2017-04-14
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As promised last week, we will now hover on the concept of “Firstborn” as used in the Scriptures. In ancient Jewish custom, the firstborn son, unless handicapped in some way, was given both the birthright and the father’s blessing. Ancient Judaism was indeed a very patriarchal society. The birthright was the entitlement to land and/or other material wealth passed down in the family. The blessing was God’s message to that son through his father. One can recall that within God’s will Jacob deceived his father into thinking he was his older twin brother, Esau, and thus received the blessing meant for Esau. Esau had earlier sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red lentils [GN 27: 1-40]. As in the case of Jesus Christ, the literal meaning of “firstborn” is a woman’s first born child [LK 2: 7]. Jesus was Mary’s first born child. But the word firstborn also has a figurative meaning. EX 4: 22, [God’s instructions to Moses] “Then say to the Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is My firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let My son go, so he may worship Me.’” God has never stopped loving Israel, even though Israel has not always been obedient to Him. That is why it is not hard to assert that Israel has a place in the events chronicled in the book of Revelation. It might also explain why Israel still exists, even though so many of her enemies over the last 3000 years no longer do.
There is still one more aspect to the concept of firstborn. A portion of PS 89 deals with the Lord Jesus, even though He is not mentioned by name in the OT. PS 89: 18, 27, “Indeed our shield belongs to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel…I will also appoint Him My Firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of earth.” This designates His superiority, supremacy, and uniqueness. While David was God’s “man after My own heart” [1 SAM 13: 13-14], even such a prized man was not supreme as is Jesus Christ [see HE 1-3]. Christ is identified, in COL 1: 15b-16a, as “…the Firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created…” He was previously described in the first phrase of COL 1: 15a, as “The visible image of the invisible God.” Christ is clearly God’s second personality. You’ll remember the metaphor I previously used of the Father being like the CEO, the Decision-maker, and Christ as the 1st Vice President in charge of carrying out the work of creation and redemption. [FYI: The Holy Spirit, God’s third personality, is the 2nd Vice President in charge of edifying and building faith in God’s human creation in that metaphor]. No other being has these same supernatural attributes or can carry out such amazing deeds. When faith in Christ inhabits our souls, our lives and ways of ideating change for the better. We become less selfish, more interested in nourishing all of what makes us who we are, our physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual selves. We are more interested in serving the Lord, being obedient to Him, caring about our fellow man, using our God-given talents for good, and becoming more Christ-like. Since we understand Christ as our Kinsman Redeemer, we want to make Him a Resident of both our homes and hearts. God’s Firstborn has revealed to us the head-heart-hands connection. Christ, along with the other personalities of the Trinity have been referred to many names in the Bible, which describe either attributes or deeds our God does.
During the age where Gnosticism and other heresies competed with pure Christianity, false prophets tried to convince people that the above description of Christ as God’s Firstborn isn’t true. But I must once again assert that I believe every word of the Scriptures, the OT and the NT to be consistent and true. No doubt, there will be others in the future who will argue against that, but they won’t be right, nor will their heresies stand the test of time. Archaeological evidence exists to provide support to the Bible. That is not true of other belief systems. Gnosticism taught that Jesus was created by some other archangel than Michael-a notion that totally denies belief in one God. Christ is described as “an advanced spirit of the 6th sphere” -something that makes no sense at all.
Paul vigorously refuted these Gnostic ideas. COL 1: 17, “Christ existed before all things, and in union with Him, all things have their proper place.” Christ was the First to be resurrected from death to eternal life. By virtue of our faith in Him and genuine confession of sin, we can proclaim His Lordship in our lives and be given eternal life [JN 3: 16], eternal forgiveness [1 JN 1: 9], and justification in the Father’s sight [RO 4: 3]. No other being, sacrificed or not, can open the way to these blessings other than Jesus Christ. Certainly, no other human being has this power.
Jesus made claims about Himself in a heated discussion with Pharisees. While the latter believed in God, they rejected Christ’s relationship to the Father as His Firstborn Son. JN 8: 58, “’I tell you the truth, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” As with so many over the years, these Pharisees had no idea they had been in the presence of the Lord. It was prophesied that men would reject Him long before this incident [see IS 53: 4-6]. We must examine our thoughts, actions, and beliefs to decide whether or not we as individuals and congregations will truly recognize Who Christ really is. Will we be hypocrites as were the ancient Jews who sacrificed animals and wore ever longer tassels on their garments to show how devout they were, or will we open our spiritual eyes to the Lord Jesus, Who lives in our spirits and commands us to acts that lead to eternal life? We must remember HE 9: 13-14, which describes Christ as coming as the High Priest, Who went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made… by means of His own blood and not that of animals having obtained eternal redemption. For this reason, Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant. Praise and thanks be to Him!
PRAYER: O Lord, we humans struggle to understand things not natural to us, things which are supernatural like Your immense power to do good and Your Trinitarian nature. And yet, we can’t help but observe the gifts of the Holy Spirit when they are imparted to our fellow humans. You have graciously and generously told us all we need to know to gain eternal life in Your word. We have free agency (our own ability to choose what we believe and how we will act). That is the opportunity to decide if we will believe the truth and make Your agenda our own, or not. Once we make our choice to believe in Your Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, we take on both privilege (blessings) balanced by responsibility (willingness to make changes necessary to conform to Your teaching). This choice has been difficult at times, because it often goes against our sinful instincts. However, no one has ever benefitted by doing evil or taking the easy way out of conflict by selling his soul to the evil one. One can be reminded of the wisdom Joseph used when he told the Pharaoh that the people should store aware 1/5 of the grain harvest in times of plenty to prepare for times of famine. Yet, when those tough times came, the people of Egypt didn’t starve [GN 41]. It takes us what seems like quite a while to recognize Your loving and continual presence with us, to learn to look for the blessings we receive, and to put Your Son as our priority in our lives. This is learned behavior and attitudes. When we finally learn, this well, the quality of our lives improves noticeably, and we find inner peace. We are here to thank and praise You for all You are and all You do. We offer You our loyalty and work to improve how honorably we live. Your Son created us for a life of service to You and offers us His abundant wisdom to do this. It is He Who describes the gifts of the Holy Spirit [GAL 5: 22-23] and girds us in Your armor [EPH 6: 10-18] to battle against evil. We are grateful for the chance to study Your word and that You have made Your will known to us so clearly. We place our trust in You and offer this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I have been commanded to begin a new segment of these “Knowing God” messages called “The Church.” These words mean different things to different people, but we should all think of them in the context of our Lord’s hope that He as the Bridegroom will one day be wed with His bride, the Church. The Church as Christ’s body is a wonderful metaphor of what our relationship to Him should be. Recently, a story came on the news about torrential rains in CA and the possible failure of the Oroville Dam. Oroville is a town in northern CA about 100 miles north of San Francisco. After five long years of a serious drought in CA, the tide has changed to be sure. Mudslides causing cars and houses to slide down hills, the replenishing of the water tables, and potential accidents and loss of life have been on everyone’s minds. Over the last 12 or so years, efforts to pass legislation to modernize and shore up the Oroville Dam have gone to no avail. It was first constructed in the 1960’s. No one knew so much rain could fall in storm after storm in one year. But the eventual happened this year. There was so much rain that the emergency extra spillway was totally overwhelmed and began to break apart. Between one storm and the next, emergency repairs were attempted, repairs that could have been avoided. Then, they were to be tested by the next storm coming eastward off the Pacific Ocean. At the time of this writing, the upshot of this predicament isn’t known. However, if you are wondering why I mention this situation, it’s because of how it relates to the parable of the Ten Virgins [MT 25: 1-13]. In this story, five of the virgins filled their lamps with oil and readied themselves for the arrival of the Bridegroom, and five did not. He arrived when the ones that did not prepare were trying to do so at the last moment. He didn’t recognize them, and they were shut out from the wedding feast. Dear Ones, we must be prepared for Christ’s second advent, for “we do not know the day or hour” when it will happen. Once again, we can rest assured that this Day is coming and of the love He has for us. Praise be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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