The Exodus Rubel Shelly
Narrative Theology: Paul's Retrospective on Exodus (1 Cor. 10:1-13) Is The Exodus a pattern for Worship and Community? Are the Israelites who never honored God in the wilderness but worshiped the "wandering stars" such as Saturn explained by Amos our SPIRITUAL FATHERS?Click to see Rubel Shelly and John York Retrospective Number Three. (no numbertwo)
Click to see the Egyptian Musical background to Mount Sinai PART ONE.....PART TWO
Click to see the Introduction to Mount Sinai and Musical Idolatry.
Click to see what really happened during the worship of the TRIAD.
In the introduction on Narrative Theology we noted that Rubel Shelly and John York "take liberties" with the story and therefore claim that Paul's statement that Christ was the Rock and Water in the wilderness was based on Jewish Legend. They see the Corinthians as "baptized with the Holy Spirit" and therefore are "drinking the spiritual drink" in the Lord's Supper.
"Liberal literary criticism allows each community the right to re-write Scripture. The canon (not necessarily of biblical texts, but at least in the meanings of those texts) is not closed.
"It is difficult to know whether Fish intended this as a by-product, but the idea of authority resting in the interpretive community gave rise to narrative theology-- a theology which simply affirms a given community's right to come up with its own interpretation, or to "write" its own new biblical text. Narrative theology gave rise to various narrative communities-- hence, the arrival of liberation and feminist theologies.
"Narrative theology does not recognize any absolute truth or meaning in a text. Because Buber is the founder, most narrative theology, especially in Jewish circles, is related to Auschwitz."
"And, what is the purpose of reading texts, for narrative theologians? Why, of course, to affirm the self. Hazards in the Mainline.
Dr. Shelly/York note that:
Rubel Shelly Paul goes on to describe the wilderness not as a horrible, God-forsaken, God-absent event, but as a God-surrounded event. God was active everywhere in everything. His language of baptism in the cloud and in the sea correspond with the Corinthians' baptism in water and the Holy Spirit.
They ate and drank spiritual food and spiritual drink, just like the Corinthians were eating and drinking the Lord's Supper.
It is a fact that God saved Israel by pure Grace when justice would have left them in Egypt to die. However, this was like an initial planting of the Seed into shallow ground and Israel simply refused to grow and bloom under God's Spirit presence.
But, they both rose up to play which is musical idolatry or its equivalent. That is what made a spiritual beginning into a pagan, idolatrous history until Jesus came. God then turned them over to worship the starry host (Stephen in Acts 7).
And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. Psalm 106:10
And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. Psalm 106:11
Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. Psalm 106:12
They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: Psalm 106:13
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. Psalm 106:14
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. Ps.106:15
Stephen and others said that this request was to worship the starry host and God "gave them their request." One of these astrial deities was Saturn whose Chaldee number is 666.
Of later serpent of Satan worshipers:
The Peratic doctrines are of astrology. Their key power "enjoys the things disgorged from the twelve eyes of the law, (and) manifesting a seal to the power which along with itself distributes the downborne invisible waters, and has been called Thalassa. This power ignorance has been accustomed to denominate Cronus (Saturn), guarded with chains because he tightly bound the fold of the dense and misty and obscure and murky Tartarus. According to the image of this were produced Cepheus, Prometheus, (and) Japetus.
The Power to which has been entrusted Thalassa is hermaphrodite.
And it fastens the hissing sound arising from the twelve mouths into twelve pipes, and pours it forth.
And the power itself is subtle, and removes the controlling, boisterous, upward motion (of the sea), and seals the tracks of its paths, lest (any antagonistic power) should wage war or introduce, any alteration.
The tempestuous daughter of this one is a faithful protectress of all sorts of waters. Her name is Chorzar
And his ministers were five,-first U, second Aoai, third Uo, fourth Uoab, fifth ... Other trustworthy managers (there are) of his province of night and day, who repose in their own power.
Ignorance denominated these the erratic stars, from whom depends a corruptible generation. Manager of the rising of the star [or air] is Carphacasemeocheir, (and) Eccabbacara (is the same). Ignorance is in the habit of denominating these Curetes chief of the winds;
third in order is Ariel, according to whose image was generated Aeolus (flute or pipe), Briares.
Chapter XI.-Why They Call Themselves Peratae; Their Theory of Generation Supported by an Appeal to Antiquity;
Their Interpretation of the Exodus of Israel;
Their System of "The Serpent; "Deduced by Them from Scripture; This the Real Import of the Doctrines of the Astrologers.
The serpents, however, of the magicians-(that is,) the gods of destruction-withstood the power of Moses in Egypt, but the rod of Moses reduced them all to subjection and slew them.
This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve. [Eve, the Mediatrix, was honored because the serpent taught her feminine knowledge] (Zoe is the female instructing principle)
This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem;
this the mark that was set upon Cain,
that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain, [Gen. iv. 15] whose sacrifice [Gen. iv. 5. ] the god of this world did not accept.
Baruch sees the Exodus Event as a Fall from Grace:
Since the day that the Lord brought our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, unto this present day, we have been disobedient unto the Lord our God, and we have been negligent in not hearing his voice. Baruch 1:19
Wherefore the evils cleaved unto us, and the curse,
which the Lord appointed by Moses his servant at the time that he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, to give us a land that floweth with milk and honey, like as it is to see this day. Baruch 1: 20
Nevertheless we have not hearkened unto the voice of the Lord our God, according unto all the words of the prophets, whom he sent unto us- Baruch 1: 21
But every man followed the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods, and to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God. Baruch 1: 22
Therefore the Lord hath made good his word, which he pronounced against us, and against our judges that judged Israel, and against our kings, and against our princes, and against the men of Israel and Juda, Baruch 2: 1
To bring upon us great plagues, such as never happened under the whole heaven, as it came to pass in Jerusalem, according to the things that were written in the law of Moses; Baruch 2: 2
That a man should eat the flesh of his own son, and the flesh of his own daughter. Baruch 2: 3
Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Psalms and Stephen in Acts 7 agree with Baruch.
If you believe in the Bible's view you may want to save yourself the horrors of a truly radical interpretation of the Exodus event.
We cannot discount that much of the Old Testament is written in symbolic language. Therefore, it is important that we not proof-text it and retranslate in our own image. Rather, as Jesus hid the truth from the Jewish clergy, He said that it had been hidden in parables from the foundation of the world. A parable in Hebrew does not mean Jewish Legend or myth; it means a much richer method of truth than just the obvious first understanding of the word.
For instance, rising up to play does not mean that they played ball. Rather, hidden in that word is musical idolatry. To defend the Exodus as a pattern for Christian worship and community means defending the musical idolatry which destroyed the nation of Israel.
We note that after that Spiritual Food or the Word, Israel fell back into Egyptian bull or demon worship with instrumental music.
Paul calls the Corinthians "still carnal" and unable to eat spiritual meat. This is why he still preached just the Core Gospel. The women still practiced "uncovered prophesying" which was the musical prophesying they brought perhaps from the Oracle of Delphi where Apollo (Apollyon, Abbadon) presided or some other pagan temple. And the Corinthians didn't even assemble to eat the Lord's Supper 11:17f.
Apollo, like Agrippa, had one of the finest Seeker Centers in the ancient world. He seduced his "ministry team" with instrumental music and Sister Singers.
Based on several other images, Paul is warning about the musical worship which is inherent in feasts with demons or "rising up to play," in associating instruments with the "sounding" devices such as the "familiar spirit" of the witch of Endor, charging them with improvising their own songs (a sure sign of ignoring God) and connecting speaking in tongues to musical instruments used in warfare.
Therefore, Paul said: "Flee from idolatry." This is a clear and present danger to Corinth which never rose above being carnal and defines the Exodus "because of transgression" which destroyed any spiritual walk with God in the Wilderness.
Corinth, too, was plagued with people trained in the Greek Theater, philosophy and rhetoric. However, they saw godliness as a means of financial gain but Paul condemns them for not being sacrificial evangelists. With that dedication as ministers they never had a "Seeker Center" to have to prop up with sexual authority. Nor did they as in the Exodus event condemned in Romans 10, have to "send across the sea" to get a better message than the one Moses and Paul had already preached to them.
Paul discusses spiritual gifts to prove to the Corinthians that they didn't have any. There was not even the gift of healing a dispute. Therefore, the Corinthians and modern Narrative Theologians have not been baptized with the Holy Spirit.
All of the Biblical writers use their "Narrative Theology" to say exactly the opposite of Rubel Shelly and John York's "Narrative" interpretation for them and Woodmont Hills.
Based on history, Corinth was an example of disunity in Diversity and never got over it. While they began on a high note Clement of Rome wrote:
"Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved did eat and drink, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deut. xxxii. 15.] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and is become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, [Eph. v. 21; 1 Pet. v. 5.] but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world. [Wisd. ii. 24]
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Deut 32:15
They provoked him to jealousy with strange (turn aside, commit adultery) gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. Deut 32:16
They sacrificed unto devils (swollen ups), not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Deut 32:17
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. Deut 32:18
And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. Deut 32:19
And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. Deut 32:20
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. Deut 32:21
This sermon was preached in dialogue with John York.
Rubel Shelly: One of the things I look forward to in preaching the Gospel of John is getting to "walk around in" the life of Jesus -- much as Exodus has had us "walking around in" the shoes of our spiritual ancestors of 1500 years before Jesus' time.
We believe that Abraham, not Moses, is treated in the inspired words of Paul in Galatians as our spiritual ancestor. John York and Rubel Shelly are going to launch out on the groundless narrative and the tragic consequence is that they are going to present pagan idolatry, unfaithfulness to the renewed Abrahamic Covenant, treason against God, rising up to repeat the musical idolatry, loosing the Covenant, being shackled with a Law Code, being given a priesthood to keep them out of Gods spiritual presence, wandering in destitution for 40 years until the older members died, and the continual practice of idolatry in Canaan. Amos defines the never-ceasing idolatry. Paul leapfrogs the exodus as a fatal attraction with musical idolatry: worshiping the Egyptian triad and returns to Abraham who lived under a covenant with no earthly MEDIATORS:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Gal 3:14
But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Gal 3: 23
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Gal 3: 24
But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Gal 3: 25
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Gal 3: 26
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Gal 3: 27
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: Gal 3: 28
If Exodus is a legendary narrative which was probably not remembered accurately, then it is agreeable to make whatever parts inspired one wishes. This confessed liberty begins with John
Rubel Shelly: As I read John, he is far less concerned with Luke's "orderly account" (1:3) or Matthew's prophecy-fulfillment motif (1:22, et al.) than simply to reflect on the spiritual impact of God's presence in human form on Planet Earth.
The story as we have heard it is that John wrote very late in Biblical history. His job was not to take the old narratives, maybe the book of Mark, and decide to take liberty with it. Hear God:
THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Rev 1:1
Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw Rev 1:2
John was Christ's clean up man. Paul's epistles were written within a real-time church making mistakes and having Paul correct them. In time, people's use of the available literature led to many errors. John then does not remotely attempt to tell the same story as the other writers. Therefore, we should not judge him.
Rather, John presents the personal record and clears up lots of things which had been misunderstood. For instance, the early preaching of Paul led people to a "Post-Modern" view of Grace. Paul was inspired to go back over what he had taught so that human narrative would not be the final word.
Rubel Shelly: He takes the sort of liberty you and I have encouraged this church to take with the slavery, redemption, wilderness trek, and other aspects of Exodus.
Taking liberties has failed to see the pivotal event at Mount Sinai: being presented a Covenant of Grace, falling back into musical idolatry and being shackled by the Law of Moses and its clergy where a whole tribe is "used up" to bear the physical and spiritual burdens of the nation now too polluted to come into God's symbolic presence.
Reading the story compared to most Narrative Theology makes it clear that they are diametrically opposed.
According to Narrative Theology which makes a sacred thing out of idolatry and loss. This means that truth means nothing and:
"Exodus is not an inspired record for us in an objective sense. It is myth or legend (as confessed) and it is a narrative. Now, in Narrative Theology or "Liberation Theology" the story of Christ as Spirit being actually present in Exodus is an old Jewish story. Therefore, if you want it to have any meaning you will have to take your own liberties with the text and just make up your own story. Liberation Theology is the Latin theology of Catholic communism. The claim that Exodus is the pattern for "community" claims the same right to regulate people.
Rubel Shelly: Just as we have tried to read ourselves back into their story, I see John provoking his readers to put themselves back into Jesus' time, place, and actions. By doing that, he hoped to lead people "to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (20:31).
Do you agree? Is that a fair way of reading John? Is that a fair way to read Scripture generally?
Well, John wanted people to believe but what was the goal if the underlying narrative is legend? John seems to believe that He is reporting factual history exactly as does Luke:
IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
The same was in the beginning with God. John 1: 2
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1: 3
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1: 4
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1: 5
John believed that John was reporting first hand factual history and not outdated narrative.
John thinks that he is reporting historical statements from Jesus when He promised to return as Holy Spirit:
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; John 14:16
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14: 17
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14: 18
When He appeared to Paul He said: "I am Jesus of Nazareth." John tells us that Jesus is the Spirit and Peter says that the Spirit of Christ was the Spirit of the Prophets (1 Peter 1:11). Now, John isn't "taking liberty" and constructing a new text about Jesus. If Christ is not full Deity (Col 2:9) then Narrative Theology for others is correct: Jesus as the "water" was taken by Paul from a narrative: a Jewish Legend.
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? John 6:61
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? John 6: 62
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6: 63
John's story is that Jesus said that He would return as Spirit and His Spirit is in His words to lead us to spirit and life. If John is taking liberties and just using old narratives for the sole purpose of creating "faith" which some how has saving faith but it is not to be taken seriously how can we see anything of value in the "up for grabs" epistles? I suppose that if you get into trouble with Ephesians 5:18 you can just take Paul's "narrative" and weed out what you don't like as we have seen in the post-modern exodus.
John records history and not a "libertarians" version of Luke or Mark. His wanting us to believe is not based on narrative or Jewish Legend. If his record is not true or he takes liberty with the truth then what goal does faith have?
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. John 20: 28
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. John 20: 29
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: John 20: 30
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20: 31
Because the Spirit or Word in Christ was infinite and eternal, books could not record His story. However, John wrote what he wrote without taking liberties with the "oral traditions" or other accounts. If John takes liberties then we will land up with those who understood that "there are gods many and lords many."
You see, it is nonsense to suggest that John was a Narrative Theologian and took liberty with the historical record just in order to cause people to believe. That would be basing faith on a myth. The blind leap of faith is insanity: faith is based on evidence and evidence is based on the truthfulness of God.
Nonetheless, John revealed many things about Jesus and His Advent which would go well beyone just instilling faith.
But then this is the "foundation" upon which Narrative Theology builds upon a groundless religious ritual:
"The Christian life as as a truly postmodern venture: the groundless enactment of God's future now."
John: Yes, I think it is. John wants us to experience the power and imagination of stories -- in this case, the stories of Jesus. He wants us to get inside them. How did you put it? To "walk around in" the Jesus experience -- just as he had done as the beloved disciple.
This is true but whether it is a sequential story or the statement of Fact that the Word indwelling Jesus is one of many other factual statements. For instance, Jesus did not have to tell many tales to preach the sermon on the mount. Any "random" statement from Jesus is another fact I know about God and this helps in knowing God more personally. If I pick up the wrong bits and pieces then it will be true that "there are gods many and lords many" and how can I know that I pick up the right puzzle pieces? I cannot focus upon how we arrive at THE picture if there is a THE picture.
"Walking" in John is related to the miracles of Jesus. However, Jesus did warn about "walk arounds."
Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. Lu.20:46
The Pharisees walked around and built new traditions to replace the old ones to "facilitate" their task as self-selected leaders. We know now that the bits and pieces were so wrong that Jesus wouldn't even teach them.
John walked around with Jesus because he was there. The Jesus Experience is not a "narrative" which you can externalize by a present-day experience. Our minds and arms will simply not reach around the infinite and we are happy with the insights we gain.
John wrote historical records and did not take liberty with the story. Peter walked around with Jesus. Peter wrote that we might have a remembrance of what he experienced first hand. I am not sure that Peter thought that we could construct the historical event into our event. Faith is based on the "once upon a time" and it will never happen again.
If John took liberties just to get us to "experience Jesus" and create faith while using "old narratives" or Jewish Legends then he was not faithfully reporting the Jesus Experience:
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. John 8:28
For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. John 12:49
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. John 14:10
John Locke defined the "high church" claiming a right to change the story to fit the times and Protestants who believed that Scripture was the resource for Christian faith and practice as TWO DIFFERENT RELIGIONS. We both might be sincere but Christianity cannot be defined by any new method of interpreting facts: Christianity must use the resources available to it as "curriculum." If it does not need to make "patterns" out of each narrative then we can just let it rest there and do its work in our own spirit.
The Jesus Christ I know would never fool the fools by telling them that the wandering Israelites are their spiritual fathers unless they have already fallen into musical idolatry. The "Jesus Experience" would never take liberty with the Words He heard from the Father. Then Jesus made Christian unity depend on His Words which must be delivered to others just as He delivered them unchanged from the Father. Jesus made His believability his depending upon what He heard from the Spiritual realm. If we can take liberties with the Jesus Event then why wouldn't Jesus have patterened this by taking liberties with the Father's words?
Paul personally had to abandon "paradigms, Greek philosophy, Narrative Theology and theatrical performance" and just return to preaching what He had heard directly from Christ as Spirit.
Then Paul issued a personal command in Romans 15; Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 to "speak the word one to another." Don't take Liberation Theology or Narrative Theology as sanity but speak the Words of Christ which are Spirit. Don't be so faithless that you deny God the power to put spirit power into words on paper.
And, says Paul, "this is the only way you can have unity" and not sow discord. Narrative Theology is the terminal state of those who have lost their faith in the Word of God "as it has been delivered to you."
Rubel Shelly and John York: So what has been the value of the Exodus study, as you look back over these fifteen weeks?
John: I really like that quotation from Alister McGrath that you included in the study notes and that I read last week. Their journey is our journey
Let's hope not: they began under a covenant of grace, fell into musical idolatry, had the Law of Moses imposed "because of that specific transgression" and wandered and died in the desert.
John's following summary leaves out the "falling away sin of the Israelites."
No, doubt there are many parable-like pictures which have different meanings to different people. However, we must begin with the story and try to understand it factually. Then, we can walk around Sinai and perhaps see God and ten thousand of His host and we will all see them in the end.
The Word of Jesus is the Spirit-given anti-type of the Water in the Wilderness. If the "type" was just a Jewish Legend Paul thought would explain the defeat in the wilderness then how can we be sure that Jesus delivered the life-giving water of the Word to us? Perhaps, the water of the Word is just Jewish Legend and certainly most Post-Moderns have repudiated the direct statement of Jesus that "My Words are Spirit and Life" and Paul's equating spirit in the Ephesian "singing" event to the Word of Christ in the colossian event. Perhaps, as many believe, Jesus may have even lived but His life story is just symbolisms out of which we construct our own walk AS Jesus as taught by many in the world today.
Cutting Down To the Core:
"These are the essentials of Christian faith. It is this core message about Jesus that we share in common with other Bible-believing, cross-proclaiming, resurrection-confessing, born-again persons that constitutes us a church.
"Outside the essence of the gospel,
there are other features that reflect our history and consensus interpretations of the larger biblical message."
In the same linked article Leroy Garret agrees:
"This is to say that the gospel is not the whole of the New Testament scriptures,
for the gospel was a reality long before the scriptures were written.
Strictly speaking,
the teachings of the apostles are not facts, as the gospel is, but interpretations, implications, and edification based on the gospel.
> In this area, that of the didache (teaching) even the apostles differed in their ideas and emphases.
> The churches for whom these documents were written were likewise different from each other.
Garrett goes on to define the "gospel" as something revealed but not subject to debate but:
> "The doctrine allows for debate and dialogue, for intellectual stimulation and the stretching of the mind. It nurtures us in Christ,
but in such a way that each man develops according to his own uniqueness.
> The pragmatic mind as well as the speculative mind finds
> for thought. Its design is (not) to make us all alike in our thinking, but to make us mature in Christ.
This is Narrative Theology at its worse: there is no truth in the epistles but a bunch of first century divided opinion for divided churches.
But Jesus didn't just talk about Jesus: Jesus talked powerfully about the written Word because He was the Spiritual Logos rather than the Greek Hermes or Mercury as the "father of musical instruments and liarers" (The Jubal - Genun story). Jesus thought that He was leading the Apostles into all truth. Was that not true?
Are we to take the statement of Jesus that "My Word is Spirit and Life" to be a Jewish Legend? Then do we have to use His direct words as fodder from which we load our own cannon in order to make the "uninspired Word become inspired to us in our way and our time?"
Corinth is treated next but we will look at what happened "in retrospect" in another section.
Haven fallen for Narrative Theology or Post-Modernism, we can easily see why there is so much hostility and psychological violence heaped upon those who believe that God's Word is normative for faith and practice.
There seems to be two ways of reading a simple statement:
Rubel Shelly and John York: All this was written "for our examples" or "to instruct us," Paul says. Even when surrounded by God, those Israelites succumbed to the temptation of idolatry and unfaithfulness. He gives four examples, one from Exodus 32 and the next three from Numbers 25, Numbers 21, and Numbers 16.
The wilderness was the place where God surrounded them with his presence, took care of them in every way, revealed himself on the mountain.
How could they believe for a second in other gods? How could they complain about their circumstances and be lured away?
But, Israel was largely beyond redemption in Egypt. When God brought them out there were no spiritual leaders and they brought their idolatrous practices and devices with them. Miriam, for instance, was not a 'revealing' prophetess but a musical prophesier. However, to keep faith and to rid Egypt of the Israelites, God exposed them to the Covenant of Grace once more and they repudiated it in musical idolatry.
They refused to listen to a "spiritual" message and let Moses do the listening. This closed their ears until they turned to Christ
Rubel Shelly and John York: So you Corinthians who have been baptized in water and Holy Spirit,
who now eat and drink at the Lord's table, who now are far too intelligent to believe that these temples with their idols are anything -- you had better not think too highly of yourselves. Do you see how he has wrapped them up in the Exodus story? I wonder if he has not wrapped us up in the story as well.
We can find an equivalent after "water baptism" in Red Sea. However, we don't believe that Paul would call spiritual people "carnal."
Paul regretted that he had baptized any of them because at baptism we REQUEST A holy spirit or as Peter later defined it "a clear or good conscience." That means a co-perception of the Mind of Christ Which is the Holy Spirit indwelling by faith (1 Cor. 2).
Moses: For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Heb.9:19
Paul on Jesus: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Heb.10:22
Peter: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 1Pe.1:2
That "internal" sprinkling of overwhelming of the spirit is to cleans OUR spirits: If it is OUT body which is washed at baptism where we REQUEST A clear conscience or A holy spirit then it is OUR spirits, minds or hearts which are fully whelmed. This is necessary and Shelly- York will have missed it because they SURVIVE on performing EXTERNAL rituals which they call worship. However, Jesus said and the Samaritan woman grasped that "Messias will tell us all things."
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. John 4:21
These were PLACES and not mental attitudes:
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews. John 4:22
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:23
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24
The human spirit is the new PLACE where worship takes place just as it did in the synagogues when the people KNEW and loved the Word and read it and understood it. OUR worship is in OUR spirit which corresponds to the Most Holy Place.
Paul defined those who ASSEMBLED using a form of the word SYNAGOGUE. His unique WORSHIP word was to READ or GIVE HEED and to speak "that which we know" written by the Spirit of Christ.
No, God has NOT clothed us in the fatal attraction to musical idolatry in the wilderness:
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Gal 3:27
Being clothed with Christ, and being IN Him as the one and only mediator allows us to come boldly before the throne room. This was the place of gurarding cherubim where the WORD was under the Mercy Seat. This is where we approach God IN THE SPIRIT in darkness and silence. That is why Jesus did not authorize PRAYER MINISTERS but decreed that any singer, musician or preacher who attempts to LEAD US INTO GOD'S PRESENCE especially with MUSIC, were liable to summary execution.
WE have no hint that the Corinthians possessed a single gift even that of avoiding sin and settling problems. Paul's definition of true gifts was more irony that defining the gifts they had. Paul considered them still carnal and not able to go beyond the 'core gospel."
Again, as Paul warns Corinth of Mount Sinai, the "old decadent and deleterious" prophets taught that Israel was a nation of idolaters in Egypt, that God's righteousness and justice would have left them there, that God rescued them to protect His own name and it comes as no surprise that they rejected the "one-another" Covenant, rose up to play in musical idolatry just as in Egypt, and were given the Book of the Law as discipline until they would finally "rise up to play" again (Amos) and be taken into Assyrian Captivity.
Rising up to Play meant that they were restoring the worship they had practiced for over 400 years in Egypt. Moses was a prince and therefore Miriam would be a princess and a prophetesses of Hathor. Her sistrum was her badge and her "escaping out" with a women's procession of noise and dance had its Egyptian parallels.
Of the Peratae Hyppolytus Shows a post Biblical view of the Exodus. While we are not forced to believe it, it certainly proves that the Exodus event was not sacred. He speaks of the "star gods" worshiped by Israel for their duration in the wilderness:
For they suppose little Egypt to be body, and that it crosses the Red Sea-that is, the water of corruption, which is Cronus-and that it reaches a place beyond the Red Sea, that is, generation;
and that it comes into the wilderness, that is, that it attains a condition independent of generation,
where there exist promiscuously all the gods of destruction and the God of salvation.
Now, he says, the stars are the gods of destruction, which impose upon existent things the necessity of alterable generation.
These, he says, Moses denominated serpents of the wilderness, which gnaw and utterly ruin those who imagined that they had crossed the Red Sea. To those, then, he says, who of the children of Israel were bitten in the wilderness,
Moses exhibited the real and perfect serpent; and they who believed on this serpent were not bitten in the wilderness,
that is, (were not assailed) by (evil) powers.
No one therefore, he says, is there who is able to save and deliver those that come forth from Egypt, that is, from the body and from this world,
unless alone the serpent that is perfect and replete with fulness.
Upon this (serpent), he says, he who fixes his hope is not destroyed by the snakes of the wilderness, that is, by the gods of generation. (This statement) is written, he says, in a book of Moses.
This serpent, he says, is the power that attended Moses, [Ex. iv. 2-4, Ex. iv. 17, Ex. vii. 9-13.] the rod that was turned into a serpent.
The serpents, however, of the magicians-(that is,) the gods of destruction-withstood the power of Moses in Egypt, but the rod of Moses reduced them all to subjection and slew them.
This universal serpent is, he says, the wise discourse of Eve.
[Eve, or ZOE, the Mediatrix, was honored because the serpent taught her feminine knowledge]
This, he says, is the mystery of Edem, this the river of Edem;
this the mark that was set upon Cain,
that any one who findeth him might not kill him. This, he says, is Cain, [Gen. iv. 15] whose sacrifice [Gen. iv. 5. ] the god of this world did not accept.
The Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon notes that:
11:15 - In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals,
thou didst send upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them,
11:16 - that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins. (Revelation 18)
Revelation 18 shows that the "fruits they lusted after" finally destroyed the end-time Babylonian Whore religion, and the religious-commercial system would ultimately be destroyed along with her musicians and instruments.
In today's incarnation, we are beginning to see that the Sister Singers or uncovered prophesiers standing in the holy place to "lead the worshipers into the presence of God" along with the instruments of Mount Sinai, have the church's lust turning around and punishing them by converting all of the energy into programs and planning for musical presentations, concerts, dance and drama. As in Exodus and in Amos' warnings, the musical Sister Singers take away the key to knowledge and the "family" starves to death for lack of the truth or poisioned by "reformulations" of God's Diet of the Word.
Again:
Paul goes on to describe the wilderness not as a horrible, God-forsaken, God-absent event, but as a God-surrounded event. God was active everywhere in everything.
His language of baptism in the cloud and in the sea
correspond with the Corinthians' baptism in water and the Holy Spirit.
Ezekiel did not understand the Israelites as our spiritual fathers. God's righteousness would have left them in Egypt to die. However, He rescued them to fulfill His promise and to protect His own name. They brought idolatry and musical instruments with them and they would take them into Canaan:
Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Ezekiel 20: 7
But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said,
I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 20: 8
But I wrought for my names sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Ezekiel 20: 9
Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. Ezekiel 20:10
And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Ezekiel 20:11
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. Ezekiel 20:12
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted:
then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. Ezekiel 20:13
Pollute includes:
Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): - begin (* men began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.
Based on the word "pollute," "play," the example of Samson and David and scholarly opinion, the "because of transgression" was musical idolatry:
"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it; but
the employment of music in religious services, though idolatrous,
is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).
"They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. They practiced rites in which they made themselves naked, perhaps similar to those which were carried out by naked Babylonian priests." (Woodrow, p. 158)
"In the New Testament there is nowhere any emphasis laid on the musical form of the hymns; and in particular none on instrumental accompaniment whereas this is significantly paganism." (Delling, Gerhard, Worship in the New Testament, trans. Percy Scott Phil. Westminster press, 1962, p. 86).
In history, the Jews did not play instruments on the Sabbath because that would pollute it. Instruments were noise-makers for animal sacrifice which in the Exodus up to this time was not a mandatory, priestly task.
God did not "wrap His arms" around Israel as an example for us. Rather:
But I wrought for my names sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Ezekiel 20:14
Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them,
flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; Ezekiel 20:15
Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Ezekiel 20:16
Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. Ezekiel 20:17
Canaan as the "promised land" was converted into the spiritual killing fields for the unfaithful Israelites. The land did not flow with milk and honey but "wine, women and song." By going ecumenical with the Canaanites, Israel again "rose up to play" with music, lost the Word and finally God did make an almost end of them in Canaan, Assyria and Babylonia.
Paul warned of the ancient quest "across the sea" for Osiris as a substitute for God. Anyone who stands in the holy place (pulpit) and speaks for God when Moses and then Paul delivered the message to the people, is making himself into a pagan idol.
It's that very first sentence that I find so incredible: You need to be aware, brothers and sisters, that "our ancestors" -- our Fathers, our kinsmen did so and so. These people aren't Jewish, but the Exodus story is their story!
George Washington was a "founding father" but I am not related to Him.
Paul stopped in the middle of Romans and preached a "Synagogue Sermon" for Jews. The Jews believed that they were predestinated and could not be lost. Therefore, Paul spends lots of time reciting the history of the Jews. Chapters 9-11 are almost exclusively devoted to the Jews. However, in chapter 4 it is Abraham who is the father of those who walk by faith.
Abraham as our "spiritual father" does not mean that we have Jewish blood.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. Romans 4:16
The Law was the Law of Moses and did not exclude obedience to God's Will:
And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Gen 26:4
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice , and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Gen 26:5
That was the Law or Covenent which God again offered Israel but they repudiated the covenant of Grace by spitting in God's face with Egyptian idolatry. As a result, He gave them laws which were not God.
Therefore, the Israelites were "our forefathers" as indeed all who lived before us are prior to us. Paul in 1 Corinthians asks them to not give offense to the Jews. Why was this a problem if there were not Jews there?
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Co 10:31
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 1 Co 10:3 32
Paul defines Jews primarily, but a "mixed multitude" escaped from Egypt with the Jews. These may have been the primary instigators of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. However, Paul is speaking of a factual event which of course has infinitely more meaning than just a historical event. Whoever was included in "our fathers" are, according to Paul, those who experienced the event:
MOREOVER, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 1 Co 10: 1
And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 1 Co 10: 2
And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 1 Co 10: 3
And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 1 Co 10: 4
These people were not "baptized by the Holy Spirit" in the sense of those who believe that they have supernatural power to rewrite the Word or to perform charismatically. They had the Spirit guidance of Christ but they were not personally made spiritual by that power.
The Old Theology was that the Exodus was the central event in the nation forming of Israel. However, the cross is the central event in forming Christ's new Spiritual Kingdom or nation. The exodus has value in showing us an ugly form of paganism which led to the "idolatry of nationhood" and Israel's ultimate destruction.
It is our example but not a spiritual example. Exodus is a what not to do and be example. And "example" does not mean old stories from which we can construct our own narrative of the Exodus event. I can warn you that takeing the Exodus as our Spiritual Ancestors guarantees that we will rise up to play with "wine, women and song." And the idolatry or golden bull will stand in the pulpit or in the "holy place" as musical performers to "lead us into the presence of God" when God has already spoken to us. This is the warning to the Jews of Rome in chaper ten and to the Corinthians in chapter 10.
Again:
Paul goes on to describe the wilderness not as a horrible, God-forsaken, God-absent event, but as a God-surrounded event. God was active everywhere in everything. His language of baptism in the cloud and in the sea correspond with the Corinthians' baptism in water and the Holy Spirit.
They ate and drank spiritual food and spiritual drink, just like the Corinthians were eating and drinking the Lord's Supper.
Look at Baruch above!
God gave them the Book of the Covenant including the Spiritual drink which was His guidance. However, they committed musical idolatry and God gave them The Book of the Covenant whose tenets "were not good."
Old Jeremiah may just be constructing a counter-priestly prophetic "Narrative." However, do we believe Narrative Theologyor Jeremiah:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Jeremiah 7:21
For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7: 22
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7: 23
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Jeremiah 7: 24
Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: Jeremiah 7: 25
Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Jeremiah 7: 26
Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. Jeremiah 7: 27
But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. Jeremiah 7: 28
Do we believe Narrative Theology or Ezekiel?
Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. Ezekiel 20: 17
Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers idols. Ezekiel 20: 24
Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; Ezekiel 20: 25
The "covenant" words were broken and rever repeated.
The sin was "rising up to play"--Musical Idolatry.
The Apocryphal literature shows that once we have fallen we will never get up.
So, they have thrown away anything like a "baptism of the Holy Spirit" by Narrative Theology: they put Apis representing Osiris in their "narrative" about who they trusted:
But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 1 Cor 10:5
Example does mean fodder for Narrative Theology or "an approved example."
Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 1 Cor 10:6
Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 1 Cor 10:7
God was not "surrounding them" as they played baseball. Rather, Israel continued the same musical idolatry which made them worse that the Egyptians:
"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it; but the employment of music in religious services, though idolatrous, is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).
This is the same "rising up to play" when David separated the religious and civil state of Israel.
"The same as the Nile, of which the Egyptians made the star Saturn the representative [HARENBERG]. BENGEL considers Remphan or Rephan akin to Teraphim and Remphis, the name of a king of Egypt.
"The Hebrews became infected with Sabeanism, the oldest form of idolatry, the worship of the Saba or starry hosts, in their stay in the Arabian desert, where Job notices its prevalence (Job 31:26); in opposition, in Am 5:27, Jehovah declares Himself "the God of hosts." The Hebrew Republic
This is how Job defined the star worship which gave them a better deal than righteousness and justice under the Law:
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job 21:7
Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Job 21: 8
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Job 21: 9
Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. Job 21: 10
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. Job 21: 11
They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. Job 21: 12
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Job 21: 13
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Job 21: 14
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? Job 21: 15
Because God actually "removed His arm from around them" while protecting some lives, Paul still details the horrors as a negative example of how not to use the exodus event for a pattern of worship and community:
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 1 Cor 10:8
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 1 Cor 10:9
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 1 Cor 10:10
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples (MARK): and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1 Cor 10:11
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Cor 10:12
The Corinthians had never been "baptized with the Holy Spirit." They were still carnal and still idolatrous. The "uncovered prophesying" in 11:5 was the pagan charismatic, musical pretending to get a message from the "god." Therefore, in verse 17 he told the Corinthians that "your assemblies do more harm than good." Hardly a ringing endorsement.
Some Corinthians had been baptized but they were, like the Exodus event, lusting to return to musical, charismatic worship because sitting down, shutting up and listening to God was not fun and games:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Cor 10:13
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. 1 Cor 10:14
No. Paul totally repudiated their collective assembly. In chapter ten he warned them of the "rising up to play" during the Exodus which was musical idolatry honoring the bull. In chapter 11:5 he warned the women about "uncovered prophesying" outside of the assembly. This has the same meaning as at the Oracle at Delphi.
Now, in verse 11 he begins to discuss the collective assembly:
Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. 1 Cor 11: 17
In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 1 Cor 11: 17NIV
For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 1 Cor 11:18
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 1 Cor 11: 19
When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lords supper. 1 Cor 11: 20
Now, you have to be deep into repudiation of the inspiration of Scripture and therefore of Christ when you suggest that the Corinthian eating and drinking was equivalent to the God-supplied food and drink in the wilderness.
After overlooking what happened after Israel "drank of the Spirit" in Exodus, and claiming that the Corinthians had been "baptized with the Spirit" and their Lord's Supper was not related to drinking to demons, Shelly and York presents the Lord's Supper as a Catholic Eucharist where God uses the cup to heal, cure, purify and immunize against demonic forces:
Rubel Shelly: Holy Father, we praise you for calling us out of the darkness of this world and its idolatries into the glorious light of your Son.
So fill and empower us, Holy Spirit, that we may radiate that light to others.
Through this cup and its holy power to heal, cure us of the world's infections,
purify us wholly for yourself, and immunize us to the demonic forces that would lure us back into slavery. We ask this in the name of our Great Physician. Amen.
The Lord's Supper is not a "second work of grace." The cup does not produce "total sanctification."
This is Narrative Theology. Christ gave the Lord's Supper as the way for us to remember the actual, once for tall times, event. Christ died just once. However, in the Eucharist or Mass Christ dies over and over and has to be reincarnated in the Host and His literal Blood.
Therefore, rather than a tombstone remembering an actual person, we turn and worship the tombstone or memorial.
In the same way, God gave Israel the Exodus Event where much of the nation and eventially almost all of them would "die for their own sins."
If the Jews had ever seen the Exodus event as a pattern for community and worship then they would have missed the total point. If we can fit the Exodus into something good when it was really bad then cannot we reconstruct the cross into something evil?
We just cannot take liberties, even when we don't understand, without destroying the Spirit of the Sord.
The cup is not the literal blood of Christ nor is it Christ: the cup has no holy power to heal, cure infections or immunize from demon forces.
In the next section we will see that "rising up to play" after eating was the worship of demons. This was musical idolatry. This was the example to Rome and Corinth: "Don't take the exodus event as a pattern for worship and community."
Part of the ecumenical movement is to adopt the Catholic Eucharist which is often held on the Sabbath. The Walk to Emmaus is an effort to evangelize for the Worship of Saturn (Sabbath). We noted above that the "demon worship" in Egypt which never ceased in the Wilderness nor in Canaan was related to star worship or specifically the "wandering stars" such as Saturn.
Jude quoting The Book of Enoch warns against these wandering stars, "without waters" and the sin was ignoring and disobeying the Will of God. The method was mixed-sex choirs and instrumental music. All of the Biblical retrospectives, unlike Rubel Shelly's and John York's, see the worship in the wilderness and beyond as destructive musical idolatry.
Now, the heavy hand of Narrative Theology comes crashing down:
Paul even uses a Jewish legend about the water actually following the people around in the desert to say that Christ himself was present with those people just like he is with the Corinthians. They were hemmed in on all sides by God and God-activity.
We will recycle some of this to fully understand that musical idolatry was the terminal sin of a backsliding nation. It was for this turn to instruments as idols along with the golden calf which caused God to turn from them and give them up to idolatrous worship.
In consequence, Amos states that they did not sacrifice to Him for the 40 years in the wilderness.
Back To Introduction on Narrative Theology
Rising Up To Play proves The Exodus to Be "Falling from Grace."
