Moses' Snake - Healing From Our Sin

The picture of deception and death will show us the means of grace and eternal life.

Numbers 21:6-9 So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. 7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes." So Moses prayed for the people. 

8 Then the LORD told him, "Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!" 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

Snakes have been a part of God's story from the beginning, just about anybody that knows something about God's word knows about the snake that deceived Adam and Eve in the garden, but that is just the beginning.

God's people learned about the importance of snakes while they were living in Egypt. The Egyptian people saw the snake as a political and religious symbol that they worshiped. The cobra goddess was supposed to be the protector of Egypt so imagine how surprising it must have been when God used the snake as the first miraculous sign to validate Moses' and Aaron's authority. 

God proved his superiority when he changed Aaron's staff into a snake but then it went to the next level when Pharaoh's magicians did the same. God had Aaron's snake swallow all of the other snakes so that there should have been no doubt about who was in control. (Exodus 7:8-12)

The next encounter with snakes was forty years later while God's people are on their extended tour of the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. They have already been to the edge of the Promised Land once but they doubted their ability to be victorious against the Canaanites.

They could have been eating the awesome food in the Promised Land but instead they despise the food that God is still providing for them in the wilderness. The same God that was miraculously brought them out of Egypt proved to them daily that he was still in control of nature as he provided them with food but they didn't respect that power.

They were anxious to tell God that he wasn't coming through for them. God's power and his blessings in there lives was not appreciated so God used his power through snakes again. This time be uses them to discipline his people by sending poisonous snakes. God is very good at making his people aware of their sins so that they can repent and beg for mercy. 

God provides salvation for his people

God reveals the method that he will use to allow his people to be healed from the wound that the snake caused. Moses had to craft a snake out of bronze and attach it to a pole so that the people could look to it and be saved.

It is interesting to note that bronze was used in the Tabernacle on the altar of burnt offering where the sacrifices were made for sin and also for the basin that the priest used for purification. The use of bronze stands in contrast to the use of gold in the Holy of Holies.

It is also interesting to consider that the cure did not come immediately, it would probably take a few hours or maybe a day or so to make the bronze snake, we don't know why used human interaction as a part of the remedy instead of healing them instantly. It seems likely that more people died before the cure for the snake bite was in place.

Perhaps God was showing us that we don't usually get relief from the fallout of our sin immediately, the consequences can be severe and long lasting. 

But why did God choose to use a snake?

It is ironic that the snake brought healing to everyone that could look up in faith and see it. The snake already has a bad history of deception, pain and death. so it seems a bit peculiar to see the snake in a positive light as a source of hope and healing.

God doesn't erase the negatives, he works through them for a much greater good, he took the symbol of everything wrong in our world and repurposed it into a symbol of life and healing. That sounds a lot like what he did with the cross.

It's just like God to re-purpose a negative into a positive.

John 3:14-16 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

I don't know how you feel about snakes but it seems a little bit disturbing to think that the snake on the pole is a symbol or type of Christ but even Jesus compared himself to this symbol in his first recorded gospel conversation with Nicodemus.

The snake on the pole was a foreshadowing of Jesus redemptive work. God's judgement was on me until I looked to the cross and saw my Savior there. Jesus took the curse of sin and redeemed me from the kingdom of darkness. The same cross that was an instrument of death and shame became a symbol of victory and salvation!

The snake points to Jesus, but Jesus surpasses it, embodying the ultimate expression of God’s love and grace. Jesus isn't like the snake at all, he is actually the antithesis of what the snake represents, as with every foreshadowing of Jesus the symbol has limitations.

The man made snake didn't have any power on it's own, through God's power it offered physical healing but it was powerless as a remedy for the consequence of sin. It did not offer forgiveness or eternal life. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross he became the means for my spiritual healing. Jesus sacrifice went beyond judgement and discipline to offer me complete redemption and reconciliation with God. (Romans 5:10)

The dead snake on a pole pointed to Jesus but perhaps it also foreshadows the ultimate fate of Satan as the serpent in Revelation. Just as the bronze snake was destroyed by King Hezekiah because it became a source of idolatry, Jesus will destroy the serpent at the end of time. (2 Kings 18:4, Revelation 12:9)

God's story began and it ends with the snake. Satan is described as “that ancient serpent, called the devil,” linking him directly to the snake in the Garden of Eden. Remember God's promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head? That day is still in the future but it will finally happen as Satan will be powerless against God's judgement.

Thank you God for going above and beyond the temporary, physical healing to provide the only eternal, spiritual healing that I desperately needed. I was powerless to help myself on judgement day but I know how to overcome by relying on your power to reverse the curse of the snake so I will not share in his fate!

God Gave Us His Word - Old Testament

The Bible confirms that Jesus is our Savior.

Luke 24:21  We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.

Luke 24:27  Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Just before Jesus leaves us behind here on Earth he encourages his followers to examine the Bible. He did not actually tell them to examine the scripture, instead he personally led them through the writings of Moses and the prophets to encourage his followers to find their hope again in the Messiah. 

They needed to look back at the Old Testament to understand that these things happened just as God promised. So many people that like to read the Bible do not consider the importance of the Old Testament but today I want to help us see why God gave it to us.

The Bible is mostly a book about predictions, there are over 1,800 prophecies in the Bible, the fact that almost half of them have already come true helps us to be reasonable, and logical with our faith in God and his message he preserved for us. 

The Bible is a necessary part of God's plan for his followers, without it we wouldn't be able to trust the teachings about God that are passed down orally, it would all just be rumors passed down through the ages that would have been altered each time the message was passed to the next generation.

God made it clear before Jesus came so that we can be certain and not miss his arrival.

The Messiah Will Come:

Genesis 3:15  And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God created perfection, man corrupted and brought about catastrophe and confusion. God's perfect creation included a perfect plan to redeem us and as soon as the need for redemption came the plan was revealed to the first sinners. But God's promise to Adam and Eve was just the beginning. Just look at how many times he affirmed the promise over hundreds of years.

Genesis 22:17-18  I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.  18  And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

The scriptures continue to speak of Jesus in the life of Abraham and his descendants. God promised to bless Abraham and then he renewed his commitment by restating the promises to Abraham's son and his grandson (Isaac and Jacob) which then passed the promise down to Abraham's great grandson (Judah). (Genesis 26:1-5, 28:13-15, 49:9-12)

Exodus 12:23  For the LORD will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the LORD will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down.

The Old Testament continues to teach us about the Messiah as we remember the original Passover lambs that saved the children of God from the angel of death. They could only save their sons through their obedience to God's word and their exodus from Egypt would occur as a result of the death of the first born sons of Egypt.

Why Is The Messiah Coming

Deuteronomy 4:13 He proclaimed his covenant-the Ten Commandments-which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets.

The law of God shows us why the Messiah is needed. We are too stubborn and insist on doing things the way the world does them instead of living God's way. That's why we need the Messiah to come and give us forgiveness from sins and the power to live for God.

God's law showed us that we could never save ourselves, it taught us that God's standards are much higher than we can ever achieve, it shows us that we don't deserve to be a child of God without a Savior.

Who Will Be The Messiah

2 Samuel 7:12, 16 For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. 16 Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.'"

We already know that he will be a descendant of the family of Abraham (Isaac, Jacob, Judah) but as their family line continues throughout the ages we will see that King David is also a descendant of Abraham.

The promise was revealed to David through the prophet Nathan during a time when David's kingdom was prospering and peaceful, just as God had promised. He was living in a beautiful palace but his heart was unsettled because the Ark of God was still in the tent that was used to transport it to the Promised Land.

God's promise to David stated that the lineage of his family that started with Abraham will continue and it will become a dynasty of kings that the world has never seen before. Other kingdoms have come and gone but this one will be eternal.

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.

The Messiah would be a king but not just any king. This king would leave the splendor of Heaven to live on earth in an unexpected lifestyle and to be treated in an unexpected manner. This isn't what a king does, kings collect taxes, make the rules and live in luxury, but not this king.

This king lived in poverty and allowed himself to be mistreated, instead of demanding his rights as king he submitted himself to the needs of his people. This king loved his people to the point of death so that he could save his people.

The Messiah Has Come

Matthew 1:1This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham.

After Jesus was dead and gone, Matthew connects the dots in his book, to show God's people that their Savior had arrived. Matthew helps us connect the Torah and the prophets with the life and death of Jesus. 

Matthew primarily wrote to a Jewish community close to Jerusalem, a community of Christ followers that would have to deal with the influence of the Jewish traditions in their daily life. He wants to prove to the Jews that the promises have come to pass, the fulfilment of their traditions and the promise of salvation had come.

Hebrews 1:3 The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

The "god of this world" has made his word more popular than God's word, Satan doesn't care what your theology is just as long as it isn't based on God's word, just as long as it doesn't acknowledge that Jesus is God and that he came to cleanse us from our sin.

The original followers of Jesus were so confused, it was probably more difficult for them to understand that Jesus was "God with us." We can analyze the incredible amount of detail that the Old Testament gives us about who Jesus is and figure it out easily.

The Old Testament told us:

• Jesus Birth - How he would come to be with us
• Jesus Life - What he came to do for us
• Jesus Resurrection - Why he wouldn't stay dead

Very smart, logical people have studied God's word in the Old Testament and determined that there is no other way to explain the fulfilled prophecy, this must be God's promises. He gave us the promise and then he came through and made them happen.

We have the luxury of looking back at the big picture, we have God's word in our homes and on our phones, we can study it and learn for ourselves so that we can determine to build our life on God's word or on man's word.

Even today it is easy to lose our hope and get discouraged while we wait for the next arrival of Jesus. It is helpful for all of us to get into God's word and remember what he predicted in the past and that it came true. That's a great indicator that we can trust his promises for our future.

Saved And Sent

We are sent out to show the world how awesome our God is.

Exodus 12:31-33 Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. “Get out!” he ordered. “Leave my people— and take the rest of the Israelites with you! Go and worship the LORD as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me as you leave.” 33 All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!”

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We have seen God's glory and power on display as he sent the plagues to Egypt, we saw that sometimes he exempted his people from the devastation, but for the final plague we saw that God required his people to do something in order to receive his protection.

God offered his chosen people a way to be saved from the destroying angels if they obeyed him and followed his plan of salvation. God's people were saved by the Passover Lamb and released from their bondage but they still had a long way to go to get to the Promised Land.

God's people were ordered to leave by Pharaoh and the rest of the people of Egypt also urged them to go and willingly gave them their stuff. The great number of people and the amount of livestock and riches that they have are all according to God's promises. It is very clear at this point who is in control and we know that it isn't the earthly kingdom. (Genesis 26:3-4)

God's promise to his people came to pass in God's timing, we cannot comprehend why God allowed thousands of his people to live and die in Egypt before he took them out but when it was time they left in the manner that he said it would happen. It's been a long wait and surely God's people are ready to get to the Promised Land right away but God has other plans that haven't been revealed to them yet.

Exodus 13:17 When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

God is in control and he shows it again by directing his people to take the scenic route to their destination rather than taking them straight there. God's route to the new home that he has prepared for his people will force his people to wait on him.

Even with the explanation that scripture gives it is still difficult to understand why God didn't send his people on the short route to their land. He could have intervened and caused their enemies to be afraid of them so that they would not change their minds and return to Egypt. 

God's people want to see results and when it doesn't appear that God is at work we get discouraged. A lot of the time we fail to realize that God's timeline is much bigger than the span of our lifetime. Generations of God's people have lived and died crying out to God to see his plan come to pass without any indication that he had listened to their prayers.

Trust Isn't Easy
A. Trusting in the Lord requires seeing your weakness and need, but His power and provision. B. Trusting in the Lord requires remembering that He always keeps His promises. C. When we trust in the Lord, He gets the glory and we get the blessings. - God’s Means of Salvation (Steven J Cole on Bible.org)

Trusting God isn't easy so we try to make things happen that God isn't ready to do even if he has promised to do it someday. Between the book of Genesis and the first thirteen chapters of Exodus we have seen God work slow and steady in the lives of his people. 

Because God saved his people from the sting of death, the world reacted by sending them away, instead of realizing that God is for real and they should submit to his authority. They chose to ignore all of the evidence and continue to live their lives embracing the powerless gods that they had created.

God's people have been sent out to show the world how amazing God is. Israel was saved from and sent out of bondage to Egypt and likewise we are saved to be sent. They were sent to judge the inhabitants of the Promised Land but we are saved and sent to show the world God's perfect love, mercy and forgiveness on our way to our Promised Land.

The same amazing God that led his children to Canaan will also lead us safely home. The route to get there is long and hard, just like it was for Israel, so that we will learn to trust and glorify our gracious Lord as we get closer to home.

Saved By The Passover Lamb

Apply the blood to your life so you can be saved from God's judgment.

Exodus 12:12-14  On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD!

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.  

14  “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the LORD. This is a law for all time.

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In the previous post we saw that Pharaoh's magicians could imitate the real deal sometimes but as God sent more and more plagues that they couldn't counterfeit they proved that Satan may come close but God's Mighty Power is not available anywhere else. God's power couild not be matched as he used it to devastate nature, command animal life and now in today's scripture we will see that he has power over death.

God has been more than fair enough in his dealings with the Egyptians, the Bible focuses on Pharaoh but he isn't the only Egyptian to have a hard heart toward God, most of the citizens of Egypt are guilty of treating God's people harshly even when Pharaoh attempted to kill all of the Hebrew babies. It is amazing that Moses was protected from death by the daughter of the man that wanted him dead and she knew that he was a Hebrew baby that should have been killed by her father's decree. (Exodus 2:6)

God always protects his own, before God judges the world he warns his chosen people that there is a way to escape judgment, they can receive mercy if they believe in the power of the blood to save them. But they were not allowed to just believe, real belief requires action, if they didn't follow God's instruction then they would not be any better off than the rest of Egypt.

Psalms 78:49-52  He loosed on them his fierce anger—all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.  50  He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives but ravaged them with the plague.  51  He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.  52  But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.

God offers his chosen people protection from the destroying angels, he didn't exempt his people from this plague like he did some of the others, instead he told them how to avoid it through their obedience.

God told them that the Passover lamb must be the best of the best, a young lamb without defect, this lamb became known as the symbol of the perfect lamb that would come to be the final sacrifice.

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Jesus is the only sacrifice that pleased God, unlike those lambs that died before him, he is the only one that has God's complete approval. Without his life of sinless obedience his sacrifice would have had no value at all. We need to see that not only did Jesus die for us, He also lived for us.

Most of us fail to see that we are all slaves in a foreign country under the reign of an evil dictator. You can come out of the kingdom of darkness and become a child of God that will not be punished with the rest of this crazy world someday.

1 Peter 1:18-19  For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.  19  It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

The value of silver and gold will fluctuate but the commodity used to pay our ransom from slavery never changes. The blood of our Passover lamb is priceless yet it is meaningless if it isn't applied to your life by your personal faith. 

Have you had your own personal Passover moment? Find out how you can have peace with God.

RELATED ARTICLES

God’s Means of Salvation (bible.org)

The Passover Symbols and Their Messianic Significance (jewsforjesus.org)

How Jesus Fulfills Passover (thegospelcoalition.org)

Special Babies

When God wants to do something big he usually sends something small.

Isaiah 9:6-7  For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  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!

Galatians 4:4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.

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Most of us have heard that the best gifts come in small packages, we know that the smallest gifts are usually the most valuable, but this is especially true when the small package is a baby. We are usually drawn toward the baby with a desire to nurture it, protect it and celebrate it.

Unfortunately there have been too many babies that have been anything but good news and they have not been treasured as a gift from God. We will never know how much good may have been accomplished by a baby that was unwanted and therefore it was unprotected. 

The Bible has a lot of stories about babies that were sent to do something special. I cannot imagine how different the world would be if any of these babies had been destroyed.

Special babies that were sent by God:

• Moses - Born under an evil dictator that sought to kill every Jewish baby. His life had to be preserved so that 80 years later he would rescue God's people.
• Samuel - A barren mother promises to give her child to God, the baby grows up in the temple, and he becomes Israel's first prophet.
• John the Baptist - Elderly parents that are unable to have a child, his dad's unbelief caused him to be unable to speak, Jesus says he is the greatest man.
• Jesus - Virgin birth, born under an evil dictator that sought to kill him, called out of Egypt, came to be the perfect Passover lamb.

One of the most difficult things to understand is why God loves to send a baby to do a man's job. Why can't a full grown man arrive on the scene and take care of things right away? We want someone with strength, know how and determination but God prefers to send someone that doesn't even know that we need him yet.

God's special babies come in his timing to unlikely moms. The proof that God is in control can be seen many times by using ladies that couldn't get pregnant for a long time. Many of the important mom's in the Bible were barren until God was ready to send the special baby that his people needed.

Waiting for God's special babies to be born is difficult, but then when they finally arrive they are vulnerable and must be protected, then they have to grow up physically and then sometimes God still doesn't use them until they are old and they have had time to grow up spiritually.

Meanwhile generations of God's people live and die without seeing God's mercy and generations of worldly people live and die without seeing God's judgment. That's what happened in Moses' day, the Canaanites continued to live in sin without suffering the consequences that God promised would come someday and God's people suffered and many of them died in Egypt without the fulfillment of the promise to save them.

1 John 4:14-15  Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  15  All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.

It doesn't seem fair to us, God doesn't satisfy our desire to fix things right away, all of Israel waited for hundreds of years for the greatest baby that was ever promised. Meanwhile it seemed that God wasn't paying attention or he didn't care. 

Our idea of being in control doesn't look like God's, he was aware of our plight and he was still on track with his original plan to send his son to be "God with us." In the midst of the chaos of political and economic woes he sent Jesus as a baby to eventually grow up to be the man that would save us.

The day is coming when "God with us" will happen again, God will send his son back to earth, but don't expect him to be the sweet baby that they saw the first time and don't expect him to be a humble servant either. 

We all need to learn about the greatest gift ever that comes through Jesus but the only way to experience a gift is to receive it. Have you received the only gift that can give you peace with God?

Saved By God’s Mighty Power

The power to save us from bondage if we will submit to his control.

Exodus 7:3-5  But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.  4  Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.  5  When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”

Exodus 7:10-13 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! 

11 Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. 12 They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

13 Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the LORD had predicted.

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Moses' call to serve God required a lot of perseverance, he had opposition from the world and also from God's people that he was called to help, but the opposition is only going to get worse as Moses returns to meet with Pharaoh over and over again.

Pharaoh would receive a greater revelation of God with each plague that was coming but Pharaoh wasn't the only person that needed to learn more about God and how to please him. God's chosen people needed to learn about God as well, they had already embraced the false gods of Egypt even as the one true God was working to secure their freedom. (Joshua 24:14, Ezekiel 20:7-8)

Through the encounters that Moses had with Pharaoh, God showed the whole world that he is the only all powerful God that was superior to the overwhelming number of deities that were worshiped in Egypt. Even Pharaoh was considered to be a god so it's no wonder that he had a difficult time dealing with the truth.

The plagues should have been a wakeup call for everybody, think about it, God announced what would happen, he said precisely when it would start and when it would stop happening and yet they wouldn't acknowledge that he was in control.

Man has been consistent with his rebellion against God from the start of world history. From the Garden of Eden, to the conditions that led to the flood, the Tower of Babel, it just doesn't stop despite all of the proof that points to the real God who is all powerful, all knowing and completely in control of every situation.

Exodus 5:2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the LORD? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.” 

God will soon answer his question but Pharaoh won't accept it, instead of allowing the Israelites to leave with Egypt unharmed, he forces the slaves to stay and causes the destruction of his country and the misery of all of his people. 

At first Pharaoh wasn't impressed because his magicians could counterfeit the real deal but as the plagues continue we see that Satan's counterfeits don't stand a chance. Warren Wiersbe's Old Testament Commentary says that Satan always has inferior counterfeits that he uses to deceive the world:

• Satan counterfeits the works of God (2 Tim. 3:8)
• Satan counterfeits the children of God (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43 / 2 Cor. 11:26)
• Satan counterfeits the gospel (Gal. 1:6-9)
• Satan counterfeits true righteousness (Rom. 10:1-3)
• Satan counterfeits ministers who spread his lies (2 Cor. 11:13-15)
• Satan counterfeits Christ (2 Thess. 2:1-12)

God made it obvious to everyone that the powers of darkness were not powerful enough and they were not in control. After they are free from slavery, Moses encourages God's people to recall the miraculous work that God had accomplished for his chosen people, they have plenty of proof that there is one God that deserves our worship and every other god is a counterfeit.

Deuteronomy 4:32-34  “Now search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before?

33  Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire—as you did—and survived?  34  Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts?

Yet that is what the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes.

What has God done to show you favor? Have you been freed from slavery? If you are not a child of God then you are in bondage to the death penalty that is required to atone for your sin. But thankfully that isn't where God leaves us! The same all powerful God that is your judge is also the provider of your pardon.

Exodus 9:1 This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me.

The day is coming when God's people will be freed from this world of sin to worship him for eternity. Everyone that thought that they were in control of their destiny will be left behind to face God's judgment through the events that Revelation tells us about. God will prove himself to mankind again but just like Pharaoh they will refuse to repent. (Revelation 6:15-17; 9:20,21; 16:9,11)

Thank you Lord for revealing your mighty power to save so that I can know how to escape your mighty power to judge. Help me to give up my throne and submit completely to your control.

American Gospel

Too many want to embrace God's promises after death without obeying him in this life.

1 John 2:4-5  If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.  5  But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.

1 John 3:4-8  Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.  5  And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.  6  Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. 

7  Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.  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.

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American citizens are prone to think of themselves as God's people and future residents of Heaven but way too many of us are not basing their beliefs on what God and Jesus said about the people that will be in Heaven.

The idea that you can know about Jesus and what he did without allowing it to have an affect on how you live is a very American way of viewing the gospel but it is not the gospel that the Bible tells us about. It doesn't take a Bible degree to see the truth that so many are missing.

The fact that so many believe the wrong thing about their eternal future proves that way to many of us haven't examined the Bible to see that their thinking is obviously wrong. The Bible never teaches us to believe without being changed into someone new that looks obviously different from the rest of the world.

Jesus Tells Us:

Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

Matthew 18:3  Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Luke 6:46  “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?

John 14:15  “If you love me, obey my commandments.

John 14:23-24  Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.  Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.

John 15:14  You are my friends if you do what I command.

The First Church Leaders Tell Us:

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.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15  Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

1 Peter 1:13-15 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.

James 4:8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Titus 1:16  Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.

Too many people want to embrace God's promises after death without doing what he told us to do in this life. God has made it clear that his people that love him will also want to please him just like we want to please the people around us that we love.

Too many of us are working to gain all of the pleasures and satisfaction that the world has to offer without considering the end result. We can gain the whole world and enjoy every pleasure that it has to offer but what eternal value does it have?

1 John 2:17  And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

The Bible makes it clear that I am not saved because I live the right way but it is equally clear that if I truly love God and believe in the work of Jesus through his death and resurrection then I will not be able to live a life that displeases God. The character traits of Jesus will gradually become a greater part of who I am.

The Promised Son Needs A Bride

God's servants need to prayerfully find a bride for his son.

Genesis 24:36-40 “When Sarah, my master’s wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master’s son, and my master has given him everything he owns. 37 And my master made me take an oath. He said, ‘Do not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. 38 Go instead to my father’s house, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son.’ 

39 “But I said to my master, ‘What if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to go back with me?’ 40 He responded, ‘The LORD, in whose presence I have lived, will send his angel with you and will make your mission successful. Yes, you must find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

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In the previous post we looked at the concept of foreshadowing, a lot of prophecy and events of the Old Testament are symbolic of events in the life of Jesus or they are pointing us to events when Jesus returns. The symbolism that is seen throughout the Bible helps verify that all of the writers of this book were inspired by God.

It took forever for the promised son to be born but now Isaac is about forty years old, his mom has already died, his dad probably won't live much longer and Isaac still doesn't have a wife. How will Abraham have so many descendants when Isaac doesn't even have a wife? How could this rich bachelor still be single?

The foreshadowing continues in the life of Abraham and Isaac as the father sends his servant to his homeland to get a bride for his son. If we see Isaac as a type of Jesus, then take the next step and look at Rebekah as a type of the church, the bride of Christ. The story of the servant being sent to get the bride suddenly takes on new meaning that God's people need to understand more fully.

The faithful servant has taken an oath to go back to Abraham's family to find a bride without taking Isaac with him. The servant loves the son and wants to make him happy but how can he persuade the lady to willingly come back with him without a photo or a social media profile to show her?

Genesis 24:12 “O LORD, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.

The servant went straight to God, this huge task didn't seem to cause him any worry, he is confident that with God's help he will be successful. The servants prayer was answered quicker than any of my prayers, in fact his prayer time ended as the answer to his prayer walked up to the well. (Genesis 24:15)

The answer to the servants prayer was so obvious, Rebekah was willing to do everything that the servant requested. The servant was eager to tell the potential bride and her family about his master. He shared about the fame, the goodness and the riches of his master so that a longing grew in Rebekah to meet the father and his son. 

Genesis 24:58 So they called Rebekah. “Are you willing to go with this man?” they asked her. And she replied, “Yes, I will go.”

A lot of marriages in those days were forced but the decision to be the bride was left up to Rebekah, the servant was convinced and Rebekah's relatives were also sure, but she was allowed to have the final say.

Ephesians 5:31-32  As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.

Throughout scripture marriage is a metaphor for the relationship of God with his chosen people and for Jesus relationship with the church. Every time the Bible mentions marriage we can find a message from God about our relationship with him.

If you love the father and his son then you will be the faithful servant, you will take the oath to go get a bride for the son, no matter how difficult it may seem. The son is in his home country preparing a place for his bride. He is counting on his faithful servants to fulfill their duty out of love for him.

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The Lord Will Provide A Son

God's promised son is the only sacrifice that can save.

Genesis 22:1-2  Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

Genesis 22:7-8 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” 8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

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It is easy to become overwhelmed with the Old Testament and set it aside and stay in the New Testament. If you avoid Genesis through Malachi and jump into the Bible somewhere in Matthew through Revelation then you miss out on a lot of important information.

Genesis explains to us that in the beginning our world was perfect and it tells us that he is the only one that can fix the problems caused by sin. There are a lot of social justice warriors out there today but they are not very effective because they do not address the heart problem that only God can fix. As soon as we messed it up God told us about his plan to make it all perfect again, that's what the rest of the Bible is trying to reveal to us.

God chose Abraham to be the beginning of a special people that would be the lineage of our savior. Abraham wasn't chosen because he was perfect for the job, over the years Abraham slowly progressed through the school of faith, as he learned more about God his faith would grow and he would trust him more.

This story of God telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is very disturbing from our perspective and we have to wonder how God could make such an extreme request. It seems like mental torture for everybody involved. But we have to realize that in the Old Testament we see God interacting with man very direct and often times he asks very great things of them that we never see in our day. 

In the book of Genesis alone there was Noah, Abram, Isaac and Joseph that all did mighty things for God that he would never ask us to repeat. Since we have never experienced God in such a personal and direct way, it can be very difficult to understand this relationship between God and his people in the Old Testament.

Abraham is asked to go to an undisclosed location, a mountain somewhere in the land of Moriah where he would build yet another altar to sacrifice to God, today we know this place as the area that includes the Temple Mount and the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. Abraham was to go there to offer God the most precious sacrifice. 

Abraham's love and faith in God was put to the ultimate test that reminds me a lot of Job. We will find out whether his blessings were the reason for his obedience or would Abraham be obedient in the most difficult circumstances? God gives us good things but what happens when God wants them back?

Abraham's only verbal response to God was simply "Here I am." The Bible doesn't tell us that he debated with God to try to change his mind and he didn't ask for an explanation. Abraham personally started the task of obeying, he didn't leave it up to a servant to get things ready to go.

After over forty years of following God, he has experienced God and come to know him in a more intimate relationship than anybody that I know of in today's world. That's probably why God made a request that seems so huge to us. Abraham's faith journey brought him into such an intimate, trusting relationship with God that anything short of this extreme request wouldn't really be a true test of his faith. 

Earlier when he didn't trust God, Abraham had Ishmael running around the house as a constant reminder of his lack of faith, if he failed this faith test then he would have Isaac hanging around the house as a painful reminder of his failure, sometimes our sins have long term consequences that we have to live with.

Abraham passed this test, but he wasn't the only one being tested, his only son was old enough that he had to be submissive to God's command in order for it to happen. Isaac could have refused to be involved once he found out that he was the one that his dad intended to put on the altar.

Ancient cultures were killing their children to please their gods but Abraham learned that the only sacrifice that the one true God seeks is a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1-2) God is never pleased with a dead human and it grieves him greatly that we are so willing to rebel by murdering our baby's. 

When he laid himself on the altar, trusting his father and his God, he came of age as the true seed of Abraham and entered on the inheritance, making God his God. At that supreme moment he made himself over to God, he put himself at God’s disposal; if his death was to be helpful in fulfilling God’s purpose he was willing to die. It was God’s will that must be done, not his.

He had familiarized himself with the thought that he belonged to God; that he was on earth for God’s purposes, not for his own; so that now, when he was suddenly summoned to lay himself formally and finally on God’s altar, he did not hesitate to do so.

-Expositors Bible Commentary

This cooperation between father and son are a foreshadow of God the Father and his Son Jesus. The Father was willing to sacrifice his Son but the Son had to be willing to be a part of the plan to save the world.

There are a lot of prophecy's in the Bible that have a dual fulfillment. Abraham's prophecy that God will provide the lamb for the sacrifice was fulfilled that very day but it was also a prediction that would take thousands of years to accomplish.

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!

John 3:16-17 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

The true lamb of God is the promised son that was represented in the foreshadowing of Isaac, God would never have been pleased with the death of Isaac, only a perfect human sacrifice could pay the penalty for man's sin. Since there are not any perfect humans around, Jesus is the only one that could satisfy God's demand for a sacrificial payment for our sin. (Matthew 10:37-39, 1 Peter 1:18-20)

The Lord has provided, just as he promised way back in the book of Genesis, but we have to believe in the provision. We must see how far short we fall from perfection and realize that God kindness in providing the sacrifice for our sin is our only hope of being with him in eternity. (Romans 3:23)

Isaac Was A Foreshadow of Jesus
The miracle birth was prophesied God issues His command—His will—to sacrifice a beloved son The sons accept God’s will The sons carry the wood God provides a substitute Loved ones grieve for three days Faith in the resurrection

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The Good Physician - John Newton

How lost was my condition, Till Jesus made me whole!

How lost was my condition

Till Jesus made me whole!

There is but one physician

Can cure a sin-sick soul

Next door to death he found me,

And snatched me from the grave,

To tell all around me

His wond'rous pow'r to save.

The worst of all diseases

Is light compared with sin;

On ev'ry part it seizes,

But rages most within;

'Tis palsy, plague, and fever,

And madness-all combined;

And none, but a believer,

The least relief can find.

From men, great skill professing,

I sought a cure to gain;

But this proved more distressing,

And added to my pain;

Some said that nothing ailed me,

Some gave me up for lost;

Thus ev'ry refuge failed me,

And all my hopes were crossed.

At length this great Physician,

How matchless is His grace!

Accepted my petition,

And undertook my case;

First, gave me sight to view him,

For sin my eyes had sealed-

Then bit me look unto Him;

I looked, and I was healed.

A dying, risen Jesus,

Seen by the eye of faith,

At once from danger frees us,

And saves the soul from death;

Come, then, to this Physician,

His help he'll freely give,

He makes no hard condition-

To Jesus look and live!

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Healer

By his wounds you are healed.

Video: Healer from Elevation Church

Isaiah 53:1-6 Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?

2 My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.  3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 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.

6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.

In The Beginning

Our most important questions are answered in the Bible.

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

Isaiah 45:18 For the LORD is God, and He created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. "I am the LORD," He says, "and there is no other.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

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There is a lot of fascination these days with the beginning of the family tree, there is a whole new industry that caters to the desire to know more about where you came from, and for a price you can learn about your roots.

The fascination with the beginning of things goes even further back in time. The oldest ancient civilizations had crazy theories about the start of human history. There where all kinds of stories about multiple gods, most of the theories that the ancient cultures had involved chaos, in fact most of their gods spent their time fighting each other.

Some people say that there isn’t any way that they can believe the Genesis account, there isn’t enough scientific evidence to satisfy them. Imagine how overwhelming it would be for the original readers of this book if it gave enough scientific information to satisfy modern man.

Elementary school students can understand more about science than they could back then but there is still so much that we cannot comprehend about God and how he can make something from nothing.

I am thankful that the Bible gives us information that is so much more essential for us to understand, the facts about creation are not as essential as the real message and purpose of God's word.

The Most Important Message Of The Bible

There is a higher power

There is a God that created everything around us without any raw material, without God the raw material wouldn't exist and they would never be able to come together to make such an organized, complex and intelligent end product.

Our existence would be so miserable if mankind were the highest level of intelligence and if everything was just an accident without any purpose. The big bang cannot answer many questions such as:

• Where did the emotions come from? 
• How did humans and the animal kingdom get instincts? 
• How did the laws of physics come about? 
• How could an opposite sex evolve in time for the original creature to reproduce before it died?

The higher power isn't impersonal

If the Bible stopped at just informing us about God and his ability to create then we would be stuck in a very delicate situation. We would have every reason to fear this all powerful force that made all things but God didn't create us and walk away and stay at a distance from us.

Thankfully he chose to relate to us even though he didn't need to have a relationship with us because he doesn't have any unmet needs.

The higher power's most important creation

God didn't make us the same as the rest of creation, if he had then Satan wouldn't have any reason to hate us so much, no other part of creation disgust him the way that mankind does.

Man is dear to God because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it is, the sun cannot think God’s thoughts; can fulfil but cannot intelligently sympathise with God’s purpose. Man, alone among God’s works, can enter into and approve of God’s purpose in the world and can intelligently fulfill it.

-Expositor's Bible Commentary

Rather than speaking us into existence, God's personal touch was used as he made us from the dust and breathed life into us. Since we were born as a direct result of God's creative activity the Bible says that Adam is the son of God. This truth makes evolution impossible. God didn't create us as a lower life form and then evolve us into his masterpiece that would rule over the rest of creation.

The higher power we need

God made us special with desires that only he can fulfill, there isn't any other source of peace and joy that can fulfill and satisfy our intellectual desires, our desire for purpose and our desire to worship. The qualities that separate us from the rest of creation would be the cause of great distress if God didn't reveal himself and minister to our needs.

There are four fundamental questions of life. You've asked them, I've asked them, every thinking person asks them. They boil down to this: origin, meaning, morality and destiny. 'How did I come into being? What brings life meaning? How do I know right from wrong? Where am I headed after I die?'

-Ravi Zacharias

None of the other theories of the beginning of the world and our relationship with the creator can give a satisfactory answer to those questions. Only in God's story that he has graciously revealed to us can we find purpose, hope and meaning for this life and for eternity.

Thankfully God didn't just put "in the beginning" in the Bible but he also included what would be at the ending. He revealed to us our position before sin, the effects of our sin, and he told us how we can overcome our sin so that we can spend eternity with him.

Revelation 21:1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them.

As glorious as the first creation is, after only seven days of work, it is nothing compared to what we will see after all of the preparations that have been going on for thousands of years.

Are you ready for the end of the story? Do you have an adequate answer for the four fundamental questions of life?

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Quit Making The Bible About You

His name isn't mentioned in the Old Testament but it is all about Jesus.

Video: What The Bible Is Basically About

Hebrews 1:1-3 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, He has spoken to us through His Son.

God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son He created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and He sustains everything by the mighty power of His command.

When He had cleansed us from our sins, He sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

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The Bible is God's story revealing himself to us so that he can know him. Thankfully God's desire is to be known, from the beginning in the garden he revealed himself when he could have stayed obscure and mysterious if he had wanted, but that would be incredibly sad for us.

God inspired men to write his story and protect it from evil forces that would love to destroy it. Think about how many thousands of years old the earliest scrolls are and how many opportunities Satan has had to get rid of it, there were evil kings that ruled Israel without any fear of God and there were the kings of other countries that invaded Israel, Satan would have loved for those ancient manuscripts to be gone.

The Bible is God's love story and Jesus is the main focus of the story, from Genesis to Revelation, because he is the greatest display of God's love. I found two extensive list online of the ways that Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament and how Jesus is portrayed in each book of the Old Testament:

It all starts with Adam, God created Adam perfect without sin, just as Jesus is without sin, but Adam sinned, and through him sin entered the world. God tells Adam and Eve someday their great-great-great-great…. grandson will save the world from sin.  He will crush the snake, and death will be conquered.

Abel showed us Jesus because he died blameless for someone else’s sin, just as Jesus died blameless for our sins.  But Abel’s death cannot save us.

God sent Abraham away from a loving father into a dark world to act as a light to the rest of the world.  God sent Jesus to act as a light to a dark and sinful world to show them the way back to God.

Isaac was a willing sacrifice on that altar, fully believing his father that all would be well.  Jesus was a willing sacrifice for us on the cross, knowing His death paid the price once and for all for our sins.

Jacob shows us how far God will go to pursue a lost sheep.  Just like the story of the prodigal son, Jacob was brought home to God.

Because of the sins of his brothers Joseph was handed over into slavery, but because of their actions Joseph was able to save his family in Egypt.  Jesus was handed over to death by lies and half truths, but because of his death and resurrection we are saved from sin.

In Exodus we find the story of the Passover Lamb, and Christ is the sacrificial Lamb given for us.

Moses was called out of 40 years of wilderness to lead his people to freedom from slavery to Egypt.  Jesus was called out of 40 days of wilderness to lead his people into freedom from slavery to sin.

In Leviticus we read of the high priests making sacrifices for the people, and Christ has become our High Priest, making the perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins.

In Deuteronomy Moses prophesied of a prophet who would come that would be greater than Himself. Jesus is that Great Prophet.

In the book of Joshua, Joshua met the Captain of the Lord's host. That man is Jesus Christ.

In Judges, the leaders were judges who delivered God's people, each of them typifying the Lord Jesus.

Ruth was rescued from poverty by her bridegroom Boaz.  The church was rescued from their poverty of sin by its bridegroom Jesus.

Samson shows the folly of trying to do it all yourself.  We can do many of the right things, but without the light of the world we cannot truly follow God.

In 2 Samuel when the king is being enthroned, the entire scene is descriptive of the Lord Jesus.

The books of Kings speak of the glory of God filling the temple and the Chronicles describe the glorious coming king, both referring to Jesus, the King of Kings.

Saul looked like the perfect king.  He was handsome, he was tall, he was strong, but he did not follow God and ultimately was a weak king because of it.  Jesus did not look like a king, he was common, he was a carpenter, but he is the True King.

A true king, one that pursued God and loved him with all his heart, king David pointed his people to God.  Jesus was both man and God and lived a perfect life. Jesus is the perfect king of all.

Solomon shows us the folly of a church not daily relying on God.  He followed God for a while, but his house was built on his own wisdom, not God’s and at the end of his reign it was washed away.

Ezra depicts Jesus as the Lord of our fathers. Job says clearly that the Redeemer is coming! Esther offers a picture of Christ interceding for His people. Christ appears time after time in the Psalms, including when David describes Him as "the Shepherd."

All the kings of Northern Israel show us what life without God is like.  It’s painful, there are lies, murder, blasphemy, and more hurt.  In the end a world without God falls, and the kingdom of Israel fell.

Hezekiah became king after many who had not followed God.  He wanted to bring Israel back to God, and did.  Jesus wanted to bring Israel back to God, and there were many Pharisees telling him it could not be done.  But ultimately Jesus brought the world to God.

Jonah ran from God, which Jesus never did, but then Jonah sat in the belly of a big fish for 3 days, and preached the words of redemption just like Jesus.  Jesus was dead and in a grave for 3 days, and resurrected to preach the words of life to the world.

Isaiah was given a vision of heaven and what Jesus will come to do.  He tells of Jesus birth, and his eventual death and resurrection.

God called Hosea to love and marry a woman who did not love him, he stayed a faithful bridegroom, though his bride was not faithful.  Jesus too has married a faithless wife, the church.  Though we wander far from His love at times, Jesus will always stay faithful.

Josiah became king as a young boy.  He followed God from a young age, just as Jesus showed us in Luke that He followed hard after God from a young age.

In Daniel we see Jesus ruling and triumphant.  We do not see Jesus the sacrificial lamb, we see Jesus coming at the end to punish and to reward.  He rules eternal and forever.

Jeremiah the weeping prophet shows us a Jesus who cries for the world’s sins.  Jeremiah cries for the fate of Jerusalem, a city he loves and knows will be destroyed.  Jesus hundreds of years later cries for Jerusalem as He looks at a city caught in sin and bound for judgment if they do not repent.

Ezekiel gave us Jesus’ favorite title, the Son of Man.  Over and over God calls Ezekiel “Son of Man,” and Jesus called himself “Son of Man.”

Joel describes Him as the Hope of His people. Amos tells us that Jesus is the judge of all nations. Obadiah warns of the coming eternal kingdom.

Jonah offers a picture of Jesus being dead for three days, then coming back to life to preach repentance.

Zephaniah says that He will be the king over Israel. Zachariah is the prophet who speaks of Jesus riding on a colt. Malachi is the one who calls Him the Son of Righteousness.

Without the Bible we would have no hope of really knowing God, he would be a distant and mysterious being, thanks to scripture we have a lot of information about God and his character. Without the Bible we would not know that our lives have meaning and purpose much greater than ourselves. We would not know love or the reality of eternal life.

Now that there are so many copies of the Bible and it has been copied into so many languages, instead of destroying the Bible, Satan's new strategy is to get us to neglect reading it and to doubt it's message when we do read it.

Satan will ask you, "Did God really say that?" We need to be "digging the word" so that we will know for sure what God said.

Thank you Lord for protecting your story and allowing us to read it and learn about you. I don't want to neglect Bible study because it is the best revelation of who you are and why I am here.

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Our Conqueror Will Rule

Satan defeated, unbelievers judged, God's kingdom come.

Revelation 20:10-15 Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

11 And I saw a great white throne and the One sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.

14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them.

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In the daily grind and weariness of life it may seem that our prayers are never going to be answered, it seems that "thy kingdom come" is never going to happen. Because of the delay there are many people that have given up on his second coming. They fail to realize that the Bible proves over and over again that God's timetable moves very slowly and it isn't a sign that his promises will not come true.

We don't like delay anymore than God's children in the Bible. Noah thought the first ever boat would never be completed, Abraham thought that he would never have an heir, God's children thought that they would never stop being ruled by various world leaders.

It is easy to think that God is late and his second coming will never happen. Jesus will return and stop the plans of Satan, the people of Satan's kingdom will be judged and the children of God's kingdom will finally be satisfied forever.

For every time the first coming of Christ is mentioned, the Second Coming is mentioned eight times. And the Lord Himself refers to His coming twenty-one times and over 50 times we are exhorted to be ready for that great event. 

-John MacArthur

This event is so important that scripture makes it clear that we can trust God to come through on the Bible's promises about the second coming. The first coming miraculously fulfilled hundreds of prophecies so we can have confidence that the second coming which is predicted much more often than the first is sure to take place.

Jesus will begin his rule by defeating all of the opposition to his kingdom. 

World leaders will fight “against the Lord and against His anointed” but they will all be defeated. Their weapons prove to be worthless against the sword of the Lord. God created by speaking and it instantly happened and by the sword of his mouth his enemies will be defeated. (Psalm 2:1-3, Hebrews 4:12)

The beast, the false prophet and Satan are all doomed, first the beast and false prophet are cast into hell, then after the thousand year millennial reign Satan will follow them to the same fate. (Revelation 20:10)

The next defeat will happen to all those whose names are not recorded in the Book of Life. The sad reality of everyone that loved their life on earth too much to be concerned about what would happen in the next life. At the great white throne, there will be a Judge but no jury, a prosecution but no defense, a sentence but no appeal. God's answer will be final! (John 12:25, Revelation 20:15)

The prayers of God's children throughout the ages will finally be answered. The longing for "they kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" will be fulfilled! All of the earthly kingdoms, no matter how good some of them are, will all be gone.

Jesus has told us how to avoid defeat as a citizen of his kingdom.

You don't have to go down in defeat. if you make the wise choice and you are ready for the king that is coming then you will be a citizen of the new kingdom with the only perfect king. There will not be any illegal immigration into God's kingdom.

The Bible is the story of God restoring the kingdom that was lost back when God walked with man in the Garden of Eden. The story continued as God abides with Israel in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Jesus came to earth and “tabernacled” among us and now lives within us. At the end of time the kingdom will be fully restored and God's children will take their place in this better country that they have been longing to see. (John 1:14 / Hebrews 11:16 /1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

When we enter the kingdom we will enjoy God's presence even more fully than Adam and Eve did in the garden. We will finally be home enjoying the presence of our father.

Are you a friend of the conqueror? You can find peace with God.

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Our Conqueror Will Return (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)