ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

12-15

HAPPY Feast of Esther !

(2020)

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

Church Government

(continuation from: A Community of Election and Order)

Part 5 

The Nature of Righteousness In Election

Exo_20:12

Honor (value) thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which YHWH thy God giveth thee.

Lev_19:32

Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head,

and honor the face of the old man/ Presbyter (πρεσβυτερων),

and fear thy God: I am YHWH.

(G4245 Presbyter: (elderly); older, old one)

In the chronology which we have been following in our Israelite history we have begun to get into the revelatory beginning of the Governing of the Nation of Israel, having gone past Moses’ reformation at the burning bush in Exo_3:1, as well as Moses delivering the message of YHWH’s visitation and soon deliverance to the faithful or believing group of Elders or presbyters before the plagues of Egypt by the end of Exo_4:1, then we saw in the call and obedience of the elders in the keeping of Passover- where in the blood of the lamb was shed by the hand of the men of the houses and placed upon the door of every obedient home Ex_12:1, and then after Israel’s deliverance from the captive bondage of Egypt, we saw the sad but all too real happening of Israel’s murmuring and chiding with Moses concerning water, of which the people were nearly ready throw rocks at him for, but which the Lord called again to these Elders of the people of Israel and rather made water to flow from a rock instead in Exo_17:1. In all this our focus has been upon the way in which the LORD YHWH has interacted with His Covenant people, and particularly how Moses the Law giver was instructed to deal with the Presbyters who had faith and not with the general congregation.
Immediately after this incident we read about Exo_18:8  And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake
And how Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, …and gave testimony of His knowledge that “YHWH/ the LORD is greater than all gods”
And so in
Exo_18:12  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the Presbyters of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father in law before God.
And so it was immediately after this, on the morrow, that Jethro saw how Moses was Judging the people alone, and not using the leadership that was at the sacrificial dinner just the evening before, and so Jethro tells Moses-

Exo_18:21  … provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
Exo 18:22  And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge…
Wisely Jethro said to Moses:
Exo_18:23  If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

and

Exo 18:24  So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.
Exo 18:25  And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Exo 18:26  And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

And this is where we are in the Chronology:
Deuteronomy 1 and Numbers 1 tells us more of this system that was utilized by Moses as it was revealed by the wisdom of Jethro

Moses says :

Deu_1:12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
Deu_1:13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.
Deu 1:14 And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.
Deu_1:15 So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.

Now, notice the Charge given to these Tribal Judges selected from the Tribes:

Deu_1:16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.
Deu 1:17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s…

And then further into this subject, a yet more defined system is revealed:
Of The Called Up Heads as the LXX says EpiKletoi Archon

In the Greek the word Kletoi is the same relative to the word we find in the EkKlasia or church, the out called

Num 1:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Num 1:2  Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
Num 1:3  From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.

Num_1:4 And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers…

Num 1:16 These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
Num_1:16 These are the renowned ( ABP says LXX. selected ones- επικλητοιG1945.1 / ראשׁיH7218 )of the congregation, rulers (αρχοντεςG758 /נשׂיאיH5387 ) of the tribes according to their patrimony; commanders (heads H7218 ) of thousands in Israel they are.

At the end of this list of the Heads of the families taken which were 12, only one per tribe with no stranger accepted into the Calling of this Nation, we see that Moses and Aaron preformed the work of a Bishop in Numbering the people, and taking the sum, and of those who are the Heads of each tribe a new Head was made from the tribe to the smallest number of 10 men.
This Law have read was on first glance in Exodus account Jethro’s advice, yet on a studied look at the system, when the Law is applied Lawfully, we see YHWH Himself speaking the words of organizing the order His way, and this order is 100% a law of organizing the men, and families, the kindred, and tribes of a Nation. As a matter of fact which I would defend publicly or privately, If one divorces Numbers 1 and Duet 1 from Exo_18:13, they have laid the ground work undermining Theonomy by autonomy, this abandonment will always sow the seeds of a democratic “We the People “ based system rather than a Theonomic republic of God’s Covenant People.

And so the Nature of Election, as a whole as it applies to the Nation is the focus of the remainder of this study, before we dig in-depth into the mine of Israel’s Law in regards to the structure of the Elect.

Primarily the question is, How can one Judge Righteously?

In judging righteously one must use God’s Righteousness to do so, but how can sinful man be righteous and be entrusted to “Judge righteously”? Deuteronomy 6 as a chapter should help if it is kept in context and consistent to the biblical narrative of Righteousness as it was imputed to Abraham, as well as all fathers of Faith.

Because the Nation of Israel were a people given a fuller understanding of God’s Eternal Law to check death which was reigning since Adam to Moses: the LORD GOD YHWH gave Israel this specific Law for their good and to be Israel’s righteousness, we find this language in what our LORD Jesus the Eternal Son of the Father Says is the Greatest Commandment which is commonly called the Shema, which is Hebrew for ‘hear’ :

Deu 6:1  Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
Deu 6:2  That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
Deu 6:3  Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Deu 6:4  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deu 6:6  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
…
Deu 6:23  And he brought us out from Egypt, that YHWH might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.
Deu 6:24  And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
Deu 6:25  And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

The chapter which bible organizers have labeled as 6 of the book of Deuteronomy, is a foundational chapter that expresses in no uncertain terms the benefits which Israel has by having been given a fuller knowledge of YHWH God’s Law, His wisdom and understanding, His Word or Logic, the way in which YHWH desires man to walk while he is on the earth, and the perfect standard by which Israel is to Judge right and wrong, good and evil, blessing and cursing, all of this flows from the inspiration of the Law of God as our sovereign LORD dictated it to the meek and Godly Law giver Moses.

When Moses said:

“it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.”

The implication was as was prior read in the greatest commandment and elsewhere, that Israel was told to

Deu_6:4  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

And because we are assured that NOT every Israelite can “Hear” that YHWH is GOD Alone, we know that this call which is in need of being heard is proclaimed in the ears of the general congregation, but it only heard with Love in the heart, soul and might by an elect few whom the LORD is speaking to when He says “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart” in Deu_6:6.
And yes, make no mistake about it, this Hearing is a Commandment of God our Savior, and it is commanded into the heart of the Hearer who hears in Love and responds by putting his heart- his life force, his mind or soul- his intellect, and his might his physical flesh and bone body enabled by this spirit to administer the good and righteous attributes of this Law to his world around him.

This is important because, when one abandons the context of this Righteousness here spoken of in giving God the glory for making one a recipient heart hearer of the call of God, which is a call to Faith, if he abandons that attribute this whole hearing being a command to the heart by God to His Covenant people, he will have no choice but to:
1. Curse God’s perfect law, which is blasphemy,
or
2. to believe that fallen man can in and of himself achieve the righteousness and goodness of God by his Law. This is also blasphemy

Because of this we are led to a 3rd position which is the position the entire New Covenant is built on as well as all consistent readings of the biblical narrative, and it is the Only way to keep the Shama consistent with God’s desire for man to conform himself to His righteousness and Goodness while knowing he will never achieve in his attempt.

That is

3. truly be as Rom 7:22-25 says  we are to Delight in the law of God after the inward man:  But see another law in our members, that is warring against the inward law of God we Love in our mind, as it brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in our bodies.

This causes our conflicted Judgment to “cry out” to God:
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
and this answer is returned
Rom 7:25  Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

This Affirms:
Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

To place all of your Hope in God’s perfection, that is that if you do anything righteous or Good it is by God’s Grace as he who is the Just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus Christ, he is the seed destine to crush the head of the cause of Sin in the flesh, He has been wounded in his heel for our healing (Gen_3:15). That is that- In believing in the WORD of YHWH by Faith, as did Abraham we are imputed righteous, considered righteous, we have righteous justification credited to our account from the free gift of Jesus bloody heel. This is the 3rd and only option of balancing this goodness which the Law offers with our wickedness which abides in our flesh- this is the Good of the Gospel.
Why is this important to remember at the chronological point we are at in speaking of Presbyterian and episcopate government of the Kingdom of God?
Because the whole nature of Election abides in Faith of the Word of God, most especially in giving all glory to God for the Lamb slain since before the foundations of the world, The Lamb which taketh away the sins of the world who was the Word which was God and was with God as the paramount word which Calls out to the men who are to be the Heads.
If those men are not Elected by God, and called thus and persuaded thus, in that they do Not have faith in the promises and visitation of Israel to deliver from captivity / bondage in worship- they are not Elect

If they do not take responsibility for the blood of the slain lamb on his hand, who’s blood is to be on that families door- they are not Elect

If that man blames the leaving of bondage for his failures and the giving of the Law for identifying his sin rather than submitting to the Law for his repentance- they are not Elect

If he comes with Moses freely and drinking of the water that come from the rock, which rock is Christ (1Co_10:4 ) without chiding and murmuring,- this is the nature of the Elect
Just as we saw the Presbyters of the families of Israel come to Moses to receive water from the Rock in Exo_17:5, these came by Faith in the Word of the lawgiver, even having Faith in Moses the man of God, they came to Moses by Faith the word of God, those men are the men we see proving who they are as hearers of the total word by Love and able to Love the LORD with heart, soul and might, that is these presbyters are of the church, the Called out of the general congregation Hear.

Before we move on, a foundationally consistent understanding of the nature of Election is absolutely needed to see how Judgment, Headship and Over sight begins on every level:

General outline of Non-election and Election

A. God has made a general covenant with the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even all the race of Israel
(a literal people, literal children, an ethnic or national people.)

Of this Ethnic nation there are those who God calls to, those whom He Elects to give His Grace to, and they Hear the call in faith, But beside this Election there are those who cannot hear and do not Love.
Let me speak first of the non-elect of the elected nation

1. The non-elect
a. there are those who just do it because it is the cultural norm, -nueterally wicked
(These may just keep the law because it is the Law of the land or the law of their people.)
They may be considered by others “generally good people”,
they live a good life, but they have no spiritual understanding of the Law,
it is this group that are most susceptible to secret faults and sins of pride, but they do not understand their fallen state so they will not repent in fact, truly

b. Then there are those who nominally keep cultural law, but in secret break the law willfully-
they know they hate the Law and don’t care that they do,
but they don’t want to be punished or reprimanded so they keep it secret.

c. there are those who are possitivly wicked –
these are those who do not like to hear the word audibly
can not hear by faith
they do not Love God
and like it this way.
They are:
young and old,
men and women,
free and bond.

2. Now of the Elect of the Elected nation:
a. those of the general congregation are those who are the called out, the church
live according to the cultural Law,
even loving the letter of the Law knowing it is spiritual,
they AMEN every word of God as Holy,
those who will love the Law because it is of God,
these know they are sinners in the flesh but know they can be justified in the spirit,
they Hold the mystery of their faith in a pure conscience.
These are:
young and old,
men and women,
free and bond.

b. of the Church There are men
young men (potential Heads)
and Old men or Elders called Presbyters of families,
and of those Presbyters there are yet another Election the called Episcopes or Bishop- a Elder of elders
(the Over-seers of the Presbytery, And it is by these Overseeing Presbyters that Election and Order is maintained through righteous judgment.)

Generally, and in all cases, the Elect will anticipate and believe in the promises and covenants of the LORD, they will Love YHWH and Love YHWH’s Law as it was given to Moses, and trust in the Grace of God for salvation, but it is the Presbyterian councils that follows Moses by Faith to the Rock of Israel’s salvation.