Selected Reading, March 21, 2020

Here are a few recommendations to help you maintain your hope in God in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Prayer

Reasons for Thanksgiving
I know from experience that finding God’s many blessings and thanking him for them can’t help but lift our spirits by increasing our trust in him. In the post linked above, Jared Olivetti lists several “reasons to give God thanks during the current crisis.”

A 7-Day Coronavirus Prayer Guide
Because sometimes we don’t know what to ask. 

Music

The Sweetening of All Our Songs
“One of the greatest gifts we receive from suffering is the sweetening of all our songs. Like a life jacket, the deeper we sink, the more buoyant our songs become, and the more God uses them to grip us tight and raise us up—from panic to peace, from the hissing questions of doubt to the gentle confidence of faith, from the selfish concerns that overtake us in times of trial to the neighbor-love that Christ calls us to practice especially in the darkest seasons.”—David A. Gundersen

Bread

Old-World Rye Bread
There’s something therapeutic (and yummy) about making bread. I have four or five bread recipes I keep returning to. This is one of them.

Theological Term of the Week: Typology

typology
A method of biblical interpretation that arises from the concept that in God’s plan, elements found in the Old Testament (laws, institutions, and historical people or events) prefigure the things God purposed to accomplish in later times, especially in the work of Christ.

• From scripture: 

  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:14 ESV)

  By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). (Hebrews 9:8-9 ESV)

• From the London Baptist Confession, 1689, Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator: 

6. Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages, successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices wherein he was revealed, and signified to be the seed which should bruise the serpent’s head; and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, being the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever.

• From the ESV Study Bible, Interpreting the Bible: 

The earliest followers of Christ interpreted the Hebrew Scriptures (the OT) as Jesus taught them—as a book of anticipations pointing to Christ himself. He was the long-promised Messiah, the Redeemer who would reverse the effects of the primal fall and restore the world to pristine holiness. Jesus taught that the OT spoke of him. To his critics he said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). The Gospel accounts suggest that Jesus understood the OT from a Christocentric, typological perspective; he is repeatedly cast as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it clear that his views did not contradict Moses, but he had come to invest the Law and the Prophets with their proper and full meaning (Matt. 5:17). Two themes run through Jesus’ teaching: (1) the Law was the perfect revelation of God to humanity, and (2) Jesus came to fulfill the Law by meeting its exacting demands for a righteous standing before God.

This approach to the OT is how the earliest writers of the Christian Scriptures (the NT) approached their own writings. They spoke of the OT in the same way that Jesus had: as a book not merely telling the pre-Christian history of Israel but telling that history in a way that had present and future significance for Christians. The OT was the original sacred book of the church, giving assurance that Jesus was the promised and anointed one predicted by the prophets.

• From 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer:

In a famous lecture (and subsequently published article), New Testament  scholar Richard Longenecker asked, “Can we reproduce the exegesis of the New Testament?” Longenecker was asking whether we, as modern interpreters, can apply typological interpretive methods to passages not so cited by New Testament authors. Bible-believing Christians have reached a variety of conclusions on the matter. In my opinion, it is necessary to ask how any part of Scripture points to Christ. We must be cautious, however, in proposing any typological correspondences that are not explicitly mentioned in Scripture. In other words, we should keep the surface-level meaning of the text the primary focus of our exposition and give appropriate interpretive caveats when suggesting a Christological application not found explicitly in the Bible. Obscure symbolic interpretations of Old Testament laws should be avoided. It is probably wise to ask a friend who is more experienced in biblical interpretation to critique any newly proposed Christological typology before publicly proclaiming it.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is biblical typology?
2. Theopedia: Biblical typology
3. Stephen J. Wellum: Three Features of Typology
4. Fred Zaspel: The Warrant for Typological Interpretation of Scripture and Typology as Prophecy
5. Wayne Jackson: A Study of Biblical Typology
6. Charles T. Fritsch: Biblical Typology
7. Richard Barcellos: Typology: Adam and Christ
8. Camden Bucey, Jonathan Brack: Issues in Biblical Theology: Types and Antitypes (audio)

Related terms: 

• biblical hermeneutics
• exegesis
• redemptive history

Filed under Scripture

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Sunday's Hymn: God Moves in a Mysterious Way

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

—William Cowper

Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• Glory to His Name at The Happy Wonderer
• Yesterday, today, and forever at Tried With Fire
• Lord’s Day 11, 2020 at The Thirsty Theologian