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Tag: messiah

  • The Voice of a Shepherd in the Wilderness

    A Flawed Shepherd

    We’re flawed – very flawed; you know what I mean?

    A Shepherd is sorta an outsider, you know. The people in town wear fine clothes, woven from the well-washed wool of our flocks, yet they turn away from us repulsed by the scent of our lowly work as shepherds.

    Hills near Bethlehem in 2016 palestinian region of Israel

    Mostly we live in the wilderness just beyond Bethlehem, grazing our sheep, sleeping in solitude under the dark dome of silent star-lit nights. At night I look up to the Lord in the heavens, remembering the words of my youth.

    Traditions from our fathers recall a shepherd-king, David, of generations long gone. The old City of David just up the mountain from Bethlehem became home to a couple of thousand people. Our little town of Bethlehem now swells to nearly a thousand due to Rome’s order for our families to return for a census. Jerusalem has grown to maybe 40,000, plus Roman centurions.

    Time of the First Temple – 957-586 BC

    Solomon, son of David, built the first Temple in Jerusalem with riches from other lands. Enemies destroyed the Temple and plundered our lands, because our kings refused to listen to the Lord. Isaiah and the Prophets repeatedly warned our kings not to turn against God. They promised us hope in a Messiah, a King who would lead Israel in righteousness: but first Babylon would parade our captive leaders into foreign cities to live.

    Bethlehem road, 2016 palestinian Israel

    Second Temple rebuilt – 538-170 BC

    They allowed some of our fathers to return and rebuild Jerusalem, just a short journey north beyond these hills.

    Alexander ruled over us and the entire world nearby while our fathers adopted the language and some of the culture of our Greek captors. Egypt ruled us once more after Alexander’s death, until an Alexandrian general of Syria conquered us again.

    Herod rebuilds the Temple and Jerusalem under Rome – 38 BC

    Our grandfathers told us stories of the revolt of the priests and Herod the Great recapturing Galilee with considerable help from Rome. Rome’s powerful peace rules over us now, enforced by legions encamped across our countryside; but shepherds have little to say in these matters of power.

    Life of a Shepherd

    Our days of drudgery drag on into senseless seasons of defeat and despair. Dreams discouraged — hopes of all the years abandoned in desperate darkness for distractions of days lost in silent surrender. When we were young, times of promise never escaped our self-confidence. Now scores of years reveal a flawed flesh and failing desires.

    What hope have we beyond darkness in times of sorrow? For our remorse reminds of a past built on foundationless self-made dreams and hopes of self-earned glory.

    I did not need God!

    Who can keep the Lord’s Law or live up to men’s visions? We blame our flawed upbringing on generations of our fathers who failed in advantage over other men. I was a self-made, flawed man, with a little of a flawed plan.

    Who needs the help of another? Yet what stiff-necked soul does not cry out to God in our failure?

    I cannot face a God who knows my sin nor can I face a punishment of a God who stands in holiness against our transgressions. What savior for me — what savior for me?

    A Shepherd Recalls Scripture from Isaiah

    In solemn silence my distraught heart, heavy with hopeless, strains for gentle words of comfort whispering deeply into my soul. Lord, help me – forgive me – I can’t quite remember…

    [ctt title=”Isaiah 7:14 לָכֵן יִתֵּן אֲדֹנָי הוּא לָכֶם אֹות הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמֹו עִמָּנוּ אֵֽל׃” tweet=”A Messiah, born to a virgin” coverup=”eEdCg”]

    [ctt title=”Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14″ tweet=”” coverup=”jLQN1″]

    Immanuel, God with us; how I could never bear the thought of standing near Almighty God. Who can stand before, “God with us?” I once believed I was better than most, but now I fall before Him.

    The Messiah will be born to a virgin, pure in heart and flesh and He will not disappoint.

    I could never be like Him. Yet a voice soft as the caress of a gentle breeze describes a Savior I could hear, the only compassionate one who perfectly understands a lowly shepherd like me.

    He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,

    Or make it heard in the street;

    A bruised reed he will not break,

    And a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

    He will faithfully bring forth justice.

    Isaiah 42:2-3

    Conviction and the Cry of a Repentant Heart

    Now that my days of self-deceit have passed, indeed I am a bruised reed. My heart burns faintly with what life remains in these flawed bones and failing flesh. I cry out to the Lord.

    O God, are you gentle as a baby born humbly to a poor virgin? Lord, would you have mercy on a lowly man who lives near the beasts of your barns? What would you say to a flawed one like me?

    But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word.- Isaiah 66:2b

    To be continued Christmas day… 

     

  • and new things I now declare – 4

    Isaiah 48:

    3 “The former things I declared of old;
        they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;
        then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
    4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
        and your neck is an iron sinew
        and your forehead brass,
    5 I declared them to you from of old,
        before they came to pass I announced them to you…

    The Lord Declared

    I told you this a long time ago and to your ancestors many times.

    How do you like that? The Lord calls His chosen people, Israel or Jacob as they are called, obstinate.

    “You stiff-necked people!” the Messiah would call Temple officials generations after Isaiah. “You with ears to hear,” declare the prophets. What an indictment of a holy people supposedly separated to the Lord and redeemed again and again!

     6 “You have heard; now see all this;
        and will you not declare it?

    [ctt title=” From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.” tweet=”for a Savior of Jacob and the nations is born – the Messiah Jesus” coverup=”Rf04b”]

    7 They are created now, not long ago;
        before today you have never heard of them,
        lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
    8 You have never heard, you have never known,
        from of old your ear has not been opened.

    The Lord’s Call to Israel

    [ctt title=”Isaiah 48:12 שְׁמַע אֵלַי יַֽעֲקֹב וְיִשְׂרָאֵל מְקֹרָאִי אֲנִי־הוּא אֲנִי רִאשֹׁון אַף אֲנִי אַחֲרֹֽון׃” tweet=”Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel.. The Messiah I AM is Christ Jesus.” coverup=”j14zE”]

    14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among them has declared these things?

     The Lord’s Call to the Nations

    Isaiah 49:

    Listen to me, O coastlands,
        and give attention, you peoples from afar.
    The Lord called me from the womb,
        from the body of my mother he named my name.

    Matthew 1:20b-23

    … behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

    She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

    All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

    Isaiah 52:

    8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
        together they sing for joy;
    for eye to eye they see
        the return of the Lord to Zion.
    9 Break forth together into singing,
        you waste places of Jerusalem,
    for the Lord has comforted his people;
        he has redeemed Jerusalem.
    10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
        before the eyes of all the nations,
    and all the ends of the earth shall see
        the salvation of our God.

    The Sin-Bearing Servant

    Isaiah 52: NKJV

    13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
    He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
    14 Just as many were astonished at you,
    So His visage was marred more than any man,
    And His form more than the sons of men;
    15 So shall He sprinkle many nations.

    Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
    For what had not been told them they shall see,
    And what they had not heard they shall consider.

    An Advent Declared for these last days..

    New things we now declare; for the completion of these last days approaches with haste. The prophets and watchmen of the past have spoken what was and is and is to come. The LORD has revealed the hope of redemption for all who believe and the just punishment of souls tormented in the dust.

    Revelation 22:12-13 ESV

    [ctt title=”“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”” tweet=”An Advent Declared for these last days.. http://ctt.ec/o6OBb+” coverup=”o6OBb”]

    Have you prepared your heart for Christmas? Would you like to celebrate the gift of our humble Lord born a sinless Son of Man, to a virgin – our redeemer sacrificed on a cross? In the advent of His return at the end of these last days, do you bow before the Almighty, rejoicing in the light of His coming on the clouds?

    “You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?

    Isaiah 48:6a ESV

  • Stubble & Chaff – Repentance before the Lord

    Stubble & Chaff – Repentance before the Lord

    “Behold, I send My messenger,
    And he will prepare the way before Me.
    And the Lord, whom you seek,
    Will suddenly come to His temple,
    Even the Messenger of the covenant,
    In whom you delight.
    Behold, He is coming,”
    Says the Lord of hosts.

    Malachi 3:1 NKJV

    The prophesy is clear from Malachi, Prophet of the Lord in Judea of Persia, perhaps shortly before his death in about 486 B.C. History of the next five centuries leading up to another Prophet in the wilderness and the Messiah would be tough times for God’s chosen ones.

    What main course awaits Priests, Rabbis and a defeated people of Israel?

    Repentance!

    Malachi 3: ESV

    refiners-fire Malachi 3.22 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

    For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver…

     

    Surely the LORD can do this. He can bring repentance to the life and purity to the heart of any man. Yet how we resist: Priest (sons of Levi) or Rabbi (teacher), or common one who knows the Lord and continues in the impurities of sin.

    The LORD is going to send a fuller’s soap man to the Jews to purify their hearts and prepare the Temple.

    Malachi 3:5 excerpt I will be a swift witness against

    • the sorcerers,
    • against the adulterers,
    • against those who swear falsely,
    • against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages,
    • (those who oppress) the widow and the fatherless,
    • against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and

    “I will be a swift witness against … those who do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. Mal. 3:5

     

    A mere mortal would come along in time to accuse a Jewish King rightfully of adultery. He would accuse officials of the Temple and teachers of the Law of their leavening of God’s word. Like Prophets before and John the Baptist, who would follow five centuries later, Malachi warns that God requires repentance.

    7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

    The Lord indicts us of our sin through the words of the Prophet Malachi. Note that some, not all respond.

     

    The Book of Remembrance

    16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

    Malachi 4:

    The Great Day of the Lord

    Malachi 4:14  “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

    sun of righteousness2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

    4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

    5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

    Five Centuries Later

    Luke 3:

    John the Baptist Prepares the Way

    3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

    7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

    As humble as the Lord Christ Jesus IS, born in a manger, baptized by John though He is righteous, and sacrificed on a cross for our sins; He IS King and Lord yet to return on the clouds in these last days to call up the dead to judgment and the living to new and eternal life.

    Repent!wheat-kernals-in-hand1

    Turn back to your Father, the Lord. Bear the fruit of righteousness, fellow sinner condemned.

    Or meet your Maker as He separates the wheat from the chaff.

    Even the Chosen of God and christians only claiming Christ are lost without repentance, a turning of our hearts back to the Lord our God.

    Isaiah 33:

    10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
        “now I will lift myself up;
        now I will be exalted.
    11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
        your breath is a fire that will consume you.
    12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
        like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

    Are the warnings of God through the Prophets not more urgent to sinners in these last days?

    Therefore, repent! The Lord IS come.

    13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
        and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
    14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
        trembling has seized the godless:

    “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
        Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

    To be continued…

    These messages highlight the scripture of the coming of the Messiah, Christ Jesus, Who IS and was and will always be. Prepare your hearts in this year of our Lord, 2015, for Christmas and for the day when the Lord will return.