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.
251
GREAT KING ABOVE ALL GODS
Psalm 95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
We have considered the simple adjective “Great” in an earlier post, (Names of God – GREAT IS OUR LORD – 249) with it’s varied meanings that may be applied to the subject, our God.
In our post this morning, we find the psalmist describing our God a a great King above all gods. Now when I read that, I confess, the comparison seems to be that of an apple with an orange.
Let me explain.
The psalmist is declaring God as a King, and then comparing this King against all other gods.
Yes it may seem like I am splitting hairs here, but the message is that God is not simply One who is creator and sustainer, but that He is ruler as a King, One who is a Monarch over the believer.
He is not One who is far away, having brought this creation into being, and One who simply provides for His creation, out of a self imposed responsibility, but One who is actively ruling over the people, One who has authority in the Kingdom, One to whom His subjects bow to willingly and out of deep devotion.
Notice the Psalmist speaks of our God as a King above all gods. This speaks to the competition we find in our lives as to the gods we listen to. There truly are other gods, and the Psalmist openly confesses to this tension, this competition that those in the Kingdom must wrestle with.
For the Psalmist though, it is a cut and dry position, a declaration for him that though there are other gods, there are none as high and lofty, none that exercise such a loving and righteous sovereignty over His subjects as the King we worship.
He is God, and He is Great, and He is a Great King. All of these descriptions describe our Savior, and this truth offers no real confusion when we consider how He has stepped into humanity, taken our weakness, proved His love and given righteous guidance as found in His Word.
He is King, a Great King over all other authorities!
May we worship Him in truth today.
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 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.
250
GREAT KING
Malachi 1:14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.
There are a number of issues going on with this passage. As I read it, certain New Testament passages are erupting in my mind.
That Swindler
Who is this cheat, this swindler that Malachi is pointing his finger to?
Although I rarely am reminded of this fact, Malachi is communicating to a very specific group of Israeli people. He is speaking to the priests, those men called by God to represent the people before Him, to receive the offerings God has prescribed for the nation.
This passage begins in verse 16 with the Lord’s direct charge to the priests.
Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
Malachi goes so far as to claim the priest “snort” at the offerings, and claim it is a weariness. Malachi then speaks of this cheat, this swindler, this priest who vows a male sheep of his flock.
That Land Hold up now – Were priests and Levites provided land in the original covenant? I know there is no mention of land in this verse, but where did the priest keep his sheep? Something tells me the Levites were to have no inheritance, no portion of the land of Israel.
Deuteronomy 18:1-2 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
Granted, by the time of Malachi, the Levites and Priest’s may have established a reason to have land in order to “manage” the sheep for offerings, but is that not similar to the Lord’s message in Mark?
Mark 7:9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! Mark 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ Mark 7:11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”‘ (that is, given to God)–
Somehow I think the priest’s conveniently set up a tradition of owning land, but of course, it was a burden they accepted in order to serve God.
That Vow
We have noted that the priest looks down on the offerings, even snorting at them, and then we find he makes a vow. A vow of providing a male of the flock.
An acceptable sacrifice before the Lord is a male of the flock, an unblemished offering before the Lord. Multiple verses in the book of Leviticus, the handbook for the priestly order, speak of offering up an unblemished male.
Is it fair to understand that when the priest vows to offer a male, he is referring to an unblemished male according to the handbook of the priests?
I think this is a safe assumption!
But let us consider the vow for a minute more for making that vow seems to be a problem in my mind. Was it not the priest’s responsibility to offer up the correct sacrifice, so what is going on with this vow? Was it necessary?
As the Lord reminded us in the Beatitudes, those who shout out their acts of righteousness have their reward.
Matthew 6:2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 6:5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 6:16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
By making this vow, the priest may have been looking for his reward. But let’s think about that for a moment. What reward did a priest deserve? He was simply performing his religious duties. Do I want a pat on the back if I go to church? Do I look for a hooray if I give a missionary 50 bucks? Am I to expect accolades if I show mercy to one less fortunate?
Luke 17:9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? Luke 17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
Something is so wrong in this picture!
In Summary
We have a cheating priest, owning contraband land, and offering up left over, unwanted sheep to the Great King. How utterly amazing that the religious leaders of the chosen people had sunk so low.
Malachi was the last prophet to appear before John the Baptist introduces the Great King to Israel. Much of Malachi’s prophetic message decries the state of the priesthood of Israel. Over and over again Malachi represents the Great King as deserving of so much more respect, honor and devotion than He is receiving.
Is it not the same today? It is too easy to relate Malachi’s message to the ruling religious class of our modern church!
Prior to the crucifixion, Jesus spoke to one of the ruling religious class, and summarized Malachi’s message to the ruling religious class of his day.
Matthew 22:37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
For the laymen in the Body, let us also fear that we are also of the same ilk, providing to the Great King far less than He deserves!
For He is the Great King, the Ruler over all.
May we recognize our own sin before the Lord, our own disregard of the Great King, and humbly ask Him for forgiveness and power to love Him with all our hearts, soul and mind.
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
FREE SALVATION
Isaiah 45:13 I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,” says the LORD of hosts.
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
We are in Isaiah once again, with the Lord Jesus clearly being seen through the eyes of a redeemed, freely purchased sinner.
Ok – I am getting ahead of myself, but when I see the setting free of exiles, and that freedom from exile is not for price of reward, that simply screams grace grace grace!
Can’t you sense the completely surprising freedom that is spoken of here? Imagine those who had lived under the Babylonian captivity all their lives, for by the time Cyrus came around, the Jews had lived in Babylon near to 70 years. Bondage in a strange land, amongst those of a strange tongue had been their lives, and though there had been prophecies of the captivity only lasting 70 years, the outworking of this freedom may not have been clearly communicated to those under the yoke of their captors.
Yes – the Jews had heard of the prophecies relating to the 70 years of captivity, from Jeremiah, and of that Daniel fellow. Details may have been a bit sketchy, and not much was understood about the one through whom this freedom would come. Maybe a powerful Jewish prophet like Moses would bring the people out of their Egypt. Or better yet, maybe a mighty Jewish king, like David could rally the downtrodden to escape from a world power such as Babylon.
No – not only was the freedom to come completely without cost, but was to be from a completely unexpected instrument in God’s hand.
A heathen king names Cyrus would provide a freedom from exile for the Jewish people, a freedom that would cost them nothing but a willing heart to follow after.
The cost for this freedom was expressed with two words, amplifying the freeness (is that a word?) of the freedom.
מְחִיר mᵉchîyr
This term is commonly referring to as a price or hire. For Cyrus, this was not a consideration in releasing the Jewish community.
As a contrast, when the Word refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, he made rulers, dividing the land for filthy lucre*.
Daniel 11:39 He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.
שַׁחַד shachad
This term may refer to a bribe or a present, even in the bribing of kings
1 Kings 15:19 “Let there be a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.”
No bribing, or convincing with filthy lucre* was required for this freedom from exile to occur.
Cyrus was not provided any kickback, leverage, or influence – other than the character appreciation this act added to his stature – in the release of the Jews from his newly acquired kingdom. As a matter of fact, he added his influence to those who remained behind to fund those who ventured out!
Surely, with very little imagination, we can recognize a glimmer of the grace of the Lord Jesus in this heathen king, for Jesus surely rescued us from our captivity, giving us the water of life without price.
Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
May we remember the costly salvation we have been offered without price, and be a thankful people!
*BTW – for those younger than I – and I suspect most of my readers are, filthy lucre is an old phrase the KJV used for money, and it is just so appropriate at time to use the old term. As a curiosity, how many of my readers connected with the term prior to reading this footnote? Let me know.
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.
249
GREAT IS OUR LORD
Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
As we consider the names of God, we see the same modifier describing different aspects or characteristics of our God. Such is the case for our current streak of Names.
Since we began in Post 245 – Great and Awesome Name, we have considered the modifier “Great” included in our descriptions. This should not surprise us, for our God is Great, but what does that mean?
Let’s consider some shades of meaning in relation to the term “Great”.
SIZE The first possible meaning might include the concept of size. You know – the fire was great, as in it was a large fire!
SIZE (in comparison) We sometimes call animals of the same genus “great” to differentiate them from others of like nature. An example might include the “Great Blue Heron”, or the “Great Grey Owl”. Great in this case relates to a comparison amongst the same type of animal
SIZE (numerically) How about the way great is used in relation to quantity? There was a great number of students waiting to go into class.
QUALITY Quality may be described when using great, as in – the cheese was great, better than I had ever tasted!
SUPERIORITY Great may be used in relation to character, to the noble and good life lived by a man or woman. She was a great servant of those in need.
SKILLFUL I have a friend that is adept, very skillful at learning languages. She is a great linguist!
CHIEF OR PRINCIPAL Great is sometimes used when describing the principal or main building on a site. I recently visited a ranch in Texas and had meetings in the “great” house.
ENTHUSIASTIC To be considered great in relation to enthusiasm would describe one who loves a certain topic or activity, and then be described as great. Something like – Frank was a great lover of hotdogs. (He wasn’t passive towards those dogs!)
There may be more shades of meaning I have missed, but to call our God Great may include some or all of these shades of meanings.
Which shade of meaning might you consider your favorite? Is there any shade of meaning that you might consider not applicable to God?
Let me know in the comments.
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 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.
248
GREAT HIGH PRIEST
Hebrews 4:14 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.
Years ago, my son decided to read through the Old Testament, and as he was going through the Pentateuch, he made a comment I will never forget.
“Those priests were butchers!”
From a young man who had spent most of his life preparing food, as he had read the duties of the Priest, he interpreted it as equal to the task of a butcher. I had read the same passages many times and never came away with that impression.
My concept of the priest was flavored more from the ones who interacted with the Messiah in the New Testament. Businessmen, politicians and religious imposters. A dangerous mix for the people of God to be under!
Was the priest intended to be a butcher? Is that the message we should take away from our reading of the Old Testament? Or maybe, the priest was to be a manager of people, one who controlled and manipulated people and goods.
To be a priest entailed many tasks that I do not intend to venture into with this short post, but two items need to be considered as we think of our God as the Great High Priest.
The High Priest in the Old Testament was a prefigure of the Messiah in many ways. For the purpose of brevity and to relate to this post, consider the High Priest before a holy God and before a sinful people.
Before a Holy God
As the priest entered the presence of God, he “carried” the people on his heart. His approach before a holy God was for the people, as he carried a broken, sinful people on his heart, pleading before the Righteous and Holy God for a people who were not worthy, who had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
His “ministry” was of a broken heart for the people he represented.
Exodus 28:30 And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before the LORD. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly.
Before Sinful People
His behavior before his people was likewise towards them. It was the prophet that did much of the rebuking, correcting and chastisement in the nation as they rebelled against God, though correction of the people was not out of the priest’s job description. When required, he chastised the people.
But for the faithful Israelite, who came before the priest with an offering, with a lamb, a goat or a pigeon, the priest was of the receiving nature. He was approachable, without rebuke to the one who sacrificed in the right spirit. Proper sacrifice was received gladly, with open arms.
For our time together this morning, consider both of these attributes in the Lord Jesus as our High Priest. Were not sinful broken people on the heart of the Messiah as He faced the judgement of sin in His body on the cross? Though He suffered such horrendous injustice in His service for His people, He has not turned to His people in anger due to this injustice. He is not holding some grudge, or demanding some retribution from His people. He is approachable, with open arms, receiving His people as they come with their own sacrifices of praise and love to Him.
The apostle encourages the people of God to draw near to our High Priest, a High Priest that is able to sympathize with our weakness, having experienced the power of temptation.
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. Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus is our true Great High Priest, and all other images in my mind of a butcher and a businessman vanish as I see His arms open up!
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace
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
LOVED BY THE LORD
Isaiah 48:14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
We are in Isaiah again, with a picture of the Messiah coming through loud and clear.
Isaiah is calling the people together for a message that has not been declared. Now a bit of background may be beneficial. Isaiah is decrying the peoples dependance on dumb idols, their idolatry is rampant, and many of the prophecies regarding Cyrus are provided for a generation of God’s nation many years in the future. No idols can do that! When Isaiah speaks of “Who among them”, he is referring to the dumb idols! No idols could predict a future deliverer of Israel centuries ahead of the time.
Not only will the prophecy regarding the release of the Jews from captivity be astounding, but the instrument of release for the Jews will defeat the Chaldeans and perform God’s purpose on the Babylonians.
And the Lord loves him. This instrument of devastation on the Babylonians is loved by the Lord. This instrument of release from the Babylonians, for the people of God is loved by God.
This instrument of devastation and deliverance is a heathen king, a man who God raises up over a century after this prophecy, and we know of this kings name as Cyrus.
In this series on Cyrus we have seen him as the deliverer, the freedom giver, the man who obeys God’s will and much more. But here in Isaiah, we see Isaiah revealing the heart of God towards a heathen king.
Some may think this declaration of love by the Lord is to be reserved only for the anti-type of Cyrus, that is the Lord Jesus, and there may be merit to that, since the Father loves the Son! Yet even if Isaiah provides a sort of limited love of God for Cyrus, it is an amazing declaration for the people of God to hear.
God’s servant, a stranger outside of their camp, outside of their nation is loved by God! Another description of Jesus from the Old Testament, this time describing the relationship of the Son with the Father, through a stranger to the people 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.
247
GREAT GOD
Daniel 2:45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
Daniel is beckoned before the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer, after the king experienced a startling dream. He had watched in his night visions as a massive structure was erected before him, made of various metals.
Now this is the first time Daniel is brought before the king, and the task was daunting. Not only interpret a dream, but determine the dream? Recount the contents of the dream the the king.
Very unexpected!
Daniel and his friends prayed, and in Daniels next appearance, he not only interpreted the dream according to truth, but also was able to provide the contents of the dream to the king.
Daniel spoke of “a great God” in his confession before the king, and as this most likely was the first time before the King, Daniel introduced the King of Kings to the king of Babylon in a somewhat generic way. Daniel would be before the king many times, and would have national/worldwide influence before this king. This initial introduction Daniel was somewhat restrained, for he only revealed the contents of a dream. After all, it was only a message to a king regarding his kingdom’s eventual fall.
An additional passage is found in the Old Testament regarding our Great God.
Nehemiah 8:6 And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
In this passage, we have another man of God describing our God as great. Ezra was addressing a community of faith, who were ready and willing to hear the Word of God.
The reaction of the people of God was amazing. As Ezra opened the book of the law, the people stood. As he read the book of the law, the people wept. Imagine that! Weeping in the congregation of God’s people, due to the reading of the Book of the Law.
Revival in the congregation was breaking out, for the Word reflected their failure, their sin and their disobedience, yet their hearts were open to the Lord.
One man revealed a dream. One man revived a nation. Both actions were attributed the our Great God.
Paul also speaks of our Great God, providing us clear indication of the identity of the One on the cross.
Titus 2:13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Take note that we have went from the indefinite article “a” in describing God with Daniel – (a Great God), through to the definite article “the” in Ezra’s declaration (the Great God) to Paul’s possessive description of God.
He is our Great God.
Lord Jesus – we look to You, our Great God for a time of revival as in Ezra’s day, a period of open hearts in front of the open Book.
Help us have open hearts to Your ways!
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 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.
246
GREAT AND AWESOME GOD
Daniel 9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
Daniel was a righteous man.
Of all the men in the Old Testament, Daniel shines as a glowing example of a man committed to the God of Israel. To show the status of Daniel in the mind of God, Ezekiel lumps him in with Noah and Job as men of faith, men whose righteousness could not hold back the judgement on Israel.
Ezekiel 14:20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.
Daniel was a righteous man.
But we find Daniel starting to pray in this verse, and our verse this morning is the beginning of a prayer to God that dwells on confession, describing rebellion, sin, wickedness, transgression, disobedience, unfaithfulness, shame, iniquity, and the departing from the Lord by the nation now in captivity.
Daniel provides for us a prayer of confession unlike any in the Word, for he was in the midst of conditions directly resulting from centuries of sinful choices by the nation. He was righteous, but he also was carried away in the judgement, carried away to Babylon.
In this passage, Daniel is identifying with the rebellious nation, taking his place with the people who rejected the Lord. He is such a great picture of the Lord Jesus, in that though He was completely sinless, He came and identified with us!
And he begins his prayer by speaking of the Lord as the Great and Awesome God. In calling God this, Daniel continues by giving us further explanation as to why the Lord should be called by this name.
Our Great and Awesome God is faithful. Daniel speaks of God’s faithfulness to those who have rejected His covenant. To those who have departed from Him. To those who have rejected God.
Now, if you haven’t reacted to this “slip” in my earlier description of Daniels’s prayer, I want to draw your attention to my heresy. Daniel does not speak of our Great and Awesome God keeping covenant with sinners, but with those who keep the covenant, those who love God and keep (or obey) His commands.
Daniel, after describing the faithfulness of God the covenant keeping people, then goes on and describes the people of Israel, (including himself) as an undeserving, sinful and rebellious people. The covenant is for those who obey (Daniel comes to mind). No covenant is referred to here for those who reject God.
This is no small omission, for without the covenant, there is no “legal” responsibility on God’s part to act. God has a covenant with those who obey.
This is a big problem is God was only and always committed to the Sinai covenant, but even though the covenant is broken, smashed by those who promised to keep it, the Person of God has a heart, a love for the people that goes beyond the covenant.
The heart of God is a heart of mercy, of forgiveness, and exemplifies the GREAT AND AWESOME GOD we recognize in the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
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
Man of God’s Counsel
Isaiah 46:11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
NT Passage
Isaiah is in the middle of a passage that is comparing the idols of Babylon with the One True God. He is providing a prophecy of future events, so that when the prophecy is fulfilled in 150 years, the Jewish nation will have another example of the superiority of their God over any and all idols. The people that would see this prophecy come to reality would be the nation in captivity, a people under the thumb of Babylon, seeing the salvation of God coming from a Gentile king.
To understand the verse we are considering this morning, we need to include the previous verse.
Isaiah 46:10-11
declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
God has a purpose for the nation, and His purpose, or counsel, per verse 10 shall be accomplished. God will accomplish His will for the nation, and He becomes very specific in the manner He will do it!
His first declaration is that He will call a bird from the east. Now it is not uncommon throughout the Old Testament for a king to be referred to as a bird of prey, but for Cyrus this picture is very appropriate. Not only was Cyrus and his armies known for their swiftness of attack, the standard presented by the armies of Persia before military campaigns was also the golden eagle with outstretched wings, mounted on a long spear. Cyrus literally was depicted as a bird of fowl.
But for the term we refer to in our topic this morning, Cyrus was a man of God’s Counsel, a man who would execute God’s will.
Let us not think that God was in counsel with Cyrus, debating the will of God, even considering the manner of execution of His will with the king. No – Cyrus was not a man of God’s counsel in that manner.
God is describing a king who would be God’s instrument in executing His will, a man that would deliver a salvation to the people of God in the midst of their captivity under the Babylonians.
This passage is an amazing prophecy describing God’s will to be accomplished by a Gentile king for a captive people 150 years before it was to be realized. Once Cyrus released the Jews, protected and provided for them as some went back to Jerusalem and the Temple, presents a vivid shadow of the greater Cyrus, the Lord Jesus.
Was Jesus not a man of God’s counsel, and so much more? He was intimately involved in the plans and deliberations for the release, not only of the Jewish people, but for all mankind from the bondage and captivity of sin and death. He was also described for centuries before His arrival, with multiple prophecies describing our Savior, giving us a full and complete picture of the Messiah, so we might not only understand, but marvel at the way the prophecies combined into a multi faceted picture of the Suffering Servant / Reigning King.
He perfectly fulfilled the will of God, executing the Word of God even as it was communicated to Him moment by moment in His communion with the Father .
He is God’s Counsel for us, the Man who far exceeds the shadow provided for us in Cyrus!
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.
245
GREAT AND AWESOME NAME
Psalm 99:3 Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he!
We find our verse this morning in a Psalm that highlights the holiness of God, and for a brief moment, before I opened the full psalm, I assumed the “them” in this verse, referred to the nation of Israel, for they were God’s people and they had been privileged to know of His holiness, His “otherness”, His separated status.
I rattle on about this for it was many years that I understood holiness to be principally referring to the sinlessness of God. Now, I do not want to imply that sinlessness is not included in the term “holy”. I just want to confess that I think it describes a much greater concept than simply a negative about God, that He has no sin.
He is without sin, sinless and apart from sin. But for God to be called holy is to describe God as being different, other than what we understand, righteous in a way we may not fully understand, unless we dwell on Jesus, and the manner in which He lived among us.
Jesus was holy, separated from sinners, as the apostle tells us, but we know He lived amongst the worst of sinners, the “dregs” of society, a friend of sinners.
Hebrews 7:26 ESV – For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
The contrast between our understanding of holiness and how He lived out His holy life often astounds me.
I often think of sin as the Old Testament describes it. If I touch it, it defiles me, and my responsibility is to stay away from all contamination. Haggai describes my understanding in his second chapter
Haggai 2:12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” Haggai 2:13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.”
Non Transferable Holiness does not transfer to items. Any item that is holy is alone holy. Whatever it meant to be holy, to be separate, to be consecrated to the temple, or to the priest, or to God, alone was holy.
Isolated Holiness was to be protected by isolation. If a sinful person or item touched a holy item, it became unclean.
For many years, I understood that to be holy was to stay away from sin, and by inference, away from sinners, seeking to keep my life pure by isolation. Fat chance at success with this, for it produced a believer that was ineffective, lonely, self righteous and somewhat angry.
But then I started noticing that Jesus drank with sinners, went to parties, touched lepers and forgave adulterous women, raising them up by their unclean, sinful hand. How could He do that, and remain holy, separate from sinners, as Hebrew speaks?
As a follower, does this example of Jesus’ holy life amongst sinners allow me to go out drinking and partying? For some believers, this may be allowed, but due to my past, my running from God in my youth, my teenage alcoholism and previous drug habits, I knew I had to refrain from certain activities to avoid temptation. Eventually my thinking morphed and I thought my abstinence from those who partook was my holiness. How little I understood!
Everything turned upside down when Jesus arrived, for when a sinful person touched Him, power was transferred from Him to the sinful person. Forgiveness and healing, illumination and understanding flowed from Him. His was a life of non-isolation, of being in the midst of all who welcomed Him, and even amongst those who hated Him. He was simply put – unbelievable!
I realize I have focused on the holiness of God in this post, but so many thoughts were flooding my mind of how Great and Awesome Jesus, in His life amongst us, actually was. His holiness, His “otherness” is so foreign to my standard thinking of God that when I am caught in the conflict between my thinking and His message, I tend to blurt out the praise I have for Him, weak as it is.
May we praise the Great and Awesome name of Jesus, for He is Holy. He is so different from us and He calls us to a holy life, a different life than we are living. A life of change and growth, a life of holiness amongst the hurting and the sinful.
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 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.
244
GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL
2 Chronicles 30:9 For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”
Our passage this morning is found in the middle of King Hezekiah’s preparation for the first Passover the nation would enter since Joshua. Shocking, for even King David did not celebrate the Passover.
Nevertheless, this Passover was marked by a number of special situations.
First off, King Hezekiah, in his desire to celebrate the Passover, allowed this celebration to be performed a month late. The Temple had just been cleansed and the priests were in need to be sanctified. The people of the north were invited and time was required for cleansing and travel to occur.
This was an allowance provided in the law found in Numbers 9:6-11.
Secondly, the temple had been closed by Hezekiah’s father, King Ahaz for 16 years. This about face by Hezekiah was a bold stance of faith for this young king, for he may have been as young as twenty-five years old as he ascended the throne of Judah.
Thirdly, Hezekiah invites the northern tribes. This is an astounding request, for the northern tribes had been conquered years before Hezekiah ascended the throne. To invite the northern tribes could have been interpreted by the reigning Assyrians as an effort to reconsolidate the nation of Israel as the original twelve tribes.
Definitely a risky move, but one that showed Hezekiah’s desire to celebrate the Passover properly!
And this is the context of our verse. Hezekiah is calling out to the northern tribes, pleading with them to return to the Lord, to celebrate the Passover and to recommit to the covenant they had abandoned. Though they had been overtaken by foreigners, a proof that they had abandoned the Lord according to Deuteronomy 28:25 passage, mercy and grace was available to them, for the Lord their God is a gracious and merciful God.
Did they return? A few did, but sadly, the majority of the northern tribes remained conquered.
It is interesting that the message spoke of both mercy and grace. Both terms are used exclusively of God, and are combined a few times in the Old Testament, revealing the character of our God as we know Him in the Lord Jesus.
He truly is gracious and merciful to His people and as we recognize His grace and mercy towards us, we will be drawn to honor Him in our lives, returning to Him as we wander, and seeking to celebrate His goodness in our lives.
He is our gracious and merciful 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
Loved of God
Isaiah 48:14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
I had never considered the subject of this passage prior to considering the Cyrus the King of Media Persia. Who is the Lord referring to when He calls the nation of Israel to assemble and to listen. The context of the following verses speaks of this one as being against the Chaldeans, and that he will do His pleasure on Babylon. Though it is without a doubt God Himself that will bring about the downfall of Babylon, He has an instrument on the earth that will fulfill His will.
In this case, Isaiah speaks of Cyrus, 150 years in the future, who will march on Babylon, conquer Babylon, free the Israelites and provide safety and allowance for provisions to enable the reconstruction of the Temple.
Isaiah could simply describe Cyrus as a tool in the hand of God, a device of destruction on the Chaldeans, an instrument on earth to direct and use! After all is said and done, the Lord is over all, and he controls the heart of the king.
Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.
Remember that Isaiah is referring to a king, a Gentile king, a king that will conquer nations, consolidating an empire.
But Isaiah speaks of the Lord loving him. Now I am not convinced this love refers to any response of the Lord to the actions of war that Cyrus lead, various idolatries he entered into, or of Cyrus’ moral perfections.
Isaiah simply states “The Lord loves him”.
In my mind, weak as it is, this speaks of the uncaused love of God toward each of us, it is a shadow of the universal love of God for all mankind. It is the love of God described for a man centuries prior to his being on earth.
Of course, it is easy to see this reference to the love of God for Cyrus as a shadow of the love of God for the Greater Cyrus, the Lord Jesus and of His fulfilling the will of God while He was on earth.
Jesus was loved of God, without hesitation and without disturbance, without any break in deep fellowship between the Father and the Son.
Except when the love of God was taken from Jesus in order for the love of God to be opened fully to us mere humans, fallen creatures that had no hope. The love of God has been proven to each of us by the cross and the resurrection. He went without the Father while on the cross so that we need never be without the love of God.
May we rest in that truth, and forever understand the extent of the love 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.
243
GRACIOUS GOD
Jonah 4:2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
Our God is a Gracious God. He is the same God Jonah knew, but for one experience. Jonah did not quite know the depth of grace we as believers may experience by living after the appearance of Jesus.
But the human heart hasn’t changed, for as Jonah confessed the truth of the very character of our Gracious God, we also teach, sing and confess of the graciousness of our God.
As Jonah knew of the Graciousness of God and feared the results, we too know of His Graciousness and fear the potential result.
How often have I halted, hesitated or avoided speaking to my neighbor or an acquaintance due to the same reason Jonah expressed here.
Fear of persecution?
Is it fear of persecution? I dare say this is not Jonah’s complaint, for he doesn’t address the recipients reaction to the message.
Upset of Normality
Is it a desire to maintain a status quo? I think that may be some of the concern Jonah has, since he was a part of the inner group, and he was sent to a group that was outside. Many the infusion of acceptance of the outer group would dilute the specialness of the inner group? Evan as I write that, it seems to be foolish, but how often have I witnessed this?
As my wife and I attended a well established church years ago we had a few friends come visit the service. They were energetic, unconventional and to say the least unorthodox due to the newness of their association with church. The church was small, and as I mentioned, well established. If I remember right, they actually sat in someone’s pew seat! (Don’t they understand Jesus died for that saint to sit in that pew seat?).
To say the least, the friends, after a few visits, decided not to return. And status quo was maintained!
Injustice
Is it a sense of injustice? Ta-daaa! That is the ringer folks, for as we glory in the forgiveness we have been freely granted, we tend to want to see justice fall on others.
We sometimes dress this thinking up with terms like righteousness and holiness, with our desire to express the need for justice to be inflicted on “our enemies”, but somehow that defeats the very word of the Master when He challenged us to live as He did.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
For grace to be realized in life, a sense of injustice has to first be accepted in our own lives, but then we also have to allow this to be offered and experienced in the lives of others.
As an aside, as I have considered the idea of universal salvation (through Jesus alone, for He is the only Savior), I have had many in the church rebut me with the very argument of injustice. That would be unfair they say. I have heard believers state that “they deserve” to burn in hell. So loving!
Why do we as believers in our Gracious God hesitate to consider the Graciousness of God from beyond our own understanding?
As a thought experiment, consider the days prior to the Lord’s appearance. Many, if not all in Israel never anticipated such an explosion of faith when He appeared, or the rapid spread of the the church outside the boundaries of the land of Israel, beyond the bloodline of Abraham. Many sought to restrict the growth, keep it within the inner group, and maintain a status quo. But the real stumbling block was the open, graciously free invitation to all. That was simply unacceptable. The graciousness of God was too much!
He is the same Gracious God, who surprised the Jews of Jesus day. May He surprise us in our daily lives, and may we be open to the work of God, rejecting our self centered desire for justice, and reveling in the Gracious God we love and honor!
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 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.
242
GRACE OF GOD
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
It may not be the most accurate of understandings, but as I grew in the Lord, and read this passage, I found that I couldn’t help but replace “grace of God” in this verse with Jesus.
After all, He has appeared, in all His glory and grace, exhibiting the beauty of holiness as He rubbed shoulders with sinners, and the righteousness of the Law as He knelt down before that woman’s accusers.
He is in all ways, and from every standpoint, the grace of God, having appeared to a small group of people for a short time, but due to His victory over sin and death, having walked out of the grave, has been with us forever through His Spirit.
I am so thankful that the grace of God is bringing salvation to most people, and that His victory will have some effect on His creation.
Of course I am being somewhat sarcastic, for the passage speaks of bringing salvation for all people. Many within the church would state that the intent of the passage is that Jesus made salvation possible, but for salvation to be realized, the faith of the hearer has to be exercised!
Amen and amen. This is the message of the grace of God, and yet if I understand the teaching of a universal salvation, all will come to Jesus at some point, either prior to death, or in the fires of judgement.
We seek the prior to death option!
Paul may have been concerned that those who interpreted this statement of “bringing salvation to all men” in the universal sense may have concluded that there was no need to fight against sin and ungodliness! This was unacceptable in Paul’s mind, for it produced an understanding of the grace of God as simply a license to sin.
Unacceptable.
The grace of God, understood properly as per Paul’s teaching has much to say regarding training and waiting under the tutelage of Jesus, the Grace of God Himself.
Titus 2:12-13 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Paul may have taught of salvation brought for all, but this teaching does not provide an opportunity for license to sin, but is the greater motivation to live soberly, upright and godly lives, for we shall see Him, the Grace of God, our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
However you understand this topic, may God bless you, and keep you and continue to reveal the Grace of God, Jesus Christ in your 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.
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
Undefeatable
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 41:25 I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay.
Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
This passage in Isaiah 42 is generally accepted as referring to Cyrus, though it seems per the verses supplied, there were two subjects “stirred” up. One from the north and one from the east.
Many explanations have been provided, with Cyrus birth being from the east, and his approach toward Israel being from the north. Even within the second verse, his origin speaks of the east, in that he has come from the rising sun.
Besides this minor discussion on the subject of who is being stirred up, it is apparent that once he is stirred up, nothing will stop him. Isaiah belabors the point that this one who is advancing on Babylon has left all other countries conquered. He continues in verse 25, on the topic of this victorious one who shall “shall upon my name”.
Though Cyrus is being referred to here, and though his victories consisted of physical domination, the picture we look back on is of one who is undefeatable, unstoppable, and without equal in his day.
Is this not the same vision of the One who could not be stopped in bringing the kingdom of God to His people? Even to those who had openly rejected His teaching, and His person, He would not retreat from His mission
Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Nothing stood in His way, and having entered the valley of death that day, He continued to His expected end, with dominion over His enemies being completely secured as the stone rolled away.
Cyrus, great warrior and king that he was, was simply a reflection, a faint shadow of the One who was unstoppable in His pursuit to defeat the evil one, the world order and our own stubbornness.
May His name be lifted up!
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.
241
GOOD TEACHER
Mark 10:17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
In all the ancient writings, through all the volumes of commentaries written by the ancient rabbis’ and within all the Old Testament Scriptures, no teacher, prophet, king or priest was ever called “Good Teacher”.
No teacher, prophet, king or priest in Israel would accept this title if offered to them. The rabbi’s throughout ages taught that to claim this name was equivalent to accepting the identity of God Himself.
But then the Good Teacher walked the earth.
And when a man came to Jesus, calling Him “Good Teacher”, this must have created a stir in the surrounding audience. Surely this young prophet teacher would deny any association with this title.
But Jesus didn’t refuse the name, for how could He refuse a name that was commonly accepted as belonging to deity and still be the Truth. What He did do though, was to dig into what this young man understood when he called Him that. Ever the Teacher, Jesus is the proverbial questioner, the One who could teach perfectly by asking the right question and letting it sit.
As an aside, it has been rightly said that the longest sermon Jesus ever preached, or at least that has been recorded was the Sermon on the Mount, in the gospel of Matthew. There is some who think Matthew compiled many of Jesus teachings into this one sermon, but let us assume He spoke this message completely at one time. If so, the entire sermon as written spanned up to 15 minutes. I suppose the point I am making is that He cut to the quick, He got to the point, He did not loose focus.
As I did just there with that aside. (I am horrible with chasing rabbit trails!) Nevertheless, Jesus was the Good Teacher, and He accepted that title, moving on help this man consider what he really was saying.
Are you calling Me God young man? Is that what you are doing, and if so, do you realize the implications of that statement? If I am God, (as you say), the God of the Old Testament, what you must do to “inherit eternal life” is already provided to you. The God of the Old Testament, (that is who you speak to), has provided the Law for your instruction. But in case you do not remember the Law, I, the God of the Old Testament, will remind you.
Mark 10:19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
Another thing (that might be an aside, – remember – I am horrible with asides/rabbit trails -) is that Jesus worked with this man, not only digging to find out what he understood, but then when challenging him, provided him as much assistance as possible. As much assistance as possible, for Jesus left off one of the last 6 commandments, knowing the young man had a struggle with a certain issue.
Jesus sought out this young man, with the passage speaking of Him loving the man, and in Luke, we find he was not simply a random man as Mark records, but a ruler, a man of position and wealth.
Luke 18:18-19 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And the one commandment that Jesus left off was that cantankerous covetousness commandment, for this was the very commandment that obviously was not kept by this young man. Note that Jesus didn’t simply quote out the missing command found in Exodus 20:17.
Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Jesus taught this man, along with all His followers, the positive side of the coveting command. Jesus opened up the commandment found in Exodus in an amazing way, showing the young man the depth of law keeping required to fully obey the God of the Old Testament.
Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jesus is the Good Teacher, and if He can open up a young rich rulers heart with a few questions and prodding, we should expect the same. But with all teachers, the students need to be listening.
Has He, the Good Teacher, the God of the Old and New Testament asked you any questions lately, prodded you regarding a choice you made, or reinterpreted a passage to mean much more than first imagined?
Have you been able to hear Him?
After all, He is the Good Teacher, and Good Teachers love to teach!
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 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.
240
GOOD SHEPHERD
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
In my search for passages or verses that have this distinct Name of God, I retrieved only two. I was sure the Old Testament had much to say about shepherding, about God’s Shepherd and what the Good Shepherd was like.
The reason I was so sure of myself is because five years ago, I tripped over Ezekiel 34:2-4, where the Lord, through the prophet Ezekiel, exposed the shepherds of Israel, described their sin and proclaimed judgement on them. These shepherds abused, stole, killed and abandoned their sheep.
The passage spoke to me, and I found that the very characteristics of the “bad” shepherds of yesteryear were parallel to the “bad” shepherds of today. Not only that, but the points the Lord brought up describing the “bad” shepherds were rallying points for my understanding what a good shepherd actually may be described as.
Nevertheless, the Shepherd to be sent by God, found after Ezekiel’s pronouncement of judgement on the “bad” shepherds, was that God Himself would search for His sheep, seeking them out.
Ezekiel 34:11 ESV – “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.
This is such a great summary of the nature of the Good Shepherd, and of the person of the Good Shepherd. God Himself is the Good Shepherd, and He will search and seek. By teaching His disciples He was their Shepherd, Ezekiel 34 may have been brought to the minds of the hearers.
Yet Jesus didn’t simply say He was their Shepherd, but that He was the Good Shepherd, and that He would be a giving Shepherd to His sheep, unlike those in Ezekiel. Beyond that, He would know His sheep, and His sheep would know Him. This is relationship, and not simply sone designated shepherd ruling over sheep for personal gain, as Ezekiel had described.
As a matter of fact, interspersed in the John passage, Jesus speaks of “bad” shepherds, but is blunt, renaming them as thieves and robbers. These thieves and robbers have the same characteristics as the “bad” shepherds in Ezekiel 34.
My friends, there is a competition for being your shepherd. There are many “shepherds” out there that would love to take advantage of you, take from you, abuse you and then ignore you, marketing your soul like a commodity.
Or there is the Good Shepherd, whom you can know, and who has proven His extreme love for each of us through His willing, intentional suffering and death.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Will you follow Him instead of your sin, taking on His yoke and obeying His leading?
Trust and obey – for there is no other way!
It is a choice you can make even now.
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
Temple Builder
Ezra 6:3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits,
John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Unexpected, to say the least, for a Gentile King to be involved in the development and construction of the temple of the God of Israel. Consider the passage provided, for it appears this Gentile foreign king is directing even the dimensions of the temple!
Unexpected to say the least, but note that Cyrus is actually be restricted from access to the temple, even as he is the principle human force directing the Jews back to the land to build the temple.
I am reminded of the injunctions of a prophet giving restrictions for foreigners entering the second temple. Ezekiel, when describing the temple to be built after the captivity, which Cyrus had been called by God to complete, spoke of the exclusion of foreigners from the temple.
Ezekiel 44:9 ESV – “Thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary.
But Carl, this restriction is for worship, and we know that Cyrus didn’t even know the Lord, little less seek to enter the temple for worhip
Isaiah 45:4 … I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. 5 …I equip you, though you do not know me,
I get it. These might be two completely different topics, one the restriction of foreigners from the temple in relation to worship, and the other being the use of foreigners for the construction of the temple.
There is precedent for foreigners working on the Temple of God. David prepares for the construction of the Temple by requesting (not simply allowing) foreigners to prepare stones for the Temple.
1 Chronicles 22:2 ESV – David commanded to gather together the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God.
Ok, so foreigners were not allowed to worship unless under God provided restrictions as Ezekiel describes – foreigners were to be circumcised in heart and flesh. Yet foreigners were used in the construction of the temple, as David did and as is evident in God using Cyrus for the second temple.
Two topics, but both support the imagery provided by Cyrus in showing us a picture of the True Temple Builder, Jesus Christ. First, let’s consider Jesus as a foreigner to Israel, an unexpected Temple Builder
John 1:11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Jesus, viewed as a foreigner by the nation, for they did not accept Him, is also the Temple Builder of the True House of God.
Cyrus, as the Temple Builder provides us a picture of the true Temple Builder being from outside of Jewish expectations.
Now before some may ask about Jesus declaration that Salvation is of the Jews, as Jesus affirmed in John 4, this typology takes nothing away from the fact of Jesus being of the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The temple records, now destroyed, gave ample proof that Jesus was “of the blood” to be Monarch over Israel, with the New Testament gospels recording His lineage. He, that is Salvation Himself is of the Jews!
As a short aside, note that no Messiah could claim kingly lineage after 70 AD due to the destruction of the records with the Temple falling! There can be no legitimate claim to Messiahship in our day.
Jesus is our Temple Builder, a foreigner to many in Israel, even to this day. Until each heart has the veil taken away, as discussed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3, Jesus is considered less than the truth, less than the True Temple Builder, less than the Master of the House of God by all of Israel.
But praise God, Jesus has also chosen foreigners to cut stones for His true temple. No that is not correct, for He has gone one step further, and invited foreigners to join in the construction of His Temple by becoming stones, living stones.
1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house…
Yes Jesus is the Temple Builder, and so much more!
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.
239
GOOD
1 Peter 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
There are a few times in the Word when the message of God’s nature and being is simply stated. A short list is provided to remind my reader of a few of these short, succinct statements
“God is love” 1 John 4:8 “God is great” Ps 70:4 “God is holy” Psalm 99 “God is righteous” Daniel 9:19 “God is true” John 3:33 “God is one” Romans 3:30 “God is faithful” 1Corinthians 1:9
But for our time this morning, consider Peter, as he is writing to the diaspora, the scattered church, a church that was entering a cleansing persecution, and he speaks of the Lord as good.
Remember now, Peter is writing an epistle on the topic of suffering, and he has the audacity to say that the Lord is good. It might be reasoned that it is due to the believers faith in Jesus that the persecution will fall on them, and Peter describes God as being good. Might it have been better for Peter to describe God as being a Savior, or a mighty Fortress, or a Rock. No – Peter focuses on the Lord being good.
So what is Peter trying to communicate to these believers who may already have suffered much for their faith, and will likely face more trials, more problems, more temptations to give up.
Is Peter describing God as good in an ethical sense, a God who acts in conformance to a set of standards. I think not for God is the standard.
Or when he speaks of God being good, might he be describing God as simply “not bad”? This also does not make any sense, and would be of no comfort of challenge for his audience.
Might it be that Peter is describing God as benign, good to the point of being of no threat, that God is only good, and this goodness is almost likened to niceness. Now we know that being nice is not God’s nature nor is it ever commanded, nor even suggested for a Christian to be nice – See Love Like Jesus – Kindness for a short study if this interests you)
So when Peter is telling beleagured believers, suffering saints that the Lord is good, what is the point?
Peter uses the Greek word chrēstós, and the root meaning is to be useful, profitable or fit for use. As the word changes over time, it became associated with pleasantness, and kindness, even graciousness.
Jesus used this word once when referring to His yoke, in that it was chrēstós.
Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Another time, Jesus spoke of God as chrēstós, being kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
As you can see, to nail this term down to one specific meaning is difficult, as least for me, but I will suggest that Peter’s intent, at least by using this term to describe the Lord, is to encourage the saints. Peter is telling them that He is One who is pleasant to know, as opposed to those who persecute, and that He is a useful God to know, since He is a saving God, who has exhibited His care for His people through suffering. He gets it, for He has entered suffering, experientially knows the fear, the dread and the pain.
Yes, the Lord is good, and He is good to all!
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 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.
238
GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE
Psalm 59:17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.
Lets take a moment to remember the psalm we are in this morning.
Psalm 59 is a psalm of David, as he was being hunted down by the government in power, by his own king. King Saul has sent assassins into the city that David is hiding out in, looking for an opportunity to kill him before the sun rises.
1 Samuel 19:11-12 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.
Not many of us have been in the same plight. Having the government focus in one man’s life is a daunting prospect, and in this psalm, David describes what he faces.
Psalm 59:3 For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD
This is the beginning of Saul’s open persecution of his son in law David. Yes he had been laying traps for David, and seeking his destruction prior to this, but now Saul is marshalling the troops, bringing in specialized commandos that are on assignment to take David down.
The kicker in all of this is that David speaks of the God who shows him steadfast love. He is being hunted down by the most powerful and influential man in his nation, fueled by jealousy and animated by an evil spirit, and David has the audacity to speak of God who shows him steadfast love.
Now, for my own thinking, I had to understand the term “steadfast love” a bit better, and as I researched it, I found it is the Hebrew term חֶסֶד cheçed, and it speaks of mercy, goodness and favor.
That still doesn’t seem to help me, for David, due to the call of God on his life, is being hunted down by his king. He is facing death, and yet speaks of steadfast love, of kindness and mercy, of the goodness of God being shown to him. How does that compute?
Okay – I’m thinking that maybe David wrote this portion after he had escaped, and that may be the case, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that David must have realized that Saul would not simple give up. This effort of Saul’s was simply the beginning of a mission that would end up with David’s head on a platter in front of Saul.
So with David speaking of God as the GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE, the context is a continual, life threatening experience. The beginning of a period in David’s life of being hunted down by professionals, of losing all the benefits and blessings in his life, a period of disruption, isolation, rejection and abandonment.
Let us not diminish David’s circumstance here. The natural man in me is thinking that David’s circumstances are directly related to the call of God on his life. The temptation to blame God for this plight would be incredible. Such an easy thought to accept.
But consider. Let us remember that God up to this point had been David’s Savior in many battles, even as a young teenager fighting wild animals. David was no stranger to conflict, to danger or to seemingly risky situations. He had experienced God’s saving work in very practical ways. He knew experientially of his God’s saving work, and he foresaw that his God would fulfill His word to him, though it be though trial.
His Son also faced the threat of death many times, and finally, and as the Word attests, willingly entered into death for our sake.
David expressed his faith by speaking of the GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE in the context of a life and death matter. Jesus though, experienced the terror of the judgement of God on His life, and willingly suffered the judgement of God on the cross for my sin.
On top of all that, He was the ultimate truth of David’s claim we read in the 3rd verse of Psalm 59.
For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD
Jesus was the innocent One that was slain. No, that is wrong. He was the Righteous One that was hunted down, condemned and murdered.
David lived under the threat of death. Jesus willingly entered into death. David spoke of his innocence. Jesus lived a righteous life.
My friend, as we walk with the Lord, we also will have many challenges that may shock us, that may knock us off balance and may initially discourage us. In the very midst of the trial, remember His past faithfulness in your life. He constantly shows us mercy and steadfast love!
Look to the One who faced every threat, even death itself, and in the end, fully experienced the GOD WHO SHOWS ME STEADFAST LOVE. For God brought Him out of the grave, and He is the King.
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
Liberator by Peace
Ezra 1:3,4 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel–he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold
Ephesians 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
Cyrus may have been the only human regent in history that conquered a capital city without bloodshed.
Now I don’t want to imply that Cyrus did not lead a powerful army, or that he was reluctant to unleash it’s forces for the sake of the advancement of his cause, but as he approached the capital city of Babylon on his march to world domination, he eventually took a different approach.
Cyrus conquered the city, and consequently the empire of Babylon, by stealth. History has recorded that as he approached the city of Babylon, it became obvious that the walls of the city were indomitable, and that the city was fully ready for a siege if required. Although a conventional siege commenced, it was to Cyrus’ credit that he sought other means of conquering the city.
The strength of the city of Babylon, amongst many of its wonders, was the river Euphrates that flowed under the walls and through the city. This river provided a source of life for the inhabitants, but it also provided an unconventional access point for the enemy.
My understanding is that Cyrus sent his armies to both the entrance and exit of the river from under the city walls. Upstream, Cyrus reduced the flow of the water by blocking and/or diverting the flow from the main channel. At the exit of the river, his armies dug out a marsh and formed a lake area, large enough to accept much of the flow from the reduced river. Upon opening a canal to the man made lake, the lowered river flow was further reduced and allowed for the Persian army to enter the capital city, conquering the nation of Babylon.
In this monumental conquering of a world empire, Cyrus performed a miraculous feat. By shear genius and stealth, Cyrus added to his empire the extent of the Babylonian kingdom. This kingdom just so happened to contain a small people group known as the Jews.
Though it is not known how Cyrus understood his mission from God – was it Daniel that provided the scroll of Isaiah 45 for him as he began his rule – he liberated the Jew in a famous declaration found in Ezra 1.
Ezra 1:2 “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. Ezra 1:3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel–he is the God who is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
Note a few details of this declaration of Cyrus.
Let him go up to Jerusalem
Cyrus provided the Jewish people the freedom to leave or to stay. There was no compulsion on his end towards the Jewish population in returning to Jerusalem. It is so refreshing to see that Cyrus understood the importance of a willing heart in the completion of God’s will.
Do you really want to go back to Jerusalem? If you want to, you have the freedom to. Go ahead….
Is it not also the case in relation to the Messiah.
Mark 4:9 … “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
It is as if the Messiah was offering those who heard His message (the parable of the Sower in this case) the chance to “hear His message”!
Do you really want to hear His message? If you want to, you have the freedom to. Go ahead and let the message pierce that ol’ heart!
May his God be with him
Cyrus pronounced a blessing on the people as they went forward to rebuild the temple. It is interesting that the blessing was conferred on those whose desire matched the mission, but this is always the case when we think of the Lord’s work.
Jesus also provided the blessing of God, but not only as a verbal pronouncement, but by the literal giving of His life to become the One in whom we find all blessings.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Let each survivor .. be assisted
This added effort on the part of Cyrus seems over the top and is further confirmation in my thinking that Cyrus is a clear type of the Messiah. Even as Cyrus provides the opportunity of liberty to those in captivity, and even as he pronounces a blessing on them as they depart, he goes one step further and directs for the nation as a whole to support this monumentous effort of rebuilding the temple.
It is not only those willing to take on the challenge of traversing thousands of miles back to a destroyed land to rebuild the temple to the Living God, but those who stayed behind, for whatever reason, were to support the work of those in Jerusalem.
Does this not speak out the continuing method of accomplishing God’s work, of building God’s kingdom through the varied efforts of those in the kingdom? Who knows the spiritual life condition of those who chose to stay, but they were to be involved in the effort, and Cyrus acknowledges this truth.
It seems obvious that this Gentile king continues to exhibit characteristics (faint though they may be) of the character of the Messiah that we can all admire.
Cyrus may have had alternate motives, or unknown pressures requiring him to provide these advantageous circumstances for the Jewish nation. Not so with the Lord Jesus, for we can confidently say that He had one motive, and was not pressured into any decision other than that which the Father determined for His life.
His mission was simple, direct and massive. His death for our life. Resurrection for our justification. Continual, everlasting life to provide peace for those He conquers, for those whom He liberates to enter a kingdom of peace.
May His name be lifted up!
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.
237
GOD WHO NEVER LIES
Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
Paul, is writing to his disciple Titus, as he seeks to instruct him in the oversight of believers in a local area. The local area Titus ministered in was the island of Crete, off the coast of Greece.
In order to lay a foundation for the instruction to be provided ahead by the apostle Paul, Titus is informed of the type of God he is serving on the isle of Crete. It is instructive to note that Paul describes those Titus ministers to as liars.
Titus 1:12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
The Cretans are self confessed liars. A people group known for being liars, deceptive, untruthful.
This brings up an interesting observation, in that every culture, or social group, there tends to be at least one predominant social weakness, a sin that permeates and is accepted by the group. For the people Titus ministered to, one of these acceptable social sins was the act of lying.
Now I don’t know about you, but when I think of a social acceptance of lying as a sin, it must be very destructive to the social order. Trust cannot be granted, relationships are always fragile, and commitments end up in courts.
Of course, lies have a wide range of descriptions ranging from equivocations, through exaggerations, understatements, concealments, deliberate lies and felony level lies.
Also, we often think of lies as directed outwards, but many times, to our own hurt always, we find ourselves lying to ourselves.
1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Before we proceed with the verse above though, one additional aspect of lying should be considered, and it is related to lying to oneself.
James 1:23 -24 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
To forget the type of people we are is a deception we allow in our lives.
It is to our wisdom that we are to continually realize the tremendous power and influence deception has in our own lives. It is easy to point a finger at a people group 2,000 years ago, on an island south of Greece, but at the very least, they had a poet that provided a self condemnation for their group acceptance of lying.
Do we (as believers in the Messiah) have anyone in our lives reminding us of our base nature, our deceptive self that turns from truth? Relationships, that is deep relationships which provide opportunities for confrontation, and subsequent confession are few and far between for many believers.
I myself find that it is much easier to listen to a preacher for 30 minutes, even in the car or late at night as I am falling asleep, than to look a dear friend in the eye and lie. To be engulfed in a lying lifestyle is to be alone, to separate yourself from others in order to continue in self deceit.
For Titus, he was in the midst of liars. Liars throughout the island. Titus was commissioned to find men who exemplify the life of the believer, the mature Christian man that would provide guidance and oversight for Christians in the church. Men who could be trusted, that would mirror the character of the Messiah, Who was the full embodiment of all truth, with no deception whatsoever. He is the source of truth!
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
At no time can a valid claim be made that God has varied in His nature or message, He is the truth! For Titus, this led to a massive challenge. Jesus’ representatives are to be of the same nature, and of the same character, and Titus had a pool of liars to choose from.
Of course, as Titus sought men of truth, he would find success, for the Lord changes liars into men of character, deceivers into men seeking the God of truth. On his own, Titus was provided a challenge that could not be met, but because he was serving the God who never lies, he will find his elders, and God continues to this day, changing deceivers into those who declare the truth!
To return to the context of this letter to Titus, Paul does remind him that though he was to find elders, men of integrity and seeking the truth, he also had a secondary assignment that was strengthened by Paul’s reference to our God as One who never lies. Since the island was full of liars, some who had not trusted in the Messiah remained in the cesspool of deception, and fought to stay there, continuing in their deception and being an active and destructive force in the church.
Titus, based on the truth that the God who never lies is commissioning him in his ministry amongst liars, has a twofold call to duty. Find truthful men through the work of God in their lives, and confront the liars.
Not to simply confront liars, but he was to silence liars!
A great example of this very action can be seen in the gospel. Jesus was being challenged in His teaching with questions one after another, and by the Wisdom of God, He provided rebuke and response that silenced his detractors. The 14th chapter of Mark is a fantastic retelling of how the Lord responded to deceivers with simple truth, and describes the unwillingness of the liars to continue attacking.
Mark 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
He was awesome while on earth, and He is the same God today. As we follow, we also have the call to silence those who oppose the gospel, and this call will not be without struggle, but as we seek to silence those who oppose the truth, it is critical that we remember that we serve the God who never lies!
He can be trusted wholeheartedly and His message is the truth, for He is the God Who Never Lies!
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 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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GOD THAT MADE THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT
Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
A Christian and a evolutionist got together one day and began chatting about the beginning of creation.
The evolutionist made a bold claim, stating that science has actually created life in the lab. The Christian could not believe this statement and challenged the evolutionist to duplicate the miracle of creation we read about in the book of Genesis.
In an act of sheer pride, the evolutionist went on to accept this challenge and stated he would bring back evidence of life after a time in the lab. He would replicate the experiment he had spoken of, taking hydrogen and energy, and produce life.
With this bold claim, the Christian clarified the challenge. The evolutionist was to create life out of nothing, not simply rearrange and/or manipulate God’s creation.
I often think of this story when I consider the creation of the world, and everything in it. All that we see, feel, and sense in our lives, even our lives, is the result of God initially creating the cosmos out of nothing. To go further, things we cannot see, that is the building blocks of all matter was created by the Lord God. Atoms, quarks and protons all created out of nothing. Also, things we cannot see that is beyond the limits of our reach, beyond the furthest satellite and space probe was created out of nothing.
There are some in this age that think because they have studied matter, and may understand a process of nature, have actually explained away the need for God in understanding this world. This is sheer poppycock, for as the scientist delves deeper into the study of creation, the evolutionist continues to loose ground in his supposed logical rejection of a God.
Paul, as he addresses those of Athens, those who side with the evolutionist, was not shy in declaring the God we serve as the God that made the world and everything in it. In declaring God as the creator, he left no stone unturned for the Athenian to make excuse. He could not say that this God Paul preached simply rearranged preexisting matter into this world, that maybe God relied on material He found elsewhere.
God made everything is a stunning statement, declaring to a group of philosophers a truth that needed to be accepted by men that already had a systematized way of thinking regarding the existence of creation.
He is the God that made the world and everything in it.
Everything.
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
Shepherd
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 10:16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
As I look into this gentile king, I am surprised in the elevated position God placed this man, that God anointed him, chose him and now is described as a shepherd.
Obviously, God meant this term in a governmental context, but as I look into other passages that refer to one being a shepherd, it primarily describes one who cares for sheep, one who is pastoral.
Yes kings were called out, or as taking on the responsibility as shepherds in various places in the Old Testament, such as 2 Samuel 24:17; 1 Kings 22:17; Jeremiah 2:8.
But the intent of these messages was to remind those in power of the importance of giving up something for their people.
Consider David, willing to take accept the anger of the Lord upon his own house for the sake of others in this passage.
2 Samuel 24:17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”
Or of the prophet Micaiah, as he saw the effect of no shepherd on the nation of Israel. The nation was suffering, and it was due to the lack of a shepherd!
1 Kings 22:17 And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’”
Or, what may be worse is that those called to be a shepherd may be acting more as overlords, taking from the flock and not caring for the flock.
Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.
Each of these three passages speak of a king’s place to be connected with the characteristic of a shepherd. A shepherd that cares for and leads his people.
But in this verse, God is calling a gentile king to care for and protect the nation of Israel. Their own kings brought them to ruin, and now a king that was not of the blood of Abraham is called to care for them, to protect them and to lead them back home.
Although Jesus was physically a Jew, He too was a foreigner in a sense, having come down from above, and was called to lead, protect and care for a people who were in trouble.
Not only did Jesus shepherd the people of Israel, a people who were in a captivity far greater than the captivity Cyrus released them from, Jesus went farther still, and sought those beyond the bloodline of Abraham, determined to shepherd those even outside of the covenant of Sinai.
Cyrus was called to be a shepherd of strangers.
Jesus is the Shepherd of 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.
Considering the Bible 