Gifts For Men, Part One
Post date: 03-Dec-2012 23:26:55
GIFTS TO MEN
Firstly lets look at "gifts to men" in Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8
Some translations say "gifts to men"
Wel its obvious that the gift of Grace applies to all mankind, that is " all mankind "
A grace that permits even those who will not walk in the ways of God or follow Him, for if
this grace did not abound for "all mankind" then none of us "the world" would not be allowed to
continue
Yet God the Father sends down His sun to shine on evil and good and each new day is given, not
just to those who are made righteous
But referring to the "Righteous" those made right with God through His Son ! we see that this gift
of Grace apportioned applies to those who are in "The Church" The Bride
Now without being controversial :D we can assume that that this gift of Grace is accompanied by
"gifts" to build up the Body Of Christ
So we see that "Men" or "People" aplies to men and women and can be seen as a general term
for "people" or "Mankind"
Therefore these gifts apply as much to women as they do to men and there is no "favouritism"
Therefore we must assume when reading 1 Timothy 2:12 we must assume that the gifts have
limitations when applied to women !
Can we indeed say that "Gifts " of God are limited when it comes to the female gender ?
If indeed we say that the gift of teaching has limitations when applied to women we must also
apply it to the gift of Prophesy
As we mentioned previously the gift of Prophecy can be said "to be someone who teaches the
Word Of God"
As the word of God is a prophetic Word
The word prophecy means to "bubble up, to flow forth, or to cause to drop like rain." this could
be applied to teaching and prophecy
We must also ask are the gifts of Wisdom, Knowledge,Discernment,Faith ,Healings ,Miracles,
Prophecy,Tongues and Interpretation of tongues all manifested and given as the Spirit wills ?
If so why would teaching be the only one with limitations of use regarding women ?
Lets mention some women Prophets in the bible and their names are Miriam see : Micah 6:4 and
Deborah in Judges 4:4 ,Huldah Kings 22:14, Noadiah in Nehemiah 6:14 NLT ,Isaiah's wife in
Isaiah 8:3 , also Anna Luke 2:36, The Daughters of Phillip Acts 21:8-9
also don't forget Judges 4:4,"Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth,
Women Teachers, Romans 16:3, Hannah in Samuel 1:20 and Hannah trained him and taught
him until he was old enough to go and live in the house of the Lord with Eli the priest.
Also Romans 16:1,Acts 16:15,Joel 2:28,
Matthew 28:18-20, applies to both men and women
And so we see that "Men" is a general term to be used for "Humankind"
The Grace of God and His love outstretches to all humankind, however those who are made right with God
through the blood of Jesus are given and aportioned gifts
DISTRIBUTE
So why is there a fifference between Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8 ?
Psalm 68 seems to be saying that "Jesus receives gifts"
Whereas Ephesians 4 says "gave gifts unto people"
There are many Conjectors on this
In the times when this Psalm was written a triumphant army would take the leading generals and
officials and the conquered King and tie them to the backs of their chariots and thus on returning from
battle would victoriously parade them through the streets as "like a Procession"
[url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+6%2C1+Chronicles+13%2CPsalm+68%2CMatthew+17&version=NIV][color=orange][size=10pt][b][b]READ 2 Sam 6; 1 Chron 13; Psalm 68; Mat 17 HERE[/b][/b][/size][/color][/url]
All the bounty of the conquered enemy would be distributed among the officials and men
Often coins and booty would be tossed to the crowds on arriving back from war
This was the triumphant entry of a conquering King
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And so in this as Jesus rose from the dead he made captivity captive
So those who were captive were released to be willing captives to serve a new master and to live
a new life
As the conquering King Jesus rises we see once more this imagery of throwing the "gifts" and
distributing the bounty of war
For further study you might look up Genesis 14:1-24
Thou hast received gifts for men - "And gave gifts unto men;" Ephesians 4:8.
Dividing Up
Amazing to think that www. has always been and always will be and where would we be
without the "World Wide Word ?"
The bible is like a web and if you take one scripture out of the Word of God then others will
not linkup
REBELS
With that analogy lets go to Isaiah 53:12 HCSB Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will
receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted
among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.
[quote]I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier Isaiah 53:12 NLT[/quote]
[quote]Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, Isaiah 53:12 ESV[/quote]
The dividing of the spoils of war , Jesus being raised up , left captives in His train, the glorious
procession of chariots and the gifts thrown and given as the Spirit wills
Jesus Himself conquering death and "resting" sitting at the Right Hand of the Father bringing many
sons to glory and making those captive to sin captivated
DIVISION
Another picture to explain and understand Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8
and to begin to comprehend the meaning, might be Luke 11:20-22 HCSB
And so One whom is stronger and has a higher power makes war and plunders the enemy camp
overpowering it, He takesthe weapons and divides up the plunder
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Yet Another way to understand this and to place into our minds this concept of the "distribution
of Gifts" is to say
Psalm 68:18 : is of a king despoiling his enemy
Ephesians 4:8 : is of a king distributing the spoils or gifts.
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GIFTS FROM MEN
Another way to understand this is :
[quote]Numbers 18:6 "Behold, I Myself have
taken your fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel; they are a gift to you,[/quote]
So Jesus takes gifts from His people, the Levites as His possession and gives them gifts
They offered up to God and God accepted their offerings
The people give to the Levites, the Levites give to Jesus and Jesus gives His forgiveness
Hebrews 7:27
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This too might be paralled with Acts 6 in the new testament
And so deacons were to serve the people and to distribute to the needy
They took from others to distribute to the poor and widows and to free up others for service
the ministry of the deacon being to "serve" others
To be a gift offering to God and unto people
Romans 16:1
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