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Jesus in the Old Testament – Aaron 6

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
 
Aaron
 
Behind the veil
 
Exodus 28:29
So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the LORD.
 
Hebrews 6:19-20
We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

As Aaron represented the children of Israel for a very short period of time before the LORD into the earthly Holy Place, His actions depicted the Greater Aaron, as our High Priest entering before the Father in reality.

Both entered behind the veil, into the Holy Place.

Aaron, as a type of Christ in his representing the children of Israel, was to remain for a short period behind the veil, performing his priestly duty and then returning to the people he represented. (Jesus too will be returning to His people but that is a separate topic for another day!)

Although Jesus is of a different priesthood, His entrance into the Father’s presence provides our future access, for not only does our author not speak of His leaving the Father’s presence, but that Jesus is described as a forerunner, One who is sent before those who follow.

Yes they both entered behind a veil, but only Jesus went behind the veil to remain behind the veil, and to provide access for those who He represented forever.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BLESSED AND ONLY SOVEREIGN – 54

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.

54
 
BLESSED AND ONLY SOVEREIGN
 
2 Timothy 6:15 which he will display at the proper time–he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
For this name of God, I would like to concentrate on the concept of Sovereign. It is not a word that is commonly used outside of the Christian culture (or Britain), but the term refers to one who serves as a chief of state, or more applicable in our study, One who exercises supreme authority.

In my past studies, when I read Sovereign in relation to the Lord, the principal image of control rose in my mind. That is, He is in control of all things, from the time we are born, to the time we die. He is the creator and sustainer of all life and has provided a Savior that has redeemed us, rescuing us from damnation and loss.

For a period of time, my ruminations on the concept of control as Sovereign, in my mind, elevated God to the highest plane, to a point where every decision, act and attitude could be attributed to God. For a period of time this became a passion of mine, until I sensed a personal lack of concern for my own responsibility in front of Him. After all, in this scheme of thinking, He is the One who controls everything in His kingdom. And eventually, I felt I was slipping into a void.

Until I heard a man speak of a sovereign in a silly story. 

He asked me to imagine a family going to a park, with three or four children tagging along. Prior to getting to the park, the father informed the children they were to stay within eyesight, not climb too high, and to care for each other. Upon arriving, the mother and father sat down, reminded the children of the instructions, and let them have some fun. As the children played, the father and mother were on constant watch, but the children had tremendous freedom to play within the boundaries set.

I ask you. Could this father be considered a sovereign? Did He have control over his “subjects”? If they rebelled, did he have the authority to discipline? If the children did right, exercising the freedom they were provided, did he become less sovereign?

My friends, the Sovereignty of God is a massive truth, and I take no credit for this story, but for the wise man who told it to me, I am thankful. I have come to understand that God is good, He has set limitations for us in the “park” and that He is always watching us, walking with us, and giving us guidance as we look to Him. 

He is confident in Himself to allow His creation to work together with Him, to make mistakes (and learn from them) to provide a measure of freedom for His children, and yet still get the glory only He deserves.

He is good and He is good all the time!

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BELOVED SON – 53

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.

53
 
BELOVED SON
 
Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is called the Father’s beloved Son. 

Beloved is the Greek term ἀγάπη agápē. 

As many know, there are a number of terms in the Bible that refer to love, but this is the term that was not in use in the Greek language at the time of the first century. It is a term that reflects the character of the One loving and not of the one being loved. 

With that said, when God so loved the world, this term seems appropriate, for the One loving is God and the one being loved is those in rebellion. The ones receiving this love were not deserving, they were actually enemies of God. Yet, out of the character of God, He loved them. God expressed His love to them because that is the character of God. The recipients had nothing to do with it other than being contrary to the love, refusing and fighting against the hound of heaven.

When Paul states that the Son is beloved, and uses the same Greek term, we are to understand that the love the Father has for His Son is the same love He has for us, as we are in the Son and He is the Beloved Son.

The Father’s love for the Son came out of His own character, and though there was nothing between the Father and Son (except while the Son was on the cross), the love was pure and unrelenting.

Jesus is the Beloved Son.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Jesus in the Old Testament – Aaron 5

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
 
Aaron
 
Tempted
 
Exodus 32:1
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
 
Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

We all know of Aaron’s failure before the Lord in succumbing to the pressure of the Israelites. He actually created (or oversaw the creation) of Israel’s first idol, while Moses was speaking with God on the mountain. 

Aaron was tempted, and as he fell in this temptation, he produced a situation that spread far beyond his own life. The repercussions of falling into this temptation was the potential wiping out of the entire nation. Yet Aaron, and the nation, due to Moses intercession, escaped judgement.

Obviously Moses is a type of the Lord in this instance, and we shall get to him, but in Aaron, we find a man who was tempted. He felt the pressure of the crowd, the influence of the multitude, and fell to the coercion, rejecting the truth Moses spoke to him.

Jesus also was tempted, not only in the wilderness all alone, for 40 days, in a weakened condition, but also in the multitudes, in large groups and gangs that had death on their minds. He stayed the course, even to death, knowing that the temptation to save His own skin would doom not only the nation, but the created world.

He was tempted, yet without sin!

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BEGINNING OF WISDOM – 52

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.

52
 
BEGINNING OF WISDOM
 
Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
This description of our Savior is the third time He is associated with a beginning. 

In the last two posts, we have seen that when “beginning” was referring to the Christ, it was related to the new creation, the church, and to His mission and sacrifice.

Not so here for Psalmist speaks of the beginning of wisdom as the attitude of the fear of the Lord. 

We understand the fear of the Lord is the Old Testament motivation for all obedience to the commands of God. Whether it is a holy reverence or a soul quaking fear is not the focus of this post. 

The focus of this post is to consider the ultimate “beginning of wisdom” to be best displayed in the Savior Himself.

We know He is the sinless Son of God, obedient in all his actions and attitudes before Hs Father. His fear of the Lord was consummate, for He never looked to the right or to the left. Only on the Father. 

The term “beginning”, though often denoting the first in time, may also speak of the first in place, order or rank. Given this, it would be easy to understand that the beginning of wisdom was best exemplified and lived out in the Messiah.

He is the beginning of wisdom.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BEGINNING OF GOD’S CREATION – 51

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.

51
 
BEGINNING OF GOD’S CREATION
 
Revelation 3:14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
In our last post we considered Jesus as the beginning of the church, as Paul was writing to the Colossians. 

In this portion of Scripture, John is describing our Savior as the beginning of God’s creation. Again. let us be careful to not assume Jesus had a beginning (other than as a man) and was not One of the eternal persons in the Trinity. 

As the audience is the church of the Laodiceans, I have always considered the creation John refers to here as the church, very much of the same vein of truth as Paul expressed in Colossians 1:18

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Jesus in the Old Testament – Aaron 4

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
 
Aaron
 
A Brother
 
Exodus 4:14
Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
 
Hebrews 2:17
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

It is interesting that Aaron is first called out as a brother of Moses. Earlier we met a priest by the name of Melchizedek, which for reasons beyond our topic today, was not chosen to represent the nation of Israel as high priest. Some may think Melchizedek would have passed on by now, but I tend to think differently!

Aaron was a man that had two descriptions the Lord noted for Moses. One that he could speak well, which addresses Moses claim to limit his ability to represent before Pharoah, and that he was a brother. The fact that he was a Levite comes into the equation later for the priesthood!

Aaron was a brother. One who was of the same “stuff” as Moses, coming from the same family, the same time, the same location, the same history. He knew what it meant to be of the population of an oppressed people. He had heard of the promise of a new land.

Jesus is also of the same “stuff” in that He took on a physical body, experienced hunger, anger, frustration and remaining gamut of emotional impacts a man experienced in the first century, under an oppressive ruler, and yet He knew the promise of a new land.

Note that the apostle speaks of Jesus “made like His brothers in every respect”. We can not claim He did not experience what we go through, both internally and externally, or that we undergo trials beyond His understanding.

He is a Brother. 

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BEGINNING – 50

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.

50
 
BEGINNING
 
Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
He is the beginning. 

Some may think this refers to Jesus as being created, and would assign to Him an existence other than the truth of His eternality. 

This thinking does not makes sense, for in the very verse we are looking at, Paul is speaking of Him as He relates to the church, not of His nature. He is the beginning of the church, the trailblazer, the Apostle sent to rescue us.

We cannot think of Paul or Peter as the ones who started the church. 

He is the beginning. 

As a man, He began His earthly existence in a cradle, for He needed a body to sacrifice for our rebellion. In a body, He related to those around Him, led by example, showed His character, and finally offered up the body created for Him. 

He is the beginning.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BEAUTIFUL AND GLORIOUS – 49

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.

49
 
BEAUTIFUL AND GLORIOUS
 
Isaiah 4:2 In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.
We haven’t spoke of the Branch of the Lord yet, as we are looking at His names in an alphabetical order, but suffice to say, Isaiah is speaking of the Messiah when he speaks of the Branch. 

He shall be beautiful and glorious.

Beautiful. This Hebrew term often translated as glorious, or glory in our Old Testament. Using this term, Isaiah is bringing us a varied description of beauty, for this term is very closely associated with the thought of glory.

But what is glory? If I met you on the street, and asked you “What is glory”, could you answer without using the term glory?

Glory. This Hebrew term speaks of glory, honor and abundance, and is used 200 times in the Old Testament. 

The term rose from a root meaning of heaviness or weight, and this root meaning may be associated with abundance combined with authority. 

In my thoughts, for someone to be glorious in ancient times, meant he had abundance, for he was most likely a ruler of some kind, and he suffered no loss of want. He had weight, not only as a man who had physical abundance, but moral and or authoritarian influence. To be glorious may have had a visual aspect to it, but if we consider the root meaning of the word to have continued in its usage, the term likely meant the weight of authority the owner was able to wield.

In all of this conjecture, it makes sense to this believer that when I hear of glory, I think of authority, and not necessarily beaming rays of light. 

Our Savior has all authority; His influence has no limits and He has no competitor in His beauty(glory) and glory(authority).

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BAPTIZER – 48

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.

48
 
BAPTIZER
 
Luke 3:16
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John 1:32-34
And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
I imagine John the Baptist was a bit of a fiery preacher, calling the Pharisees a brood of vipers and speaking of wrath to come. So when John described the One coming as the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, I was somewhat surprised to hear of what (or Who) He will baptize with.

First, He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. No one but God Almighty has the authority to baptize with the Holy Spirit. It is not as if the Holy Spirit was to come upon someone in order to provide authority or power for a certain task, as in the Old Testament. This is the next level, where God would create a new humanity on the day of Pentecost.

Secondly, He will baptize with fire. Now some think this refers to the tongues of fire in Acts 2, which it might, but the audience at the time had just experienced John’s teaching of wrath. The message those in attendance heard was likely a continuation of wrath-speak. If fire refers to judgement, the audience heard of the One who had the power of judgement over their lives, and of the One who was able to administer wrath.

Both of these modes of baptism speaks of the authority and power of our God, of our Savior who came down to make us a new person and to rescue us from the very fire He’ has the power to administer. 

Think on Him today. Listen to Him and as He speaks to you, honor His name by following His lead.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BANNER OF LOVE – 47

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.

47
 
BANNER OF LOVE
 
Song of Songs 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
In our last post, we saw that a banner was some signal or indicator for rallying about, and was in the context of battles. 

As the King is wooing His love in this chapter of the Song of Solomon, we find the author speaking of a banner over her, a banner that is above the young woman, giving out a message to rally about. As mentioned, this rallying point of a banner is not in the context of war, but of love. 

This banner was to draw this young woman into His arms, to declare His commitment to her, to entice her to be His. 

Is it not the very same for us, who have come to enter His banqueting house, who have come into His church, that we see the Banner as one that provides the message of love?

His banner over us is Love, and He has won us to Himself by His self sacrificial love. Let us remember that as we are in His banqueting Hall, His message hasn’t changed. 

His banner over us is Love, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Banner we are to look to, to rally about, and to understand the message for His Bride, is that He is Love

1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Jesus in the Old Testament – Aaron 3

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
 
Aaron
 
Day of Consecration
 
Exodus 29:4
You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
 
Luke 3:21-22
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

To enter into God’s presence, Moses was to wash the priest in front of the tent, prior to their entering. Before their ministry before the Lord would start, the priest had to be cleansed. 

Now as we know, much of the Old Testament included pictures and themes would be shadows representing the Lord Jesus when He appeared on the earth. I am confident that my readers can see the parallel of how this worked out 2000 years ago in the Lord’s life.

Of course the cleansing was personally unnecessary for the Lord in that He was clean before the Father prior to entering into ministry. His baptism was the public outworking of this Old Testament image for those who were present and for us who read the Word.

Prior to His formal entrance into ministry before His Father, the Lord Jesus associated Himself with us, and with this image of the first priests, undergoing the outward expression of cleansing before the Father.

After this cleansing, Jesus was to embark on a most remarkable ministry as the ultimate High Priest in the presence of the Father, even to the point of offering Himself as the ultimate sacrifice. 

He is the Consecrated One and has been formally introduced to His creation as the Priest to be before the Holy One, bring One acceptable sacrifice – Himself – before the throne of God.

He is the Consecrated One.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BANNER OF ISRAEL – 46

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.

46
 
BANNER OF ISRAEL
 
Psalm 60:4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. Selah
The background to this psalm is the victory over Edom in the wars described in 2 Samuel 8:3-14. It seems that while Israel was fighting to the north and east, they were flanked by three nations (Edom, Philistia and Moab) to the south, coming in from the rear, with Israel suffering serious losses and falling into confusion.

David speaks of a banner being lifted up, for those who fear God – the true Israel – to rally about. 

When under fire all around, those who fear God will realize the banner has been lifted up for us also. 

The Banner of Israel was lifted up to defeat the enemy, and to show the way for battle. 

The Banner of Israel is our rallying point, for when we are overwhelmed, we need to return to the simple message of the One who hung on the cross, for all to see. 

The Banner of Israel is naturally the focus of those who fear God, and as we focus on Him, we come to find strength in Him and encouragement from fellow soldiers to continue the battle.

Look to the Banner of Israel as you live your day for Him.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – BALM OF GILEAD – 45

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.

45
 
BALM OF GILEAD
 
Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
What in tarnation is balm? And is there something special about Gilead? 

The background to the question Jeremiah asks is the utter upcoming destruction of the nation of Israel. The nation created by God, and sustained by God through many trials and terrors is now on edge of captivity. God’s mercies through the ages have been many, and they have been rescued by the Father many many times. 

Yet Jeremiah fears the worst, for he is calling out to the nation to seek out the balm of Gilead, a medicinal oil that was well known for it’s healing properties in the nation of Israel. 

Of course Jeremiah was not referring to the literal balm (or oil) of Gilead, for he is speaking of the sickness within the nation of Israel. This sickness, which would bring about the captivity of Israel, was not simply skin deep, but a matter of the heart. The literal balm of Gilead was known to treat surface cuts, heal burns, and relieve pain by soothing the hurt areas on the body. Jeremiah is somewhat sarcastic in this verse, referring to the balm as if that would be the minimum effort for healing on the part of the nation. Yet as we know, no literal balm of Gilead could have healed the nation, but our Balm of Gilead, our Great Physician is able to heal, and He is the One Jeremiah is pointing to in our verse.

A little later in Jeremiahs ministry in chapter 46:11, he calls on the nation to retrieve this balm from Gilead. 

Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you.

In our day and age, the balm of gilead may be purchased online. Whether it is the actual balm referred to in our verse, I will leave that to my gentle reader. No matter, for we all need to seek out our Balm of Gilead, the Great Physician, the One who heals hearts and not simply relieves pain on a surface.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – AWESOME GOD – 44

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.

44
 
AWESOME GOD
 
Nehemiah 1:5 And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
In our society these days, to hear the term “awesome” brings to mind something that is amazing, that tickles the mind, that entertains or provides a momentary thrill. Sometimes it simply refers to that which is simply eye candy, something that our senses consume but has no lasting beneficial effect.

The term used to carry the meaning of terror, or fear. It would never be associated with light matters such as the taste of a doughnut or the sound of a country song, the appearance of a special effect in a movie or TV show. 

For Nehemiah to describe God as an awesome God would illicit thoughts of dread, of reverence in the most holy sense. Nehemiah was not placing our God in the same category as a hamburger, or a new car, something we may consider as awesome today. 

A majority of times, this term translated as awesome in our verse is translated as either fear or to be afraid. 

To terrify. 

A sense of fear that constricts the stomach, weakens the knees, troubles the mind, produces a cold clammy sweat, and encompasses the entire attention of the “victim”. A mind consumed with one source of fear, without any worthy distractions able to wrest it from that source of fear.

This “Awesome” God is the God who Nehemiah describes as the One who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Steadfast love from the very source of fear inducing numbness. How can we ever understand our God? But alas – it isn’t for us to understand our God – but to simply love Him and keep His commandments.

Selah

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – AUTHOR OF LIFE – 43

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.

43
 
AUTHOR OF LIFE
 
Acts 3:15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
The Spirit has fallen on the church, and Peter has preached his first sermon with thousands coming to faith. In chapter 3, Peter takes part in the healing of a crippled man, similar to the good works Jesus had performed as He walked amongst them. This miracle continues the wake up call to the people of Israel, grabbing their attention in the very heart of their religious life at the temple.

Peter had their attention, and he had an opportunity to preach, and preach he did. 

Can you imagine Peter’s opportunity here to threaten or coerce those who did not believe in the previous sermon. But let us not consider Peter’s motivation to be such, for although he spoke harsh truth, his message was cushioned with an admission of ignorance on the part of those hearing. 

As I mentioned, Peter spoke harsh words to those who were present, revealing the contradiction of actions they were committed to just a few months back when they killed the Author of Life. Some translations speak of the Lord’s name as Prince of Life and there may be justification for this, yet to hear Peter describe Jesus as the Author of Life rings true for me.

He had just described the audiences earlier desire to have one who ended life, a murderer, to be released, and now Peter describes Jesus as the One who is the Author of Life, speaking of Him as the originator of Life, the One who created life. As if He created life only to be denied life by those He “authored”.

The Greek term for author (ἀρχηγός archēgós) in this verse speaks of One who goes ahead, is a chief leader, One who leads by example.

In all this contradiction, the Author of Life can’t help but to continue to offer life to those who are ignorant, to those who seek death and reject life. 

He is the Author of Life, no matter what we think or do. He is seeking you and will not give up, for He not only has life to share, but is the very Author of Life.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Jesus in the Old Testament – Aaron 2

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
 
Aaron
 
Anointed with Water & Oil
 
Exodus 29:4, 7
You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.
 
Acts 4:26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed–

Acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Aaron (and his sons) were to be washed with the water prior to taking on their priestly robes and the office God called him to. This was one of the actions to be performed on Aaron in their consecration to the Lord. A washing with water, not simply to take the dust off from the day of milling about the camp, but to represent the cleanliness required for the minister if they were to be accepted before God. 

A time of dressing the priest, with robes, breastplates, turbans and the ephod prior to the second “anointing”, this time with oil. The oil was to be applied to the head, and we don’t know exactly how much oil was applied. I often think of the oil as coming from a small vessel, possibly only a few ounces, but that is conjecture at best. 

One reference in the Psalms speaks of the oil being applied to Aaron’s head and it running down the beard. The Psalmist likens this to unity amongst brethren, but we will leave that discussion for a later time

Psalm 133:2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

No matter, for the picture of Aaron receiving the water and the oil typifies our Greater Aaron, who took a baptism to identify with His people, and was immediately anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit, for the ministry He would enter into for the souls of men and women.

His consecration with water was not required to cleanse Him of any filthiness, but to associate with those He came to save. The oil from heaven, the Spirit of God lighting on the Son of Man, signified the power He would minister in, providing proofs of His amazing claims.

He is the Greater Aaron and truly a High Priest, beyond our imagination!

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – ARM OF THE LORD – 42

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.

42
 
ARM OF THE LORD
 
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?
In our last post on the Names of God, we considered “Arm of Redemption”, with the psalmist referring back to the deliverance of the nation from Israel

In our current verse, Isaiah cries out to the Arm of the Lord, and in his cry, refers back to the days of old, and the generations long ago, who experienced that same deliverance from Egypt.

Instead of the psalmist referring to the capability of the arm, Isaiah speaks to who the Arm is. It is no angelic arm, though God has angels that are more than capable to cut down entire armies, such as the Assyrian army in the days of Hezekiah. This Arm is OF the Lord. and Isaiah is the only one in the Old Testament who uses this phrase. 

The only other place in Isaiah that this name comes up is in the most famous of his chapters, describing our Messiah.

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

Isaiah’s question as to whom the Arm of the Lord has been revealed is answered for us today, for all believers have had the revelation of the Messiah, and may I suggest, the Arm of the Lord has been revealed to all who know the story of the resurrection. 

True, believing the message brings tremendous benefits – nay – it brings life and light. Those who have heard the message of the resurrection and rejected it – to them the Arm of the Lord has also been revealed, and it is to their harm and destruction that they reject. 

But He has been revealed

It is a question for us all, for the Arm of the Lord in Isaiah’s mind and his message is the Messiah, and He has been revealed. 

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – ARM OF REDEMPTION – 41

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.

41
 
ARM OF REDEMPTION
 
Psalm 77:15 You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
The psalmist is speaking of the deliverance of the nation of Israel from the Egyptian bondage they suffered under for four centuries.

It was not simply God who performed a few miracles to deliver them from the furnace of Egypt, but it was God with His arm.

Seems like a strange description of how the people of Israel were delivered, and I would like to suggest a few possible understandings of this passage.

First off, I made the assumption that the arm referred to the Messiah, and that it was a connection of the Messiah with God in the deliverance of Israel. This may be valid. 

My second consideration was that the arm represented strength and as such, it was the strength of God that provided Israel deliverance from Egypt.  This may be valid, but I would like to suggest one additional perspective.

Could the Psalmist be describing the deliverance as something that God performed without even breaking a sweat. Hear me out my friend, for it is only the arm of God that is referred to. Could the psalmist be saying something like – You only needed to flex your arm in providing deliverance for the nation. 

Did God stand up to deliver Israel? Did He put his back into the effort? I speak as a fool in describing these actions as if God had a back, or even an arm, but as the Psalmist gets specific, it tends to make me ask some silly questions.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the strength, or the power of God, the deliverance of Israel, mighty as it was, is dwarfed when compared with the deliverance supplied through the Messiah, His sacrificial death, resurrection, and ascension.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether

Jesus in the Old Testament – Aaron 1

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
 
Aaron
 
High Priest
 
Exodus 40:13 13 and put on Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest.
 
Hebrews 4:14-15 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Although Aaron is never specifically called the high priest, he is the one chosen by God after the fiasco of the rebellion of Korah. His confirmation of the office of priest was provided through the budding of Levi’s staff, as opposed to any other tribes staff. Aaron was the first confirmed priest to minister before the Lord for the nation of Israel.

As we all know, Aaron experienced a number of faux pas events in his life. The golden calf comes to mind, along with his teaming up with his sister Miriam, in their complaining of Moses and his wife, and of their importance. Did Aaron and Miriam not speak as if they were equal with Moses? Surely God has spoken through Aaron and Miriam also! Pride and competition in ministry. How vulgar as we think of it, and yet we all, if we have served in any manner of ministry, have experienced the very same attitude.

Yet there is One who has not entered into this pride, though as we read He has been tempted as we have been. As we consider Him, He is the One through whom we hear the Word of God clearest, for He is the spoken Word walking amongst us, living as a simple rabbi, teaching and ministering to others. He could rightly speak of His greatness in comparison with others, and many times He did, yet without sin. Without any attitude of competition, or pride or one upmanship. Truly amazing that He exercised humility as He informed others of His true identity as the Messiah. The temptation to speak out of pride must have be immense!

He spoke the truth in humility and in the message gave us the opportunity to either agree or dismiss. He is the High Priest of our confession, having experienced the worst and come through it with honor and perfection. May His life be an example for us to follow, and that humility would be a mark of His people.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – AQUAINTED WITH GRIEF – 40

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.

40
 
AQUAINTED WITH GRIEF
 
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
As I contemplated this verse, giving some thought to the experience of grief, and the willingness of our Savior to accept this lot in His life, I found myself being pulled to the absolute unfairness of it all.

He is only good and righteous, full of joy and is the author of peace. At no time, prior to creation, was grief or sorrow a portion of His. Only at the fall was grief possibly entered into by the Godhead. 

Then, as creation continued to course down the path to destruction, I imagine grief continued to be present in some way within the Godhead. I say imagined, for I am thinking as a parent, and translating my experience to the Godhead. 

How unfair, how unjust for grief to be resident within the Godhead, and yet Isaiah is drawing us to the Messiah, focusing our thoughts on the human Jesus, the Savior who would live His life acquainted with grief.

To be acquainted with something is to know that experience, to enter into the experience and to understand, not theoretically but practically, actually sensing the grief. Jesus entered into grief, and this picture we have of the Messiah is supported many times in the Gospels. 

What is surprising is that the word “grief” spoken of by Isaiah refers to sickness or afflictions within the body, and not only an emotional condition. Surely the grief we often think of within this verse was a very real experience of the Master, but Isaiah may be trying to draw our attention to one of the reasons for this sorrow.

Is Isaiah speaking of a sickness within the Master’s body, an ailment that He experienced? No where in the gospels can I recall where this is mentioned. His acquaintance with grief (sickness) is with the sickness of others, the pain and suffering others lived in while He was with us. The very next verse speaks of His bearing our griefs (sickness), and surely Isaiah is speaking of the spiritual sickness of those He rubbed shoulders with. 

Some may suggest he is speaking of physical sickness here, yet in my understanding, this has always cheapened the cross, that His suffering was for some temporal benefit, for physical relief of pain. Don’t get me wrong, for our God is a merciful God who very often provides physical relief of us in our pain. For that we should be very thankful, but I do not see that as the emphasis of this name we are considering.

He has bore our sins, and became acquainted with our spiritual sickness in His ministry, On the cross He bore that spiritual sickness, experiencing the result of our sin in front of the Father.

He was surely acquainted with grief! How unfair! How unjust! 

How like our Savior to take on the repercussions of our sin!

May His name be praised as we think on His life!

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – APPOINTED JUDGE – 39

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.

39
 
APPOINTED JUDGE
 
Acts 10:42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
Our last post we saw that Jesus is the appointed heir of all things, and we are now presented with Jesus as the One named the appointed Judge of the living and the dead.

Yet this appointed position, if I understand correctly, is the position the Son of God shared with the Father in His preincarnate state. Was He not the One who spoke to the people of Israel previous to Bethlehem? Was He not actively involved in determining the actions of the Godhead in bringing judgements upon the nation as they fell into sin over and over again.

I would suggest that the Son of God, from creation to the cradle has been judge. 

The difference in this passage, where Peter preaches to the Gentiles of the good news, is that the Gentiles did not clearly understand the truth of the eternal God as judge. An even greater mystery now being declared by Peter was that the eternal God has now taken flesh, and through His death and resurrection, has been provided the sole responsibility of performing judgement upon both the living and the dead.

No longer do we have to wonder about the character of our Judge, for He is the One who was crucified for us, who not only was buried, but was raised again to take on the judgement of the world.

The term appointed also describes the limits, or boundaries of the “office” He has attained to. He is the judge of both the living and the dead.

It is one thing to judge a situation theoretically, but we can not claim this is the manner in which Jesus judges the living and the dead, for He has entered our life condition, and passed through the experience of death. 

Peter was declaring to the Gentiles the single Judge they would have to come before, and that this lone Judge was One who had experienced both life and death. Judgement for both the living and the dead must be entered into, and while we are alive and breathing, we have the opportunity to come before the Judge to seek His mercy, experience His correction and find understanding and direction for our lives.

He is our appointed Judge, and we should thank the Lord every day for such a compassionate and loving Savior. We have come before the Judge of all and the Mediator of the New Covenant. 

Listen to Him.

Hebrews 12:22-25a
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

Listen to Him. He is the appointed Judge.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Jesus in the Old Testament – Abel 5

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
 
ABEL
 
Reason of Death
 
Genesis 4:4-5
4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
 
1 John 3:12
We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Cain killed Abel out of anger.

It is good to remember that anger has a source, it is not a condition occurring out of a vacuum. The New Testament gives us the reason for anger in Cain’s life.

Darkness wants to snuff out light. Evil has to rid itself of goodness. Even in the rejection of God, of accepting evil as a standard operating procedure for life, the conscience, until hardened to sin, witnesses to the wrongfulness of sin. We have all been there, when we slip away and try to ignore the voice calling us back. The voice seems relentless, constantly beckoning the sinner to return. Yet some may seek to dull the voice, reject the call, ignore the love, and this will result in performing acts inline with rejecting good. The only type of life those who reject the voice is a life of performing non righteous deeds. Evil deeds. Two options only. Neutrality does not exist in this case.

As we venture into darkness the light becomes dimmer, and we seek to snuff it our entirely, to not experience the tension of truth in relation to experience. The constant calling back has two potential reactions from the soul. Repentance or Rage.

Cain chose the rage because he had a history of evil actions. He rejected the witness of his brother and decided to live differently, to perform deeds that were non righteous, or as described in our verse, evil.

Thousands of years pass, and the condition remains, where those who reject God are those who practice evil. Abel’s witness is replaced with the witness of the Son of Man. Instead of a flickering candle providing light to a darkened man’s life, the true light, an absolute explosion of light, appears on the scene, where those who will experience it have the same choice. Only for some, the history of performing evil deeds has been set, having become a comfort to those who practice evil.

Those who practiced evil have no choice but to rage, for if they refused to repent, they would default to rage. We know some repented. We know some raged.

The death of Christ was in the eternal plan of God, in order to secure a salvation we could enter into. Don’t reject, for the only option remaining results in destruction and death, and the path is littered with regrets.

Don’t reject and then regret!

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

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Names of God – APPOINTED HEIR – 38

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.

38
 
APPOINTED HEIR
 
Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
To be the appointed heir of all things speaks of the Master’s sacrificial humbling from His rightful throne to that of joining a people that He created. Prior to creation of all things, He was equal within the Godhead, self existent, and all powerful, all knowing and eternal.

Let’s begin by considering that to become an heir is to introduce two concepts. First, that of receiving a lot or portion by the right of sonship, but also the concept of death. 

Prior to His self humbling act of becoming a man, and then further humiliation to the shame and suffering of the cross, He existed in the glories of heaven, in perfect harmony with the Father. His status and position could not be better, or higher. Was He not the Son prior to His taking on human flesh and bone? Did He not have all authority and wisdom, knowledge and strength? He, along with the Godhead knew of His identity! There was no question!

But to become an heir introduces, as I mentioned before, the idea of a death. Let us remember that Jesus death, in the apostles teachings, was required in order to become heir of all things. As the apostles and prophets have taught in in other portions of the Word, it was His resurrection that finally identified Jesus as the Son to all of humanity. See Psalm 2:7, Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, 5:5. So many other’s have claimed to be the Messiah, but God the Father gave us proof of Jesus’s claim through the resurrection. 

He is the appointed heir of all things. Appointed in the witness of His creation!

The man Christ Jesus became the heir of all things through His resurrection, requiring His suffering and death. The man Christ Jesus is the appointed heir due to His self subjugation and suffering under the hands of men, and the Father raising Him up to be the Lord of all. 

His suffering and death was required in order for Him to be resurrected, and through His resurrection, to provide us the life God has given all to provide! He is Heir (or owner) of all things, and as believers, we have the privilege of knowing Him.

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.

Come join us at Considering the Bible