Pesharim

Standing knee deep in cold water, swiftly moving, somehow I knew I'd lost something.

Wading waist deep I saw a book there in the river, waiting for me to find it there.
I tried to read it, neck deep, treading water, but the tide, it pulled me out to sea.

Then, with water in my eyes, the words began to rise from their place.
They were beautiful and dread; I reached for them and fed on each phrase.
They were honey on my lips, but then a bitter twist in my side.
I knew they'd lay me in my grave; "Is there no one who can save me?" I cried.

Sinking, down deep through cold water and heavy silence, shadows stirring in the gloom.
What things that lay sleeping down deep in the darkness woke then, to find me in that tomb?

And when I lost all hope to look,
Someone took that heavy book from my hands.
All its weight they set aside, after they had satisfied its demands.
I felt white and black reverse, and the lifting a curse from my heart.
Then like one receiving sight, I beheld a brilliant light in the dark.

~ “Words in the Water”, Thrice

  1. Seeing Jesus in all Scripture.

    1. The flame that melts the text.

      1. Pesher – פשר – to melt, dissolve, interpret, or solve. Used in scripture to speak of the Holy Spirit's gift to Daniel and Joseph that enabled them to understand and interpret dreams.

        1. Pesharim refers to the tradition of communities to interpret the scriptures as a mode of application to their current context.

          1. Remember, this is what Nehemiah and Ezra were doing at the Dedication of the 2nd temple.

        2. The Bethlehem Slaughter

          "Thus says the LORD, "A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more." Thus says the LORD, "Restrain your voice from weeping And your eyes from tears; For your work will be rewarded," declares the LORD, "And they will return from the land of the enemy. "There is hope for your future," declares the LORD, "And your children will return to their own territory." - Jeremiah 31:15-17

          1. In Jeremiah's day, this was a clear reference to the destruction of Judah and the promise of a return to the land.

          "Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE."" - Matthew 2:16-18

          1. Matthew reinterprets this (pesharim) to speak about Jesus living through a similar slaughter, exile, and return to the land of Judah.

            1. Jesus is also Israel returning from Egypt (Matt. 2:15 & Hosea 11:1)

            2. Jesus is also a second Isaiah (Is. 6:8-10 & Matt. 13:14-15)

            3. Jesus also fulfills a “prophecy” by speaking in parables (Ps. 78:2 & Matt. 13:35)

            4. Jesus is another Jeremiah calling out the desecration of the temple (Jer. 7:11 & Matt. 21:13)

            5. Jesus receives praise from “babes and infants” as ordained in the Psalms (Ps. 8:2 & Matt. 21:16)

        2. The End of Sacrifices

          "Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
          My ears You have opened;
          Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, "Behold, I come;
          In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
          I delight to do Your will, O my God;
          Your Law is within my heart."
          I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
          Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
          O LORD, You know.
          I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
          I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
          I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
          You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
          Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
          For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
          My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
          They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
          And my heart has failed me." - Psalm 40:6-12

          1. A psalm of David, and it sounds like him.

          2. God has opened his ears to know that it is not sacrifices, but obedience and love that God desires.

          3. David has not hidden this truth, but proclaimed it openly.

          4. David is confident that the love and mercy of God will continually preserve him.

          5. Even though his faults and failures (iniquities) are too numerous to count, He pleads to God to save him.

          "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'" After saying above, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them" (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." - Hebrews 10:4-14

          1. Writer of Hebrews endeavors to connect all the dots.

          2. Uses the Septuagint (LXX) translation, “A body you have prepared for me”

            1. Septuagint predates Masoritic, so this may be more accurate.

            2. In the Psalmist context it speaks of awakening the person to obedience either way.

            3. Writer of Hebrews interprets it literally, though, so that it applies to a body being prepared for Jesus to offer up as a sacrifice.

          3. At this point, the writer of Hebrews leaves Psalm 40 and finishes with Psalm 110, another Davidic Psalm, but one about the victorious Messiah at the right hand of YHVH, not about being saved in spite of sin.

        2. The Destroyer Unleashed

          "Moses said, "By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing. "If these [rebellious sons of Korah] die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD." As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly." - Numbers 16:28-33

          1. Pretty self-explanatory, to preemptively address a civil war God swallows up the rebellious in a divine act of violence.

            1. Sidenote: the canaanite god “Mot” (the devourer) may be in view here.

          2. Attributed as a “new creation” of God.

          "Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer." - 1 Corinthians 10:8-10

          1. In each of these cases, an act of violence attributed to God in the Hebrew Scriptures is being attributed to the “actual offender” by Paul.

            1. Not only by Paul, but attributed to the “destroyer” in The Wisdom of Solomon, Ezekiel the Tragedian, and 4 Maccabes (all popular Jewish texts at the time).

          2. Paul sees no problem interpreting the judgment as a real act of violence, but attributes the action to the destroyer rather than to the LORD.

          3. Though Paul likely does this because of his intense Christocentric hermeneutic, it's important to realize that the “grey area” of evil action experienced reform before Jesus as well.

            "Now again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah."" - 2 Samuel 24:1

            "Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel." - 1 Chronicles 21:1

            1. Which one is true, or is it both?

            2. Do they enlighten our interpretations of each other?

          4. Divine violence in general.

            1. In early passages, even though God is not seen acting in the passage, the violence is still attributed to God as an act of praise.

            2. In later passages, the fact that it was “the earth” or “the sea” or “the serpents” that committed the violence is distinguished apart from the work of the LORD, even though it is permitted/used by Him.

            3. We can get into this a lot more later.

        2. Jesus the Victorious King

          "The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands;
          The Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.
          You have ascended on high,
          You have led captive your captives;
          You have received gifts among men,
          Even among the rebellious also, that the LORD God may dwell there." - Psalm 68:17-18

          1. The Lord is victorious in battle.

          2. The Lord has ascended the mountain of Bashan, chief among peaks.

          3. He has taken captives from among the nations to be his slaves.

          4. He has received gifts from both the peoples he has rescued as well as those he has conquered.

          "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, "WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN." (Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;" - Ephesians 4:7-12

          1. Jesus is victorious in death.

          2. Jesus has ascended far above all the heavens – But Wait! He first descended!

            1. Into the lower parts of the earth = the realm of the dead.

            2. Peter will riff on this further saying that, while dead, Jesus preached the Gospel to the captives of death (1 Peter 3-4)

          3. Those trapped in sin and death will be free and will reign with Jesus!

          4. SCRIPT CHANGE! He doesn't receive the gifts, Jesus gives the gifts!

            1. This is not a different translation or a verb that “could go both ways” this is an outright change to the text.

            2. No longer a king receiving spoils, but distributing from His wealth.

            3. Now the gifts are people, given from Heaven to communities, who establish Heaven on the earth.

    2. Discovering Jesus in all Scripture – The work/joy/task of the church.

      1. Inspired by the text of the New Testament, Irenaeus and Justin Maryr devoted their lives to the preservation of scripture, the opposition of heresy and the task of interpreting the scriptures through the lens of Jesus.

        1. Both being disciples of John, we'll see that they inherited a very creative but very grounded interpretation that is unashamedly and intentionally Christocentric.

          1. More on this in the Revelation study.

        2. Irenaeus refuted the heresy of Marcion – that the old testament was to be rejected as describing a different God than that revealed in Jesus.

      2. The church continued this tradition.

        [The scriptures] are able to indicate more than can be specified at the time or actually apprehended by the original hearers... [and] by their very nature they are made to point forward to the fulfillment of God’s redemptive purpose, and are only fully understood in the light of its ultimate revelation.” ~ Hilary of Poitiers (300-368CE)

        “But since, if the usefulness of the legislation, and the sequence and beauty of the history, were universally evident of itself, we should not believe that any other thing could be understood in the Scriptures save what was obvious, the Word of God has arranged that certain stumbling-blocks, as it were, and offences, and impossibilities, should be introduced into the midst of the law and the history, in order that we may not, through being drawn away in all directions by the merely attractive nature of the language, either altogether fall away from the (true) doctrines, as learning nothing worthy of God, or, by not departing from the letter, come to the knowledge of nothing more divine.” ~ Origen of Alexandria (184-253CE)

      3. Even until the Reformation

        “[In the Hebrew scriptures we] will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies. . . . Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them... the law and the prophets are not rightly preached or known save we see Christ wrapped up in them.” ~ Martin Luther

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