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Category: Joshua – Esther – Old Testament History

Old Testament History lessons: Joshua – Job

scriptures from Old Testament history. (Many lessons for a 21st c. world.) SHARE history’s lessons with your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ who think the TV News is ‘new.’ What is your WITNESS for Christ Jesus?

WE Have Been Here Before – Expectant
An Expectant Gift Premature

Our anticipation of Christmas each year points more toward the expectant gift than the expected Messiah. The world rushes about all around us, no prophet has been heard from for centuries and evil prevails in the palaces of power.

We tell the child to play this game and ignore that evil. You deserve fantasies of falsehood and the best gifts of nature. I will get it now even months before your time, so that you may have the riches you deserve.

This time anticipating the holidays (of Christmas) even more than every day is a time of the expectant child hoping for the best diversions the life of busy parents can offer. Yet what of the expectant mother?

Pregnant with an Unexpected Child

When honor of men and respect of women mattered, when life itself and the vastness of the heavens and earth filled man’s heart with awe, and when a child was to be born to a daughter of dust — we awaited the time of her miracle, the birth of the unexpected child.

Though we did not know when, all certainly knew why and the inevitable outcome of one more created small being was never a choice. Praise God and honor the father, husband to this expectant mother. May the LORD grant this beloved expectant mother a quick and natural completion to this miracle of new life.

Unexpectant Pregnancies Forgotten

Birth is always a miracle. Yet what of the out-of-the-ordinary births of the sons of man to women of little importance? What of the children of these expectant mothers none thought of any significance?

Elizabeth

After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and kept herself in seclusion for five months. She said, “The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people.”
The Gospel of Luke 1:24-25

39 In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah 40 where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit…

57 Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she had a son. 58 Then her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her his great mercy, and they rejoiced with her…

… “His name is John.” And they were all amazed.

Hannah

We do not hear much about Hannah preached, probably due to our sensitivity to the political and social correctness of this day. Hannah, however, was favored by the Lord and also her husband as we shall see.

1 Samuel 1:

[Elkanah] son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite… had two wives, the first named Hannah and the second … had children, but Hannah was childless.

Like all genealogies, including that of Jesus, history emphasises the man. This history of Hannah (one of two wives) once again connects to the favor of a woman, a humble and loving woman like Mary mother of Jesus.

4 Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice [to the Lord of Hosts], he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters. 5 But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even though the Lord had kept her from conceiving.

The Expectant Father

Every man becomes an expectant father the moment he loves the woman of his desire, yet he hopes to have won her heart forever.

A child is the blessing of the mother, but the nobility of the father.
Roger Harned

⁸“Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah would ask. “Why won’t you eat? Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

10 Deeply hurt, Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many tears. 11 Making a vow, she pleaded, “Lord of Armies, if you will take notice of your servant’s affliction, remember and not forget me, and give your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life…

17 Eli [the High Priest and Judge of Israel, a descendant of Aaron whose name means “ascension” ] responded,

“Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request you’ve made of him.”

Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 After some time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, because she said, “I requested him from the Lord.”

Hannah’s Prayer

Hannah prayed:
My heart rejoices in the Lord;
my horn is lifted up by the Lord.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
because I rejoice in your salvation.
There is no one holy like the Lord.
There is no one besides you!
And there is no rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:1-2

3 The boy Samuel served the Lord in Eli’s presence. In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

Sampson’s story

Like Samuel the Priest who anointed Saul and David, we also know the hero of an earlier story and his genealogy. Again, a humble woman of the Lord waits for the Lord’s blessing.

This too is a story of patience for a couple possibly expectant of the Lord doing great things through their faith. And the name of Manoah’s humble and faithful wife is not even recorded here.

Judges 13:

The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight…

2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are unable to conceive and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son…

6 Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring angel of God. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son…

Manoah Worships The Angel of the Lord

… and the angel of God came again… 10 The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me the other day has just come back!”

11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”

“I am,” he said…

13 The angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “Your wife needs to do everything I told her…

15 “Please stay here,” Manoah told him, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

… (Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord.)

The Angel of the Lord

פלאיה דַעַת מִמֶּנִּי נִשְׂגְּבָה לֹא־אוּכַֽל לָֽהּ׃
Tehillim (Psalms) 139:6 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

17 Then Manoah said to him, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”

“Why do you ask my name,” the angel of the Lord asked him, “since it is beyond understanding.”
Judges 13:18

19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord, who did something miraculous while Manoah and his wife were watching.

20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the Lord went up in its flame.

When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown on the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

22 “We’re certainly going to die,” he said to his wife, “because we have seen God!”

23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had intended to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and he would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us like this.”

24 So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 Then the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him…

The Wives of Abram

Here too is a controversial conversation concerning the Lord’s promise to a man with two wives. (Therefore, we seldom mention that part of Abraham’s story.) Though the expectant father Abraham received the promise of the Lord, he had to wait for its fulfillment.

Each segment of Abraham’s journey of faith becomes partial fulfillment of the the Lord’s promises fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

Genesis 15:

Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אַבְרָ֔ם הֵ֣ן לִ֔י לֹ֥א נָתַ֖תָּה זָ֑רַע וְהִנֵּ֥ה בֶן־בֵּיתִ֖י יֹורֵ֥שׁ אֹתִֽי׃
Genesis 15:3 Masoretic text

6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 16:

וְשָׂרַי֙ אֵ֣שֶׁת אַבְרָ֔ם לֹ֥א יָלְדָ֖ה לֹ֑ו וְלָ֛הּ שִׁפְחָ֥ה מִצְרִ֖ית וּשְׁמָ֥הּ הָגָֽר׃

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived…

Hagar the maid of Sarai, also a wife to Abram, despises Sarai. Abram continues to allow his wife Sarai to rule over his other wife Hagar the Egyptian her maidservant. Hagar flees their household and provision.

Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
Genesis 16:7 NASB – with additional links to ‘mal’ak’ ‘Yĕhovah’

8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” …

9 Then the angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority… I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count… Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael…”

Hagar: expectant of a child troublesome to some even until this day.

Eve – Mother of Man

וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה אִשְׁתֹּ֑ו וַתַּ֨הַר֙ וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־קַ֔יִן וַתֹּ֕אמֶר קָנִ֥יתִי אִ֖ישׁ אֶת־יְהוָֽה׃
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.”
Genesis 4:1 WLC; NASB

One cannot fully approach the topic of birth and the expectant mother without some discussion of the first woman. Once again we cannot take time here to examine man and woman and child closely.

Nevertheless we should look at the Person of the Lord in Moses’ narrative of creation.

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Genesis 2:18 NKJV

Genesis 3:

Adam and Eve were not blind, for they saw the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before that their relationship with the Lord was a personal one with a God who walked and talked with them.

Just one command, but like all mankind since they were enticed by the sin of disobedience to the Lord.

8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

“Where are you?”

“I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

“What is this you have done?”

Sin’s Imagination Beguiled Me

“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Her husband also ate and blamed her, while Eve explains that the image of Satan (the serpent) beguiled (KJV) her.

Are you and I so different when we sin?

We know and will not dwell on the curses of sin.

21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Then the LORD God said,
“Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.
Genesis 3:22a NKJV

And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

An Expectation of Blessing

Surely the Lord God will do good and has a plan. So should we not expect His mercy to right the wrongs of the past?

The Person of the Lord God touches lives of the faithful, expectant worshipers of God’s own promises. And we know that the Lord has been here – on earth, that is, in Person. Also note this from the Lord’s last conversation in Eden: “Behold, the man has become like one of Us.”

The Lord God, therefore, IS plural. The LORD IS ONE GOD, yet plural in Persons and His mysterious nature beyond our knowledge.

LOOK – behold – we have seen the Lord, for He has been here before. Surely the Lord will return as He said.
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The continued story is that of Christmas
the awaited birth of the Messiah Jesus.
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December 24, 2019
Josiah – a Good King also Dies
We recently observed one of the falls of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah. Now we look further back in time to the king who almost restored Israel before its fall, King Josiah of Judah.

Scripture summarizes the reins of so many kings, ‘He did evil in the sight of the Lord,’ but Josiah was not one of these.

Looking back

As our dreams die with a leader in whom we had placed our hope we ask, ‘where did we go wrong?’

It would be easy enough to place blame on one administration as we so often accuse, but in fact we cause failure by our own disobedience in every generation. Many who take credit for success have no right to defer blame for failure. Nevertheless, let’s take a quick look at a few kings of Judah.

Fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC

“For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence.”
2 Kings 24:20

Jerusalem was under siege for many long months as the food ran out and disease and starvation spread throughout the city. On July 10, 586 B.C. The Babylonian forces of king Nebuchadnezzar broke through the northern wall of Jerusalem.

The fall of Israel and Judah began with their division at Solomon’s death many years earlier. Many kings did evil, yet listen to this high praise for King Hezekiah of Judah, a predecessor of Josiah.

Hezekiah

2 Kings 18:

Hezekiah relied on the LORD God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
2 Kings 18:5 CSB

The Book of Kings was written after the Beginning of the Captivity in Babylon Observe also the historical view of Israel, compared to Hezekiah’s leading of Judah as the author records events of both kingdoms.

Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria… (early 700’s B.C.)

9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Samaria and besieged it.

Three years later Shalmaneser captured Samaria.

11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria… 12 because they did not listen to the LORD their God but violated his covenant — all he had commanded Moses the servant of the LORD. They did not listen, and they did not obey.

Not so unlike the later deportation of the residents of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon.

Hezekiah reigned over Judah for nearly three decades as a good King. Except for sixteen years under his immediate predecessor, Ahaz, Judah had prospered under good kings for nearly two centuries.

This would not be the case for Josiah’s two predecessors, who succeeded Hezekiah and did evil in the sight of the Lord for fifty-seven years.

Josiah

We turn now not only to Josiah, a king of Judah who did many good things, but also to the perspective of the Chronicles, written after the Return from Babylon and Persia. You may read a similar account of Josiah’s reign beginning in 2 Kings 22.

The common people killed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
2Chr 33:25

2 Chronicles 34

… He did what was right in the Lord’s sight and walked in the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left.

… and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places… 6 He did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali… 8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, in order to cleanse the land and the temple, Josiah sent [officials] to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

… the priest Hilkiah found the book of the law of the Lord written by the hand of Moses.

15 Consequently, Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, “I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s temple,” and he gave the book to Shaphan. 16 Shaphan took the book to the king…

This significant event, result of Josiah’s desire to restore the Temple, shows us at least two important facts. The Torah in the Temple was preserved in the hand of Moses. And secondly, the Law of Moses had not been read or observed in previous administrations of kings who did evil in the sight of the LORD.

National Repentance

19 When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.

Josiah demonstrates leadership in bowing down to the Lord, by repenting on behalf of Judah and Israel for their continual disobedience to the Lord God. He had not intentionally sinned, but the Law had no longer governed the actions of the governed.

21 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that was found.

For great is the Lord’s wrath that is poured out on us because our ancestors have not kept the word of the Lord in order to do everything written in this book.”
2 Chronicles 34:21b

Do our national leaders consider the wrath of the Lord when our laws overturn God’s rule?

Consequence to disobedience

Josiah had done good, but it was not enough to save his nation from punishment. The Law of the Lord and its punishment would prevail.

24 ‘This is what the Lord says:

I am about to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, fulfilling all the curses written in the book that they read in the presence of the king of Judah, 25 because they have abandoned me…

26 Say this to the king of Judah [Josiah] who sent you to inquire of the Lord: ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says:

As for the words that you heard, 27 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before me, and you tore your clothes and wept before me, I myself have heard’—this is the Lord’s declaration. 28 ‘I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace.

Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place and on its inhabitants.’”

The Lord’s Covenant Confirmed

Josiah, knowing that Jerusalem will fall in a later generation, reaffirms the people’s oath to the Lord and His Law.

He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple. 31 Then the king stood at his post and made a covenant in the Lord’s presence to follow the Lord and to keep his commands, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul in order to carry out the words of the covenant written in this book.

פֶּסַח

peçach, peh’-sakh, passover

35 וַיַּ֨עַשׂ יֹאשִׁיָּ֧הוּ בִֽירוּשָׁלִַ֛ם פֶּ֖סַח לַיהוָ֑ה וַיִּשְׁחֲט֣וּ הַפֶּ֔סַח בְּאַרְבָּעָ֥ה עָשָׂ֖ר לַחֹ֥דֶשׁ הָרִאשֽׁוֹן׃

Josiah observed the Lord’s Passover and slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 Chronicles 35:1 CSB [Hebrew text of WLC above]

According to definition of peçach or passover from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon: “a sparing, immunity from penalty and calamity, hence —

(1) a sacrifice offered on account of the sparing of the people, the pascal lamb, of which it is said, “this is the sacrifice of sparing unto Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians. Hence, to kill the pascal lamb… to eat the passover… to prepare the sacrifice of passover.

(2) the day of the passover the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, which was followed by seven days of the feast of the unleavened bread

Josiah offers a passover lamb to the Lord.

Spare us from the penalty we deserve. Accept our sacrifice as immunity from this penalty and calamity which is to come upon us.

11 וַֽיִּשְׁחֲט֖וּ הַפָּ֑סַח וַיִּזְרְק֤וּ הַכֹּהֲנִים֙ מִיָּדָ֔ם וְהַלְוִיִּ֖ם מַפְשִׁיטִֽים׃

11 Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs, and while the Levites were skinning the animals, the priests splattered the blood they had been given.

Josiah Killed

Will the Lord spare you? (For you have trespassed his Law.)

Though Josiah reformed Judah and a faithful remnant of Israel, he died as victim of a battle with an enemy.

It was about 610 years Before Christ, two dozen years before the fall of Jerusalem and nearly a century before the rebuilding of the second Temple by Zerubbabel and others.

2 Chronicles 35:20-27

20 After all this that Josiah had prepared for the temple, King Neco of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.

21 But Neco sent messengers to him, saying,

“What is the issue between you and me, king of Judah? I have not come against you today but I am fighting another dynasty…

Jerusalem, Judah and Israel lie between the powers of the African continent to the south and west, and Asia to the north and east. Their kings could be either strategic allies or become annexed as subjugated states.

King Josiah goes out to fight, realizing the potential threat of the powerful king of Egypt. Judah certainly would not want to be once again enslaved by the powerful Egyptians. Yet hear King Neco’s plea not to oppose him against the powerful Assyrians.

“… God told me to hurry. Stop opposing God who is with me; don’t make him destroy you!”

22 But Josiah did not turn away from him; instead, in order to fight with him he disguised himself.

To be clear, the Egyptian King is invoking the Name of ‘elohiym. אֱלֹהִים

Josiah, rather than leading his troops against Neco, disguises himself as an ordinary battlefield soldier.

He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to the Valley of Megiddo to fight. 23 The archers shot King Josiah…

An Ordinary Death

24 So his servants took him out of the war chariot, carried him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he died, and they buried him in the tomb of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

2Ki 22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem… 3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent the court secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the LORD’s temple… When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes… 2Ki 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the LORD’s Passover was observed in Jerusalem.

From Megiddo his servants carried his dead body in a chariot, brought him into Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.
2Ki 23:30

Josiah was killed in battle at the age of about thirty-eight or thirty-nine, about six hundred years Before Christ. Jerusalem and Judah would fall in defeat just a generation later than Josiah and again just two generations after Christ.

A not so ordinary passover

“…this is the sacrifice of sparing unto Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians.

Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
Luke 23:8 CSB

“You’re not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”
Caiaphas, HIgh Priest of Israel

In our next look at the Passover we will examine the Pascal Lamb, sacrificed for us.
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To be continued... [Festival of the Passover]
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April 12, 2019
That you may have Certainty – 5 – A King of the Jews

King of the Jews

Herodian coin from Judea with palm branch (right) and wreath (left), 34 AD.

And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” – Luke 23:3

They had remembered hearing the indictment of this gentile governor

while hiding their faces from his Roman judgment seat. Although complicit in Jesus’ prosecution, an illegitimate half-jew Herodian sat powerless while Roman troops ruled the streets of Jerusalem.

While Jesus was not the kind of Messiah King they had expected, He did acknowledge the title bestowed by Jews accusing Jesus of treason against Judah and Rome.

Most amazingly, Jesus has now appeared to these disciples after His resurrection! He continues to appear to hundreds of disciples; here and there, even in the locked rooms of Jerusalem.

Herod’s rule as tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, holds no authority over Judea, ruled by Marcus Pontius Pilatus, Roman prefect (governor) under the emperor Tiberius.

Captive Israel, now named Judea, Samaria, Galilee and Perea had no king, only legions of Rome. Most people lamented for the days of their strong kings, David and Solomon. Occasionally some rebelled against Rome, led by misguided ambitious young lions in hope of glory.

Judge or King?

From the day Israel crossed the Jordan its people encountered many kings of surrounding kingdoms. The Hebrew people had followed the Lord, but judges would become unable to rule this stiff-necked and proud people.

1 Samuel 7:

15 Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. 16 And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places. 17 Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the Lord.

1 Samuel 8:

“… Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

More than a thousand years before Pilate judged Judea, here marks the beginning of kings of the Jews. Samuel was no more inclined to accept a king of the Jews than the Roman governor Pilate.

6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel,

“Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

A King to rule over Israel

A risen Christ Jesus must have reminded disciples of the Lord’s anointing of their kings. Its truth had not been as their traditions recalled, but rather a concession to the desires of their forefathers.

1 Samuel 9:

… “Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.” …

5 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” 17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.”

A Humble King and Triumphant Return

What was it worshipers near Jerusalem had sung while laying palm branches before Jesus?

“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Psalm 2:6-9

It had been a week of anointing for the King of the Jews.

The Cross had not been the anticipated breaking of Israel’s oppressors, but the Lord’s embracing forgiveness for mankind.

And now with a resurrection begins the ascent to His Kingdom of righteousness and everlasting reign. Jesus certainly must have repeated stories of the kings and predictions of the Prophets. For the Gospels retell those very scriptures.

His disciples hear their beloved friend, the risen Messiah, tell why He had to be crucified on a cross and sacrificed for our sins.

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Come, Lord Jesus.

To be continued…

May 2, 2018