Palestine is the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants and eventually the region where the Hebrews people lived. Palestine is a tiny land bridge between the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The word itself originally identified the region as 'the land of the Philistines' a war-like tribe that inhabited much of the region alongside the Hebrew people. But the older name for Palestine was 'Canaan' the term used in the Old Testament. The Amarna Letters of the 14th century B.C. referred to 'the land of Canaan' applying the term to the coastal region inhabited by the 'Phoenicians.' After the Israelites took the land from the Canaanites, the entire country became known as the 'land of Israel' and the 'land of promise.'

God said to him, 'I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed, a group of nations shall descend from you. Even kings shall be numbered among your descendants. I give you this land, the land I gave to Abraham and to Isaac; and I will give this land to your descendants after you. Then God went up from him. - Gen. 35:11-13 - 1Sam. 13:19-20 -

After Herod's death, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those wanted to kill the child are dead.' - Matt. 2:19-20 -

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the Promised land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. - Heb. 11:8-9 -

The term Palestine as a name for the entire land of Canaan, beyond the coastal plains of the Phoenicians, was first used by the fifth century B.C. historian Herodotus. After the Jewish revolt of A.D. 135, the Romans replaced the Latin name Judea with the Latin Palestina as their name for this province. Although the prophet Zechariah referred to this region as the "Holy Land". - Zech. 2:12 - it was not until the Middle ages that this land became popularly known as the "Holy Land."

The medieval concept that Palestine was the center of the earth is not as far fetched as one might expect. This tiny strip of land not only unites the peoples and lands of Asia, Africa, and Europe but also the five seas known as the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Palestine was sandwiched in between two dominant cultures of the ancient world - Egypt to the south and Babylon-Assyria-Persia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to the northeast.

Palestine is also the focal point of the three great world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It has been the land corridor for most of the world's armies and, according to the Book of Revelation, will be the scene of the final great conflict of history, the battle of Armageddon.

The sixth angel emptied his bowl over the great river Euphrates; all the water dried up so that a way was made for the kings of the East to come in. Then, from the jaws of dragon and beast and false prophet I saw three foul spirits come; they looked like frogs and in fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles, going all out to all kings of the world to call them together for the war of the Great Day of God the Almighty. This is how it will be: I shall come like a thief. Happy is the man who has stayed awake and not taken off his clothes so that he does not go out naked and expose his shame. They called the kings together at the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon. - Rev. 16:10-16 -

The boundaries of Palestine were not clearly defined in ancient times - a problem which plagues the area even today. Generally, the Hebrews occupied the land bordered on the south by the Wadi el-Arish and Kadesh Barnea and on the north by the foothills of Mount Hermon. The Mediterranean Sea formed a natural western boundary and the Jordan River a natural eastern boundary, except that several of the Israelites tribes occupied the region known as 'Transjordan' the land east of the Jordan River.

At certain times in Israel's history, the territory they occupied was much larger. During the days of the United Monarchy under king David and Solomon, Israel controlled Hamath, Damascus, and the region beyond as far as the Euphrates River. They also held dominion over Ammon, Moab, and Edom, stretching the nation's borders from the mountains of Lebanon to the waters of the Red Sea.

The boundaries of the Promised Land defined in the book of Numbers chapter 34 - "Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, Give the sons of Israel this order: "When you go into the land (of Canaan) this is the territory that will be your inheritance. This is the land of Canaan defined by boundaries............" Num. 34:1-29 - as promised to Moses, were much more extensive than the region in which the Hebrews eventually settled. The southern boundary was placed at Kadesh Barnea and the northern boundary at 'the entrance of Hamath' - Num. 34:8 - which may either be the entrance to the Biqa Valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains or farther north near modern Lebweh, some 23 kilometers (14 miles) north of historic Baalbek.

It is also clear that the land promised to Abraham and his descendants for an everlasting possession included an area similar to that seen by Moses and greater than that area actually inhabited by the Israelites. This covenant promise to Abraham is the basis for the modern Israeli claim to Palestine. - Gen. 12:7, 28:4, 48:3-4 -

To the jet age traveler Palestine seems quite small. The expression 'from Dan to Beersheba' - 1Sam. 3:20 - refers to a north-south distance of only about 240 kilometers (150 miles). The width of the region is even less impressive. In the north, from Acco on the coast to the Sea of Galilee is a distance of only 45 kilometers (28 miles). In the broader south, from Gaza on the coast to the Dead Sea is a distance of only 88 kilometers (54 miles). The distance between Jaffa and Jericho is only 72 kilometers (45 miles); Nazareth to Jerusalem is only 98 kilometers (60 miles).

The land area from Dan to Beersheba in Cis-Jordan (the region west of the Jordan River) is approximately 6,000 square miles - a region smaller than Hawaii [USA]. If the area east of the Jordan River is included, the maximum total area of Palestine amounts to only 10,000 square miles - an area smaller than the state of Maryland [USA].

The history of Palestine is complicated by the many different cultures and civilizations that have flourished in the region. The first historical reference to the inhabitants of Canaan occurs in the book of Genesis chapter 10. Canaan, the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah - Gen. 5:32, 10:6 - is said to have fathered most of the inhabitants of the land. These include Sidon (the Phoenicians) Heth (the Hittites) and the Jebusites (who lived near Jerusalem) the Amorites (in the hill country) the Girgashites (unknown) the Hivites (peasants from the northern hills) the Arkites (from Arka in Phoenicia) the Sinites (from the northern coast of Lebanon) the Arvadites (from the island of Arvad) the Zemarites (from Sumra) and the Hamathies (from Hamath) - Gen. 10:15-18 -

The native inhabitants of Canaanwere tall, giant-like and stalwart races known as the Anakim - Josh. 11:21-22 - the Rephaim - Gen. 14:5 - the Emim, Zamzummim, and Horites. - Deut. 2:10-23 - They lived in the hill country, and traces of their primitive population continued as late as the days of the United Monarch under king David and king Solomon. - 2Sam. 21:16-22 - When Abraham arrived in the Promised Land it was almost entirely inhabited by the Canaanites, with a mixture of Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites.

The history of Palestine gains its significance for the purpose of Bible study with the beginning of biblical period. But the region was inhabited by other cultures long before Abraham and his family arrived. As human race was scattered over the earth a number of cultures emerged. (Tower of Babel - 2000 B.C.) Small city-states began to be organized in Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. A Sumerian civilization (about 2800-2360 B.C.) was one of the earliest, classical civilization of the world. The Akkadians as well built their cities in the Tigris-Euphrates plain. Almost at the same time Egypt emerged as a unified nation. In the 29th century B.C. the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united, and a world power was born. Palestine witnessed the same urban development and population increases during this period. The cities of Jericho, Megiddo, Beth Shan, Ai, Shechem, gezer, Lachish, and others were all in existence at this time.

About 2000 B.C. the patriarch Abraham arrived in Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees and found the land controlled by Amorites and Canaanites. Abraham lived for a while in Egypt, where he was exposed to this great culture of the ancient world. He saw the great pyramids of Egypt and eventually returned to Palestine, where the wealth and influence of his family and his descendants expanded through the land.

For 430 years the descendants of Abraham were in Egyptian bondage, but God raised up a champion in Moses to lead them back to the Land of Promise - Exodus chapter 3 - God strengthened the new leader of Israel, Joshua - Josh. 1:1-9 - and he led the people in successful campaigns to win control of Palestine. - Josh. 11:16-23 - The period of the judges which followed indicated the continuous struggle which Israel had with the peoples of the land. - Judges 2:16-23 -

With the rise of the United Monarchy under king David - 2Sam. 8:1-18 - and king Solomon - 1Kings 9:15-11:3 - the Hebrew people extended their influence over more of Palestine than ever before. But about 920 B.C. Israel was divided into two segments, the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah. These were turbulent times in the history of the Jewish people. The Old Testament period came to an end with the fall of Samaria, the capital of Israel, in 721 B.C. The Assyrians took Israel into captivity and this nation ceased to exist. - 2Kings 17:-6 -

The influence of the Babylonians in the land of Palestine was swift and deadly. In 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, annihilated the Egyptian army, effectively controlling all of Palestine to the Egyptian border. In 597 B.C. Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians Jehoiachin the king was carried into captivity. Ten years later the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and nearly all the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine were carried away as captives to Babylon. - 2Kings 25:1-21 -

When Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. In 536 B.C. the first group of Jews returned to Jerusalem under Sheshbazzar. - Ezra 1:1-11 - As a Persian province, the region was governed by regional rulers under Persian authority.

During this period, the Greek Period 332 to 167 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Palestine. Upon his death the land fell to the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria. In 167 B.C. the Seleucid king Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) polluted the Jewish Temple by offering swine on the altar and putting up a statue of a pagan god.

The Maccabean Period 167 to 63 B.C. - Under the leadership of the aged priest Mattahias and his sons, the Jewish people revolted against the Seleucids and enjoyed nearly 100 years of independence.

In the Roman Period 63 B.C. to A.D. 33. Pompey conquered Palestine for Rome in 63 B.C. From 37 B.C. until 4 B.C. Herod the Great ruled the land as the Roman king under the Caesars. During the reign of this Herod, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. During Roman rule also, Christianity was born. In A.D. 70 Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman general Titus as he crushed a revolt by the Jewish people.

During the Pre-Modern Period A.D. 330 to 1917, Palestine was under the successive rules of the Byzantines (330-634) the Persians (607-29) the Arabs (634-1099) the Crusaders (1099-1263) the Mamelukes (1263-1516) and the Turks (1517-1917). The most important historical events during this period were Saladin's consolidation of his control of Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and most of Palestine in A.D. 1187 by his victory over the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in A.D. 1517.

In 1917, the Modern Period, the Balfour Declaration liberated Palestine from Turkish rule and placed the land under the control of Great Britain. On May 14, 1948, the modern State of Israel was established, and the British withdrew. Almost immediately the Jews and Arabs began their struggle for control of the land of Palestine. The borders of Palestine have been in a state of flux ever since.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

If the modern mind were asked what thing in the world it would like most to discover, it would probably answer: the missing link. Every now and then we hear of its discovery - but it is only a rumour. The most annoying feature of the missing link is that it is missing.

There is nothing wrong in seeking the missing link, but it does seem to be a rather absurd emphasis on the wrong thing. Why should we be so concerned about the link which binds us to the beast, and so little concerned about the link which binds us to God? Why should the deep secrets of man's being be sought in the slime of the earth, rather than in the rarefied atmosphere of the Kingdom of Heaven? Even though the link were found, it would only tell us the source of that lower part of our nature, which we have in common with beasts; but it would tell us nothing about the higher part which we have in common with God. A thing is to be judged not by that which is lowest in its makeup, but by that which is highest and noblest. So it is a far more profitable quest not to seek the link imprisoned in the dust which binds us to an animal, but rather the link suspended from Heaven, which binds us unto God.

A link or bond there must be between God and man. Human being/Man is sinful, God is holy; and there is nothing common between the two. Man is finite, God's is infinite; and there is nothing common between the two. Man is human, God is Divine; and there is nothing common between the two. By my own power I am not able to touch the ceiling of my room, but the link of a ladder would effect a union between the two. In a like manner, if there were ever to be a real communion between Heaven and earth, between God and man, there would have to be a link between the two. Those who seek the missing link between man and the animal say that the link must have something common to both. In a like manner, we who seek the link between God and man, say that the link must be both human and Divine.

Where seek that link? In a cave? Yes! The world is right, the Cave man, but it is seeking him in the wrong cave. If we are to find the prototype of man we must seek it not in the cave of Moulin, but in the cave of Bethlehem, and the name of that Cave Man is not Pithecanthropus but Christ; the light shinning in his eyes is not the light of a beast coming to the dawn of reason, but the light of God coming to the darkness of men; the animals in the cave are not wild beasts shrieking at one who came from them, but the ox and the ass bowing down to one who came to them; the companions in the cave are not wild creatures with lifted clubs as a sign of war, but Joseph and Mary with folded hands as a symbol of peace.

In a word, Christ is the link between the finite in His human nature, infinite in His Divine, and one in the unity of His Person; missing, because men have lost Him; Pontiff, because the Bridge-Builder between earth and Heaven, for such is the meaning of Pontiff; Mediator, because the High Ambassador of God amongst men. All these names are only other ways of saying that which we forget was the life of Christ above all things else - the life of a Priest.

What is an ordained Priest? An ordained Priest is an intermediary or link between God and man. His mission is to do two things: to bring God to man by the infusion of Divine Life; and to bring man to God by redeeming man from sin. This Our Lord Jesus Christ declared was the double purpose of His coming into this world: "I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly." - John 10:10 - and "The Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." - Matt. 20:28 -

The first purpose of the Priesthood of Christ is to bring God to man or Divine Life to human life. We have no right to say there is no higher life than ours, any more than the worm has a right to say there is no higher life than its life.The very fact that man is never satisfied with his mere earthly life is a proof of something beyond. Like a giant, imprisoned bird, his wings beat uneasily against the gilded cage of space and time. He has always sought to be more than he is: that is why he has ideals; that is why he has hopes; that is why the Roman emperors called themselves gods; that is why man, when he forgets the true God adores himself as god. But man can never acquire that higher life by his own power, anymore than he can change a stone into a serpent.

If he is to be possessed of a higher life, it must be given to him from above. If the animal is to live the higher life of man, it must surrender its lower existence and be reborn in man, who comes down to it to take it up as food. If man is to live the higher life of God, he must die to his lower life of the flesh and be reborn to the higher life of the Spirit who comes down to him with that Divine Life. This is the message Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the carnal minded Nicodemus who, hearing it, said: "How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he can't go into his mother's womb and be born a second time?" - John 3:4 - The Saviour replied that He meant not a fleshly birth, but that spiritual regeneration of water through which man was reborn as a child of God.

And yet how few there are who want to live it! The sweet complaint of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ at the beginning of His public life is true of our own day: "And you don't want to come to Me that you may have life... I've come in my Father's name, yet you don't receive Me." - John 5:40-43 - The result is that while the body of the modern man is fed, his soul is left to starve. Starve it will until the great inspiration of life ceases to be economics, or the science of earthly goods and begins to be theology or the science of the life of God.

The second function of the priestly life of Christ consisted not only in linking the life of God to man, but also in reconciling man to God by redeeming him from sin. Many of the emasculated lives of Christ today picture Him merely a mortal reformer, a teacher of humanitarian ethics, or a sentimental lover of birds and beasts. Our Lord Jesus Christ is primarily none of these things. He is the first and foremost a Redeemer. In that He breaks with all reformers and preachers whoever lived. Take any of them: Buddha, Plato, Confucius, Socrates, Lao-tsze - why did they come into this world? Each and everyone of them came into this world to live. But why did Our Lord Jesus Christ come into this world? He came into this world to die. It was the supreme business which engaged Him from the day of His birth: "The Son of Man" He said of Himself, "came to seek out and save what was lost." - Luke 19:10 -

Socrates, on the contrary, came into the world to teach. Hence the greatest tragedy of his life was the cup of hemlock juice which interrupted his teaching. Death was his greatest stumbling block, the one supreme obstacle and annoyance which spoiled his conversations about truth. But the Cross was not to Christ what the hemlock juice was to Socrates. It was not the interruption of His life - it was the very beginning. His teaching was not stopped by His death that proved His teaching, true.

Buddha came into the world to preach the philosophy of renunciation. He was a philosopher. His supreme business in life was solely and uniquely to explain defeat - in a certain sense of fatalism. Death spoiled his preachment about renunciation. But death to Christ was not what death was to Buddha. Both preached renunciation. Death was the end of Buddha's preaching about renunciation. Death to Christ was the renunciation. Death was the end of Buddha. But for Christ it was only the beginning.

Our Lord Jesus Christ did not walk about the earth forever telling people platitudes about truth. He was not just explaining truth, defeat resignation, sacrifice. Everyone else did this. The goal He was seeking was death. From the beginning to the end, only one vision was before His eyes - He was going to die. Not die because He could not help it, but die because He willed it. Death was not an incident in His career; it was not an accident in His plan - it was the one business He had to do. All during His redeeming life He looked forward to His redemptive death. He anticipated His blood shedding on Calvary by His circumcision at eight days of age.

At the beginning of His public ministry His presence inspired John to cry out to his disciples at the Jordan: "Here is the Lamb of God." - John 1:36 - He answered to the confession of His Divinity by Peter at Caesarea-Philippi that He "would have to suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be put to death and rise after three days" - Mark 8:31 - the leaden weighted days caused Him to cry out in beautiful impatience: "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how apprehensive I am until it is accomplished!" - Luke 12:50 - To the member of the Shahedrin who would seek a sign, He foretold His death on the Cross. He answered: :And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him will not die but will have eternal life." - John 3:14 - To the Pharisees, who were as sheep without a shepherd, He spoke: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep... And I lay down My life for My sheep... No one takes it from Me; on the contrary, I lay it down on My own. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again. This is the command I've received from My Father." - John 10:11, 15, 18 -

To all men of all times who would forget that He came as Our Redeemer and Saviour, He speaks the most tender words that were ever caught up on this sinful earth: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not die but have eternal life. For God didn't send His Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through Him." - John 3:16-17 -

But why did Death play such an important role in the Divine plan? How did Death bring man to God? Death brought man to God by blotting out the debt of sin. Man was a sinner. He could no more restore himself to the favor of God than a man who owes a million dollars can pay it with a cent, or a soldier who is mortally wounded can bind up his own wounds. Our Lord Jesus Christ willed to pay the debt of man by suffering for man, for death voluntarily undergone is the supreme proof of love. "Greater love than this no man has - to lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13 - How can satisfaction be made, save by One whose intrinsic worth might tender some worthy offering from a boundless love to a perfect justice? How was a real reconciliation between God and man possible, unless the Reconciler had the capacity for mediating, unless He could represent God to man no less truly than man to God.

In other words He had to be a priest - a link between God and man because true God and true man. Being a man He could freely suffer and freely die but being God His suffering would have a infinite value. Sacrifice from the beginning of time has been through the shedding of blood, for sin in a certain sense is in the blood. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, as man, resolved to pour it out, even to the last drop, to express at one and the same time God's hatred of sin and God's love of man. Only the righteous can adequately pay for injustice; only the perfect can discount the crimes of the brute; only the rich can cancel the debts of great debtors; only a God in His infinite Goodness can expiate the sins which man has committed against Him. Only Christ can redeem. But when He takes the Cross, the wants of the body are forgotten in the wants of love.

Why the darkened heavens? Why the rent veil in the Temple? Why the shattered rocks? Why do the dead come from their graves and walk the city of the living? Why did the sun hide its face? If Nature could have been given a tongue she would have answered that her Lord was crucified. But her convulsive homage before the Cross of Christ is as nothing when compared to a moral miracle of which the only sensible symptoms are a promise of pardon to a repentant sinner at His right. Not when Christ raised the dead, not when He rebuked the seas and the winds, not when He shone in His glory on Tabor, but when He was crucified, pierced with nails, insulted, spit upon, reproached, and reviled, did He show His power to change the heart of a thief, draw to Himself a soul that once was harder than the rocks, and in  an embrace of love promise: "Amen, I say to you, this day you'll be with Me in Paradise." - Luke 23:43 - That promise was the revelation of the depth and height of His Redemptive Power - a flash of the Eternal Lightning of the Godhead, illumining the true meaning of His humiliation as man.

He who is upright like a Priest and prostrate as a Victim is Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The day the Holy Spirit poured out the ointment of Divinity on His human nature in the sanctuary of the Virgin Womb was the day of His ordination; His teaching in Galilee and Judaea was His seminary - for what is a seminary but a place where seed is sown; the surrender of His Will in constant obedience to the Will of His Father was the offertory; the mount of Calvary where He performed the last and solemn act of His priesthood was the Cathedral; the cross suspended between Heaven and earth, in reconciliation of both, was His altar; the crimson that poured out from the precious wardrobe of His side was the royal vestment of sacrifice; the sun turning to red at the horrors it saw was the sanctuary lamp; the Body which He gave as Bread was the host; the blood which He poured out like water was the priceless wine; the separation of both by the crucifixion and the act of His will was the consecration; and His last words commending His soul to the hands of the heavenly Father was the Ite Missa est.

Would that our civilization would cease turning over the dust of the primeval jungles in search of the link that ties us to the beast, and begin to kneel before the uplifted cross on the rocks of Calvary in search of the link that binds us to God; would that the world ceased regarding Our Lord Jesus Christ only as a teacher and began to adore Him as a Priest, who brings God to man by the gift of Divine Life, and man to God by the gift of Divine pardon; would that men stopped building their bridges across the chasm of time to bind themselves to earth and began their bridges across the abyss of eternity to bind themselves to God. Then the crucifix would once more come unto its own. Then some broken heart would kneel before the crucifix even for a minute to learn the sweetest of all sweet messages - that regardless of how sinful he is, he must be worth something, since the God-Man died on a cross for love of him.

BY  ARCHBISHOP  FULTON  J.  SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

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If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

32. Of Abraham's obedience and faith, which were proved by the offering up of his son in sacrifice; and of Sarah's death

Among other things, of which it would take too long time to mention the whole, Abraham was tempted about the offering up of his well beloved son Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, so make it known to the world, not to God. Now every temptation is not blame worthy; it may even be praise worthy because it furnishes probation. And for the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trail of its powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation; when, if it has acknowledged the gift of God, it is pious, and is consolidated by steadfast grace and not puffed up by vain boasting.

Of course, Abraham could never believe that God delighted in human sacrifices; yet when the divine commandment thundered, it was to obeyed, not disputed. Yet Abraham is worthy of praise because he all along believed that his son, on being offered up, would rise again; for God had said to him, when he was unwilling to fulfill his wife's pleasure by casting out the bond maid and her son, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." No doubt He then goes on to say, "And as for the son of this bond woman, I will make him a great nation because he is thy seed." - Gen. 21:12-13 - How then it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called" when God calls Ismael also his seed? The apostle, in explaining this, says, "In Isaac thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." - Rom 9:7-8 -

In order, then, that the children of the promise may be the seed of Abraham, they are called in Isaac, that is, are gathered together in Christ by the call of grace. Therefore the father, holding fast from the first the promise which behoved to be fulfilled through this son whom God had ordered him to slay, did not doubt that he whom he once thought it hopeless he should ever receive would be restored to him when he had offered him up. It is in this way the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews is also to be understood and explained. "By faith" he says, "Abraham overcame, when tempted about Isaac: and he who had received the promise offered up his only son, to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: thinking that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;" therefore he has added,: from whence also he received him in a similitude." - Heb. 11:17-19 -

In whose similitude but His of whom the apostle says, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all?" - Rom. 8:32 - And on this account Isaac also himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood on which he was to be offered up, just as the Lord Himself carried His own cross. Finally, since Issac was not to be slain, after his father was forbidden to smite him, who was that ram by the offering of which that sacrifice was completed with typical blood? For when Abraham saw him, he was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews?

But let us rather hear the divine words spoken through the angel. For the Sacred Scripture says, "And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife, that he might slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him from heaven, and said, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou feared God and hast not spared thy beloved son for my sake." - Gen. 22:10-12 - It is said, "Now I know" that is, Now I have made to be known; for God was not previously ignorant of this. Then, having offered up that ram instead of Isaac his son, "Abraham " as we read, "called the name of that place The Lord seeth: as they say say this day, In the mount the Lord hath appeared." - Gen. 22:14 -

And it is said, "Now I know" for Now I have made to be known, so here, "The Lord sees" for The Lord hath appeared, that is, made Himself to be seen. "And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham from heaven the second time, saying, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy beloved son for my sake; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of the adversaries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." - Gen. 22:15-18 - In this manner is that promise concerning the calling of the nations in the seed of Abraham confirmed even by the oath of God, after that burnt-offering which typified Christ. For He had often promised, but never sworn. And what is the oath of God, the true and faithful, but a confirmation of the promise, and a certain reproof to the unbelieving?

After these things Sarah died, in the 127th year of her life, and the 137th of her husband; for he was ten years older than she, as he himself says, when a son is promised to him by her: "Shall a son be born to me that am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" - Gen. 17:17 - Then Abraham bought a field, in which he buried his wife. And then, according to apostle Stephen's account, he was settled in that land, entering then on actual possession of it - that is, after the death of his father, who is inferred to have died two years before.

33. Of Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, whom Isaac took to wife

Isaac married Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, his father's brother, when he was forty years old, that is, in the 140th year of his father's life, three years after his mother's death. Now when a servant was sent to Mesopotamia by his father to fetch her, and when Abraham said to that servant, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heavens, and the Lord of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites" - Gen. 24:2-3 - what else was pointed out by this, but the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth, was to come in the flesh which to be derived from that thigh? Are these small tokens of the foretold truth which we see fulfilled in Christ?

34. What is meant by Abraham's marrying Keturah after Sarah's death

What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death? Far be it from us to suspect him of incontinence, especially when he had reached such an age and such sanctity of faith. Or was he still seeking to beget children, though he held fast, with most approved faith, the promised of God that his children should be multiplied out of Isaac as the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth? And yet, if Hagar and Ismael, as the apostle teaches us, signified the carnal people of the old covenant, why may not Keturah and her sons also signify the carnal people who think they belong to the new covenant? For both are called both the wives and the concubines of Abraham; but Sarah is never called a concubine (but only a wife) For when Hagar is given to Abraham, it is written, "And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife." Gen. 16:3 -

And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah's departure, we read, "Then again Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah." - Gen. 25;1 - Lo, both are called wives, yet both are found to have been concubines; for the Sacred Scripture afterward says, "And Abraham gave his whole estate unto Isaac his son. But unto the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac (while he yet lived) eastward, unto the east country." - Gen. 25:5-6 - Therefore the sons of the concubines, that is, the heretics and the carnal Jews, have some gifts, but do not attain the promised kingdom; "For they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." - Rom. 9:7-8 - For I do not see why Keturah, who was married after the wife's death, should be called a concubine, except on account of this mystery. But if anyone is unwilling to put such meanings on these things, he need not calumniate Abraham. For what if even this was provided against the heretics who were to be the opponents of second marriages, so that it might be shown that is was no sin in the case of the father of many nations himself, when, after his wife's death, he married again? And Abraham died when he was 175 years old, so that he left his son Isaac seventy-five years old, having begotten him when 100 years old.

35. What was indicated by the divine answer about the twins still shut up in the womb of Rebecca their mother

Let us now see how the times of the city of God run on from this point among Abraham's descendants. In the time from the first year of Isaac's life to the seventieth, when his sons were born, the only memorable thing is, that when he prayed God that his wife, who was barren, might bear, and the Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived, the twins leapt while still enclosed in her womb. And when she was troubled by this struggle, and inquired of the Lord, she received this answer: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." - Ge. 25:23 - The Apostle Paul would have us understand this as a great instance of grace - Rom. 9:10-13 - for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, the younger is chosen without any good desert, and the elder is rejected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both were alike, and as regards actual sin, neither had any. But the plan of the work on hand does not permit me to speak more fully of this matter now, and I have said much about it in other works. Only that saying:

The elder shall serve the younger" is understood by our writers, almost without exception, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, shall serve the younger people, the Christians. And truly, although this might seem to be fulfilled in the Idumean nation, which was born of the elder (who had two names being called both Esau and Edom, whence the name Idu-means) because it was afterwards to be overcome by the people which sprang from the younger, that is, by the Israelites, and was to become subject to them; yet it is more suitable to believe that, when it was said, "The one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger" that prophecy meant some greater thing; and what is that except what is evidently fulfilled in the Jews and Christians?

36. Of the oracle and blessing which Isaac received, just as his father did, being beloved for his sake

Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often received. Of this oracle it is thus written: "And there was a famine over the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. And abide in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all this land; and I will establish mine oath, which I sware unto Abraham thy father: and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will gave unto thy seed all this land: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, commandments, my righteousness, and my laws." - Gen. 26:1-5 -

This patriarch neither had another wife, nor any concubine, but was content with the twin children begotten by one act of generation. He also was afraid, when he lived among strangers, of being brought into danger owing to the beauty of his wife, and did like his father in calling her his sister, and not telling that she was his wife; for she was his near blood-relation by the father's and mother's side. She also remained untouched by the strangers, when it was known she was his wife. yet we ought not to prefer him to his father because he knew no woman besides his one wife. For beyond doubt the merits of his father's faith and obedience were greater, inasmuch as God says it is for his sake He does Isaac good: "In thy seed" He says, "shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." And again in another oracle He says, "I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake." - Gen. 26:24 -

So that we must understand how chastely Abraham acted, because imprudent men, who seek some support for their own wickedness in the Holy Scriptures, think he acted through lust. We may also learn this, not to compare men by single good things, but to consider everything in each; for it may happen that one man has something in his life and character in which he excels another, and it may be far more excellent than that in which the other excels him. And thus, according to sound and true judgment, while continence is preferable to marriage, yet a believing married man is better than a continent unbeliever; for the unbeliever is not only less praise worthy, but is even highly detestable. We must conclude, then, that both are good; yet so as to hold that the married man who is most faithful and most obedient is certainly better than the continent man whose faith and obedience are less. But if equal in other things, who would hesitate to prefer the continent man to the married?

37. Of the things mystically prefigured in Esau and Jacob

Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, grew up together. The primacy of the elder was transferred to the younger by a bargain and agreement between them, when the elder immoderately lusted after the lentiles the younger had prepared for food, and for that price sold his birthright to him, confirming it with an oath. We learn from this that a person is to be blamed, not for the kind of food he eats, but for immoderate greed. Isaac grew old, and old age deprived him of his eyesight. He wished to bless the elder son, and instead of the elder, who was hairy, unwittingly blessed the younger, who put himself under his father's hands, having covered himself kid-skins, as if bearing the sins of others. Lest we should think this guile of Jacob's was fraudulent guile, instead of seeking in it the mystery of a great thing, the Sacred Scripture has predicted in the words just before, "Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a simple man, dwelling at home." - Gen. 25:27 -

Some of our writers have interpreted this, "without guile" But whether the Greek word means "without guile" or "simple" or rather "without feigning" in the receiving of that blessing what is the guile of the man without guile? What is the guile of the simple, what the fiction of the man who does not lie, but a profound mystery of the truth? But what is the blessing itself? "See" he says, "the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fruitfulness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: let nations serve thee, and princes adore thee: and be lord of thy brethren, and let thy father's sons adore thee: cursed be he that curseth thee, and bless be he that blesseth thee." - Gen. 27: 27-29 - The blessing of Jacob is therefore a proclamation of Christ to all nations. It is this which has come to pass, and is now being fulfilled. Isaac is the law and the prophecy: even by the mouth of the Jew Christ is blessed by prophecy as by one who knows not, because it is itself not understood.

The world like a field with the odour of Christ's name: His is the blessing of the dew of heaven, that is, of the showers of divine words; and of the fruitfulness of the earth, that is, of the gathering together of the peoples: His is the plenty of corn and wine, that is, the multitude that gathers bread and wine in the sacrament of His body and blood. Him the nations serve, Him princes adore. He is the Lord of His brethren because His people rules over the Jews. Him His Father's sons adore, that is, the son of Abraham according to the flesh. He is cursed that curseth Him, and he that blessth Him is blessed. Christ, I say, who is ours is blessed, that is, truly spoken of out of the mouths of the Jews, when, although erring, they yet sing the law and the prophets, and think that are blessing another for whom they erringly hope.

So, when the elder son claims the promised blessing, Isaac is greatly afraid, and wonders when he knows that he has blessed one instead of the other, and demands who he is; yet he does not complain that he has been deceived, yea, when the great mystery is revealed to him, in his secret heart he at once eschews angers, and confirms the blessing. "Who then" he says, "hath hunted me a venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him, and shall be blessed?" - Gen. 27:33 - Who would not rather have expected the curse of an angry man here, if these things had been done in an earthly manner, and not by inspiration from above? Of things done, yet done prophetically; on the earth, yet celestially; by men, yet divinely! If everything that is fertile of so great mysteries should be examined carefully, many volumes would be filled; but the moderate compass fixed for this work compels us to hasten to other things.

38. Of Jacob's mission to Mesopotamia to get a wife, and of the vision which he saw in a dream by the way, and of his getting four women when he sought one wife

Jacob was sent by his parents to Mesopotamia that he might take a wife there. These were his father's words on sending him: "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. Arise, fly to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. And may God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply thee; and thou shalt be an assembly of peoples; and give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest, which God gave unto Abraham." - Ge. 28:1-4 - Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is separated from Isaac's other seed which came through Esau. For when it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called" - Gen. 21:12 - by this seed is meant solely the city of God; so that from it is separated Abraham's other seed, which was in the son of the bond woman, and which was to be in the sons of Keturah. But until now it had been uncertain regarding Isaac's twin sons whether that blessing belonged to both or only to one of them; and if to one, which of them it was. This is now declared when Jacob is prophetically blessed by his father, and it is said to him, "And thou shalt be an assembly of peoples, and God give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father."

When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an oracle, of which it is thus written: "And Jacob went out from the well of the oath [ Beer-Sheba ] and went to Haran. And he came to a place, and put them at his head, and slept in that place, and dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascended and descended by it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; fear not: the land whereon thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and it shall be spread abroad to the sea, and to Africa, and to the north, and to the east: and all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. And behold, I am with thee, to keep thee in all thy way wherever thou goes, and I will bring thee back into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done all which I have spoken to thee of.

And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone that he had put under his head there, and set it up for a memorial, and poured oil upon the top of it. And Jacob called the name of that place the house of God." - Gen. 28:10-19 - This is prophetic. For Jacob did not pour oil on the stone in an idolatrous way, as if making it a god; neither did he adore that stone, or sacrifice to it. But  since the name of Christ comes from the chrism or anointing, something pertaining to the great mystery was certainly represented in this. And the Saviour Himself is understood to bring this latter to remembrance in the gospel, when He says to Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" - John 1:47,51 - because Israel who saw this vision is no other than Jacob. And in the same place He says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence. And the divine Scripture points out how, without unlawfully desiring any of them, he came to have four women, of whom he begat twelve sons and one daughter; for he had come to take only one. But when one was falsely given him in place of the other, he did not send her away after unwittingly using her in the night, lest he should seem to have put her to shame; but as at that time, in order to multiply posterity, no law forbade a plurality of wives, he took her also to whom alone he had promised marriage. As she was barren, she gave her handmaid to her husband that she might have children by her; and her elder sister did the same thing in imitation of her, although she had borne, because she desired to multiply progeny. We did not read that Jacob sought any but one, or that he used many, except for the purpose of begetting offspring, saving conjugal rights; and he would not have done this, had not his wives, who had legitimate power over their own husband's body, urged him to do it. So he begat twelve sons and one daughter by four women. Then he entered into Egypt by his son Joseph, who was sold by his brethren for envy, and carried there, and who was there exalted.

39. The reason why Jacob was also called Israel

As I said a little ago, Jacob was also called Israel, the name which was most prevalent among the people descended from him. Now this name was given by the angel who wrestled with him on the way back from Mesopotamia, and who was most evidently a type of Christ. Foe when Jacob overcame him, doubtless with his own consent, that the mystery might be represented, it signified Christ's passion, in which the Jews are seen overcoming Him. And yet he besought a blessing from the very angel he had overcome; and so the imposition of this name was the blessing. For Israel means seeing God - Gen. 32:8 - Israel = 'a prince of God' ver. 30 : Peniel = 'the face of God.' - which will at last be the reward of all the saints. The angel also touched him on the breadth of the thigh when he was overcoming him, and in that way made him lame. So that Jacob was at one and the same time blessed and lame: blessed in those among that people who believed in Christ, and lame in the unbelieving. For the breath of the tight is the multitude of the family. For there are many of that race of whom it was prophetically said  beforehand, "And they have halted in their paths." - Ps. 18:45 -

40. How it is said that Jacob went into Egypt with seventy-five souls, when most of those who are mentioned were born at a later period

Seventy-five men reported to have entered Egypt along with Jacob, counting him with his children. In this number only two women are mentioned, one a daughter, the other a gran-daughter. But when the thing is carefully considered, it does not appear that Jacob's offspring was so numerous on the day or year when he entered Egypt. There are also included among them the great-grandchildren of Joseph, who could not possibly be born already. For Jacob was then 130 years old and his son Joseph thirty-nine; and as it is plain that he took a wife when he was thirty or more, how could he in nine years have great-grandchildren by the children whom he had by that wife?

Now, since Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, could not even have children, for Jacob found them boys under nine years old when he entered Egypt, in what way are not only their sons but their grandsons reckoned among those seventy-five who then entered Egypt with Jacob? For there is reckoned there Machir the son of Manasseh, grandson of Joseph, and Machir's son, that is, Gilead, grandson of Manasseh, great grandson of Joseph; there, too, is he whom Ephraim, Joseph's other son, begot, that is, Shuthelah, grandson of Joseph, and Shuthelah's son Ezer, grandson of Ephraim, and great grandson of Joseph, who could not possibly be in existence when Jacob came into Egypt, and there found their grandsons, the sons of Joseph, their grandsires, still boys under nine years of age. - St. Augustine here follows the Septuagint, Gen. 46:20-27 -

But doubtless, when the Sacred Scripture mentions Jacob's entrance into Egypt with seventy-five souls, it does not mean one day, or one year, but that whole time as long as Joseph lived, who was the cause of his entrance. For the same Sacred Scripture speaks thus of Joseph: "And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his brethren, and all his father's house: and Joseph lived 110 years, and saw Ephraim's children of the third generation." That is, his great grandson, the third from Ephraim; for the third generation means son, grandson, great grandson. Then it is added, "The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born upon Joseph's knees." And this is that grandson of Manasseh, and great grandson of Joseph. But the plural number is employed according to scriptural usage; for the one daughter of Jacob is spoken of as daughters, just as in the usage of the Latin tongue liberi is used in the plural for children even when there is only one. Now, Joseph's own happiness is proclaimed, because he could see his great grandchildren, it is by no means to be thought they already existed in the thirty-ninth year of their great grandsire Joseph, when his father Jacob came to him in Egypt. But those who diligently look into these things will the less easily be mistaken because it is written, "These are the names of the sons of Israel who entered into Egypt along with Jacob their father." - Gen. 46:8 -

For this means that the seventy-five are reckoned along with him, not that they were all with him when he entered Egypt; for, as I have said, the whole period during which Joseph, who occasioned his entrance, lived, is held to be the time of that entrance.

41. Of the blessing which Jacob promised in Judah his son

If, on account of the Christian people in whom the city of God sojourns on the earth, we look for the flesh of Christ in the seed of Abraham, setting aside the sons of the concubines, we have Isaac; if in the seed of Isaac, setting aside Esau, who is also Edom, we have Jacob, who also is Israel; if in the seed of Israel himself, setting aside the rest, we have Judah, because Christ sprang of the tribe of Judah. Let us hear, then, how Israel, when dying in Egypt, in blessing his sons, prophetically blessed Judah. He says: "Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hands shall be on the back of thine enemies; thy father's children shall adore thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the sprouting, my son, thou art gone up: lying down, thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall awake him?

A prince shall not be lacking out of Judah, and a leader from his thighs, until the things come that are laid up for him; and He shall be the expectation of the nations. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's foal to the choice vine: he shall wash his robe in wine, and his clothes in the blood of the grape: his eyes are red with wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk." - Gen. 49:8-12 - I have expounded these words in disputing against Faustus the Manichean; and I think it is enough to make the truth of this prophecy shine, to remark that the death of Christ is predicted by the word about his lying down, and not the necessity, but the voluntarily character of His death, in the title of lion.

That power he Himself proclaims in the gospel, saying, "I have the power of laying down my life, and I have the power of taking it again. No man taketh it from me; but I lay it down of myself, and take it again." - John 10:18 - So the lion roared, so He fulfilled what He said. For to this power what is added about the resurrection refers, "Who shall awake him?" This means that no man but Himself has raised Him, who also said of His own body, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." - John 2:19 - And the very nature of His death, that is, the height of the cross, is understood by the single word, "Thou art gone up." The evangelist explains what is added, "Lying down, thou hast slept" when he says, "He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." - John 19:30 -

Or at least His burial is to be understood, in which He lay down sleeping, and whence no man raised Him, as the prophets did some, and as He Himself did others; but He Himself rose up as if from sleep. As for His robe which He washes in wine, that is, cleanses sin in His own blood, of which blood those who are baptized know the mystery, so that he adds, "And his clothes in the blood of the grape" what is it but the Church? "And his eyes are red with wine"[these are] His spiritual people drunken with His cup, of which the psalm sings, "And thy cup that makes drunken, how excellent it is!" "And his teeth are whiter than milk." - Gen. 49:12 - that is, the nutritive words which according to the apostle, the babes drink, being as yet unfit for solid food. - 1Pet. 2:2; 1Cor. 3:2 - And it is He in whom the promises of Judah were laid up. so that until they come, princes, that is, kings of Israel, shall never be lacking out of Judah. "And He is the expectation of the nations." This is too plain to need exposition.

42. Of the sons of Joseph, whom Jacob blessed, prophetically changing his hands

Now, as Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, furnished a type of the two people, the Jews and the Christians (although as pertains to carnal descent it was not the Jews but Idumeans who came of the seed of Esau, nor the Christian nations but rather the Jews who came of Jacob's; for the type holds only as regards the saying, "The elder shall serve the younger") - Gen, 25:23 - so the same thing happened in Joseph's two sons; for the elder was a type of the Jews, and the younger of the Christians. For when Jacob was blessing them, and laid his right hand on the younger, who was at his left hand on the elder, who was at his right, this seemed wrong to their father, and the admonished his father by trying to correct his mistake and show him which was the elder. But he would not change his hands, but said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations."- Gen. 48:19 -

And these two promises show the same thing. For that one is to become "a people" this one "a multitude of nations." And what can be more evident than that these two promises comprehend the people of Israel, and the whole world of Abraham's seed, the one according to the flesh, the other according to faith?

43. Of the times of Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, of the judges, and thereafter of the kings, of whom Saul was the first, but David is to be regarded as the chief, both by the oath and by merit

Jacob being dead, and Joseph also, during the remaining 144 years until they went out of the land of Egypt that nation increased to an incredible degree, even although wasted by so great persecutions, that at one time the male children were murdered at their birth, because the wondering Egyptians were terrified at the too great increase of that people. Then Moses, being stealthily kept from the murderers of the infants, was brought to the royal house, God preparing to do great things by him, and was nursed and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh (that was the name of all kings of Egypt) and became so great a man that he - yea, rather God, who had promised this to Abraham, by him - drew the nation, so wonderfully multiplied, out of the yoke of hardest and most grievous servitude it had borne there.

At first, indeed, he fled thence (we are told he fled into the land of Midian) because , in defending an Israelite, he had slain an Egyptian and was afraid. Afterward, being divinely commissioned in the power of the Spirit of God, he overcome the magi of Pharaoh who resisted him. Then, when the Egyptians would not let God's people go, ten memorable plagues were brought by Him upon them - the water turned into blood, the frogs and lice, the flies, the death of the cattle, the boils, the hail, the locusts, the darkness, the death of the first-born. At last, the Egyptians were destroyed in the Red Sea while pursuing the Israelites, whom they had let go when at length they were broken by so many great plagues. The divided sea made a way for the Israelites who were departing, but, returning on itself, it overwhelmed their pursuers with its waves.

Then for forty years the people of God went through the desert, under the leadership of Moses, when the tabernacle of testimony was dedicated, in which God was worshipped by sacrifices prophetic of things to come, and that was after the law had been very terribly given in the mount, for its divinity was most plainly attested by wonderful signs and voices. This took place soon after the exodus from Egypt, when the people had entered the desert, on the fiftieth day after the Passover was celebrated by the offering up of a lamb, which is so completely a type of Christ, foretelling that through His sacrificial passion He should go from this world to the Father (for paschal in the Hebrew tongue means transit) that when the new covenant was revealed, after Christ our Passover was offered up, the Holy Spirit came from heaven on the fiftieth day; and He is called in the gospel the Finger of God, because He recalls to our remembrance the things done before by way of types, and because the tables of that law are said to have been written by the finger of God.

On the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun ruled the people and led them into the land of promise, and divided it among them. By these two wonderful leaders wars were also carried on most prosperously and wonderfully, God calling to witness that they had got these victories nit so much on account of the merit of the Hebrew people as on account of the sins of the nations they subdued. After these leaders there were judges, when the people were settled in the land of promise, so that, in the meantime, the first promise made to Abraham began to be fulfilled about the one nation, that is, the Hebrew, and about the land of Canaan; but not as yet the promise about all nations, and the whole wide world, for that was to be fulfilled, not by the observances of the old law, but by the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, and by the faith of the gospel. And it was to prefigure this that it was not Moses, who received the law for the people on Mount Sinai, that led the people into the land of promise, but Joshua, whose name also was changed at God's command, so that he was called Jesus. But in the times of the judges prosperity alternated with adversity in war, according as the sins of the people and the mercy of God were displayed.

We come next to the times of the kings. The first two reigned was Saul; and when he was rejected and laid low in battle and his offspring rejected so that no kings should arise out of it, David succeeded to the kingdom, whose son Jesus Christ is chiefly called. He was made a kind of starting point and beginning of the advanced youth of God's people, who had passed a kind of age of puberty from Abraham to this David. And it is not in vain that the evangelist Matthew records the generations in such a way as to sum up this first period from Abraham to David in fourteen generations. For from the age of puberty man begins to be capable of generation; therefore he starts the list of generations from Abraham, who also was made the father of many nations when he got his name changed. So that previously this family of God's people was in its childhood, from Noah to Abraham; and for that reason the first language was then learned, that is, the Hebrew.

For man begins to speak in childhood, the age succeeding infancy, which is so termed because then he cannot speak. And that first age is quite drowned in oblivion, just as the first age of the human race was blotted out by the flood; for who is there that can remember his infancy? Wherefore in this progress of the city of God, as the previous book contained that first age, so this one ought to contain the second and third ages, in which third age, as was shown by the heifer of three years old, the she-goat of three years old, and the ram of three years old, the yoke of the law was imposed, and there appeared abundance of sins, and the beginning of the earthly kingdom arose, in which the turtle-dove and pigeon represented the mystery.

BY  SAINT  AUGUSTINE  OF  HIPPO - ( November 13, 354 to August 28, 430 )

                                                                     Page 6
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

25. Of Sarah's handmaid, Hagar, whom she herself wished to be Abraham's concubine

And here follow the times of Abraham's sons, the one by Hagar the bond maid, the other by Sarah the free woman. As regards this transaction, Abraham is in no way to be branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he used her for the begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of lust; and not to insult, but rather to obey his wife, who supposed it would be a solace of her barrenness if she could make use of the fruitful womb of her handmaid to supply the defect of her own nature, and by that law of which the apostle says, "Likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife" - 1Cor. 7:4 - could, as a wife, make use of him for childbearing by another, when she could not do so in her own person. Here there is no wanton lust, no filthy lewdness.

The handmaid is delivered to the husband by the wife for the sake of progeny, and is received by the husband for the sake of progeny, each seeking, not guilty excess, but natural fruit. And when the pregnant bond woman despised her barren mistress, and Sarah, with womanly jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her husband, even then Abraham showed that he was not a slavish lover, but a free begetter of children, and that in using Hagar he had guarded the chastity of Sarah his wife, and had gratified her will and not own - had received her without seeking, had gone in to her without being attached, had impregnated without loving her - for he says, "Behold, thy maid is in thy hands: do to her as it pleaseth thee" - Gen. 16:6 - a man able to use women as a man should - his wife temperately, his handmaid compliantly, neither intemperately!

26. Of God's attestation to Abraham, by which He assures him, when now old, of a son by the barren Sarah, and appoints him the father of the nations, and seals his faith in the promise by the sacrament of circumcision

After these things Ishmael was born of Hagar; and Abraham might think that in him was fulfilled what God had promised him, saying, when he wished to adopt his home-born servant, "This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth of thee, he shall be thine heir."- Gen. 15:4 - Therefore, lest he should think that what was promised was fulfilled in the handmaid's son, "when Abram was ninety years old and nine, God appeared to him, and said unto him, I am God; be well-pleasing in my sight, and be without complaint, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will fill thee exceedingly." - Gen. 17:1-22 -

Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations in Isaac, that is, in the son of the promise, by which grace is signified, and not nature; for the son is promised from an old man and a barren old woman. For although God effects even the natural course of procreation, yet where the agency of God is manifest, through the decay or failure of nature, grace is more plainly discerned. And because this was to be brought about, not by generation, but by regeneration, circumcision was enjoined now, when a son was promised of Sarah. And by ordering all, not only sons, but also home-born and purchased servants to be circumcised, he testifies that this grace pertains to all. For what else does circumcision signify than a nature renewed on the putting off of the old? And what else does the eight day mean than Christ, who rose again when the week was completed, that is, after the Sabbath?

The very names of the parents are changed: all things proclaim newness, and the new covenant is shadowed forth in the old. For what does the term old covenant imply but the concealing of the new? And what does the term new covenant imply the revealing of the old? The laughter of Abraham is the exultation of one who rejoices, not the scornful laughter of one who mistrusts. And those words of his in his heart, "Shall a son be born to me that am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" are not the words of doubt, but of wonder. And when it is said, "And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land in which thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession" if it troubles anyone whether this is to be held as fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment may still be looked for, since no kind of earthly possession can be everlasting for any nation whatever, let him know that the word translated everlasting, an age. But the Latin have not ventured to translate this by secular, lest they should change the meaning into something widely different. For many things are called secular which so happen in this world as to pass away even in a short time; but what is the Greek term, either has no end, or lasts to the very end of the world.

27. Of the male, who was to lose his soul if he was not circumcised on the eight day, because he had broken God's covenant

When it is said, "The male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he hath broken my covenant"- Gen. 17:14 - some may be troubled how that ought to be understood, since it can be no fault of the infant whose life it is said must perish; nor has the covenant of God been broken by him, but by his parents, who have not taken care to circumcise him. But even the infants, not personally in their own life, but according to the common origin of the human race, have all broken God's covenant in that one in whom all have sinned. - Rom. 5:12,19 -

Now there are many things called God's covenants besides those two great ones, the old and the new, which any one who pleases may read and know. For the first covenant, which was made with the first man, is just this: "In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die."- Gen. 2:17 - Whence it is written in the book called Ecclesiasticus, "All flesh waxeth old as doth a garment. For the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death." - Eccl. 15:17 - Now, as the law was more plainly given after-ward, and the apostle says, "Where no law is, there is no prevarication" - Rom. 4:15 - on what supposition is what is said in the psalm true, "I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators" - Ps. 119 - except that all who are held liable for any sin are accursed of dealing deceitfully (prevaricating) with some law?

If on this account, then, even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess they have need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it must be acknowledged that in the same sense in which they are sinners they are also prevaricators of that law which was given in Paradise. according to the truth of both scriptures, "I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators" and "Where no law is, there is no prevarication." And thus, because circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant, on account of the original sin by which God's covenant was first broken, was not undeservedly to lose his generation unless delivered by regeneration, these divine words are to be understood as if it had been said, Whoever is not born again, that souls shall perish from his people, because he hath broken my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all others.

For had He said, Because he hath broken this my covenant, He would have compelled us to understand by it only this of circumcision; but since He has not expressly said what covenant the infant has broken, we are free to understand Him as speaking of that covenant of which the breach can be ascribed to an infant. Yet if anyone contends that it is said of nothing else than circumcision, that in it the infant has broken the covenant of God because he is not circumcised, he must seek some method of explanation by which it may be understood without absurdity (such as this) that he has broken the covenant, because it has been broken in him although not by him. Yet in this case also it is to be observed that the soul of the infant, being guilty of no sin of neglect against itself, would perish unjustly, unless original sin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.

28. Of the change of name in Abraham and Sarah, who received the gift of fecundity when they were incapable of regeneration owing to the barrenness of one, and the old age of both

Now when a promise so great and clear was made to Abraham, in which it was so plainly said to him, "I will made thee a father of many nations, and I will increase thee exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall go forth of thee. And I will give thee a son of Sarah; and I will bless him, he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall be of him" - Gen. 17:5,6,16 - a promise which we now see fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ - from that time forward this couple are not called in Sacred Scripture, as formerly, Abram and Sarai, but Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them from the first, for everyone does so now.

The reason why the name of Abraham was changed is given: "For" He says, "I have made thee a father of many nations." This, then, is to be understood to be the meaning of Abraham; but Abram, as he was formerly called, means "exalted father." The reason of the change of Sarah's name is not given: but as those say who have written interpretations of the Hebrew names contained in these books, Sarah means "my princess" and Sarai "strength." Whence it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed." - Heb. 11:11 - For both were old, as Sacred Scripture testifies; but she was also barren, and had ceased to menstruate, so that she could no longer bear children even if she had not been barren.

Further, if a woman is advanced in years, yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear children to a young man, but not to an old man, although that same old man can beget, but only of a younger woman; as after Sarah's death Abraham could of marry Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age. This, then, is what the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides, that Abraham's body was now dead - Heb. 11:12 - because at that age he was no longer able to beget children of any woman who retained now only a small part of her natural vigour. Of course, we must understand that his body was dead only to some purposes, not to all; for it is was so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a living man, but the corpse of a dead one. Although that question, how Abraham begot children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the gift of begetting which he received from the Lord, remained even after the death of his wife, yet I think that solution of the question which I have followed is preferable, because, although in our days an old man of a hundred years can beget children of no woman, it was not so then, when men still lived so long that a hundred years did not yet bring on them the decrepitude of old age.

29. Of the three men or angels, in whom the Lord is related to have appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre

God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mamre in three men, who it is not to be doubted were angels, although some think that one of the was Christ, and assert that He was visible before He put on flesh. Now it belongs to the divine power, and invisible, incorporeal, and incommutable nature, without changing itself at all, to appear even to mortal men, not by what it is, but by what is subject to it. And what is not subject to it? Yet if they try to establish that one of these three was Christ by the fact that, although he saw three, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it is written, "And, lo, the three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and worshipped toward the ground, and said, Lord, if  I have found favour before thee" - Gen. 18:2-3 - why do they not advert to this also, that when two of them came to destroy the Sodomites, while Abraham still spoke to one, calling him Lord, and interceding that he would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked in Sodom, Lot received these two in such a way that he too in his conversation with them addressed the Lord in the singular?

For after saying to them in the plural, "Behold, my lords, turn aside into your servant's house" - Gen. 19:2 - yet it is after-wards said, "And angels laid hold upon his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful unto him. And it came to pass, whenever they had led him forth abroad, that they said, Save thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all this region: save thyself in the mountains, lest thou be caught. And Lot said unto them, I pray thee, Lord, since thy servant hath found grace in thy sight" - Gen. 19:16-19 - And then after these words the Lord also answered him in the singular, although he was in two angels, saying, "See. I have accepted thy face" - Gen. 19:21 - This makes it much more credible that both Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two recognised the Lord, addressing Him in the singular number, even when they were addressing men; for they received them as they did for no other reason than that they might minister human refection to them as men who needed it.

Yet there was about them something so excellent, that those who showed them hospitality as men could not doubt that God was in them as He was wont to be in the prophets, and therefore sometimes addressed them in the plural, and sometimes God in them in the singular. But that they were angels the Sacred Scripture testifies, not only in this book of Genesis, in which these transactions are related, but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where in praising hospitality it is said, "For thereby some have entertained angels unaware." - Heb. 13:2 - By these three men, then, when a son Isaac was again promised to Abraham by Sarah, such a divine oracle was also given that it was said, "Abraham shall become a great and numerous nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him," - Gen. 18:18 - And here these two things are promised with the utmost brevity and fullness - the nation of Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith.

30. Of Lot's deliverance from Sodom, and its consumption by fire from heaven; and of Abimelech, whose lust could not harm Sarah's chastity

After this promise Lot was delivered out of Sodom, and a fiery rain from heaven turned into ashes that whole region of the impious city, where custom had made sodomy as prevalent as laws have elsewhere made other kinds of wickedness. But this punishment of theirs was a specimen of the divine judgement to come. For what is meant by the angels forbidding those who were delivered to look back, but that we are not to look back in heart to the old life which, being regenerated through grace, we have put off, if we think to escape the last judgement? Lot's wife, indeed, when she looked back, remained, and, being turned into salt, furnished to believing men a condiment by which to savour somewhat the warning to be drawn from that example. Then Abraham did again at Gerar, with Abimelech the king of that city, what he had done in Egypt about his wife, and received her back untouched in the same way. On this occasion, when the king rebuked Abraham for not saying she was his wife, and calling her his sister, he explained what he had been afraid of, and added this further, "And yet indeed she is my sister by the father's side, but not by the mother's" - Gen. 20:12 - for she was Abraham's sister by his own father, and so near of kin. But her beauty was so great, that even at that advanced age she could be fallen in love with.

31. Of Isaac, who was born according to the promise, whose name was given on account of the laughter of both parents

After these things a son was born to Abraham, according to God's promise, of Sarah, and was called Isaac, which means laughter. For his father had laugh when he was promised to him, in wondering delight, and his mother, when he was again promised by those three men, had laughed, doubting for joy; yet she was blamed by the angel because that laughter, although it was for joy, yet was not full of faith. After-wards she was confirmed in faith by the same angel. From this, then, the boy got his name. For when Isaac was born and called by that name, Sarah showed that her laughter was not that of scornful reproach, but that of joyful praise; for she said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that everyone who hears will laugh with me." - Gen. 21:6 - Then in a little while the bond maid was cast out of the house with her son; and according to the apostle, these two women signify the old and new covenants - Sarah representing that of Jerusalem which is above, that is, the city of God. - Gal. 4: 24-26 -
                                                                      Page 5
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -