4. School for Pastors
We pray that you may grant, in accor-
dance with the riches of your glory, that
we may be strengthened in our inner
being with power through your Spirit.
5. School for Pastors
We pray that you will dwell in our
hearts by faith, as we are established
and grounded in your love.
6. School for Pastors
We pray that we may have the power to
comprehend, with all the saints, the
breadth and length and height and
depth of your love: to know this love
that surpasses knowledge.
12. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
For there is no need, to persons of
intelligence, to attempt to prove, from
the deeds of Christ subsequent to His
baptism,
13. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
that His soul and His body, His human
nature like ours, were real, and no
phantom of the imagination.
14. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
For the deeds done by Christ after His
baptism, and especially His miracles,
gave indication and assurance to the
world of the Deity hidden in His flesh.
15. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
For, being at once both God and
perfect man likewise, He gave us sure
indications of His two natures:
16. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
of His Deity, by His miracles during the
three years that elapsed after His
baptism;
17. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
of His humanity, during the thirty
similar periods which preceded His
baptism,
18. Saving Israel
Melito of Sardis (d ca 177)
in which, by reason of His low estate as
regards the flesh, He concealed the
signs of His Deity, although He was the
true God existing before all ages.
19. Saving Israel
Frances Young, Virtuoso Theology
(1993)
She describes Melito’s complaint
against the Jews of Sardis as:
20. Saving Israel
the first really bitter Christian attack on
the Jews as the ones responsible for
the death of Christ. It does not make
nice reading.
21. Saving Israel
It reminds us that what one is closest
to, if there be a breakdown of
relationships, is precisely what one is
most hostile to.
22. Saving Israel
Of course we should not overlook the
fact that at this stage the Christians
were a small, marginalized group,
23. Saving Israel
vulnerable because they were neither
proper Jews nor proper Gentiles, and
faced in Sardis by a prosperous and
sizeable Jewish community,
30. Saving Israel
By whom? By Israel: because He
cured their lame, and cleansed their
lepers, and gave light to their blind, and
raised their dead!
31. Saving Israel
Thou, O Israel, wast giving commands,
and He was being crucified; thou wast
rejoicing, and He was being buried;
thou wast reclining on a soft couch,
and He was watching in the grave and
the shroud.
32. Saving Israel
O Israel, transgressor of the law, why
hast thou committed this new iniquity,
subjecting the Lord to new sufferings—
33. Saving Israel
thine own Lord, Him who fashioned
thee, Him who made thee, Him who
honoured thee, who called thee Israel?
34. Saving Israel
But thou hast not been found to be
Israel: for thou hast not seen God, nor
understood the Lord.
35. Saving Israel
Thou hast not known, O Israel, that this
was the first-born of God, who was
begotten before the sun,
36. Saving Israel
who made the light to shine forth, who
lighted up the day, who separated the
darkness,
37. Saving Israel
who fixed the first foundations, who
poised the earth, who collected the
ocean, who stretched out the
firmament, who adorned the world.
48. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 8:5
Why has this people turned away in
perpetual backsliding? They have held
fast to deceit, they have refused to
return.
49. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 8:6
I have given heed and listened, but they
do not speak honestly; no one repents
of wickedness, saying, “What have I
done?”
52. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 8:8
How can you say, “We are wise, and
the law of the Lord is with us,” when, in
fact, the false pen of the scribes has
made it into a lie?
53. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 8:9
The wise shall be put to shame, they
shall be dismayed and taken, since
they have rejected the word of the Lord.
54. Saving Israel
Amos 2:6
Thus says the Lord: For three
transgressions of Israel, and for four, I
will not revoke the punishment;
58. Saving Israel
Amos 2:8
they lay themselves down beside every
altar on garments taken in pledge; and
in the house of their God they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.
59. Saving Israel
Is it fair to say that God’s tone, in many
places in the prophets, is strongly
scolding of Israel?
61. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:2
The more I called them, the more they
went from me; they kept sacrificing to
the Baals, and offering incense to idols.
62. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:3
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to
walk, I took them up in my arms, but
they did not know that I healed them.
63. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:4
I led them with cords of human
kindness, with bands of love. I was to
them like those who lift infants to their
cheeks. I bent down and fed them.
64. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:5
They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to
me.
65. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:6
The sword rages in their cities, it
consumes their oracle-priests, and
devours because of their schemes.
66. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:7
My people are bent on turning away
from me. To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.
67. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:8
How can I give you up, Ephraim? How
can I hand you over, O Israel? How can
I make you like Admah? How can I
treat you like Zeboiim?
73. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:1-9
I have loved Israel for centuries
I feel frustrated by Israel’s sin
I have decided to cast off Israel forever
74. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:1-9
I have loved Israel for centuries
I feel frustrated by Israel’s sin
I have decided to cast off Israel forever
I can’t stand this decision
75. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:1-9
I have loved Israel for centuries
I feel frustrated by Israel’s sin
I have decided to cast off Israel forever
I can’t stand this decision
I have changed my mind
77. Saving Israel
Hosea 11:1-9
Does God get to feel things like that?
Does God get to feel that frustrated, to
yearn with that kind of yearning?
78. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:1
The hand of the Lord came upon me,
and he brought me out by the Spirit of
the Lord and set me down in the middle
of a valley; it was full of bones.
79. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:2
He led me all around them; there were
very many lying in the valley, and they
were very dry.
83. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:6
“I will lay sinews on you, and will cause
flesh to come upon you, and cover you
with skin, and put breath in you, and
you shall live; and you shall know that I
am the Lord.”
84. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:7
So I prophesied as I had been
commanded; and as I prophesied there
was a noise, a rattling, and the bones
came together, bone to its bone.
85. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:8
I looked, and there were sinews on
them, and flesh had come upon them,
and skin had covered them.
87. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:9
“Thus says the Lord God: Come from
the four winds, O breath, and breathe
upon these slain, that they may live.”
88. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:10
I prophesied as he commanded me,
and the breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood on their feet, a
vast multitude.
89. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:11
Then he said to me, “Mortal, these
bones are the whole house of Israel.
They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and
our hope is lost; we are cut off
completely.'
91. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:12
“I am going to open your graves and
bring you up from your graves, O my
people; and I will bring you back to the
land of Israel.
92. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:13
“And you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves, and bring you
up from your graves, O my people.
93. Saving Israel
Ezekiel 37:14
“I will put my Spirit within you, and you
shall live, and I will place you on your
own soil; then you shall know that I, the
Lord, have spoken and will act,” says
the Lord.
98. Saving Israel
Romans 9:3
For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut off from Christ for the
sake of my own people, my kindred
according to the flesh.
99. Saving Israel
Romans 5:7
Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a
righteous person – though perhaps for
a good person someone might actually
dare to die.
100. Saving Israel
If Paul can yearn for the salvation of his
people so deeply, does this mean that
he longs for their salvation more than
God does?
101. Saving Israel
If Paul would be willing to be damned
to hell for the sake of his people, to
what lengths might God Almighty go
for their sake?
102. Saving Israel
Romans 9:4
They are Israelites, and to them belong
the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and
the promises;
103. Saving Israel
Romans 9:5
to them belong the patriarchs, and from
them, according to the flesh, comes the
Messiah, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς
εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν.
104. Saving Israel
Romans 9:11
Even before they had been born or had
done anything good or bad (so that
God's purpose of election might
continue,
111. Saving Israel
Romans 9:17
“I have raised you up for the very
purpose of showing my power in you,
so that my name may be proclaimed in
all the earth.”
112. Saving Israel
Romans 9:18
So then he has mercy on whomever he
chooses, and he hardens the heart of
whomever he chooses.
114. Saving Israel
Romans 9:20
But who indeed are you, a human
being, to argue with God? Will what is
molded say to the one who molds it,
“Why have you made me like this?”
115. Saving Israel
Romans 9:21
Has the potter no right over the clay, to
make out of the same lump one object
for special use and another for ordinary
use?
117. Saving Israel
Job 10:8-9
Your hands fashioned and made me;
and now you turn and destroy me.
Remember that you fashioned me like
clay; and will you turn me to dust
again?
119. Saving Israel
Isaiah 29:16
Shall the thing made say of its maker,
'He did not make me'; or the thing
formed say of the one who formed it,
'He has no understanding'?
120. Saving Israel
Isaiah 45:9
Does the clay say to the one who
fashions it, 'What are you making?' or
'Your work has no handles'?
121. Saving Israel
Isaiah 64:7
O Lord, you are our Father; we are the
clay, and you are our potter; we are all
the work of your hand
122. Saving Israel
Lamentations 4:2
The precious children of Zion, worth
their weight in fine gold – how they are
reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a
potter's hands!
123. Saving Israel
Wisdom of Solomon 15:7
For the potter, tempering soft earth,
fashioneth every vessel with much
labour for our service:
124. Saving Israel
Wisdom of Solomon 15:7
yea, of the same clay he maketh both
the vessels that serve for clean uses,
and likewise also all such as serve to
the contrary:
125. Saving Israel
Wisdom of Solomon 15:7
but what is the use of either sort, the
potter himself is the judge.
126. Saving Israel
1QS [the Community Rule] 11:21
What shall one born of woman be
accounted before Thee? Kneaded from
the dust, his abode is the nourishment
of worms.
127. Saving Israel
1QS [the Community Rule] 11:22
He is but a shape, but moulded clay,
and inclines towards dust. What shall
hand-moulded clay reply? What
counsel shall it understand?
131. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 18:4
The vessel he was making of clay was
spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he
reworked it into another vessel, as
seemed good to him.
141. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 18:7
At one moment I may declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom, that
I will pluck up and break down and
destroy it,
142. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 18:8
but if that nation, concerning which I
have spoken, turns from its evil, I will
change my mind about the disaster that
I intended to bring on it.
143. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 18:9
And at another moment I may declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom that I
will build and plant it,
144. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 18:10
but if it does evil in my sight, not
listening to my voice, then I will change
my mind about the good that I had
intended to do to it.
146. Saving Israel
Jeremiah 18:11
Look, I am a potter shaping evil against
you and devising a plan against you.
Turn now, all of you from your evil
ways, and amend your ways and your
doings.
148. Saving Israel
Jeremiah is very clear: it particularly
means that when God has expressed a
particular intention, he can change his
mind and do something different.
149. Saving Israel
Romans 9:22
What if God, desiring to show his wrath
and to make known his power, has
endured with much patience the
objects of wrath that are made for
destruction;
150. Saving Israel
Romans 9:23
and what if he has done so in order to
make known the riches of his glory for
the objects of mercy, which he has
prepared beforehand for glory –
152. Saving Israel
Romans 9:25
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those
who were not my people I will call 'my
people,' and her who was not beloved I
will call 'beloved.' ”
153. Saving Israel
Romans 9:26
“And in the very place where it was
said to them, 'You are not my people,'
there they shall be called children of
the living God.”
154. Saving Israel
Romans 10:12
For there is no distinction between Jew
and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all
and is generous to all who call on him.
157. Saving Israel
Romans 11:11
So I ask, have they stumbled so as to
fall? By no means! But through their
stumbling salvation has come to the
Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
158. Saving Israel
Romans 11:12
Now if their stumbling means riches for
the world, and if their defeat means
riches for the Gentiles, how much more
will their full inclusion mean!
159. Saving Israel
Romans 11:17
But if some of the branches were
broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot,
were grafted in their place to share the
rich root of the olive tree,
160. Saving Israel
Romans 11:18
so not boast over the branches. If you
do boast, remember that t is not you
that support the root, but the root that
supports you.
162. Saving Israel
Romans 11:20
That is true. They were broken off
because of their unbelief, but you stand
only through faith. So do not become
proud, but stand in awe.
166. Saving Israel
Romans 11:23
And even those [of Israel], if they do
not persist in unbelief, will be grafted
in, for God has the power to graft them
in again.
167. Saving Israel
Romans 11:24
For if you have been cut from what is
by nature a wild olive tree and grafted,
contrary to nature, into a cultivated
olive tree,
169. Saving Israel
Romans 11:25
So that you will not claim to be wiser
than you are, brothers and sisters, I
want you to understand this mystery:
170. Saving Israel
Romans 11:25
a hardening has come upon part of
Israel, until the full number of the
Gentiles has come in.
171. Saving Israel
Romans 11:26
And so all Israel will be saved; as it is
written, “Out of Zion will come the
Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness
from Jacob.”
173. Saving Israel
Romans 11:28
As regards the gospel they are enemies
[of God] for your sake; but as regards
election they are beloved, for the sake
of their ancestors;
178. Saving Israel
Romans 11:33
O the depth of the riches and wisdom
and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are his judgments and
how inscrutable his ways!
179. Saving Israel
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from the story of God’s
telling Ezekiel to preach to the dry
bones?
180. Saving Israel
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from the story of God as the
potter who changes his mind when the
clay isn't coming out as planned?
181. Saving Israel
What do we learn, about God and about
ourselves, from the story of how Paul
insists that all Israel will be saved, for
the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable?
