Eve’s Desire for Adam

In recent years it has been popular to understand that Eve’s desire for Adam in Genesis 3:16 is a part of the judgment that causes her to desire to control her husband. This view was developed by Susan Foh as seen in her article here.

I think a more helpful analysis is provided by Irvin Busenitz which is available here.

A helpful summary from Busenitz:

It appears that the usage of שׁוּק [“desire”] in Canticles [Song of Solomon] is closer to that of Gen 3:16 than is Gen 4:7, notwithstanding the latter’s grammatical similarities and textual proximity. First of all, the plain must be employed to interpret the obscure and difficult if there are contextual reasons to believe that both usages are similar. Such is the case between Gen 3:16 and Cant 7:10. The abundantly clear meaning of “desire” in Cant 7:10 should be given priority in the determination of the meaning of “desire” in Gen 3:16. Second, “desire” is used literally in Cant 7:10, just as it is in Gen 3:16; in Gen 4:7 the usage is figurative. Third, in distinction from Gen 4:7, both Cant 7:10 and Gen 3:16 address relationships between the opposite sexes. As such Cant 7:10 and Gen 3:16 share a contextual relationship which is foreign to Gen 4:7.

The true difficulty, then, is not understanding the meaning of “desire” as used in Cant 7:10 and Gen 3:16, but as it is used in Gen 4:7. …

In spite of the fact that man will rule over woman, and in spite of the fact that intimacy may result in the pain (and possible death) due to childbirth, yet woman will desire and yearn for man.

Spurgeon Draws His Readers to the Scripture

I have been blessed in many ways by the life, writings, and sermons of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. God truly gifted Mr. Spurgeon with a masterful command of the English language. Spurgeon attributed part of that to the fact he memorized a great deal of the hymns of Isaac Watts.

I was struck, again, by Spurgeon’s genius in his introduction to a sermon on Jeremiah 33:3. Here are his opening words:

SOME of the most learned works in the world smell of midnight oil; but the most spiritual, and most comforting books and sayings of men, usually have a savor about them of prison dampness. I might quote many instances—John Bunyan’s Pilgrim may suffice instead of a hundred others; and this good text of ours, all moldy and cold with the prison in which Jeremiah lay, has nevertheless a brightness, and a beauty about it which it might never have had if it had not come as a cheering word to the prisoner of the Lord shut up in the court of the prison. God’s people have always, in their worst condition, found out the best of their God. He is good at all times; but He seems to be at His best when they are at their worst.

Doesn’t he make you want to read on to grasp the promised riches of the text before him?

Some Thoughts from Spurgeon on Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

 

A lack of depth in the inner life accounts for most of the doctrinal error in the church. Sound conviction of sin, deep humiliation on account of it, and a sense of utter weakness and unworthiness naturally conduct the mind to the belief of the doctrines of grace, while shallowness in these matters leaves a man content with a superficial creed. Those teachings which are commonly called Calvinistic doctrines are usually most beloved and best received by those who have had much conflict of soul, and so have learned the strength of corruption and the necessity of grace.

 

Note, also, that Paul in this chapter has been treating of the sufferings of this present time; and though by faith he speaks of them as very inconsiderable compared with the glory to be revealed, yet we know that they were not inconsiderable in his case. He was a man of many trials; he went from one tribulation to another for Christ’s sake; he swam through many seas of affliction to serve the church. I do not wonder, therefore, that in his epistles he often discourses upon the doctrines of foreknowledge, and predestination, and eternal love, because these are a rich cordial for a fainting spirit. To be cheered under many things, which otherwise would depress him, the believer may betake himself to the matchless mysteries of the grace of God, which are wines on the lees well refined. Sustained by distinguishing grace, a man learns to glory in tribulations also; and strengthened by electing love, he defies the hatred of the world and the trials of life. Suffering is the college of orthodoxy. Many a Jonah, who now rejects the doctrines of the grace of God, only needs to be put into the whale’s belly and he will cry out with the soundest free-grace man, “Salvation is of the Lord.” Prosperous professors, who do no business amid David’s billows and waterspouts, may set small store by the blessed anchorage of eternal purpose and everlasting love but those who are “tossed with tempest, and not comforted, are of another mind.” Let these few sentences suffice for a preface. I utter them not in the spirit of controversy, but the reverse.

GLORIOUS PREDESTINATION. NO. 1043 A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S DAY MORNING, MARCH 24TH, 1872, BY C. H. SPURGEON,

Here is an excellent video on Muslim persecution of Christians and why the media ignores it.

A Child’s Faith

In this week’s lesson on our Catechism questions, I gave an illustration that speaks to the heart. The faith of a little girl challenges all of us:

A young girl at Portsea, Hampshire, who died at nine years of age, one day in her illness, said to her aunt, with whom she lived, ‘when I am dead I should like Mr Griffin to preach a sermon to children, to persuade them to love Jesus Christ, to obey their parents, not to tell lies, but to think about dying and going to heaven.

I have been thinking,’ said she, ‘what text I should like him to preach from—2 Kings 4.26. You are the Shunammite, Mr Griffin is the prophet, and I am the Shunammite’s child.

When I am dead, I daresay you will be grieved, though you need not. The prophet will come to see you, and when he says, “How is it with the child?” you may say, “It is well.” I am sure it will then be well with me, for I shall be in heaven, singing the praises of God. You ought to think it well too.’ Mr Griffin accordingly fulfilled the wish of this pious child.

The illustration comes from “The Assembly’s Shorter Catechism Illustrated by Appropriate Anecdotes” by John Whitecross.

Pilgrim’s Progress Resources

In our Sunday school class, we have begun watching a video teaching series by Derek Thomas (from Ligonier.org) on  Pilgrim’s Progress. I thought it would be helpful to pass along some resources (all free) to aid in the reading and study of Bunyan’s rich teaching narrative.

VERSIONS

From The Chapel Library:

Pilgrim’s Progress–PDF EPUB MOBI (Kindle)

Pilgrim’s Progress in Pictures–PDF

Pilgrim’s Progress in Pictures, SPANISH —PDF

Other versions:

The Pilgrim’s Progress (New Edition, from Desiring God)—Download the PDF, Download the MOBI (for Kindle)

Pilgrim’s Progress, The Accurate Revised Text, by Barry Horner

OTHER RESOURCES

Commentary on Pilgrim’s Progress, by Barry Horner

Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress by Spurgeon (a commentary of sorts)

Bunyan Characters in Pilgrim’s Progress, Series 1, Alexander Whyte

Bunyan Characters in Pilgrim’s Progress, Series 2, Alexander Whyte

Donald Grey Barnhouse on Fosdick and the Evolutionary View of God

Four times I have read the opening chapter of the book with the terribly misleading title, A Guide to the Understanding of the Bible, written by Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick. That chapter discusses the evolution of God in the Bible. If I may reduce the four score pages of argument to a paragraph of boiled down essential ideas, the reasoning, if we may call it that, is as follows: Primitive man had a devilish concept of God. Noah’s God destroyed the earth with a flood. Abraham’s God was a bloodthirsty God who wanted a human sacrifice. The God of Moses was the horrible God of volcanic fire, speaking to him from Sinai. Little by little man has advanced as the centuries rolled on. David began to have high ethical thoughts of God, but they were mixed with the terrible imprecatory Psalms that call down wrath upon the enemy. By the time of the prophets, God was really improving. He now hated unrighteousness and spoke out against the crimes committed by men. When Jesus came along, the idea of God took on the marvelous concepts of fatherhood and brotherhood, and was the greatest idea up to that time. But Jesus had the repugnant idea of Hell, of which he spoke so much. This must be abandoned in order to continue the upward curve of development. The modern idea of God is all sugar and spice and everything that is nice. He has no Hell for the wicked, and little by little He has become so respectable that He can be worship in good taste by the people of Park Avenue and Morningside Heights. Yet it is a scientific fact that if such a writer had been acquainted with even the rudimentary findings of the greatest of ethnologists and anthropologists he could never have fallen into such an error. Perhaps this writer had not read anything more up to date than Frazer’s Golden Bough. Great as that work is as a collection of the follies of the human race in the field of religious thought, its conclusions have been completely nullified by the work of Schmidt of Vienna. In a great four volume work Ursprung der Gottesidee, that is the last word in its field, Schmidt has demonstrated that the idea of one God is much older in the human race than the idea of many gods. Polytheism is the degradation of monotheism. To hold the opposite view is nothing more than an escape mechanism to avoid the implications of the existence of the Creator to whom the creature must be absolutely responsible. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Man’s Ruin, Romans 1:1-32, 249-250.

The Authoritative Winston Churchill Biography until April 11, 2015

For only a few days, until April 11, Hillsdale College is offering the eight volume authoritative biography of Winston Churchill–for FREE. Don’t miss this. The volumes are kindle books which can be read on any device. I’ve downloaded by copies! Find the links here.

MARTIN LUTHER’S TEXT

In studying for my sermon on Romans 1:16-17, I noticed that several commentators referred in some way to the sermon by Frank Boreham (1871-1959) on “Martin Luther’s Text.” In fact, Donald Grey Barnhouse quotes the whole sermon by Boreham as the majority of his own sermon on the text. Boreham’s sermon is in a collection of sermons on biblical verses that were influential in the lives of great individuals of history. The collection is entitled, A Bunch of Everlastings and may be found here.

Since the sermon on Luther’s text, Romans 1:17, is such an effective recounting of the impact of a powerful verse on a giant of history, I thought I would give easy access to the sermon here. I have kept the spelling and formatting of the original.

MARTIN LUTHER’S TEXT

I

IT goes without saying that the text that made Martin Luther made history with a vengeance. When, through its mystical but mighty ministry, Martin Luther entered into newness of life, the face of the world was changed. It was as though all the windows of Europe had been suddenly thrown open, and the sunshine came streaming in everywhere. The destinies of empires were turned that day into a new channel. Carlyle has a stirring and dramatic chapter in which he shows that every nation under heaven stood or fell according to the attitude that it assumed towards Martin Luther. `I call this Luther a true Great Man,’ he exclaims. `He is great in intellect, great in courage, great in affection and integrity; one of our most lovable and gracious men. He is great, not as a hewn obelisk is great, but as an Alpine mountain is great ; so simple, honest, spontaneous; not setting himself up to be great, but there for quite another purpose than the purpose of being great!’ A mighty man,’ he says again; what were all emperors, popes and potentates in comparison? His light was to flame as a beacon over long centuries and epochs of the world; the whole world and its history was waiting for this man!’ And elsewhere he declares that the moment in which Luther defied the wrath of the Diet of Worms was the greatest moment in the modern history of men. Here, then, was the man; what was the text that made him?

II

Let us visit a couple of very interesting Euro­pean libraries! And here, in the Convent Library at Erfurt, we are shown an exceedingly famous and beautiful picture. It represents Luther as a young monk of four and twenty, poring in the early morning over a copy of the Scriptures to which a bit of broken chain is hanging. The dawn is stealing through the open lattice, illumining both the open Bible and the eager face of its reader. And on the page that the young monk so intently studies are to be seen the words: ‘The just shall live by faith.’

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            These, then, are the words that made the world all over again. And now, leaving the Convent Library at Erfurt, let us visit another library, the Library of Rudolstadt! For here, in a glass case, we shall discover a manuscript that will fascinate us. It is a letter in the handwriting of Dr. Paul Luther, the reformer’s youngest son. ‘In the year 1544,’ we read, ‘my late dearest father, in the presence of us all, narrated the whole story of his journey to Rome. He acknowledged with great joy that, in that city, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, he had come to the knowledge of the truth of the everlasting gospel. It happened in this way. As he repeated his prayers on the Lateran staircase, the words of the Prophet Habakkuk came suddenly to his mind: “The just shall live by faith.” There­upon he ceased his prayers, returned to Witten­berg, and took this as the chief foundation of all his doctrine.’

`The just shall live by faith!’

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            The picture in the one library, and the manuscript in the other, have told us all that we desire to know.

III

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            The words do not flash or glitter. Like the ocean, they do not give any indication upon the surface of the profundities and mysteries that lie concealed beneath. And yet of what other text can it be said that, occurring in the Old Testament, it is thrice quoted in the New ?

`The just shall live by faith!’ cries the Prophet.

`The just shall live by faith!’ says Paul, when he addresses a letter to the greatest of the European churches.

The just shall live by faith!’ he says again, in his letter to the greatest of the Asiatic churches.

`The just shall live by faith!’ says the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, addressing himself to Jews.

It is as though it were the sum and substance of everything, to be proclaimed by prophets in the old dispensation, and echoed by apostles in the new; to be translated into all languages and trans­mitted to every section of the habitable earth. Indeed, Bishop Lightfoot as good as says that the words represent the concentration and epitome of all revealed religion. ‘The whole law,’ he says, `was given to Moses in six hundred and thirteen precepts. David, in the fifteenth Psalm, brings them all within the compass of eleven. Isaiah re­duces them to six; Micah to three; and Isaiah, in a later passage, to two. But Habakkuk con­denses them all into one: “The just shall live by faith!”‘

            And this string of monosyllables that sums up everything and is sent to everybody—the old world’s text: the new world’s text: the prophet’s text: the Jew’s text: the European’s text: the Asiatic’s text: everybody’s text—is, in a special and peculiar sense, Martin Luther’s text. We made that discovery in the libraries of Erfurt and Rudolstadt; and we shall, as we proceed, find abundant evidence to confirm us in that conclusion.

IV

            For, strangely enough, the text that echoed itself three times in the New Testament, echoed itself three times also in the experience of Luther. It met him at Wittenberg, it met him at Bologna, and it finally mastered him at Rome.

It was at Wittenberg that the incident occurred which we have already seen transferred to the painter’s canvas. In the retirement of his quiet cell, while the world is still wrapped in slumber, he pores over the epistle to the Romans. Paul’s quotation from Habakkuk strangely captivates him.

‘The just shall live by faith!’

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            `This precept,’ says the historian, ‘fascinates him. “For the just, then,” he says to himself, “there is a life different from that of other men; and this life is the gift of faith!” This promise, to which he opens all his heart, as if God had placed it there specially for him, unveils to him the mystery of the Christian life. For years after­wards, in the midst of his numerous occupations, he fancies that he still hears the words repeating themselves to him over and over again.’

`The just shall live by faith!’

            `The just shall live by faith!’

            Years pass. Luther travels. In the course of his journey, he crosses the Alps, is entertained at a Benedictine Convent at Bologna, and is there overtaken by a serious sickness. His mind relapses into utmost darkness and dejection. To die thus, under a burning sky and in a foreign land! He shudders at the thought. ‘The sense of his sinful­ness troubles him; the prospect of judgement fills him with dread. But at the very moment at which these terrors reach their highest pitch, the words that had already struck him at Wittenberg recur forcibly to his memory and enlighten his soul like a ray from heaven—

“The just shall live by faith!”

            “The just shall live by faith!”

            Thus restored and comforted,’ the record con­cludes, ‘he soon regains his health and resumes his journey.’

The third of these experiences—the experience narrated in that fireside conversation of which the manuscript at Rudolstadt has told us—befalls him at Rome. ‘Wishing to obtain an indulgence promised by the Pope to all who shall ascend Pilate’s Staircase on their knees, the good Saxon monk is painfully creeping up those steps which, he is told, were miraculously transported from Jerusalem to Rome. Whilst he is performing this meritorious act, however, he thinks he hears a voice of thunder crying, as at Wittenberg and Bologna—

“The just shall live by faith!”

            “The just shall live by faith!”

            `These words, that twice before have struck him like the voice of an angel from heaven, resound unceasingly and powerfully within him. He rises in amazement from the steps up which he is drag­ging his body: he shudders at himself: he is ashamed at seeing to what a depth superstition plunged him. He flies far from the scene of his folly.’

Thus, thrice in the New Testament and thrice in the life of Luther, the text speaks with singular appropriateness and effect.

V

            `This powerful text,’ remarks Merle D’Aubigné, `has a mysterious influence on the life of Luther. It was a creative sentence, both for the reformer and for the Reformation. It was in these words that God then said, “Let there be light!” and there was light!’

VI

            It was the unveiling of the Face of God! Until this great transforming text flashed its light into the soul of Luther, his thought of God was a pagan thought. And the pagan thought is an unjust thought, an unworthy thought, a cruel thought. Look at this Indian devotee! From head to foot he bears the marks of the torture that he has in­flicted upon his body in his frantic efforts to give pleasure to his god. His back is a tangle of scars. The flesh has been lacerated by the pitiless hooks by which he has swung himself on the terrible churuka. Iron spears have been repeatedly run through his tongue. His ears are torn to ribbons. What does it mean? It can only mean that he worships a fiend! His god loves to see him in anguish! His cries of pain are music in the ears of the deity whom he adores! This ceaseless orgy of torture is his futile endeavour to satisfy the idol’s lust for blood. Luther made precisely the same mistake. To his sensitive mind, every thought of God was a thing of terror. ‘When I was young,’ he tells us, ‘it happened that at Eisleben, on Corpus Christi day, I was walking with the procession, when, suddenly, the sight of the Holy Sacrament which was carried by Doctor Staupitz, so terrified me that a cold sweat covered my body and I believed myself dying of terror.’ All through his convent days he proceeds upon the assumption that God gloats over his misery. His life is a long drawn out agony. He creeps like a shadow along the gal­leries of the cloister, the walls echoing with his dismal moanings. His body wastes to a skeleton; his strength ebbs away: on more than one occasion his brother monks find him prostrate on the convent floor and pick him up for dead. And all the time he thinks of God as One who can find delight in these continuous torments! The just shall live, he says to himself, by penance and by pain. The just shall live by fasting: the just shall live by fear.

VII

`The just shall live by fear!’ Luther mutters to himself every day of his life.

`The just shall live by faith!’ says the text that breaks upon him like a light from heaven.

`By fear! By fear!’

            `By faith! By faith!’

            And what is faith? The theologians may find difficulty in defining it, yet every little child knows what it is. In all the days of my own ministry I have found only one definition that has satisfied me, and whenever I have had occasion to speak of faith, I have recited it. It is Bishop O’Brien’s:—

`They who know what is meant by faith in a promise, know what is meant by faith in the Gospel; they who know what is meant by faith in a remedy, know what is meant by faith in the blood of the Redeemer; they who know what is meant by faith in a physician, faith in an advocate, faith in a friend, know, too, what is meant by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.’

            With the coming of the text, Luther passes from the realm of fear into the realm of faith. It is like passing from the rigours of an arctic night into the sunshine of a summer day; it is like passing from a crowded city slum into the fields where the daffodils dance and the linnets sing; it is like passing into a new world; it is like entering Para­dise!

VIII

Yes, it is like entering Paradise! The expression is his, not mine. ‘Before those words broke upon my mind,’ he says, ‘I hated God and was angry with Him because, not content with frightening us sinners by the law and by the miseries of life, he still further increased our torture by the gospel. But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood these words—

“The just shall live by faith!”

“The just shall live by faith!”

            —then I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God!’

            `Henceforward,’ he says again, ‘I saw the beloved and holy Scriptures with other eyes. The words that I had previously detested, I began from that hour to value and to love as the sweetest and most consoling words in the Bible. In very truth, this text was to me the true gate of Paradise!’

            `An open door into the very Paradise of God!’ `This text was to me the true gate of Paradise!’ And they who enter into the City of God by that gate will go no more out for ever.

A Chronology of the Crucifixion

When reading in the Gospels, it is often helpful to compare the accounts given by all four Gospels. As I studied Luke’s account of the crucifixion of Christ, I found it helpful to use all four Gospels to develop a fuller understanding of the sequence of events. I used the results as a handout for my sermon on Sunday. I will attach a copy to this post. Here is the link: A CHRONOLOGY OF THE CRUCIFIXION

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