2003-01-16
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
For the last few days, the Spirit has led me to write about the chronological order of some key events in Christ’s earthly ministry that reveal the spiritual warfare He waged and what we can learn from it to help us. I am led to go on with that, and today, we’ll look at some prophecies regarding Christ and how they were consummated to this end. If one takes a strictly mathematical approach to the question, who is the Messiah? there would be no question Who He is. A study has been done to see if any one man fits all the hundreds of prophecies uttered about Him. That One Man is Jesus Christ. No one else does this. But, we aren’t all mathematicians, and those of us with faith know that faith is required to really see this in it’s fullness. Christ is all over the OT, even if that name for Him isn’t used. Let’s look at some prophecies about God’s Chosen Servant. IS 42: 1 (which is cited in MT 12: 18), “The Lord says, ‘Here is My Servant, Whom I strengthen-the One I have chosen, with Whom I am pleased. I have filled Him with My Spirit, and He will bring justice to every nation.’” We are all familiar with the Good Shepherd in JN 10: 14-15 and don’t question He is Jesus Christ. But look at IS 49: 8-10 and see Who you find. “The Lord says to His people, ‘When the time comes to save you, I will show you favor and answer your cries for help. I will guard and protect you and through you make a covenant with all peoples. I will let you settle once against once again in your land that is now laid waste. I will say to the prisoners, ‘Go free!’ and to those who are in darkness, ‘Come out to the light!’ They will be like sheep that graze on the hills; they will never be hungry or thirsty. Sun and desert heat will not hurt them, for they will be led by One Who loves them. He will lead them to springs of water.’” Can we see prophecies of REV 16: 8 where the evil people are burned by the sun while God’s people are protected and REV 22:1-2 describing the river of the water of life in the new Jerusalem? It is no accident that phrases like “Here is My Servant in Whom I am well pleased” and “the One Who loves you,” are used in MT 3: 17 (God’s words when Christ was baptized) and in JN 14:21 (which reveals Christ’s and God’s love for us).
I give all this prophetic background to demonstrate how the traditional Jews of Christ’s earthly times had no excuse for not recognizing Him as God’s Son and for rejecting Him. Who He is was discussed in their very own OT teaching. MT 12: 15-21 begins by describing Christ responding to finding out about a plot against Him by leaving where He was. As he left, large crowds followed Him, and He healed all the sick. He gave those he healed orders not to tell others about Him. IS 42: 2-4 is cited in MT 12: 19-21, “He will not argue or shout, or make loud speeches in the streets. He will be gentle to those who are weak, and kind to those who are helpless. He will persist until He causes justice to triumph and on Him all peoples will put their hope.” One phrase left out of the MT 12: 2-4 citation but which is at the end of IS 42: 4 bears repeating here, “Distant lands eagerly wait for His teaching.” We all know from the hindsight of history how true that was. Were it not so, the early church wouldn’t have survived, nor would faith in Christ be spread as far as it has today.
What makes the flow of events so compelling here is that Christ next visited His home town of Nazareth. What happened there is sad and so true even today. Someone with great faith visits his home town or even just his family and is rejected there! If one speaks to most Messianic Jews, he hears responses in this vein often in regard to their traditionally Jewish families. The story of Christ’s rejection in Nazareth is found in LK 4: 16-30 (also MT 13: 53-58 and MK 6: 1-6). That day in the synagogue in Nazareth, Christ was given IS 61: 1-2 to read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has chosen Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save His people.” In (21), He said, “This passage of Scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.” Christ knew and said in (23-24) “I am sure that you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician heal yourself.” Then, He surmised the people of Nazareth would demand Him to heal people just as He had in Capernaum. But Christ went on to say in (24), “A prophet is never welcomed in his home town.” Christ then spoke of Elijah being sent to help the widow in Zarephath, a territory of Sidon, and healing only Naaman, a Syrian, even though the Israelites (who were engaging in sinful idolatry) were not healed [1 K 17: 8-16 & 2 K 5: 1-14]. When the people of Nazareth heard this, they drove Christ out of town intending to throw Him over a cliff, but He escaped by walking right through the middle of the crowd (29-30). God’s hand of protection was on Him just as it is on us. Christ’s later death on the cross was God’s will carrying out God’s purpose. While all of this may sound very academic, it has a great message for us about God’s protection, His omniscience, His historical consistency, His righteousness, Christ’s courageous faithfulness as a model for us to follow, Christ’s warfare and victory over evil, and the ultimate love that is behind all these events. We should meditate on how this impacts our individual lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, Luke shows us that it wasn’t long after Christ’s temptation in the wilderness that He began His work in Galilee, that northern area of Israel from where He had been born to His earthly parents and reared by them. His own half-brother, James, didn’t come to faith until after Christ was crucified. What we can learn from this is that through all this rejection, Christ modeled patience and obedience to You. Dearest Abba, we too must be patient in rejection from the unrighteous rejecters of Him and obedient in following Your commands wherever they take us. JN 14: 21 brings this to crystal clarity. “Whoever accepts My commandments and obeys them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him.” Often Your commands take us to places in our lives where we never thought we could or should go. These places take us out of our comfort zone and force us to make changes in our lives that allow us to live up to the teaching of RO 12: 2, “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.” Christ understood this when He entered Nazareth to teach on IS 61: 1-2 and knew ahead of time He would be rejected. Yet, He trusted the Father enough to obey Him and was rewarded with protection from being thrown over the cliff on His way out of town. Repeatedly, Dear Father, You have shown us through the events of the Bible that we too should have this willingness to obey and trust in You. We dedicate ourselves to learning that lesson and to being Your loyal and diligent friends and servants. We thank You for Your loving presence in our lives, the protection against evil You grant us, and for our very faith. These are the things that will let us enjoy eternal life with You, and they also keep us from eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire. We confess our sins in humility and offer You our worship, adoration, glory, honor, trust, obedience, loyalty, diligence, thanks and praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, the Spirit leads me to take a closer look at IS 61: 1-4 and to see what it means to us as we engage in spiritual warfare and look forward to the future. In the meanwhile, I’m led to repeat how comforting it is to charge forward in the battle against evil (no matter what form it takes) knowing that we have an open channel of communication with our Commander-in-Chief, are fully equipped by donning God’s full armor, and are on the winning side of a battle in which the enemy has already been defeated at Calvary. Love, that is, God’s love is the basis for us being able to make this claim and have this comfort. In my book, that makes us a truly blessed army of soldiers in Christ. I, for one, will be grateful to Him for eternity. Bask in the warm glow of our Lord’s love and know that the battles we fight for what we believe are truly worth the effort. I am buoyed by RO 8: 18 and hope you are too. God’s love is supreme! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn