Philippians

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Saturday, Asher 25, 13000

The following is a start at documenting a replay of the 66 books of the Bible in Philippians. Read the matches below to see how the Bible is repeated in miniature, in order, in Philippians.

Philippians  1:1-5

Philippians is addressed to the saints, elders and deacons in Philippi. The elders in Genesis have to be the guys with super long life lengths. They are old and wise, at least we hope. Guys like Noah and Abraham may also be in view. It's also possible that the set of three refers more specifically to the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The way to narrow these possibilities is to better understand what saints, elders and deacons are in the Aramaic.

Paul and Timothy express their thankfulness for the way the Philippians were involved in the gospel from day 1. The first day in the Bible is at the beginning of Genesis (1 Genesis 1:3-5).

Philippians 1:6

The work began in Genesis, but after 400 years in Egypt living under oppression from Pharaoh and his cronies, one begins to wonder if God's promises will ever come to pass. The promise here in Philippians is that I will finish the work I began. This tone is actually prevalent in Exodus too. You particularly see it in the first quarter of the book, as Moses meets with the elders of Israel and explains that God is going to bring them out of Egypt. He says the reason is to keep his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the work he began so long ago (2 Exodus 6:2-8).

We know from Isaiah 2 that Exodus is a "last days" story. Exodus is the place in the Bible where God came down in power once before, and is probably the model for Jesus' return. So when it says God will complete the work till the day of Jesus Christ it's probably referring to his return which would be at about Exodus 20. The work then, is to get out of Egypt and meet God on the mountain, in person. In some ways, all of history leads up to this event.

Philippians 1:7

This verse plays to Leviticus really well. First, the "right way to think" is a good fit with Leviticus. Leviticus is essentially all law in it's format, not much narrative, and as such it is saying explicitly how to think and live. You don't have to search for the moral of the story in Leviticus. There really is no better place to read in the Bible to understand how to think like God.

Second, Paul writes the Philippians from prison and says that through his defense of the gospel they were able to share with him in grace. In Leviticus Aaron and his sons are locked up in the Tabernacle for 7 days in preparation for serving as priests (3 Leviticus 8). Through their mediation as priests the nation is able to receive grace just as the Philippians received grace through Paul.

Philippians 1:8

Numbers is named such because it has two census counts. The question of "how much" Paul loves the Philippians plays nicely to this quantitative aspect of Numbers, but there's a deeper statement being made by Paul.

The reason for two census counts was the lack of faith on the part of the adults who left Egypt. After leaving all the adults were counted, but when told to take the Promised Land only Joshua and Caleb had faith to obey. As a result the nation wandered in the wilderness 40 years while every adult counted in the first census died. All this background is to say, when Paul says I love you with the love of Jesus (and Jesus is a hellenized form of his Hebrew name Joshua), Paul means I'm to you guys like Joshua was to the kids who left Egypt. I have faith to take the land and will lead you on the right path, even when unpopular. That's how much I love you.

That God is Paul's witness goes along with how God witnessed to Joshua and Caleb. He said that the entire adult generation that left Egypt would die in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb (4 Numbers 14:30). How exactly God witnessed to Paul is beyond me, but perhaps he out-lasted his peers or something akin to what we see with Joshua and Caleb in Numbers.

Philippians 1:9-10

Paul's prayer for the Philippians is that they abound or increase in knowledge and spiritual insight so they can make the right choice. Moses wants the same thing for the kid generation and says as much in many ways in his final speech, which we know as Deuteronomy.

Moses sets blessings and curses before Israel, explaining that if you obey God's commands lots of specific blessings will come upon you, but if not, lots of specific curses will befall you (5 Deuteronomy 28). Then Moses says life and death, blessings and curses have been set before you, so choose life (5 Deuteronomy 30:19-20). In other words, Moses has given all the instruction he can and now it's up to the kids to decide. He hopes they've learned from his counsel and make the right choice just as Paul prayed that the Philippians would increase in spiritual understanding and thereby stand a better chance of choosing what's best.

Philippians 1:11

The place in the Bible's story where the people begin eating fruits of righteousness is after the manna stops in the book of Joshua (6 Joshua 5:10-12). Understand that the word "righteousness" is a term meaning doing what God tells you to do or more specifically, going where God tells you to go. We see this with Abraham who understood righteousness to mean leaving Ur and going where he was told, which was Canaan. So the ones who ate fruits of righteousness are the kids who crossed the Jordan into Canaan, at God's command, and then ate from the produce of that land.

Paul says these fruits come through Jesus (which means Joshua). Joshua was the leader of Israel when they crossed the Jordan and ate the produce of Canaan. The book is also named Joshua, so this match is hard to miss.

Philippians 1:12-13

The guy in Judges, in "bonds," who has a "falling out," that advances the gospel, is Samson. After the Philistines captured Samson, which was quite difficult, they threw a party to celebrate. Meanwhile the Spirit of God came upon Samson and he pushed two pillars over that were supporting the roof and 3000 Philistines "fell" to their death (had a falling out). The closing thought to Samson's story is he killed more enemies of Israel in his death than life. (7 Judges 16:30).

Like Samson, Paul was imprisoned, or captured. And like Samson, the gospel actually advanced through Paul's imprisonment as he shared about Jesus with the guards (thugs).

Philippians 1:14

Earlier we saw how Paul's imprisonment matched the imprisonment of Aaron at the Tabernacle. The present verse has the same theme, but this time we're dealing with the boy Samuel at the Tabernacle.

Samuel was raised at the Tabernacle and one night the Word of Yahvah came to him with a message for Eli's house. Samuel delivered the message despite being young and the message being really harsh (8 First Samuel 3:17-18). He spoke the word boldly and without fear as Paul says.

The story in First Samuel then goes on to say that Yahvah continued to appear at Shiloh and reveal himself to Samuel through his Word (8 First Samuel 3:21). Paul says the Word of God is spoken with increasing boldness. These are the same, continued revelation and increasing boldness.

Another aspect that relates these passages is the way the imprisonment of one makes "many" bold. In Samuel's day the Word of Yahvah was rare and Samuel is the lone voice for that Word (8 First Samuel 3:1). When we go to Second Samuel, during the reign of King David, we find a proliferation of prophetic voices. David himself was a prophet and he was surrounded by prophets, of which Gad and Nathan are just two. It seems Philippians is telling us that somehow through Samuel's faithful ministry these other prophetic voices were born or able to speak. There's no direct connection between Samuel and those who came later, except through David, but the way Philippians says "many" spoke the Word of God because of the imprisonment of one means there is a linkage or cause and effect here even if it's not clear how at this time.

Philippians 1:15

This verse is contrasting two kinds of people that on the surface look or sound the same, both speaking the word of God, but in reality are very different because of what drives them from within.

The major rivalry in Second Samuel is between Saul's house and David's house. At first glance this appears to be the match to this idea of envy or rivalry we find in Philippians, but there's a better answer.

Because the two kinds of people mentioned in Philippians are both speaking the word of God we have to assume they are on the same team. The division that existed between Saul and David was more severe and could not be reconciled. It had to be solved with a war.

But when we look at the people in David's camp we find two brothers who led the army. Joab and Abishai talked the talk and walked the walk, to an extent. They were all for what God was doing through David when it was personally expedient. The rest of the time they put personal interests ahead of what was best for the nation. The prime example is the time they killed Abner, the leader of Saul's army, right before he brought all of Israel under David's rule. In so doing they broke the political momentum David and Abner had (9 Second Samuel 3:30).

The unanswered question in the account of Abner's murder is whether the brothers did it for personal reasons. They had a cover, sort of, in that Abner had taken their brother Asahel's life (fair and square) in an earlier battle. However, as leader of the army of ten tribes, and able to bring them under David's rule, Abner could have replaced Joab and Abishai as commander of David's army once all twelve tribes were united under David. This had to have been a scary prospect for these guys. So instead of doing right by David and the nation that was torn in two, they killed the guy with the solution and delayed healing of the national rift.

Philippians is not merely related in some contrived way, Philippians is giving us the answer to the unanswered question. Yes, Joab and Abishai murdered Abner from envy. As Philippians says, some add to the team from a motive of love and good will for others, and some on the team go along with what's best for the team until it conflicts with their own interests, at which point their own interests win, because of envy.

More to come...