My last post, back in the beginning of April, was brief and far too provoking to leave you hanging. Unfortunately, I will be refering to that post in this one because it contains brief contextual information to this story. If you wish to understand the rest of the context I would recommend reading the Exodus of the Israelites in the early chapters of the Book of Exodus--specificly chapter 14, when they cross through the Red Sea.
To understand this post you will at least want to read Joshua 3-4, which is one synergistic passage linked by Chiasm. (Chiasm is literary structure used to join thoughts together in a fashion that emphasizes what is in the middle and compares what is done on either end. Click the link to find out more.) The middle of the Chiasm is at the end of Chapter 3 and beginning of Chapter 4. Notice they are the exact same sentance: "All the nation had finished crossing the Jordan." After that "middle point" there is type of segway in thought, picking up from Chapter 3:12, which was a break in sentance. The passage is emphasizing the segway about 12 memorial stones. God wanted them to remember who He was/is and what He did for them because of it.
Sara posted her thoughts quite well on this part of the chapter awhile ago. I will simply seek to add on to it from the surrounding text.
Around and inside of that centeral part of the passage are key words that frame what God wanted the Israelites and us to understand. Two of them were already introduced by the officers (c.f. previous post). I will pick up on the other two in my next post.
3 comments:
Hey Carl! Thanks for the comment. To answer your first question, I think that what this concept of the temple of the Living God is to live a personal holy life in the body of believers and in the world. I believe that sin in a personal life could have its effects on church life; so therefore we should strive to be holy in our dealings privately and corporately as a body of believers. I think personally that is why we have church discipline; so that the body or the temple may stay clean. Then when the person who is being disciplined as changed his or her way of life then they are welcome back to the family of believers or the temple of the Living God. I think also that since this letter was written to a body of believers corporately then I think it has to deal with corporately; but I think that in order to be corporately clean the people have to deal with their personal lives.
To answer your second question, I think also that this concept of the temple and surrounding text being quoted from the Old Testament is for both the Church and Israel. I think this because the church of Corinth was made up of Jews and Gentiles and if Paul was writing to the body of Corinth then I think there is some application of these texts for us as Gentiles. Now, that is not to say that it doesn't apply to Israel because it does. Israel is still the people of God and protected by God; I just think that we have been grafted into the tree and we have similar blessings (Romans 11). So, I think this passage is one of those blessings that we share.
Hey Carl! If I'm not being real clear in what I wrote, maybe we can discuss this over the phone; I think it would be a lot easier. For the next couple of days, I will be at BBC helping Kathy to get loaded up to come home; so you can try to reach me here at home on Sunday. I should be here and look forward to hearing from you. If you have any more questions to help clarify what I said, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks and God Bless my friend!
I am not sure that we must interpret the passages to direct correlation to the new testament church. That is, those original passages were not speaking concerning the church and certainly were not hinting at it.
Paul declares the truth of the Church: "We are the temple of the living God." which is not described ever in the old testament. But having the physical temple of God in the midst of Israel provides teaching and comparision for believers today. Learning about requirements laid out by God for His existence in their midst, gives a good comparison for church age believers who are the very temple of God.
Notice also, Paul weaves a number of passages together and summerizes them with a result "I will welcome you." That is a interpretive insertion on Pauls part--a insipired one but still an insertion. This lends credence to the fact that Paul is giving comparison teaching to illumniate what it means to be the temple of GOd. This is not an argument for or prophecy about the church being the temple of God but a reflection on a type of relationship with God.
Even if the original passages quoted by Paul were not written to us orignially, shouldn't we say that it is now for us because of the people Paul was writing to at that time; which would be the Corinthians? I think it does because Paul is writing to the church of Corinth. And besides, if you look at the context of the passage, Paul talks about believers not being bound to unbelievers and how this looks in real life. So, in context, Paul is talking to the church and is calling us the temple of the Living God. (verse 16, "we are the temple of the Living God")
We may be talking the same talk and I'm not showing ir or I'm not communicating my arguments well enough on the computer. Maybe we ought to finish this discussion over the phone so that we can fully understand our thoughts.
I hope things are going well for you; I'll keep you in my prayers as you figure out what the next step is for you and I hope you'll be praying for me as I find what God wants me to do for the future as well.
God Bless Carl! Look forward to talking to you soon!
Post a Comment