Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Daniel
Wisdom in Youth
Daniel 2:48 Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
Luke 2:47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
Daniel, in a strange land, among a people of a strange tongue, and within a culture that defied the True God, (I speak of the Babylonian nation) exhibited wisdom beyond the ages and was raised to an elevated place of authority and privilege. A young man of incredible conviction, he rose through the ranks of others, seemingly without any desire but to honor his God.
It is a well known truth found in the Word that a man skillful in his work will increase in authority and privilege.
Proverbs 22:29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
Such was the case with Daniel, and what made this young man so different from his peers amongst the kings servants, was his unabashed dedication to the God of Israel. His focus was on serving the God of Israel, and in this service, his wisdom shone in the kings court.
Out of this wisdom, he became a ruler in Babylon, even a chief ruler over those in the Babylonian royal court claiming to be wise. Heady stuff for a young man. Scholars estimate Daniel was between 14 and 18 when he provided the king this interpretation of his dream in Daniel 2, out of which came this elevation in the kings court.
Daniel, as a very young man, having provided the revelation of this dream to the king must have created quite a stir in the royal court. This act began a public recognition of the wisdom of Daniel that never diminished.
Jesus, in like manner, and yet so much more, also displayed great wisdom early in life, and was fully dedicated to the will of God.
Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Jesus also increased in wisdom from youth, being noticed by those in authority, as they were “amazed” at His understanding of the laws of God. He continued amongst them, providing greater and greater proofs through His teaching that He was no mere prophet or rabbi. His teachings were irrefutable, with His wisdom shutting mouths and silencing His detractors.
Both of these men exhibited incredible wisdom in their youth, and provided notice to their contemporaries that God was active and present!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
271
Guarantee of our Inheritance
Ephesians 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
When I think of a guarantee, I think of a company that is attempting to calm a potential customer of a reluctance to purchase one of their items or products. It is a promise of the quality or ability of the product to perform it’s intended use. A guarantee is typically linked to the honor, or at least the reputation of the manufacturer.
That makes some sense in relation to God and His desire to settle our hearts, especially when considering His stellar reputation.
But let’s dig a bit.
When Paul uses the term Guarantee, he is speaking a bit different language than what I have described. To be a guarantee in Paul’s mind is to be a pledge, an earnest money or better yet, a down payment.
An example of a down payment in the Old Testament may be found in Genesis 38, in the story of Judah. Judah was not doing right with a daughter-in-law, Tamar by name and she decided to do something about it. After some planning and deception, Tamar set up a situation for Judah. This very plan suggests Judah was a bit of a womanizer, a bit of an unfaithful man. Nevertheless, Judah, as he travelled from home, hired a prostitute (Tamar in disguise) and prior to the act, Tamar negotiated with Judah a price for her services.
It turns out a goat was an acceptable payment to Tamar, but she requested a pledge until the goat arrived. She requested his signet ring, his cord and his staff until the goat was delivered. Each of these items were significant items in Judah’s life, representing his authority, identity and ability to perform business transactions. This was no minor request, but Judah complied.
The deed done, Judah went on his way and Tamar (the prostitute) disappeared, with Tamar (Judah’s daughter-in-law) living under his roof, with his possessions. Soon enough, it was determined Tamar was pregnant, and Judah – in righteous indignation – decided to burn her for her infidelity.
It was a good thing she kept his down payment! Judah realized he was in the wrong, and eventually two children were born of Tamar and Judah, of which Perez became an ancestor of King David, and eventually included in the lineage of Jesus.
All of this background is provided to consider the concept of a down payment in the Old Testament, leading me to a few thoughts.
Judah gave his identity to Tamar as a down payment. God has provided His Spirit, His very Person as a down payment to us. Tamar displayed Judah’s possessions at a time when her very life was in danger. Judah’s down payment, in Tamar’s possession actually saved her life.
Is it not in similar fashion that in our salvation, our lives are delivered from our own unrighteous acts, having the Spirit of God continually protecting, guiding and teaching our hearts?
Also, this down payment represented a union between it’s owner and a supposed stranger, even an outcast. In Judah’s eyes, this woman was simply a prostitute, and yet out of this union, life was produced, and the lineage to the Messiah was one step closer.
But finally, in relation to our verse and some of the above concepts, consider that in our case, the Father has given us His Spirit as a down payment. First off, it is not mere “things” that God provided as Judah did with Tamar. God’s down payment is the very Third Person of the Trinity.
As Judah gave a signet ring, a tool to produce a formal signature on contracts, God gave His Spirit as a promissory note for our lives, a form of signature on a document.
As Judah gave his cord, a string that typically was worn around his neck carrying the signet ring near his heart, God provided us promises of the Spirit being in our heart. The Spirit is on and in our heart!
As Judah gave his staff to Tamar, representing leadership and authority, even his identity, God has also provided His children His staff of authority, even His own identity in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
God’s guarantee is much more than I first thought. Even though my modern thinking of how a guarantee rests on the reputation of the manufacturer, (and there is some truth in this thinking), I am thankful for the Lord correcting me in my understanding, making me see that He who is the Guarantee of our Inheritance is much more than I first imagined.
He is the Guarantee of our Inheritance!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 74:22 Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! Psalm 74:23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!
It was just a few verses back when Asaph wrote…
Psalm 74:20 Have regard for the covenant.
He is continuing in this same vein of thought, but he is escalating the request. Back in verse 20, he reminded God of the covenant, and was asking God to consider the promises He made. To have an internal reminder so to speak.
In this verse, Asaph is becoming very bold. The phrase “defend your cause” is written as though in a fight for justice, even as in a court.
Defend
רִיב rîyb. (Strongs #7378) The Hebrew word is translated as plead, contend or strive in a majority of the times we find it in the Word. It is not a passive word, but full of action, activity, and argument.
Cause
רִיב rîyb (Strongs #7379) My astute readers will notice that I seemingly have repeated the same Hebrew word, and I would agree, if it were not for the fact that the Strong’ Exhaustive Concordance deemed it fit to assign it a separate number.
Is the general meaning the same? Somewhat. This term describes a contention, a strife or a dispute. The concept of referring to a case in court may be associated with this term.
But Asaph may be going even more hardcore before the Lord, in that some translations include the phrase “your own cause”
Might Asaph be reminding God of an obvious truth, inferring that God has dropped the ball in completing His purposes? This is your cause and Your cause alone, and though we, your people are suffering, You alone can fight this cause.
Asaph must have been in tremendouse tension, after seeing the tabernacle/temple destroyed by the enemies of God, and there was seemingly no response. God was quiet, even though His people and the meeting house were crushed. He was begging God to arise, to stand up for His cause, as in a courtroom.
He did arise for the nation. He made his arguments clear and his proof before the judge irrefutable. His enemies have been shamed, and they are without a charge.
Was it in the timing Asaph desired? Not by a long shot, but even in our prayers, God still is in charge. Yes prayer changes things, and God is gracious, merciful and good to all, but His timing in answering is per His will.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
270
Greatness of Your Majesty
Exodus 15:7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
Majesty. An old word used by old fogies. I suppose it is coming back into fashion with some of these new praise songs I hear at church and the radio, but for some, if I were to ask them the meaning, I am afraid they may not connect.
Majesty is a term that relates to royalty. Surely the British may understand the term a bit better than others. But to think it only relates to royalty may be missing the mark.
To speak of majesty in the Old Testament speaks of excellence. As a matter of fact, some literal translations actually use the term “excellence” in place of majesty in this verse.
Exodus 15:7 NASB20 – “And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send out Your burning anger , [and] it consumes them like chaff.
Exodus 15:7 Youngs Literal Translation – And in the abundance of Thine excellency Thou throwest down Thy withstanders, Thou sendest forth Thy wrath — It consumeth them as stubble.
Now I don’t know about some of my readers, but when I was in grade school, to get an “excellent” on a book report, school assignment or graded paper implied a perfect score. Not a 90%. That was “very good”. Even a 99% was only a very very good!
No, to attain an “excellent”, it was embedded in this little boys mind that only perfection was excellent. And for that I am grateful, for I think this is an accurate depiction of Moses estimate of the God he served.
But let’s consider for a moment a little context, remember this is Moses’ song of triumph, a song of triumph over the worlds greatest super power, by a rag tag group of slaves, and an old man that used to be loyal. A super power that an upstart group of slaves took down.
Let’s also remember that the Pharoah was considered majestic, excellent, of great royal blood, and his nation supported him in this estimation. His army was the greatest, just like he was, and yet these slaves with an old man as a leader, not only escaped thier clutches, but completely decimated the army that was after them.
Oh my, but what a mistake I have made. It wasn’t the slaves, or that old man that led them, but the God of Israel who performed all these actions against this superpower.
And note also that when Moses describes God’s method of taking down the Egyptians, he doesn’t use terms that describe God as breaking a sweat, or that He was exhausted from taking the Egyptians down. (After all, they were a super power!)
No, the verse speaks of God sending out His fury. His burning anger. Note that which God sent out is an emotion! An emotion.
Did it include lightning, as if fire from the skies? Did it include horrific wind storms, or massive earthquakes? None were noted. We do see the Red Sea falling in on the super power armies, but that may be termed simply the removal of a restraint on the waters. After all, it wasn’t meant for everybody, only those slaves and that old man.
If the superpower armies decided to enter an unsafe situation, that is on them.
So again, what is inferred when we hear that God sent his fury, his burning anger. An emotion? I think Moses is making a point. God’s excellencies are such that it only requires the unleashing of an emotion to decimate a world superpower. That is the excellency of God, and Moses only adds the superlative of the Greatness of Your Excellency to magnify the God He serves.
Moses, as an old man, sure knew how to speak of our God!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Daniel
A Royal Son
Daniel 1:3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, Daniel 1:6 Among these were Daniel…
Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38
We often think of Daniel as a man of great faith, a man fully committed to God, a man who served kings and rulers well, by serving God faithfully. And well we should for he is one of the greatest men of faith in the Old Testament!
Yet Daniel was born into royalty, a man of nobility, a man of privilege, a youth that was destined for a life of authority, power and advantage.
He was granted status by his relationship with royalty. He did not attain to royalty by effort or talent, but simply through bloodlines. To be Daniel was to be of nobility.
Jesus also was born of royal lineage, and the gospels of Matthew and Luke provide two genealogies to show His status as Royalty.
Matthew teaches us of Jesus legal lineage to the throne, through Abraham and King David and Joseph. Luke teaches the biological lineage of Jesus to the throne, not through Solomon but through Nathan, David’s son through Bathsheba. (It is interesting how the lineage of Jesus avoided the curse of Jeconiah, but that is for a different time!)
Both Daniel and Jesus were born of royalty. Though Daniel never exercised any authority through this privilege of great bloodlines, he did attain to greatness by depending on God (and not his unearned status), eventually being offered a seat of royalty in the Babylonian empire, and counselling kings of nations.
Jesus exercised His authority as King, as He walked amongst us, proving his sovereignty over nature, sin and death many times. He commanded and “things got done”.
Nature obeyed.
Sickness obeyed.
Even death knelt before the King.
How amazing that we Whom He came to rescue have yet to appreciate, nor understand His Kingship.
Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Jesus, as King of kings, is willing to gather. We are not willing. And yet He is patient, reigning over all to the benefit of all and to the glory of God.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
269
Greater than He Who is in the World
1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
We find this morning’s name of God in a passage that the Apostle John provides us, as he is warning the believers not to trust every message they hear.
He begins our passage by telling his friends not to believe every spirit.
This is standard Christianity. If we have any history in our walk with the Lord, we have come across teachers or so called prophets, that claim to know the Word of the Lord, or have some secret esoteric message directly from God.
Test them. Always test those spirits!
I took this command with vigor in my past, and carried an attitude that contained a bounty hunter mentality. Any message would go under the microscope of Carl’s understanding of the Word, parse the word’s of the message and somehow determine the teachers motivations! It go to the point where I entertained a very suspicious nature, always looking for error, hunting for impurities in any message I heard.
Of course as you read that, you have to understand I had a highly defined, very restricted view of the Bible. To describe every aspect of my faith would take much to much time. As an example, at one point in my faith, I had chosen to condemn supralapsarianism. What foolishness to chase such a highly refined, unimportant, divisive teaching.
This was not John’s intent!
He had one test for us. He was battling a heresy that was beginning to erupt in the early church called Gnosticism, and it taught that Jesus was God, but that he appeared as a man. Not that He was flesh and blood, but that He decieved those He walked with by looking like a man, but not being a man. He was a spirit only.
This teaching attacked the very identity of our Messiah, the effectiveness of His sacrifice and the extent of His love for His people. This would not do for John and it cannot be found in our thinking.
Any message that does not openly identify the Savior as the man named Jesus, and that He walked amongst us as a man of flesh and blood, is a teaching that replaces our Savior with an idea, describing our Master as a spirit that deceived the apostles into thinking they were with a man, and most importantly, did not die in place for all of humanity. He simply provided a guide for His followers, not a vicarious physical death for men and women of flesh and blood.
When we get to our verse, John speaks of Him who is greater than he who is in the world. Specifically, I think John is speaking of false teachers and lying spirits when he speaks of those who are in the world. Of course, the ultimate identity behind those who spread lies about our Leader is the enemy of our souls, but in this passage John is identifying the spirit of antichrist working against believers through false teachers.
As an aside, I found it interesting that the topic of “antichrist” is only spoken of by John, and only four times in his epistles. (What shocked me most was that John thought antichrist referred to multiple persons, and antichrist was present in his day!) I have provided all the passages below for your convenience.
The Spirit of God, fed by the Word of God, in the saint of God is unstoppable, cannot be defeated. More to John’s point, John simply states that we are from God. The very fact that we are from God is the victory. We have already overcome those who are spreading lies of the Master by believing the truth from the apostles. We have come to know the truth, that Jesus the God-man entered our world in flesh and blood, physically suffered at our hands, died as a man in our place and rose bodily from the grave. This is the message we have believed, and have become those who are from God.
He is greater than he who is in the world.
As John continues in his letter, he speaks of listening to the apostles. As those who are from God, we will hear God in the teaching of the apostles, and confess that His teachings are of His apostles.
1 John 4:6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Why would we not listen to His apostles? Unless some dime store prophet comes by with some new trinket of “truth” that appeals to our old nature.
Brothers – be content with the truth of the Word, for it is the faithful record of Him who is Greater than he who is in the world!
Teaching of John on “antichrist” 1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 74:20 Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Psalm 74:21 Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
Asaph is continuing in his lament over the destruction of the tent of meeting/sanctuary, and in this verse, he comes to a plea for God to remember His covenant with Abraham. God has made promises to the nation that seem to be failing under the watchful eye of Asaph, and he now pull the contract out, and lays it before the Lord.
Is this a move that could be interpreted as insulting, as if the Lord, the all knowing has forgotten something, even forgetting something as important as His word for His people? Is Asaph making a move that is too pushy, too “in your face” before the Lord?
I think not. It seems God relishes the faithful to remind Him of His Word, to recount of His promises to those who seek to know His will.
Isaiah 62:6-7
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.
An amazing passage, as Isaiah is speaking of those in Jerusalem who are constantly pleading with and reminding God of His word, or His promises to the nation.
Jesus spoke also of the characteristic of the believer, describing the saint as one who never stops “bothering” God.
Luke 18:2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. Luke 18:3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ Luke 18:4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, Luke 18:5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”
This widow was seeking justice, seeking for righteousness to be performed before a judge who cares little about the problem. How are we to interpret this story of Jesus when our Judge is ONLY concerned about justice, when our Judge is Righteousness Himself?
We could sit back, and knowing that our God is Righteous, that He is a Judge who will make things right, and rest in this fact. But the Lord speaks of His people “bothering” the Lord, pestering Him, and bringing His Word before Him, reminding Him of the relationship we have, of the promises He has graciously given, and that we trust in.
Asaph was doing what God wanted, facing an incredibly difficult time, yet finding refuge and hope in the promise of God.
May we take instruction from this saint of old, and continue to be before the Lord, reminding Him of His great promises, and thanking Him for the greatest fulfillment of His promises, Jesus our Savior!
2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
Yes – Jesus is all of it, and as we grow to know Him, we find He is the promise we can rely on, even in dark days when all is falling apart, when the very sanctuary of God seems to be in tatters. He is still the complete fulfillment of all of God’s promises for His people.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
268
Greater than the Temple
Matthew 12:6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
Jesus walked amongst people who were devoted to the temple. Even the most “unwashed” of the nation reverred the temple, though they despised those who abused their power within it. The Temple was the glory of the city of Jerusalem, and represented a time when the very presence of God was with the nation.
Those days had passed, and the glory of this temple was merely physical, for the Lord had left the Temple centuries ago, prior to it’s destruction by the Babylonians as Ezekiel witnesses in his vision he recorded in Ezekiel 10.
After the completion of their captivity, the Lord provided the opportunity for the Jewish remnant to return to the land, and rebuild the temple. Some of the elders of the nation, that had seen the first temple of Solomon, wept when they saw the foundation of the Second Temple.
Ezra 3:12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
Those who witnessed the first, were weeping, not necessarily out of joy for the rebuilding progress, but because this temple was smaller than Solomons. The required resources to rebuild Solomons temple were not available, and the temple would be a dim reflection of the first one.
And yet, in the building of the temple, as the people were dismayed and discouraged, a prophet by the name of Haggai appeared on the scene. He spoke of the temple, the need to construct, the refusal to compare with the old memories and of the glory of this second temple.
Haggai 2:9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.’”
Facing a temple reduced in size and in resources, Haggai had the nerve to say it’s glory would be greater than Solomon’s temple. Surely you jest Haggai, for it is but a mere echo of the glory of Solomon’s temple.
Five hundred years later, a young Rabbi entered that second temple and as He spoke to the building managers (the Pharisees) about the Sabbath – a tremendously important day for them – He declared Something greater than the temple was present.
Talk about nerve!
But could Haggai have been thinking of more than the size or cost of the physical temple when he prophesied? It seems the elders who wept at the reduced foundation size of the second temple were distracted from the truth. The Messiah would out shine any building, and beyond that, He would BE the temple.
Such an audacious statement concerning His superiority over the temple must have stunned the crowd. Stunned them, or at least confused them as they continually looked to the building as their focus of allegiance.
But our Messiah goes further. His statement concerning the raising up of the temple, though thoroughly misunderstood, was proven by His resurrection.
John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
He is the Temple of the Living God. No building could compare to the Glory of the Son, and any effort to construct any temple in the future is spitting in the face of the Father’s gift to all mankind.
Let us consider how we, as believers in the Body of Christ are to focus on Him only. He is the Temple and any building we meet within is simply a shell to protect us from the elements.
Remember – even today, He is Greater than the Temple.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Cyrus
Trigger of Prophecy
Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. And for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. Daniel 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
Luke 19:38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Cyrus made a decree, and that decree began the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in the promised land. It is as if the nation was reborn, and the hope of the Messiah could be realized again.
Cyrus issued a decree, and as we spoke of earlier, this decree to release the Jews from captivity and provide access to the homeland in order to rebuild the temple was miraculous! What type of king does this type of action for a defeated people?
He issued a decree, but it is very improbable that the decree of Cyrus is related the the word spoken of in Daniel 9:25. You see, all the previous passages we have spoken of in relation to the decrees of Cyrus have had to do with the rebuilding of the temple. Daniel speaks of a decree to rebuild the City. Let us not blur the Word!
Yes, some may consider a verse in Isaiah justify seeing Cyrus as the one providing the decree referred to in Daniel 9:25.
Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
But take note that the text speaks of God describing Cyrus as a shepherd, and then of God’s actions of Jerusalem and the temple being rebuilt. It is not specifically stating Cyrus would perform the actions of building Jerusalem or laying the foundation of the temple.
The Word does help define exactly Cyrus place in all of this process of reestablishing the nation of Israel, as Ezra describes the historical proclamation of Cyrus.
Ezra 1:1-2 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
After a careful reading, it should be obvious that Cyrus provided the decree for the temple, and that nothing is spoken by him regarding the rebuilding of the City of Jerusalem.
So Carl, you have just disproven the expected storyline of Cyrus being the one who would be the “Trigger of Prophecy”, that he would set in motion the specific decree that could calculate the coming of the Anointed One, the Prince.
Yes, Cyrus did not provide the decree to build the City, but he set in motion the inevitable process of Israel becoming a nation in the land again. Some other king – we will look at him in the future as a type of the Christ also – had the privilege start the clock for the countdown to our Saviors appearance, His passion and His glory.
For now, we are considering Cyrus, and as a type of the Christ, he has abundantly surprised me in all the ways he pointed us to the who are looking to find the Christ in the Old Testament.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
267
Greater than Solomon
Matthew 12:42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
This general passage has been referred to earlier in our discussion of “Greater than Jonah”. In that comparison, we saw that Jesus referred to Jonah in relation the the effect of his preaching, and of the repentance Jonah experienced amongst the dirty sinful gentiles.
It seemed Jonah was much more successful with the dirty rotten stinking gentiles that Jesus was with the righteous, holy, blessed and perfect Jews He was addressing. Of course Jesus is much much greater, but refer to that posting for that discussion!
In our verse this morning, Jesus brings up Solomon. The wisest and richest king ever produced in the nation. A man revered by Jesus audience as the wisest of all, a man who drew people to him just to hear his judgements. Jesus focuses in on the story of the queen of the South coming to see Solomon.
A woman. A woman from a foreign nation. A dirty rotten stinking gentile again! But this example had her coming to Israel. She was not as the Ninevites, having a message delivered that they did not expect. This queen sought out an audience with the king.
And she is going to judge the generation of religious Jews for not paying attention to the One greater than Solomon.
Can you hear the mocking, the jeering and the laughter in the background?
How could this itinerant rebel rousing Rabbi consider His message greater than Solomon? Or more to the point, how could Jesus compare Himself as greater than Solomon? This must have seemed completely ludicrous in the eyes of the religious man in Israel!
And how dare Jesus suggest a foreigner, a dirty rotten stinking gentile, judge the righteous holy and perfect law-abiding Jew?
This was just too much!
But what if He was right? What if Jesus is Greater than Solomon?
How humbling this would be for the religious man?
If Jesus is greater than Solomon, and the religious man is not recognizing His greatness, a time will come when a great humbling will occur!
How deep is the complete blindness of the religious man?
If Jesus is greater than Solomon, and the religious man cannot see the truth of the Messiah, that Jesus provides all the proofs needed to know and see Him in His person, a time will come when this will be revealed!
How silent is the stone cold deafness of the religious man?
If Jesus is greater than Solomon, and the religious man cannot hear the words of God coming from the mouth of Jesus, he is showing he is not of the fold, that he is not one of the Shepherd’s sheep, a time will come when the Word will be clear!
My friend, Jesus is Greater than Solomon, having proved His identity by His life and death, and His resurrection.
Jesus is Greater than Solomon. Deal with it!
On a personal note, I am convinced that religion is one of the greatest barriers to knowing the Living God. Religion, in all it’s glory, is often a tool used deaden our sense of need before the only True God, providing a system of various laws and rules that we are to obey in order to satisfy some god, or provides the religious man enough information in order to inflate our estimation of ourselves.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.
This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.
I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.
Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.
At the Couch
Introduction
In our last post, I spoke of offering conditions as a part of our prayer life. I seemed to lean into this style of praying for many years, and to be honest, I seem to slip into “bargaining” with God more than I want to admit.
After a bit of reflection, this style of communicating with my Father implies a number of problems.
A severe lack of trust. I simply need to have some control in the situation, as I am reluctant to let go of the problem. I am not convinced inside that He will take care of the problem, that He will provide an acceptable solution, or that He understands what I want! This is ludicrous, since He is the Creator, and the Sustainer, and He knows my heart and mind better than I. Yet I want to negotiate. Foolishness.
A severe lack of love. Of course many may think I am referring to my lack of love for my Savior, and of that I confess my shortcomings. But that is not what I am referring to in this point. As I negotiate with my Father in my prayers, I am exhibiting an understanding of the Father’s love for His child that is wholly inadequate, insulting and repulsive.
For those who have a child, consider, if you will, your own child coming to you, in need and unable to fix a situation. This child is helpless, ignorant of all that is going on in the family, and without the skills to gain a solution, little less maintain the life he or she lives. This child is completely dependent on the Father for his sustenance, for his protection, for his well being and his environment.
And this child comes to negotiate with you, trying to impress you with a promise, or worse yet a threat.
How ludicrous! It is as if the child considers himself on the same level, even as an equal to the Father. Incredulous!
To bargain with God reveals a lack of trust and a lack of understanding the love of God as our Father.
This understanding came home to my mind and heart clearly in the following prayer I want to recount to you.
The situation
We were strangers in a foreign land, and until all the paperwork gets filed, and all the forms are filled out, we were essentially guests in this nation. During this time of being guests, three of my children were detained and set on the course for deportation.
This story is about my daughter.
We came back from a family vacation in Mexico, and due to my daughter needing a medication for a condition, had some pills in the bottom of her purse. As we crossed the border into the USA, an agent found a pill, and pulled her to a separate room.
Within 10 mins, we were experiencing the nightmare of deportation again. (We had lost one son to deportation, and a second son had spent an extended time in deportation jail before being released. Now a third child. Although she was a strong young lady, she was not ready for the trial we were to go through.
By this time, both my wife and I were at our wits ends, desperate for relief, constantly in fear of hearing of our daughter being hurt in the jail, or of paperwork being lost and forcing the deportation prior to due process being completed. Our nerves were frayed and every minor life disturbance was magnified in our minds. We prayed every day, morning noon and night. We begged, pleaded and sought to find ways to get God working. We needed our daughter home.
Except I had not let go yet.
I was up early one morning, sitting on the couch, praying for the return of my daughter. The paper work was not progressing, the lawyer spoke of snags in the process, of the judge being difficult, of the courts being backlogged. I again pleaded with God to bring her home.
And then I realized He may need to take her away. It was a condition I had refused in my heart, a possibility I had never allowed to enter my thoughts. God had to bring her back.
He had to!
What did I need to offer to Him to get this result? How could I manipulate the Lord of All? I was in negotiation with my Creator, and it wasn’t going well!
That morning, I turned to kneel at the couch, and offered my daughter to the Lord, for His will to be complete in her life, for His glory. I laid down my wishes. May He do as He will, and may we be willing to follow no matter.
I would like to tell you that peace flowed through my soul, that my mind and heart felt at ease for the first time in months. I can’t confess that. I only knew that He was in control, that I was broken, and that He was working in the situation to accomplish His goals for my daughter and our family.
Months passed. Our prayers turned from desperation to simple requests. We began to see movement in the courts. As I had touched on this topic in a previous post (Let Me Tell You a Story – Disappointment), let me recount the courtroom proceedings from that posting.
After two court appearances, my daughter was asked to stay behind. The judge was like a machine with all the other subjects, spitting out decisions rapid fire, sealing the fate of many. When it came to her, the judge cleared the room, leaving only my wife and I with her. He proceeded to upbraid the injustice that had occurred in this incarceration, and declared her to be freed immediately. She was coming home!
Prayer changes things. Prayer changes people.
God is good. He loves us when we are negotiating, untrusting, willful and stubborn. It is so much better to fall on His mercy and love instead of fighting it to get something that may not satisfy.
May we all seek to comply with the will of God in our lives, no matter the immediate loss we may think we will experience.
Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
266
Greater than our Hearts
1 John 3:20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
John is providing multiple tests for the believer to recognize in his own life, to build his faith and establish his life before God. I had at one time thought the book consisted of one verse, and that verse being 1 John 5:13.
1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
It’s almost funny how I would skip through John’s letter, stopping shortly in the first chapter to memorize the ninth verse, and then right to 5:13. It was my verse to depend on based on what I remembered happened so many years ago, when I bent my knee at that couch and prayed the sinners prayer.
Chapter 5, verse 13 was critical for my faith since at one point in my life I had believed. Yes, back on Feb 21st of 1981, at 7:30 I prayed to the Lord. It was my salvation, and John was telling me that because I believed, I may know I had eternal life.
But I skipped the body of his letter, hoping the prayer would be enough. Now before anyone starts thinking I am questioning whether I met the Lord that night, let those thoughts evaporate. He saved this ol fool’s life and put me on a new road, with a new heart and a new purpose.
Yet I depended on that night! It was if the night was what saved me in my thinking sometimes. I am not sure if anyone else has had these thoughts, or possibly some doubts of their initial introduction to the God of Eternity, but John wants to dispel those thoughts. He provides us a fool proof method of knowing of our destiny, of our relationship with the Savior and that knowledge is found in the way we live out our faith.
Nothing changes the past. Those times when I have obeyed the light He give (1 John 1), loved my brother (1 John 2), rejected the world’s enticements (1 John 2), refused anti-Christian teaching (1 John 2), sought a purity of life (1John 3), or found the world hates or reject me (1 John 3) – each of those times has given me a greater confidence in my relationship with the Risen Son. It is an experiential relationship with the Living God that provides the knowledge of our faith.
Yet we are dragging about a sinful rebel, one that simply wants to wander off from the God we love. Each of us have failed Him. Each of us are not worthy.
There are times when my history with the Lord wells up in my heart, when my memories flood in and show how lackluster my faith has been, of how I have been an inconsistent follower, a complainer, a charlatan of sorts, a hypocrite and a traitor.
My heart is a condemning heart. It is the nature of the beast! And John tells us that when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.
The epistle John is writing is for believers to know of their relationship with the Living God. John now refers to God knowing everything.
This is the only time John mentions “God knowing” in this epistle, and it is instructive to note he is addressing the believer who is self condemned, full of doubt and despair. Even in this state of condemnation, of our hearts refusing to acknowledge the leading of God in our lives, we can find reassurance in the Lord, remembering that He knows our souls, and that He is above all of our doubting self condemnation.
1 John 3:19-20 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Our God is Greater than our heart, and for that we should continually be a thankful people. When the condemning heart starts telling dark stories – whether they be true or not, remember the goodness of God.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Cyrus
Jew and Gentile King
Isaiah 41:2 Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.
Isaiah 45:1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
Revelation 19:16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Cyrus, it is well known was a Gentile, a king of Gentiles and one of the most feared and effective kings of the ancient world. He trampled over Babylon without loosing a battle, and dominating the surrounding cities. A key city in the Babylonian kingdom simply surrendered to Cyrus. No fight in them, for they knew who Cyrus was and that he was coming to get them!
How impressive was Cyrus? In order to take Babylon, he diverted a river. A river you may have heard of called the Euphrates! No small river may I say!
He was a king of kings in his day, and in his dominion over the Babylonian kingdom, he inherited a tiny nation that had been in captivity for 70 years. As he became king over Babylon, by default, he became the king over Israel, the Jewish people.
Although Jesus initially offered God’s kingdom to the Jewish people, we all know that the end goal was for all nations to know the true King, the King of Kings over both the Jewish and Gentile people groups, drawing them into the nation of God, the church.
Yes, Cyrus was a type of Christ in that he was sovereign over all nations, including those of Israel. Yet his kingship lasted at most only a few generations, and it was merely a kingdom of this earth, a physical kingdom destined for death.
Jesus kingdom is spiritual, includes all who seek Him and will never succumb to death or destruction. He is the True King of Kings over all.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
265
Greater than our Father Jacob
John 4:12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
As mentioned in our previous post, as an introduction to the next few names that include the modifier “greater than”, I mentioned that comparing God to a historical figure is somewhat diminishing to the nature of God, but I argued that this very act of stooping to our needs is the type of God we serve. He is nowhere nearly just greater than those we will come across in this short series, for He is the Eternal Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God. But God is also good, and humble, and loving, and reaches out to those He loves and dies for. Thank you Lord!
For this passage, Jesus is challenged by a sinful Samaritan lady, when she questions the Savior of being “greater than our father Jacob”?
How could this young itinerant, relatively unknown (at this time in His ministry) Jewish Rabbi be greater that the father of the Jewish nation? And why would this Samaritan woman challenge Jesus with that topic?
Well it turns out that this very well was commonly known as Jacob’s well.
John 4:6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
This well had been providing water to Jacob’s descendants for hundreds of years. Now I want to be careful, for there is nowhere in the Old Testament that I can find describing the digging of this specific well by Jacob, but tradition, and this Samaritan’s comments settle that issue in my mind.
For those interested in the possible Old Testament reference to Jacob’s purchase of the well, many scholars consider this land to be referred to in Genesis 38.
Genesis 33:18-19 And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
As mentioned, in the patriarch’s days, wells were the source of life. Jacob knew this, and bought the land this well was positioned on for his family and future posterity. Hundreds of years later, it continued to provide life to the surrounding people.
So in summary, Jacob was great since he was the one who provided a source of life for his posterity. The Samaritans considered Jacob to be their ancestral father through Joseph, and the provider of life through this well. No man was greater in the Samaritans opinion. Jacob was truly great!
Therefore, when this woman challenged Jesus in this comparison with Jacob, she chose the nuclear option with Jesus. Much to her surprise, her question blew up in her face – in a very unexpected way! She challenged this young Rabbi of His abilities to provide water, but then found out He could provide a far greater source of life, the Spirit of God, far exceeding the mere wet stuff she sought every day at the well.
She only had one hurdle to jump over. Sin. She had to face her sin.
Is that the only thing holding you back from finding life in the Savior. Take it from an awful sinner. Admit your weakness, your frailty, your rebellion, your sinfulness, and your hard heart. He knows of it. He simply wants you to know of it, to admit it, and to realize the well we currently draw water from is not the water we truly need.
Her admittance of sin to this young Rabbi provided the first open confession of who Jesus truly is. And that to a sinful Samaritan woman, not a righteous servant of God. Kinda speaks of God’s desire for the lost, no?
John 4:25-26 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Can you imagine her day, starting out by challenging some stranger at a well, and then becoming convinced He is really is greater that her father Jacob?
Greater than Jacob? By a long shot – for He is the Messiah!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.
This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.
I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.
Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.
A Petroleum Transfer Engineer
When I met my lovely wife, I was a student in the architectural discipline, very close to attaining my Architectural Technology degree.
Ewwww – fancy dancy eh?.
I had been attending architectural school for at least two years, but to be honest, it was simply a time of drinking anything with alcohol in it, selling and using drugs and disturbing my neighbors with very loud music.
I was a mess, and being in an “artsy” course wasn’t helping! (My apologies to all my architect friends…)
What was going to help was a young lady with a message I had never heard before. (If you haven’t read my testimony, I refer you to Testimony)
After I met her and her Savior, I repented of my sin, and ran to the Savior. One problem though. If I wasn’t whacked out on “foriegn substances”, I found that drawing floorplans and house elevations was just not my cup of tea.
Wifey was wonderful though, coming up to my desk late at night, encouraging me to push through, gently being beside me to let me know I had a friend.
She is great.
Nevertheless inside I was dying. I knew this floorplan stuff wasn’t for me, for it had been driven into me by others. No – I had to find my way in life, and now that I had a pretty wife to take care of, I better get at it! Thankfully, the Lord reminded me that it wasn’t my way in life that was the issue, but His will. For that I am thankful, even though I didn’t quite comply without conditions.
Let me explain.
One bright sunny morning, as I was waking up, I offered up a prayer to the Lord, without making a noise, or letting that pretty girl know my thoughts.
“Father, if you give me a job today, I will quit school.”
I look back, thinking of how immature – even more that I am now – I was in my prayers. Sort of like Jacob as he prayed to God with conditions, but that will be for a different time.
I ventured south to a grocery store to see if I could bag groceries, or mop floors, or something. Nothing! I began to get a bit discouraged – yes – after one attempt. Hey – I never said I was a tenacious fella! Nevertheless, I continued on until I visited with an old bossman who took me on as a worker.
I was flabbergasted. I was to start work the next day. I hurried home to let my wifey know, to break the news that I was quitting architectural school to become a Petroleum Transfer Engineer. I knew I had to polish the job description up to sound impressive, for what woman who had hopes of being the wife of a “fancy dancy” architect would be happy with a guy who washed car windows and pumped gas. Yes, I got a job as a gas jockey.
And she understood. Did I tell you she was great. She supported me in my endeavors and has been a fantastic helpmeet for this ol’ fool.
What was the answer to my prayer in all of this?
God will provide an answer in order to teach greater lessons. Placing conditions on a prayer is not recommended. More on that later.
God will reveal the depth of love others have for a fella when it seems he makes a foolish choice.
God can use a very young fool to reach people in the place He leads, for I had many opportunities to share the goodness of the Savior and see folks get right with Jesus at that old gas station.
God will provide even if I get fired. That old bossman didn’t like it if I read the Bible on my break. He really didn’t like it when a fellow employee began to read that Book.
Nevertheless, God is good, and 44 years later, the Lord is still providing, and revealing His love to my family and I.
And my wife – she is still great!
Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
264
Greater than Jonah
Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
I confess. I am a numbers geek. I love numbers. I even have a favorite number. I work with numbers and the relationships they have with each other, with all of creation, with our relationships with each other, with how we understand/decipher complex ideas using scribbles on a page.
In my day to day work life, I compare answers using numerical formulas to determine a best solution. Sometimes the best solution is for the answer to be the least of the two results. As in the capital cost of laying timber ties when compared with steel or concrete. Remember – I am a civil (some would say – a polite) engineer specializing in rail terminal design.
Other times, when I calculate a return on an investment, I am looking for the greater number.
All of this to introduce the topic of “greater than”. For the next few passages in our list of names of God, we are introduced names that include this term. To be “greater than” is a term of comparison, and relates to that which is better, bigger, costlier, or simply greater.
When it comes to the names of God, it retains it’s comparative value in the description, but I beg to suggest it is a term that the authors use to bring God down to our level. By that I mean, I can compare someone to Jonah, or Solomon, or Abraham, but to try to grapple with understanding the Eternal Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God – well that just isn’t happening in this ol’ fool’s head. Remember – I am a numbers guy – logical, practical and limited. Very limited.
And our God fully stoops to our level to describe Himself in terms we can somewhat understand, but I fear does not do Him justice! That is the God we serve, for He provides us teaching that may seem to minimize His greatness in order for us to comprehend Who we are trying to relate to.
For this passage, Jesus states that something greater than Jonah was present. Now when we hear the name Jonah, I think of a rebellious prophet that defied the call of God, emperiled a boatload of sailors, made a whale sick, and scared a city with his ghostly appearance. (He had been in the acid of a whale/fish’s belly for an extended time – He was a bleached out fella!)
Oh – and he was instrumental in bringing about the largest revival in Old Testament history, and that with a bunch of dirty, sinful, awful gentiles.
So when Jesus speaks of being greater than Jonah, what might His focus be? I recall He spoke of Jonah as a sign of the resurrection, but that is not this text. This text’s context is the repenting of the City of Ninevah, that bunch of dirty, sinful, awful gentiles. He spoke of Jonah as the one who produced the greatest repentance recorded in the Old Testament, and that was in the gentile world.
He spoke of Jonah as the one who called out
Jonah 3:4 … “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
The people believed and repented.
If Jesus is greater than Jonah, and He is, then why didn’t those whom Jesus preached to repent? What is going on here?
As I read the Word, I see over and over again that Jesus had the world in mind. He was after the other sheep. He was looking for “all y’all” to join the family. He was also describing the incredibly hard heart of those who opposed Him at the time of His appearing. A highly religious people, who took offence at the One who came offering a direct connection to the Father.
It may seem poetic justice that 40 years after the preaching of Jesus, the city of Jerusalem was thrown down. 40 years for the religious folk to repent, get right with a loving and patient God and escape the trap of a dead religion. He didn’t supply only 40 days as Jonah had!
He is greater than Jonah, in His message, His patience, His desire for the lost, His effect on the nations. Jonah only impacted one nation, and if I understand when Nahum preached – about 100 years later – the revival of Jonah may have lasted only one generation.
Jesus revival is eternal, for His resurrection is an eternal resurrection, the life granted through this resurrection is an everlasting life, and His nation, His blood bought people, have continued on throughout the ages.
Matthew 16:18 … I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Yes this is a slam dunk – He really is greater than Jonah in everyway!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
It was early yesterday morning, and I had hours of driving ahead of me. It was dark, leaving the house just after 5 am, and the highways were light for traffic – light for Houston that is.
On long trips like this, I like to pop the Bible on, and listen for extended times, sometimes paying attention and at other times – because I’m driving, being a bit distracted.
It was halfway to my destination, travelling a bit over 75 mph on the interstate heading north, that the following miracle came over the radio speakers.
Mark 2:4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Mark 2:5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, Mark 2:7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Mark 2:9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? Mark 2:10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–he said to the paralytic– Mark 2:11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” Mark 2:12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Very early in the career of Jesus, we come up to this amazing miracle, where Jesus displays abundant proof that He is God.
Note the progression of logic.
Jesus forgives sin.
Scribes complain that only God can forgive sin.
Jesus opens up the question, by addressing their lack of heart faith. (Remember – this is early in His ministry)
Scribes reinforce the teaching that only God can forgive sins.
Jesus provides the Scribes a logical test.
Which is easier?
For Jesus to forgive sins?
Impossible in Scribes mind.
For Jesus to heal paralytic?
Also impossible in Scribes mind.
Jesus then provides a purpose for this challenge. He clearly states that this upcoming impossible act of healing will validate the past impossible act of forgiving sins.
Jesus simply by His words heals the paralytic.
Nothing is said of the Scribes in this passage, but the crowds went wild! Amazed with the miracle, the crowds glorified God, speaking of how they had never seen anything like this before.
All of that interaction with the Scribes and the paralytic is amazing, yet during my drive, I was struck with the silence of the Word in Jesus taking a victory lap.
You know what I mean. We all do it. When we perform well in a crowd, find success in an endeavor, accomplish something that no one thought we could – we tend to find some way to bask in the accomplishment, revel in the astonishment of others, or we simply take a victory lap, accepting the praises of the crowds.
There is nothing in the text that speaks of Jesus’ reaction after this miracle. Each of the gospels immediately tell of His calling of Levi.
Mark 2:13-14 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
Luke 5:27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
This omission of Jesus reaction to His own miracle spoke volumes to me on interstate 45.
He is Messiah, and we are not.
He is of a completely different identity than us “regulars”. Yes – He took on the flesh and blood of His brothers and experienced the human condition, but His identity was not only of us “regulars”. He is God amongst us, and He did not need to exhibit or perform any act to maintain that knowledge by the support of us “regulars”. His identity is a fact of truth in His Person, and He was perfectly secure in that. His relationship with the Father was the only relationship that mattered.
His was not on a mission of self aggrandizement,
Of all the men or women that have walked this earth, One man could justly speak of how much greater He was than others. This did not occur. He described Himself as humble, gentle and lowly in heart.
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
I have not found another self description of the Person of Christ in the Word other than this particular one, and it is perfectly reflected in this healing. I can imagine – only imagine – that as Jesus healed this paralytic, that He was gentle with the man, and lowly in heart with the circumstances of proving that He is God!
Did you grasp that? In this miracle He proved that He is God, able to forgive sins! Is that not worthy of a swelling pride, a movement of victory in the soul? And yet all is silent, and Jesus progresses to His next task of calling Levi to follow Him.
He is completely beyond my imagination. Who could make this up? Every hint of the gospel, every action He took speaks volumes for each of us if we are honest with ourselves.
He is God. He has not only proven to the Scribes of His day of His identity, but has provided the ultimate act of service and deliverance to a lost people. His resurrection is the very capstone of His Messiahship, and we are fools to ignore the evidence of who Jesus is!
We see the very same gentleness and lowliness of heart as He exits the grave. Though He has done the impossible, He is “simply” the eternal and almighty God, the God we have the opportunity to serve, worship and adore.
Is He calling you?
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
263
GREATER AND MORE PERFECT TENT
Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
Hebrews is a book that speaks of better things, of greater things and in this verse of perfect things.
The authors intent throughout the book is to compare Jesus with all other distractions for the religious soul. He is better than Moses, Joshua, angels, the priesthood and the temple. Yes, even the temple of God, of which would soon be destroyed by the Romans when they lay siege to the city.
Can you not hear the author begging those to flee to the true temple, the temple that is eternal? But I am speaking of a temple, and am unsure if the temple was ever intended by God to be erected.
Men of God, with good and true intentions, erected a temple in the name of God in the City of David, but prior to the construction of the greatest religious structure known to mankind in those days, the Lord of all creation resided in a tent. He had provided instructions for a “tent”, that was highly mobile, temporary and full of teaching, even in the materials and methods of construction. But that discussion is for the series Jesus in the Old Testament.
I am looking forward to that topic, but for now let us consider the Greater and More Perfect Tent.
Even in this verse, the author is emphasizing that the Christ came “with” the Greater and More Perfect Tent” and directs me to the times the Lord’s body is spoken of as a tent, or a tabernacle.
Of course the first passage that comes to mind is where Jesus is described as “tabernacling” (dwelling) with us.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
To dwell, as used in this verse, speaks of living in a tent, a temporary situation. It is the same meaning as used in relation to the tabernacle described in the book of Exodus, where the glory of the Lord was dwelling in the midst of His people. Jesus, in His desire to be amongst us, took on our limited bodies, weaknesses, appetites and weariness in order to be amongst us.
The very thought of God dwelling in a tent was first expressed back in Exodus 25:8,9.
Exodus 25:8-9 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
The term sanctuary refers to a consecrated place, and in this description in Exodus, the consecrated place is a tent, a moveable temporary type of structure. A structure that could easily be relocated in order to remain with the people. He really wanted to be in the midst of the people!
First a tent that was able to be relocated. Then a body for the God man, in order to experience our lives and to provide an identity we could stand in, rejoice in and live in.
The Greater and More Perfect Tent is the Messiah, and by the indwelling of His Spirit, the mystical body of true believers throughout the world, for believers currently are the tent for the Spirit of God to dwell in for the sake of the world.
All because He is the Greater and More Perfect Tent. He is not only the sacrifice, but also the place in which we can meet with Him in unity with others.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 74:18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name. Psalm 74:19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
It has been too long since I have spent a few moments in the Psalms for this blog. I have been busy with a new series regarding prayer, and have enjoyed bringing the answered prayers to my mind, to think on the many ways our Lord has delivered a poor ol fella like me.
But I must not abandon the Psalms, for everytime I enter these pages of the Word, I come away refreshed, challenged and comforted in the knowledge of a saint going before me, expressing his deep heart for us to meditate on.
For our passage this morning, consider the context of the psalm, a psalm that speaks of the desecration of the temple/tabernacle and the sense of loss experienced by the author. It is the complete loss of the center of the Jewish faith, the core identifying building for the Israelite and the physical location of all the priestly activity to approach the most Holy God!
Our author is pleading with our God regarding the reproachment of the name of God. It is the loss of the tabernacle that is effecting the saint, yet his greater concern is how this desecration of the temple impacts the honor of the Lord.
Scoffing and reviling of the name of the Lord. This is the burden of the saint, the revulsion each saint experiences as he gets closer to God and yet lives in this old sinful world. And as we become sensitive to this scoffing and reviling, are we to lash out, to defend the name by attacking our assailants, our spiritual enemies?
Consider the psalmist’s next phrase, where he refers to the life of God’s turtledove. The psalmist begs that the wild beast, likened to the ones who destroyed the temple, not have the opportunity to destroy the turtledove.
Now what is this old saint speaking of? To think of a dove is to think of a harmless animal, a defenseless bird that is often used in the context of peace. In verse 19, the psalmist describes this turtledove in the second phrase as “God’s poor”.
Both the dove and the poor are perfect pictures of the helpless, those who cannot defend themselves. They are at the mercy of the enemy, and the saint is begging that God spare them from the enemy, the ones who desecrate and destroy.
Two things to consider.
Is not the God we worship the God who is for the orphan and the widow? He protects those that are the weakest in our society. Are we not also called to do the same? Are we not, in our following of the Messiah, to mimic the nature of God and provide a protection for those most needy in this?
Secondly, if God is the protector of the helpless, and He surely is, then how is it that the most peaceful of all was torn apart on the whipping post, nailed to a cruel tree and left to die a horibble death.
The very character of our Holy and Caring God was denied in the crucifixion, when the Father of the widows and orphans turned His face from His very own Son.
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
How can the heart of a Father turn from His Son? He not only turned away, but the Word speaks of the Father crushing Him, the fairest of the fair, the most peaceful of the turtledoves.
The suffering on the cross was beyond understanding. There was abundant suffering in the heavens also, for the heart of the Father was broken, having let the turtledove be crushed by the enemies of the sanctuary.
Such is the mystery of the love we live in, the love we exist in and are enveloped in. He is beyond description, both Father and Son, and the Spirit of grace that speaks far greater things than this.
May we be listening, learning and living the kind of life that pleases our Father and His Son.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Cyrus
Subdue Nations
Isaiah 45:1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
Romans 1:5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
Back in post 6 of this series, (Jesus in the Old Testament – Cyrus – 06) I suggested that Cyrus was a type of Christ in that he was undefeatable. In our lesson this morning, I would like to suggest that Cyrus is a type of Christ in that he subdued nations.
Some may consider this a duplication of typology, but I beg to differ. To be undefeated speaks of battle, of war, of victory over an enemy.
To subdue nations is much more than simply finding victory on the battlefield. There have been many a war in which the victorious army could not contain or govern the vanquished nation.
In our passage this morning, we find that to subdue may be translated as “conquer,” “defeat,” or “overthrow” The term has the meaning of “to beat down”. Cyrus was given the authority to defeat the nation militarily (to be undefeated) and also to control a population. He was able to subdue the people, even as he won his victories over the armies of the people.
I do not know of how he performed this act of dominance over all the nations he defeated, but with regards to the Jewish people, he subdued the Jewish nation (what was left of it) by acting out the command of God for his people. He freed them, and provided protection, and gave direction to reconstruct the city and the temple.
Cyrus’ method of subduing, or as our verse teaches, of “beating down” a people was certainly not the common method of controlling a defeated population. To beat down a people
Cyrus is known as a progressive leader, providing freedom to people groups that was unheard of prior to his arrival in history. There have been archeological findings that indicate he forwarded the rights of individuals, of providing the first declaration of human rights, giving religious tolerance and humane governance. He truly was one who subdued in a manner unheard of previously.
And yet, Cyrus’ profound and progressive manner in dealing with people groups to establish a kingdom, and to maintain his position of leader over them is only a dim comparison to the Christ.
He is the One who subdues His people by dying to give us life, providing the freedom of choice to be His people. He “beat us down” with a relentless love, a continual beckoning to peace, and the drawing of our mind and heart to the truth.
Cyrus was a man who lived a different style of leadership. His subduing was unlike any before him. Jesus also exhibited a different style of leadership, unlike any religious leader that may appear to be in competition for the attention of lost souls. His leadership has been demonstrated in the resurrection, providing to any who seek the truth ample evidence of His Lordship.
As we follow Him, we find that His leadership over His people is primarily that of grace, of a merciful King who desires the benefit of His subjects, and in doing so, shows His glory and greatness!
He has subdued nations, is subduing nations and will subdue nations! He is the only True King!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
262
Great Mighty Awesome God
Nehemiah 9:32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.
Can you see a progression in our names of God recently?
Two posts ago, we considered our “Great God”, and in our last post, we spent a few moments on the “Great and Mighty God”.
From previous studies, we understand that to be great is not a matter of comparison against something or someone. To be great is not necessarily the opposite of bad, or poor, or weak. Each of those terms have their compliment.
And with “mighty”, we understand this describes God’s abilities, and it goes without saying that in describing His abilities, His abilities are also without comparison. It is not as thought we could say God could perform this action but not that action. (Of course we know He is limited to within His own will, but again – that goes without saying!)
So when we come to the term “awesome”, what are we to understand?
Back in the nineties, awesome was a byword that everyone used for anything that was above average, kinda cool or somewhat likeable. It kind of degraded the English word awesome, at least in my mind.
The term awesome, when we find it in our verse here in Nehemiah, relates to fear. Yes, our modern culture pushes the idea of respect and reverence in relation to God, and of that, this word has some meaning. To be sure, we need a healthy dose of godly reverence towards our God in our modern way of thinking!
But the term also carries with it the element of bone jarring fear, of a fear that overrides all other emotions. This term “awesome” is the same term that describes our ancestor’s first emotion after falling.
Genesis 3:10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Adam was afraid.
This completely new emotion for God’s creative masterpiece must have been excruciating. The Lord had become One to fear, due to Adam’s actions. Let us remember that the Lord had not changed. We had. And we invited massive fear into our lives. To go from a state of innocent bliss with the eternal God, to the internal knowledge that the Creator God who walked with you in the cool of the garden is now offended – well that must have been such an incredible shift in reality!
Nevertheless, the fear described in the fall of man is of the same fear each of us have lived under if we honestly face our destiny. To be alone before the Great and Mighty God is to be in a fearful place, a place of utter aloneness and nakedness before Him.
Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
He is God and we are but His creation, a creation that is fallen and in rebellion, with nothing to offer Him, nothing to placate the Holy God we stand before. Let us not dull the sharp edge of truth, even in our desire to give us some sense of comfort, some sense of false security or safety. As we stand, we are not great. We are not mighty. And we are to fear.
As believers, we are compelled, even by the love of Christ, to consider the Lord in the all encompassing manner we are responsible to Him. In that meditation and in realizing we fail Him in so many ways, a dread or fearfulness should rise up in our consciousness. A sense of complete hopelessness in our soul, a fearful looking over our shoulder, realizing we fall so short.
We are a sinful people in such a desperate situation!
If not for our Savior.
If it wasn’t for the massive sacrifice of His unmatched life to provide a ransom for a people who spat on Him, rejecting His counsel, and taking part in the spirit that crucified Him.
If it wasn’t for Him, we would be without hope. Crippling fear with no hope would be our experience.
As believers, Jesus has provided the right to be considered children of God, having removed the crippling fear we deserve. He has opened the door to the throne room of God’s kingdom, and we have the right to enter by the blood of Christ.
At such a cost, should we not continue to carry a fear that is rightly associated with such a Great and Mighty God, even our Great and Mighty, Awesome God!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.
This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.
I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.
Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.
Potatoes
My wife and I had just started to establish our home, having been married less than a year when we met a lady by the name of Anne. She was such a sweet lady, and seemed to have such a heart for the Lord. We naturally gravitated to her.
There was a small concern though. She seemed to have been radicalized by a errant thought going around in Christianity about evangelizing the lost.
Yes yes yes, I know. It is common doctrine, an acceptable mental position for the believer to agree to, but she was way out there – way out there in left field.
You see, she was in missions training to reach the untouched, to share the good news with those who had never heard, groups of people who lived a tribal life, hunters and gatherers, even to the extreme of cannibals.
Unheard of. But she was such a servant, and my wife and I listened. Eventually we went to a conference her mission board was putting on. That is where I heard of the importance of good decision making by a man preaching of Daniels choice of food consumption.
I was convinced! My wife – not so much.
So I entered into convincing mode. I made all the arguments, all the pleas, all the demands and every effort to convince her. I realize now my error, but I thought I could “wrestle” her to submission by my efforts, my authority, my desires.
Thankfully her hesitation in joining me in my excitement was to teach me the importance of waiting on God, the power of prayer and the priority of unity in Christian ministry. Her concerns were real, honest and to be considered (if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with my own desires). Eventually it became obvious my efforts to convince her were becoming a point of division between us.
What to do? What ever shall a believer do when an unyielding force meets an immovable rock?
The thought came to me in a flash.
Shut up. Quit trying to convince my wife and leave it with the Lord. My thought was that if God was calling us to this mission, He was able to talk to her about it. I would shut up, – a key element in this effort, for my constant nagging had only worsened the situation – and I would pray each night for 30 days. I would pray that God would open up her mind and heart to leave our family and country, enter a nation where we could not support ourselves, study for two years in a school, and then prepare for the next stage of entering mission work.
Oh – and by the way, we were expecting our first child!
Thirty days of pleading before the Lord. Thirty days of being content before my wife, without mentioning the topic – not even once. Thirty days of uncertainty in my mind as to the outcome, for I had been convinced that the Lord would provide an answer. Therefore I would understand the Lord’s voice in any direction that came out of this effort.
Thirty days passed. I was anxious in my heart – I will not lie. I came home from my day at work to see my wife peeling potatoes for supper. I sat at our little two chair dinner table, looked up at her and asked “Have you thought about missions?”
She looked over to me, peeling a potato, and said “Let’s do it.” She confessed she still had fears and concerns, and they were very valid. We talked. We laughed and we started the application process. We prepared for an adventure that would change our lives forever.
Four weeks after giving birth to our first child, we were on the road to a foreign nation, to a school we had never visited, to a group of people we never knew, and to a situation that promised many many challenges.
There will be other posts of how the Lord provided for this small family, how he taught us difficult lessons – mostly to a hard necked husband that needed the training – and of how He showed Himself as a merciful and kind God, a Savior that knows our weaknesses and yet guides us in His way.
If you are in the midst of a struggle with a friend, a loved one, a son or daughter, even a spouse, where you may be seeking to guide that one into a spiritual decision, take counsel from an old fool.
Human arguments and logic often hardens hearts. Prayer changes hearts. For those who are prayed for, and for those who pray.
May God be looked to for His leading in our lives, even if it isn’t what we think best.
Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
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Great and Mighty God
Jeremiah 32:18 You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts,
Jeremiah is watching the complete decimation of his beloved nation, falling under the judgement of the hand of God. He is praying for understanding in this passage, even as the Babylonians are at the doorstep of the city of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 32:24 Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it.
Jeremiah was living in circumstances that would provide abundant fuel for a critical, complaining spirit. Jeremiah was not of that spirit however, having lived a life of the prophet to the nations, and after calling the nation to repentance, experienced the beginning of the captivity of his people.
He is commonly known as the “weeping prophet”, and in many ways lived a life in similar circumstances as the Lord Jesus. Both men were prophets calling Israel back to the Lord, and both prophets saw the rejection of their message.
For all of this disappointment, discouragement and despair, Jeremiah had his eyes beyond the circumstances as he prayed for understanding.
The circumstances he lived in did not change who he worshipped, for as he prayed, he prayed, not to the God who was wringing his hands in desperation, or the god who had lost control, or even the god who was surprised by the situation, but by the Great and Mighty God, the God who is without comparison.
We worship the Great and Mighty God. Remember that He is on the Throne when things are crashing about in your life, when everything seems unstable and on the brink of disaster.
Jeremiah was in the midst of the greatest catastrophe in the life of his nation. And he prayed to the Great and Mighty God, the One who not only delivered the Israelites from Egypt, from Babylon and eventually from Rome, but was the flesh and blood Son of God who took our sin away.
In the grand scheme of all of God’s great and mighty works, we can delegate to a secondary level the building and falling of nations as Jeremiah was seeking answers to. The great and mighty work of our Great and Mighty God is the removal from the sinner of the guilt of sin, the power of sin, and eventually the sinner from the very presence of sin.
That is the great work of our Great and Mighty God, a God who bled and died to accomplish such a feat!
Praise God!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Cyrus
Rebuilder
Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
John 2:20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
We have seen this verse before, back in our third installment in the Cyrus study, looking at him as a shepherd, Of course his call to shepherd the people of God was a dim reflection of the Great Shepherd we have in Jesus, but he pointed to the Master.
For this post, we shall consider the description of Cyrus as a rebuilder, a servant used by God to build, and in his rebuilding, again pointed to the Master.
Both Jerusalem and the temple were to be rebuilt under the guidance of Cyrus according to our passage this morning. And as we may have mentioned earlier, when Isaiah is prophesying of this man, he lines out Cyrus’ mission quite clearly.
Imagine for a moment that you are Cyrus, that as you are dominating the nations, overpowering whole people groups and conquering vast areas of the world, you become aware of this prophecy of Isaiah. It would be hard to ignore, since Isaiah named you out in this very verse!
And while you are on a rampage of conquering, you find out you are destined to build. And not only to build a small outpost for a historically passive people, but your mission is to free a rebellious people , provide them passage back to their holy ground and then give them the right to rebuild the temple that provided the Babylonians, (a mighty world power at the time), such resistance to conquering over 70 years prior!
No wonder Isaiah clearly identified him. Calling him out by name was so necessary, for any “run of the mill” conquering general could not imagine this to be his purpose in life!
He rebuilt the temple, and the city of Jerusalem. A massive undertaking, and his leadership provided the Jewish people the freedom, resources and conditions in which they could flourish.
He took on a massive project in the rebuilding of the Temple, but in comparison to his anti-type, Jesus the Savior, it is but a dim reflection of the scope of work accomplished. Yes, Cyrus provided the conditions to enable the rebuilding of a physical temple, but how far greater the task to raise a greater Temple in only three days. To raise a Temple that would house all the people of God? To raise a Temple that would become the source of strength for a people to love their enemies, to pray for those who persecute them and to give witness to the God who went through the grace to build the true temple of God, the Body of Christ.
Our Temple is not made with hands. Jesus is the very Temple of God we belong to. May we honor His name by living as He want His people to live.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Considering the Bible 