#DailyDevotion Who Ascended, Where Did He Ascend & What’s He Doing There?
Psalm 68 15Bashan’s mountain is God’s mountain; Bashan’s mountain has peaks. 16Mountains and peaks, why do you look with envy at the mountain where God likes to live? Yes, the LORD will live there forever. 17God’s chariots are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them, as at Sinai, in His holy place. 18You went up on high, You took prisoners captive. You received gifts from men, even from the rebellious so that the LORD God will live there.
Bashan here is recalling how the LORD God gave victory over Og, king of Bashan as the Israelites moved toward the Promised Land. It would seem the mountain the Bashan range envies is Mt. Zion where the Ark of the Covenant is. But then David also then refers to Sinai as His holy place. Perhaps that is because where God descended to make a covenant with His people. The people of Israel were once captive in Egypt. Now the LORD took them out of there and brought them to both Sinai and to Zion. His people fleeced the Egyptians before they left. These could be the rebellious David is talking about.
But we must take into account Paul quoting verse 18 in Ephesians 4:
7But each of us has been given the gift measured out by Christ Who gave it. 8So it says: “He went up on high, took prisoners, and gave gifts to people”. Now what can “He went up” mean but that He had gone down to the lower parts of the earth? 10He Who went down also “went up” above all the heavens to fill everything. 11And He gave us some men to be apostles, some to speak the Word, some to tell the good news, some to be pastors and teachers.
Paul refers to this passage concerning Christ Jesus’ ascension into heaven. But there is a difference in the quote that Paul has from both the Hebrew and the Greek translation. Both of them have received gifts from men but Paul quotes it saying “gave gift to men,” Is the Holy Spirit appropriating this text in Paul to teach a different lesson? It would seem He is.
Then again the place the LORD Jesus ascends to is not the earthly Zion or Sinai. They were just copies of what Moses saw when he talked with the LORD on Sinai. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. But before He ascended, He descended, Paul says. The ancient church taught the harrowing of hell (Hades in the Greek, Sheol in the Hebrew). It was simply the place of the dead. It appears from Jesus’ teaching there are or were two places there. A place of torment and a place of somewhat rest. But even the rest place isn’t where you wanted to be from what we see in the Psalms. The harrowing of hell would be Jesus going to the lower parts of the earth to bring the faithful to Paradise above in the heavens to await the resurrection. These are the prisoners He took up with Him. The reasoning was they were not able to ascend to that place until Christ’s sacrifice was made.
But not also, Jesus did not ascend to the Heavenly Zion to receive gifts from men but rather to give gifts to men. These gifts He gives us are those whom He called into the Holy Ministry, mainly pastors today. Men who would teach the people His word and to be stewards of the sacraments He has given us. He gives us these men to use these means to deliver us from sin, death and the power of the devil and to equip us to do good works, to be a blessing to mankind and to one another, to build up our fellow Christians in every good thing. Thanks be to the Father who provided us such a Savior who does demand from us tribute but rather showers us with gifts from His hands through His cross.
Heavenly Father, You had Your Son descend to the depths of the earth to deliver Your people and sat Him at Your right so He may bestow upon us every good and to open Paradise for all believers. Grant us thankfulness and praise for all Your goodness toward us and preserve us in this faith through the gifts of Your pastors and the gifts they bring to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.