Showing posts with label Christology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christology. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Nehemiah cleansed the Temple

But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. (Nehemiah 13:6-9)

I can't be the first to observe this, but I would like to point out that this is an example of Nehemiah as a type of Christ. Nehemiah's response to Tobiah and Eliashib was identical to Jesus' when he entered the Temple:
Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Mark 11:15-17)

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The younger supplants the elder (again)

In 1 Samuel 18:2, King Saul brings David, until now the son of Jesse, into his royal household. The very next thing the narrative records is a covenant Jonathan, Saul's son and the crown prince, makes with David. Although the terms of the covenant aren't revealed, it is sealed by Jonathan giving David his robe, "and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt;" i.e. all the princely garb which signifies Jonathan's royal office. In other words, Jonathan recognizes and affirms that David, now his younger brother, is to take his place as Saul's successor.

This episode reflects the older/younger brother theme in Genesis, in which the younger brother supplants the elder as heir and in significance (ex. Jacob and Esau). That theme, in turn, teaches the reader to look away from Adam, the first man in Genesis, and forward to Adam's "younger brother," Jesus Christ. As the Second Adam, Jesus not only supplants Adam, but reverses the devastation wrought by Adam in the Fall and replaces it with life and glory (Romans 5:12-21). In his relationship with Jonathan, then, we find one more example of David as a type (figure) of Christ.