Meanwhile, elsewhere in blogsville

...Martin Downes called us back to the coffee table with a great topic - Whatever happened to The Angel of the LORD? The conversation's warm, the Bibles are open (= easily perused with the help of an ESV-linked firefox plugin!) the coffee in my part of the conversation is cafedirect Palenque Mexico blend with speculos biscuits, and while we whizzed round a bit of Blackham/Goldsworthy debate, we seem to have identified two questions as summarised by Dan:

(i) whether the Word appears and exercises ministry in the OT, and (ii) to what extent the OT saints knew who he was and knew the gospel as we do.

I don't see how (i) is avoidable given what the text ascribes to The Angel of the LORD (TAOTL) - he speaks on behalf of the LORD (could be an angel), receives worship of the LORD (hmm), and the text one moment calls him TAOTL and the next, the LORD. I'm not so concerned with (ii) - given the promises of God, the OT saints knew enough to trust in Him to redeem and rule personally, whether different amounts at different times in history. After all, even now since we do not know exhaustively, we do not comprehend God - but as He has exhaustive knowledge and has revealed, we may nevertheless apprehend God in truth. This is a handy distinction John Owen made, apparently. It seems there's the whole Blackham/Goldsworthy debate behind this though. Coffee, anyone?

...and elsewhere, I've abused blogger to form a rather rough website for my church's Priceless week of events in a week's time. Him we proclaim is indeed priceless, and to hear Him is beyond price:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. ...

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. [From Hebrews 1-2]