Jewish Passover falls on Good Friday this year. Passover remembers the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt during which God told the people to kill a “lamb without blemish” and paint their doorposts with the blood. God said “when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you“. If they did this they were saved from the plague of the death of the firstborn. Every year the Jewish people would sacrifice again for the sins of the people. More than a thousand years later, God’s Son came down to earth as the man Jesus Christ, “a lamb without blemish or spot“, and He died a final death, a final sacrifice for our sins, and rose again in “victory over sin and death.” This Good Friday remembers the day Jesus, God’s firstborn, was not spared and was sacrificed for your sins so that when Jesus’ blood covers your sins God can say again “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Selah. Today, “if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts,” for “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” #TheShepherdIsTheLamb #SoliDeoGloria
Tag: sacrifice
Happy Easter
So the LORD God said to the serpent [in the Garden of Eden], “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Sanctus Valentinus
Oh, Saint, can you hear my voice from ages past?
I hope against hope because your voice seems to be the last.
Oh, Saint, may I ask a question?
Will you proffer a suggestion?
Oh, Saint, to your name, thereof,
My question is this, what is love?
New Year’s Day 2012
Happy New Year! May your heart warm again to hope by the very sunshine shone forth only from the trust put in Jesus Christ, Saviour of your soul, God, Who knows the good plans He has for you!
Allow me to open 2012 with an old stand by, for the “old school Sanctus Real fans…”
Things were better last year. Things will be better this year.
Thank you, God, for blessing me, thank you for helping me be a blessing, thank you for changing me. You have shown your faithfulness in spite of my unfaithfulness. You have answered my prayers, you have carried me through, you have lead me and guided me according to your Will for me, revealing to me day by day your plans to bless me so incredibly. I am amazed that you care for the things that I care about. Forgive me for having such little faith. I believe, help my unbelief! Thank you for the sacrifice of Your Son on the cross for me, a sinner. May I ever more and ever better be Your servant.
Lord, you know my heart’s desire. Please bless me with opportunities to be a blessing, please bless me with courage and confidence to seize those opportunities, please bless me with Your creativity to create opportunities! I believe your best for me is yet in my future. This I know because I have seen Your great hand at work! I will wait on You, I will trust in You.
The Lord, God, He is Good. Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Selah.
Genesis 22-25 (What’s it like to read the entire bible? How about we find out?)
“35 They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35)
Genesis 22
- The Sacrifice of Isaac
- The account raises so many questions. Why would God ask that? Would Abraham have followed through? How close was Abraham to following through when the angel interrupted him? Why does it seem Isaac didn’t put up a fight? Are all three actors in this story crazy? How far was far enough into the sacrifice to prove his faith to God? Would God really require human sacrifice? Maybe God would follow through with it in another time and place? What does it say about God’s character that He would think such a thing, let alone ask it?
- It’s a powerful story and incredible with the fact that Abraham apparently would do as God asked. I can’t imagine going through with it if I were the one asked. Then again, it was a different time, place and culture. Perhaps the whole thinking pattern was different then.
- Later on we’re going to see that God commands Israel to destroy nations for their consistently abhorrent cultures. One of the things God highlighted was child sacrifice, He says:
- “35 They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35)
- If it never entered His mind then why did he ask it here?
- I think it’s safe to say He always was going to provide the sacrificial lamb.
- …He always was going to provide Jesus.
- “15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
- I should’ve highlighted this at the time, but this is a foreshadowing of Jesus taking final victory over Satan.
- I don’t know about you but it’s all these connections and internal references that make me look in awe at God’s Word.
Genesis 23
- Sarah’s Burial
- There’s tremendous detail here about Sarah’s burial which boils down to Abraham purchasing some land.
- Be aware of tracts of text that provide whole bunches of detail for no apparent reason.
- I’ve said it a few times already but text like this will be critical for constructing the truth out of some issue either in another verse or book or in our study of God’s Word today.
Genesis 24
- A Wife for Isaac
- A lovely little story about Abraham sending his servant to get a wife for his son.
- All through the text it’s clear Abraham and his servant want God to provide the right wife. They don’t just want to find any wife.
- Even better is when they do find the right girl and seeing how the girl responds.
- Rebekah, Isaac’s wife to-be, presents herself admirably. Kind, willing to serve, decisive, modest.
Genesis 25
- Abraham’s Other Wife and Sons
- After Sarah’s death, Abraham takes a new wife and has more children.
- He sends these children east, it is written, gives them many gifts.
- But to Isaac, he gives everything of his own.
- Abraham lives 175 years.