Sanders Party of Five

I dropped Dr. Eddie Johnston off at the airport this morning for his flight back to Philadelphia after a week of teaching us Old Testament Prophets and Poetry. This is the second week of classes he has taught at the Center for Pioneer Church Planting. The first time he came down he taught Genesis through Joshua. Dr. Johnston has a degree from Westminster and a PhD in Ancient Hebrew Studies from Dropsie and has been teaching at CUTS (Center for Urban Theological Studies) for the past 30 years. He was introduced to To Every Tribe because another teacher couldn’t fit these two courses into his calendar and yet I think we were the ones who were blessed by this change.

There are some people that you just want to soak up as much as possible from them in the time that you have with them. Dr. Johnston was one of those men. He was easily one of the most learned men I have ever spent that much time around and yet he has the utmost humility and is completely happy to give an answer of “I don’t know” or “maybe” when confronted with a difficult question about the text. He is wholly committed to the inspiration of Scripture and has lots of disdain for those academics and critical scholars that come to the text as sterile archaeologists. During class discussion he would often ask me to pull up a particular text from the Bible in Hebrew so he could look at it. He would spend a minute reading it and then laugh to himself about the confusion that text likely caused among critical scholars and academics. He also loves to rail against the obsession with word roots and etymology. His argument is that the word meant something specific at the time that it was used and whether it was rooted in ancient Arabic, Acadian, or Ugaritic has little bearing on the author’s contemporary use of the word. His class was a delight in which to take part.

As we said goodbye for likely the last time until we reach heaven I thought to myself that this man will be affecting my thinking for many years to come, and I thank God for men like this who dedicate themselves to studying the word and then use that knowledge to train generations of lay pastors and missionaries.

At the end of this week diving into the somewhat mysterious material of the Old Testament prophets I think it is best summed up by the end of Isaiah:

[17] “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the LORD.
[18] “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, [19] and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. [20] And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. [21] And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
[22] “For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make
shall remain before me, says the LORD,
so shall your offspring and your name remain.
[23] From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the LORD.

(Isaiah 66:17-23 ESV)

This hope of the prophet Isaiah before the exile of the southern kingdom of Judah was in a new Jerusalem. One in which all of the inhabitants would declare the glory of the LORD. The Israelite’s physical return from Babylon and the subsequent rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple was but a mere shadow of the things to come in Christ. Christ announced the end of the captivity himself in the temple while quoting from Isaiah:

[17] And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
[18] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
[19] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
[20] And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. [21] And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

(Luke 4:17-21 ESV)

So this is where we find ourselves, the captives have been set free and God is sending us, some of those survivors from the nations who once sought to sanctify and purify ourselves, but have now been given new hearts back out into the world to bring in the rest of our brothers. And yet we do not bring them back to a physical Jerusalem, but to be joined to Christ in his Bride the Church where we along with Isaiah eagerly await the day of the Lord.

Thank you Dr. Johnston for showing us the glory of the Lord and his heart for the nations through the prophets.