Gender and Church

All right, well, we've been working our way through First Timothy, and we are here,

First Timothy 2, 8 to 15 this morning.

And this is, of course, a famous passage about gender in the church,

and it's famous because it's controversial.

And even as I was reading it when I finished, I looked up and saw the expressions on people's faces,

and immediately realized that everybody knows it's fame because of its controversy.

There's, of course, debate and disagreement about this passage,

and it's hard for a modern person who's grown up in the 20th and 21st century to read this and to hear it.

And that's because in verse 12 and 13, it calls on women, quote, to be quiet in the church and submissive.

And I want you to remember as we dig into it that we've got 30 minutes, right? Remember that.

And we really need a semester course, actually, on this passage,

because this passage, Paul, very quickly, without giving any details,

gives you an entire theology of gender from creation to new creation in two verses.

And we can't do all of it today, but we'll do some of it.

And so let me say today is going to be just slightly different than usual

because we're going to be a little bit heavier on Bible interpretation,

on just getting into the weeds of Scripture a little bit,

because we've got to do that to be able to understand, I think, very clearly what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy 2,

because it's very easy for a modern person to completely misunderstand for all of us.

And so we've got to do that.

And let me say, too, if you're not a Christian this morning and you're coming and exploring Christianity

and you're curious in the claims, and this is a passage that will be especially strange to you

as a modern person that's coming in to explore the claims of faith,

because the Bible often hits very hard against our modern intuitions

and the consciousness that we've developed over the course of the 20th and 21st century.

And what Paul's going to do here is go back to the beginning of time

and say that there's a real reason that men and women have different roles.

And so we've got to see that.

We're going to see two things this morning.

How to read the Bible first and secondly, the nature of men and women.

And then all of that, the big point is that what we do has got to correspond to what we are.

Okay, so let's dive in.

First, how to read the Bible.

If you look down at verse 8, you will see that Paul uses in the ESV, it's the word then or therefore,

I desire therefore.

And that means what he's about to say about men and women is being connected to everything he said already.

So he's making an argument and he's picking up on that argument to enter into a talk about men and women.

But what is he already said that leads him to this?

Okay, well, verse 7 and before, I'm an apostle.

I've got authority.

I'm talking to Timothy, a pastor.

And the whole of 1st Timothy is really a book about the instructions of how to do life inside the church,

amongst the church family.

And even if you hop back to verse 2, which is really the thesis, the subject of the rest of this chapter,

verse 1, I should say, and 2,

I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for everybody.

Meaning that the context is that Paul is saying, I'm talking about how you act within the Sunday worship service.

He's talking about that context.

And earlier he's saying, this is how prayers are to be conducted and thanksgiving and supplications.

Who do you pray for? How do you pray? Who prays?

And he's picking back up with that.

So everything that we read here is about what goes on in the context of public worship amongst the people of God.

That's what this section is about.

And so you can see that verse 8, verse 9, how should prayers happen?

Men lifting holy hands in prayer don't fight with one another.

Women, when you come to worship and you're in prayer and you're amidst the people of God, where modest clothing will come back to that in just a moment.

Verse 11 and 12, women, when you come to worship, you're not permitted to teach.

And so all three of these commands that he gives, verse 8, verse 9, verse 12,

are all about what happens in the midst of this context.

Now, you come to that still and you say, well, what does it mean exactly?

And this is where there's a real opportunity. Now, if there's any opportunity for rehearsing what it looks like to read the Bible well,

it's a passage like this.

And John Stott in his great commentary on this book, he does that.

He reminds us of two ways to always, two things, to always keep in your head as you read scripture.

And one is this, you've always got to pay attention to the history or the context.

Right? That's the first principle. And so that simply means that in every passage,

there is a specific audience in the first century in the New Testament.

And you've got to think along the lens or the mindset of that first audience, that particular audience.

Who was writing? Who were they writing to? Why would they say this in that particular time?

Right? So context is always incredibly important.

As an example, verse nine, it says to women, don't come to worship with braided hair,

with gold earrings or pearls around your neck.

Okay? Now, why? Why? What you've got to do is you've got to go and say,

the principle of history matters so much in understanding what he's saying.

Because you can probably intuit very easily, he's not saying to every one of you,

do not wear pearls to church, do not braid your hair at church.

No, not at all. What is he saying?

He's saying that in this context, in this time of the first century,

to do that is to step into the worship space in the dress of extravagance.

Because that's what it looked like to be wealthy in the time.

And there's probably even more to it than that, but I won't get into it.

But in that moment, he's saying, look, women, when you come to church,

don't dress in such a way that you're expressing your immense wealth if you have it.

Because there are poor women coming to worship in Ephesus.

And you see, it's incredibly modern. He's saying there needs to be an equality of modesty.

Right? Where this is about coming into the presence of God, not about extravagance.

And so be modest. And the same thing with men, he's saying,

the principle of context, lifting holy hands. Right?

If you don't pay attention, you might think, well, every time I pray,

my hands have to be in the air.

But that's not what he's saying, although lifting holy hands is a practice of worship

throughout the whole Bible, and we would do well to recover it probably.

But he's not saying we have to do that every time we pray.

Instead, it's a principle. He's saying, men, when you come to worship, don't fight.

And the reason is because the whole first chapter was about men quarreling over theology.

And he's saying, when you come to the worship context,

this is not the space to be pointing fingers at each other and talking about these issues.

Right? You're coming into the presence of God.

Women be modest. Men, stop fighting. Stop quarreling. Right?

That's the principle of history.

Secondly, you also have to have the principle of harmony.

And the principle of harmony is that at the same time,

if you only focus on context and history and fail to realize you've got to read every passage

in the light of the whole Bible all the time, then you might end up dismissing what Paul says,

because it's mere cultural. It's merely cultural. Right?

And so the principle of harmony says because God wrote the entire Bible,

Genesis to Revelation, every single chapter, every single verse interprets all the other ones.

And so every passage you read, you've also got to say, what does this mean in light of the whole Bible?

Right? And so we could come back to verse eight and nine and see very clearly what's Paul saying.

Well, over and over again throughout scripture, Old Testament, New Testament,

New Testament, men don't quarrel, don't come into worship.

Matthew chapter five, Jesus says, if you are angry with your brother and you come to the altar,

meaning you come into the worship space, stop right there and go and reconcile before you enter the

worship, into worship. Right? It's the same idea. Women be modest. Men be modest. It's for everybody,

because we see that all across the Bible. Right?

So the principle of history and the principle of harmony are so important, especially here.

You know, if you don't do that, the pitfalls in this passage alone would be on the one hand.

If you don't pay attention to context and history, then you might end up reading it in a literalistic

way, a literalism, saying, women, every time you come to worship, if there's braided hair,

you're in trouble. Right? And of course, that's silly. That's ridiculous. That would be to miss

the entire point of the passage. Men, every time you pray, if you pray without your hands in the air,

then you've not really prayed. And of course, that's not the point of all. That's a literalism

that can happen if you miss context. But if you miss the whole Bible, the harmony, then what happens?

Then you start to say things like, well, look, this is Paul talking to a specific people at a

specific time, and we all know better now. You know, we've grown. Our ethics have changed. We've

evolved. We know that now none of this is really true anymore. This was for one time and one place.

And the Bible won't let us do that either. And Paul won't let us do that in this passage. Instead,

as we jump into the meat, point two, we've got to have a reading that is from above, you might say,

meaning a reading that recognizes that scriptures come down to me, that it's from God. And so all

of its God's word, and so that means I've got to be willing to hear God speak to me, because this

is God speaking for all time, for every century. And at the same time, God also calls me to use

reason, to use Christian reason, disciplined reason to understand every single passage.

All right, well, let's do that. Point two, the nature of men and women, verses 12 to 15 here,

verses 10 to 15, I should say. Verse 12, Paul comes and he says,

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Now, we've already said

that this is in the context of the worship space. That's what he's talking about. And so this word

to teach here is another way to say preaching. He's talking here about what I'm doing right now,

the act of public preaching. And also with that, I think implicitly from other passages,

like 1 Corinthians, he's talking about the administration of the sacraments. Those are

the two things that he has in mind here. And immediately, if you don't read with a principle

of harmony with the whole Bible, you might hear him saying, women, when they cross the threshold

of the building door, have to be silent. He says, I require a woman to be silent in church.

And that's not at all what he's saying. He's not talking at all about absolute silence. And we

know that because in 1 Corinthians 11, he talks about how men and women both prophesy and pray

in worship. And so he talks about giving instructions when women and men prophesy and pray. And that

gets us into another sticky topic, the head coverings in that passage. But in the context,

he's saying men and women are both prophesying and praying. And we know, of course, all across

the New Testament that women are singing and we have examples of women responding orally

in the midst of worship to the teaching. We have women interpreting and things like that.

And this is probably prophesying, by the way, in a season where speaking in tongues was normative

in the first century church. We've got examples from the Old Testament of Deborah

and Hilda, 1 Corinthians, 1 Kings, I should say, 22, Priscilla and Lydia having huge roles

in the life of the early church. We have very clear examples of women being charged to go

preach the gospel in the public sphere as missionaries. And so we've got Philippians 4,

2 to 3, Eodia and Sintiqi. Paul says, these are my fellow laborers in the gospel that they came

alongside and proclaimed the gospel in the public square alongside of me. So this is not a command

for women to be silent in any absolute way. He's specifically talking here about preaching in the

administration of the sacraments. He's restricting the teaching office, in other words, to men.

And, by the way, ordained men. So it's not saying that men can preach in administration

sacraments and women can't. It's saying that only called by God ordained men. And we see that very

clearly in the next chapter can do this. So it also restricts the office to only certain men,

not all men. Now, look, the principle of history. I want to say this because you'll probably come

across this if you want to dig into this passage more, or maybe you have in the past. There have

been a lot of books written. A lot of trees have been killed on 1st Timothy 2.12. And one of the

big movements in the literature, if you go look for it, is that many people will say, and there's

truth to this, Ephesus was the center of a particular temple, the temple of Diana. And Diana was a

goddess in the Greco-Roman pantheon. And in that center, it may be the case, although this is

highly speculative, that women were exclusively in charge of all the clerical rights in the midst

of the temple of Diana. And so Paul knows that. And there may be women that have been converted

to Christ who are coming from the temple of Diana. And so he's saying it can't be like it was in the

temple of Diana in the life of the church. Now, people have, and that may be true, and it's helpful.

But what people have done is they've used that particular contextual mark to say, look, this is

cultural, first century, Ephesus only, right? And there are truths there. But at the same time,

we immediately know all you've got to do is read the next verse to know that Paul will not let you

do that. He won't let us do that, right? And because you come to the very next verse, verses 13 to 15,

and he gives us the reasons why this is the case. And what does he do? He says, to understand this,

you've got to have a theology of creation. You've got to go back to the doctrine of creation,

if you want to understand it, okay? So here it is. And we'll spend the rest of our brief time on this.

He gives us three reasons why he's giving this command, that men are to be in the teaching office.

He's administering the sacraments, preaching on Sundays, okay? Three reasons. One, verse 13,

because Adam was created first in Eve's second. That's the first reason. Second reason he gives,

verse 14, because Adam was not deceived, Eve was. Reason three, but she will be saved by childbearing.

So those are his three reasons, his three claims, and of course they all come within a doctrine,

an idea of what happened at the beginning of time, all right? So he's pointing us all the way back,

and he's saying there's a real why here. Now look, you may be here today. Many of you, I know,

and I know where you are. I know you're from the past, and I know that you're okay. You read this

passage, and you're okay. You hear Paul. But it may be that you haven't asked the why question,

and you actually need to, because that's where Paul goes. And it may be here today that you're

struggling to hear this and read this and say, I don't know what to do with this. And Paul says,

you need to hear an answer to the why question, because as modern people, that's what we come to.

We come in, we read this, and we say, look, I don't know how you can get around what Paul says.

The command seems rather clear, but why? But why, Paul? Why is this the way? Why has God

ordained it like this? Why? And that's exactly actually what Paul does. He anticipates that.

And so he doesn't spell it out for you. He assumes so much, but he takes you back to a doctrine of

creation. In other words, a superficial way to look at these three reasons would be something like

this. You know, Adam is first, Eve is second, meaning men have authority over women in the church,

because men were made first, and therefore are superior to women. And that's superficial. Paul

says, no, that's not it. Or the second one would be Eve was deceived, not Adam. You see, a woman

brought sin into the world, not the man, it was her fault. Therefore, he's got to be the guy who

gives her instruction. No, not what Paul is pointing to at all. Or the third would be, but she will

be saved by childbearing, which is a text of immense mystery. What does that mean? Well, it sounds

like from a modern reading that he's saying women are made for the home and nothing else, childbearing,

or whatever it might be. No, that's not what Paul's doing here. Okay, instead, we've got to go for

the next few minutes back to the creation to hear it correctly. Okay, and here it is, claim one,

the creation story. Adam was made first, then Eve. What does he mean by that? Why does he say

Adam was created first and then Eve? And here's why. When you go to Genesis one,

you might notice very clearly, as Christians have for century after century, that the creation

days are in order from the lesser to the greater. So from day one to day six, you have a movement

that climaxes on day six, from sky and land and darkness and light all the way to vegetation,

then to animals, but then to humans, day six, climax, the image of God. Well, Genesis two,

what it does is it comes down close reading on day six, and it does actually the same exact

thing as Genesis one. You see, when you're in a tuned reader, you start to realize that what's

happening in Genesis two is different than what a modern person sees superficially on first glance

at Adam first, Eve second. Instead, what happened, Adam, in Genesis two, were told, was made first,

and he was, quote, formed from the dust. And that's a word formed that shows up in Genesis one,

when God said that he was going to form and fill creation. And so the first three days of creation

correspond to God's work of forming things, and the second three days of filling, but the climax

is on the second three days. And that's why in chapter two, it says Adam was formed, picking up on

that same idea. He was first, he corresponds to the first three days, but she, the man of dust,

you see, but she, what does it say? It's a different verb. She was fashioned out of a human,

out of a man. And that verb, fashioned, is a verb of artistic expression. And in the same

sense of Genesis one, what is it saying? It's not saying Adam came first, you know, and so he's

better. No, it's saying Adam came first, and so she's better. That's actually the point. You see,

it's saying that whatever comes last in the creation order is the climax of creation.

Adam and Eve are human. They're both the image of God, male and female. They're ontologically to use

a philosophical term in terms of being exactly equal in dignity before God, but she is the climax.

She is the great point of creation. She comes second, you see. Now, what does that have to do

with being a pastor and preaching in the sacraments? What it has to do with this,

would the first and second come a role differentiation? In the beginning, Adam was made

first. He was given a role. She was made as the climax, and she was given a role. And what is

Adam's role? It's right back in Genesis 2.15, and Adam is told to, quote, work and keep the garden of

Eden. Now, those verbs, and I told you we were going to get into the weeds today, so stick with me

for a moment. Those verbs to work and to keep show up only a few other times in the Old Testament,

and they do it in the first five books. And what are those the verbs for? Those are the verbs that

God gives to the priest in Leviticus. The priest's job is to work and to keep the garden, because the

temple looks like a garden all throughout the Old Testament. And you see, that means that Adam,

made of dust, was given the job to be the priest of creation. And what is the priest's job? The

priest's job is to care for, to guard, and to protect the temple of God until, until God fully

comes down, and the new creation springs forth. And you see in that, that the Garden of Eden was

a temporary moment. If you've studied biblical theology or anything, you know that the Garden

of Eden was temporary. It was all about something to come. And what was to come was the full coming

of the kingdom of God. And until then, Adam was made to be the priest, to guard and protect the

space that is the temple of God, Eden. And that's why every temple across the Bible looks like a

garden, and gardens look like temples, because Eden was the temple of God on earth, and Adam was the

priest of that temple. But she's given a role too, the climax of creation. She's given a role, Eve.

She's not the priest. She's made to help the priest, yes, the helper. But you know, there's only one

person that that word helper is used up throughout the rest of the Bible, and that's God himself.

He's the only other person who takes that title. And that means that, that she symbolizes something.

When Eve, the climax of creation is made, she's a symbol. You see, he's a priest, and he's temporary

in that role. That role is about guarding something until the fullness of the kingdom would come.

But she's the second. She's the climax. You see, Eve symbolizes the fullness of the coming

of the kingdom. She is new creation, symbolically. If Adam is a man of the dust, a man of creation,

Eve, she is the woman, the creature of new creation. She symbolizes everything that the world is meant

to become when God fully comes down. And you see, that's the order from the lesser to the greater.

She's the climax. She's the symbol of new creation. That's why, by the way, you know, if you don't

have this reading, by the way, if you don't have this in your mind, it's very difficult to read

the gender passages in the New Testament. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says, woman is the

glory of man. Why? Because Eve is the revelation of the glory of creation. She is man's climax.

She is creation's climax. She is a symbol of what is to come. She is a symbol of the fullness

of God that is to come. Now, here's the takeaways. There's a role difference then between men and

women from the very beginning, as it pertains to the church or in the Old Testament, the temple.

Where were they at the beginning in the temple? Where are we here? The church. It's talking about

ordination and priesthood. Who can be the priest? And Adam can be a priest because he's been charged

with guarding, protecting, and caring for creation's glory until God should fully come.

And the woman is not charged with that. Why? Not because she's subordinate in some way of being,

but because she is the symbol of the climax of creation. So every single week when a man

stands here, he's meant to be like a new Adam, giving and guarding the word of God for the

sake of the woman, the bride. And all of us are the bride. And you say, this sacred ordering

is about picturing the story of redemption in even the way we relate to one another in the midst

of the worship space. That there's a sign of creation and new creation, even through man and

woman, through gender. You see, gender and the theology of gender, what it means runs all the

way to the bottom of what we are. It points to the whole story of all of history, where to look at

women, in other words, and we're to see in them a symbol of the ultimate glory that is to come.

By the way, you can even see this, the Old Testament. I won't do any details, but if we had a

semester, of course, we could go through the Old Testament and see how male and female physiology

are also taken by the Bible to manifest these two realities. Leviticus 13 to 15 in the Song of

Songs, talk about a woman in such ways that point us to see her as the Garden of Eden symbolized.

She is like the temple. She is the glory of God's presence. Let me prove this to you one more way.

I have more than that, but we're running out of time. In Genesis 2, Adam is named Adam for a

reason. Adam is just a direct translation from a Hebrew term that is A-D-A-M. Why? Because the

Hebrew term for the ground is the word Adam-Mah. It's just Adam with an H on the end, meaning

the first human, which is a male, is of the ground. He's closely related to the stuff. He's of creation,

but when woman, the pinnacle of creation is made, the name of what a human is changes in Genesis 2.

Now, Adam is no longer called Adam. He's called Ish and Isha in the Hebrew. I give that to you,

because that's a name change when she's made. The word Ish in Hebrew is almost identical to the word

fire. Remember the context? These are Israelites being given this book by Moses thousands of

years ago who knew Hebrew and who knew what all this meant, who were around sacrificing the

Levitical priesthood. They understood this. They could see this, that when man and woman are called

Ish because of the woman, it makes you think of fire. That was the point. Why? Because every

single time God comes down in the Old Testament and fills up the temple, how does He do it?

He comes as fire. He comes in the burning bush. He comes as the great cloud of smoke. He comes

into the temple and fire consumes the offering. In other words, you see, when the woman is made,

it's saying she is a sign of the fullness of God's presence that is to come. She is the glory of

Adam. Adam is, in other words, exists to serve and protect her, the temple, like he exists to serve

and protect the temple itself until the full coming of God in the end. You see? Now, you come

to the New Testament as we start to close here. And when you look at Ephesians 5, it does this,

marriage. How should men and women relate to marriage? Well, women submit to men, but men also

submit to women, Paul says, in Ephesians 5. How do men submit to women? They submit to women as Jesus

submitted himself to the bride herself, the church. And you see, from the very beginning,

the role of pastor and congregant has always meant to illustrate marriage, because marriage

illustrates creation, because it's all about the movement from creation to new creation.

And so the relationship that is between pastor and congregation is mimicking, symbolizing one

that is like Adam and Eve, Christ and the bride. Not that the minister is like Christ,

but that he's called to be a new Adam. He's called to guard and to protect and to care for

the bride until Jesus comes to get her. So the reason why men are called to the teaching office

is not thin, it's thick. It runs all the way into the depths of creation order itself.

That's why in Revelation 21 and 22, when it talks about the coming of the full glory of Jesus down

to earth, there's going to be a wedding. And in that wedding, who does the great second Adam

marry? He marries the church. And how is the church described? As bride and as the city of God,

the new Jerusalem. And you know that bride is feminine, you know that. And the city of God

is also a feminine concept in the Greek text, as is the new Jerusalem. Remember, Galatians

calls the new Jerusalem the mother, the mother of the church, right? These are all feminine

concepts because they actually play on creation order from the very beginning. Now look, if you

have all that in mind, we can do claim two and three in two minutes, because they all fall into place

when you understand that creation theology of gender. And claim two is this, she was deceived,

not Adam. So men have to preach. Well, do you know what that's saying? It's taking you back to Genesis

two, sorry, Genesis three, verse six, when it says that when the woman was deceived, he was with her.

And what does that mean? It means that she was deceived, not him. Meaning he knew exactly what

was happening when the serpent came. He was with her. And so he let the temple of God itself,

the bride, Eve, the point of creation, the climax, he let that temple be corrupted by the serpent.

You see what it's saying? It's not saying that it was Eve's fault, it's saying it was Adam's fault.

It's saying that the priest failed. He did not do what he was charged to do. Every time a pastor

fails to protect a church from false teaching or whatever it is, or public moral failure,

that is, it's akin. It's like Adam all over again, failing to stand by the bride,

because she was deceived, he was not. He was the one that brings sin into the world, because he

knew exactly what was happening. You see? All right, claim three as we close them.

Claim three, she will be saved through childbearing. Now look, again, if you've got this theology of

creation in your head, then you can probably guess what this means. Eve, not woman, a couple

translations get this wrong, because they turn that she will be saved, to women will be saved.

They make it plural, but it's not plural, it's singular. She, Eve will be saved through childbearing.

What does that mean? Adam was there that day. He watched the bride, the temple of God, the climax

of creation fall, and he did nothing. And now she will be saved through childbearing. But not only

she, did you notice at the very end in verse 15, it says, she will be saved through childbearing

if they continue in faith. So it switches it. It's not only she, but they, meaning Adam and Eve,

both, man and woman, both will be saved through childbearing. Why? It's saying, it's trying to

take you back to Genesis 3.15. And if you remember Genesis 3.15, it's that if Adam would have done

his job, if Adam would have stood by her and not let this happen, then the kingdom of God would

have come. The covenant would have been fulfilled that we would be in a time already of new creation,

of the new heavens and the new earth come down. But he failed. And now in Genesis 3.15, we're told

that who is going to usher in the kingdom? She will save them how by childbearing, meaning that one

day the seed of the woman, the one child, will come to crush the head of the serpent. You see,

it's talking about Jesus. She will save the world by the Son that she will give birth to. That's

what it's saying here, that she has been called to a holy task. Woman, Eve, Mary, as representative

woman, she is called to bring the Messiah. And so she will save the world how by childbearing,

they will be saved through, you see, this is the last word. When you're looking at Genesis 3,

and you see Adam there with Eve, the symbol of creation, the symbol of the temple, the groom

and the bride, the whole story of creation, the whole story of redemption unfolds right there.

And if you're a Bible reader, if you're a Christian today and you've worked through the

Bible carefully, maybe you've noticed this before. When she's deceived and there's now sin, death,

and transgression that has entered the holy temple, the woman and the temple itself eaten,

when you look at your Bible, what do you expect a true priest to do in that moment?

You know, when sin comes down, when Satan comes down and he deceives the bride, and he tries to

steal the bride away from God, what do you expect a true priest to do? And if you've read through the

Bible, you've read through the Old Testament and looked at the sacrificial system, you've read

through the Gospels and read the story, what do you expect the true priest to do? You expect Adam

to turn into give his life for her. He should have died, life for life, death for sin, right there

to protect God, to do the role of the priest. And instead, what does he do? He says she did it.

He blames her and he shifts the blame. And that means that from the very beginning,

very beginning, you're looking for a priest that's better than Adam. You're looking for a priest

that would protect the bride all the way to the end. And that's Jesus Christ who would give himself

for her. And every single time we gather in worship as modern people today, 21st century,

first century, no matter where it is in history, when the pastor gives the bread and wine and he

gives the word of God to the people, this is a tiny little reflection of the movement of the great

groom protecting, guarding and keeping the bride until the day that the true groom should return.

See, the reason a pastor is a man because he's called to be a new Adam, he's called to work

in ways that Adam failed and he can only do that in the light of Jesus imperfectly. And so there's

a real thick reason why it's fitting here for a man to serve in this way. He's meant to do the dirty

work, the work of sacrifice, the work of protection, the work of guarding. So as modern people, we're

called to look and see in all of this the point of history and not to balk at it, but to submit to

it and glory in it because it is the story of redemption in the way that God has ordered it.

Let's pray. Father, we ask now in all our questions that you would come and meet with us. We know,

Lord, that this is only dipping our toe in the water. And so we pray, Lord, in the midst of this

difficult to digest both concept and biblical interpretation that you would help us.

And so we ask for that in Christ's name. Amen.