2010-09-17
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, the Holy Spirit directed me to write about how God gives us the confidence to remove fear of death from HE 2: 14-15, about the first Jewish Passover [EX 12: 1-42], and how God has adopted us spiritually as His children from RO 8: 14-16. In connection with our call to a covenant relationship with Him, we will now look at how Christ’s body was broken for us and His blood poured for our salvation. This is a big subject about which books have been written, so we will just touch the surface for now. Long before Christ’s Atonement, this very significant event was prophesied in the OT. We are rhetorically asked in PS 2: 1-3, “Why do nations plan their rebellion? Why to people plot? Their kings revolt, their rulers plot together against he Lord and against the King He chose. ‘Let us free ourselves from their rule,’ they say; ‘let us throw off their control.’” God announces in PS 2: 4-6, “From His throne in heaven the Lord laughs and mocks their feeble plans. Then He warns them in anger and terrified them with His fury. ‘On Zion, My sacred hill,’ He says, ‘I have installed My King.’” Most people think this psalm was written somewhere between 1010-970 BC during David’s reign. That was considerably before the events of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection actually occurred.
Isaiah’s time of service lasted from 740-692 BC. In IS 52: 13-15, we read about the suffering Servant. “The Lord says, ‘My servant will succeed in His task; He will be highly honored. Many people were shocked when they saw Him; He was so disfigured that He hardly looked human. But now many nations will marvel at Him, and kings will be speechless with amazement. They will see and understand something they had never known.’” And we shouldn’t neglect to read those wonderful words, ignored by traditional Jews, in IS 53: 1-12, which flesh out in remarkable detail Christ’s Atonement and the reasons God allows it-words which are very dear to this author’s heart. “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender Shoot, and like a Root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like One from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of the life and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. There for I will give Him a portion among the great and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for their transgressors.”
Only those without faith in the Lord Yeshua can miss appreciating the beauty, truth, and enormous ramifications of those precious words! Another prophecy of importance is found in the writing of the prophet, Daniel [who served from 605-536 BC], in his vision of the seventy sevens. DN 9: 26, And at the end of that time [the city of Jerusalem is rebuilt and has stood for 434 years] God’s chosen Leader will be killed unjustly.” Daniel attests to a vision, earlier in DN 7: 13-14, of the Lord Jesus [though not using that name for Him] receiving authority to be God’s Judge. “I saw what looked like a human being. He was approaching me, surrounded by clouds and He want to the One Who was Ancient of Days and was presented to Him. He was given authority, honor, and royal power, so that the people of all nations, races ,and languages would serve Him. His authority would last forever, and His Kingdom would never end.” Zechariah, whose ministry was in 590-420 BC, also spoke of the “Future King.” ZECH 9: 9-10 tells us to rejoice for this future King will come into Jerusalem riding on “a foal of a donkey” saying He will remove all war chariots from Israel and will make peace among the nations, ruling “from sea to sea, from the Euphrates River till the ends of the earth.” ZECH 12: 10b relates, “They will look at the One Whom they stabbed to death and they will mourn for Him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.” And finally, the prophet, Malachi [writing between 663-654 BC] in MAL 3: 1 writes, “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send My messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.” So God’s plan has always been in place, and we, who believe, shouldn’t be surprised at what happens next.
PRAYER: O Lord, the Old Testament, known by traditional Jews as the Tenach, is filled with prophecies of the coming of the Lord Jesus, His ministry, and His crucifixion. Amazingly, they celebrate holidays like Shavuot, the giving of the Law, which foreshadows Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and Passover, which foreshadows Easter, the story of Christ’s Atonement, holidays very significant on the Jewish calendar. And yet, they are not being allowed to see the big picture, that their written Torah [here meaning the entire 39 books of the OT] is full of prophecies of these events of the New Testament. You have Your reasons, and they are righteous. In RO 11: 25, you tell us through Paul, “There is a secret truth, my brothers, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.” We, who are Messianic Jews with families that haven’t yet come to faith in the Lord Yeshua [Jesus], must be satisfied to have faith in that, pray for them, and remember You never decide or do anything that isn’t righteous and perfectly timed. We are Your covenant people, and we strive to keep that covenant in a way which obeys, serves, and pleases You. And for those praying this prayer who are Gentiles, they are so blessed that You decided to share Your truths with Gentiles and Jews. We all claim RO 1: 16-17, “I have complete confident in the Gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. For the Gospel reveals how God puts people right with Himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the Scripture [HB 2: 4] says, ‘The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.’” We thank and praise You, Dearest Abba, for loving us enough to make salvation possible through faith in my Lord Yeshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this in His mighty and holy name; amen.
NEXT WEEK: As we can see, it will be time for selected verses from the New Testament, which help us to see and understand the fulfillment of all these prophecies from the OT. These beg to be examined. We must see how Christ’s body broken for us and His blood poured out for all believers in Him bring them to salvation and a covenant relationship with our loving God. The taking of communion is our way of revisiting this monumental event-that of Christ’s Atonement-in a very unique and intimate way. If we weren’t sure before that we are a blessed people for having been given faith in Him, I’m sure it will be seen in what the Holy Spirit gives me to share next week. This is no “head trip,” but is a “head-heart-hands trip” indeed! If you, as a believer in the Lord Yeshua [Jesus Christ] truly understand what God intends for our lives to be, it will be clearly described in next week’s devotion. We can worship our Lord in so many ways, not just in church one day out of seven. Our whole lives can conform to the construct discussed in RO 12: 1-2, if we are willing to make the choices God urges us to make. Putting Him at the center of our lives in every context of them is a sure way to happiness eternally, even if there are some things which make that difficult to do at times. Sacrificial living, living for Christ, isn’t promised to be easy, but it is promised to be truly worth the effort. Remember this, and each of us will be blessed. Praise and thanks be to our Lord Yeshua, Jesus Christ!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15