Theological Substitution
The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 103:19 NASB
Sovereignty – What has YHVH established in the heavens? His throne. What does that mean? Ah, now you must be very careful with your answer. If you read the text according to the NASB translation, you will give a theological answer, not a contextual answer. The Hebrew word is malkut. It does not primarily mean what Geisler describes as God’s sovereignty. “Sovereignty is God’s control over His creation, dealing with His governance over it: Sovereignty is God’s rule over all reality.”[1] The word malkut means “kingdom,” from the root malak, “to be or become king, to reign.” Why make this distinction? Because David is the author here, not Calvin.
But does it really matter? Isn’t sovereignty just another way of saying kingdom? No, not quite. Sovereignty is a universal concept. As you can see from the definition above, the idea of sovereignty is God’s rule extended across all reality. But David is thinking in terms of kingdoms. He is king of Israel. God is King of Israel (and of the world, of course, but the ideas are not quite the same). A king has certain obligations and particular powers and authority. David, as king, knew these well, and he knew that he abused them. His role as king was severely jeopardized. When David says that YHVH has established “His throne,” he is making a statement about a Kingdom. That’s why malkut must be translated “kingdom,” not “sovereignty.” This is Hebrew poetry and the parallelism in it demands the ideas be connected. Throne connects to kingdom, not to sovereignty (although the king is sovereign, of course). Furthermore, David is establishing what it means to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom, not a creature in the created universe. Everyone is created but not everyone is a citizen.
Hesed is a function of covenant relationship. So is citizenship. As a citizen I submit to the authority of the king. He is sovereign in the kingdom. Of course, YHVH’s “kingdom” extends to the entire created order, but that obscures the more specific kingdom relationship that YHVH has with Israel. Israel is His kingdom on earth. That’s where David’s attention is focused. One king looking at another King. If we treat malkut as if it means “sovereignty,” we will mistakenly believe that this verse forgets Israel, something David could never have done. It is patently true that YHVH’s kingdom rules over all, but it begins here, with Israel. May we never forget that YHVH is the God of Israel and then the God of all. By His own choice, of course.
The Lord YHVH has established His throne in the heavens. This is a statement of total and complete control. Its perspective is cosmic. It starts in the heavens and reaches to the earth. His malkut, however, begins with His chosen nation and proceeds outward until Torah covers the earth like water. It starts on the earth and proceeds to the heavens.
Topical Index: sovereignty, malkut, kingdom, throne, heavens, Psalm 103:19
[1] Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, Vol 2., p. 536.
Wow!
“Israel is my firstborn.” This is family talk. But, above all, this language prefigures the incarnation of Yeshua into that kingly line of David. He may be a King after the order of Melchisedek, but He was born to the family of David. In Abraham were all nations blessed, for there was a Son in his descendants. By familial relations, this is the tribe of YHVH. These were His genetics, humanly speaking, but more than anything, He established a nation on the planet that had no excuse when they saw Him. There was no way that they could plead ignorance of Who He was, for they had been given all the signs. If you want to read a book that could forever change the way you think about prophecy, read Josh MacDowell’s book Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It may hurt like a splinter under a fingernail, but to face the truth, at some point we are going to have to look at the fact that, as a nation, represented by that high priest, His own rejected Him, and, no, they did not have any excuse, for He left them none. He came to His own, and they did not receive Him. The rest of the world lay in ignorance as to Who He was, but they did know. They did know, and they will look on Him Whom they pierced, and wail because of Him, for He was family.
And here we must disagree for the moment. You’re right. This is family talk. But somehow you and Josh MacDowell think that it intimates the Trinity, the incarnation and the divinity (in the modern sense) of Yeshua. Yeshua is the Messiah, but that is not the same as saying that he is God or that the son of God is God the Son. So while it is correct to say that his mission was the establishment of the kingdom on earth and the defeat of all the enemies of God, YHVH, that is not to say that he pre-existed as God the Son and was “incarnated” in human form (a humanity unlike any other human being who every lived). It is not “genetics, humanly speaking.” It is genetics period. If he is human, and all the gospels portray him as such, then he is human, not God-genetics disguised as human. I just gave a four hour lecture on this topic here in Virginia, demonstrating from history that the idea of a pre-existing divine being who became a “man” temporarily was not in the thought of the authors of the Bible nor in the thought of the early Church fathers. That idea, now dominant in Christianity, arose in the 3rd and 4th centuries after the influence of Greek philosophy and the edict of Constantine.
Thank you, Skip, for this brief and concise summation on the subject of Yeshua as the son of God, not God the son. And thank you for today’s message. This leaves me with a thought: Despite the modern Western world’s preoccupation with democratic thought, in God’s eyes, is democracy so great? It’s His kingdom and His kingship that receive the highest praise in scripture.
May I inquire? Who do you say He is? What is your confession concerning Christ? Remember the confession of Thomas the Doubter? “my LORD and my God?”
Prophet? Priest? King? King of all kings? LORD of all lords? If not the Messiah, then who? Did the Word of God become flesh and live among us?
What was the purpose of Calvary?
Carl, I would have to simply repeat what Peter said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” As for doubting Thomas, I don’t claim to know exactly what he meant by “my Lord and my God,” but I do know that the statement as written in Greek did not contain capital letters, and that our interpretation of “Lord” and “God” often reflects how we think now, in the 21st century. The Greek words refer to a wide range of esteemed persons, as far as I understand, which, admittedly, isn’t much. All I know is that Yeshua never claimed to be God. I believe that when he said He and His Father were one, He was referring to a relationship so strong that always–always–they were in agreement and harmony. Also, when Yeshua says in John 20:17, that He was going to “My God and your God,” that does not sound like something Yeshua would say if He was God Himself. Also, why would God say in 1 Corinthians 15:27-28 that though all things are put under Yeshua, God Himself is excepted, if Yeshua is God? Seems like that would get awfully confusing.
I have already written something about this verse.
Thomas, “the Son of man,” one of His favorite names for Himself, demonstrated to us the “how to” of what Torah obedience “looked like.” He was a man, (one of us) under voluntary submission to the Father. Oh yes, I find it very strange also that He would pray to the Father if He and the Father were One and the same! The only answer I have is He was teaching us / leading us (by example) to pray. We now have access to the very throne of God. Not to mention a brand new (never heard of or spoken of before or B.C.) relationship! God as “ABBA-Father?” Unheard of! Never before Christ or B.C.!
No man, (no, not one- whether rabbis or rabblerousers or republicans- NO MAN comes to the Father but by Me. Narrow is the Way that leads unto Life? Yes, very. So much so that He declared, “I AM “The” Way. Not “a” way. Again, “The” Way.
~ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father ~ This is why we pray “in His Name.” He is Above all things, and not to be ignored.
Pie-in-the-face time. What, (pray tell) is THE central event in all of the history of mankind? Helpful household hint- It is smack dab in the middle of B.C. and A.D.
Wow! It is the gospel. The “good news” of Jesus, who is called “the Christ.” As per John’s announcement: “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Where are we now? What problems are we having? Is He Divine? Is He (fully) human?
Do you happen to know anyone in your circle of friends, or in your history books who was born of a virgin? Who walked on water? Who received the worship of men and of angels? Who healed lepers, blind people, deaf people? Who (hello) NEVER sinned? Know anyone else to be crucified and then to rise again on the third day?
Is that lecture available as a download?
Question: Who did the apostles say Yeshua was?
The Messiah, the Son of God (which, btw, is not the equivalent of “god the son”
One more question: So, is it a punishable offense in G-d’s eyes to claim that Yeshua is YHWH?
Yeshua himself said “I and the Father are one…if you know the Father, you know me.”
How are we (mere mortals) to comprehend who He is, with all the conflicting information???
Frankly…it’s somewhat discouraging and unsettling.
Recall, too, that Yeshua prayed that the disciples would become one with YHWH and Yeshua, as they were one with each other. This either cuts away from the idea that Yeshua is “God”, for how can we be God, or it cuts to the idea that we, in fact, will become God. Either one of these perspectives is offensive to mainstream Christianity, but there it is, there is no third option for interpretation.
Judi, I think ” I and the Father are one” refers to being “one in purpose” – the Hebrew view is always more about the verb function, not the noun. It is interesting that when we talk about the oneness or unity of believers, no-one thinks of being or becoming someone else. Copying does not mean replacing. Just like being in the image of God does not mean to be a photo copy of God, but rather to “do as God does”.
And we see the example of ” if you have seen me, you have seen the Father” all the time in everyday life when a company or bank sends a representative and not the Ceo for a house call. That person represents everything the bank stands for.
And yes, I believe it an offense to proclaim anyone or anything than YHVH God. Isaiah 46:9..for I alone am God,I am God and there is none other like me..Deut 32:39,Isaiah 43:10,12;48:12 Exodus 20
Since the apostles were mostly Jews, saying the Shema 3 times a day, it would certainly be expected that there should be chapters and chapters in the later writings explaining to all the Jews that there was now another God or piece of God in town – evidence I cannot find – they rather discuss taxes and the washing of hands.
It might also help to read the Messianic prophecies in Tanach concerning the coming Messiah. Are there any prophecies about Messiah being God?
I would rather go with YHVH being the one and only God, and ask Him to help settle all other confusions regarding the Messiah. YHVH must please enlighten me.
Thomas, on the topic of democracy, i just read this today:”Hence the brilliance of Maimonides’ insight that the second tithe existed to create social capital, meaning bonds of trust and reciprocal altruism among the population, which came about through sharing food with strangers in the holy precincts of Jerusalem. Loving God helps make us better citizens and more generous people, thus countering the individualism that eventually makes democracies fail.”
– from http://www.rabbisacks.org/the-second-tithe-and-the-making-of-a-strong-society-reeh-5775/
Thank you, Luzette, for this. I’ll read it as soon as I can.
Thy kingdom come thy will be done the same as it is in heaven.
Well, b’reshyt isn’t what we have come to understand as “in the beginning”, according to the many mistranslations of the word.
It should be – “with Wisdom”.
We normally understand the first word of the Torah to be an indication of time: “at the beginning, the first thing.” However, there is a tradition that understands the first letter, the bet, to mean “by means of.” This would mean that something or someone called ראשית (reshit) helped God in the creation of the heaven and the earth.
In Proverbs 8 Wisdom describes how she was working with God in the beginning as he created the world. “The Lord created me at the beginning (ראשית) of his way, the first of his acts of old.” (Proverbs 8.22).
And John says “In the beginning”…points to…. Wisdom that was with YHWH in the creation process, not Messiah.
Fascinating, listen to the end!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeE2p4x0aTg
Shalom!
“By means of the first (thing), God created.” Nice. And it fits Proverbs.
I LOVE the link, Ester, and enjoyed the broadcast! I want to read all Dr. Schroeder’s books. I went and read all the free stuff I could find, and I already like how his books start out.
I had a question, though, and that question is, would not “only Begotten” be interchangeable with “first (thing)”? Before all else was the Begotten, by Whom the Word was spoken. And is not what is spoken that perfect Wisdom? Is not Wisdom the Word unspoken, and Creation the same Word spoken, which is to say, manifest, and why wouldn’t that Word be manifest also by means of that Creation? “The heavens declare the glory of God…” The Beloved receives to give to all else, and “no man cometh to the Father, except by (through) him”. Its a chain reaction, a chain letter of love, and one we were created to pass on in like manner, as stewards of the rest of it. The way I read it, we have not even begun to do our proper job yet!
Yes, Laurita, he is fascinating. And, Yes, “we have not even begun to do our proper job yet!” I love how he expressed the following, is what Skip is doing in TWs-
“The idea of looking for a deeper meaning in Torah is no different than looking for deeper meaning in science. Just as we look for the deeper readings in science to learn the working of nature, so too we need to look for the deeper readings in Torah. King Solomon in Proverbs 25:11 alluded to this. “A word well spoken is like apples of Gold in a silver dish.” Maimonides in The Guide for the Perplexed interprets this proverb: The silver dish is the literal text of the Torah, as seen from a distance. The apples of gold are the secrets held within the silver dish of the Torah Text. Thousands of years ago we learned that there are subtleties in the Text that expand the meaning way beyond its simple reading. It’s those subtleties I want to see.”
Yes! The secrets are hidden from us sinners, because we would just misinterpret them, I am sure, but we will have all eternity, which we are going to need, for the ultimate mystery of the Cross we are never going to get to the bottom of, I am sure, and that’s for starters! Halleluah!
Interesting view points ! I am searching for truth, and losing ( friends), because I no longer believe main stream Christian theology on every issue. I believe God the Father is calling me to truth. I’m not a Hebrew or Greek scholar but I enjoy learning. Keep the discourse coming : )