Luke 22 Part 3

31. And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.

The Lord now speaks to Peter, calling him by his given name of Simon. (Remember that the Lord gave him the name of Peter.) He repeats his name twice. The Companion Bible calls this the figure Epizeuxis, or Duplication. The Lord seems to use it when gently but sternly offering warning or rebuke. That is certainly the case here.

The Lord reveals to Simon that Satan has made request for him. This recalls to our minds the story in the book of Job, wherein Satan comes to the LORD and requests of Him the ability to do certain things to Job. The Lord is revealing here that Satan has done the same thing in this case.

Now the way this reads in the New King James, we might imagine that Satan’s request was only for Peter himself, and that he was hoping to snare Peter especially along with Judas in the events that were to come. However, this impression is left by the current weakness of the English language, which does not specify between a singular and a plural “you.” In Greek here, the word “you” is plural, and it is masculine. We might make this, then, “Satan has asked for you men.” In other words, the Lord is not just telling Peter that Satan had asked Him to be able to sift him personally as wheat, but rather that Satan had asked to be able to do this to all the disciples.

Forgiving Yourself

I received the following question:

Is there any verse in the Bible which says anything about the concept of “forgiving yourself”?  Just a thought.

That is a good question. The concept of forgiveness and pardon in the Bible is largely an issue that relates to the interaction of the LORD with people. He is the one who forgives their iniquities and their sins.

Psalm 130:4:
But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

The Meaning of Meditation

I received the following questions:

What does meditation mean?  Especially as used in Psalm 1:2 and Psalm 104:34.  What is significant about meditation?

First of all, you can read my article on this at:

http://precepts.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/consider-my-meditation/

To meditate means to think extensively on a thing.

2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

This psalmist thinks extensively on the Scriptures. He ponders them, whether books, passages, verses, or words. He considers them and what they say, running over them in his mind. He does this at all times of day, both day and night.

34. May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the LORD.

The psalmist desires that the things upon which he thinks and upon which his mind dwells will be sweet to God. He wants the LORD to be pleased with all that he ponders in his head. In other words, he wants his thoughts to be in conformity with God’s pleasure.

Questions on Prayer

I received the following questions:

Do you know much about prayer?  I know some, but I still have problems with what to pray about.  What does/should prayer look like?  I am kind of stuck with the “A.C.T.S.” version of prayer.  But, I’m not sure if it is the best way to pray.  A=Praising God, C=Confessing sin, T=Thanksgiving, S=Supplication.

When, I pray, whether or not I use that structure, I get easily distracted within my thoughts and lose my focus. I think that if I really wanted to pray to God that I would be “vigilant” and persistent. Then I also feel like I don’t deserve to pray to God or that God does not hear my prayer.

I know not to necessarily expect an answer for my prayer, but rather the peace of God to guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.  But, I am a very anxious person who worries a lot. And, when I pray, I still worry about stuff.

I think that prayer should look like talking to God. That is really and truly what we are doing when we pray. Many get all caught up in making prayer into a religious act. They look for some “formula” that will bring forth the “power of prayer.” I do not believe that prayer is powerful, I believe that God is powerful. It is an amazing thing that we, as sinful and fallen human beings, can talk to Him. Yet He loves us, and hears us.

Luke 22 Part 2

17. Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves;

Here we come upon the next element of the Passover after the lamb, which was the Passover cup. The three essential elements of the Passover are outlined in Exodus 12:8.

8. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Notice that the third element listed here is “bitter herbs,” yet the word “herbs” is in italics.

Luke 22

1. Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.

These two are not the same feast, but since the one led right into the other, they were often called by the same name, and one name was used to refer to both feasts. They were not very technical about this, just like we are not very technical about what we call “Christmas,” and sometimes seem to call the entire month of December after this name. Therefore, we have to carefully consider the context to know what is being spoken of.

According to Exodus 12, on the tenth day of the month, which was the month Abib (sometimes called Nisan), they were to choose a lamb for the Passover. Then on Abib 14th, they were to slay the lamb at twilight (the start of a new day according to their reckoning). This was the day of Passover. Then on Abib 15th through the 21st was the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first and last days of this feast, Abib 15th and 21st, were special feast Sabbaths. We can see this in summary in Leviticus 23:4-8.

Where Does Elijah Fit?

I received the following question:

Where does the next occurrence of Elijah fit in?  Jesus says in Matt 17:11 [NASB].

And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things;

And Malachi says in Mal 4:5-6 [NASB].

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

So we know these things:
1) Elijah will restore all things (i.e. he is a principle actor in the restoration)
2) He will come prior to the return of Christ
3) The restoration he will bring will prevent the wrath of God

So where does he fit in?

He can’t come right after the Second Coming of the Spirit – for all things will already be restored. He can’t come during the Revolt against the kingdom – for the Revolt is a time of rebellion not of renewal He can’t come during or after the Second Coming of Christ – for it clearly says he must come before that time.

So will he be coming just prior to the Great Ingathering?  Or are we missing something.  I have some ideas as found in the book of Joel. I’ll talk more on this later.

I do not think you are correct that he cannot come after the Second Coming of the Spirit.

What Is “This”?

I received the following question:

What is the ‘this’ referred to in Joel 2:28?  The Hebrew word for this is ken.  What is this?

It is difficult to say for certain. “This” could be the prophet’s own days, and he is saying it will come to pass once these evil days are ended. In Acts 2:17, this is explained as meaning “in the last (eschatos) days.” If this is explanatory rather than supplemental, it could tell us that this is what the prophet meant.

Returning to Dirt

I received the following comment:

I was reading some Sellers yesterday and something he said gave me a thought.  He was talking about the symmetry of man starting as dirt, receiving the breath of life, then when dying giving up the breath of life and returning to dirt.  I thought about how men have tried to fight this reality.  They don’t want to return to dirt.  So our dead bodies become placed in coffins, which we are told keeps us hermetically sealed from the soil around us.  Intrinsically we know that our bodies will be dirt, for that is why we bury at all. Understandably the modern reason we use sealed coffins is that we don’t want Aunt Louise to enter our drinking water.  But it does seem like we could use a bit of composting.  I guess that would be one way to facilitate new life

When it rains I am mud.

You are right in that we do tend to seal bodies up to not allow them to return to the dirt. I do not think that the Bible indicates that this is a requirement. Burial customs are mentioned in the Bible. I do not know that they are ever condemned by it.

Technology in the Kingdom

I received the following comment:

I read Zechariah today.  As a part of reading it I thought about how the tech in the Kingdom is shown as low tech.  The fact that they are using old-style weapons can be explained by the fact that at the start of the Kingdom all things weapon-like are destroyed.  But there is another explanation for the other things.  1) With the outpouring of the Spirit people would have less reason to need higher technology. 2) It is likely that by the will of God oil would be tapped out.

What thoughts do you have on this?

There does seem to be some indication that things will be more low-tech in the kingdom. There could be several reasons for this.