Taken For A Bride: Biblically exploring your calling out from this world

By Gary Ward

Western Christianity has tried to interpret the Bible through its own lenses.  The problem is that it was written from a Jewish perspective, a completely different mindset and culture.  When we apply just a little of the Jewish perspective, we find the scriptures open up into a refreshing new dimension that brings it to life.  In

• Language: English
• Publisher: Liberty Warfare Publishing
• Release date: Aug 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9780648165415

Gary Ward

After 34 years as a pastor, Gary shares some powerful testimonies and principles related to healings, deliverance, and miracles and shows you the importance of establishing an atmosphere of faith and expectation. He maintains that no matter where you are in your spiritual life, God has more for you!

Book preview

Introduction

Since becoming a believer in 1989 at the age of 22 years, I've always seen 'patterns' in scripture.  I soon realised this was a 'thing' that may indicate that I should study the Bible more seriously.  So I did.  An Honours Degree in Biblical Theology helped me identify the traditional ways to miss most of what the Bible actually says!  It turns out 'pattern' is the way the writers of the Bible saw Prophecy.  My mind had been conditioned to think like a Gentile.  Therefore, all Prophecy had to be prediction only in my conditioned thinking. 

Getting to grip with Jewish hermeneutical methods is tricky, especially if you have no connection to the background and culture except from your own learning.  Obviously, some level of research will be needed to explore that background and culture.  Also, I have found the Holy Spirit helps us 'see' the way it works if we are willing to make some adjustments to our thinking.  A huge help is to understand that there are core Biblical themes God wants us to know about.  There will be a time in Scripture when 'a particular theme' is fulfilled.  But on the way to the fulfilment, God will arrange a number of seemingly disconnected events to happen.  Each will speak of the fulfilment in a slightly different way.  If something has been fulfilled in history past, God also seems to arrange seemingly disconnected events to bring in to our remembrance. 

At Bible College I was told prophecy was like a skimming stone across a pond.  It may skim, say, 5 times then PLOP!  It works with ‘types’ (something that speaks of the theme the Lord is highlighting) leading to fulfilment which is the ‘anti-type.’ This has some truth but fails to encapsulate the Jewish way of seeing prophecy.  For example, my coming to the Lord in contrition for forgiveness in 1989 is a fulfilment of Moses delivering Gods chosen from Egypt.  Both my being saved, and the Exodus, speak of Jesus' atoning sacrifice at Calvary yet

all are many centuries each side of the event.  The exodus is my salvation¹ and Jesus is 'Moses' in this case.  Stones are being skimmed from two sides of history yet in Jewish thinking stones are skimming everywhere!  Prophecy is not following a timeline, more like ‘wheels within wheels.’ This is provocative according to Ezekiel 1 and spoke into a few reasons why the phrase ‘The Cogs of the Kingdom’ has seemed fitting.  Here are 5 things I want this book to do:

Designed on purpose

This is the first book in the Cogs of the Kingdom series.  I really want to see believers witness the design of the scriptures and get excited.  Part of our faith as believers is not just believing in the accomplished work of the cross.  It is also believing the promises that are forwarded to us because of that victory.  If your faith in the bible is undermined then how hard is it to walk in the fullness of your new birth?  Witnessing the design and purposed planning through Biblical history will leave you in no doubt that God has delivered a rescue plan for mankind - implicating you, and it is still in place today!

Where you fit

Also, and vital to the plot, is how we respond to the chief 'Cog' - Jesus.  The idea is you how the scriptures place other Bible characters as 'Cogs' that turn as the chief Cog turns. It's the dream isn't it, to be so connected to Jesus that we respond to His movement? I will demonstrate how the Kingdom of God is designed to place you in direct proximity to the Chief Cog so you will issue forth His will and purpose with your life.  Of course the picture of an engine is a harsh one when speaking of the Kingdom of God.  It isn't engineered metal, cold, hard and just 'functional.'  God's kingdom is love, mercy and grace that has us connect with the Lord on such a level that we are in His proximity.  We are only responsible for proximity not purpose.  Your purpose in the Lord is His prerogative.  More on this later.

A return our primary resource

Peter wanted to stimulate us to wholesome thinking² about our lives in these days.  He directed us to the Apostles and Prophets via Jesus to do that.  Much is occurring outside that framework today and this series asks why we need to look beyond the Bible for our encouragement.  There's nothing wrong with writing a book – you are reading one of mine! But it must reflect the scriptures.  It is my fear that we are in a time where in the absence of biblical understanding many opt for Man's reasoning and fads.  Gimmicks are abundant in many churches and it brings the rest of the church into disrepute.  I want to counter this by offering a treatment of Biblical data that exposes its forensic accuracy throughout seemingly unconnected stories. 

You are implicated!

What you are about to see is impossible without Divine origin.  These patterns and themes cannot exist outside of a purposed intent from the Lord.  Some think we are just the recipients of a great story other people were significant in.  I want to show you how involved your life is in the unfolding of Biblical history, a history that is happening right now.  Your life is of direct significance to the Kingdom of God!  It's not just about getting people saved! It's about your intrinsic positioning as a follower of Jesus.  You can live a life of significance and importance.  You cannot do that however, until your own place in it all is underlined and you yield to the outrageous claim that you are not just significant but implicated in God's kingdom... right now!

Anchor into the Risen Glorified Lord

My place in writing this is 'fellow explorer!' You may have some different angles on some of my observations.  It is not an exercise in being 'more right,' but more an encouragement to reconnect to your living source:

How to read this book

God’s Word is only really God’s Word in the original language so to dig around for actual word meanings is crucial to those who want to relay accuracy in their teaching. Using concordance or e-study tools³ is like placing the Bible under a microscope to observe the detail forensically.  While I will analyse some words, I also want to do something different.

Using Patterns

Even though I will use the languages, I am panning out from the usual practices of just analysing verses or words.  I even go further out to explore themes.  Hosea was clear in 12:10 that God uses devices that speak of other things.  A key verse will be 1 Corinthians 10:11 where the word 'examples' is 'tupos.' This means a figure, image, pattern, prefiguring, type.  There is a danger of seeing things that are not there but among all of this God has designed the Word to have patterns. 

'Cogs' in an 'Engine'

The content of this book views the Bible as a mechanism, a sort of ‘engine.’ Starting with Jesus I begin deconstructing the stories to examine God’s design in inspiring the Bible to present itself as it does.  What we find is that the story is made up of several components that directly weave into the Messianic drama both sides of the Church age.⁴

A main theme of this book is to explore God’s way of showing his rescue plan to Israel.  How can God show His people the Messianic plan when this will be the most unique event in history?  You can’t exactly have a rehearsal! Or can you?  Did God show the nuts and bolts of Messiah's journey towards death in the Old Testament?  Did he wave big red flags all over it to get the attention of Israel?  I'd say yes!  Israel should have seen the things that the Scriptures spoke of and at least brought them before God for clarification! 

Israel knew Jesus was Messiah

Of course they knew about Messiah, and Isaiah 53⁵ would have given them an idea of His demise.  We can see that in Zechariah 12:10 is clearly speaking of the one who was pierced and the ones who came before Jesus would have heard this.  Psalm 22, amazingly and with staggering detail, foretells the events on the cross even before crucifixion was invented!  Jesus verifies the story of Jonah which we now see as being a picture of Jesus in the tomb... the sign of Jonah.⁶ Job declares in 19:25-26 that he will see his Redeemer stand on the earth in another jaw dropping statement.  We also have the slain lamb motif, the incident with Abraham and Isaac and of course, Passover.  These passages outplay in detail the saving plan of God.  In this book I want to show that the Messianic story was forensically demonstrated to Israel through Elijah's exit in 2 Kings 2.  My hope is that the Jews and others who observe Elijah as a Prophet of God will be able to read this and behold their Messiah.

Fusing it all together

We have much to observe in hindsight about Messiah and his death, burial, resurrection, ascension and glorification.  It's easy for us to identify the nuts and bolts having had the New Testament epistles to show us. My observations on Elijah and Elisha's exit from the Promised Land expose patterns across the whole council of God.  The major observation is the way of death.  Jesus' death is the most outrageous act of love in history.  Then there is the command to die to self.  When we get to the story of 2 Kings 2 you will see