God's Appointed Times - Passover And Unleavened Bread

The first and second annual events on God's calendar.

Leviticus 23:1-4 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the LORD's appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly.

3 "You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD's Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.

4 "In addition to the Sabbath, these are the LORD's appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.

---

One of the best ways to know what is important to someone is to check out his calendar. In the previous post we saw the first of God's appointed times, the weekly Sabbath day, the only one of God's appointed times that the Bible tells us that he actually did. 

Today we will start the annual events that God has appointed for his people to observe. Some of these are related to past events that need to be remembered but there are also future events that we need to be prepared for. When we look at God's calendar we can learn from what he has done in the past and what his plans are for the future. 

God wants us to learn from our experiences so that we will be sure of who he is and how much he cares for us. Observing these annual events was also a great tool to help them pass down their knowledge of God to the next generation.

For one week each spring the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated beginning on the Sabbath with the Passover meal on the first day and the Feast of First Fruits on the third day of this important week.

God's Spring Calendar Begins With:

Passover – Redeemed From Egypt

Leviticus 23:4-5, Exodus 12:1-4

Exodus 12:13  But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Passover shows us the first thing we all need to know about God is that we need a Savior to forgive us and save us from our bondage to sin. This was the final plague in Egypt and it was the only one that required God's people to do something, a perfect lamb had to be sacrificed and his blood applied to the doorpost of their homes so that the death angel would pass over.

This annual observance helped God's people remember that their sons were saved by the blood of the lamb while the sons of Egypt died. It is ironic that the first Passover happened in Egypt where Pharaoh thought that he was in control when he killed the sons of Israel but years later God made it clear that he is in charge when he turned things around and took the first born sons of Egypt.

After the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the blood applied to the doorpost the lamb was prepared for the people to eat, it would be the last hearty meal that they would have for a very long time. They would eat this meal fully dressed and ready to go first thing in the morning as soon as the Egyptians found their dead sons.

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The annual Passover sacrifices for sin reminded God's people of their need for the true Passover lamb so imagine their thoughts and their reaction when somebody suddenly announces that the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world is here. They turn around and look and it isn't a lamb.

At this point in history God's people had been abused and oppressed, by their government and the governments of the nations that had invaded them, even their religious leaders were abusing them, so much so that they lost their focus on their greatest need. They were still doing Passover every year but Satan was using their physical needs to distract them from their spiritual need.

Feast of Unleavened Bread – Food For The Journey

Leviticus 23:6-8, Exodus 12:15-20

Exodus 12:18  The bread you eat must be made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of that month.

Passover day was just the beginning of a weeklong ceremony, the rest of that week would commemorate their hasty exit from Egypt and the food that God told them to take with them. When they exited Egypt they ate unleavened bread for a month until their supply of dough ran out. (Exodus 16:1-2)

The annual ceremony would help the people remember that God provided for their physical needs when he took them out of Egypt. God knew his people would forget the miraculous signs that his people experienced, they would have to be reminded of God's love and protection for them. (Exodus 16:1-15, Deuteronomy 8:14-17)

I have to wonder why God wanted them to leave Egypt in a hurry and why he waited to tell them so they couldn't be better prepared to leave? Why were they not allowed to prepare their dough ahead of time? 

Maybe God didn't want them to stock up on supplies and take credit for sustaining themselves? Or maybe he wanted them to take unleavened dough because it wouldn't spoil so soon?

Today we think of the symbolism of unleavened bread from a New Testament perspective but to the people that were leaving Egypt, they didn't have this point of view. It was probably a practical matter for them, dough without yeast would stay fresh longer. 

From our perspective it is a wonderful illustration but The Old Testament doesn't make the connection between the effects of leaven in dough and associate it with the effect of sin in our life. Also, there are times in the Old Testament when yeast is supposed to be in their bread recipe. (Yeast is allowed in Leviticus 23:17, leaven represents the effects of sin in our life: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Matthew 16:5-12, Mark 8:15, Galatians 5:9)

John 6:26 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs." 27 But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval."

When the true Bread of Life came to be God with us, the miraculous signs were still being ignored or misunderstood by the hungry crowds. Jesus allowed an impossible situation to occur so that the people would learn about him but the people that Jesus fed from a young boys lunch didn't figure it out. 

The customary blessing over the bread in the Passover meal was “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” The Bread of Life probably said this same blessing in the upper room at the Last Supper. (Matthew 26:26)

The physically hungry people that followed Jesus around in the remote areas of Galilee were very much like the physically hungry crowd that left Egypt. We all have a tendency to want a Jesus that makes our life easier and meets our physical needs but Jesus wanted to change their perspective.

John 6:32-33 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, Moses didn't give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

John 6:47-50 "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die.

When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for the event that we call the triumphant entry, it is three days before Passover, the lambs that will be slaughtered are being set aside and inspected. For the next three days the Lamb of God will be tested and found to be lacking by the religious leaders.

Do you know the true bread that came down from Heaven? The only source of everlasting life? Jesus is the only one that could be a substitute for the punishment that each of us deserve. 

Jesus became the pierced and stripped matzah for us. Jesus took the abuse and the death penalty that was intended for me, despised, rejected, crushed and whipped. Jesus sinless obedience made him the only Passover lamb that could intercede for us rebels so that we can have eternal life in Heaven. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

The symbolism of God's calendar should be a clear revelation or a reminder of what God has done to provide for us. The first two festivals show us that we need a Passover lamb to redeem us from our sins and we need the sinless true bread from Heaven to sanctify us as our knowledge of him and our application of his word in our lives helps us grow in godliness.

RELATED ARTICLES

What are the Lord’s appointed times? (gotquestions.org)

Koshering Your Kitchen (chabad.org)

What Jesus Meant When He Said, “You Must Eat My Flesh” (desiringgod.org)

Feasts of the Lord (firmisrael.org)

Redeemed To Be Redeemers

Bring God's lost children back to the family.

Video: Ray Vander Laan

Israel's Mission: Kingdom Of Priest In A Prodigal World

The word redeem means “to set free by paying a price.” It can refer to the releasing of a prisoner or the liberating of a slave. The Bible is a story of redemption, it starts with the reason we need to be redeemed in Genesis and continues until redemption is fully realized in the new kingdom.

Your Ways Are Higher Than Mine

I want mountains to move, You want me to climb.

Video: Your Ways Are Higher Than Mine  | The Collingsworth Family

It's not what I prayed for

It's not what I wanted

It's not something I understand

My circumstances seem so confusing

I'm placing it all in Your hands

Your ways are higher than mine

I want mountains to move

You want me to climb

So I'm gonna trust Your work, 

Your will, and Your time

Your ways are higher than mine

One day I'm sure

I will look back and marvel

At how You knew best all along

You see from Heaven

You know it's the hard times

That make my face steady and strong

Psalm 131:1-3 LORD, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. 2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD— now and always.

From Comfortable To Cursed

Our difficult times increase our longing to live in a better place.

Genesis 47:4-6  We have come to live here in Egypt for a while, for there is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan. The famine is very severe there. So please, we request permission to live in the region of Goshen.”  

5  Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have joined you here,  6  choose any place in the entire land of Egypt for them to live. Give them the best land of Egypt. Let them live in the region of Goshen. And if any of them have special skills, put them in charge of my livestock, too.”

Genesis 47:11-12  So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt—the region of Rameses—to his father and his brothers, and he settled them there, just as Pharaoh had commanded.  12  And Joseph provided food for his father and his brothers in amounts appropriate to the number of their dependents, including the smallest children.

Exodus 1:8  Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.

---

Nobody wanted a rescue when they first got to Egypt, why would they want to, they just got rescued from the famine in Canaan. Life has been good ever since Joseph saved them from the famine and now they have been living in the best area of Egypt, their livestock were in the best pastures and their families were well fed. But God would soon make sure that they were not comfortable there forever. 

There is a new Pharaoh in town and he isn't as smart as the previous one. The previous one was impressed with the God given wisdom of Joseph but the new man didn't know anything about Joseph or about his God. Just as Joseph was unfairly forced into slavery, now his ancestors have been unfairly put in the same situation.

Pharaoh feared what the Canaanites should have feared. If Pharaoh knew the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would have realized that the land that God's people were supposed to take away from it's current residents was not Egypt. The promised land that they would conquer is the place where the Canaanites currently reside.

Pharaoh attempted to shorten the life expectancy and slowdown the birthrate of God's people through slave labor and infanticide seemed like a wise plan but he didn't achieve the intended results. God's people continued to increase despite the harsh treatment.

Pharaoh assumed that he was in charge and that his plans would have the desired outcome. Man's wisdom is wrong so much of the time that we should be very careful. Sometimes God allows the wisdom of evil men to prevail for a long time before he steps in and proves who is really in charge.

Pharaoh's plans were used by God to create a desire to live in a better country Pharaoh didn't have any idea that God would use the persecution to create a longing within his people to live free in the land that was promised to their father Abraham. (Hebrews11:13-16)

God's people need a rescue but their leader that will take them out of bondage isn't even born yet. God's people don't have any idea that they are waiting for a slow plan that will allow them to suffer for many years as they wait for their deliverer.

God's rescuer will come as a baby, babies have to grow up, which means they have to be protected from the plans of evil rulers. Ironically, instead of being killed by the evil ruler, this baby would be protected and become a member of the family of the man that wanted him killed.

God’s grace and sovereignty made a way for Moses’ mother to nurse her own baby, get paid for it, and guarantee that the baby would not be killed. God put Pharaoh's daughter in the right place at the right time and gave her the compassion to care for Moses.

God's rescuer will have to be prepared, he will have to grow up physically and spiritually, he will need time to learn from the mistake of following man's wisdom, and he will have to go to God's classroom in the wilderness to learn godly wisdom.

2 Peter 3:8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.

God isn't concerned with our clocks or calendars, God's people have always been in God's waiting room, he almost always moves much slower than we want. Our faith gets stronger when we don't get instant answers to our prayer request.

God's glory shines the brightest when it looks like the desired outcome is completely impossible. Very often he allows our situation to get as bad as possible before it looks like he is reacting and then he reacts in a small way that doesn't even seem to help. 

Isaiah 64:4 For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!

God is at work and he is competent and faithful to complete what he has promised. Life is hard but how much desire would we have for a deliverer if we lived in comfort all the time?

It is difficult to understand how God could be merciful to the Canaanites and hold back his judgment on them while his people lost favor with the world around them which resulted in them being persecuted. The world doesn't tolerate us as well as it used to, the church is being persecuted more and more while God delays in delivering us from this evil world.

All of the difficult times remind us that we are not home yet. Our trials increase our longing to live in a better place, a place without bondage to sin, a place with justice for all, a place where we will fully know God and enjoy the rest of his promises that we have not received yet. 

RELATED ARTICLES

God Works for Those Who Wait for Him (desiringgod.org)

God Provides For His People

Prayer helps us rely on God to take care of us.

Genesis 32:9-12 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac— O LORD, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’ 

10 I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! 

11 O LORD, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children. 12 But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’”

---

The childhood and early adult life of Jacob was such a mess that it produced a young man that would have a difficult time overcoming his upbringing. We can see part of his personality before he was born as he struggled with his brother in the womb. It is too bad that his parents didn't mold him and help him use his aggressive, outgoing personality for good but instead their actions only made him worse.

Despite his dysfunctional upbringing and his lack of godly character he still inherited the promises of God that began with Abraham and Isaac. Jacob was forced to leave home empty handed and all alone as he dealt with the consequences of cheating his brother.

God would use this time away from home to shape Jacob and prepare him for his future role in God's plans. He would have success and he would fail but God still prospered Jacob as he promised.

In todays scripture we see some progress in Jacob's spiritual journey, he is on a journey back to his physical home because God told him to go back, we can see some small amount of growth in his reaction to the news that his brother is on the way to see him but he still has a long way to go.

Jacob's fear of his brother drove him to pray and then immediately into implementing a plan of action. It seems to be the prayer of a weak, unbelieving man with little faith in the outcome. This guy is familiar with God, he knows his character and he has his great promises for the future but he still seems to be praying in desperation.

Jacob Prayed For God's Help Based On:

God's Covenant

The promises given to Abraham have been reaffirmed with Isaac and Jacob. Notice that Jacob approached God on the basis of the old covenant but we approach on the basis of the new covenant.

God's Command

When God told Jacob to go back home it probably wasn't so that he could be killed by his brother. The will of God will never lead us where the power of God can't protect and provide for us.

God's Care

There was a history now of God's protection and care for Jacob, God has been working on Jacob's character for twenty years now, I don't think that God will let that go to waste.

God's Purpose

Esau's anger could not hinder God's purpose and plan for Jacob and his descendants, especially for Judah (Jesus lineage), Levi (the lineage of the priest and the Apostle Paul (from the tribe of Benjamin).

God's Promise

Jacob needs to review the promises made by God at Bethel. He should know by now that God's promises will come to pass. (Genesis 28:12-15)

We need to know that we can't mess up God's plans and purposes in our lives even if our trust and faith in him is weak. God uses the consequences of our success and our failures to help us grow closer to him.

Our prayers are an indicator of the state of our heart, if we struggle in our own strength to overcome our problems after we prayed about something then we have trust issues with the only one that we can fully trust without any doubts.

Thank you Lord for hearing my prayers despite my little faith. Help me to rely on you to sustain and protect me from anything that comes my way.

Why Doesn't God Do Something

Wrestling with God when he doesn't make sense.

Habakkuk 1:2-3 How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. 3 Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.

There is always trouble in our world but there have been decades of peace and prosperity that have drawn people to the conclusion that the world is getting better and better. But then there are moments when that perception gets shattered and it become obvious that we have no right to think that way.

During those long periods of suffering it's very common to wonder why God doesn't step in and end the suffering or maybe you get the idea that this is the end of the world and nothing will ever get better again.

Sometimes suffering is about judgement for our sins, in the days of the Old Testament prophets it certainly was, God's people must have thought that he wouldn't judge them too harshly because they were his chosen. Before the chosen people took possession of the Promised Land they were warned that the people that they were displacing were not pleasing God and if Israel made the wrong choice they would suffer similar consequences. (Deuteronomy 28:1-68)

The people of the southern kingdom already know the warnings that the northern kingdom had, they saw them ignore the prophets and they saw the consequences as they fell to the Assyrians, and on top of that the southern kingdom also ignored their own prophets.

Habakkuk seems to know that there isn't any hope that they won't be punished or that there is a possibility of revival, he doesn't plead with the people to change their ways, he seems to know that God is going to step in and judge them.

God's man feels the burden of sin that is all around, Habakkuk cry's out to God to let him know how long this situation is going to last, he hopes that all of this will come to an end soon but he fears that the Lord isn't listening. What burden can be heavier than this, to see evil prevail among God’s people, and to be unable to do anything about it?

Habakkuk asks God why he isn't doing something to make the world better, we all seem to have this longing, it's like we know that we were made for a better world.  The man of God was right to go to God with his difficult questions but when God replies it makes it even more difficult for Habakkuk to understand.

God answers: "I am doing something!"

Habakkuk 1:5-6 The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. 6 I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.

Habakkuk 1:12-13 O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O LORD, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. 13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

Habakkuk was looking at the events happening around him but God tells him that he needs to expand his view and get the big picture. God is doing something about the sin that Habakkuk is weary of seeing but when God gives him the details Habakkuk is shocked.

God makes it clear that he is the one that is raising the Babylonians to power for his purpose but Habakkuk cannot understand why God would use a notoriously greater evil to reprimand his own people. It seemed right when God told the Israelite's to kill the people so that they could take the Promised Land, those were evil people, but this seems to be wrong. Man's wisdom says that God should punish the worst people first and work his way down the list to the next most evil people.

Habakkuk cannot understand why God is going to allow things to get worse but he gives no hint that he believes that he can walk away from God. Habakkuk has to decide to trust God, just like a child that cannot understand his parents answer, all he needs to understand is that God is working out his plan in every moment of world history.

The consequences of the rebellion of God's people looks like bad news. There was a lot of suffering and many people died but God's plan for the world was being fulfilled in all of these events. Because of hundreds of years of exile, suffering and persecution, God's people are dispersed all around the known world at that time. These people surely didn't understand why they were so far from home but it was all a part of God's plan.

Because there were so many Jews living outside of Palestine that maintained their religious observances and customs among the Gentiles it made a huge difference in the spread of Christianity. God fearing Gentiles that learned about God from the dispersed Jews were the first converts to Christianity in the book of Acts.

Justice Out Of Injustice, Salvation Out Of Judgement

Acts 13:41 Look, you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.

What Habakkuk couldn't comprehend looking forward in hind sight Paul gets it and he uses it in his sermon. First he shared with the crowd about the injustice and the undeserved suffering of Jesus (Acts 13:26-30) then he shares about the justice that came out of that injustice and the salvation that came out of judgement. (Acts 13:38-41)

Jesus was the ultimate Habakkuk, his heart broke over the sin that was all around him, he was the ultimate man of sorrows, he was truly abandoned and yet he was faithful in evil times.

God brought our ultimate good out of the ultimate of dark times. When I don't understand the injustice, the sin and suffering around me I need to look at the cross as the ultimate example of dark times happening to someone that didn't deserve it. And it was all for my benefit!

RELATED ARTICLES

The Just Shall Live By Faith (desiringgod.org)
What does the Bible mean when it refers to the Diaspora? (gotquestions.org)
A World of Evil and Suffering (cru.org)
Book of Habakkuk (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

First Instructions

God's message to us in Genesis chapters one through eleven.

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Deuteronomy 29:29  “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.

Deuteronomy 30:10  The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

---

It is difficult for a lot of people to understand the importance of the Bible to those that love it and obey it's teachings. This book receives a broad range of reactions, to some people it is totally irrelevant to our world today, to others the Bible is one of God's greatest gifts to man, and to others it is somewhere in between.

It is important for us to understand the amount of respect that Israel had for the contents of our Bible. They didn't always obey it but they were so sure that the Bible is God's word that they went to great lengths to preserve it so that we would have accurate information about God and how to please him.

It is amazing how much God reveals in the first eleven chapters of Genesis about our origin, meaning, morality and destiny. If we only had these first twelve chapters of the Bible we would have enough information about God, our world and ourselves to make life worthwhile.

 VIEW POST FROM GENESIS 1-11 

Important Lessons In Genesis:

God is real and we can trust him God is eternal, he is powerful and holy and his children can trust him to treat us excessively better than we deserve. God can force things to happen but he chooses to be worshiped by people that have a free will to choose to love him on their own. We live in God's creation God is the only un-created being in the universe, everything else was made and is being sustained by him, that's all that we need to know about how the universe began. The beauty of the universe is a picture of his glory and it's complexity reveals his power and wisdom. We are made in God's image The greatest thing about all of us and our most tremendous privilege is that we have been created in God's image. Mankind is the hands on part of God's creation, but that wasn't good enough, God breathed life into us and gave us a spiritual inner being with the ability to think his thoughts and chose to work out his purpose. Sin is our number one problem Every breakdown in our world is the result of sin, from our broken bodies to the difficulty in relationships, to the catastrophic weather events all around us. It is easy to look horizontal at what is wrong in this world but the root cause of our problem is the fact that our vertical relationship with God is broken. Satan is real and he tempts us to sin but he is a defeated enemy Satan has a special degree of hatred for us, every single one of us forces him to see the image of God, he is forced to constantly be with someone that he hates. His hatred motivates him to deceive you into believing that he is as powerful as God. Obedience is the key to usefulness, joy and blessing Our imperfect journey of faith and obedience will bring us to the place where we are useful to God and a joy and a blessing to him and to the world around us. When we align our desires with God's we will find our greatest joy in this life. We need a Redeemer so that we don't fear death God's response to man's sin reveals more of God's character and his love for the human race. God shows us our need for forgiveness and then he provides the way to be forgiven so that we can be accepted into his presence for eternity. We can be blinded by sin Incredible circumstances doesn't guarantee success in your relationship with God. Life in the garden wasn't good enough to keep sin away, having Adam and Eve for parents and hearing their warnings about sin wasn't enough for Cain, and even the children of the survivors of the flood went right back to sin. God created marriage to be one man and one woman God loves relationships, he maintained a close relationship with the first humans and he created a higher level relationship between a husband and a wife. Throughout scripture marriage is a metaphor for the relationship of God with his chosen people and for Jesus relationship with the church. No one is superior We are created equal and we all need the same gospel to change everything in us. The gospel will make your pride disappear as you realize that you are so bad that Jesus had to die to reverse the effects of sin. But at the same time you don’t have to live in fear because God loves you so much that he was willing to come and die for you. We are made to worship If you don't worship God then you will find a replacement, even if you are unaware that you have made a choice, you will find something or somebody. When you replace God, who is eternal, with gods that can be taken away, your whole life will be turned upside down. We need a Sabbath rest Physical rest is good but soul rest is our greatest need, without a peaceful relationship with my creator I will never have rest for my soul, I will never feel like I am good enough or that I will be okay when this life is over. I celebrate the Lord's day because his work on the cross is the only way to enter into his rest. God has a chosen people Man is naturally drawn to sin, God needed a new people that would not be like everyone else, he needed a people that would show the rest of the world how to please God and bring him glory. The lineage of the promised messiah had to be protected by God in order for Jesus to be born and live until his purpose was fulfilled on the cross. The life of faith God expects us to live on promises but we prefer explanations, our journey of faith and obedience doesn't have to be perfect, that's why God has given us plenty of examples of people that struggled to believe all of his promises all of the time.

God could have created everything and then stepped back and let it all go unattended but thankfully he had a purpose for creation and he let us know about it. It is a wonderful plan that includes a bright future if we decide to live by God's word.

 VIEW POST FROM GENESIS 1-11 

Election Results

God works in all things (even in bad government).

1 Peter 2:13 Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king.

Romans 13:1-2 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.

---

You think your government is bad? Bad government is all over the Old and the New Testament, most of the people that have the opportunity to read this blog post will be in a country that gives them a better situation in life than the people that are mentioned in the Bible.

Remember the favor that the Israelite's enjoyed when they first arrived in Egypt? It didn't take long for it to disappear after Joseph's death. God allowed an oppressive government to rule his people and bring them great harm even though there isn't any indication that God's people deserved any of it. 

Hundreds of years earlier God told Abraham that it was going to happen, God allowed a paranoid, evil dictator to oppress his people as a part of a bigger plan that they probably didn't know about.

We forget that God's people in the Bible seldom knew as much as we presume to know about what God is doing and we are pretty sure that our point of view of God's story is what really matters. But each of us are such an incredibly small part of the whole story so it is pretty arrogant to assume that we know much about God's timetable.

The New Testament scriptures listed above are easy for Americans to read but application is not going to happen very easily, especially when another election is approaching, which seems to be always.

We forget that Peter and Paul wrote those scriptures to respect and pray for the Roman government that was so harsh to them. We are pretty sure that it is the end of the world if our candidates do not win.  

God is in control and his purposes will prevail even in bad governments. Maybe he sent them to judge us or just maybe we won't ever know why he allowed us to live under bad government. 

Daniel 2:20-21 “Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings.

We forget that this world must get much worse off before the end of time. I am not predicting that the end of the world is here if my candidate doesn't win but at some point the badness of our world will never turn around and improve.

Jeremiah 29:7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

We are ambassadors in a foreign land, we are here to persuade and influence the government and the people of this land but ultimately we cannot force them to behave a certain way. We should strive to make things better in this world but we cannot force people that live in the kingdom of darkness to live like children of the light.

When things don't seem to be going the right direction remember, things are going in the right direction, according to God's purpose and plan.

The Alpha And The Omega Returns

We have no reason to doubt that Jesus is returning.

 

Revelation 1:7-8  Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see Him--even those who pierced Him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for Him. Yes! Amen!  8  "I am the Alpha and the Omega--the beginning and the end," says the Lord God. "I am the One who is, who always was, and who is still to come--the Almighty One."

Revelation 1:17-18  When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if I were dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said, "Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last.  18  I am the living One. I died, but look--I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

Revelation 21:5-6  And the One sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!" And then He said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true."  6  And He also said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega--the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.

Revelation 22:12-13  "Look, I am coming soon, bringing My reward with Me to repay all people according to their deeds.  13  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

---

From the very first verse of Revelation you will find that the purpose of this book is to reveal Jesus to us. Revelation was written to reveal his character, his power and his plan for the future.

While Jesus was here with us he made many "I Am" statements that are recorded in the Gospel of John to reveal to us different characteristics of who he is. In these statements he claimed to be everything that we need for this world and for eternity. In the book of Revelation Jesus' claims are supplemented with another "I Am" statement that reveals more about his character and power.

The book of Revelation reveals that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega just the same as God the Father is. The fact that this name is applied to both of them is a strong argument for the deity of Jesus. They are both eternal in both directions, from eternity past to eternity future, they exist now, they always did exist and they always will exist. They are one in their plans and purpose and in power.

Our creator cannot be caught off guard and there isn't any power that is greater that can keep his plans from happening. He doesn't have to rule from a position of power alone, the fact that he is all knowing and also present everywhere at all times tells me that there is nothing that surprises him and he is in complete control.

The Certainty Of Jesus Return

We must open up our understanding to the greatness of this event by sort of getting our arms around how important it is in the Scripture. Some have calculated that there are over 660 general prophecies, 333 about Christ, 109 fulfilled at His first coming, 224 at His second coming.  So the Bible has much to say about His second coming.

Of the 46 Old Testament prophets, less than 10 of them speak of His first coming; 36 of them speak of His second coming.  There are over 1,500 Old Testament passages that refer in some way to the second coming of Jesus Christ.  One out of every 25 New Testament verses directly refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ.  For every time the Bible mentions the first coming of Christ, it mentions the second coming 8 times.

-John MacArthur "The Certainty Of The Second Coming" 

The promise of God 

God came through with his promises concerning Jesus first coming so we should take serious the promise of the second coming and what he promises will happen. (Isaiah 9:6, 11:1-5, 62:11 / Jeremiah 23:5-6 / Ezekiel 21:27 / Daniel 9:25)

The words of Jesus 

Jesus told us that he is preparing a place that isn't ready yet but when it is he will come back and take us home. (John 14:3 / Matthew 16:27, 24:30-31, 25:31, 26:63-64 / Luke 12:37-40, 17:28-30, 21:34-36)

The guarantee of the Holy Spirit 

The Spirit of Truth inspired the New Testament writers to give us scriptures that assure us that Jesus is returning and some of the details about what is going to happen. (1 Corinthians 1:4-8 / Philippians 3:20-21 / Colossians 3:4 / James 5:8 / 1 Peter 1:13 / 1 John 3:2-3)

The humiliation of Jesus Christ

Is there any chance that God is going to allow the humiliation of Jesus to be the final chapter? The Bible has a lot to say about the future reign of the descendant of King David. The disgrace, disrespect and harsh treatment that he endured for our sake is not the end of his story.

Isaiah 9:7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

The Alpha and Omega is coming back without a doubt, he is all knowing, he is everywhere and he is all powerful, there isn't anything that can happen to make this fact not come true.

The next time he leaves Heaven it will be to gather up his children, it will happen suddenly and secretly like a thief in the night so you better be ready. (Matthew 25:1-30)

RELATED ARTICLES

Live Like Your'e Leaving (bible.org)
The Certainty Of The Second Coming (gty.org)

Jesus' "I Am" Statements (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

The Evil Noise Of Hell

The calm, quiet words of Jesus stand out in the chaos.

John 19:16-19 Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away. 17 Carrying the cross by Himself, He went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). 18 There they nailed Him to the cross. Two others were crucified with Him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

John 19:28-30 Jesus knew that His mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture He said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to His lips. 30 When Jesus had tasted it, He said, "It is finished!" Then He bowed His head and released His spirit.

---

All night long there was noise, last night was a very unsettled night for a lot of people in Jerusalem, and now the chaos of the previous evening has continued into Friday morning without any signs of stopping.

Jesus' passionate cries in the garden were interrupted by the chaotic noise of soldiers that came with Judas to arrest him. I imagine that there wasn't anything quiet about the soldiers bringing Jesus into Jerusalem to be questioned, they must have woke people up as they marched into town and made their way to the house of the High Priest.

It's disturbing to recall the noise as the prisoner was beat on mercilessly and then marched over to Pilate then to Herod and back to Pilate again, half the town was up early that morning as Jesus was moved around the city.

It is morning now and Pilate has heard enough and wants to get rid of this bother. "Not guilty!" was the decision from Pilate that stirred up the crowd, with the help of the religious leaders, the noise would continue to amplify as the "not guilty" prisoner would be beaten and whipped. Not guilty and yet he was treated so harshly.

Again and again the verdict would be told, "Not guilty!" but the Jews wouldn't let it go. Given a choice they cried out for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be executed. Despite all of Pilate's efforts they continued until Pilate gave in, rejected the advice of his wife and let the crowd have their way. (Matthew 27:18-19)

Matthew 27:39-42 The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. 40 "Look at You now!" they yelled at Him. 41 The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. 42 "He saved others," they scoffed, "but He can't save Himself!

The anguish of being pierced with nails so that your body would hang on the cross, the jeers and insults of the Religious leaders and the Romans as he hung there, and then there was the protest over the sign Pilate had posted on the cross. (Mark 15:29-32)

Jesus Words From The Cross
1. “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). 2. “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). 3. “Woman, behold thy son” (John 19:25-27). [Three hours of darkness; Jesus is silent] 4. “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) 5. “I thirst” (John 19:28). 6. “It is finished!” (John 19:30) 7. “Father, into Thy hands” (Luke 23:46).

Calm In The Midst Of The Clamor

There is an extreme contrast between the noise of hell's fury going full force against Jesus and his calm quiet disposition. Jesus said very few words as he spoke to his accusers at his trial and during the beatings in court, and we don't have any evidence that he said anything on the way to Golgotha or while he was being attached to the cross.

Jesus was know for turning a conversation around to get out of situations when the religious leaders were trying to trap him, but this time it was different, he didn't say much but when he did it was never anything that would get him out of this situation and it was never anything hateful to the people that abused him.

Isaiah 53:5 But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

This time they had him but not because Jesus was outmaneuvered, evil men thought that they had finally won in their efforts to get Jesus, they didn't have any idea that none of this was happening because of their efforts. Jesus chose the cup of God's wrath that the Father had prepared and ever since the garden he has not asked for it to be any other way.

Jesus first words from the cross were out of concern for others, he asked God to forgive the people that had abused him, he offered salvation to a dying criminal and he made provision for the care of his mother. (Luke 23:34, 42-43, John 19:25-26)

A mere human would never respond to all of this evil in such a calm and loving manner. In the middle of all of the noise and chaos of Hell, Jesus is at peace, he is calm in the midst of the persecution and suffering because he is in the center of God's will and he is accomplishing what he came here to do. (Philippians 2:8)

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

-Missionary C. T. Studd

The noise around me can be very great and it can be a huge distraction, I need to remember that Satan can make a lot of noise and he can make it seem like he is in control or he may get me to think that he the greatest but I know the truth that love has won the war!

RELATED ARTICLES

Seven Sayings Of The Savior (chapellibrary.org)
The Sweet Sound Of Heaven (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Lift My Life Up

I lift my life, lift my life up, Have your way in me.

 Video: Unspoken "Lift My Life Up"

You brought me this far
So why would I question you now
You have provided so why would I start to doubt
I've never been stranded, abandoned or left here to fight alone
So I'm giving you control

I lift my life, lift my life up
I give it all in surrender
I lift my heart, lift my heart up
You can have it forever

All my dreams, all my plans
Lord I leave it in your hands
I lift my life, lift my life up
Have your way in me
Have your way in me

If peace is a river then let it sweep over me
If I'm under fire I know it's refining me
When I hear you calling out I follow now wherever the road may go
I know you're leading me home

I lift my life, lift my life up
I give it all in surrender
I lift my heart, lift my heart up
You can have it forever

All my dreams, all my plans
Lord I leave it in your hands
I lift my life, lift my life up

Have your way in me
Have your way in me
Take my life and let it be all for you
Take my life and let it be all for you

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Sacrifice And Serve

At the Lord's Supper we are challenged to sacrifice and serve.

 

Luke 22:17-27 Then He took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves.  18  For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come."  19  He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this to remember Me."

20  After supper He took another cup of wine and said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people--an agreement confirmed with My blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.  21  "But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray Me.  22  For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays Him."  23  The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing.

24  Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.  25  Jesus told them, "In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called 'friends of the people.'  26  But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.  27  Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

John 13:4-5  So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist,  5  and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.

John 13:12-15  After washing their feet, He put on His robe again and sat down and asked, "Do you understand what I was doing?

13  You call Me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and you are right, because that's what I am.  14  And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each others feet.  15  I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.

---

At the stroke of midnight God sent the final plague down on Egypt because of Pharaoh's refusal to let God's people leave his country so that they could move to a better place that God had prepared for them. God's people received instructions so that they would be covered with the sacrificial blood but all of Egypt was in mourning and finally they were allowed to go.

For hundreds of years the Jews have celebrated and now Jesus prepares to observe his third and final Passover. He knew that this Passover would be different, he knew that the symbolic Passover lamb would be replaced with the real and final sacrificial lamb.

At Jesus final Passover we see his example to us to be a sacrifice and a servant:

The Greatest Sacrifice

Hebrews 10:13 Our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

The Savior is soon going to be killed, no longer living on earth and not yet glorified in heaven, Christ sacrifice was the beginning of a new covenant between God and man, an eternal covenant and the only sacrifice for our sins that would last forever. Jesus made His sacrifice our sacrifice, His life became our life, and His Father became our Father.

The blood of the new covenant was shed for all, the final payment for sin was achieved, the door to the Gentiles was opened and the temple veil was torn in two giving us direct access to God. (Hebrews 10:20-22)

Romans 12:1  And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.

Now it is our turn to be a sacrifice, it is our turn to be offered up completely, we should give up any rights that we try to claim and give it all to Jesus. A sacrifice doesn't die partially, it is submitted to God, to be disposed of at his will. I should be devoted to God in the same way, I should be given over to his will for my life even if it means suffering, I need to be a living sacrifice.

The Greatest Servant

Isaiah 53:11-12  When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied. And because of His experience, My righteous Servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins.  12  I will give Him the honors of a victorious soldier, because He exposed Himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

The suffering servant displayed the greatness of his love for us at Calvary but before he died he gave us another example of his love in action. Our Lord became our foot washer, the King of Kings became our servant, he was never too good to do anything that would benefit us. Because of his incredible love he was completely sold out to his mission.

As God, He owned everything; as the servant, He had to borrow everything: a place to be born, a boat in which to cross the Sea of Galilee and preach from, a donkey (itself a symbol of humility and servitude) to ride into Jerusalem for His triumphal entry, a room to celebrate His final Passover in, and a grave to be buried in.

-John MacArthur

Meanwhile we are busy trying to accumulate everything that we can acquire while we are here on earth. We built bigger barns and rent out storage facilities to hold our stuff. We forget that slaves do not own property, they do not have anything of value, and they cannot control what happens to themselves.

Jesus made it clear that he came to live on this planet to be a sacrifice and to serve. How can I think that my life in this world should be any different? Why are we so busy looking out for ourselves?

I need to sacrifice and serve, look out for the interest of others and have the same attitude that Jesus had. I don't have the right to serve when I feel like it. I don't have the right to give an offering that doesn't seem like a sacrifice. (Philippians 2:2-5)

Givers And Takers

The ultimate giver overcomes the takers.

 

John 12:1-11 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus--the man He had raised from the dead. 2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus' honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with Him.

3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus' feet with it, wiping His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.

4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray Him, said, 5 "That perfume was worth a year's wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor." 6 Not that he cared for the poor--he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples' money, he often stole some for himself. 7 Jesus replied, "Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for My burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me."

9 When all the people heard of Jesus' arrival, they flocked to see Him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. 10 Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, 11 for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus.

---

The question that most of us want to have an answer to is "What's in it for me?" It is the normal mode that a worldly person operates in but a follower of Jesus should be asking "How can I give to somebody else?"

All of us are givers and takers, we walk a fine line in every interaction with the people that we meet, it is a delicate balance to maintain. Sometimes we need to take but we don't want to always be that person, sometimes we give but we can't give for too long or we will be drained.

The extreme form of takers are people that are trying to get as much as possible from everybody and contribute as little as they can in return, they are always looking to achieve their goal and get ahead with as little investment in others as they can get away with.

The strange people that give are the ones that look the most like Jesus. They give anything from personal encouragement and mentoring to finances. They live life with their hands and their hearts open ready to release what they have for the good of others.

Jesus gave life

Jesus is the best giver and His gift of eternal life is made possible because he overcame death. Jesus gives us the same victory over death because we have His life in us. proved that death has no ultimate power over Him, that power to triumph over death is given to His followers. Believers in Jesus will experience resurrection because it is impossible for death to win against the life that Jesus gives. (1 Corinthians 15:53-57, 1 John 5:11-12).

Mary gave sacrificially

A years wages is the estimate of the earthly value of Mary's gift, and what a waste it was from our perspective but Jesus showed us that his perspective the gift that Mary gave was priceless. She had received much love and she was motivated to give back.

Luke 7:47  “I tell you, her sins—and they are any—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Judas was a taker

All of the advantages of having intimate knowledge of Jesus didn't do a thing for Judas. He was a taker in every area of life, Jesus knew it and yet he never called Judas out for stealing from the limited funds that the disciples had. Financial gain didn't work out and neither did the desire to overthrow the government and take some of the power for himself.

Religious leaders were takers

They loved to take advantage of their position and power. Now they had the opportunity that they have been looking for, who would have thought that they would have one of Christ followers sell him out?

There are givers and takers in every area of life, some people are always scheming about how to get ahead or how to get things their way. Judas and the religious leaders had their own ideas about how things should be. The takers met up with Jesus, the ultimate giver, and they took His life without knowing that they a part of God's plan to give us all the greatest gift.

Hunger For The Eternal

Do you spend too much time on the stuff that won't last?

 

Deuteronomy 8:1-3  "Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors. 

2  Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey His commands.  3  Yes, He humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Matthew 4:1-4  Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.  2  For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry.  3  During that time the devil came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread."  4  But Jesus told Him, "No! The Scriptures say, 'People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

---

God's people traveled through the wilderness on a trip that took them a lot longer than it did for most people. Moses told the nation that God took them the long way home so that the would learn some difficult lessons, they needed to learn to be humble, to be obedient and to trust God.

God allowed them to go through difficulty to prove their character. Through it all God became their source of life, fed them each day, he gave them water to drink and he taught them how to live to please him.

Jesus was in a similar situation, he was tired and hot, he didn't have any food or water, but his reaction was nothing like Israel's. Satan got the people of Israel to doubt that God is good and he is dependable but that trick didn't work on Jesus.

Jesus response to Satan shows us that God's word is more important than physical food.

The eternal is way more important that the temporary but we get stuck with our focus on the things that won't last. I can get stuck in the wilderness and think that it is so terrible but there may be some eternal good that God is working in my life. Maybe he put me there so that I can grow stronger spiritually.

Our spiritual condition is a lot more important that our physical condition. I need to have a spiritual hunger and I need to actively feed that hunger.

I need to be "digging the word" daily, I need the power of God's word in my life to help me recall his goodness and know that he is trustworthy.

Thank you Lord for loving me and wanting me to be a better man. Help me to react to Satan the way that Jesus. I want to long for the things that are important to you.

Kingdom Work

Jesus focused on his father's business.

John 4:31-38  Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, "Rabbi, eat something."

32 But Jesus replied, "I have a kind of food you know nothing about."  33  "Did someone bring Him food while we were gone?" the disciples asked each other.

34  Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent Me, and from finishing His work.  35  You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.'

But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.  36  The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!

37  You know the saying, 'One plants and another harvests.' And it's true.  38  I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest."

---

When Jesus came to the well to meet with the Samaritan woman, he was hungry and weary, it was lunch time and it was a hot day, while his disciples were away getting food he could of found a place to take a nap but instead he was still busy doing his Father's work.

Just like a lot of son's did in that culture, Jesus was in the same line of work as his father, the family business or their trade was usually passed down to the next generation. Seeking to save souls was their work and they were both diligent and very focused to accomplish it.

Jesus would go to great lengths to promote his father's business and he wasn't afraid to miss a meal to go after a "business opportunity." For most of us our main goal in life is to avoid fatigue and to seek out food. We are very focused on our own needs instead of the needs of others and the needs that we focus on are usually our temporary needs. God and his son Jesus are always focused on the ultimate end of bringing glory to God.

Luke 7:34 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, 'He's a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!'

It is interesting that later on Jesus would be wrongly accused of being focused on his earthly desires. The one that left the riches of heaven was accused of being greedy for the comforts of earth, what a slanderous remark for them to make about the Messiah, he wasn't on our planet to have a party with the humans. I am sure that there were enjoyable moments while he was here on earth, there must have been some fun, but overall he didn't gain any pleasure here to makeup for what he lost up there.

What's The Most Important?
1 Peter 2:21  For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in His steps.

Sometimes you get to harvest where you never expected to. The seed that Jesus planted in the heart of this Samaritan woman was already developed and it was already producing a crop. Usually after the seed is planted there is time to sit back and relax and wait but not with the seed that Jesus planted. The harvest is ready and if you don't work now you may lose some of the crop.

How encouraging it is to see a crop so quickly after you have done the work of sowing seeds. Few workers get to see their reward so soon and many never see any harvest after a lifetime of labor for the Lord.

Colossians 3:2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Just like the disciples, I need to focus on the eternal and develop a harvest mindset. I can easily focus on my temporary needs and forget the eternal needs of the people that need Jesus. Sometimes I focus on lunch, maybe comfort, or maybe the desire to be accepted but Jesus was willing to suffer for the work of the kingdom.

Found: God's Will

Finding the direction and purpose that God has for your life.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  6  Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.

Matthew 12:48-50  Jesus asked, "Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?"  49  Then He pointed to His disciples and said, "Look, these are My mother and brothers.  50  Anyone who does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother!"

---

Most of us acknowledge that God has a plan for the life of every believer but with all of the different possible directions that you could go in life you may think to yourself, how can I possibly know which way God wants me to go?

There are a lot of blog post, books and sermons about this topic yet we don't seem to know what it is most of the time. It is as if God has made it really hard to know what he wants, his will seems to be hidden from us, but if he is really interested in me doing his will then why would he make it so difficult?

Some of us expect God to throw his will in our face and make it really obvious through a dramatic experience or worse yet we fear that he will speak to us through a tragic event. We don't ask because we are scared of how he will answer, and not only that but he may answer by telling us to do something we don't even like to do.

Jesus told us that the people that have the closest relationship with him, the people that are his mother, sisters and brothers are the people that do his will. That should be great incentive to be in the center of his will.

John MacArthur tells us in his book, "Found: God's Will," that God will make his will clear to his people if they are living for him.

Five things that you must be in order to know the will of God.

BE SAVED

Romans 8:7-8 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

The crucial first step, without this you can never know how to please God, you must be saved. It is the most important thing that you need to know about God's will. In our own natural state that we were born in we can never please God and we will never really care about pleasing God therefore we won't know anything about his will or place any value on it.

God loves everybody in the world so much that he had a plan that would keep them from his wrath. He made all of us and wants to be involved in our life in a greater way than we can be without his Son. (John 3:16, Acts 17:26-28)

Jesus sheep know his voice and after he gathers them together he walks ahead of them so that they can know where they should go. (John 10:4)

BE SPIRIT FILLED

Ephesians 5:17-18 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. 2 Peter 1:3 By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him.

It sounds harsh but Paul says that if you do not understand what God's will is then you are foolish. If you think about it it would be crazy to life your life without understanding what you were created for. God didn't create anything without purpose and if you decide that you don't care what that purpose is then your life will be a waste.

The spirit filled life: Living each moment as if you were in the presence of Jesus. With the same power as if Jesus was standing next to you. - John MacArthur

Being spirit filled and allowing him to be in charge is a basic of God’s will, it is the source of power and the good news is that you already have him in you. Isn't it crazy to ask God for what you already have? (Acts 1:8, Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 6:19)

BE SANCTIFIED

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 God's will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor-- 5 not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and His ways. 6 Never harm or cheat a Christian brother in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. 7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. 8 Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Paul gives us four principles:

✔  Sanctification - You shouldn't expect God to answer your prayers asking to know his will if you are living in sin.

✔  Control your body - Sexual sin is obvious but what about gluttony? What about your tongue?

✔  Subdue your passions - Christianity picks you up from the gutter it lifts you up so stay up! Don’t let sin drag you back down.

✔  Treat others fairly - Don’t harm anyone, don't cheat, and don’t use people sexually or in business or any other way.

BE SUBMISSIVE

1 Peter 2:12-15 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when He judges the world. 13 For the Lord's sake, respect all human authority--whether the king as head of state, 14 or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right. 15 It is God's will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.

God's will for all of us is to be salt and light and as such we should be the best citizens of our community and the best employees where we work. You know that a follower of Jesus is usually in the spotlight and the world is looking for an opportunity to point out our flaws.

BE SUFFERING

Romans 8:23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us.

Living a Godly life will bring suffering, despite what Joel Osteen tells you, God isn't interested in making you comfortable and fulfilling all of your dreams. The Bible never shows God's people living a life of ease for very long.

If God's people would have refused to face trials and suffering then the gospel would have never gone beyond the Holy Land. One of the problems of evangelism today is that we are not bold enough to push through to the presentation of the gospel, we are okay with people knowing that we go to church but we don't go all the way in presenting the gospel because we don't want to offend anyone.

Be Yourself

Romans 12:1-2  And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

The point of John MacArthur's book is that if you are saved, spirit filled, sanctified, submissive and suffering then God’s will is going to be very clear to you. If all five of these are evident in your life then you can do anything that you want to do since the person that is really in control of your life and your desires is Jesus.

The Bible says that God will give you the desire of your heart but that isn't a blank check that any person that claims to be a Christian can cash. We like to ignore the fact that God gives generously to the people that delight in him. As Paul says in Romans it is the people that have become a living and holy sacrifice, the people that God has transformed, those are the people that are going to know God's good and pleasing and perfect will. (Psalm 37:4)

If you are the right you, then you can follow your desires and you will fulfill his will, you will be able to make the right choices without hesitation.

This blog is completely not for profit and as such I do not receive any compensation for a favorable review of John MacArthur's book.

Destroying The Devil's Plans

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:8  But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

Colossians 2:13-15 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.  15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Isaiah 64:6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

---

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and when he finished his work he took a look at everything that existed and he said that it was good. I have created a few things that I decided right away that I didn't do a good job, unlike us, God was very happy with everything that he made. It was all created for him and it all worked together perfectly. (Genesis 1:31, Psalm 104:31, 1 Timothy 4:4)

I don't completely understand what it means when the Bible tells us that he made the spiritual world with unseen powers and kingdoms but I know he made them and he said that everything that he made was good so that must include everything.

Can you believe that when God said that everything he created was good that it included Satan? Ezekiel 28:12-15 tells us that he was a very beautiful part of creation and it seems that he may have been the highest rank of all of the angels. Satan wanted more, the beauty and power that he had was not enough, he decided that he wanted to be God. We don't know how long Satan was in good standing with God; all we know is that he rebelled sometime between Genesis chapter one and chapter three.

Colossians 1:16  For through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see; such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him.

God didn't tolerate Satan's rebellion and it made him very angry, it seems that Satan made a plan to get back at God, he decided to go after the part of creation that was the most dear to God. The man and woman that God enjoyed being with each day in the garden. Satan went after Adam and Eve and tempted them to make the same choice that he made. (Genesis 3:1-5).

It is no wonder that Satan went after mankind, the part of creation that was made just below the angels, the part of creation that was crowned with glory and honor, the part of creation that God allowed to rule the other parts of his creation. Satan wanted to be a ruler and it probably upset him that God put mankind in charge of his creation. (Psalm 8:5-6, Ephesians 2:10)

Colossians 2:13-15 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Satan must have thought that he could make man detestable and undesirable to God. He may have thought that we would be destroyed and that God would give us the same punishment that he received. How could a holy God overlook these rebellious people since he didn't overlook Satan and the angels that followed him?

God's Love In Action

Romans 8:37-39 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus came to earth to destroy the devil's plans, his idea to get us to rebel so that God would have to destroy us backfired, Satan didn't realize how much God loves us and how far he would go to keep from destroying us. God's love and mercy extended unearned favor to us so that the devils plan could be defeated.

The vast majority of people have a negative view of Satan but they don't realize that they are doomed to share his fate unless they turn to Christ. Our rebellion is just as big as his rebellion is and we deserve the same fate.
Oh, if men could but see the slime of the serpent upon their pleasurable sins; the venom of asps upon their dainty lusts and the smoke of Hell upon their proud and boastful thoughts, surely they would loathe that which they now delight in!

-Spurgeon

We don't mind saying that we have sinned but don't accuse us of working for the devil. It sounds a lot more unpleasant but it is the honest truth. (John 8:44, Ephesians 2:2) We need to see sin for what it really is. We should find it detestable to rebel against God.

Thank you Lord for destroying the devils plans, he wanted you to destroy us but you had something else in mind, your love for us is truly amazing!

RELATED ARTICLES

The Fall Of Satan And The Victory Of Christ (desiringgod.org)

Satan And The Origin Of Evil (answersingenesis.org)

Stop Playing With Sin (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)