Peter's reasons for choosing a disciple. Acts 1:12 – 16
There
are a lot of interesting things going on in this passage that we need to learn,
and we need to learn them not only because they are going on in this chapter
but it sets the stage for being able to intelligently understand what comes up
in chapter two. Acts 2 is an enormously controversial chapter. How many
actually spoke in tongues on that day? Was it 120 or just 12? When Peter
explained it in 2:16 he said that this was what was spoken of
by the prophet Joel. He seems to be identifying what happened on the day
of Pentecost with Joel prophesied in Joel chapter three.
There
are basically three answers to the question of what Peter meant. The first
answer is that Peter is saying that this is precisely and exactly the
fulfilment of what Joel said. The problem with that is nothing that Joel
predicted happened on that day, and nothing that did happen
was prophesied by Joel. But if you take that view and you understand
Joel in context then Joel is talking about something that occurs just prior to
or at the time of the day of the Lord, which the Old Testament describes as the
time when the Lord is going to come and rescue Israel from national calamity as
they seem to be on the edge of complete and total destruction. And then the
Messiah will establish His kingdom on the earth and rule as the son of David
literally from Jerusalem over all the nations. Cf. Psalms 2;
110. So if Acts 2 is talking about a literal
fulfilment then that would mean that the kingdom has come. Those who say that
the kingdom has come recognize that it is not physical, so they have to change
the meaning of the kingdom from a physical kingdom to a spiritual kingdom. That
is essentially the position of amillennialism—no literal thousand-year
reign.
Then
there is the view that some recognize that there are some things that happen in
Acts 2 that don’t quite fit Joel but in some sense this is fulfilling Joel, so
in some sense the kingdom came, or it came partially, or it was inaugurated,
but it is gradually coming in over the period of the age in which we live and
it won’t come in its fullness until Jesus returns. That view is called the
already-not-yet view. That idea permeates lots of stuff that goes on in the
church today.
Then
there are the dispensationalists who say isn’t a fulfilment at all, it is not
fulfilment language at all, all Peter is saying is that this is like what Joel
said. So it is important for us to understand what is meant in the New
Testament when Old Testament passages are quoted.
Acts
1:15 NASB “At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the
brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there
together), and said.” He is taking a position of leadership. He, James and John
were very much in the inner circle. They were the ones with whom Jesus spent
most of His time, the ones he taught most in a more intimate environment.
Acts
1:16 NASB “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the
Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide
to those who arrested Jesus.” The word “fulfilled” is the Greek word pleroo [plhrow], the typical
word that is used in fulfilment passages. He is not really quoting a specific
verse here but he is saying that David under inspiration of the Holy Spirit
spoke about Judas. The question is: where in the Old Testament does it speak of
Judas?
In
2 Peter he talks about the fact that they are not believing
something that is a really slick, made-up story. That is one of the evidences
that confirms the validity of the truth of the
disciples. When Jesus was crucified they scattered to the four winds. The last
thing in the world they wanted was to be identified with Jesus and to be put on
a cross by the Romans. So they scattered, were afraid, and Peter denied that he
even knew Jesus. What gave them the courage to come back together and, for
Peter especially, on the day of Pentecost to preach such a tremendous message
before everybody who was there in light of his cowardice at the time of the
crucifixion? It is that they saw a man who was raised from the dead. Not only
that but as Jesus opened their eyes to an understanding of the Old Testament
and took them through it from Genesis to Malachi He showed them how all of the
prophets spoke about Him.
2
Pet 1:18 NASB “and we ourselves heard this utterance made from
heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” [19] {So} we have the
prophetic word {made} more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a
lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises
in your hearts.” This is an allusion to the future absent from the body and
face to face with the Lord.
2
Pet 1:20 NASB But know this first of all, that no prophecy of
Scripture is {a matter} of one’s own interpretation.” He is not talking about
the reader making a private interpretation, he is
talking about the prophet interpreting the information that God gave him. He is
saying that the prophet did not interpret the revelation that God gave him on
his own but he just gives it directly as God gave it to him. [21] for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but
men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” This is completely in accord with
what the Old Testament teaches, the tests of a true prophet in Deuteronomy 13
and 18 which are very clear that a prophet spoke for
God. That is why it was a death penalty offence if anybody said, “God told me
to say this” or “God spoke to me” if they didn’t fit the qualifications of
those tests. The word there for moving is a word that is also used of the wind
blowing or directing a sailing vessel on the water so that it is not under its
own control but under the control of something else. So in Old Testament
prophecy it is God overseeing or directing the thinking and the writing of the
prophet so that they wrote was what God intended, and it guaranteed that what
they wrote was without error.
When
those writers of the Old Testament wrote they wrote within a context. They were
not writing without reference to historical events or historical situations but
they were writing in relation to things that were happening around them. So
what they wrote had direct application to an immediate set of circumstances.
But the things that were happening were sometimes designed by God in His
sovereignty and oversight to have significance that went beyond the immediate
understanding that the prophet had at that time or the immediate circumstances
of history.
Over
the last ten or fifteen years there have been a couple of significant
dissertations written at major universities in England and Europe that have
addressed the issue of how the rabbis in the first century, prior to the
destruction of the second temple, handled Scripture. These dissertations have
demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the way that the rabbis prior to
70 AD quoted
Scripture and handled Scripture was very different from what had become by the
second century and even later and into the present era, the church age. What
they discovered is that rabbinical exegesis and interpretation was tighter,
much more consistent with what we refer to as literal interpretation of Scripture.
From
writings from the period of time of the time of Jesus and just prior to
that—the Talmud, Mishna, and various Midrash writings from that
period—we can see that passages that Christians consistently take as
messianic—Genesis 3:15; Psalm 2; 110; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 53; Daniel 9,
etc.—were understood by rabbis at the time of Jesus to be specifically
and literally referring to the coming of the Messiah, whereas by 1000 AD there were
different shifts that took place in rabbinical interpretation that became much
more allegorical.
When
most people sit down and read their Bibles and it says, “And this was
fulfilled,” they think it is this. But there are three other ways that “this
was fulfilled” is used. So we think in a wrong literal way. This is not what
literal interpretation means. Literal interpretation is often mischaracterized
as some sort of wooden view that doesn’t take into account usage, figures of
speech, similes or idioms. This is obviously an idiomatic use and we find it in
many places. It will say “It is fulfilled” four times in Matthew chapter two
and only one of them has to do with a literal prophecy that it literally
fulfilled.
The
second kind is a literal historical event that has a typological fulfilment.
The word “type” comes from the Greek word tupos
[tupoj] which has to do with
the mark of something. For example, you take a seal and press it into a soft
wax that leaves a mark or impression that is the reverse of what is on the
seal. So the seal is the antitype and the mark in the wax is the type. A
typology is that God built into a number of different things in the Old
Testament: various patterns or shadows, that would teach certain things about
His plan and about the Messiah, so that when the
Messiah came He would be easily identified. That is what a type is. It is not
an application, it is a pattern recognition.
A
couple of important prophecies related to the Messiah came out of these really
bizarre prophecies made by Balaam. Balak the king of Moab has hired Balaam to
curse Israel. But God won’t let him do it. Four different times he tries to
curse Israel and each time God gives him something else to say and he ends up
saying what God wanted him to say, despite the fact that he was really trying
to curse Israel. In these prophecies what is clear is that Israel as a
collective whole is being used as a pattern for the Messiah. We have also seen
that Israel as a collective whole and their experience with God is a pattern of
the spiritual life for the church age believer, and that is true. But in this
Israel is used in this context as a picture of the Messiah.
Numbers
23:21 NASB “He [God] has not observed misfortune in Jacob; Nor has He seen trouble in Israel; The LORD his God is
with him, And the shout of a king is among them.” Notice the use of third
person singular pronouns. In synonymous parallelism Jacob and Israel are
parallel to each other. This is classic Hebrew poetry of synonymous parallelism
where the second line repeats what is in the first line, with synonyms to give
a full picture of what is being said. Jacob is not referring to the literal
individual Jacob, it is referring to the nation
Israel.
In
verse 22 there is a shift from a singular pronoun to a plural pronoun. God
brings “them” out of Egypt. “God brings them out of Egypt, He is for them like
the horns of the wild ox.” What we read in vv. 22 ff is that God brings them
out of Egypt. A wild ox is extremely strong and powerful so this image is used
of God and His power to protect Israel. Numbers 23:24 NASB “Behold,
a people rises like a lioness, And as a lion it lifts itself; It will not lie
down until it devours the prey, And drinks the blood of the slain.” So for the
people, the “him” and the “them” we referred to earlier, God’s power protects
them like a wild ox, and they are compared to a lioness. Another things to
notice is that God says in this passage: “God brings them out of Egypt.” That
is the historical event of the Exodus.
In
Numbers 24:7 we get into Balaam’s third prophecy. NASB “Water will
flow from his buckets, And his seed {will be} by many
waters…” That has to do with the universal blessing of Israel. “…And his king
[of Israel] shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom
shall be exalted.” A lot of English version have
“Agag” in this verse, and that is what is found in the Massoretic Text.
Remember that in Hebrew originally there were no consonants, so all that was
there was ‘gg’ which could be just about anything. The Massoretic scribes
inserted the vowels here quite some time after the time of Christ and there was
a tendency among the Massoretes and rabbis to remove messianic implications as
much as they could. So if this is translated “Agag” it is fulfilled
historically, 1 Samuel 16. But of this is Gog it is a reference to the future
when the Messiah will defeat the future enemy of Israel, and in Ezekiel 38-39
it is identified as Gog. The fact that this is a messianic prophecy then is
extremely clear, as it is in other parts of this particular prophecy. “And his
kingdom shall be exalted” is the kingdom of the Messiah, He will rule over all
of the nations.
Numbers
24:8 NASB “God brings him out of Egypt, He is for him [Not them as in the last chapter] like the
horns of the wild ox. He will devour the nations {who are} his adversaries, And will crush their bones in pieces, And shatter {them}
with his arrows.” God is going to bring them out of Egypt. That is the
historical event. Hosea would have been aware of this prophecy and that is part
of the backdrop to understanding Hosea 11:1. In this passage we also see that
now it is the Messiah who is like a wild ox and it is the Messiah who is the
lion in 23:24. The parallelism is pronounced here because what God is showing
us is that Israel as a corporate body is teaching us things and stands for
certain things in relationship to the Messiah.
Numbers
24:9 NASB “He couches, he lies down as a lion…” This goes back to
the prophecy of Jacob over Judah in Genesis 49:10, that the sceptre would not
depart from between his feet. And the last line, “Blessed is everyone who blesses
you, And cursed is everyone who curses you,” is from
Genesis 12:2—part of the promise God made to Abraham.
Now
we ask the question in relation to Hosea 11 and Matthew’s use in chapter two:
why didn’t Matthew just quote from Numbers 24:7? Because there is something
that is said in Hosea 11:1 that is the emphasis. It is not just that Jesus
comes up from Egypt that fits that pattern, but it is that He is my son. It is
connected to the statements from Psalm 2 that “He is my son,” the virgin birth
passage in Isaiah 7:14, and in 9:17 that there will be this child who will be
born, a son given to us. So Hosea connects the messianic prophecy of Numbers
24:8 with the sonship prophecies related to the Messiah. So that is an
historical event with a typical fulfilment.
Isaiah
29:13 NASB “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with
their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts
far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned {by
rote}.” This is another example of where Israel has become religious but only
in an external, outward sense. This is quoted in Matthew 15:7-9 when Jesus is
confronting the Pharisees and their traditions.
Isaiah
6:10 NASB “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears
dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with
their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” This
speaks of Isaiah’s ministry which will be mostly
rejected. It is quoted in John 12:39, 40 as a type of the Messiah’s ministry
that would also be largely rejected.
Psalm
118:22, 23 talks about the rejected stone which is then typologically applied
to Jesus in Matthew 21:42.
Exodus
12:46 which is a prohibition against breaking any bone of the Passover lamb is
quoted as quoted as a type in John 19:36—Jesus as the Lamb of God hanging
on the cross did not have any of His bones broken.