The Apostles did not see their symbolic and allegorical readings of the Old Testament as something which they imposed upon the text, something utterly unclear apart from explicit belief in Christ. On the contrary, they taught that those who did not see Jesus in the Old Testament were blind. One example of an oft-cited arbitrary reading of Pauls is the law about the ox treading out the grain. You shouldnt muzzle an ox treading out the grain, therefore you shouldnt keep money back from ministers. Huh? But Ive come to understand why Paul read it this way. In the Bible, animals symbolize elements of people. All creation is created to reflect God in one way or another, and because man is the Image of God, all animals reflect one or another element in people. Thats why Solomon taught the world about plants and animals. As a new adam figure, the animals were brought to him, he discerned them according to their nature, and he learned lessons about people from them. This is like Adam, who, when he named the animals (a name encapsulates nature) discerned something about himself- all the animals have partners, therefore I, the Man, should likewise have a partner. By the same token, when the Lord touched Jacobs thigh, that had an implication about Israelites eating the corresponding thigh meat in animals (Genesis 32:32). So animals symbolize people. Next, we need to understand the biblical theology of bread. The Festival of Booths/Ingathering corresponded with the period when Israelites would harvest their grain and gather it into the storehouse. Furthermore, Israel would on this day sacrifice seventy bulls- presumably for the seventy nations of the world (Genesis 10). Strengthening this association is the presentation of the Festival in Zechariah 14 and Isaiah 66. Isaiah says that Israel will bring the nations to God as a tribute offering (which is made of flour, oil, and incense) when God gathers all nations and tongues. Zechariah explicitly mentions the Feast of Booths (Ingathering) and associates it with all nations coming to worship the God of Israel in a restored Jerusalem. Ultimately, this goes back to Genesis 2:5, where the grain hadnt sprouted because it had not rained and there was no man to cultivate the ground. God brings up a spring of heavenly water, creates Adam, and puts the Spirit in his nose. Adam was meant to water the world with heavenly water (compare Genesis 2:5 and Zechariah 14:17), bring forth bread, harvest it, and offer it as tribute to God. When he is cursed, he is cursed to bring forth bread by the sweat of his nose as opposed to the Spirit in his nose. So, when Paul reads the commandment about muzzling an ox who is treading out grain, he naturally makes an application to a minister who is devoted to cultivating grain from the nations and offering it as tribute to God. Paul even alludes to the passage describing this in Isaiah 66 in Romans 15:16. He works in the priestly service of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles might be complete. The background in Isaiah identifies that offering as the tribute offering, the primary element of which was bread. Was this commandment primarily given about this? Well, were told elsewhere that one is not to yoke an ox and a donkey together- this would be massively impractical, and Moses wouldnt waste precious scroll space warning against something very few would be tempted to do. As with many commandments of the Torah, the purpose of the commandment is instruction in wisdom. We immerse ourselves in the Torah and become wise and discerning. The same may well be true (even in primary meaning!) of the ox treading out the grain. Even if not, however, Pauls application is not random. It reflects an immersion in the biblical text and a deep awareness of its inner logic.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 20:36:09 +0000
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