protect it as a guardian. Eden was a holy temple and sanctuary to the Lord. Protecting it from defilement was part of his priestly responsibility to the Lord. Thus, he failed in the covenant of works even before he ate of the forbidden tree. He failed when he allowed his wife to enter into league with the devil. At that very point, he should have exercised his priestly authority and executed judgment on the Serpent. Consequently, “the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:23-24). Fallen Adam could continue in his responsibility to “till” or “tend” the earth (now cursed and bearing thorns) as an everyday function for life. But his holy responsibility of “guarding” the garden was taken from him and given to the cherubim as he failed in his priestly duty to protect Eden from defilement. If God’s elect were to reach to goal of the Tree of Life, God would need to send a new Adam to exercise judgment on the Serpent, which is precisely what he promises in Genesis 3:15: “He will bruise your head.” (p. 62-63)

Hebrews 12:22 -- Men and Angels

In Hebrews 12:22 we read:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, (Hebrews 12:22 ESV)

F.F. Bruce in his commentary on Hebrews writes about verse 12:22:

He [the author of Hebrews] knows that the attendant angels are sent to minister to the heirs of salvation; how exalted the status of the heirs of salvation is may be gauged from the fact that the Son of God passed by angels in order to partake of flesh and blood with mankind. When, therefore, believers come to the myriads of angels it is not to worship them, but to worship the God whose servants they are. (p. 358, The New International Commentary on the the New Testament: The Epistle to the Hebrews)

Imagine it. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, stepped down from the Father's right hand and passed through the crowd of myriads and myriads of angels. I can almost see the crowd slowly parting and then bowing to let Jesus through. They would be in awe of what He was about to do. God did not send Jesus to die for the sins of the fallen angels or any of the heavenly hosts. God sent His Son to die for the sins of mankind. We need to bend our knees in thankfulness and look forward to the day when we will be in that festal gathering celebrating the victory of the Son.