Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 11; John 15:18.

Title: Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 11; John 15:18.

 

min - from; beten - womb. The Hebrew combines them into one word - mibeten = from the womb.

 

David uses mibeten in the Psalms.

 

Ps 22:9 Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb [mibeten];

Thou didst make me trust when upon my mother's breasts.

 

Ps 22:10 Upon Thee I was cast from birth;

Thou hast been my God from my mother's womb [mibeten].

 

David is referring to himself and at the same time prophesying the virgin birth of the Lord. The Lord was not dependent upon God in his mother’s womb because his soul was not in that biological body.

 

Ps 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;

These who speak lies go astray from birth.

 

The mother does not possess two active sin natures during pregnancy. The sin nature of the fetus is dormant until he becomes alive at birth.

 

Isaiah uses mibeten:

 

ISA 44:2 Thus says the Lord who made you

And formed [soul combined with the body] you from the womb, who will help you,'

 

ISA 44:24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb,

"I, the Lord, am the maker of all things,

Stretching out the heavens by Myself,

And spreading out the earth all alone,

 

ISA 49:1 Listen to Me, O islands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called Me from the womb;

From the body of My mother He named Me.

 

ISA 49:2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword [His words would penetrate the heart];

 

HEB 4:12

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me [the scabbard] ,

And He has also made Me a select arrow;

He has hidden Me in His quiver [protected].

 

ISA 49:3 And He said to Me, "You are My Servant, Israel,

In Whom I will show My glory."

 

ISA 49:4 But I said, "I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity [rejection by Israel];

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My reward with My God [session]."

 

The second part of verse four makes the case that we have been making for nine hours of teaching. Justice and reward are with the Lord and not with man.

 

ISA 49:5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him

 (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord [fulfillment of the plan],

And My God is My strength),

 

From 200 - 300 BC the OT was translated into Greek by 70 scholars in Alexandria, Egypt. This is the Septuagint and it was the OT that Jesus and the disciples were familiar with.

 

The primary purpose of ek is to denote separation. In the LXX version of the previous verses cited from Job, Psalms, and Isaiah, mibeten is represented by two Greek phrases, ek koilia and ek gastros.

 

Problem passages:

 

Ps 139:13 For Thou didst form my inward parts;

Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb.

 

 “in my mother’s womb” - bebeten which is translated correctly.

“form” - qanah = to get or to acquire. God formed the inward parts.

 

However, this doesn’t suggest soul life or that God isn’t doing this forming and weaving of the body as indirect or mediate. Is it not God who provides all the materials and makes the systems function, who holds the laws of chemistry, physics, and biology intact as the Creator of the world?

 

With so much scriptural evidence to the contrary this one verse should not be used to indicate that there is soul life in the womb.

 

A common and damaging problem is for people going to the Bible and searching for what they want to find. Heresies such as salvation by works, loss of salvation, limited atonement, Calvinism, life in the womb, etc. have developed from this flawed type of hermeneutics - if it could be called that.

 

JER 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

And before you were born I consecrated you;

I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."

 

Again the forming of the body in the womb is done by God through the agency of the mother, which in no way assumes soul life in the womb.

 

By divine decree God’s omniscience knows the future of every person including the prophets, apostles, “common” believers, and unbelievers. He knows all.

 

Luke 11:27 And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice, and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed."

 

This rude woman interrupts Christ “while” He was teaching. And if you look back to verse 14 His message is about spiritual warfare. You can see the KOD at work here.

 

Her manners are atrocious and she wants Jesus to address this issue. She wants Him to credit to his biological mother and to give credit to the womb. This is so typical of what has continued from the beginning of the Church - emotionalism over the word of God. She actually interrupts the teaching of the word of God from the lips of God Himself so she can voice her emotionalism as to her own self-importance, as if all life is owed to wombs.

 

As we have made clear, the womb is the mediate means by which God forms human bodies, but without a soul that is not a person. The Lord’s life didn’t begin in the womb.

 

ISA 49:5

And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

 

HEB 10:5

"Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired,

But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;

 

In this verse we have a separation of the body and the person of Christ. The mystery of the human soul of the Son of God being imputed to a holy body that was without sin is absolutely unique to all history.

 

Luke 2:11

for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

 

Luke 1:35

And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.

 

 “holy offspring” - a[gioj[hagios] = holy, set apart for God. Here it is neuter and not masculine and therefore referring to a thing. The body of Christ did not contain an OSN and so it is holy.

 

Luke 1:35

therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (KJV)

 

1 Cor 15:50

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;

 

Getting back to our feminist:

Luke 11:27 And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice, and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed."

 

Whatever the true motivation of this rude and arrogant woman, she chooses to make an issue of the womb. By her outburst the woman implies that since Jesus came from his mother’s womb, motherhood is to be praised for His very existence. Slyly this woman introduces a false doctrine: the beginning of human life in the womb. Yet unconsciously she makes a distinction between sustaining biological life in the womb and nourishing human life at the mother’s breast.

 

The Lord did not argue with her, debate with her, or humiliate her. He simply replied with the truth.

 

Luke 11:28 But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it."

 

 “On the contrary” - menounge[menounge] = nay rather, on the contrary. This was used to state that all or part of something said was wrong followed by the proper correction.

 

The issue is the word of God, which cannot be heard until after birth.

 

She also equates the womb with breast feeding. So the womb makes life and the mother’s milk is the nourishment needed to keep the child alive. Is this the nourishment that should be blessed?

 

Luke 11:28 "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it."

 

 

In our day satan has so successfully promoted political correctness so as to justify emotional people such as this in destroying free speech. “You can’t say that. That’s so insensitive.” There’s a reason why the first amendment is first.

 

Amendment I; Ratified December 15, 1791

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging [depriving] the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Abraham Lincoln wrote in January of 1861:

All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all” - the principle that clears the path for all - gives hope to all - and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.

 

He later states in this fragment:

The assertion of that principle [Liberty to all], at that time, was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, as the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made the apple - not the apple for the picture.

 

He’s actually applying:

Prov 25:11

Like apples of gold in settings of silver

Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

 

Political correctness has successfully bruised the apple, which here is the truth from the word of God. However, the apple will never be destroyed, only bruised.

 

GEN 3:15

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel."  

 

My interpretation of the bruised heel does include the physical suffering of the Lord, but also the serpent’s seed which is religion.

 

There are endless arrays of taboos and some have gone, others have come, and more will come in the future. I believe that a doctrinal believer can sniff out a taboo easily, even if we haven’t discussed it in Bible class.

xxx