The most beautiful words in the bible
Jul 12, 2014 9:58:50 GMT
Post by Colossians on Jul 12, 2014 9:58:50 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORDS IN THE BIBLE
Prologue
Now David had decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant from Gibeah where it had been residing, to Jerusalem.
And as the party journeyed with the ark and with much jubilation, they came to a threshing floor which was the property of a man named Nachon.
And it happened that, the ark being transported on a cart pulled by oxen, the oxen shook the cart and so threatened to destabilised the ark.
And there were two men attending to the transporting of the ark, the one named Ahio, and the other Uzza. And Uzza put forth his hand to steady the ark, and God struck him dead.
And so we are as a result presented with the most beautiful words in the bible:
“And David was displeased” 2 Samuel 6:8.
But before we explain our reason for declaring such, we must needs first of all justify our Lord.
For David has said:
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” Ps 51:4,1
and we are sure that we are no less sinners than he.
And so we begin.
1 See also Rom 3:4.
The two errors of Uzza
Error no. 1
In 1992, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – Queen of Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia (among other nations) – paid a regal visit to Australia.
At an official function which Her Majesty attended, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Paul Keating, at one stage put his arm around the back of the Queen to help direct her path toward the various dignitaries whom she was to greet.
The outcry from the public went around the world: in daring to put his hands on the Queen the Prime Minister had implicitly declared as common she who is sanctified in the eyes of the common people, and commensurately, that he was equal to the nation’s Head of State. (For the Prime Minister is not himself Head of State, but is appointed to his position by the Governor General, who is the proxy of the Queen, who alone is Head of State.)
Now at the spiritual level, the Lord declares:
“I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified” Lev 1:3.
And so Peter:
“sanctify the Lord God in your hearts” 1 Pe 3:15.
And we understand that to sanctify something means to set it apart, to the end that it might be held in high esteem.
And thus the preacher admonishes us:
“Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few” Ec 5:2
: inasmuch as heaven is infinitely separated from earth, God is (naturally) infinitely separated from us and therefore worthy of infinite sanctification.
The first and foremost error of Uzza then, was to fail to sanctify the Lord – to treat God as merely ‘one of us’.
We therefore close on this first error of Uzza most appropriately with the words of the apostle:
“[God] only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting” 1 Ti 6:16.
Error no. 2
Now Paul instructs us:
“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility … vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” Col 2:18
: we who are supernaturally born again, not of our own will but of God’s (see John 5:21, 1 Cor 9:17, Gal 3:2,3, Col 1:29, James 1:18), are to move in the things of God not according to our own estimation, but the estimation of the Spirit.
So:
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” Rom 8:14.
That is, we are not to go about propagating what we might term “good-idea Christianity”, which were to follow the example of those foolish at Galatia who thought to (presumptuously) add their own efforts to the grace of God (see Gal 3:3), and which were therefore (also) to follow in Uzza’s steps in a submitting of the things of God to the hands of man, but being a people of the Holy Spirit, we are to walk according to irresistibility rather than our own volition.
For if our own will might accomplish the things of God, what then the need for the Spirit of God? And so we note Paul’s summation of his own life in Christ (which passage we have cited above):
“For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” 1 Cor 9:17
: Paul’s walk was against the will of his own self and rather (according to implication) that which was irresistibly produced as a result of his having been supernaturally joined to the Lord as “one spirit” (1 Cor 6:17): he would operate not according to his own (natural) mind, but the mind of his (new) Head, his Husband the Lord God Jesus Christ.2
2 See also our works: “Understanding the contrast between the teachings of James and Paul”, “Sin and righteousness structurally explained”.
We therefore understand that any humility born of our own will rather than the will of Him who lives within us, is necessarily false humility. For only He who is the Truth, will produce what is true.
The second error of Uzza then was to (implicitly) declare his own righteousness equal to the Lord’s righteousness – to declare his motives and modus operandi to be on the same footing as God’s.
We therefore close on this second error of Uzza most appropriately with the words of Christ Himself:
“there is none good but one, that is, God” Mt 19:17.3
3 See therefore our work: “Philosophical and scriptural proofs that Jesus Christ is God”.
An evening meal in the marriage home
We do well at this point in our discussion to imagine a husband and wife together at the dinner table at home.
And to imagine that the husband has just beforehand dealt sternly with his son, corporeally disciplining him with the ‘rod’ for speaking disrespectfully to him.
And so and that for which the heart of a woman is renowned, we shall imagine the wife to be quite displeased with what she feels was harsh reaction indeed toward her son, and that accordingly there exists a somewhat uncomfortable silence as she sits with her husband at dinner, the husband aware of the displeasure of his wife, the wife aware of such awareness on the part of her husband.
But we must needs at this point (therefore) draw the reader’s attention to the fact that not only are we the sons of God – in which we might expect reaction from God (see Heb 12:8) – but the Bride of Christ, in which we might expect our Husband to never so much as raise His voice against us. How might such two very different positions be reconciled? Might it not be by the fact that He who is our Husband, is (nevertheless and also) the primary son of God, and that the discipline falls therefore primarily to His lot rather than ours?
Indeed. For it is not the husband who bears the wife’s name, but the wife the husband’s.
So:
“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach” Is 4:1.
And thus:
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” Is 53:5.
And so we note the instruction of Paul to Christian husbands:
“ye husbands, dwell with [your wives] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered” 1 Pe 3:7
: He who intercedes for us to the Father were never so unwise as to allow His ‘prayers’ to be hindered. No rather, our Husband will most surely dwell with us “according to knowledge”.
Just then as the silence of the husband at the dinner table was, although not the communion of agreement with the weaker vessel, nevertheless the communion of acknowledgement of the weaker vessel, so too the silence of the Lamb at Calvary: we know we are the wife of Christ because He has made us free from the law: we are free to be ‘female’.4
4 See also our works: “Christ our sacrifice, not our substitute”, “The legal proof that Jesus Christ is God”, “Understanding Romans 3:31”.
Why the first four words of 2 Samuel 6:8 are the most beautiful words in the bible
The God who created all principalities and powers, who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them, who orders all circumstances, and before whom the nations of the earth are as a drop in the bucket, not only chose to not destroy David for his displeasure at the fate of Uzza, but to record the fact of such displeasure.
They are therefore the most beautiful words in the bible, simply because they are there.
Epilogue
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love” Song of Solomon 2:4.
Amen.
_______________________________________
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORDS IN THE BIBLE
Prologue
Now David had decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant from Gibeah where it had been residing, to Jerusalem.
And as the party journeyed with the ark and with much jubilation, they came to a threshing floor which was the property of a man named Nachon.
And it happened that, the ark being transported on a cart pulled by oxen, the oxen shook the cart and so threatened to destabilised the ark.
And there were two men attending to the transporting of the ark, the one named Ahio, and the other Uzza. And Uzza put forth his hand to steady the ark, and God struck him dead.
And so we are as a result presented with the most beautiful words in the bible:
“And David was displeased” 2 Samuel 6:8.
But before we explain our reason for declaring such, we must needs first of all justify our Lord.
For David has said:
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” Ps 51:4,1
and we are sure that we are no less sinners than he.
And so we begin.
1 See also Rom 3:4.
The two errors of Uzza
Error no. 1
In 1992, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – Queen of Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia (among other nations) – paid a regal visit to Australia.
At an official function which Her Majesty attended, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Paul Keating, at one stage put his arm around the back of the Queen to help direct her path toward the various dignitaries whom she was to greet.
The outcry from the public went around the world: in daring to put his hands on the Queen the Prime Minister had implicitly declared as common she who is sanctified in the eyes of the common people, and commensurately, that he was equal to the nation’s Head of State. (For the Prime Minister is not himself Head of State, but is appointed to his position by the Governor General, who is the proxy of the Queen, who alone is Head of State.)
Now at the spiritual level, the Lord declares:
“I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified” Lev 1:3.
And so Peter:
“sanctify the Lord God in your hearts” 1 Pe 3:15.
And we understand that to sanctify something means to set it apart, to the end that it might be held in high esteem.
And thus the preacher admonishes us:
“Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few” Ec 5:2
: inasmuch as heaven is infinitely separated from earth, God is (naturally) infinitely separated from us and therefore worthy of infinite sanctification.
The first and foremost error of Uzza then, was to fail to sanctify the Lord – to treat God as merely ‘one of us’.
We therefore close on this first error of Uzza most appropriately with the words of the apostle:
“[God] only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting” 1 Ti 6:16.
Error no. 2
Now Paul instructs us:
“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility … vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” Col 2:18
: we who are supernaturally born again, not of our own will but of God’s (see John 5:21, 1 Cor 9:17, Gal 3:2,3, Col 1:29, James 1:18), are to move in the things of God not according to our own estimation, but the estimation of the Spirit.
So:
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” Rom 8:14.
That is, we are not to go about propagating what we might term “good-idea Christianity”, which were to follow the example of those foolish at Galatia who thought to (presumptuously) add their own efforts to the grace of God (see Gal 3:3), and which were therefore (also) to follow in Uzza’s steps in a submitting of the things of God to the hands of man, but being a people of the Holy Spirit, we are to walk according to irresistibility rather than our own volition.
For if our own will might accomplish the things of God, what then the need for the Spirit of God? And so we note Paul’s summation of his own life in Christ (which passage we have cited above):
“For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” 1 Cor 9:17
: Paul’s walk was against the will of his own self and rather (according to implication) that which was irresistibly produced as a result of his having been supernaturally joined to the Lord as “one spirit” (1 Cor 6:17): he would operate not according to his own (natural) mind, but the mind of his (new) Head, his Husband the Lord God Jesus Christ.2
2 See also our works: “Understanding the contrast between the teachings of James and Paul”, “Sin and righteousness structurally explained”.
We therefore understand that any humility born of our own will rather than the will of Him who lives within us, is necessarily false humility. For only He who is the Truth, will produce what is true.
The second error of Uzza then was to (implicitly) declare his own righteousness equal to the Lord’s righteousness – to declare his motives and modus operandi to be on the same footing as God’s.
We therefore close on this second error of Uzza most appropriately with the words of Christ Himself:
“there is none good but one, that is, God” Mt 19:17.3
3 See therefore our work: “Philosophical and scriptural proofs that Jesus Christ is God”.
An evening meal in the marriage home
We do well at this point in our discussion to imagine a husband and wife together at the dinner table at home.
And to imagine that the husband has just beforehand dealt sternly with his son, corporeally disciplining him with the ‘rod’ for speaking disrespectfully to him.
And so and that for which the heart of a woman is renowned, we shall imagine the wife to be quite displeased with what she feels was harsh reaction indeed toward her son, and that accordingly there exists a somewhat uncomfortable silence as she sits with her husband at dinner, the husband aware of the displeasure of his wife, the wife aware of such awareness on the part of her husband.
But we must needs at this point (therefore) draw the reader’s attention to the fact that not only are we the sons of God – in which we might expect reaction from God (see Heb 12:8) – but the Bride of Christ, in which we might expect our Husband to never so much as raise His voice against us. How might such two very different positions be reconciled? Might it not be by the fact that He who is our Husband, is (nevertheless and also) the primary son of God, and that the discipline falls therefore primarily to His lot rather than ours?
Indeed. For it is not the husband who bears the wife’s name, but the wife the husband’s.
So:
“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach” Is 4:1.
And thus:
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” Is 53:5.
And so we note the instruction of Paul to Christian husbands:
“ye husbands, dwell with [your wives] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered” 1 Pe 3:7
: He who intercedes for us to the Father were never so unwise as to allow His ‘prayers’ to be hindered. No rather, our Husband will most surely dwell with us “according to knowledge”.
Just then as the silence of the husband at the dinner table was, although not the communion of agreement with the weaker vessel, nevertheless the communion of acknowledgement of the weaker vessel, so too the silence of the Lamb at Calvary: we know we are the wife of Christ because He has made us free from the law: we are free to be ‘female’.4
4 See also our works: “Christ our sacrifice, not our substitute”, “The legal proof that Jesus Christ is God”, “Understanding Romans 3:31”.
Why the first four words of 2 Samuel 6:8 are the most beautiful words in the bible
The God who created all principalities and powers, who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them, who orders all circumstances, and before whom the nations of the earth are as a drop in the bucket, not only chose to not destroy David for his displeasure at the fate of Uzza, but to record the fact of such displeasure.
They are therefore the most beautiful words in the bible, simply because they are there.
Epilogue
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love” Song of Solomon 2:4.
Amen.