Was Mom Right Afterall? - Part 2 of 2

JESUS AND THE APOSTLES

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works,” (John 14:10).

 

I am not aware of any place in the Greek text where Jesus is said to receive the word of the LORD through either a vision or a dream. I would not expect this to be the case because Jesus was a prophet after the pattern of Moses, (Deut 18:18). If Jesus was a prophet like Moses, then we would expect Him to have an intimate relationship with the Father, as the apostle John wrote, “I and the Father are one,” (John 10:30).

 

The Bible tells us that Moses beheld “the form of the LORD,” (Num 12:6-7). Like Moses, “The One who is from God; He (Jesus) has seen the Father,” (John 6:46)(John 1:18). Seeing the Father is indicative of a close relationship to the LORD. Just as the face of Moses shone because he had stood in the presence of God, so the face of Jesus shone as He stood in the presence of the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration, while the Father spoke, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” (Matt 17:5).

 

Just as the words of Moses take precedence over the words of the prophets, we would expect the words of Jesus to have precedence over the words of the apostles based on the closer relationship of Jesus with the Father. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, Peter quotes Joel as the proof text for what is happening.

 

“‘And it shall be in the last days,’ says God, ‘that I will pour forth My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your young men shall see visions; and your old men shall dream dreams,’” (Acts 2:17).

 

Visions and dreams elevate the Pentecost believers to the level of the prophets (Num 12:6-7), but NOT to the level of Jesus or Moses. The apostles are moved by the Holy Spirit, just as the prophets of old (2 Pet 1:21), and they are given the power to bind and loose in relationship to the traditions. However, their level of inspiration, and subsequently their written words, do not take precedence over a commandment or teaching given by Jesus.

 

Believers generally consider Paul to be the greatest apostle. Scripture indicates that Paul had visions (Acts 11:15), encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, (Acts 9:3), and even was caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2). Paul’s experiences were similar to the great prophets who also had visions and encounters with the LORD. Visions show an elevated relationship with God, but visions do not raise the individual to the same plateau of closeness to the Father that Jesus or Moses had with the LORD.

 

This idea may sound strange, bordering on blasphemous, but even Paul acknowledged that his relationship with God was inferior to that of Jesus, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet… I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” (Phil 3:13). Paul even placed himself beneath Moses when he wrote these words.

 

“Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully,” (1 Cor 13:12).

 

As related earlier, the Sages viewed Moses as one looking through a clear windowpane, while the other prophets looked through a cloudy windowpane. Paul appears to be drawing on this understanding and applying it to himself (and us) when he said, “Now we see in a mirror dimly,” (1 Cor13:12). By his words, Paul positioned himself below Jesus and Moses, calling himself “the least of the apostles,” (1 Cor 15:9).

 

APPLICATION

 

Believers often fail to not see the distinctions that are made in the Bible. For example, believers classify all sin as the same in God’s eyes, not recognizing that the varying degrees of commanded punishments in the Torah indicate that all sin is not the same. Some believers talk about “one law” while other believers say that there is no difference between Jew and Greek because we are all “one”. Yet, these positions fail to recognize that scripture refers to “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28), and there remains a different standard of behavior for the Jew and Greek. Therefore, it should not be surprising that believers traditionally view all scripture as equally inspired.

 

If believers have any slant in prioritizing the hierarchy of scripture, our tendency is to view the lessor inspired scripture (apostles' teachings and prophets) as greater, while we relegate the passages of higher inspiration (words of Jesus and Moses) to a lower status. Our actions are not without precedence, (1 Cor 12:23). In most churches, the prophets are elevated because of their prophecy related to Jesus, while the words of Moses are relegated to historical narrative done away by the New Covenant.

 

Even in the Greek Text, we elevate Paul’s words above the words and actions of Jesus. We believe that Jesus was the Son of Man, but see His actions as “fulfilling” and removing the obstructions of the Old Testament. The argument goes on to say that everything changed at the cross so we can discount the words and action of Jesus before the cross. However, if we look closely at the teachings of Jesus before the cross (Luke 4:43) and after the cross (Acts 1:3), we will see that the teachings of Jesus did not change, as it is written, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8), and “I, the LORD, do not change,” (Mal 3:6).

 

In the end I think mom was right. The words of Jesus do have a higher level of inspiration than the words of the apostles because Jesus had a closer relationship to the Father. Therefore, believers must, as the Father said, “listen to Him!” (Matt 17:5), even if that appears to come at the expense of the words of the apostles. There is a warning to the individual who does not hold the words of Jesus in the highest order of the inspired scripture hierarchy.

 

“Whoever will not listen to My words which he (the prophet like Moses) shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him,” (Deut 18:19).

 

Just as Moses spoke with the Father “face to face” so that his face shone full of the glory of the Father, so also the face of Jesus “shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow,” (Matt 17:2). Therefore, in regards to the words of Jesus,

 

“Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom his is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built,” (Luke 6:47-48).

 

(just a thought - Scott)

Was Mom Right Afterall? - Part 1 of 2

 

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)

 

Do the words of Jesus come with greater, equal, or less authority than the words of the apostles? Said another way, if a person would find a conflict between the words of Jesus and the words of Paul, which would have the controlling precedent?  

 

I seem to recall my mother telling me early in my life that she held the words of Jesus as greater authority in scripture because He was the Son of God. But was my mother right?  As I grew up, I learned that,

 

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work,” (2 Tim 3:16-17)

 

For the majority of my life I understood the phrase “All Scripture is inspired” to mean that all scripture had the same level of authority. However, I have come to understand that two passages in scripture can be both inspired, while at the same time, one can have precedence over another. Take the commandments as an example. All the commandments given through Moses came under the same inspiration of God. Yet some commandments are considered greater, while other commandments are considered lessor, subordinate to the greater commandments. If the Bible establishes a priority among the commandments, does the Bible also recognize a priority among the biblical authors? Do some authors speak with greater authority? If so, why?

MOSES AND THE PROPHETS

"Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend." (Ex 33:11)

 

It is clear from scripture that Moses had a unique relationship with the LORD. Scripture tell us that Moses spoke “face to face” with the LORD “just as a man speaks to his friend.” Of the Hebrew prophets, Moses is seen as pre-eminent, standing in a class by himself. Leviticus Rabbah states it this way,

 

“What was the distinction between Moses and the other prophets? The latter looked through nine specularia (windowpanes), whereas Moses looked only through one. They looked through a cloudy sepcularia, but Moses through one that was clear.” (Lev.R. I.14)

 

The relationship Moses had with the LORD was more intimate than any other prophet.  Ther LORD said in relationship to Moses, 

 

“If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD,”

(Num 12:6-7)

The level of intimacy between the LORD and Moses elevates the writings of Moses to a position that is superior to the words of the prophets who followed because they only received the word of the LORD in visions and dreams. Even the great prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel received the word through visions, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts were coming up from the sea,” (Dan 7:2).

 

Since the prophets who followed Moses did not relate to the LORD in the same manner as Moses, “face to face” (Ex 33:11) and "mouth to mouth" (Num 12:7), the responsibility granted these prophets was to reiterate, magnify, and clarify the words given by Moses. The prophets were never given the authority to add or subtract from the original words. Moses cautioned those who followed by saying, “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you,” (Deut 4:2, 12:32).

 

The role of the prophets was reinforced by the beginning of the first book of prophecy where Joshua told the people, “ Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful where ever you go,” (Josh 1:7). The last book of prophecy concludes with a similar statement from Malichi, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel,” (Mal 4:4). The beginning and ending of the prophetic books are seen to frame the purpose of the prophets, to reinforce the teachings of Moses. The rabbis said it this way,

“You shall not say another Moses will arise and bring us another Torah from heaven, I have already made it know to you that “it is not in heaven” (Deut 30:12), i.e., there is nothing left of it in heaven.” (Deut R. 8:6)

 

Consequently, “What the prophets were destined to prophesy in subsequent generations they received from Mount Sinai (i.e. Moses), (Exod. R. XXVIII.6).”

(to be continued - Scott)