Last week, the text was from Jeremiah 20. This week it is just a little farther down the road, at Jeremiah 28[:5-9]. The prophet Jeremiah is AGAIN running into difficulties, and he wants to make it clear what a true prophet does. The last verse of the text is given by the ESV in this way: ‘As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet (English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois).’

Usually we think of an apostle was someone who was sent. Can a prophet be sent as well?

To answer that question, it is important to see who a prophet is and what a prophet does. And one of the most helpful ways of doing that is by looking at the beginnings of that word.

Last week it was mentioned that Abraham was the first person to be called a prophet. This happens in Genesis 20:7, and here is a somewhat-literal translation of that verse:

        And now, return the wife of the man, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you,            and you will live, and if you not returning, know that you will certainly die, you and          all that is with you.

Usually we think of a prophet as someone who speaks to people. In this case it is one who speaks to the One ‘in charge’. As it says in the book of James, ‘The prayer of a righteous man has great power... (James 5:16b).’

The book of Genesis is set up in several large concentric structures, with the turning point in the middle of the fact that God remembers certain people at certain times and situations. On the other side of the turning point of Genesis 19:29, where God remembered Abraham and saved Lot, there is Genesis 18 and the somewhat similar account of Abraham coming to the LORD and asking for Sodom to be saved, first if fifty righteous people are there. But then Abraham decides that the number of righteous should be forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, then—and finally—ten. It should be noted that Abraham is very nice with his words and does not want to make the LORD angry by asking for so much. It is even more important to note that there is no apparent anger in the LORD.

So, what is a prophet? A prophet has a very close relationship to the king. The prophet talks to the king; the king talks to the prophet—both of these things happen.

Sometimes a king does not wish to talk, and this special person can talk on his behalf. The prophet can also be sent somewhere else, or he can be simply near the king and do the talking for him, when it is appropriate.

Some ancient languages connect the word ‘prophet’ to the words ‘call’, ‘proclaim’, ‘impart’, and ‘the called’. The first two point to something that the prophet does; the last two, to something that is done to the prophet. Instead of thinking that it is either one or the other, it could be both. As was said above, the prophet has a very close relationship to the king (See Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, published by Eerdmans, volume 6, pages 796-797).
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Often prophets are thought of as people who predict the future or who have written a book of the bible. That CAN be what a prophet might look like. But, ultimately, you should not be focusing on the prophet himself. His all-important job is to point you to Someone else who is much more important.

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Two weeks ago, the focus was on the progression in the book of Genesis. One week ago, the focus was on the progression in Exodus. It would seem only natural to look at the progression within Leviticus. So, if you are interested in such a thing, it is not too different from the progression that was seen before. There is some amount of trouble, and God comes into the picture in some way.

At the beginning of Leviticus, the LORD speaks just to Moses. Then there is the death of two of Aaron’s sons in chapter 10, and then we have the LORD speaking to Moses AND Aaron. And then, after a man blasphemes ‘the Name’ in chapter 24, he ends up being stoned to death, and then we have that special description of the LORD speaking to Moses ON MOUNT SINAI. It seems that these sinful events are making the LORD’s speech even more special. He could be much more distant; he could even be speaking less; but he does the opposite.

The Old Testament text for this Sunday is actually from the book of Jeremiah [20:7-13]. He was basically a 6th century B.C. prophet (although he also lived in the 7th century, and he started that job when he was very young). Compared to last week, this text is quite a jump in time, but it is not so much when dealing with the situation of sin or God’s solution of getting more involved. Abraham in Genesis has a close relationship with the LORD and is even called a prophet in Genesis 20:7 when he saves the life of a king. And as Moses and Aaron were very close, in Exodus 7:1, Moses is described as like God and Aaron is his prophet. (Moses did not want to do the job alone; see Exodus 4:1-16.)

The emphasis that people are most familiar with regarding Jeremiah is one of negativity. He also wrote Lamentations; he is known as ‘The Weeping Prophet’; what more could be said? Much more could be said because there is also a lot of negativity that is currently going on within the United States. The coronavirus is still an issue, and there is also a significant amount of so-called ‘civil unrest’.

The book of Jeremiah includes six ‘confessions’ (11:18-23; 12:1-4; 15:10-21; 17:12-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-18). In the words of the Concordia Self-Study Bible, with these confessions…

‘[Jeremiah] laid bare the deep struggles of his inmost being, sometimes making startlingly honest statements about his feelings toward God (12:1; 15:18). On occasion, he engaged in calling for redress against his personal enemies (12:1-3; 15:15; 17:18; 18:19-23)—a practice that explains the origin of the English word “jeremiad”, referring to a denunciatory tirade or complaint (Published by Concordia Publishing House in 1986; St. Louis, Missouri, page 1118).

You might have noticed that the text for this Sunday from Jeremiah 20 is a significant part of his last confession. Also from the Concordia Self-Study Bible is the comment that this last confession is, in some respects, ‘the most daring and bitter of them all (page 1158).’

It is interesting to note that there is a significant switch that occurs after this ‘high point’. The first twenty chapters have, for the most part, been in a chronological order. The rest of the book seems to be arranged on the basis of subject matter rather than chronology (see the Concordia Self-Study Bible, page 1159).

Just so we do not focus on simply the negative, one more point could be made with the first section of that ‘subject matter’ section. The phrase ‘the word came’ appears many times throughout Jeremiah, but within Jeremiah 21-24, it only appears once, at 21:1. The content of those four chapters is mostly negative, for the vast majority of those 94 verses. And there is admittedly a significant difference in the length of various verses. But there is some good news near the middle of that section, at Jeremiah 23:1-8.
Here is a layout of the various lengths of the chapters, along with a somewhat-literal translation of that special middle section; here is a section of particularly good news:
            Jeremiah         21                    14 verses
                                    22                    30 verses
            23:1-4 SOMEWHAT GOOD NEWS
Verses 5-6 (REALLY GOOD NEWS): Behold, the days, the coming ones, declaration of LORD, and I will raise up to David a branch, a righteous one, and he will reign a king, and he will be wise and he will do justice and right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety, and this is his name, that he will call him, ‘The LORD, our righteousness.’
​23:7-8 GOOD NEWS
                                    23:9-40            32 verses
                                    24                    10 verses

When something significantly good is in the middle of a section, there is the chance of it being passed over. In the same way, with so many negative things going on, there is the chance of passing over that ‘central’ coming of Christ. And please do not forget that he promised that he WILL be coming again. 

This Sunday follows the previous Sunday in more than one way. Last Sunday, the Old Testament text was from the first book of the bible. This Sunday, it is from the second book of the bible, usually called ‘Exodus’. (Its Hebrew title is ‘The Book of Names’ and is based on the first words of the book.) Last week I looked at the extent of God’s involvement in the world in that first book; the same question came up twice within Genesis, ‘Am I in the place of God?’ This Sunday begins to answer that question in a more wonderful way than we could imagine. Within this book, God certainly is making a place among his people.

To determine this position accurately and according to what the text actually says, it may be helpful to look at the terms for ‘his people’ throughout this book. Often this book is summarized by the actions that actually happen (thus, the name ‘Exodus’), and that is certainly an appropriate emphasis. But looking at what happens to his people AND how those people are described may be a more accurate description of the book’s message. The following is just a brief summary of some of the most significant descriptions of ‘his people’.

In Exodus 1:1, the names of the twelve ‘sons of Israel’ are given. But then the same phrase is attached to all Israel in the verses that follow, and they start to become powerful in Egypt. And instead of being called pharaoh, the ruler in Egypt is simply called a king, and the text literally gives a ‘face’ to the sons of Israel and says that the Egyptians ‘dreaded his presence’ (1:12). Now something really bad comes out of this—slavery for Israel.

During the time of the first Passover, when the Lord says that HE will go and kill the firstborn (11:4), the group is now called the ‘congregation of Israel’ (12:3). The word ‘congregation’ can also mean ‘those gathered around a prominent person’; the word for ‘ornament’ is also the same Hebrew word (A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, by William L. Holladay, published by Eerdmans in 1971, page 265). This description seems to indicate that Someone’s presence is making a significant difference at this point in time.

A more orderly, permanent, and significant phrase, ‘house of Israel’, occurs for the very first time in this book at 16:31—although that phrase is rarely seen in the translations of that verse. The word ‘house’ has occurred before this, and it even appears in Exodus 1:1, but it has never been this closely associated with Israel’s descendants. This ‘household’ is calling the bread that the LORD is giving to them ‘manna’, a seemingly insignificant thing. But name-calling is important in the bible, literally from day one. (The use of the name ‘Israel’ instead of ‘Jacob’ is also significant—see Genesis 32 for more details about this.) And Moses told Aaron to put a jar of manna ‘before the face of the LORD’ to keep for generations to come (16:33). It is also interesting that the first day that they are taking the first flakes of manna off of the ground, the wilderness is also described as having a ‘face’, much like in the creation account; unfortunately, this word also does not usually appear in the translations.

Would it be appropriate at this time to say that God is heavily involved with his people? Would it be too much of a stretch to say that he is getting ‘down and dirty’ with them? The face of the wilderness is involved!

The text for this Sunday [Exodus 19:2-8] has this phrase within it (and here is a somewhat-literal translation): The LORD called to him from the mountain saying, ‘This you say to the house of Jacob and you relate to the sons of Israel…(verse 3b).’ The first command, to ‘say’, is simply to speak the words. The second command (translated as ‘relate’ here) is a significantly different word. Literally, it means to ‘put something up conspicuously in front of someone’ (A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, by Holladay, page 226). The recipients of these words are, first of all, connected to Jacob, and that is not a big thing (if you looked at Genesis 32 already, please also see Genesis 25, but especially verse 26). The second description of the recipients is not a HOUSE of Israel yet; they are still described as sons. But the way in which Moses is to speak to them, one could take as a hint that God is getting closer; his words are getting closer and are more loving. And the phrase ‘house of the LORD’ will appear within this book in Exodus 23:19, even though the place is still a tent. But it IS a special place to which these special people can travel.

As was mentioned above, the phrase ‘house of Israel’ appeared for the first time in chapter 16, as they were heading out into the ‘face’ of the wilderness with that specially created blessing of manna. The chapters which follow have some negative low points within them. There is a LOT of complaining going on; there is also the significant idolatry of the golden calf in chapter 32. But these people are still called something very special.

The only other time the phrase ‘house of Israel’ appears in this book is at the very end, with the last words of chapter 40. The great significance of God’s significant presence with his people may be seen when you compare two paragraphs within the book of Exodus, one when they are finally at Mt. Sinai, in chapter 24, and the other when they are ready to head to other places, at the very end of the book. I hope the differences are easy to spot (Both these are the English Standard Version translations, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois.):

      Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The              glory of the LORD dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on          the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the                         appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the                mountain in the sight of the people of Israel…(verses 15-17).

     Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the               tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud       settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their             journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of         Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till           the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by
      day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all
      their journeys (verses 34-38).

The name of a group of people can be significant. The name Israel means he who wrestles with God. Imagine wrestling with God and not losing after one millisecond! God is the gentle and loving King here. And when something is done ‘in the sight of all the house of Israel’ at the end of the last text, that is NOT the word for face. God is certainly still the king, and HIS face is the important one. But he is gracious enough that we look upon him and are not destroyed. That also may be said when Jesus was on the cross for us.
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This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and this starts the second half of the church year. But you might be able to guess that the focus is still on Jesus.

When Jesus was ready to teach, he would first sit down. Early within the second reading, the reading from the book of Acts [2:1-21], the verb ‘to sit’ comes up twice. Here is a somewhat- literal translation of the first three verses:

           And in the completion of the day of Pentecost, they [the apostles] were all as                  one, as the same. And it happened suddenly, out of heaven, a sound as of a                       forceful wind being carried, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.                   And there appeared to them, being distributed, tongues as of fire, and it sat on                 each one of them….

Before you think it was just a coincidence that the same word comes up twice in two sentences, I would encourage you to think about the last time someone was doing some sitting, not only in the Acts of the Apostles, but also what happened before that, what is given in the Gospel according to Luke.

First of all, please notice the contrast of that account with the other accounts. In the Gospel according to Matthew, on Easter Sunday, an angel of the Lord rolls the stone away and sits on it (28:2). In the Gospel according to Mark, also on Easter Sunday, an angel is inside the tomb, sitting on the right (16:5). In the Gospel according to John, on Good Friday, Pilate is described as sitting on a judgment seat (19:13). But in the Gospel according to Luke, the last time someone is described as sitting is all the way back in 22:69. Jesus is speaking before the Sanhedrin and is talking about himself. Here, again, is a somewhat-literal translation of that text:

         ‘But from now the Son of Man will be sitting at the right of the power of God.’

There are other body positions of other people within these last chapters of the Gospel according to Luke and the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. The closest anyone comes to sitting is the ‘reclining’ at table that is done at Emmaus on Easter Sunday (Luke 24:30). A suggestion for a bible study would be to read from the beginning of Luke 22 to the end of Acts 2, to find all the uses of sitting (and other body positions) that are mentioned. Such a study would also help to see the transition between that gospel account and the book of Acts.

Why were the apostles sitting in Acts 2? The easiest answer is that they were told to do that. In Luke 24:49, Jesus tells them, literally, to sit in the city of Jerusalem until they are clothed with power from a high place. (The English translations usually use another word.)

An answer to that last question that is a little more complicated is that sitting is an important position in ancient times. Here are some things that are mentioned in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament [published by Eerdmans in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1965] regarding the verb ‘to sit’.

By far, the biggest section when dealing with the idea of sitting has to do with ‘a mark of particular distinction’. And of the four types of people with authority who are mentioned (gods, rulers, judges, and teachers), the most unfamiliar to present-day society are those of gods and rulers; so here are just a couple quotes from those sections:

        ‘Archaeological material from Egypt, the Near East and the Greek Hellenistic                     world shows that sitting is a distinctive sign of deity. The god often sits while men           stand to pray before him. In the early period of Israel’s history the ark represented           God’s throne…[volume 3, page 441].’

        Throughout antiquity there is a close connection between the god and the ruler,               whether in personal or institutional terms. This helps us to see why in archaeology           and in literature rulers are enthroned like the gods. Even in the OT the throne is
         the particular prerogative of the ruler…[volume 3, page 442].

In other words, sitting is a very important position, and the apostles were very important people.

A more interesting question may be: Why are the tongues as of fire described as sitting? Obviously, those tongues have some authority as well. They are connected to the wind, which is the same word as ‘spirit’. This is the Holy Spirit coming down, and this was predicted by Jesus.

Another related question might be this: Where were the tongues of fire on the bodies of the apostles? Most pictures have them on the tops of their heads. For many years, one of my favorite woodcuts from the time of the Reformation was included in the Australian Lutheran edition of Luther’s Large Catechism. Included in this blog is a picture of that woodcut, by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1527. [Anniversary Translation and Introductory Essay by Friedemann Hebart, published by Lutheran Publishing House, Adelaide, 1983; this work celebrated the 500th anniversary of Luther’s birth; the woodcut appears on page 118.]
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​This picture, as you hopefully can see, has the tongues of fire coming out of the mouths of the apostles. That certainly is different. And this difference is a good reminder of the authority that comes with words, especially the Lord’s words. The Lord breathed on his disciples at the end of the Gospel according to John (20:22), and that breath and the wind and the Holy Spirit all go together. Related to that is the fact that someone who had authority over someone else might have his foot upon the other’s neck (see Joshua 10:24). The message of a picture like that is quite clear.

Other pictures have the tongues of fire on the tops of their heads. That can work as well. The heads of all the apostles—as well as of pastors—are sinful heads. But the words that are given out by those people at various times are very special, and those words ultimately belong to someone else.