Recently, as a result of my studies, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Psalms.  I have also been wanting to continue through the Gospel of John here in the blogosphere and the two collided in a most unexpected way.

“Psalm [35] is a lament by an individual, like Psalms 17, 22, 28, and 31 (Bratcher and Reyburn 1991, 328).”  In a lament the individual passionately pours out their grief and their sorrow to God.  What’s interesting is that Bratcher and Rayburn make no indication that this psalm is also an imprecatory psalm.  Imprecatory means that in the psalm the psalmist is praying evil against the persecutor (Bullock 2018, 222).  An imprecation is an offensive word, curse, or phrase that people say when they are angry.  In Psalm 35 the psalmist is passionately pouring out his grief and requesting evil actions and/or curses from God onto the psalmist’s enemies.  But to call the prayer the psalmist is praying evil is to assume that the “evil” is unwarranted.

Bratcher and Reyburn divide the psalm into three parts.  The first part (Psa 35:1-10) is prayer of justification, an accusation, a plea for vengeance, followed with a promise of praise (Bratcher and Reyburn 1991, 328).  While the first part is built on the idea that the psalmist’s enemies had no cause against him (Psa 35:7) the second part (Psa 35:11-18) is a stronger declaration of the psalmist’s innocence in the midst of a description of his enemies and followed again with a plea and a promise (Bratcher and Reyburn 1991, 328).  The declaration of innocence is harder to see in the third part (Psa 35:19-28) but it is there none the less.  Where the ESV translates “Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes… (Psa 35:19)” the NIV translates “Do not let those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause… (Psa 35:19, NIV).”  Again, part three contains a statement of innocence followed by a plea and a promise (Bratcher and Reyburn 1991, 328). 

The innocence of the psalmist is central to the psalm.  But is the psalmist innocent?  If he is innocent, then the plea or prayer is that the evil men arrayed against him receive the fruits of their evil.  The evil is upon them not the psalmist.  But what of Jesus’ words in the gospel of John?  “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone… (Joh 8:7).”  On face value these words in John’s Gospel are used to remind us that none of us are without sin and that we should not judge lest we be judged (Mat 7:1).  However, John is quoting from Deuteronomy 13:9 and 17:7 to remind the woman’s accusers that the witnesses to the crime was to be the one who initiated the sentence (Carson 1991, 336).  Jesus wasn’t saying that the accusers had to be perfect in order to confront a sin but, “rather, that they must not be guilty of this particular sin (Carson 1991, 336)” lest they violate the very law they are trying to use against Him.  That was the particular sin Jesus was calling out, not the sin of adultery.

The reality was that those who had brought the woman to Jesus were not interested in justice.  The simple fact that they didn’t bring the man who had been caught with the woman indicates at least that they were not interested in a pure justice.  They brought the woman to trap Jesus (Carson 1991, 335).  “If Jesus disavowed the law of Moses, his credibility would be instantly undermined: he could be dismissed as a lawless person and perhaps be charged in the courts with serious offences. If he upheld the law of Moses, he would not only be supporting a position that was largely unpopular but one that was probably not carried out in public life, and, worse, which would have been hard to square with his well-known compassion for the broken and disreputable, his quickness to forgive and restore, and his announcement of the life-transforming power bound up with the new birth. It is even possible, as Jeremias suggests, that formal agreement with the law of Moses could have been interpreted in such a way as to get him into serious difficulty with the Roman overlord. If in the name of Moses, he pronounced the death sentence on this woman, and it was actually carried out, he would have been infringing the exclusive rights of the Roman prefect, who alone at this period had the authority to impose capital sentences (cf. notes on 18:31–32) (Carson 1991, 335).”  These men were guilty of using the law unjustly and not one man among them was free of that guilt.

The psalmist’s innocence then could be built on the idea that he was innocent of that which he was accusing his enemies of being guilty.  What were the psalmist’s enemies guilty of?  They were seeking after his life and devising evil against him (Psa 35:4), they were attempting to entrap him (Psa 35:7), false witnesses were brought against him (Psa 35:11), they repaid him evil for good (Psa 35:12), they rejoiced at his stumbling and gathered people against him (Psa 35:15), they “gnashed at him with their teeth (Psa 35:16)” and “wink their eyes (Psa 35:19),” they did not seek peace, and they dealt with him deceitfully (Psa 35:20).  More succinctly, “They open[ed] wide their mouths against [him]; they [said], “Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it (Psa 35:21)!”

What I find at a closer look of the psalmist’s enemies in Psalm 35 is a very accurate description of the scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees of Jesus’ day.  Wow!  Even, the trap that the scribes and Pharisees were attempting to set for Jesus in John 7:53-8:11 could be a specific example of what the psalmist was accusing his enemies of doing.  Although no one knows what Jesus was writing in the dirt I’m beginning to think Psalm 35 might be a candidate for discussion.

Would it be evil of God to execute upon the scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees the curses of Psalm 35?  No, it would be just!  Is the justness of the punishment owed to them due to the perfection of God?  No, it was owed because of the unjustness of their actions.  I heard a pastor, preaching on this passage in John’s Gospel ask the question, could you defend yourself by demanding that your accuser be without sin?  Its rhetorical of course.  You could not, but what if Psalm 35 were the prayer of Jesus?  Wouldn’t God answer the prayer of His son?  One day you will either go to Him or He will come to you and on that day He who is without sin will be casting a stone: a stone of righteous judgment.  Would you be able to stand?  Can you afford to assume that God’s anger against you is unwarranted?

What is most amazing though, is that these same men who accused the only person who could cast a stone without sin can repent because of the good that Jesus has done for them.  Repent today, do not neglect Jesus’ kindness until it is too late.  Today, you can obfuscate your guilt by pointing to the guilt of those who would warn you.  But one day one who is guiltless will call you to justice.

Thank you for reading.  Don’t forget to sign up for my e-mail so you won’t miss that content.  I’ve recently been told by Facebook that my content will be made less available so the e-mail list is the surest way to make sure you There is so much detail in every word of the Bible I hope that these words are encouraging you to dig more into God’s Word.

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash.

Bratcher, Robert G., and William David Reyburn. A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Psalms. New York, NY: United Bible Societies, 1991.

Bullock, C. Hassell. Encountering the Book of Psalms: A Literary and Theological Introduction. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2018.

Carson, D. A. The Gospel according to John. Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Mat 5:17).”

Today as I was going through the Gospel of John when I found three passages that seem to frame a section of scripture.  How sections of scripture are framed always intrigue me.  The first is, “now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand (John 7:2),” the second is, “About the middle of the feast… (Joh 7:14),” and finally, “On the last day of the feast… (Joh 7:37).”  There is a lot going on in this section of scripture but the first thought that came to my mind was what is this Feast of Booths?

The Feast of Booths is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:34, 43, Deu 16:13, 16, 31:10, 2Ch 8:13, and Ezr 3:4), the Feast of Ingathering (Exo 23:16), the Feast of Jehovah (Lev 23:39), or simply ‘the feast’ (1Ki 8:2, 2Ch 5:3, 7:8-9) (Edersheim 1874, 269-270).  It is still celebrated today in Israel as Sukkot which is Hebrew for ‘booths.’  Interestingly enough this year Sukkot will begin September 20^th and end on the 27^th making this blog both timely and relevant.  The Feast falls on the 15^th of Tishri which is the seventh month of the Jewish lunar calendar.  Because the date is determined by a lunar calendar it’s date on our solar calendar will vary.

The Feast would last seven days, or one week, and commenced with the people cutting palm, willow, and myrtle branches to be carried throughout the week (Clarke 1810-1826, 567).  They would take them into the temple and walk around the altar singing Hosanna which means roughly “save us” as trumpets sounded (Clarke 1810-1826, 567)!  The last day they would circle the alter seven times.

The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles gets its name from the booths that the people were required to construct and live in throughout the week.  “These booths, and not their houses, were to be the regular dwelling of all in Israel during the week, and that, except in very heavy rain, they were to eat, sleep, pray, study—in short, entirely to live in them (Edersheim 1874, 274).”  The booths were built from palm branches to commemorate God’s provision during their wandering in the desert in which they had to live in tents (Stern 1992, Joh 7:2).  I can see Adelynn and I celebrating this in the back yard in a not-too-distant year to come.

But the joy of the celebration occurred on the eighth day when, “a priest drew some water out of the pool Siloam, in a golden vessel, and brought it into the temple; and at the time of the morning sacrifice, while the… sacrifice [was] on the altar, he went up and poured this water mingled with wine upon [the sacrifice] (Clarke 1810-1826, 567).”  Simultaneously, all the people sang “with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3) ” (Clarke 1810-1826, 567).  I know, I said it was a seven-day celebration.  Turns out the eighth day was set apart for sacrifices, to dismantle the booths, and the repeated singing of the Hallel (Psa 113-118) (Köstenberger 2013, 453).  ” Hence, by the first century many Jews had come to think of the Feast of Tabernacles as an eight-day event (Köstenberger 2013, 453).”

Now there is so much to look at regarding the history and the symbolism of The Feast that I can only really scratch the surface.  I would highly encourage you to really dig into it because I think the symbolism is going to point to Jesus in some astonishing ways.  It is the context in which John chapter seven occurs and if we really want to know what is going on it could be extremely helpful to try and grasp that context.  This was the feast that Jesus’ unbelieving brothers were inviting Him to attend.

But they weren’t just inviting him to attend a feast they were taunting Him.  It was the equivalent of saying to Him, “If you are really who you say you are then why don’t you come with us to the feast?”  Or “…show yourself to the world Joh 7:4).”  Or in the words of Little Big Man (Dustin Hoffman), “You go down there… if you got the nerve.”  The Feast of Booths was understood as Messianic by the people of Jesus’ day and their argument was that it would be the right time for Jesus to reveal Himself (Walvoord and Zuck 2004, 299).  i.e., Come on Jesus, “put up or shut up.”  Jesus responded, “My time has not yet come… (Joh 7:6).”

This got me thinking, The Feast of Booths is old.  God established it early and it had been celebrated for a millennium and yet when it was established it was established to point to the Messiah.  The people of Jesus’ day recognized that connection.  Today, people ask, “how do we know what God’s plan is for our lives?”  I have found the answer in the Feast of Booths, but not in the way we ask.  When I find these forms of detail in God’s word, that point to the institution of His plan a millennia before it would be executed, I am reminded of the insignificance of anything I could do except live my life in a manner that demonstrates I believe that He planned and executed my redemption.  What is left then is to live my life in any way in which my life reflects that belief.  There is both liberty and responsibility there.  The liberty in which you are free to live your life how you see fit and the responsibility to live it in a way that it reflects your belief in Christ to be true.

Anyway, even though it was not yet His time Jesus snuck down to The Feast.  At the moment when the water from the golden vessel was poured onto the sacrifice on the altar, “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (Joh 7:37-38).’”  Jesus was connecting His ministry to the celebration of the Feast of Booths.  That moment was prepared for you and me, at least a millennium in advance, so that the Jews of Jesus’ time, His own disciples, and the crowds at The Temple would connect who He was claiming to be to their own expectation of a Messiah.

Only this is just a connection to the meaning of His ministry.  It is not yet time for the fullness of His ministry to be realized. “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn (Zec 12:10).  …on that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness (Zec 13:1).”  At this point in the Gospel of John Jesus’ time had not yet come. 

Thank you for reading.  I wrote another blog on the significance of the living water that you might also find relevant here.  I haven’t touched yet on the connection between the living water, The Feast of Booths, and the giving of the Holy Spirit.  If you are interested don’t forget to sign up for my e-mail so you won’t miss that content.  There is so much detail in every word of the Bible I hope that these words are encouraging you to dig more into God’s Word.

Photo by Thomas Vogel on Unsplash

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Edersheim, Alfred. The Temple: Its Ministry And Service. Public Domain, 1874.

Köstenberger, Andreas J. Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Leterary, and Theological Perspective. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.

Stern, David H. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.

Walvoord, John F., and Roy B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Dallas: Cook Communications Ministries, 2004.

“Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat (Joh 6:5)?’”

Historians disagree on whether it was Napoleon or Fredrick the Great who said, “an army marches on its stomach.”  Regardless of its origin, the statement points to the strategic and universal importance of logistics, and specifically sustenance, to the success of any army.

Gravy, Rise, and Raisins

I remember learning this lesson as a young cadet at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin.  We had been trying to keep up with an offensive action and every evening we had to advance in order to maintain communications with the leading elements.  Unfortunately, we advanced every evening just before the LOGPAC (Logistics Package) arrived at our location.  That truck had our evening meal.  This occurred three nights in a row.

Now, before you ask, “didn’t you have an MRE?”  Yes, we did.  MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat and consists of a prepackaged, sealed, and often just barely palatable meal.  Each package contains enough calories for an entire day.  However, if you have been in the military for even a small amount of time you may know that sometimes it is better to go a little hungry than eat another MRE.  While they all but never perish, they do get old.  Add to that a very demanding activity cycle and even with a box of MRE’s available sometimes you just don’t eat.

When the logisticians found out that we had missed three of our meals they took swift action.  The scrounged the leftovers from breakfast, mostly burnt sausage gravy scraped from the side of a pan, white rice, and some raisins.  The raisins seemed random to me but there they were.  Anyway, they made a special trip to deliver this meal and I will never forget.  It was served in paper dixie cups and to this day it is the best gravy, rice, and raisins I have ever had.

In asking the question, “where are we to buy bread” Jesus isn’t making a logistical observation regarding a large crowd rather, he is highlighting the beginning of an important, strategic, and universal message.  The miracle of feeding of the five thousand, a miracle that was both messianic in its impossibility and symbolic in its connection to the Old Testament, serves to emphasize the important message.  All of chapter six of the Gospel of John is dedicated to this single message.  What is that message?  That Jesus is the bread of life!

In the Old Testament Moses asked of God, “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me (Num 11:13-14).”  God answered Moses’ request for food by providing mana.  When Jesus asks a similar question, Jesus is drawing a connection or comparison between Him and Moses for the crowd.

Part of the Messianic expectation of Jesus’ day came from a passage in Deuteronomy in which God promised a prophet like Moses (Deu 18:15-18).  That crowd was looking for another Moses.  Here, Jesus, by miraculously multiplying five loaves of barley and two fish, is telling His audience that He is not simply a prophet like Moses but that He is superior to Moses.  When the crowd heard they understood and then attempted to force God’s move by making Him their king.  Jesus withdrew (John 6:15).  It was not yet His time.

The Clues

The next day Jesus brings the crowd back to the feeding of the five thousand and then gives them the first clue about the bread of life.  The bread of life will not perish.  It will endure to eternal life.  “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal (Joh 6:27).”

The second clue is in the response of the crowd.  Somehow, they connect eternal life to the works of God.  Their question, “is from the legal stand-point, works being regarded as the condition of obtaining the living bread (Vincent 1887, 148).”  What must we do is the equivalent of asking how do we get this bread or even more specifically how do we eat this bread?  Jesus’ answer is “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent (Joh 6:29).”  To receive the bread of life, to eat the bread of life is to believe in Jesus.

Jesus brings it home when he says, “it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (Joh 6:32-33)” and the crowd responds, “Sir, give us this bread always (Joh 6:34).”  Here I suspect that they, the crowd, is meaning the barley loaves from the day before.  One of the challenges of interpretation is that Jesus is trading on two metaphors one of which while spiritual was very literal.  The Israelites actually survived by eating the mana.  It was actual sustenance in the literal meaning of the term.  However, the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is the second and it too was a literal meal.  Are we to then consume Jesus body in the literal sense of the word?  Nope.  That would be too literal.

To eat of the bread of life is to consume the doctrine of the sacrificial messiah.  The manna was both intended to point us too this truth.  “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (Deu 8:3).”

Further, in the Gospel of Mark Jesus tells His disciples, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod (Mar 8:15).”  This is taking the metaphor of the bread to another level.  Here He is making a connection not to just any bread but to the bread of the Passover.  The bread of the Passover was to be free of yeast or leaven (Exo 12:15, Deu 16:3).  “The leaven was a piece of unbaked fermented dough from a previous batch, that was normally added to the fresh dough to make it rise (Osborn and Hatton 1999, 281).”  To add leaven to the Law was to mix something with the fresh teaching.

Today

Today, it is still true that Jesus is the bread of life.  The Messiah who bled and died for you that you may have eternal life simply by believing that He is who He says He is and that He has done what He says He has done is the pure doctrine of life.  Today, just as in Jesus’ day, we also have to be careful that we do not add leaven to God’s doctrine.  Today’s leaven is just as damaging as the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.  The Israelites were warned in their day that if anyone ate what was leavened during the Passover celebration that they would be cut off from the nation (Exo 12:15).  To be cut off from the bread of the Passover, the bread of life, is to be cut off from eternal life.  What doctrines are you consuming?

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things, and I would hate for you to miss out. I am considering a Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas giveaway.  You’ll have to be on my e-mail list to participate.

Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash

Osborn, Noel D., and Howard A. Hatton. A Handbook on Exodus. New York, NY: United Bible Societies, 1999.

Vincent, Marvin Richardson. Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887.