2010-10-29
Hi There Dear Ones,
Last week, I wrote about how a covenant relationship is the very gate of heaven. The ultimate goal for this entire “Our Covenant” series is a greater understanding of the Covenant of Grace and Christ’s blood shed for us. What we need to do now is take a look at the messenger who first announces straight out that a covenant is coming.
In His infinite wisdom, God knew the right time and way for potential believers to actually learn such a covenant is coming. Let’s revisit the events leading up to LK 1: 37, “There is nothing that God cannot do,” spoke the angel Gabriel to Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus. Previous to this, Mary’s cousin, Zechariah, the husband of her cousin, Elizabeth, had an encounter with the angel Gabriel in the temple. He had been frightened, but the angel, standing at the right side of the altar, had told him not to be afraid. Zechariah had been praying, and the angel Gabriel was there to answer his prayer. “Your wife will bear you a son, and you are to name him ‘John.’ He will be a great man in the Lord’s sight. From his very birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord, their God. He will go ahead of the Lord, strong and mighty like the prophet Elijah. He will bring fathers and children together again; he will turn disobedient people back to the way of thinking of the righteous; He will get the Lord’s people ready for Him” [LK 1: 11-17]. The angel identifies himself as Gabriel and tells Zechariah that because he had not believed his message that he would not be able to speak until the promise he is making comes true at the right time. Zechariah finally came out of the temple, rendered unable to speak, so he made hand signals to the people about the vision he had seen [LK 1: 18-20].
Mary was a young girl in her teens. She was betrothed to Joseph, who was likely older than her. Gabriel came to her, saying, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you.” The angel told her not to be afraid. “God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the most High God. The Lord God will make Him a King, as His ancestor David was, and He will be the King of the descendants of Jacob forever, His Kingdom will never end” [LK 1: 28-33]. Can you imagine a teenaged girl you know getting a message like this? It’s enough to blow the mind of a mature adult, much less one with so little of life’s experience. Amazing events unfold. Mary’s older cousin, Elizabeth, becomes pregnant six months before Mary does. The birth of her child, John the Baptist, will figure prominently in the world-changing events in which both these women are swept up [LK 1: 36]. Elizabeth, who was older like her husband, had been said to not be able to bear children, and here she is six months along! Elizabeth felt relief at the end of her “public disgrace” –not being able to bear a child. Mary’s obvious question is answered by the angel, Gabriel, when He says, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God” [LK 1: 32-33]. Both Elizabeth and Zechariah were from a family of priests.
The Bible has many examples of long waits for God to act. The story of Hannah, the mother of Samuel with her husband, Elkannah, who pledged to give her son back to God’s service as a priest and made good on that promise can be read in 1 SAM 1: 1-2: 11. Hannah had endured years of bad treatment from Elkannah’s other wife, Penninah, who bore him several children before this happened. Another example of a long wait came when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt for 430 years before being released from their slavery. Read about this in GN 15: 13-17 and EX 2: 23b-25. Oftentimes, God makes us wait until we come to love Him for what He is, rather than what He gives. While my own story doesn’t qualify as important in the way these other examples do, it matters to me. I began the first 25 years of my life being oblivious to God’s very presence, much less connected to seeking and following His will for me. Once I accepted the Lord Yeshua [Jesus] in my life, He took me on a spiritual journey though four major religious belief systems before presenting me with the ministry I have now. Like these other people, I needed to discover what a covenant relationship with Him is and then commit to engaging in it. My traditionally Jewish family brought me up to believe that we were waiting for the return of Elijah, hence the empty table setting for him at the Jewish Passover seder. That wouldn’t come until there was peace between the world’s people. It’s quite a different approach than Messianic Jews and Christians take in which we eagerly await the second coming of the Messiah Yeshua, Who will then bring peace to the world by eliminating evil as outlined in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Traditional Jews don’t know Who the Messiah is, only that Elijah will announce His coming. IS 40: 3, 10-11, “A voice cries out, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!’…The Sovereign Lord is coming to rule with power, bringing with Him the people He has recued. He will take care of His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs together and carry them in His arms; HE will gently lead their mothers.” MAL 3: 1, “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.” Even with these verses and IS 53: 1-12, the suffering Servant, traditional Jews don’t understand.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have given us the hindsight to know that John the Baptist preached, coming from the desert in Judea, in MT 3: 2, “Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near!” Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to him to be baptized, but he recognized their hearts were not faithful [MT 3: 7-10]. It had to be Your Holy Spirit that gave him that knowledge. MT 3: 10b-11 contains the important message John the Baptist was commanded by You to give. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire. I baptize you with water to show that you have repented, but the One Who will come after me will baptize you with the Holy Sprit and fire. He is much greater than I am; and I am not good enough even to carry His sandals.” This momentous message was ignored by the ones who needed it the most. What a great disappointment that must have been to You! Even when these people saw Your Son face to face, they did not recognize Him for Who He really is. You have built in delays to account for people who do not come to faith right away. We have seen this in the delays already mentioned, and we must come to accept that the perfect time for things must be determined by You alone. That is hard for us, Dearest Abba, because we want our satisfaction and gratification often before that perfect time comes. That is why Paul was able to write, in RO 8: 19, “All of creation awaits with eager longing for God to reveal His sons.” Father, we bow to Your superior wisdom and timing. We dedicate ourselves to being obedient and faithful servants. We love You and thank You for making us friends of Your Son, Jesus Christ [RO 5: 9-11]. It is in His name that we offer this prayer. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: There is more to write about the Covenant Messenger, a true Seed of Abraham, Who brings us salvation and peace as no other can. In the meanwhile, it is useful to hover over the blessings of a covenant relationship with God. Christ’s Atonement, when coupled with our individual repentance from sin and coming to faith are crucial to opening the door to vital blessings. Salvation, eternal forgiveness, justification [being deemed “innocent” by God], and beginning the sanctification [purifying, perfecting process] are these blessings. When we take a good and honest look at our sinful natures and past thoughts/behavior, “our sins are as filthy rags” [IS 64: 6]. Without our Lord Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we would forever be trapped into certain spiritual death. But His Atonement and our faith in Him gives us eternal life, relief from this entrapment. The latter comes to us in God’s perfect time. 2 PET 3: 9, “The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as some think. Instead, He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” There is no love for us like that of our Lord. We know that a covenant relationship involves something promised and to be done by both parties. There is no problem that God will keep up His end of the agreement. Now, we must remember to remain faithful and to keep up our end, remembering that God would never have us enter into a covenant that we were unable to keep. It may mean we must sacrifice old, well-worn bad habits, give something of our time and/or resources sacrificially, and learn to do things we never knew God built us to do. Even outside of our comfort zones, God never abandons those who love and are reverent to Him [PS 9: 9-10]. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15