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Tag: Christ

  • WE Have Been Here Before – Prophecies

    WE Have Been Here Before – Prophecies

    Prophecies of Christ’s Birth

    We have been here before in scripture. You likely know Bethlehem from the New Testament, yet this little town’s importance derives from prophecies in the Old Testament. The Messiah is predicted in prophecies of Isaiah, who we met previously and also Micah of Moresheth-Gath.

    Bethlehem

    map of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem

    ‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH,
    ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH;
    FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER
    WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’” – Matthew 2:6

    (‘ephrath; Ephratha)

    The Good News of Matthew quotes the prophecy of Micah 5:2.

    Luke tells us why Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the Roman Census commanded by Caesar Augustus.

    Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

    Luke 2:4-5 NKJV

    You may have to register for a #census2020. Rome was not so accommodating as to come to you, but ordered citizens to go to the home of your birth. Rome accounted for every captive local and taxed each and every one of them regardless of where they lived.

    Matthew records this lineage of Joseph from David. Bethlehem becomes his town of registration because of David.

    Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse…

    1 Samuel 17:12a NASB

    Listen, House of David

    Therefore, Jesus is born of the house of David rooted in Bethlehem. Mary and Jesus are also registered as Joseph’s family of the lineage of David. As we learn later even wise men come to this place of the Lord’s birth due to the prophesies of the Old Testament.

    More than 700 years Before Christ Ahaz would become a vassal king subjected to Assyria, just as Herod was subjected to the rule of Caesar Augustus. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah even in this time centuries before the Messiah Jesus.

    13 Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God? 14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign:

    See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

    Isaiah 7 excerpt CSB, WLC

    14 לָ֠כֵן יִתֵּ֨ן אֲדֹנָ֥י ה֛וּא לָכֶ֖ם א֑וֹת הִנֵּ֣ה הָעַלְמָ֗ה הָרָה֙ וְיֹלֶ֣דֶת בֵּ֔ן וְקָרָ֥את שְׁמ֖וֹ עִמָּ֥נוּ אֵֽל׃

    The wise men from the east in generations past understood these prophesies. Isaiah answered Ahaz not in the singular, but in the plural for the descendant house of David. Almost literally the LORD prophesies through Isaiah “the woman pregnant with the Son named [‘el] [`Immanuw’el].

    Prophecies of the Messiah

    עִמָּנוּאֵל

    Immanuel = “God with us” or “with us is God”

    symbolic and prophetic name of the Messiah, the Christ, prophesying that He would be born of a virgin and would be ‘God with us’

    And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

    Isaiah 8:8 KJV

    We will speak more of the context of this when we continue, God-willing, but first let’s return to the prophesy of Micah of Moresheth-Gath.

    Coming Judgment on Israel

    5 וְאַתָּ֞ה בֵּֽית־לֶ֣חֶם אֶפְרָ֗תָה צָעִיר֙ לִֽהְיוֹת֙ בְּאַלְפֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה מִמְּךָ֙ לִ֣י יֵצֵ֔א לִֽהְי֥וֹת מוֹשֵׁ֖ל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וּמוֹצָאֹתָ֥יו מִקֶּ֖דֶם מִימֵ֥י עוֹלָֽם׃

    2 לָכֵ֣ן יִתְּנֵ֔ם עַד־עֵ֥ת יוֹלֵדָ֖ה יָלָ֑דָה וְיֶ֣תֶר אֶחָ֔יו יְשׁוּב֖וּן עַל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

    מיכה 5 The Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

    Micah 1 (CSB)

    1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Moreshite—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

    2 Listen, all you peoples;
    pay attention, earth and everyone in it!

    The Lord God will be a witness against you,
    the Lord, from his holy temple.
    3 Look, the Lord is leaving his place
    and coming down to trample
    the heights of the earth.
    4 The mountains will melt beneath him,
    and the valleys will split apart,
    like wax near a fire,
    like water cascading down a mountainside.
    5 All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
    and the sins of the house of Israel.

    Micah 5: (NASB)

    Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;
    They have laid siege against us;

    With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.
    2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
    From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.

    His goings forth are from long ago,
    From the days of eternity.”

    3 Therefore He will give them up until the time
    When she who is in labor has borne a child.

    Then the remainder of His brethren
    Will return to the sons of Israel.

    4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock
    In the strength of the Lord,
    In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.    ..

    Much prophetic voice here about Jesus the Messiah born in Bethlehem to a trial of the Son of Man in Jerusalem.

    Micah foresees and explains the Lord giving up on Israel until the Messiah’s return! The prophecies of Isaiah and Micah speak not only to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, but beyond to a day yet unseen.

    8 The remnant of Jacob
    Will be among the nations,
    Among many peoples…

    10 “It will be in that day,” declares the Lord…
    “I will also cut off the cities of your land
    And tear down all your fortifications…

     וְעָשִׂ֜יתִי בְּאַ֧ף וּבְחֵמָ֛ה נָקָ֖ם אֶת־הַגֹּויִ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר לֹ֥א שָׁמֵֽעוּ׃ ס

    “And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath
    On the nations which have not obeyed.”

    Micah 5:15
    To be continued...

  • The Tongue is a Fire! – Religion

    The Tongue is a Fire! – Religion

    The Fire of the Tongue, the Rhetoric of Politics and Religion

    In our previous look at public controversy in the media we began with the clash of politics, mentioning the trial of Socrates in 399 B.C. Today we begin coverage of the clashes of religion and the church with everyday culture.

    For, “THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,
    MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.

    First Letter of Peter to the Church 3:10 NASB

    Without digging a hole into some serious divisions of the church in our brief look at this opening quote of the Apostle Peter to the church, let me just remind us:

    Political parties and the church are all gatherings of disagreeable people more or less united in one thing.

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

    Can you think of an application for followers of Christ in current election rhetoric for the (U.S.) election year to come?

    The church (saints or people) of this day and the past are all like you, like me and just like every candidate of every party in every country on earth. We are ALL SINNERS.

    Therefore, regardless of our politics of the moment or religion of the past, we all speak and do evil.

    The Tongue of the ‘Christian’

    But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

    Caution of Christ – Matthew 5:22 NASB

    Jesus Christ asks the crowds to examine our own hearts. So before we get to the controversy of Christ, let’s work back from Peter’s last point in this one verse [1 Peter 3:10] instructing “Christians.”

    Peter asks or suggests to followers of Jesus:

    1. If you desire LIFE, what is life?
    2. Do you desire LOVE, what kind of love?
    3. So you want to SEE GOOD DAYS, what path do you seek?
    4. Do you KEEP YOUR TONGUE FROM EVIL?
    5. Would others find you guilty of SPEAKING DECEIT because you have fooled yourself?

    Do you speak foolishness in angry answers to others – your loved ones, those you work or worship with, a politician inciting opposition?

    How can you judge their speech when you do not even judge your own?

    The root meaning of deceit here is to decoy. In other words, deceive another by your words. Of course no politician would do that!

    But Jesus speaks to those who want to speak truth. When we do not, like the politicians and leaders of cultural religion we also become hypocrites, as are our accusers.

    Hypocrites

    Their audience is US.

    ὑποκριτής, ὑποκριτου, ὁ (ὑποκρίνομαι, which see);

    1. one who answers, an interpreter (Plato, Lucian).
    2. an actor, stage-player (Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Aelian, Herodian).
    3. in Biblical Greek, a dissembler, pretender, hypocrite:

    Followers of Christ must look in the mirror first.

    If you catch yourself speaking deceit you had best shut your mouth and seal your lips. (Nevermind the hypocrisy of your opponent, just find the beam in your own eye and fire of your own tongue.)

    The tongue of Evil

    The tongue of evil could be our own!

    Paul writes to church of the Romans:

    as it is written,
    “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

    Romans 3:13

    He continues in speaking of Jews and Hellenistic culturists (Greeks):

    THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
    THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.

    “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
    WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”
    “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;

    “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”…

    “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

    Could this be a political treatise against Christians, Jews, Muslims, and ANY claiming God without love on their lips even in this day?

    Like Peter, Paul also shows why politics and religion mix in a murky cloud of hypocrisy.

    How do you seek GOOD DAYS?

    What is the platform of your faith? Your religion? Traditions? Good deeds?

    Your works of goodness certainly can not sway the politics of a fallen world or misled nation.

    Do you seek an honest path to righteousness? It would be a religion of works and false morality, a religion of philanthropic leading in your own ideals.

    … and I’m NOT going to take it anymore!

    Do any recall our ‘must elect my candidate’ arguments of religion for the 2016 election?

    How will you, being evil, do good for anyone?

    My fellow Christians, is your witness for the Gospel of Christ?

    Or is your shout to the crowds that you’re mad as hell as if Christ would be swayed by the fire of your tongue?

    Perhaps your opponents think that you feign madness before the media.

    What good is your shouting into the whirlwind? For the fire of your words fails to witness the compassion of our Lord Christ Jesus.

    Mere religion and righteousness never equate.

    Love of words or love of the Word?

    Here’s a question for so-called ‘christians’ embroiled in the politics of the day: Do you have a love of words or love of the Word?

    Surely the politician loves the stage of the world. Certainly the media twists words meant to incite supporters into indictments of political opponents.

    Satan works no differently than the internet in spreading false accusation of the believer; for Christ is the only Word of love who can save the sinner.

    The Apostle John instructs the church:

    Do not love G25 the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves G25 the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

    1 John 2:15 NASB – Strong’s G25 ἀγαπάω agapaō

    Life – ζωή – zōē

    Life’s meaning described by Peter is:

    1. life
      1. the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate
      2. every living soul
    2. life
      1. of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature
      2. life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.

    Peter points not only forward to Christ, but by scripture back to David, a man after God’s own heart.

    Religion questions God.

    May I add that the politics of the world deny God’s saving grace. By our knowledge of good and evil we lost the fruit of the tree of life in Eden. Mankind spoiled God’s paradise by disobedient sin.

    Psalm 34: A Psalm of David

    when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.

    David looks back at these dark days and praises the LORD.

    I will bless the LORD at all times;
    His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

    Psalm 34:1

    9 O fear the LORD, you His saints;
    For to those who fear Him there is no want.

    13 Keep your tongue from evil
    And your lips from speaking deceit.

    14 Depart from evil and do good;
    Seek peace and pursue it.

    From advice for the saints of the Lord, David proceeds to the justice and redemption of the faithful.

    21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
    And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

    22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
    And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

    The Fire of the Tongue, the Politics of Jesus

    Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

    John 18:14 NKJV

    Jesus against religion

    John 2:

    14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

    John 8:

    42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

    54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him.

    58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

    a Word of witness to followers of false religion

    Jesus answered him,

    “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.

    John 18:20 NASB

    Jesus continues:

    “Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.”

    Truth has witnesses; yet how do unrighteous leaders of religion react?

    When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is that the way You answer the high priest?”

    Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?”

    So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

    Political reaction to Righteousness

    Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.

    Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

    The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

    John 18:38; 19:15b NASB

    Righteous reaction to the Political

    Mark 12:

    Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we pay or shall we not pay?”

    coin head of Antiochus IV Epiphanes

    But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them,

    “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.”

    17 And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 

    Is Politics your Religion OR Religion your Politics?

    Psalm 2:

    The Messiah’s Triumph and Kingdom

    Why do the nations rage,
    And the people plot a vain thing?
    2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
    And the rulers take counsel together,
    Against the Lord and against His Anointed saying,
    3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
    And cast away Their cords from us.”

    Christ Jesus, the Messiah of the Lord God, warned of our anger against God.

    7 אֲסַפְּרָ֗ה אֶֽ֫ל חֹ֥ק יְֽהוָ֗ה אָמַ֘ר אֵלַ֥י בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֝נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ׃

    8 שְׁאַ֤ל מִמֶּ֗נִּי וְאֶתְּנָ֣ה ג֭וֹיִם נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ וַ֝אֲחֻזָּתְךָ֗ אַפְסֵי־אָֽרֶץ׃

    10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
    Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
    11 Serve the Lord with fear,
    And rejoice with trembling.
    12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
    And you perish in the way,
    When His wrath is kindled but a little.
    Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

    To be continued...

  • Because the days are evil – 3 -satan.שָׂטָן

    Because the days are evil – 3 -satan.שָׂטָן

    Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

    Psalm 109:6 KJV

    Previously we observed the existence of Satan in the Supernatural Before Adam as a serpent tempting man to question God.

    If you acknowledge the Almighty Creator of all things and all men, yet recognize that evil pervades creation and the hearts of mankind, then you must ask about this power who deceives the minds of men.

    Who (or what) is Satan?

    You may have read scripture seeing little reference to Satan, but a deeper understanding of our English translations will reveal a willing and powerful opponent of the Lord God in places beyond the garden and circumstances considerably beyond original sin.

    Psalm 109

    Several translations of this same verse in Psalm 109 suggest, “Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser bring him to trial.” RSV

    The man after God’s own heart pleads:

    O God of my praise,
    Do not be silent!

    Psalm 109:1

    He prays to the living God – ruler above the angels, spirits who serve and the fallen. The Lord rules over creation whether spirit or wicked man.

    5 Thus they have repaid me evil for good
    And hatred for my love.

    6 Appoint a wicked man over him,
    And let an accuser stand at his right hand.

    The Hebrew word for accuser here is satan – שָׂטָן

    The heading of Psalm 109 in the NASB reads: Vengeance Invoked upon Adversaries. Our best understanding of Satan is that this fallen angel of darkness is accuser of the faithful and adversary of Christ.

    Job

    A description of Satan in the Hebrew book of Job occurs in a setting of heaven unseen to mankind.

    The NLT reads: “One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.” – Job 1:6

    The King James describes them as the “sons of God [‘elohiym] and the NIV describes them as “angels.” Satan is one of these supernatural beings unseen by Job (and mankind).

    The LORD [Yĕhovah] said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”

    Job 2:2 NASB

    Consider it: Satan, an unseen angel opposed to God, walking about among men inciting us (with the Lord’s consent) toward evil.

    διάβολος – diabolos

    Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil… And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God…

    Matthew 4:1,3a

    Of course Satan knew the incarnate Son of God, led by the Holy Spirit of the Lord God! Yet the devil, the accuser of man, tempted Jesus just like he did deceive man in the beginning of creation.

    the Dragon and Serpent

    Fearful images: mythical? Perhaps. The great deceiver would have you believe that. But possibly these serpents command such unimaginable evil that man dare not give these any hint of existence.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John uncovers a fearful glimpse into the end which includes these representations of evil power.

    drakōn – It is the same beast of eden from the Hebrew of Genesis 3:

    Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

    In another unseen future apocalypse in heaven John reveals:

    And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war… – Revelation 12:7 NASB

    War — between the unseen forces of good and evil. Can you imagine that? Could a decisive defeat of these devils and Satan soon inaugurate a new heavens and a new earth without evil?

    Surely men of dust decaying with each mortal day will become caught in the middle of this battle between good and evil.

    Where do you stand? Who is your champion in this life — and the next?

    Who will stand beside your soul at the Judgment when the Accuser recounts all of your sins before the Judge Who IS?

    This October series, Because the Days are Evil,
To be continued, God-willing...