2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The more I study the Scriptures, the more I am awed by what God reveals to us about His overall plan for mankind. It is only within the last 1 ½ years that I have learned how to be patient, to slow down and listen to God for His right time for events to happen. Today’s citation, 1 PET 1: 10-12 gives us a larger view of God’s plan than we would get from our own perceptions. “It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift [salvation and the hope of the resurrection] which God would give you. They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ’s Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow. God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.”
To my way of thinking this passage refers back to such as PS 2, “God’s Chosen King,” and IS 53, “The Suffering Servant.” PS 2 ends with verse 11, “Serve the Lord with fear; tremble and bow down to Him; or else His wrath will be quickly aroused, and you will suddenly die. Happy are all who go to Him for protection.” Earlier in this same passage in verse 6-7 we read, “ ‘On Zion, My sacred hill,’ He say, ‘I have installed My King.’ ‘I will announce,’ says the King, ‘what the Lord has declared. He said to me: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.’ “ Traditional Jews today and everyone living in the time when David wrote his Psalms sang these songs without understanding what their full implications are. The only reason we understand them is that God, through the Holy Spirit, has given us more of His word and the ability to understand it than people had in the past. While traditional Jews today speak of a Messiah Who will come to deliver us, they can’t yet see that this Messiah has already come once and will come again. Obviously, they reject the idea that Christ is their Messiah, even though Jesus Christ is the only Man in history who fulfills every prophecy about the Messiah that God has ever given us in both the Tenakh (OT) or the Brit Kadesha (NT). Please read IS 53 as it is important to our understanding of how much God had already revealed to His people by Isaiah’s time (about 740-692 BC) about the Messiah. IS 53: 12, the last verse in this chapter: “And so I will give Him a place of honor, a place among great and powerful men. He willingly gave His life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven.”
David and Isaiah were not the only OT prophets who wrote about Christ without realizing Who their Messiah is. Daniel’s vision of the One Who will live forever is a clear indication of revelation of the Messiah. DN 7: 13-14, “During this vision in the night, I saw what looked like a human being. He was approaching me, surrounded by clouds, and He went to the One Who had been living forever 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.” Daniel’s vision of the seventy weeks, the revelation that God gave this “man of high esteem” was allowed to see of the future also deals with Christ. DN 9: 24, 26, “ Seven times seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil…And at the end of that time [seven times seven and seven times sixty-two of God’s years], God’s chosen Leader will be killed unjustly…” Micah wrote about Him in MICAH 5: 2, “The Lord says, ‘Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are one of the smallest towns in Judah, but out of you I will bring a ruler for Israel, whose family line goes back to ancient times.’ “ ZECH 14: 3-4 shows us that the Lord has been revealed to Zechariah as well. “Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as He has fought in times past. At that time He will stand on the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will split in two from east to west by a large valley. Half of the mountain will move northward and half of it southward.”
The lesson of waiting for God’s time to understand more about His plan for mankind is hard for us to learn. Even Christ’s own disciples struggled with it. We see this in MT 24: 3, the question led Christ to utter the Olivet discourse in that same chapter (which I hope you will read). MT 24: 3, “As Jesus stated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him in private. ‘Tell us when all this will happen to show that it is the time for Your coming and the end of that age.’ “ We are given instruction in dealing with this human impatience to wait for God’s time in RO 7: 14-25, the conflict between spirit and flesh, which I hope you will reread, and RO 8: 9. “But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to-if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.”
Dear Ones, we are so blessed to live when we do. That is because we have all the lessons given to us by the Scriptures and by human history upon which to draw. We have the knowledge that Christ died on the cross for us that the OT prophets did not have. Our Lord must love us so much that we can’t comprehend the extent of it. Most of all, we can share with each other the hope of the resurrection, that living hope which is His great gift of love to us. That is why our koininea, our intimate and eternal connection with each other and with Him matters so much. Our Abba wants us to communicate to Him actively through prayer, to study His word while listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to make Christ the Lord of our lives, and to approach others using Christ as our model. We are here to unify and edify the Body of Christ, to love one another as He loves us.
PRAYER: O Lord, You ask us to read the OT with the understanding given to us by our faith in Christ, the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and the lessons of history. This is a small request for so great a reward as eternal joy and fellowship with You. Sometimes we talk ourselves into feeling that we are not smart enough or don’t have the time to deal with the OT. It is so much easier to always study what is familiar. But, You want us to understand Your word from a perspective higher than what we would get through our senses. Because You love us so much, You have given us the history that came before us, the desire to encourage each other to engage in faith-building behavior, and the great lessons You have taught us by all the writers of the Scriptures. Our hope is buoyed by taking the time to understand the miraculous connections that exist between the OT and the NT. We share the hope of the resurrection, that wonderful dynamic, living hope that can only come from You. To that end, we dedicate ourselves to obeying Your command to spend time will all of the Scriptures and to make our lives a living sacrifice of worship and service pleasing and acceptable to You. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at 1 PET 1: 13-16, the beginning of a passage about the call to holy living. We are surrounded by the love of God every day of our lives. We will be blessed by engaging in faith-building wherever we are. Peter and I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn